of Trust issued his Orders viz. the 24th of October for the meeting of an Assembly at Loghreogh on the 15th of Novemb. and in the mean time on the 23d of Octob. for the better composing of the minds of men and preventing those distempers and jealousies which might be infused he writ from Enis to the Commissioners of Trust and took notice of that Declaration which was published in Scotland and told them That however the affronts put upon his Majesty had been many and were obstinately persisted in to that day and in such Places whereupon evidently depended the preservation or loss of the whole Kingdom whereof he had several times given notice to them and followed the ways advised by them for the reclaiming the said Places without success yet considering the Declaration gain'd from his Majesty was without hearing what could be said by the Nation in their own defence and such as involved it generally without exception â—n the guilt of Rebellion he thought it fit to let them know That since the Declaration was by undue means obtain'd from his Majesty he was resolved by all the means it should please God to offer unto him and through all hazards in the behalf of the Nation to insist upon and insert the lawfulness of the conclusion of the Peace by vertue of the aforesaid Authority and that the said Peace was still valid and of force and binding unto his Majesty and all his Subjects And herein he told them he was resolved by the help of God to persist until both himself and such as should in that behalf be intrusted and authorised by the Nation should have free and safe access to his Majesty and until upon mature and unrestrained consideration of what might on all sides be said his Majesty should have declared his Royal pleasure upon those Affronts that had been put upon his Authority Provided that in the mean time and immediately First That all the Acts Declarations and Excommunications issued by the Bishops met at James-town in August last against his Majesties Authority in him and the Peoples giving obedience thereunto should be by them revoked and such assurance given as should be agreed by him and the Commissioners of Trust that they nor any of them should attempt the like for the future and that they should contain themselves within the bounds prescribed by the Articles of Peace whereof they are Parties Secondly That it should be immediately declared by the Commissioners of Trust that the said Declaration Excommunication and other Proceedings of the said Bishops was an unwarrantable usurpation upon his Majesties just Authority and in them a violation of the Peace And that in case the Bishops should not give the assurance before expressed or having given it should not observe the same that they would endeavour to bring the offenders to condign punishment pursuant unto and as is prescribed by the Laws of the Kingdom as disturbers of the Peace of the Kingdom and obstructors of the means of preserving the same Thirdly That the like Declaration should be made by all that derive Authority from his Majesty Civil or Martial and by the respective Mayors Aldermen Common-Councils Burgesses and other Magistrates in all the Corporations of the Kingdom Fourthly That the Lord Lieutenant should be permitted to make his free and safe Residence in any Place he should choose within the Limits not possessed by the Parliament Fifthly That he should be immediately suffered to Garrison such Places and in such manner according to the Articles of Peace as he should find necessary for the defence of the Kingdom In the last place he wish'd them That some present course might be taken for his support in some proportion answerable to his Place yet with regard to the Kingdom which last he said he should not have proposed but that he was deprived of all his own Fortune whereupon he had wholely subsisted ever since his coming into the Kingdom The Commissioners of Trust received this Letter with all demonstrations of respect and satisfaction and the very next day return him an Answer in which after they had lamented the issuing out of that Proclamation in Scotland they said It greatly comforted them to understand that his Excellency was resolv'd through all hazards in behalf of the Nation to insist upon and assert the Peace and persist in so doing until he or such as should be intrusted and authorized by the Nation should have free and safe access unto his Majesty And as to those Proviso's which were expressed as necessary Conditions for the continuing amoâ—â—st them his Majesties Authority which notwithstanding the Declaration they said they did still reverence and embrace beside their general profession to act what lay within their power in the ways of his Majesties service for his Excellencies satisfaction they return'd these ensuing Answers As to the first concerning the revocation of those Acts Declarations and Excommunications issued by the Bishops and assurance demanded that nothing in that kind should be attempted for the future They said That his Excellency to whom they had often express'd their resentment of their proceedings might be confident they would labour as far as in them lay to see his Excellency satisfi'd in that particular and to that end they would all or some of them with his allowance and as he should think fit repair to Galway to treat with the Prelates on that Subject Unto the second they answered That albeit they knew by those Censures of the Bishops his Majesties Authority was invaded and an unwarranted Government set up contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom and that they were assured no Subject could be justly warranted by that Excommunication to deny Obedience to his Majesties Authority in his Excellency yet being of opinion that a publick Declaration of that kind in that conjuncture of Affairs ought properly and would with more countenance and Authority move from an Assembly than from them and that by such a publick Declaration than from themselves they should wholely obstruct the way to prevail with the Prelates to withdraw those Acts which was desired by the former Proposition and likewise endanger the Union that was necessary at present in opposing the common Enemy and prejudice the hopes of a more perfect Union for the future wherein the preservation of the Nation would principally consist They did therefore humbly beseech his Excellency to call an Assembly of the Nation from whom such a Declaration as might be effectual in that behalf and might settle those Distractions could onely proceed Tet if in the mean time and before the meeting of that Assembly those Censures then suspended should be revived they would endeavour to suppress their influence upon the People by such a Declaration as should become Loyal Subjects and men entrusted to see all due obedience unto his Majesties Government over the whole Kingdom To the third they answered That they would at all times and in such manner as his Excellency should think fit
Conspiracies hatch'd our ruine not discernable ere the Monster arriv'd at its Birth a Prodigy scarce credible in so vigilant a State Though when it 's consider'd how tenderly the great concerns of Religion the principal wheels of all Commotion in a State were handled the astonishment that things aspir'd to so much Villany may easily be unridl'd Towards the end of the Lord Falkland's Government there being great need of Money for support of the standing Army in Ireland and maintaining of 500 Horse and 5000 Foot much by extraordinary means having been otherwise disposed the Catholicks of Ireland glad of the occasion seem'd very forward to supply the State in hopes of a Connivance if not a Toleration of their Religion though therein they were onely to bear their share or rather offered their Mite with the Protestants which they improved to so great an insolence as the Lord Falkland with the Council was forced to take notice in a Proclamation dated the 1st of April 1629. That the late Intermission of Legal Proceedings against Popish pretended Titulary Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Deans Vicars General Jesuits Friers and others of that sort that derive their pretended Authority and Orders from the See of Rome in contempt of his Majesties Royal Power and Authority had bred such an extraordinary insolence and presumption in them as he was necessitated to charge and command them in his Majesties name to for bear the exercise of their Popish Rites and Ceremonies Notwithstanding which their Insolencies afterwards so increased as that the power of the High Commission rais'd in respect of them being withdrawn they erected a new University at Dublin to confront his Majesties Colledge there continuing their Nunneries and Monasteries that thence many things were objected against the Lord Falkland's Government to clear which the Council of Ireland in his defence to the King the 28th of April 1629. declared That towards the insolencies of the Papists and the late outragious presumption of the unsetled Irish in some parts your Deputy and Council of late us'd particular Abstinence holding themselves somewhat limited concerning them by late Insinuations Letters and Directions from England And yet afterwards so mindful too were the Lords of the Council in England of what had been by the State of Ireland happily supprest that the 31 of January 1629. they return'd their acknowledgment and put the State of Ireland in mind How much it concern'd the good Government of Ireland to prevent in time the first growing of such evils for that where such People are permitted to swarm they will soon grow licentious and endure no Government but their own which cannot otherwise be restored than by a due and seasonable execution of the Law and of such Directions as from time to time have been sent from his Majesty and Council c. further encouraging them to carry a soft or harder hand according to their discretions Which I do not find but they prudently observ'd though all was too little to root out the Leven that had season'd the Batch during the Government of the then Lords Justices As Dr. Bedel the Reverend Bishop of Kilmore takes notice of at large with a deep and hearty resentment worthy his Piety Courage and Learning till the arrival of Thomas Lord Viscount Wentworth who by his singular Wisdom Courage and quick Intelligence so managed affairs there though some thought they were carried on too severely as doubtless the Nation in general was never more seemingly in obedience what ever afterwards was aggravated against that Noble Person whose behaviour was less pleasing to some men interess'd in the detection of their morose and sinister dealings than to the Nation which flourish'd under his Auspicious Government Reverence is that wherewith Princes are girt from God Yet then the contrivance of some Spirits was so restless as Anno 1634. being the 10th of King Charls the First they design'd to have engag'd the Nation in a War which one Ever Mac-Mahon an eminent Popish Priest privately discovered to some of the Privy Council at Dublin at whose feet he prostrated himself for mercy having with others been employ'd abroad to Foreign Princes viz. the Pope the Kings of France Spain and other Princes on that service as in the Relation writ by the Lord Macquire in the Tower is apparent the Design having been of as ancient a Date as the Isle of Rhee's Enterprise 1628. About which time the Earl of Tyrone and Cardinal Richlieu held an intimate correspondence though the King of France's Wars then in Italy frustrated for that time the Insurrection and Invasion Upon the discovery of which Ever Mac-Mahon seeming penitent had his Pardon So that the thing being onely treated of in general the prudence of the Governour giving the People no suspicion that he feared it and yet watched against it blasted their design The same Providence we may also believe this Noble Person had in the antecedent warnings which the Reverend Dean of Kilmore particularly mentions though he in reference to the Intregues of State mov'd not so visibly as to make every one capable of his foresight Prime Ministers are not to level their proceedings to the capacities of all who pretend vigilancy of the State yet thence during his Government all things in the Publick proceeded with a serene countenance so as the Lord Deputy Wentworth came for England and return'd into Ireland several times with his Majesties greatest Approbation and the Peace of the Nation Anno 1634. a Parliament was summon'd in Ireland by his motion 1. For that the Contribution from the Countrey towards the maintenance of the Army ended that December 2. For that the Revenues there fell short of his Majesties Charges 20000 l. yearly 3. That there was a Debt of 80000 l. upon the Crown 4. For that there had been no Subsidies but one since the beginning of King James's Reign and the People were now grown wealthy being continued in their Estates who ever had enjoy'd them twenty years By the Supply of which Parliament the Lord Deputy paid the 80000 l. Debt due from the Crown than which nothing was more to his Majesties Honour and his Servants Integrity in testimony of which his Majesty saith That they cannot but witness who know that Kingdom that during the Government there by Lieutenants of his choice that Kingdom enjoyed more Plenty and Peace than ever it had since it was under the subjection of the Crown of England Traffick by Sea and Trade by Land increas'd Values of Land improv'd Shipping multipli'd beyond belief never was the Protestant Religion more advanc'd nor the Protestants protected in greater security against the Papists Inasmuch as we must remember you the Parliament capitulating with him to nominate a Governour for Ireland that the present Rebellion was begun when there was no Lieutenant there and when the Power which had been formerly us'd in that Kingdom was question'd and disgrac'd when those in the Parliament there by whom that Rebellion was hatch'd
Ireland or England 2. That the secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and all other Pastors of the secular Clergy and their respective Successors shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges Immunities in as full and ample manner as the Roman Catholicks secular Clergy had or enjoy'd the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late H. 7. sometimes King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power and Authority whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding 3. That all Laws and Statutes made since the 20th year of King H. 8. whereby any Restraint Penalty Mulct Incapacity or Restriction whatsoever is or may be laid upon any of the Roman Catholicks either of the Clergy or of the Laity for such the said free Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion within this Kingdom and of their several Functions Jurisdictions and Priviledges may be repeal'd revoked and declared void by one or more Acts of Parliament to be pas'd therein 4. That all Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Chancellors Treasures Chaunters Provosts Wardens of Collegiate Churches Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and other Pastors of the Roman Catholick secular Clergy and their respective Successors shall have hold and enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample manner as the late Protestant Clergy respectively enjoy'd the same on the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1641. together with all the Profits Emoluments Perquisits Liberties and the Rights to their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in all Places now in the possession of the Confederate Confederate Catholicks as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said Confederate Catholicks from the adverse Party within this Kingdom saving to the Roman Catholick Laity their Rights according to the Laws of the Land And that the Supreme Council the legitimate issue of the General Assembly might look with the better face of Authority they fram'd to themselves a Seal bearing the mark of a long Cross on the right side whereof a Crown and a Harp on the left with a Dove above and a flaming Heart below the Cross and round about this Inscription Pro Deo pro Rege Patria Hibernia unanimis with which they seal'd their Credentials to Princes and under that Seal pass'd their principal Acts of Sovereignty Having now modell'd themselves into a separate State confronting his Majesties Royal Government setled in Dublin ordering in their Supreme Council at Kilkenny in the said Province of Leimster all their Affairs Civil and Military through the whole Kingdom As to War they had their Forces under the Conduct of four well experienc'd Generals before mentioned answering the several Provinces of Leimster Munster Connaght and Ulster Giving out Letters of Mart An Example of which together with the Authority they assum'd notwithstanding his Majesties Proclamation of the 1st of January 1641. we shall hear give you at large By the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland TO all Men to whom this Present shall come We the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Realm send Greeting Know ye That we have taken into our serious consideration the great and necessary use we have of Ships of War for the defence of the Coasts of this Realm and advancement and furtherance of Commerce with Foreign Nations and for opposing his Majesties Enemies who daily hinder and annoy his Majesties good Subjects of this Kingdom by Sea and stop all free Trade in this Realm and abroad have therefore constituted and appointed and do hereby ordain constitute and appoint our well-beloved Friend Captain Francis Oliver Native of Flanders having received good testimony of his sufficiency and integrity to be Captain of the Ship called St. Michael the Archangel of burthen 120 Lasts or Tuns or thereabouts hereby giving and granting unto the said Captain full and absolute Power Commission and Authority to furnish the said Ship with all Necessaries fit for Sea and War and with the same to cross the Seas and take hinder and prejudice all such as he shall find or meet of His Majesties Enemies the Enemies of the General Catholick Cause now in hand in this Kingdom their Ships and Goods whatsoever either by Sea or Land by what means soever and the said Shipping or Goods to set to sale and dispose of as lawful Prizes and open Enemies Goods saving unto his Majesty and his lawful Officers and unto all other Person or Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate all Rights Requisites and Duties due or usual answered out of all Prizes And we hereby command all Officers of all our Ports Harbours and Havens within our Jurisdiction throughout this Realm to admit the said Captain Francis Oliver and his Companies Ships and Goods from time to time to pass and repass come and go without molestation or trouble And that all Commanders of Forts and all other Officers of his Majesties loving Subjects to be aiding and assisting unto him in execution and furtherance of the Premisses whatsoever and as often as occasion shall require And lastly we pray all Foreign Princes States and Potentates to defend protect assist and favour the said Captain his Ships and Goods when and as often as he shall come into their respective Coasts and Harbours This our Commission to continue during pleasure Given at Kilkenny the last of December 1642. Was signed Mountgarret Hugo Armachanus Gormanston Johan Episc. Clonfertensis Nic. Plunket Patr. Darcy James Cusack Jeffry Brown And as to Civils they had their Officers of State Justices of Oyer and Terminer and of the Peace with their Courts of Judicature in several kinds and Councils Supreme County Provincial and on occasion National this being as Parliamentary called their General Assembly They had their Negotiations also abroad and from abroad and by Envoys Agents and publick Ministers Extraordinary and Resident they receiv'd the sense of other Princes and return'd their own being also by those Princes treated at home in like manner as if they had been some State absolute or more considerable of which read the Appendix All the subsequent Acts being derived from the Orders establish'd at Kilkenny the 24th of October 1642. By what I have mention'd you may see how the Rebels endeavour'd to get credit abroad and repute at home managing their Concerns with so much subtilty as having them anvil'd in every Covent nothing was omitted to mature their designs or colour what they had now begun with the fairest pretence whilst the State in the interim through the distractions in England daily increasing which gave fresh fuel to the Rebels presumption were so straitned for want of Supplies that the Lords Justices having by all the ways imaginable represented as well to his Majesty as to the Parliament the miserable condition they
to prescribe invite all his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects to such a Declaration which yet until they should understand the Clergies sense upon the first Proviso they said they did humbly as fit for a time to forbear To the fourth they answered That whatsomever his Excellency should find to be within their power and would direct to be done concerning the Place of Residence for his Person they would readily obey his Lordships command therein To the fifth they answered That upon conference with his Excellency of the Places fit to be Garrison'd and the number of Men fit to be put in them they would according to the Articles of Peace use their utmost endeavours to have such Garrisons so agreed upon admitted And to the last they said They had at all times been ready and willing that his Excellencies Charge should be supported out of the Revenue of the Kingdom and that they were now ready to concur in assigning any of the Dues already accrued or such as should grow due hereafter or to impose any new Allotment upon the Subject towards his maintenance When the Lord Lieutenant perceived that the temper and desire of the Commissioners of Trust was so different from that of the Congregation and that in truth they were afflicted and scandalized at the exorbitancy of the other and that they thought they should be able to reduce them from the destructive Counsels they were engaged in He would not upon any experience or judgment of his own restrain them from attempting what was not impossible to compass and which many would have concluded would be compassed if attempted and which what other effect soever it had would make evident that there was not a concurrence in the Nation in those Acts which were likely to destroy the Kingdom And therefore he willingly consented that the Commissioners should go to Gallway where the Committee of the Congregation resided whereof the Bishop of Ferns was one to whom they shewed the Letter they received from the Lord Lieutenant and desired them to consider the state of the Kingdom and to know from them what they conceiv'd remain'd that might best tend to the preservation of the Nation without keeping the Kings Authority amongst them for that many of the most considerable would instantly make their conditions with the Enemy if the Kings Authority were taken away and that there was no hope of keeping or leaving that Authority but by revoking the Excommunication and Declaration For the Lord Lieutenant would not stay to keep it nor would he leave it nor the Marquis of Clanrickard undergo it but on these terms And hereupon they used all those Reasons and Arguments which cannot but occur to all men who are not blinded with Passion and Prejudice to induce them to such a Retraction as could onely advance the happiness or indeed the subsistence of the Nation But the Bishops were inexorable and instead of abating any of that fury they had formerly express'd that added new contumelies and reproaches to all the Authority of the King they said They observ'd by the Lord Lieutenants Letter that he had informed his Majesty of the Disobediences and Affronts that had been put upon his Authority and consequently that he had suggested matter unto his Majesty for making that Declaration against the Peace That they had perused the Declaration which had been published in Scotland disavowing the Peace And that they were of opinion for ought appeared to them That the King had withdrawn his Commission and Authority from the Lord Lieutenant That in the said Declaration the Irish Nation as bloody Rebels were cast from the protection of the Kings Laws and Regal Favours And therefore it might be presum'd that he would not have his Authority kept over such a Nation to govern them whereas they had been of opinion and all their endeavours had been employ'd to keep the Kings Authority over them But when his Majesty throws away the Nation as Rebels from his protection withdrawing his own Authority they could not understand the mystery of preserving the same with them or over them nor how it could be done That they believed the best remedy the Kings Authority being taken away by that Declaration of meeting the Inconveniency of the Peoples closing with the Parliament is the returning to the Confederacy as they said was intended by the Nation in case of the breach of Peace on his Majesties part that they said would keep an union amongst them if men would not be precipitately guilty of the breach of their Oath of Association which Oath by two solemn Orders of two several Assemblies was to continue binding if any breach of the Articles of Peace should happen on his Majesties part That the Kings Authority and the Lord Lieutenants Commission being recalled by that Declaration they were of opinion that the Lord Lieutenant had no Authority to delegate his Authority to any other And if they must expose their Lives and Fortunes to the hazard of fighting to the making good of that Peace seeing the danger was alike to defend that or get a better Peace why should they bind themselves within the limits of those Articles so disowned And so with several Tautologies urged the Declaration in Scotland as a ground and excuse for all their proceedings when what they had done as we have before took notice of was before the issuing forth of that Declaration In fine they concluded they could not consent with safety of Conscience to the revoking their Declaration and Excommunication demanded by the Lord Lieutenant nor to give assurance to him or the Commissioners of Trust for not attempting the like for the future And to manifest their inveterate malice against him being in Galway the Captain of the Guard of the Town commonly called The Captain of the Guard of the young men did make search for him in the said Town as after a criminal person or a fugitive thereby endeavouring to bring contempt and scorn upon him and his Majesties Authority placed in him And now you must know they would not make this Declaration in case of Conscience of so vast an extent and importance without forsooth setting down their Reasons under their hands which for the Doctrine sake I would not conceal from the world that it may better judge of those Spiritual Guides who made themselves guilty of that mass of mischief and ruine that flowed from thence Their first Reason was Because the Kings Authority was not in the Lord Lieutenant nor was then they said power in them to confer a new Authority on him which would be destructive to the Nation if it continued in him and preservative in another and that they said was their sense when they declared against the Kings Authority in his Person so that though they had presumption enough to take the Kings Authority out of his Lieutenants hands by their Declaration and Excommunication and to inhibit all men to submit unto it they had now modesty to
should happen which they wished God would avert they should pray and conjure the Romish Clergy of England that that of the Maccabees might be recorded of them to future Ages Erat pro uxoribus filiis pro fratribus cognatis minor solicitudo maximus vero primus pro sanctitate erat timor Templi And this was the Answer delivered to the Commissioners of Trust upon the 5th day of November 1650. at Galway by the Bishops of Killala Ferns Kilmacduogh Clonfert Kilfinara and Dromore after several and long Conferences with the Commissioners of Trust who were Authorised by the Nation unto the Proposals presented by the Commissioners to the Committee of the Congregation the 29th of Octob. 1650. Here we cannot avoid observing by the express words of the Conclusion upon their Reasons in their Conference with the Commissioners that though they seem'd to desire that the Marquis of Clanrickard whose zeal to the Romish Religion and Interest in the Nation was so notorious and confessed that they durst not publickly repine at his known affection and integrity to the King might govern the Nation with the consent of all Parties and that the Kings Authority in the Lord Lieutenant might be left in him yet they declared they meant it should onely be until an Assembly which they well knew by the express terms of the Articles of Peace could be onely lawfully conven'd by the Lord Lieutenant and then that Assembly should judge of the Peoples preservation and to decree and order what should be the best and safest for the defence of the Nation touching the Kings Authority to be kept over them the Peace to be asserted and made good or to renew the Association or any thing else they should find best and most expedient So that they intended no other Honour to the Marquis of Clanrickard than that by his countenance and reputation they might perswade the Lord Lieutenant to leave the Kings Authority behind him and that he should call an Assembly which they would otherwise do themselves which they were sure should be constituted for the most part of such Men as would follow their Dictates by which himself should be divested of that Power and the King deposed from any further Dominion over them when they perswade any foreign Prince to take them into his Protection which practice they quickly set on foot And for the further manifestation of their Affection and Loyalty to the King which they cannot endure should be called yet in question it is observable that these Men who had so often contradicted and controuled the express Acts of every Assembly that had been convened since the beginning of these Troubles and now commanded the People under pain of damnation not to yield any obedience to the King's Authority in his Lieutenant and declared that they could not with the safety of their Consciences consent to the Propositions which he had lately made for the uniting the Nation in defence of the Peace so advantagious to their Liberty and Religion which the Commissioners intrusted by and for the Nation thought so reasonable These Men I say made no scruple of professing and declaring that if an Assembly upon due consideration of their state and condition should find it the best way for their safety and preservation to make an Agreement with the Enemy they would not hinder the People from compounding with them for the safety of their Lives and States Which being seriously considered we cannot sufficiently wonder at the strange stupid resignation of their Understandings who believed or rather at the wonderful contempt of those Understandings which would be perswaded to believe that this Congregation had loyal Purposes toward the King or that they never intended to hinder the Assembly or give Law to the People when they cancell'd all fundamental Laws broke through all Acts of their own Assembly and forbad the People to pay any obedience to the King's Vicegerent who had only the lawful Power of Government over them The more extravagant and unreasonable these Proceedings were of the Congregation and Clergy the more confident many honest and wise Men were that the Assembly of the Nation would regulate and controul that il-limited Power and utterly dis-avow all that they had done and therefore they who were exceedingly offended and enraged against the Congregation were solicitous and importunate with the Lord Lieutenant to call an Assembly And though he had too much experience of the Nature and Temper of the People and of the transcendent Power the Clergy should still have over any Assembly or at least over the People when the Assembly had done what it could to hope for any good effect from it And though he saw he should thereby the more expose his own Honour and which he considered more the Dignity of his Master to new Insolencies yet since he resolved to leave the Kingdom himself and was only un-resolved whether he should leave the King's Authority behind him liable to the same Indignities and Affronts in the Person of the Marquess of Clanrickard which it had been subject to in his own and could have no kind of assurance that it should not but by the Professions and Protestations of an Assembly he did resolve to call one and issued out his Letters for their meeting upon the 15th of November 1650. at Loghreogh where they met accordingly And the Bishops for removing as they said of any Jealousies that any might apprehend of their Proceedings declared and protested That by their Excommunication and Declaration at James-town they had no other aim than the preservation of the Catholick Religion and the People and that they did not purpose to make any visible Usurpation on his Majesty's Authority nor on the Liberty of the People confessing that it did not belong to their Jurisdiction so to do With which Protestation so contrary to what they had done and which in truth they had so often made even at the time they did all things contrary to it the Assembly was satisfied and did not so much as make another Protestation that the Bishops had done what they ought not to do nor exact a Promise from them that they would not do the like in time to come So that the Lord Lieutenant was resolv'd to look no more for satisfaction from them nor expose the King's Authority any further by leaving any Deputy behind him but prepared for his departure When the Assembly understood his Resolution and saw plainly that he was even ready to depart his Goods and many of his Servants being on Ship-board they sent four Members the Lord Dillon Clanrickard c. of their House to him at Kilcogan with an Instrument in writing bearing date from Loghreogh the 7th of December in which they repeated concerning the Excommunication and Declaration what the Bishops had protested in that Assembly and of his Excellency's Letter dated the 16th of November last recommending to them as the chief End for which that Assembly was
Hereupon the Assembly unanimously professed all obedience to his Majesty's Authority as it was vested in him and petition'd him to assume it without which they said the Nation would be expos'd to utter ruine And the Bishop of Ferns hitherto averse to the Royal Authority more particularly importuned him in the Name of the Clergy not to decline a Charge which could only preserve the King's Power in that Kingdom and the Nation from destruction promising so entire a submission and co-operation from the whole Clergy that his Authority should not be disputed In further assurance of which the General Assembly issue forth this Declaration By the General Assembly of the Kingdom of Ireland ALthough this Assembly hath endeavour'd by their Declaration of the 7th of this month to give full testimony of their Obedience to his Majesty's Authority yet for further satisfaction and for removal of all Jealousies we do further declare That the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Gentry or People Clergy or Laity of this Kingdom shall not attempt labour endeavour or do any Act or Acts to set free or discharge the People from yielding due and perfect Obedience to his Majesty's Authority invested in the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard or any other Governour or Governours of this Kingdom And in case of any such Labour Act or Endeavour by which any mischief might ensue by seducing the People we declare That no person or persons shall or ought to be led thereby but by their disobedience on any such grounds are liable and subject to the heavy censures and penalties of the Laws of the Land in force and practis'd in the Reign of Henry the 7th and other Catholick Times Nevertheless it is further declared That it is not meant or intended by any thing herein contained that this Nation will not insist upon the performances of the Articles of Peace and by all just ways and means provide against the breach and violation of the same And inasmuch as his Majesty is at present as we are informed in the hands of a Presbyterian Party of the Scots who declared themselves Enemies to this Nation and vowed the extirpation of our Religion we declare That it is not hereby intended to oblige our selves to deceive obey or observe any Governours that shall come and duely nominated or procured from his Majesty by reason of or during his being in an un-free condition that may raise a disturbance in the present Government established by his Majesty's Authority or the violation of the Articles of Peace Loghreogh 23d of Decemb. 1650. Copia vera Joh. Comyn Dep. Cler. There was then in the possession of the Roman Catholicks the entire Province of Connaght in which they had the strong Castle of Athlone the strong and important Town and Harbour of Gallway Sligo and many other lesser Forts and Places of strength They had also a good part of the Province of Munster and in it the City of Limerick which by the strong situation of it and the advantages it might have from Sea could alone with the help of Gallway have maintain'd War against all the Parliaments Forces in Ireland They had many Parties of Horse and Foot in Leimster Munster and Ulster under Clanrickard Castlehaven Dillon Muskery the Earl of Westmeath Hugh O Neal Dungan Moor Preston and others which being drawn together would have constituted a greater Army than the Enemies were Masters of And the Marquess of Clanrickard had argument enough of hope if he could have been confident of the union of the Nation and that he might reasonably have promised himself if he could have been confident of the Affection and Integrity of the Clergy which at length they promised with that solemnity that if he had not confided therein the fault would have been imputed to him for they could do no more on their part to create a belief in him He was therefore content to take the Charge upon him and obliged them presently to consider of the way to keep all the Forces together when he should have drawn them together and to secure the two Towns of Gallway and Limerick with strong Garrisons which was the first Work concluded on all hands necessary to be performed Very few days had passed after the Lord Deputy had upon such their Importtunity and Professions taken the Government upon him when it was proposed in the Assembly before their Condition was impaired by any other progress or new success of the Enemy That they might send to the Enemy to treat with them upon surrendring of all that was left into their hands an Inclination the Nuncio was long before inclin'd to perswading the supream Council when there was but so much as a speech of Truce to joyn rather with the Parliamentary Scots than the Royalists and pray'd for the success thereof in hopes that thence much good might accrue to the Catholick Religion And when the same was opposed with indignation by the major part of the Assembly the Bishop of Ferns himself who had so lately importuned the Marquess of Clanrickard to assume the Charge of Lord Deputy and made such ample promises in the Name of the Clergy seem'd to concur with those who were against treating with the Enemy but instead of it very earnestly pressed That they might in order to their better defence return to their ancient Confederacy and so proceed in their Preservation without any respect to the King's Authority And this Motion found such concurrence in the Assembly from the Bishops Clergy and many others that many of the Officers of the Army and some of the principalest of the Nobility and Gentry found it necessary to express more than ordinary passion in their contradiction They told them They now manifested that it was not their Prejudice to the Marquess of Ormond nor their Zeal to Religion that had transported them but their dislike of the King's Authority and their resolution to withdraw themselves from it That they themselves would constantly submit to it and defend it with their utmost hazard as long as they should be able and when they should be reduced to Extremity that treating with the Enemy could no longer be deferred they would in that Treaty make no provision for them but be contented that they should be excluded from any benefit thereof who were so forward to exclude the King's Authority Upon these bold though necessary Menaces to which they had not been accustomed the Clergy and their Party seem'd to acquiesce and promised all concurrence inasmuch as from this very time all the Factions and Jealousies which had been before amongst them seem'd outwardly quieted though the Irish in all Quarters of which the Enemy were possessed not only submitted and compounded but very many of them enter'd into their Service and marched with them in their Armies and the Lord Deputy grew as much into their dis-favour as the Lord Lieutenant had been and his being a Friend to the Marquess of Ormond destroyed all that Confidence which his being
to offer his Assistance that if he had known any Person had been intrusted there with his Majesties Authority he would have addressed himself unto him and no other And that he finding his Lordship invested with that Power did what he knew his Master expected at his hands apply himself unto him with and by whose Direction he would alone steer himself through that Negotiation He told him the Duke had already disbursed 6000 Pistols for the supplying them with those things he heard they stood most in need of which were brought over by a Religious Parson who came with him and that he was ready to be informed of what they would desire from his Highness that might enable them to resist their Enemy and that he would consent to any thing that was reasonable for him to undertake Hereupon the Lord Deputy appointed a Committee of the Commissioners of Trust together with some Prelates to confer with the Ambassador to receive any Overtures from him and to present them with their Advice thereupon unto him They met accordingly and receiv'd the Propositions from the Ambassador but they were so disagreeable to the professions he had made of respect to the King and indeed so inconsistent with the Kings Honour and Interest as there was great reason to suspect that they proceeded rather from the Encouragement and Contrivance of the Irish then from his own temper and disposition and this was the more believ'd when instead of returning the Propositions to the Lord Deputy they kept the same in their own hands put out some of those who were appointed by him to be of the Committee and chose others in their Places and proceeded in the Treaty without giving the Deputy an Account of what was demanded by the Ambassador or what they thought fit to offer unto him Of all which the Deputy took notice and thereupon forbade them to proceed any further in that way and restrain'd them unto certain Articles which he sent them which contain'd what he thought fit to offer to the Ambassador and gave them Power onely to Treat Notwithstanding his positive Direction they proceeded in that Treaty with the Ambassador and sent an Advice to the Lord Deputy to consent unto the Articles propos'd by him since they said he would not recede from what he had proposed and that it was much better to submit to the same then that the Treaty should be broken off The Lord Deputy as positively declared that what was demanded was so derogatory to the Honour of the King his Master and destructive to his Interest as he would never agree to it and resolved presently to leave the Town And when the Ambassador sent to him to desire to see him and take his leave of him he absolutely refused and sent him word That he would never pay his Civility to or receive it from a Person who had so much swarv'd from the Propositions made by himself and who had presumed to make Propositions so dishonourable to the King his Master and he believ'd so contrary to the good Pleasure of the Duke of Lorraign And that he would send away an Express to the Duke to inform him of his Miscarriage and he presumed he would do Justice unto the King upon him When the Prelates saw that no obstinacy in the Ambassador nor Importunity from them could prevail with the Lord Deputy to shew what influence they had upon that Treaty they perswaded the Ambassador to consent to the same Propositions he had formerly no doubt by the same Advice rejected and thereupon to make the sum formerly disbursed by the Duke at his coming out of Flanders full 20000 l. and the Lord Deputy sent a couple of Gentlemen into Flanders to Treat further with the Duke of Lorraign according to such Commissions and Instructions as he gave them The Bishop of Ferns about the same time left Ireland and came likewise to Bruxels and having without the Privity of the Lord Deputy receiv'd some secret Trust and Delegation from the Prelates of Ireland and Credit from them to the Duke of Lorraign he quickly interessed himself in that Treaty and took upon him the greatest part in it and that which he said was the sence of the Nation He reproach'd the Persons imployed and trusted by the Lord Deputy with all the Proceedings which had been in Ireland by the consent of the Confederate Catholicks inveighed against their opposing the Nuncio and appealing against the Excommunication issued out by him he told them and all this by a Letter under his hand that he was clearly of opinion That the Excommunication was just and lawful and that the greatest Statesmen Souldiers Citizens and People disobeying and now obstinate are and were delivered to Satan and therefore forsaken of God and unworthy of Victory and of his Holy Blessing And thereupon he said he did with all sincerity and charity offer his own humble opinion what was to be done by them which was to the end the Agreement they were making with his Highness the Duke of Lorraign might become profitable to the Nation and acceptable in the eyes of God that they would immediately with humble hearts make a Submission unto his Holiness in the name of the Nation and beg the Apostolical Benediction that the light of Wisdom the Spirit of Fortitude Vertue Grace Success and the Blessing of God might return again to them He told them the necessity of doing this was the greater for that the Person from whom they came with Authority the Marquess of Clanrickard the Lord Deputy was for several causes Excommunicated a jure Homine and that he was at Rome reputed the great Contemner of the Authority and Dignity of Churchmen and a Persecutor of the Lord Nuncio and some Bishops and other Churchmen And after many rude and bitter reproaches against the Deputy he used these words Do you think God will prosper a Contract grounded upon the Authority of such a man and shortly after he said that if the Duke of Lorraign were rightly informed of the Business he would never enter upon a Bargain to preserve or rather restore Holy-Religion in the Kingdom with Agents bringing their Authority from a withered cursed Hand And then concluded for my part upon the denial to hear my humble Prayers which I hope will not happen I will withdraw my self as a man dispairing of any fruit to come from an unfound Trunk where there is no Sap of Grace And am resolved to communicate no more with you in that Affair but rather to let the Prince know he was building his Resolutions of doing good upon an unhallowed foundation and that God therefore unless himself will undertake to obtain an Absolution for the Nation will not give him the Grace to lay down the Lapis Angularis of his own house again in that Kingdom This Letter bare date at Bruxels the 20th of July 1651. the Persons to whom it was directed being then in the same Town What
assuming to themselves the name of The Kingdom and People of Ireland as if there had been no other Party or People in the Kingdom or not considerable but themselves alone and as if then in Ireland there had been no Power or Government but theirs onely his Majesties Authority in the hands of his Deputy not regarded or consulted They also the Confederates in that giving up the Kingdom into the Power of a Stranger colouring their Treason with a flattering Clause and an empty and insignificant Title to their Natural Prince in Reversion and by Resignation when the new Protector commanding all should please to do it he being first satisfi'd of all Disbursments Charges and Claims whatsoever he himself being Auditor A Concern of that importance as we seldom find where others have been called in upon Assistance especially on such Encouragements that they have quitted their hold without effusion of much blood or an absolute dis-inherizon of the right Owner And therefore the Lord Deputies foresight of such an Evil doth commend him faithful to his Prince and just to his Nation Nor can it be doubted that the Attestation of this Peer one that hath run the hazard of his Countreys safety should be further credited than what the Bishop of Ferns or any obscure loose Frier how prodigal soever in their Calumnies should or can publish in the bitterness of their spirit a crime incident to their Faculty being ill affected to his Majesty worse to his Governours One of the principal Motives which induced the Marquis of Clanrickard to submit to that Charge and to undertake a Province which he knew would be very burthensome and grievous in several respects was the joynt promise That the City of Limerick and the Town of Galway would pay all imaginable duty to him The Clergy obliged themselves in that particular with all confidence and the Deputies of the Places promised all that could be desir'd But when the Lord Deputy found it necessary to settle that business they would neither receive a Garrison or Governour from him and when he offered himself to stay in Limerick when Ireton was drawing before it and to run his Fortune with them they refused it as peremptorily as they had done to the Lord Lieutenant It is true both Limerick and Galway were contented to receive Soldiers but they must be such onely as were of their own choosing not such either in number or quality as the Lord Deputy would have sent to them or as were necessary for their security They chose likewise their own Governour or rather kept the Government themselves and gave the Title to one whom they thought least like to contradict them and in a word behaved themselves like two Common-wealths and obey'd the Deputy no farther than they were inclined by their own convenience they who compounded with the Enemy in the Countrey corresponded with them in the Town and thereby gave the Enemy intelligence of all that passed Wonderful diligence was used to make it be thought that the Independents were not uncharitable unto Papists and that they wished not any compulsion should be used in matter of Religion and when the acts of cruelty and blood of putting their Priests and Prelates to an ignominious death of which there were new instances every day were mentioned It was answer'd Those proceedings were carried on by the power of the Presbyterians very much against the Nature and Principles of the other Party This license of Communication and the evil consequences that must attend it was enough understood by the Lord Deputy but could no more be prevented reformed or punished than he could infuse a new heart or spirit into the People one instance will serve the turn There was in the Town a Frier Anthony Geoghean who had always adhered to the Nuncio and opposed the King's Authority to the utmost of his power several Letters written by him into the Enemies Quarters were intercepted and brought to the Lord Deputy in which though there were many things in Cypher there appeared much of the present state and condition of the Town and in one of them dated the 4th of Febr. 1651. he thus writes If the service of God had been as deep in the hearts of our Nation as that Idol of Dagon a foolish Loyalty a better course for its honour and preservation had been taken in time The Lord Deputy believed the crime to be so apparent and of such a nature that what Complices soever he might have none would have the courage to appear in his behalf And that he might give the Clergy an opportunity to shew their zeal in a business that concern'd so much their common safety he referr'd the examination of the Frier unto the Bishops whereof there were three or four in Town and to some other of the principal of the Clergy and appointed them to require him to produce the Cypher which he had used and to examine him to whom the Letters were intended they being directed to counterfeit and suppositious names The Cypher was accordingly produced and thereby many expressions in the Letter appear'd to be full of neglect and reproach to the King and others of insolence and contumely toward the Lord Deputy they mention'd little hope was left of relief from the Duke of Lorrain and that they resolved to send one to treat with the Rebels and had found private means of conveying one to that purpose The Frier promised to use all his diligence to dispose the Catholicks to have a good opinion of the Independents and made some request concerning himself All that he alledged for his defence was That the Letters written by him were to one who was employ'd by the Court of Rome that he had no ill meaning against the King or Deputy and that he had himself a Trust from Rome and Instructions from the Secretary of the Congregation De propaganda Fide and the Bishops certifi'd that they had seen the Instructions and that they did not relate at all to the Temporal State And this was all the satisfaction and justice the Lord Deputy could procure though he writ several Letters of Expostulation to the Bishops thereupon Whether this be a part of the Priviledges and Immunities of the Catholick Roman Church and enjoy'd in any Catholick Countrey and whether it can be indulged to them in any other Countrey where the Authority of the Bishop of Rome is not submitted unto we must leave to the World to judge and determine In the interim If Protestant Kings and Princes are provident and severe for the prevention of such practices and for the establishing their own security this must not be imputed to an unreasonable jealousie of or a prejudice to the Roman Catholick Religion but to the confident presumption of those men under the vizard of universal obedience who have pretended Religion for their warrant or excuse for the most unlawful and unjustifiable actions This was the obedience and submission they paid to the Kings
and weakly attempted though that was not as it seems to determin here but as a place more combustible and fit for fewel to extend to Ireland carefully provided against by Proclamations if not since relaxed The Management of which Affairs fell to be very difficult on those then at the Helm which I cannot but say some might have more easily carried on yet when it shall be impartially considered I believe the caution and prudence of the State then will in their Acts to Posterity appear more significant and valuable than Malice or ingratitude can justly sully them with Besides what Exigences what Misapprehensions what Straights did these daily encounter in their own and the State Affairs supportable by none that had not been of an even and great Courage is not to be passed over Yet as to the Integrity of their Service few ever waded through their Task with greater Acquiescency what ever hath been their misfortune to be censur'd at Pleasure That being their aim which was their Glory His Majesties Honour and the Protestants Support how slenderly soever the Merit of that Service hath been since looked on in their Posterity To whom little hath been indulg'd Praeter Nomen Famam ea quoque a multis calcata And as then so since the State hath labour'd under great Difficulties many pangs and throws to Establish the Settlement of Ireland witness all those Interests which his Majesty in his Declaration for the Settlement of Ireland crouding one upon another carefully and with singular caution as well provided for as could reasonably be expected after so great Troubles and Confusions and such blessed Circumstances of his Restauration Though how observed by the Court of Claims is not my work to insist on that having been with singular Perspicuity and Judgment spoken to at large by the Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland and since then by the Adventurers Case Stated c. The state of the Question arising chiefly from the distinction of Nocent and Innocent In reference whereunto First some were to be considered as fit to be restored to their Estates who not only gave early evidences of their Crimes but also persever'd in their Loyalty As 2. others who submitted to the Peace without Apostacy And 3. such as being transported into Foraign Parts united and served his Majesty through many difficulties and accepted not of other satisfaction As 4. others who in an especial manner merited the restoring of their Estates which Grace and unparalel'd Favour whether sufficiently refflected or no by the Confederates took off many of those who by the Declaration were to be Nocent as all of the Rebels Party before 1643. As also such as enjoy'd their Estates in the Rebels Quarters except the Inhabitants of Cork and Youghall or those who entred into the Roman Catholick Confederacy before the Peace 1648. adhering to the Nuncio opposing the Kings Authority Excommunicating such as adhered to the King impowering Commissioners to treat with any Papal Power or bringing into Ireland Foraign Forces As also such as had been Wood Kerns or Tories before the Marquess of Clanrikards leaving the Government on whom the Letter of Condemnation is writ in their foreheads as having been not only eminently Guilty of that horrid and unprovoked Rebellion but also active in the very Conduct of it as Generals Lieutenants and Major Generals Councellors in the Supream Assembly c. though many of these since enjoy a plentiful Estate In this War the Souldiers were forced on many sad inevitable streights Yet their Gallantry Courage and Patience carried them on so unanimously as in all the Encounters they had with the Rebels as far as an honourable Person writ they never writes he receiv'd any Scorn or Defeat and what was more without any assistance either from the meer Irish or English Irish that were Gentlemen of Quality In as much as one who knew as well the Genius as the Progress of the Irish in his excellent Speech to the Lord Lieutenant since publisht in Print thought it no Scandal to affirm That amongst all the Persons that have been restored as Innocent we cannot saith he understand of one neither can we say upon our own knowledge and we come from all parts of the Kingdom that any one of them from the 23. of October 1641. to September 1653. ever drew a Sword against the Irish in Rebellion or ever assisted our English Forces in prosecution of them Nor is it to be thought strange That none of the Irish gave any assistance to his Majesties Forces for that besides those Decrees of Salamanca c. Cited by Philip Sullevan mention'd in our State of Ireland before the Insurrection To this History Mahony in his Disputatio Apologetica Pag. 43. having sullied much Paper in quoting Bulls against English Hereticks invading Ireland there insists upon it That it was then also to be added as altogether certain that the Irish are engaged by a Divine Human and Natural Precept unanimously to joyn to extirpate Hereticks and to shun Communion with them and much more to be obliged not to assist them with Aid Councel Favour Arms or any Accommodation c. against Catholicks which Principle of Mahony Walsh Fol. 741. tells us with his Book was condemned to be burn'd by order of the Supream Council of the Confederates at Kilkenny Yet we do not find whilst the Irish were themselves that in Detestation to Mahony's Principle they ever assisted the English nay Father Nich. Redmond Secretary to the Congregation giving Walsh an account of the Acts of that Congregation tells him That they were never formal ones seriously digested and couched by select Committees nor were they the Principal Scope of that meeting whereby it may be conjectured without violence to their good Intentions that their Censure on Mahony's Book was rather a Fucus cast on their present Complexion than any abhorrency thereof what at other times they Solemnly intended being ever seriously digested And for those who joyn'd with his Excellency after the Peace of 1646. who would be thought to have merited thereby after they had assumed a Contradistinct Government and in defence thereof maintain'd a War and which is worse a Cessation with Detention of his Majesties Forts and the Inheritances of his Subjects It cannot be said without the forfeiture of our Reason that their pure Loyalty but self-preservation engaged them thereunto For seeing how resolute the Parliament of England was to pursue that War their security could be no where but in siding with the King And that this not affection or sence of what they had done was the grounds of that Compliance appears in their subsequent Acts shamefully afterwards diserting the Marquess of Ormond fixing upon him incredible Scandals when he had exposed himself at their request to all the inconveniencies imaginable for their Peace and his Majesties Interest First parting with the English under his Command an evidence that those were
remainder of English but by a Peace We find his Majesty being deluded by the first and believing the last to be conducing to the preservation of his Majesties Protestant Subjects is concluding of a Peace which will again admit those Irish Rebels to be Members of Parliament so that that Court which should afford relief for our Grievances will by their over-swaying Votes be our greatest Grievance Moreover we are too truly informed by divers of their own Party whose names if we should publish would be as great an ingratitude as folly the first in betraying those that obliged us the last in depriving our selves of all future Intelligence by them that they have vowed never to submit to an English or Protestant Government except they have liberty to exercise their Religion in Churches That the Forces of the Kingdom may be Train'd-Bands of their Men and that likewise those of their own Religion may be admitted to Places of Trust in the Common-wealth which they call modest and moderate demands though we hope they cannot seem so to any but themselves and their Clergy who we find do not think them enough being they may not have all their Church-Livings For we have certain intelligence that they have made a strong Faction as well among my Lord of Castlehaven's Soldiers as in all other parts of the Kingdom so that they are five parts of six who will fly out into a new action when they see a convenient time to execute their design which as yet they determine to forbear until they see a Peace concluded supposing that then the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland will intermix Irish and English without distinction to oppose the Scots and that by that means there will be a sufficient number of their Party in our Garrisons to master them which when they find an opportunity for they will certainly seize into their own hands upon notice whereof the Faction abroad will with all expedition apprehend the English in all parts and having accomplished this part of their design they will manifest that they are weary of the King of England's Government and that they will trust none of his Protestant Subjects among them for we are certainly informed that they will invite a Forreign Prince to take them into his protection unto whom they will deliver possession of what he pleases and will become his Subjects And lest that Princes Treasure should be exhausted by Wars in other places the Clergy have with the Pope's assistance raised amongst those of their own Calling and divers of the Gentry in Italy one hundred thousand pounds in money and a quantity of Arms and Ammunition that are now ready to be sent hither and they have employed one Doctor Duyer to go forthwith thither for it as also to get his Holiness to settle a course for the raising of more Money to be employed for the advancement of that which they call the Catholick Cause Therefore out of a true sense of our injuries already suffered and un-redressed with a right apprehension of inevitable ruine not onely to our Lives and Estates but likewise to the English Nation and Protestant Religion we have re-assum'd our Arms according to our Duty to God our King and Countrey with inviolable resolution to die or frustrate this devillish design And since those that die acting for the Gospel are as perfect Martyrs as those that die suffering for it we cannot but with joy embrace any effect that proceeds from so glorious a Cause Neither can this act be esteemed a crime in us since his Majesty upon the Rebels first Insurrection his Treasure being exhausted gave his Royal assent for the passing of an Act of Parliament wherein he granted to all his Subjects that would adventure money towards reducing of the Rebels Lands proportionable to the sum adventured which would fall to the Crown when the Conquest should be finished And the better to secure the Adventurers his Majesty obliged himself to make no Peace with the Rebels but with the advice and approbation of the Parliament of England and by that Act communicated to the Parliament that Power which before was solely in himself So that they not condescending to this Peace our imploying of their Aids and re-assuming of those Arms put into our hands by King and Parliament joyntly cannot be esteemed contradictory to his Majesty in regard that their joynt Act is so absolutely binding that neither of them severally can annull it as is evident in the Laws of the Realm Therefore if this War were onely Offensive yet even slander it self must acknowledge us innocent having so just a Cause so pious an Intention and so lawful an Authority much more it being Defensive and the Law both of God and Nature allowing every one to defend himself from violence and wrong Moreover the King must never expect any obedience from the Irish but what proceeds either from their Interest or Fear Through the first of these neither his Majesty or we can hope for assurance for not granting them all their desires their Interest which is more powerful with them than their Loyalty will make them throw off their subjection and to become absolute not scruple to destroy us Then to expect any security by their fears were frivolous for though we have found their Hearts as ill as their Cause yet they cannot be apprehensive of 2 or 3000 ill armed and unprovided men having all things necessary and so numerous a People at their devotion And lest our Enemies should scandalize us with breach of Faith in violating the pretended Cessation or with Cruelty in expelling the Irish Papists from our Garrisons who hitherto seemed adhering to us Concerning the first we declare That although our necessities did induce us to submit supposing the Cessation would have produced other effects as is before mentioned yet we had no power without Authority from King and Parliament joyntly to treat or yield to it or if it had been in our powers yet by the Rebels daily breaches of it we are disengaged from it Concerning the second we declare That our Garrison cannot be secured whilst so powerful and perfidious Enemies are in our bosomes Powerful being four to one in number more than the English Perfidious in their constant designs to betray us some whereof we will instance to convince their own Consciences and satisfie the World of our just proceedings One Francis Matthews a Franciscan Frier being wonderfully discovered in an Enigmatical Letter and as justly executed before his death confessed that he had agreed to betray the City of Cork to the Lord of Muskery which must necessarily infer that the chiefest and greatest part of that City were engaged in this Conspiracy for otherwise he could not so much as hope the accomplishment And if this had taken effect it had consequently ruin'd all the Protestants in the Province of Munster that being our chief Magazine and greatest Garrison Besides upon this occasion other Friers being examin'd upon Oath confessed that in
Ja. Ware God save the King An Abreviate of the Articles of Peace concluded by the Marquiss of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Commissioner for the King and the Lord Mountgarret President of the Supream Council the Lord Muskery Sir Robert Talbot Dermot O Brian Patrick Darcy Jeffery Brown and John Dillon Esquires Commissioners for the Irish. 1. THat the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion in the Kingdom of Ireland or any of them be not bound or obliged to take the Oath of Supremacy expressed in the second of Queen Elis. commonly called the Oath of Supremacy 2. That a Parliament may be held on or before the last day of November next and that these Articles agreed on may be transmitted into England according to the usual Form and passed provided that nothing may be passed to the Prejudice of either Protestant or Catholick Party other then such things as upon this Treaty shall be concluded 3. That all Acts made by both or either Houses of Parliament to the Blemish or Prejudice of his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects since the 7th of August 1641. shall be vacated by Acts of Parliament 4. That no Actions of Law shall be removed before the said Parliament in case it be sooner called then the last of November And that all Impediments which may hinder the Roman Catholicks to sit in the next Parliament shall be remov'd before the Parliament sit 5. That all Debts do Stand in state as they were in the beginning of these Troubles 6. That the Plantation in Connaght Kilkenny Clare Thomond Tipperary Limrick and Wickloe may be revoked by Act of Parliament and their Estates secur'd in the next Sessions 7. That the Natives may erect one or more Inns of Court in or near the City of Dublin they taking an Oath as also one or more Universities to be Govern'd as his Majesty shall appoint as also to have Schools for Education of Youth in the Kingdom 8. That Places of Command of Forts Castles Garrisons Towns and other Places of Importance and all Places of Honour Profit and Trust shall be conferr'd with equal Indifferency upon the Catholicks as his Majesties other Subjects according to their respective Merits and Abilities 9. That 12000 l. Sterling be paid the King yearly for the Court of Wards 10. That no Peer may be capable of more Proxies then two And that no Lords Vote in Parliament unless in 5 years a Lord Baron purchase in Ireland 200 l. per anum a Viscount 400 l. and an Earl 600 l. or lose their Votes till they purchase 11. That the Independency of the Parliament of Ireland on the Kingdom of England shall be decided by Declaration of both Houses agreeable to the Laws of the Kingdom of Ireland 12. That the Council Table shall contain itself within its bounds in handling Matters of State as Patents of Plantations Offices c. and not meddle with matter betwixt Party and Party 13. That all Acts concerning Staple or Native Commodities of this Kingdom shall be repeal'd except Wooll and Woollfels and that the Commissioners the Lord Mountgarret and others named in the 26 Article shall be Authoriz'd under the Great Seal to moderate and ascertain the rates of Merchandize to be exported and imported 14. That no Governor be longer Resident then his Majesty shall find for the good of his People and that they make no purchase other then by Lease for the Provision of their Houses 15. That an Act of Oblivion may be passed without extending to any who will not accept of this Peace 16. That no Governor or any other Prime Minister of State in Ireland shall be Farmers of his Majesties Customs 17. That a Repeal of all Monopolies be passed 18. That Commissioners be appointed to regulate the Court of Castle-Chamber 19. That Acts Prohibiting Plowing by Horse-tails and burning of Oats in the Straw be repealed 20. That Course be taken against the Disobedience of the Cessation and Peace 21. That such Graces as were promised by his Majesty in the Fourth year of his Reign and sued for by a Committee of both Houses of Parliament and not express'd in these Articles may in the next ensuing Parliament be desir'd of his Majesty 22. That Maritine Causes be determin'd here without Appeal into England 23. That the increase of Rents lately rais'd upon the Commission of defective Titles be repeal'd 24. That all Interests of Money due by way of Debt Mortgage or otherwise and not yet satisfi'd since the 23. of Octob. 1641. to pay no more than 5l per Cent. 25. That the Commissioners have power to determine all Cases within their Quarters until the perfection of these Articles by Parliament and raise 10000 Men for his Majesty 26. That the Lord Mountgarret Muskery Sir Dan. O Bryan Sir Lucas Dillon Nich. Plunket Rich. Bealing Philip Mac-Hugh O Relie Terlogh O Neal Thomas Flemming Patrick Darcy Gerald Fennel and Jeffery Brown or any five of them be for the present Commissioners of the Peace Oyer and Terminer and Gaol-Delivery in the present Quarters of the Confederate Catholicks with power of Justice of Peace Oyer and Terminer and Gaol-Delivery as in former times of Peace they have usually had 27. That none of the Roman Catholick Party before there be a Settlement by Parliament Sue Implead or Arrest or be Sued Impleaded or Arrested in any Court other than before the Commissioners or in the several Corporations or other Judicatures within their Quarters 28. That the Confederate Catholicks continue in their Possessions until Settlement by Parliament and to be Commanded by his Majesties Chief Governour with the advice and consent of the Commissioners or any Five of them 29. That all Customs from the perfection of these Articles are to be paid into his Majesties Receipt and to his use as also all Rent due at Easter next till a full Settlement of Parliament 30. That the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol-Delivery shall have power to hear and determine all Offences committed or done or to be committed or done from the 15th day of September 1643. until the first day of the next Parliament Thus the Marquess having perform'd all on his part that could be expected from him and was in his power to do and having receiv'd from other Parts all the assurance he could require there being no other way of engaging the publick Faith of the Nation than that to which they had so formally engaged themselves to him in he intended nothing then but how his Majesty might speedily receive some fruit of that Peace and Accommodation he thence expected by sending assistance to him And to that purpose with advice and upon invitation of several Persons who had great Authority and Power amongst the Confederate Catholicks the Lord Lieutenant took a Journey himself to Kilkenny where he was receiv'd with that Respect and Reverence as was due to his Person and to the Place he held and with such expressions of Triumph and Joy as gave him cause
to believe the People were glad to be again receiv'd into his Majesty's Protection A Protection his Majesty evidences to his Commissioners at Uxbridge That it was as inevitably necessary that they should not consent to hinder him therein as he had strong Reasons for the Cessation before unless they could shew how his Protestant Subjects in Ireland may probably at least defend themselves and that he should have no more need to defend his Conscience and Crown from the Injuries of this Rebellion At this Peace the Irish seem'd exceedingly enliven'd but the shew thereof quickly vanish'd and a cloud of Jealousie began again to cover the Land The Pope's Nuncio and the titular Bishops who depended on him envi'd that Nation the happiness and glory they foresaw it would be possess'd of by the execution of that Agreement and so without any colour of Authority either by the old establish'd Laws of that Kingdom or those Rules they had prescrib'd to themselves since the Rebellion they conven'd a Congregation of the Clergy at Waterford a Town most at their devotion where the Titular Bishop of Ferns was in the Chair and refided And therefore it will not be amiss to take a short view of their proceedings that the unhappy oppressed and miserable Ireland may clearly discern to whom it owes those Pressures and Grievances it is now overwhelm'd with and whether that Bishop be to be reckon'd in the number of those who suffer at present for his Zeal to Religion his Allegiance to the King and his Affection to his Countrey or whether his name be to be inserted in that Catalogue which must derive to Posterity the Authors and Fomentors of so odious and causless a Rebellion in which such a Sea of Blood hath been let out and the Betrayers of the Honour and Faith of that Countrey and Nation and who are no less guilty of extirpation of a Religion they so much glory of in that Kingdom than Ireton or Cromwel or that impious Power under which they have perpetrated all their Acts of Blood Cruelty and Desolation At that time the Parliament of England having accommodated the Spaniard with 2000 Men he in lieu thereof so temper'd the Irish ever devoted to that Nation that the Spaniard having then an Agent in Ireland he took them off from doing any thing effectual in our King's business And the Congregation of the Clergy was no sooner assembled then instead of prescribing Acts of Charity and Repentance to the People for the ill they had formerly done and then inflaming their hearts with new Zeal and infusing pious Courage into them to relieve and succour the King from those who oppressed him according to their particular Obligation by their late Agreement which had been the proper Office of Prelates and a Christian Clergy they began to inveigh against the Peace which themselves had so lately approv'd and so formally consented unto as if it had not carefully enough provided for the advancement of Religion and would not suffer it to be proclaim'd in Waterford and sent their Emissaries and their Orders to all considerable Towns and Cities to incense the People against it and against those who wished it should take effect insomuch that when the King at Arms was Proclaiming the Peace at Limerick with that solemnity and Ceremony as in such cases is used throughout the World with his Coat of Arms the Ensign of his Office and accompani'd with the Mayor and Aldermen and the most substantial of the Citizens in their Robes and with all the Ensigns of Magistracy and Authority one Molife a seditious Frier stirr'd up the multitude against him which being led on by one Fanning a person notorious for many outrages and acts of Blood and Inhumanity in the beginning of the Rebellion violently assaulted them and after many opprobrious speeches in contempt of the Peace and the Authority of the King and tearing off the Coat from the Herald beat and wounded him and many of the Magistrates of the City and some of them almost to death And least all this might be excused and charitably interpreted to be the effect of a Popular and Tumultuous Insurrection the Lawful Mayor and other principal Officers who assisted him in the discharge of his Duty were immediately displac'd and Fanning the impious Conductor of that Rabble was made Mayor in his place who by Letters from the Nuncio was thanked for what he had done and encouraged to proceed in the same way and had the Apostolical Benediction bestowed on him for committing such an outrage upon the Priviledged Person of an Herald who in the name of the King came to proclaim Peace As by the Law of Nations must have been adjudged barbarous and unpardonable in any part of the World where Civility is planted if he had come to have denounced War And yet all this while the design it self was carried with so great secresie that the Lord Lieutenant proceeding in his Progress for the setling and composing the humours of the People which he understood to have been in some disorder by the infusions of the ill-affected Clergy never heard of any Force of Arms to second and support those mutinous disorders till being near to the City of Cashell he was advertis'd by Letters from the Mayor that Neal's Army was marching that way and had sent terrible threats to that City if it presum'd to receive the Lord Lieutenant And shortly after he found that Owen O Neal used all possible expedition to get between him and Dublin that so he might have been able to have surprised and destroyed him whereupon the Marquis found it necessary to lose no time in returning thither yet resolved not onely to contain himself from any Acts of Hostility but even from those Trespasses which are hardly avoidable upon Marches and paid so precisely for whatsoever was taken from the Inhabitants throughout all the Catholick Quarters presuming that those Persons of Honour who had transacted the Treaty would have been able to have caused the Peace to be observed in despight of those clamorous undertakers But when the Unchristian Congregation of Waterford had made this Essay of their Power and Jurisdiction they made all possible hast to propagate their Authority and declared the Peace to be void and inhibited all Persons to submit thereunto or to pay any Taxes Imposition or Contribution which had been setled by the said Agreement and without which neither a standing Army which was to be applied to the Reduction of those Towns and Provinces which had put themselves under the Protection of the Parliament of England and never submitted to the former Cessation nor could be comprehended in the Peace could be supported or the 10000 Men rais'd to be transported into England for the succour of the King as had been so Religiously undertaken which inclination of theirs the People so readily obeyed and submitted unto That they committed and delegated the intire and absolute Power of Governing
the same date hereunto annexed and signed by himself And we upon his Lordships undertaking engage our selves by the Bond of Honour and Conscience abovesaid to yield entire obedience to his Majesties Lieutenant General and General Governour of this Kingdom and to all deriving Authority from them by Commission to command us in our several Degrees And that according to such Orders as we shall receive from them faithfully to serve his Majesty against all his Enemies or Rebels as well within this Kingdom as in any other part of his Dominions and against all Persons that shall not joyn with us upon these terms in submission to the Peace of this Kingdom and to his Majesties Authority And we do further engage our selves under the said solemn Bonds that we will never either directly or indirectly make use of any advantage or power wherewith we shall be intrusted to the obliging of his Majesty or his Ministers by any kind of force to grant unto us any thing beyond the said Marquis of Clanrickard's undertaking but shall wholely rely upon his Majesties own free goodness for what further Graces and Favours he shall be graciously pleas'd to confer upon his faithful Catholick Subjects in this Kingdom according to their Obedience and Merit in his service And we do further protest that we shall never esteem our selves disoblig'd from this engagement by any Authority or Power whatsoever provided on both Parties that this engagement and undertaking be not understood or extend to debar or hinder his Majesties Catholick Subjects of this Kingdom from the benefit of any further Graces and Favours which his Majesty may be graciously pleas'd to concede to them upon the Queen's Majesties Mediation or any other Treaties abroad This was done about the end of November 1646. at Sir Nicholas White 's Castle of Leixleap the Nuncio with the other Army under Owen O Neal having been about the same time compelled to raise their Siege from Dublin and to retire for want of Provisions Hereupon the Marquess of Clanrickard was made by the Lord Lieutenant Lieutenant General of the Army and was accordingly receiv'd by General Preston's Army being drawn in Battalia And General Preston at the same time receiv'd a Commission from the Lord Lieutenant to command as Serjeant Major General and immediately under the Marquess of Clanrickard And shortly after General Preston desired the Lord Lieutenant to march with as strong a Body as he could draw out of his Garrisons towards Kilkenny where he promised to meet him with his Army that so being united they might compel the rest to submit to the Peace And here that you may have some Divertisement you shall see in what condition Hereticks are to be buried to which end we shall present you with a Copy of a Censure under the Hand of Nicholas Bishop of Ferns against Francis Talbot who died a Protestant The Body of Francis Talbot who died an obstinate Heretick and finally therein impenitent is to be buried in Poenam Haereseos finalis Impenitentiae nec non in terrorem aliorum with only one Candle at the Grave at Nine of the Clock by Night without a Bell in the Church or Street without Priest Cross Book or Prayer the Place of his Burial is to be in the Alley of St. Mary's Church-yard near to the Garden of the Parsonage All which concerning the said Burial we have order'd to be done with the advice of Men learned in Divinity and who shall exceed this Manner of the said Francis's Burial is to incur Church-Censures no Wax Taper or Candle or Torch is to be used Given at the Fryers Monastery the last of Decemb. 1646. Nicholaus Episcopus Fernensis When the Marquess was come within less than a day's March of the Place assign'd by General Preston for the meeting and joyning their Forces together the Marquess of Clanrickard who attended upon the Lord Lieutenant receiv'd a Letter from Preston to this effect Nuncio's Party and therefore he wished that the Lord Lieutenant would proceed no further but to expect the issue of a General Assembly that would be shortly conven'd at Kilkenny where he doubted not but that Things would be set right by the Consent of the whole Kingdom which he said would be much better for his Majesty's Service than to attempt forcing the Peace upon those who were averse to it Upon this new violation of Faith the Marquess of Ormond was compell'd after some weeks stay in his Quarters to return again to Dublin where the Commissioners who had been lately there from the two Houses of Parliament had sowed such seeds of Jealousie and Discontent as the Inhabitants refused to contribute further to the payment and support of the Army being in truth so far exhausted by what they had paid and impoverished by their total want and decay of Traffick and Commerce as they were not able much longer to contribute so that the Marquess was forced in the cold and wet Winter to draw out his half starved and half naked Troops only to lye in the Enemy's Quarters where yet he would suffer no Act of Hostility to be committed or any thing else to be taken but Victuals for the subsistence of his Men. And in this un-easie posture he resolv'd to expect the result of the next General Assembly which he suppos'd could not be so constituted but that it would abhor the violation of the former Contracts and Agreements and the in-excusable Presumption and Proceedings of the Congregation of the Clergy at Waterford and that it would vindicate the Honour and Faith of the Nation from the Reproaches it lay under and from the exorbitant and extravagant Jurisdiction which the Nuncio had assumed But he quickly found himself again disappointed and to the universal wonder of all the new Assembly publish'd a Declaration of a very new Nature For whereas the Nuncio and his Party had committed to Prison those Noblemen and Gentlemen who had been Commissioners in treating and concluding the Peace and had given out threats and menaces that they should lose their Heads for their Transgression the Assembly presently set them at liberty and declared That the Commissioners and Council had faithfully and sincerely carried and demean'd themselves in the said Negotiation pursuant and according to the Trust reposed in them And yet in the same Declaration declared That they might not accept of or submit unto the said Peace and did thereby protest against it and did declare the same invalid and of no force to all intents and purposes And did farther declare That the Nation would not accept of any Peace not containing a sufficient satisfactory Security for the Religion Lives Estates and Liberties of the said Confederate Catholicks And what they understood to be sufficient and satisfactory for Religion c. appears by the Propositions published before by the Congregation at Waterford which they had caused the People to swear that they would insist upon and which instead of providing a
to the hazard of our lives those Rebels of this Kingdom who shall refuse their obedience to his Majesty upon such terms as he hath thought fit by us to require it and we shall endeavour to the utmost the suppressing of that Independent-Party who have thus fiercely laboured the extirpation of the true Protestant Religion the ruine of our Prince the dishonour of Parliament and the Vassalage of our Fellow-Subjects against all those who shall depend upon them or adhere unto them And that this our undertaking might not appear obnoxious to the Trade of England but that we desire a firm Union and Agreement be preserved betwixt us we do likewise declare that we will continue free Traffick and Commerce with all his Majesties good Subjects of England and that we will not in the least manner prejudice any of them that shall have recourse to our Harbours either in their Bodies Ships or Goods nor shall we take any thing from them without payment of ready money for the same And now that by his Majesties said Command we have proceeded to re-enter upon the work of his Service in this Province We conceive no higher testimony can be given of his Majesties acceptation or of the estimation we bear about us towards their Proceedings than by resorting unto them in Person with his Majesties Authority and exhibiting unto them the incouragement and satisfaction they may receive in this assurance That as we bear an especial regard to their present undertakings and performances accompanied with a real sense of their former sufferings so lest there should any advantage be derived unto those who endeavour to improve all opportunities of sowing sedition and distrust by this suggestion that the former differences in Judgment and Opinion which have induced persons to serve diversly under his Majesty and the Parliament will occasion prejudice or ill resentments to arise towards such Persons as have not formerly concurred in Judgment with others in his Majesties Service We do declare that we are qualifi'd with special Power and Authority from his Majesty to assure them that no distinction shall be made in any such Consideration but that all Persons now interested and engaged in this Cause shall be reflected upon with equal fervour and regard and that we shall make it our endeavours so to improve and confirm his Majesties Gracious disposure towards them as that we will never call to memory any past difference in Opinion Judgment Action or Profession to the prejudice of any Member of this Army or any Person relating to it but on the contrary shall be very ready to attest our good affections towards them in the discharge of such good Offices as shall be in our power in return whereof we shall onely expect their perseverance in their present Ingagements for his Majesties Service with such alacrity constancy and affection as may suit with their late publick Declaration and Professions To whom we desire this assurance also may be inculcated That as we shall in the future use our utmost care and diligence to provide for their preservation from the like hardships to those they have formerly undergone so we have already employ'd our best industry and endeavours for the settlement of such a course as we may with most reason hope will in these uncertain times produce a constant and competent Subsistance for them enabling them to make such a progress in their present undertakings as may with the accomplishment of the great ends thereof establish their own Honour and Content Thus much we have thought fit to publish unto the World to furnish it with an evidence of strong conviction against us if we ever swerve to the best of our power from the just ways of maintaining the true Protestant Religion the Honour and Interest of his Sacred Majesty the just Rights of Parliament the Liberties of the Subjects and the safety quiet and welfare of the People intrusted to our Care At Cork 6. Octob. 1648. Here it must not be forgotten that during the time the Marquis was in France and after the Parliaments Forces had upon so great inequality of number defeated the Irish and in all Encounters driven them into their Fastnesses the Confederate Catholicks had easily discern'd the mischiefs they had brought upon themselves by forcing the Kings Authority out of the Kingdom and introducing another which had no purposes of mercy towards them And therefore they had sent the Lord Marquis of Antrim who from the beginning had passionately serv'd them in their most intimate Concerns the Lord Viscount Muskery and others as their Commissioners to the Queen of England and to her Son the Prince of Wales who were both then at Paris to beseech them since by reason of the King's imprisonment they could not be suffered to apply themselves to his Majesty to take compassion of the miserable condition of Ireland and to restore that Nation to their protection making ample professions and protestations of Duty and of applying themselves for the future to his Majesties Service if they might be once again own'd by him and countenanced and conducted by his Authority And thereupon the Queen and Prince answered those Persons That they would shortly send a Person qualifi'd to treat with them who should have power to give them whatsoever was requisite to their security and happiness With which Answer they return'd well satisfi'd into Ireland So that as soon as the Lord Lieutenant was Landed at Cork he wrote the 4th of October to the Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks then at Kilkenny That he was upon the humble Petition which they had presented to the Queen and Prince come with full power to conclude a Peace with them and to that purpose desir'd that as little time might be lost as was possible and that Commissioners might be sent to him at his House at Carrick whither he would go to expect them within 14 miles of the Place where the Assembly then sate who were so much gladder of his presence by the obligation which they had newly received from the Kings Authority For when the Nuncio and Owen O Neil had thought to have surprized them and to have compelled them to renounce the Cessation the Lord Inchequin being sent unto by them for his protection had march'd with his Army to their relief and forc'd O Neal over the Shannon thereby restoring them to liberty and freedom so that they return'd a message of joy and congratulation to the Lord Lieutenant for his safe arrival and appointed Commissioners to treat with him at the place appointed A Copy of the Marquis of Ormond's Letter to the Supreme Council afore-mention'd was gotten by Colonel Jones and sent over to the Committee of Derby-house and being read in the House of Commons it was Voted to be sent down into the Isle of Wight to the Commissioners then Treating there with the King to know if he would avow it and in case he did disavow it that then he would declare against
Churches and Church-Livings they have in present possession and the Exercise of Jurisdiction therein 2. That a Parliament be had within 6 months or when after the Roman Catholicks shall desire 3. That all Laws made in the Parliament of England since 1641. in blemish of the Catholicks are at the next Parliament to be vacated 4. All Indictments against any Catholicks since 1641. be vacated 5. All Impediments to be taken away that Catholicks be elected in Parliament 6. All Debts to remain as they were Feb. 8. 1641. notwithstanding any Attainder 7. The Estates of the Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders of Connaght Clare Thomond Limerick and Tipperary be secured by an Act. 8. All Incapacities of the Natives in Ireland be taken away by Act. 9. All Honours Trusts Imployments or such like be conferred as well upon Catholicks as Protestants 10. That the King take 12000 l. per annum in lieu of the Court of Wards 11. No Noblemen to have more Proxies than two in Parliament and all Blanks to be null 12. That the depending of the Parliament of Ireland upon England shall be as both shall agree and stand with the Laws of Ireland 13. That the Council-Table meddle only with Matters of State 14. That all Acts forbidding the Transport of Wooll be null'd by the next Parliament 15. That if any have been wrong'd by Grants from King James or since they may Petition and have Relief in Parliament 16. That divers particular Lords Knights and Gentlemen who have been as they conceiv'd wrong'd shall now be righted 17. That all who had their Estates taken from them in Cork Toughall and Dungarvan have restoration or Rent 18. That in the next Parliament an Act of Oblivion pass to all in Ireland and that adhered to them 19. That no Officer of Eminency in Ireland farm the Customs 20. An Act to pass against Monopolists 21. That the Court of Castle-Chamber be regulated 22. That the Acts for prohibiting plowing with Horses by the Tayls and burning Oats in the Straw be null 23. An Act for taking off the Grievances of the Kingdom 24. That Maritime Causes be determin'd in Ireland 25. That no Rents be rais'd upon the Subjects under pretence of defective Titles 26. That Interest-Money be forgiven from 1641. 27. That all this be acted and be of force till a Parliament agree the same 28. The Commissioners for the Catholicks that treated agree upon such as shall be Commissioners of the Peace and hear all Causes under 10 l. 29. That all Governours of Towns Castles and Places made by the King be with the Approbation of the Catholick Commissioners 30. That none of his Majesty's Rents be paid until a full Settlement in Parliament 31. That the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer do try Murthers Stealing and all inferiour Trespasses of that nature 32. That hereafter such Differencies as shall arise between Subjects be determin'd by a Court in Ireland not transfer'd to England 33. That the Roman Clergy that behave themselves according to the Agreement be not molested Lastly That his Majesty please to grant what-ever else is necessary for the Roman Catholicks Upon which Peace the Marquess of Ormond the Lord Taaff and that Party engag'd to raise for Munster 4000 Foot and 800 Horse the supream Council and Preston for Leimster 4000 Foot and 800 Horse Inchiquin 3000 Foot and 600 Horse the Lord of Clanrickard for Connaght proportionable to the first In all 15000 Foot and 3000 Horse besides what Owen Roe upon his uniting afterwards might bring in computed to be 5000 Foot and 500 Horse that in the whole a gallanter Army had they been unanimous could scarce have been marshall'd With what Consent and Unity soever this Peace was made by those who had any pretence to Trust or to whom there was the least Deputation of Authority and Power by the Nation yet Owen O Neal with whom the Earl of Antrim joyn'd had the greatest Influence upon the Humours and Inclinations of the old Irish who had given themselves up to the Nuncio and who indeed had a better disciplin'd and consequently a stronger Army at his Command than the Confederates thought he could have gain'd to his Devotion still refused to submit to it So that the Lord Lieutenant as soon as the Peace was concluded was as well to provide against him to remove some Garrisons he held which infested those who obeyed the Acts of the Assembly and to prevent his Incursion as to raise an Army against the Spring to march against the English who were possessed of Dublin and all the Countrey and important Places of that Circuit and who he was sure would be supplied with all assistance of Shipping Men Money Victuals and Ammunition which the Parliament of England who had now murthered their Sovereign and incorporated themselves under the Name and Title of a Common-wealth could send them And he was in a worse condition to prevail against both these by the unhappy Temper and Constitution of the Scots in Ulster who being very numerous and possessed of the strong Towns though in profession they abhorred the Regicides and were not reconcilable to Owen O Neal and his Party were as yet as un-inclined to the Peace made with the Confederates and far from paying an obedience and full submission to the Orders and Government of the Lord Lieutenant maintaining at the same time the Presbyterian Form in their Church and an utter Independency in the State and out of those contradictory Ingredients compounding such a peevish and wayward Affection and Duty to the King as could not be applied to the bearing any part in the great Work the Marquess was incumbent to As soon as he heard of the Murther of the King he proclaim'd our present Sovereign Charles the 2d King of England Scotland France and Ireland at Carrick the 16th of Feb. 1648. And being by a Clause in his late Commission from his Majesty qualified with special Power and Authority to make no distinction in difference of Judgement betwixt any who should subject their Assistance to his Majesty's Service he soon won the Scots to a compliance though under the shackles of their Covenant who immediately us'd the most favourable Arguments they could to win Sir Charles Coot to their Party And to that end from the Congregation of the Presbytery at Belfast the 15th of Feb. 1648. they tempt him by several Representations with their Sence To which the 7th of March ensuing Sir Charles Coot and the Council of War held at London-derry return'd these Reasons for their Dis-agreement First We find no part of God's Word authorizing us being but a Branch of a subordinate Kingdom to declare against the Parliament of England under whom we serve who are the visible Authority of both Kingdoms and against an Army acting by their Power before we receive from themselves a Declaration and Grounds of those Proceedings wherewith they are aspers'd Secondly For the Covenant we have taken on which your Representations seem to
Defeat at Rathmines relieved Sir Charles Coot in London-derry and thereby kept the King from being entirely possessed of the Province of Ulster which but for that Action would have been able to have sent strong Supplies of Men and Provisions to the assistance of the Marquess And it is well known that while the Lord Lieutenant was in a hopeful condition to prevail against the Parliament the Commissioners of Trust and the principal Persons of Interest had no mind to agree with General O Neal out of animosity to his Person and Parts and in confidence that the Work would be done without him And others who were of his Party had as little mind that he should be drawn into a Conjunction with the Marquess because they knew if he was once engaged under him they should no more be able to seduce him to joyn with them in any Actions of Sedition And upon these Reasons the Persons who were deputed by the Commissioners to treat with him and were known to have an Interest in him on the one side perswaded Owen O Neal that the Lord Lieutenant had broken the Articles of Peace and that he could have no security that what should be promised should be performed to him and on the other side informed the Marquess that Owen O Neal insisted on such extravagant Propositions that the Commissioners of Trust would never yield to them But after the Arrival of Cromwel his success against Tredagh the Commissioners of Trust thought it high time to unite to him And Owen O Neal himself discerned how unsafe he should be by the prevailing of the English Party who notwithstanding the signal Service perform'd by him to them had publickly dis-avowed the Agreement which their Officers had made with him And thereupon by the Interposition of Colonel Daniel O Neal at that time Governour of Trim all Particulars were agreed betwixt the Lord Lieutenant and him the 12th of October 1649. with the Consent of the Commissioners of Trust the management of which was committed to Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight and Sir Richard Barnwel Baronet authoriz'd by the Lord Lieutenant to conclude with General Owen O Neal for whom there was the Bishop of Clogher and Tirlagh O Boyle who agreed in 18 Articles about the time Cromwel was before Wexford Insomuch that he promised to bring his Army within a few days and joyn with the Lord Lieutenant which though himself lived not to accomplish dying at Cloughoter-Castle in the County of Cavan about the beginning of December was shortly after performed So that about the time that Wexford was taken the Lord Lieutenant was not without hope by the advantage of a Pass and by cutting off his Provisions to have made Cromwel return to Dublin very hard without losing a good part of his Army when on a sudden and all together all the considerable Places in the Province of Munster as Cork Toughal Kinsale Bandonbridge Moyallo and other Garrisons revolted to the Parliament and thereby gave them a safe Retreat and free Passage and necessary Provisions of all that they wanted and Harbours for Ships to bring all to them that they could desire The Lord Inchiquin being so totally betrayed by those Officers whom he trusted most and had most obliged and that after he had in vain tryed to reduce them by force he could not without much difficulty obtain the liberty and re-delivery of his Wife and Children to him which when he had procur'd he fled for safety into Thomond to his Kindred This Defection in so fatal a Juncture of time when the straits Cromwel was in by the Winter and want of Provisions had rais'd the Spirits of all Men and when they looked upon themselves as like to have at least some hopeful Encounter with him was not a loss or a blow but a dissolution of the whole Frame of their Hopes and Designs and introduced a Spirit of Jealousie and Animosity in the Army which no Dexterity or Interest of the Lord Lieutenant could extinguish or allay From the first hour of the Peace the English and Irish had not been without that prejudice towards each other as gave the Marquess much trouble and they were rather incorporated by their obedience and submission to the Authority and Pleasure of their chief Commander than united by the same Inclinations and Affections to any publick End Insomuch as before the Defeat at Rathmines there were many of the Irish who much fear'd the swift success of the Army and apprehended the Lord Lieutenant's speedy reducing of Dublin would give him such Power and make him more absolute than they desired to see him and therefore were not sorry for that Mischief On the other side the English were much troubled to see the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Marquess so restrain'd and limited by the Articles and that the Army was neither recruited disciplined nor provided as it ought to be solely by his want of Power and they had a very low opinion of the Spirit and Courage of the Irish. But now upon this Defection in Munster there was a Determination of all Confidence and Trust in each other the Irish declaring That they suspected all the English Nation and made the Treachery of those who so infamously had betrayed their Trust an unreasonable Argument for jealousie of those who remain'd in the Army who being a handful of gallant Men and of most un-shaken Fidelity to the King were indeed in respect of their Courage and Experience in the War the Party to be principally depended upon in any Action or Encounter and of which the Enemy had only an apprehension Though the Season of the year for it was now towards the end of November and the Sickness that was in Cromwel's Army made it high time to betake themselves to their Winter-Quarters and such was their resolution yet hearing of the gaining of Carrick and of the present Distemper amongst those who had the whole Strength the Lord Lieutenant was to trust to and knowing all the Clergy had the full Dominion in all incorporate Towns and Places of Importance and would keep the People from submitting to those Expedients which could only preserve them he resolv'd to make an Attempt with his Army consisting of about 2000 Horse and 5000 Foot upon Waterford hoping to reduce that important Place before the Army should draw into Winter-Quarters knowing well enough that the Marquess could not keep the small Body he had together many days which was true For he having not Money to give them half a Weeks Pay or Provision to serve half so long was compelled to suffer part of them viz. the Scots to go to their Quarters who upon the Plains of Lisnegarvy being joyn'd with Sir George Monro to relieve Carickfergus were upon the 6th of December met with by Sir Charles Coot who gave them such a blow as they were afterwards never able to make head in Ulster However the Marquess was resolv'd not to leave Waterford to the
Marquess well saw how tedious and inconvenient this course might prove and rather advance all the scandalous and seditious Designs then suppress them Yet he fore-saw as well that if it were declin'd by him he should be un-avoidably reproach'd with not being willing to be informed of the just Grievances of the People and consequently not to remedy them And therefore without giving countenance to any such irregular Convention by any formal summons of his own he gave way that the Commissioners should write their Letters to that purpose and accordingly the Agents did come thither from the several Countreys to communicate and present their Complaints and Desires together in January following And the Lord Lieutenant received them with good Countenance and wished them freely to consult together as soon as they could to present whatsomever they had to say to him to which they should be sure to receive a speedy Answer About which time Colonel Barry who through the whole Scene had been intrusted by the Supream Council to negotiate with the King and was not ill thought of by the Marquess of Ormond had then licence from Cromwel to visit his Wife and Family at Castlelions under the Parliaments obedience where he transacted through the Mediation of a noble Person many Concerns to the composing of Differencies with the greatest though what tended to an Agreement with Inchequin would never in the least be indulged and the rest then spoke of had a fate not seasonably to be composed In the mean time the Bishops and Clergy of themselves and without any Authority received or desired from the Lord Lieutenant Assembled at Cloanmacnoise upon the River Shannon upon whose Councils and Conclusions all mens eyes were more fixed then upon what the Agents should represent at Kilkenny it being very evident that many of the Catholick Noblity of the Kingdom and some principal Persons of Quality and Interest formally concurred with the Marquess And the Commissioners of Trust were for the most part as zealous for the execution and observation of the Articles of Peace and that the same might be rendred useful to the Nation Yet the Clergy and Religious Persons had found means to obstruct that Union which was necessary for the carrying on the Work and especially had that influence upon the Corporate Towns that no Garrisons would be admitted therein or such Submission paid to the Lord Lieutenant or the Commissioners Orders as were essential to their own defence and to the making War against the Enemy So that all men were in suspence what would be the issue of that Meeting And it cannot be denied but that those Bishops and that part of the Clergy which were best affected and knew the ways which were most conducing to the happiness of their Countrey prevail'd so far that the Conclusions which were made there seem'd full of respect for the Kings Service and wholsom Advice and Council to the People They declared how vain a thing it was to imagine that there would be any security for the exercise of their Religion for the enjoying of their Fortunes or for the preservation of their Lives by any Treaty with or Promise from the Parliament That they abhorred all factious Animosities and Divisions which raged amongst themselves to the hindrance of the Publick Service And therefore enjoyn'd all the Clergy of what Quality soever and Ecclesiastical Persons by Preaching and all other means to incline the People unto an union of Affection and to the laying aside of all jealousies of each other and unanimously to concur in opposing the Common Enemy And appointed the Bishops and other Persons to proceed with greater severity against those Religious and Spiritual Persons who should under-hand cherish and foment those Jealousies and Divisions In a word they said so much and so well that when the Lord Lieutenant was informed of it and when he saw the Extract of their Determinations he conceiv'd some hope that it might indeed make good Impression on the People and produce a very good effect The Particulars of which here follows The Copies of Acts and Declarations by the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates met at Clonmacnoise the fourth day of December 1649. And since Concluded By the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates WHereas heretofore many of the Clergy and Laity did in their actions and proceedings express much discontents and divisions of mind grounding the same on the late difference of Opinion happened amongst the Prelates and the Laity by which the Nation was not so well united as was necessary in this time of great danger wherein all as with one heart and hand ought to oppose the Common Enemy We the Archbishops Bishops and Prelates of this Kingdom met motu proprio at Clonmacknose 4. Decembris 1649. having removed all differences among us not entring into the merits of diversities of former Opinions thought good for removing of all jealousies from our own thoughts hearts and resolutions and from others who had relation or were adherent to the former diversity of Opinions to manifest hereby to all the World that the said Divisions and Jealousies grounded thereupon are now forgotten and forgiven among us on all sides as aforesaid And that all and every of us of the above Archbishops Bishops and Prelates are now by the blessing of God as one body united And that we will as becometh charity and our Pastoral charge stand all of us as one intire Body for the Interest and Immunities of the Church and of every the Prelates and Bishops thereof and for the Honour Dignity Estate Right and Possession of all and every the said Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates And we will as one intire and united Body forward by our Councils Actions and Devices the advancement of his Majesties Rights and the good of this Nation in general and in particular occasions to our Power and that none of us in any occasion whatsoever concerning the Catholick Religion or the good of this Kingdom of Ireland will in any respect single himself or be or seem opposite to the rest of us but will hold firm and intire in one sence as aforesaid hereby detesting the actions thoughts and discourses of any that shall renew the least memory of the differences past or give any ground of future difference among us And do in the Name of Jesus Christ exhort all our flock to the like brotherly affection and union and to the like detestation of all past differences or jealousies as aforesaid arising hitherto among them And we desire that this our Declaration be Printed and Published in each Parish by Command of the respective Ordinaries Ut videant opera vestra bona glorificent Patrem vestrum qui in Coelis est Datum apud Clonmacnose 13. Decem. 1649. Signed by Hugo Ardmachanus Fr. Thomas Dublin Thomas Casshel Joan. Archiep. Tuam Fr. Boetius Elphyn Fr. Edmundus Laghlinensis Procurator Waterfordiensis Emerus Clogher Robertus Corcagiensis
and General Governor of the Kingdom of Ireland Chancellor of the University of Dublin and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter To our Trusty and Well-beloved Bishop Ever Mac Mahon ORMOND WHereas upon the Treaty with General Owen O Neal deceased it was amongst other Particulars Concluded and Agreed upon that in case of death or removal of him such other General or Commander in Chief should be authorised by Commission from us to Command his Majesties Forces of the Province of Ulster Natives of the Kingdom as should be by general consent of the Gentry of that Province elected and made choice of for the same And whereas in a general Meeting lately held by the Gentry for that purpose it was agreed upon and so represented unto us that you should exercise that Command over the said Forces We therefore upon the Consideration thereof and of the Care Judgment Valour and Expedience in Martial Affairs as also of the readiness and good affections of you to do his Majesties Service have nominated and appointed and we do hereby nominate and appoint you the said Bishop Ever Mac Mahon to be General of all his Majesties said Forces of Horse and Foot of the Province of Ulster Natives of the Kingdom Giving thereby unto you the said Bishop Ever Mac Mahon full Power and Authority to take the said Charge and Employment upon you and the said Forces and every of them to Lead and Command according to the use and discipline of War and such further Order and Instructions as you shall from time to time receive from us or other his Majesties chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom the time being in that behalf willing and hereby requiring all the Officers Troopers and Soldiers of the said Forces to obey you as their General and to be at and perform your Commands as they shall issue unto them upon all occasions of his Majesties Service as they will answer the contrary In witness whereof we have Signed this our Commission and caused our Seal of Arms to be thereunto affixed at Loghreogh the first day of April 1650. In execution of which the Bishop with great activity and courage proceeded in infesting the English Garrisons and Army in that Province as much as was in his Power And having an Army consisting of about 5000 Horse and Foot about the 20th of June 1650. when the Lord Lieutenant himself could not draw 1000 men together or keep them if together the space of 48 hours he encountred not far from London-derry with Sir Charles Coot who Commanded the Parliaments Forces in Chief in that Quarter and was then inferior in Foot to the Bishop though otherwise he had a great advantage of him by having near treble the number of Horse Notwithstanding which inequality the Irish for a while behaved themselves handsomly but in the end were totally defeated so that the Bishop was compelled after he saw the day was irrecoverably lost to quit the Field with a small party of Horse The next day in his flight he had the misfortune near Eniskelin to meet with the Governor Major King of that Town in the Head of a Party too strong for him against which however the Bishop defended himself with notable courage though after he had received many wounds he was taken Prisoner and soon after by the positive Order of Sir Charles Coot whom within less then a year he had reliev'd when in great extremity hang'd This was a most happy Victory for the Parliament in that 3000 of the Rebels were there slain all meer Irish out of an opinion they could not prosper as long as they had any English joyn'd with them and for that end had throughly purg'd their Army which being stiled by them the Confident Victorious Army of the North had a full return of Gods Vengeance they being the first Incendiaries and Actors in those barbarous Cruelties which ensued their Insurrection This was the unfortunate end of that unhappy Prelate of whom since he bore so great a Part in the Troubles of Ireland and was much superior in Parts to any man of that Party it will not be impertinent or uncharitable to mention some Passages of his Life that thereby his nature and disposition may be the better collected and indeed the spirit and temper of mind which those kind of men were possessed with who had the greatest abilities to do hurt Some few years before the Rebellion this Ever Mac Mahon being then an Arch Priest and residing for the most part in or near Dublin repair'd as you have heard to a Prime Instrument of State and discovered to him the Contrivances abroad in reference to bring Troubles upon that Kingdom who being thereupon Pardon'd still as any thing of that nature proceeded inform'd the State thereof And though according to the formality of Law he should have sued out his Pardon yet that he might still be confided in by the Confederates who knew not who the Discoverer was he meerly trusted to the Kings Mercy and Clemency and through the Government of the Earl of Strafford he prov'd faithful to the Crown From the beginning of this Rebellion his Power was very great with those that were opposite to any Reconciliation upon the first and 2 Conclusion of Peacy by the Confederate Catholicks continuing firm to that Party which followed Owen O Neal or rather Govern'd Owen O Neal who commanded that Party and over and above those demands which concern'd Religion to which they seem'd to adhere with more then ordinary zeal and thereby drew a dependency of that Clergy to them they insisted upon the Restitution of the great Estates in Ulster which was not in the Power of the Crown to make without violation of several Acts of Parliament and defeating many descents and purchases which had passed without any interruption or claim for the space of 150 years This impossible expectation kept both Owen O Neal and the Bishop of Clogher from concurring with the Confederate Catholicks in the Peace they made with his Majesty 1648. and the Animosity they contracted against the Confederates inclined them to relieve London-derry when as is remembred before it was even ready to be reduced by his Majesties Forces rather then to submit to the Peace made by them with the Lord Lieutenant To whose Divisions the State of England saith Rely Archbishop of Armagh ows their present Possession of Ireland and therefore infers that that Party of the Irish Natives ought to be not onely on that account Favour'd and Trusted but because also they never had affection for the King or his Family Yet after they had found it necessary to make that agreement with the Marquess in 1649. being neglected by the Parliament it must be acknowledged that the Bishop performed and observ'd it very justly as he was punctual in what he promised and applied himself with all dexterity and industry to the advancement of his Majesties Interest so that during his time he restrain'd the Clergy
Rapotensis Nico. Fernensis Procurator Arch. Dublin Eug. Kilmore Walt. Clonfert Procurator Leghlin c. Jamestown 10. Aug. 1650. When viz. the 12. of the same the two Persons had delivered their Credential Letter to the Lord Lieutenant he wished them in regard of the importance of the Matter they were instructed with to set down what they had in Command in Writing whereupon they presented him the 13th with this following Letter May it please your Excellency WE being intrusted by the Clergy met at Jamestown to deliver a Message unto your Excellency importing their advice what the onely means is as they conceive that may serve to free the Nation from the sad Condition whereunto it is reduced at present do in obedience to your Excellencies Commands signified for giving in the Substance of the said Message in Writing humbly present the same as followeth That whereas they doubt not your Excellency hath labour'd by other hands to bring the best Aids that possibly could be had from abroad for the Relief of this gasping Nation yet finding now in their Consciencies no other expedient Remedy for the preservation thereof and of his Majesties Interests therein more prevalent then your Excellencies speedy repair to his Majesty for preventing the Ruine and Dissolution of all and leaving the Kings Authority in the hands of some Person or Persons faithful to his Majesty and trusty to the Nation and such as the affection and confidence of the People will follow by which the Rage and Fury of the Enemy may receive Interruption They humbly offer this important Matter of the Safety or Destruction of this Nation and the Kings Interest to your Wisdom and Consideration hoping the Kingdom by your Excellencies Presence with his Majesty and intrusting safely the Kings Authority as above may with Gods blessing hold out until reliev'd with Supplies from his Majesty The Prelates will in the mean time do what lies in their Power to assist the Person or Persons so intrusted The great Trust his Majesty doth repose in your Excellency the vast Interest in Fortune Alliance and Kindred you have in this Nation and your experience in the management of Affairs of greatest Consequence will we doubt not added to other the Reasons proposed by us induce you to embrace this Advice as proceeding from our pious Intentions that look onely on the preservation of the Catholick Religion the support of his Majesties Authority and the Estates Liberties and Fortunes of his Subjects of this Kingdom which we humbly offer as Your Excellencies most humble Servants Fr. Oliver Dromore Charles Kelly Aug. 13th 1650. Though the Marquess did not expect that the Meeting of the Bishops and Clergy in that manner at Jamestown would have produced any better effect than their former Meetings in other Places had done yet he could not imagine that their Presumption would have been so great as it appear'd by this Message to be And when he communicated it to the Commissioners of Trust they were no less seemingly scandalized at it and believ'd that upon serious Conference with the Bishops they should be able to reform their Understandings and their Wills and therefore desired the Marquess that instead of sending a particular Answer to the Matter of the Message he would write to them To give him a Meeting at Loghreogh on the 26th of the same month to the end that upon a free Conference they might be induced to understand how pernicious a thing they had advised in order to their own security And the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Kelly return'd with this Proposition and the Marquess making no doubt of their Compliance so far as to meet at the Place appointed went thither at the day assigned but they instead of meeting him themselves sent their Bishops of Cork and Clonfert no otherwise intrusted then to receive his Answer to the Proposition they had made for his leaving the Kingdom To which when he saw he could not draw them to a Conference he the 31. of August return'd That they might well remember that upon the Disobediences he had formerly met with he had obtain'd leave from his Majesty to have departed the Kingdom and that if themselves the Bishops Nobility and Gentry met together had not in April last in Writing and Discourse given him assurance that they not only desired his stay but would endeavour to procure such obedience to him as might enable him with hope of success to have gone on in the War he would have made use of the liberty given unto him by his Majesty to have freed himself from the vexation which he had since endured and the dishonour which he fore-saw he should be subject to for want of Power without which as he then told them he should be able to do nothing considerable for the King or the Nation That he had transmitted those Assurances to his Majesty with his own resolution to attend the Effects That he plainly observed that the Division was great in the Nation under his Government yet it would be greater upon his removal of which in a free Conference he would have given them such pregnant Evidence as he held it not fit to declare to them by writing For these and other Reasons he told them That unless he was forced by in-evitable necessity he was not willing to remove out of the Kingdom and desired them to use all means within their Power to dispose the People to that Dutifulness and Obedience that became them This wrought nothing on the Temper of those Men who were resolved not to be satisfied with any thing the Marquess could say unto them Insomuch that within few days after they had receiv'd his Answer from Loghreogh at the time when the Parliamentarians were strong in the Field and had then passed the Shannon if they had not been restrained by the few Troops the Marquess still kept on foot they published an Excommunication against all those of what Quality soever who should feed help or adhere unto the Lord Lieutenant in which this Circumstance is observable That though they did not publish this Excommunication until the 15th of September it was enacted in their Assembly at Jamestown the 12th of August which was within two days after they had sent the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Kelly to perswade the Marquess to leave the Kingdom and the day before they delivered their Message So that they thought any thing that the Lord Lieutenant should return to them would be impertinent to the Matter in hand or if they were not so delighted with their own Proceedings that they have themselves carefully published to the World in Print would it be believ'd that Persons who in the least degree pretended the care of the Peoples welfare and security could at such a time when a potent Enemy was in the Field set all Men loose from all Government Civil and Martial and not direct them whom they should follow and obey For if it be said That
they were advised to return to their Association and until a General Assembly of the Nation could be conveniently called unanimously to serve against the common Enemy since no Persons were named or appointed to conduct them it must be acknowledged that they were left without any direction at all to the rage and fury of those who intended nothing but their Reduction Together with their Excommunication they published in the head of the Army a Declaration entituled A Declaration of the Archibishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Regular and Secular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland against the continuance of his Majesty's Authority in the Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the mis-government of the Subjects and the ill conduct of his Majesty's Army and violation of the Articles of Peace If the Archbishops Bishops and Secular and Regular Clergy of Ireland will take upon them to declare against the King's Authority where his Majesty hath placed it and will make themselves Judges of his supream Minister for the government of the Subjects and the ill conduct of his Majesty's Army they assume an Authority to themselves that no other Christian Clergy ever pretended and sufficiently declare to the King how far they are from being Subjects or intending to pay him any Obedience longer than they are govern'd in such Manner and by such Persons as they think fit to be pleas'd with If the Marquess of Ormond had mis-govern'd the People and conducted his Majesty's Army amiss the Clergy are not competent Judges of the one or the other And for the violation of the Articles of Peace the Commissioners nominated and appointed to provide for the due execution of them were the only Persons who could determine and remedy such Violation and who well knew there was no cause for their complaint But on the other hand as hath been before mention'd these Men obstructed that concurrence and obedience in the People without which those Articles could not be observed or the security of the People provided for The Preface of that Declaration according to their usual method justified and magnified their Piety and Vertue in the beginning and carrying on the War extolled their Duty and Affection to their King in submitting to him and returning to their Allegiance when they said they could have better or as good Conditions from the Parliament of England intimated what a vast sum of Money they had provided near half a Million of English pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great quantity of Powder Match Ammunition with other Materials for carrying on the War and many other Particulars of that nature the monstrous untruths whereof doth sufficiently appear in what hath been said before The Marquess having been forced to borrow those little sums of Money out of the Pockets of his Friends and to spend all that he raised upon the sail of a good quantity of his own Land for the support of his Wife and Children to enable the Army to march which was not then what-ever hath been since re-paid to him And the Magazines of Corn and Ammunition and other Materials for War being so absolutely un-furnished that it was not possible for him to reduce those small Forts of Maryburrough and Athy held by Neal's Party till he had by his own Power and Interest procured some Supplies before clearly mention'd so far were these Men from making that Provision they brag of What Conditions they might have had from the Parliament of England may be concluded by the usage they have since found nor if they were put to it would they be able to prove their Assertions divine vengeance having made that Party more merciless towards them whose forwardness obstinacy and treachery against the King's Authority contributed most to their Service than those who worthily opposed them and were most enemies to their Proceedings They endeavour'd by all imaginable Reproaches and Calumnies to lessen the Peoples Reverence towards the Lord Lieutenant laying such Aspersions on him in the said Declaration as might most alienate their Affections though themselves knew them to be un-true and without colour They complained that he had given Money Commissions for Colonels and other Commands unto Protestants and upon them consumed the substance of the Kingdom who most of them either betrayed or deserted the Service whereas they knew well that there was not one Protestant Officer to whom the Lord Lieutenant gave a Commission who betrayed any Place committed to him or otherwise treated in order to their support than all the other Officers of the same condition in the Army nor did they quit the Service until many of them had gallantly lost their Lives and that the Clergy had so far incensed the People against them only for being Protestants that the Marquess was compelled to give them leave to depart the Kingdom or otherwise to dispose of themselves and the Parliament Commanders gave Passes to such as would depart the Kingdom and gladly entertain'd such as went over to their Party They accused him of Improvidence in conducting the Army after the defeat at Rathmines of not relieving Tredath of permitting Play Drinking and Licentiousness in the Camp and as bold Aspersions as without Excommunication might gain credit with the People and reflect upon his Honour where he was not enough known Whereas the Action at Rathmines is before set down at large and the taking of Tredath by a Storm when it was scarce apprehended And it is notoriously known that in his Person he was so strict and vigilant that he gave not himself freedom and liberty to enjoy those Pleasures which might very well have consisted with the Office and Duty of the most severe General and that in above three months time which was from his first drawing the Forces to the Rendezvous till after the misfortune at Rathmines he never slept out of his Souldier's Habit. So that the malice and craft of those unreasonable and sensless Calumnies are easie enough to be discerned and can only make an impression upon vulgar minds not well informed of the Humour and Spirit of the Contrivers They magnified exceedingly the Merit of the Prelates the Declaration they had made at Cloanmacnoise their frequent expressions of their Sincerity and most blame the Marquess for not making use of their Power and Diligence toward the advancing the King's Interest but rather for suspecting and blaming them by his Letter to the Prelates at Jamestown before-mention'd and they said words were heard to fall from him dangerous as to the Persons of some of the Prelates To all which little need be said since there is before so just and full mention of their fair Declarations Professions and Actions which accompanied them And for the danger the Persons of some Prelates were in they will be ashamed to urge when it is known that their Bishop of Killalough was brought to him in custody even after he had sign'd this Declaration and Excommunication
and set at liberty by him and whom the Bishops themselves in their Letter of the 12th of September 1650. to the Earl of Westmeath c. do acknowledge to be preserved by the Marquess and for which many will rather expect an Apology than for any Jealousie he could entertain of the Persons who behaved themselves in that manner towards the King's Lord Lieutenant They charge him with having represented to his Majesty that some Parts of the Kingdom were dis-obedient which absolutely deny any Dis-obedience by them committed and that thereby he had procured from his Majesty a Letter to withdraw his own Person and the Royal Authority if such dis-obedience was multiplied and so leave the People without the Benefit of Peace This was the Reward his Excellency out of his Envy to a Catholick Loyal Nation prepared for their Loyalty and Obedience seal'd by the shedding of their blood and the loss of their substance Whether the obstinate and Rebellious carriage of Waterford Limerick and other Places which brought destruction upon themselves did not deserve and require such a Representation to be made unto the King may be judged by all men upon what hath been before truly set down of those Particulars and if the Places themselves had not acknowledged that dis-obedience yet the Prelates seemed to lament those Acts of Dis-obedience and most earnestly disswaded him from leaving the Kingdom promising all their endeavours to reduce the People to Obedience which was onely in their Power to have done else the Marquess would not so long have exposed Himself and his Honour to those Reproaches or suffered his Person with the Impotent Title of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to have remained in that Kingdom and every day to hear of the rendring and betraying of Places to the Enemy which he could no more remedy then he could infuse a Spirit of Obedience Unity and Understanding into that unhappy infatuated Nation Yet he was so far from wishing that his Majesty should absolutely withdraw his Royal Authority from them how unworthy soever they made themselves of it that he offered to leave the Kings Power in the Person of the Marquess of Clanrickard as he afterwards did hoping that since their great exception was to him for being a Protestant they would with all Alacrity have complied with the other who is known to be a most zealous Roman Catholick yet a great Royalist They reproach'd him That while he was an Enemy to the Catholicks he had been very active in unnatural executions against them and shedding the blood of poor Priests and Churchmen But since the Peace he had shewed little of action keeping himself in Connaght and Thomond where no danger was or the Enemy appear'd not Here you see they would neither suffer him to have an Army to oppose the Enemy nor be content that he should retire into those Places where the Enemy could least infest him and from whence with those few Troops which remained with him he defended the Shannon and kept the Enemy from getting over the River while he staid there And for the former activity and success against them which they were content to impute to him it was when he had a free election of Officers an absolute Power over his Garrisons where he caused the Soldiers continually to be exercised their Arms kept in order and from whence he could have drawn his Army together and have march'd with it to what place he would which advantages he was now without and the Enemy possessed of and therefore it was no wonder that they now obtain'd their Victories as easily as he had done formerly But since they were so disingenious and ungrateful there being many amongst them whose lives he had saved not without suspicion of being favourable to them when he should have been just to charge him with being active in unnatural executions against them and in shedding the blood of poor Priests and Church-men and for the Improvement and Propagation of Calumny it hath pleased some Persons to cause that Declaration to be Translated in Latin and Printed thereby to make him odious to the Roman Catholicks and have named two Priests who they say were by his order Executed and put to death in cold blood and after his promise given to save their lives whose names were Mr. Higgins and Mr. White It will not be impertinent to set down at large the Case of these two Persons that from thence men who have no mind to be deceived and mislead may judge of the Candor and Sincerity of those Persons who would obtrude such Calumnies to the World It must therefore be known that when these two Priests were put to death the War was conducted and carried on by the two Houses of Parliament that the Government of Ireland was in the hands of the two Lords Justices who upon the inhumane and barbarous Cruelties first practised by the Irish Catholicks in the beginning of the Rebellion had forbidden any quarter to be given to those whom they found in Arms and principally against all Priests known Incendaries of that Rebellion and prime Actors in exemplary Cruelties and the Marquess of Ormond was then onely Lieutenant General of the Army and received all Orders from the Lords Justices and Council who having intelligence that a Party of the Rebels intended to be at such a time at the Naas order'd him to draw some Troops together with hope to surprize them And the Lieutenant General marching all night came early in the morning into the Town from whence the Rebels upon notice were newly fled In this Town some of the Souldiers found Mr. Higgins who might it's true have easily fled if he had apprehended any danger in the stay When he was brought before the Marquess he voluntarily acknowledged that he was a Priest and that his Residence was in the Town from whence he refused to fly away with those that were guilty because he not onely knew himself very innocent but believ'd he should not be without ample Evidence of it having by his sole Charity and Power preserved very many of the English Protestants from the rage and fury of the Irish and therefore he onely besought the Marquess to preserve him from the violence of the Souldiers and to put him securely into Dublin to be tried for any Crime which the Marquess promis'd to do and perform'd it though with so much hazard that when it was spread abroad amongst the Souldiers that he was a Priest the Officer into whose Custody he was intrusted was assaulted by them and it was as much as the Marquess could do to relieve him and compose the mutiny When he came to Dublin he informed the Lords Justices and Council of the Prisoner he had brought with him of the good Testimony he had receiv'd of his peaceable Carriage of the pains he had taken to restrain those with whom he had Credit from entring into Rebellion and of very many charitable Offices he had perform'd of which there wanted not
Evidence enough there being many then in Dublin who own'd their Lives and whatever of their Fortunes was left purely to him so that he doubted not but that he would be worthy of their Protection Within few days after when the Marquess did not suspect the poor man to be in danger he heard that Sir Charles Coot who was Provost Martial General had taken him out of Prison and caused him to be put to death in the morning before or assoon as it was light of which Barbarity the Marquess complained to the Lords Justices but was so far from bringing the other to be question'd that he found himself to be upon some disadvantage for thinking the proceeding to be otherwise then it ought to have been This was the Case of Mr. Higgins and this the Marquess's part in it and the poor man was so far from complaining of his breach of Promise at his death how confidently soever it be aver'd that he exceedingly acknowledged the Favour he had receiv'd from his Lordship prayed for his Prosperity and lamented his want of Power to do that which the World saw his inclination prompted him to The proceeding against Mr. White was very different and in this manner The Marquess being upon his march with his Army he quarter'd one night at Clonin an house of the Earl of West-Meaths who was residing there with his Wife and Family when he was at Supper many of the Officers being at the Table the Lady of the House upon some whisper she receiv'd from a Servant expressed some trouble in her Countenance which the Marquess who sate next her perceiving asked her what the matter was she told him in his ear that she was in great apprehension of an honest man who was in her house and much fear'd the Souldiers confessing he was a Priest The Marquess replied that if he was in the house and kept himself there he was in no danger for as the Souldiers would attempt nothing while the Marquess stai'd there so he would leave a Guard at his departure that should secure it against Straglers or any Party that should stay behind which he did accordingly In the morning when he was ready to march he receiv'd information that the Rebels were possessed of a Pass by which he was to go whereupon he sent some Troops to get a Foard three miles from the way the Army was to march and by that means to come upon the Rear of the Rebels by the time the Army should come to the Pass which being done after a short Encounter in which many were killed the Rebels were put to flight and the Pass gain'd In this action Mr. White was taken on Horse-back with a Case of Pistols who desired to be brought to the Marquess which being done he told him he was the Person for whom the Countess of West-Meath had besought his favour the night before and that his Lordship had promised that he should be safe The Marquess told him if he were the same Person it was his own fault that he was not safe if he had staid in the house he was in this had not befaln him that it was now out of his Power to preserve him himself being bound to pursue those Orders which the Lords Justices had given him Nevertheless he did endeavour to have saved him at least till he might be brought to Dublin But the whole Army possessed with a bitter spirit against the Romish Clergy mutinied upon it and in the end compelled the Marquess to leave him unto that Justice which they were authoris'd to execute and so put him to death Who can now upon these two Instances and no other can or have been given reasonably and honestly say that the Marquess hath had his hands defiled with the blood of Priests And from the time that he had the chief Power committed to him there was not one Priest how Maliciously Rebelliously or Treacherously soever they behaved themselves against the Kings Service and the Person of the Lord Lieutenant who suffered death but also all other acts of Blood and Rage which are not necessary though hardly avoidable in the most just War were declined and discountenanced by him nay for his Respect to affairs of this nature that they might be evenly and without passion carried on did he not often undergo even with his own Party a suspicion of not being sufficiently faithful The Consequences of which had many Censures The truth is the Rebellion was odious to him yet his desire often to reclaim the Irish by Mercy palliated what otherwise might have finished some thought the War sooner then it had its Determination I shall pass over the many Tautologies and impertinent Calumnies in the said Declaration all which are sufficiently answer'd and clear'd by what is already contain'd in this Narrative and shall onely insert their conclusion in their own words as followeth For the prevention of these Evils and that the Kingdom may not be utterly lost to his Majesty and his Catholick Subjects this Congregation of Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of both Clergies of this Kingdom found our selves bound in Conscience after great deliberation to declare against the continuance of his Majesties Authority in the Person of the Lord Marquess of Ormond having by his Misgovernment ill Conduct of his Majesties Army and breach of Publick Faith with the People in several Particulars of the Articles of Peace rendred himself incapable of continuing that great Trust any longer being questionable before his Majesty for the aforesaid Injuries and ill Government to which effect we will joyn with other Members of this Kingdom in drawing a Charge against him And we hereby manifest to the People that they are no longer obliged to obey the Orders and Commands of the said Marquess of Ormond but are until a General Assembly of the Nation can be conveniently called together unanimously to serve against the common Enemy for the defence of the Catholick Religion his Majesties Interest their Liberties Lives and Fortunes in pursuance of the Oath of Association and to observe in the mean time the form of Government the said Congregation shall prescribe until otherwise ordered by an Assembly or until upon Application to his Majesty he settle the same otherwise And we do Fulminate the annexed Excommunication of one date with this Declaration against all opposers of the said Declaration Here we are arrived at one of the most fatal Conclusions of a desperate People any History ever mention'd yet as the case stood it was not possible for his Excellency to chastise their folly and madness such a reverence and esteem this unhappy Nation hath ever had of their Clergy that a seditious Frier and he happily none of their highest Order neither could take the Colours in the head of a Regiment and pronouncing damnation to those who should presume to march contrary to the General 's command caused the Soldiers to throw down their Arms and disband as fell out in an
Expedition at Kilkenny Nor was it possible for the Marquis of Ormond to procure Justice to be inflicted in a Civil or Martial way upon an Ecclesiastical Person let his crime be what it would since even they whose zeal and affection to his Majesties Service was unquestionable and who were as highly offended at the intolerable carriage and proceedings of the Bishops and Clergy as they ought to be and whose duty was not in the least degree shaken by their Declaration and Excommunication were yet so tender of those Immunities and Priviledges which were said to belong to the Church and so jealous of the behaviour of the People in any case which should be declared a violation of those Priviledges that they would by no means have an hand in inflicting capital punishment upon any Church-men without the approbation and co-operation of the Bishops who were not like to be so hard-hearted as to consent unto any judgment upon the Accessories in those crimes in which themselves were the Principal So that he must not onely have determined by his own single will and judgment what was to be done in those Cases but he must have executed those determinations with his own hand And this consideration obliged the Marquis to all those condescensions and sufferings and upon all occasions to endeavour to dispose and perswade those Prelates from any obstinate and ruinous resolutions rather than to declare them to be enemies whom he could neither reform or punish The Excommunication was no sooner published by the Congregation and consented and approved by the other part of the Bishops and Clergy sitting at Galway but they quickly discerned how imprudently as well as unwarrantably they had proceeded in order to their own ends and that they had taken care onely to dissolve and disband all their Forces without making any kind of provision for the opposition of the Parliaments Forces who had quickly notice of their ridiculous madness and were thereupon advancing with their whole Power upon them the people generally who foresaw what must be the issue of that confusion thought of nothing but compounding with the Enemy upon any condition the Nobility prime Gentry and the Commissioners of Trust who saw their whole Power and Jurisdiction wrested from them and assumed and exercised by the Congregation continued their application to the Lord Lieutenant and desired him not to leave them exposed to the confusion which must attend his departure The gravest and most pious Clergy lamented the unskilful spirit of the rest and even some of the Bishops and others who were present at the Congregation and subscrib'd to the Excommunication disclaim'd their having consented to it though they were oblig'd to sign it for conformity So that they found it necessary within less than three days after the publishing it to suspend that dreadful Sentence and yet that it might appear how unwillingly they did those acts of sobriety and gentleness it will not be amiss to set down the Letter it self which the Titular Bishop of Clonfert and Doctor Charles Kelly writ to the Officers of the Army under the Command of the Lord Marquis of Clanrickard to that purpose which was in these words SIRS YEster day we received an Express from the rest of our Congregation at Galway bearing their sense to suspend the effect of the Excommunication proclaimed by their Orders till the service at Athlone be performed fearing on the one side a dispersion of the Army and on the other side have received certain intelligence of the Enemies approach unto that Place with their full force and number of fighting men and thereupon would have us concur with them in suspending the said Excommunication As for our part we do judge that suspension to be unnecessary and full of inconveniencies which we apprehend may ensue because the Excommunication may be obeyed and the service not neglected if the People were pleased to undertake the service in the Clergies name without relation to the Lord of Ormond Yet fearing the censure of singularity in a matter of so high a strain against us or to be deem'd more forward in Excommunicating then others also fearing the weakness of some which we believ'd the Congregation fear'd we are pleas'd to follow the major Vote and against our own opinion concur with them and do hereby suspend the said Censure as above provided always that after the Service perform'd or the Service be thought unnecessary by the Clergy or when the said Clergy shall renew it it shall be presently incurred as if the said Suspension had never been interposed And so we remain Your assured loving Friends in Christ Walter Bish. of Clonfert Charles Kelly Corbeg Sept. 16. 1650. If this Authentick Truth of which there is not room for the least doubt were not inserted who could believe it possible that men endu'd with common understanding and professing the Doctrine of Christianity and Allegiance of Subjects could upon deliberation publish such Decrees And who can wonder that a People enslaved to and conducted by such Spiritual Leaders should become a Prey to any Enemy though supplied with less power vigilance and dexterity than the Parliaments Forces always were who have prevailed against them and who by all kind of reproaches rigour and tyranny have made that froward and unhappy Congregation pay dear Interest for the contempt and indignity with which they prosecuted their Sovereign and his Authority His Majesty that now is being about this time in Scotland in prosecution of the recovery of his Kingdoms was by the Kirk Party which possess'd the Power of that Kingdom forced to sign a Declaration By which the Peace concluded with the Irish Catholicks in 1648. by Authority of the late King of ever glorious memory and confirmed by himself was pronounced and adjudged void and that his Majesty was absolved from any observation of it And this not grounded upon those particular Breaches Violations and Affronts which had been offered to his Majesties Authority and contrary to the express Articles Proviso's and Promises of that Treaty but upon the supposed unlawfulness of concluding any Peace with those Persons who were branded with many ignominious reproaches And though this Declaration in point of time issued after the Excommunication at James-town yet the notice of it came so near the time of the publication of the other that the Clergy inserted it in their Declaration as if it had been one of the principal Causes of their Excommunication thereby deluding the People as if that expedient of their Excommunication had been the onely foundation of security to the Nation and their particular Fortunes When the Marquis first heard of that Declaration in Scotland he did really believe it a Forgery contrived either by the Parliament or the Irish Congregation to seduce the People from their Affection and Loyalty to the King but soon after viz. the 13th of October being assured of its authentickness he immediately with the advice of the Commissioners
called the removing of all Divisions as the best way to their Preservation They the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Gentry met in that Assembly conceiv'd That there was not a better Foundation or Ground for their Union than the holding to and obeying his Majesty's Authority to which they owed and ought to pay all dutiful Obedience And they did thereby declare and protest That their Allegiance unto his Majesty's Authority was such and so inherent in them that they would not be withdrawn from the same nor was there any Power in the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Gentry or People Clergy or Laity of the Kingdom that could alter change or take away his Majesty's Authority they holding that to be the chief Flower of the Crown and the support of the Peoples Liberty which they did thereby protest declare and avow and that they did esteem the same and obedience thereunto essentially inviolably and justly due from them and the chiefest means under God to uphold their Union and Preservation And they said They did unanimously beseech his Excellency in his great affection to the advancement of his Majesty's Service and his hearty desires of the Nations Preservation to which they said he had Relations of the highest Concernment in Blood Alliance and Interest to leave that Authority with them in some Person faithful to his Majesty and acceptable to the Nation To which Person when he should be made known to them they would not only afford all due obedience but would also offer and propose the best ways and means that God would please to direct them to for the preservation of his Majesties Rights and the Peoples Interests and Liberties and for the begetting a ready obedience in all Places and Persons unto his Majesty's Authority This Advice though it carried with it a particular Respect from the Assembly unto the Lord Lieutenant and an acknowledgement of the faithful and hearty Affections he had always had for his Majesty's Interest and Service in that Kingdom contrary to the scandalous Declaration gave not the Marquess the least confidence that his Majesty's Authority could find more respect in the Person of another than it had met with in him Therefore he writ to them by the same Messengers That he had sent the Authority to the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard to govern that his Majesty's Kingdom and People provided that their Declaration might be so far explain'd as to give the Marquess of Clanrickard full satisfaction that the expressions they made touching the obedience they owed and resolved to pay unto his Majesty's Authority was meant the Authority placed in his Lordship or any other Governour deriving or holding his Authority from his Majesty And that they esteem it not in the power of any Person Congregation or Assembly whatsoever to discharge or set the People free from obeying his Lordship or any other such Governour during the continuance of the said Authority in him without which he said he could not in Duty to his Majesty leave his Authority subject to be tossed to and fro at the uncertain Fancies of any Man or Men and without any probability of saving the Nation which could be no otherwise effected than by an absolute chearful obedience of the People unto the Authority placed over them And so having directed the Marquess of Clanrickard who submitted to that Charge out of pure obedience and only that he might not decline the Service which they would say would have preserv'd the Nation not to assume the Charge except the Assembly gave him full satisfaction in the Particulars required by him the Lord Lieutenant followed by the Lord Inchiquin Colonel Vaughan Colonel Wogan Colonel Warren and some 20 more Persons of Honour about the middle of December embarqued himself at Galway in a small Frigat called the Elizabeth of 28 Tuns and 4 Guns for France after he had refused to receive a Pass from Ireton who offer'd it choosing rather the Seas and Winds in that rough and blusterous season of the year than to receive an obligation from him having upon the most abstracted Considerations of Honour and Conscience faithfully adhered to his Majesty and the Crown of England without any regard had to his own Estate and Fortune as in the Act of Settlement fol. 99. is at large exprest And after being tossed at Sea for the space of some weeks and his other Ships in which his Servants and Goods and many other Passengers were lost he arrived in January at St. Malos in Britany from whence he went to Paris and soon after into Flanders thence he was imployed in a Service answerable to his Fidelity touching the Duke of Gloucester then in the Talons of the Jesuits whom with singular Prudence and Success he recovered Afterwards he was imbarqued in many Concerns of the Crown to the hazard of his Person whilst the Lord Inchiquin who had run the Gantlet on all sides retired into Holland a Person certainly of much Valour and good Conduct shewing both in an exemplary manner whilst he engaged for either Party Nor can his change of Sides to which some say he was too mutable be so properly imputed to any defect of Judgement as the unhappy Crisis of the Times his own expressions making it clear That had all things been the same they were pretended to be he would have continued as he was but Impostures being discovered he thought it ill to persist in their Fellowship Afterwards indeed he chang'd his Religion and thereby gave a suspicion that though he fought against his Countreymen he had a reverence for their Idea Certain it is he affected much to be President of Munster nor could any thing have barr'd him of it since his Majesty's happy Return wherein his Servants had the fruits of their Fidelity but his change of Religion which equally prejudiced the Lord Dillon in the Presidency of Connaght truely observable in them both We have before spoken of four Commissioners sent from the Parliament who as soon as they arrived in Ireland it is necessary to tell you presently applied themselves to the Work afore-mention'd they set out some Proclamations and travelled into the several Provinces of the Kingdom using the best means they could to raise Moneys by Sequestrations and other ways but by reason of the multitudes of Rebels which infested all the Garrisons and came up so continually about them little was to be done in that way The Lord Lieutenant was no sooner under sail than the Assembly applied themselves to the Marquess of Clanrickard who was then at his House at Loghreogh and besought him to assume the Government as Lord Deputy of Ireland according to the Power left with him by the Lord Lieutenant But the Marquess absolutely refused to do it except they satisfied the Proviso that was left in the Lord Lieutenant's Letter to them and that he saw such an union amongst them as might free the King's Authority from the Affronts it had been exposed unto
your Highness pious intentions for the preservation of the Catholick Religion your great and Princely care to recover his Majesties Rights and Interests from his Rebel Subjects of England and the high obligation you put upon this Nation by your tender regard of them and desire to redeem them from the great miseries and afflictions they have endured and the eminent dangers they are in And it shall be a principal part of my ambition to be an useful instrument to serve your Highness in so famous and glorious an enterprize And that I may be the more capable to contribute somewhat to so religious and just ends First in discharge of my conscience toward God my duty to the King my Master and to dis-abuse your Highness and give a clear and perfect information so far as comes to my knowledge I am obliged to represent unto your Highness that by the title of the Agreement and Articles therein contained made by those Commissioners I imployed to your Highness and but lately come into my hands They have violated the trust reposed in them by having cast off and declined the Commission and Instructions they had from me in the King my Masters behalf and all other Powers that could by any other means be derived from him and pretend to make an agreement with your Highness in the name of the Kingdom and People of Ireland for which they had not nor could have any warrantable Authority and have abused your Highness by a counterfeit shew of a private Instrument fraudulently procured and signed as I am informed by some inconsiderable and factious Persons ill-affected to his Majesties Authority without any knowledge or consent of the generality of the Nation or Persons of greatest Quality or Interest therein and who under a seeming zeal and pretence of service to your Highness labour more to satisfie their private ambitions then the advantage of Religion or the Nation or the prosperous success of your Highness generous undertakings And to manifest the clearness of mine own proceeding and make such deceitful Practices more apparent I send your Highness herewith an authentick Copy of my Instructions which accompanied their Commission when I imployed them to your Highness as a sufficient evidence to convince them And having thus fully manifested their breach of publick Trust I am obliged in the King my Masters name to protest against their unwarrantable proceedings and to declare all the Agreements and Acts whatsoever concluded by those Commissioners to be void and illegal being not derived from or consonant to his Majesties Authority being in duty bound thus far to vindicate the King my Masters Honour and Authority and to preserve his just and undoubted Rights from such deceitful and rebellious Practices as likewise with an humble and respective care to prevent those prejudices that might befal your Highness in being deluded by counterfeit shews in doing you greater Honour where it is apparent that any undertaking laid upon such false and ill-grounded Principles as have been smoothly digested and fixed upon that Nation as their desire and request must overthrow all those Heroick and Prince-like Acts your Highness hath proposed to your self for Gods glory and service the restauration of oppressed Majesty and the relief of his distressed Kingdom which would at length fall into intestine broils and divivisions if not forceably driven into desperation I shall now with a hopeful and chearful importunity upon a clear score free from those deceits propose to your Highness that for the advancement of all those great ends you aim at and in the King my Masters behalf and in the name of all the Loyal Catholick Subjects of this Nation and for the preservation of those important cautionary Places that are security for your Highness past and present disbursements you will be pleased to quicken and hasten those aids and assistances you intended for the relief of Ireland and I have with my whole power and through the greatest hazards striven to defend them for you and to preserve all other Ports that may be at all times of advantage and safeguard to your Fleets and Men of War having yet many good Harbours left but also engage in the King my Masters name that whatsoever may prove to your satisfaction that is any way consistent with his Honour and Authority and have made my humble applications to the Queens Majesty and my Lord Lieutenant the King being in Scotland further to agree confirm and secure whatsoever may be of advantage to your Highness and if the last Galliot had but brought 10000 l. for this instant time it would have contributed more to the recovery of this Kingdom then far greater sums delayed by enabling our Forces to meet together for the relief of Limerick which cannot but be in great distress after so long a Siege and which if lost although I shall endeavour to prevent it will cost much treasure to be regained And if your Highness will be pleased to go on chearfully freely and seasonably with this great work I make no question but God will give so great a blessing thereto as that my self and all the Loyal Subjects of this Kingdom may soon and justly proclaim and leave recorded to posterity that your Highness was the great and glorious restorer of our Religion Monarch and Nation and that your Highness may not be discouraged or diverted from this generous enterprize by the malice or invectives of any ill affected it is a necessary duty in me to represent unto your Highness that the Bishop of Ferns who as I am informed hath gained some interest in your favour is a Person that hath ever been violent against and malicious to his Majesty's Authority and Government and a fatal Instrument in contriving and fomenting all those divisions and differences that have rent asunder this Kingdom the introduction to our present miseries and weak condition And that your Highness may clearly know his disposition I send herewithal a Copy of part of a Letter written by him directed to the Lord Taaffe Sir Nicholas Plunket and Jeffery Brown and humbly submitted to your judgment whether those expressions be agreeable to the temper of the Apostolical Spirit and considering whose Person and Authority I represent what ought to be the reward of such a crime I must therefore desire your Highness in the King my Masters behalf that he may not be countenanc'd or intrusted in any Affairs that have relation to his Majesties Interest in this Kingdom where I have constantly endeavoured by all possible service to deserve your Highness good opinion and obtaining that favour to be a most faithful acknowledger of it in the capacity and under the title of Your Highness most humble and obliged Servant CLANRICKARD Athenree 20th Octob. 1651. Thus the Lord Deputy very faithfully discharged his duty and great cause there was to protest against such proceedings of the Confederates they putting his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland into the hands of a Foreign Prince and in that
Authority and Government Let us see now what Government they provided for themselves and what course they who were still jealous of being betray'd by those who were trusted by the King took for their own security and preservation and what power the Bishops and Clergy had to support their own Interest and Dignity after they appear'd to have enough to destroy or suppress that of the King The City of Limerick was entirely govern'd by the Clergy We have shewn you how the Herald in proclaming the Peace of 1646. was affronted there as also of their contumelious behaviour towards the Marquis of Ormond in 1650. We must now take notice of their carriage to the Marquis of Clanrickard to whom contrary to their obligation and solemn promise they continued the same obstinacy refusing to receive such a Governour and Garrison as he thought fit to give them or to entertain him in the Town with the Power and Authority of Deputy after he had assum'd that Place and Title upon their own importunity and promise of obedience however he sent thither such men both Officers and Soldiers as they desired and no other During the Siege of Limerick now straitly begirt by Ireton Sir Walther Dungan stormed Ross-town and Castle Jordan and the notable Quarter-beater Nash killed Colonel Cook coming with a Party from Cork but was slain in the onset though his Party was victorious whilst at Limerick the Besieged made many fierce Sallies to the loss of the Assailants for in one of 1000 men they killed above 300 of the Besiegers and upon Ireton's attempt against the Island before the Town the 15th of July 1651. an hundred and twenty of his men were lost with their Leaders Major Walker Captain Graves and Captain Whiting Ireton notwithstanding resolved not to depart without it though the Governour Hugh O Neal who had so gallantly defended Clonmel refused to hearken to any Conditions in hopes that the Winter would force him off or that himself might receive necessary Supplies from without But shortly after he perceived what he was to trust to for before Ireton had close besieged it a month and sooner than the Inhabitants were press'd with wants the Commonalty began to discourse of Treating with the Enemy all the considerations of what they might undergo hereafter through timerousness occurred to them and the improbability of their receiving any succours proportionable to their wants Yet it was very hard for them to Treat it being notoriously known that Ireton would except very many principal Persons amongst them to whom no mercy should be shown nor could they expect any Conditions for the exercise of their Religion they had been hitherto so jealous of The Governour had onely the Title and power to set Watch but the Mayor kept the Keys and had many of the principal Officers at his devotion so that upon the 23d of October a mixed Councel of Officers and of those of the Civil Government met in the Town-house to consult what was best to be done in order to the Treaty with the Enemy contrary to the intentions of the Governour who was resolved to hold it out to the last and after a long debate it was concluded by the major part that they would proceed to a Treaty and that they would not break it off upon the exception of any persons for Quarter or Confiscation of their Goods and the next day was appointed for the choosing of the Commissioners to be sent unto the Enemy The result of the former days debate being known in the Town they no sooner met for the Election of the Commissioners for the Treaty than the Bishops of Limerick and Emly with the Clergy came to the Town-house and threatned them to issue out an Excommunication against them if they proceeded in those Counsels the effect whereof would be to deliver up the Prelates to be slaughter'd notwithstanding which they proceeded to the naming the Persons who should treat for them Whereupon the Bishops published their Excommunication with a perpetual Interdict of the City which was fixed on the doors of all the Churches and Chappels in the Town But alas those Fulminations had been too loosely and impertinently used to retain any vertue in time of need and as Catholick as the Town was and there was not one Protestant in it the Excommunication wrought no effect That very night Colonel Fennel and the other Officers of the Combination that press'd on the Treaty possess'd themselves of St. John's Gate and Cluam's Tower driving the Guards from thence and when the Governour came thither and demanded by what Authority they were there he having given them Orders to Guard another Quarter of the Town they answered The best of the Town knew and approved what they did And it was very true the Mayor Thomas Strick was of their Party and delivered the Key of that Port to Colonel Fennel though he denied it to the other Party that opposed the Treaty The Governour called a Council of War and sent for Colonel Fennel to appear before them who refused to come and being supplied with Powder from the Mayor he turned the Cannon upon the Town and declared That he would not quit the place that he was possessed of till the City should be yielded to the Enemy The Commissioners were sent out to Ireton who would give no other Conditions than That the Garrison should lay down their Arms the Officers retaining their Swords and march to what Place they would except those exempted from mercy who of the Clergy Soldiers and Citizens amounted to the number of 24. The Inhabitants had three months time assign'd them to transport their Persons and three months more to remove their Goods within any Place the Kingdom appointed in which they might live In brief these were their Conditions but in respect of many things very considerable in the Articles themselves we shall here give them at large Articles agreed upon the 27th day of October 1651. by and between Henry Ireton the Deputy General on the one Part and Barthol Stackpoll Recorder of the City of Limerick Dom. White Alderman of the same Nicholas Haly Esq Lieutenant Colonel Piers Lacy Lieutenant Colonel Donnogh O Brion and John Baggot Esq Commissioners appointed by and on the behalf of the Governour and Mayor of the said City to Treat and Conclude for the Surrender thereof on the other Part. THat the City of Limerick with the Castle and all the Places of Strength in the City be surrendred into the hands of the said Deputy General of Ireland for the use of the Parliament and Common-wealth of England upon or before the 29th of Octob. instant at Noon together with all the Ordnance Arms Ammunition and other Furniture of War therein and all the Goods of any kind not allowed by the ensuing Articles to be carried away or kept by the Owners and this without waste spoil or imbezilment and the full possession of Johns Gate and Priors Mill shall be delivered unto the said
Citizens or others it is intended they shall be freed from any Suit or Censure in the Civil Judicature for things done in relation to the War during the time limited Memorandum as to the fourth Article aforegoing it is intended That the Citizens not excepted against within a month may tarry without particular application and have four months after warning given to remove themselves and Families and six months to carry away their Goods Memorandum also That all Soldiers or other persons not excepted in the second Article who through sickness are disabled to remove themselves at present shall have liberty to march away when they shall recover and have equal benefit with others in their conditions respectively And that from twelve of the clock this day there shall be Cessation of all acts of Hostility on either part But the Persons besieged not to come without the Walls except into the Island and the way leading to it nor the Besiegers to come within the Walls or Island saving into St. John's Gate until the time limited for surrender without license from the other Party respectively And lastly it is agreed That no Person shall be understood to forfeit the benefit of any the Articles for another mans breach thereof unless he be found to be consenting thereto or privy to it without discovering or endeavouring to prevent it Provided this extend not to indempnifie the Hostages in case of fail or of surrender In testimony whereof the Parties first above-mentioned have interchangeably set their Hands and Seals to the day and year first above mentioned Bar. Stackpoll Don. O Brien Dom. White Pierce Lacy. Nich. Haly. John Baggot It cannot be believ'd that these unequal and severe Conditions would have been accepted from any Army not strong enough to have imposed upon a People unwilling to submit to them and in a season of the year that alone would have secured a Place less provided for resistance but that Colonel Fennel the same night these hard demands were sent into the Town received in St. Johns Gate Tower 200 men from Ireton and the other were removed into another Fort called Price's Mill where after they had continued two days and the People of the Town not yet agreeing what they would do a Drum was sent through the City commanding all manner of Soldiers in pay within the Town to repair to our Ladies Church and there to lay down their Arms which was presently obeyed and the Soldiers being bid forthwith to leave the Town Ireton the 29th of October marched in and receiving the Keys was without any contradiction quietly possessed thereof causing as many of the excepted Persons as could be found to be committed to Prison and made Sir Hardress Waller Governour of the City In this manner was Limerick defended by the Catholick Irish and this obedience did the Prelates and Clergy in their need receive from those over whom they had power enough to seduce from the Duty they owed to the King and from submitting to his Authority and now was the Harvest that they gathered the fruit of all their labours The Instances of severity and blood which Ireton gave upon his being possess'd of this Place were very remarkable Edmund O Duyr the Bishop of Limerick had the dexterity and good Fortune that either by marching out amongst the Common Soldiers or by concealing himself with some faithful Friend in the Town which is not so probable to escape their hands and afterwards died at Brussels pursued with the malice of the Nuncionist Zealots whilst Ireton manifested what his portion would have been by the treatment they gave to Terlagh O Brien the Bishop of Emly whom they took and without any formality of Justice and with all reproaches imaginable caused him to be publickly hanged This unhappy Prelate had from the beginning opposed with great passion the Kings Authority and most obstinately adhered to the Nuncio and to that Party still which was most averse from returning to their Allegiance and was thus miserably and ignominiously put to death even in that City whence he had been a principal Instrument to shut out his Majesties Authority It may be remembred in the former part of this Discourse that when the King at Arms proclaim'd the Peace at Limerick in 1646. one Dominick Fanning a Citizen of the Town rais'd a Mutiny which Rabble affronted the Herald and wounded the Mayor and was himself by the Nuncio for that good service made Mayor in the former's place This man continuing the same bitterness of spirit against the King's Authority always opposed the receiving of a Garrison from the Lord Lieutenant This Dominick Fanning being one of those 24 which Ireton had excepted found a way amongst the Common Soldiers to get out of the Town notwithstanding all the diligence that was used to discover him When he was free and in safety he returned to the Town to fetch some Money that he had privately hid and to make some provision for his subsistance which he had not time to do before But going to his own house his Wife refused to receive him or to assist him in any thing whereupon he departed and after he had walked up and down the streets some time the weather being extreme cold he went to the Main-guard where was a good Fire and being discovered to be a Stranger and asked who he was voluntarily confessed that he was Dominick Fanning for whom such strict search had been made he was thereupon apprehended and the next morning carried before the Governour and immediately hanged The same Fate had Frier Wolf and Alderman Thomas Strich who when the Lord Lieutenant would have entred that Town in 1650. for its preservation rais'd a Tumult and shut the Gates against him And this very Colonel Fennel who by possessing himself of the Port and turning the Cannon upon the Town betray'd it to the Enemy though he had for the present the benefit of the Articles was within few months after taken by them and without any consideration of his last merit hanged as the rest had been In a word All those who had been the first causers and raisers of the Rebellion or who with most malice and obstinacy opposed their return to the Kings obedience and had the misfortune to fall into the Enemies hands as the Bishop of Ross whose Fate we have before told you Jeffery Baron who kept Waterford from receiving the Lord Lieutenant taken afterwards at Limerick and there hanged and many others were made examples of the like nature About the same time that Limerick was surrendred Sir Charles Coot defeated a Party of the Fitz-Patricks and Duyr's Forces who had regain'd Meleke Island after the taking of it by Colonel Axtel undergoing a resolute defence thereof to the baffling of his Foot which were worsted two or three times together but the Gallantry of his Horse recovered the Honour making 300 resolute Irish accept of Quarter for their Lives some 300 being slain and drown'd This business of Limerick
shall be used and then and there abide orderly and soberly during the time of the said Prayers Preaching or other Service of God there to be used and ministred And because all and every Person may be put in mind of his Duty and be then the better prepared to the said holy Service Be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that every Minister shall give warning to his Parishioners publickly in the Church at Morning Prayer the Lords day next before every such three and twentieth day of October for the due observation of the said day and that after Morning Prayer or Preaching upon every such three and twentieth day of October they read publickly distinctly and plainly this present Act. And besides our private Thankfulness that we may know what the Church is enjoyned by his Majesties Command given at Whitehall the 15th of August in the 18th year of his Reign 1666. I must refer you to the Office of the Church Here one might well have thought this bloody Scene should have been fully closed the event of so horrid a Conspiracy having by God and Man been severely chastized But as if Heaven were still to be dared and Majesty affronted no sooner was this State setled in so wonderful a manner as it drew the whole world to look on it as a miracle but the grand Incendiaries of the late Rebellion Archbishops Bishops and others of that Union openly owning their Profession appear'd in publick in as much as the Parliament of England was enforced to take notice of their Insolency as an encouragement to Popery beseeching his Majesty that Plunket the Titular Archbishop of Ardmagh and Talbot Archbishop of Dublin should be apprehended to answer what might be objected against them And as an Evidence of their Parties Activeness and Insinuation the Lord of Ossory Lord Deputy and the Council by a Proclamation dated at the Council Chamber in Dublin the 11th of July 1664. shew Whereas information hath been given unto us by divers Gentlemen and others of the Popish Religion that several pretended Chapters have been and are to be soon called in several Parts of this Kingdom and Meetings appointed by Persons dis-affected to his Majesties Government and to the publick Peace and Quiet who take opportunities from those Assemblies to diffuse and spread abroad amongst the People of that Religion Seditious Doctrines to the great dissatisfaction of all those who are peaceably and loyally inclined c. They therefore to the avoiding the Contagion that by such Delusions might be ingendered and those Dangers which by the continuance and seducement of the said Persons and other turbulent Spirits are endeavour'd caution'd and forewarn'd That none should presume to assist abett or countenance them and that those who were engaged therein should upon their Duty of Allegiance to his Majesty forbear any further Proceedings c. All which were afterwards blank'd over as indeed they had the fortune to be strangely palliated together with what the Bishop of Ferns had discovered to the Earl of Sandwich passing through Galacia to Madrid of Edmond Reylie Archbishop of Ardmagh's purpose to raise the Irish again into Rebellion though some to delude the Age made a Loyal Formulary or Remonstrance of their Obedience whilst being admitted at Dublin into a National Synod of their own 1666. an Indulgence not yet fathom'd they there split themselves into Parties and the 15th day of their meeting broke up without the least satisfaction to the End they were connived at so as from their Principles its natural to conclude That whatever a Prince must expect from such men it must be in subordination to the Popes Approbation A Reflection on the like made King H. 8. say that he found the Clergy of this Realm were but his half Subjects or scarce so much every Bishop or Abbot at the entering upon his Dignity taking an Oath to the Pope derogatory to that of their Fidelity to the King which contradiction he desired his Parliament to take away and it occasion'd writes my Lord Herbert Fol. 335 the final renouncing of the Popes Authority about two years after The Clergies Oath is given at large in Walshe's Epistle to his Loyal Formulary Fol. 19. which draws me into a further consideration of the late War A War in which were interessed on several Principles some of the greatest Princes and States of Europe the Pope Emperor France Spain Lorraign and others who professedly or under-hand contributed Money Arms Council or Countenance A War many years in contriving and what makes it the more stupendious so secretly and unexpectedly carried on villany hates the light that considering how far the Conspiracy was spread and who were engaged in it it is scarce credible that no apprehension of its event should in the least be discovered more then what Ever Mac Mahon imparted 1631. The apprehension of which soon passed over as did also some other petty suspicions rais'd I know not from what improbable and confused Rumors amusing rather then convincing the Judgment of such as were most concern'd in the notice of them so as till the 22. of Octob. 1641. late at night on the very point of the Plot being acted nothing seem'd certain or infallible that if God had not been very merciful all had been surprized before any one had been suspected A War not confined to some Province or parts of Provinces in Ireland as Tyrones Desmonds and the rest had been but as if the Design were the joynt Act of the whole Kingdom all seem'd to have one head few excepted whose Honour is the greater A War not arising from small beginnings as some of the former which from private Interest at last espoused greater But this in its first appearance drove all before it like some Infections speedily diffusing its Venome through the whole Body A War for which the most diligent enquiry could not have found within the Nation a Head in Popularity or Parts for such an undertaking The occasion doubtless of security in most and whereby the State Politicks of that time were deluded they having their eyes open onely on what might have been from abroad suspected not much less fear'd at home the loud alarms of a Massinello a Person of none or of broken Fortunes of little Power or of less Brain but any thing even what is under foot and next at hand may easily be taken up and made by Divine Justice a sufficient Scourge for a provoking People such was that Sir Phelim O Neal esteem'd till then generally a very Buffoon in Converse but after own'd and Honour'd as a Principal in that undertaking Yet being therein rather the hand then the head proving however the Fire-brand of his Countrey that being the English of Phelim an Totan or smoaking Phelimy a Name on this occasion given him in way of Honour by his Irish Rhimers and wherein he himself after gloried Finally a War dismal to the English and Protestants of Ireland in its beginning so dismal as no example
Chamber and about nine of the Clock Mr. Moore and Captain Fox came to me and told me all was discovered and that the City was in Arms and the Gates were shut up and so departed from me And what became of them and of the rest I know not nor think that they escaped but how and at what time I do not know because I my self vvas taken that Morning APPENDIX III. Fol. 30. By the Lords Justices and Council W. Parsons Jo. Borlase WHereas We the Lords Justices and Council have lately found that there waas a most disloyal wicked and detestable Conspiracy intended and plotted against the Lives of Us the Lords Justices and Council and many others of his Majesties faithful Subjects especially in Ulster and the borders thereof and for the surprizing not only of his Majesties Castle of Dublin his Majesties principal Fort but also of other Fortifications in several parts and although by the great goodness and abundant mercy of Almighty God to his Majesty and to this State and Kingdom these wicked conspiracies are brought to light and some of the Conspiracies committed to the Castle of Dublin by Us by his Majesty's Authority so as those wicked and damnable plots have not taken effect in the chief parts thereof yet some of those wicked Malefactors have surprised some of his Majesty's Forts and Garrisons in the North of Ireland slain divers of his Majesty's good Subjects imprisoned some and robbed and spoiled very many others and continue yet in those Rebellious courses against whom therefore some of his Majesty's Forces are now marching to fight against them and subdue them thereby to render safety to his Majesty's faithful Subjects And whereas to colour and countenance those their wicked Intendments and Acts and in hope to gain the more numbers and reputation to themselves and their proceedings in the opinion of the ignorant common people those Conspirators have yet gone further and to their other high Crimes and Offences have added this further wickedness even to traduce the Crown and State as well of England as Ireland by false seditious and scandalous reports and rumors spread abroad by them We therefore to vindicate the Crown and State of both Kingdoms from those false and wicked calumnies do hereby in his Majesty's name publish and declare that the said reports so spread abroad by those wicked persons are most false wicked and triterous and that We have full Power and Authority from his Majesty to prosecute and subdue those Rebels and Traytors which now We are doing accordingly by the Power and Strength of his Majesty's Army and with the Assistance of his Majesty's good and Loyal Subjects and We no way doubt but all his Majesty's good and faithful Subjects will give Faith and Credit to Us who have the Honour to be trusted by his Majesty so highly as to serve Him in the Government of this his Kingdom rather then to the vain idle and wicked Reports of such lewd and wicked Conspirators who spread those false and seditious Rumors hoping to seduce a great number to their party And as We now believe that some who have joyned themselves with those Conspirators had no hand in contriving or plotting the mischiefs intended but under pretence of those seditious Scandals were deluded by those Conspirators and so are now become ignorantly involved in their guilts so in favour and mercy to those so deluded We hereby charge and command them in his Majesty's name now from Us to take light to guide them from that darkness into which they were misled by the wicked seducement of those Conspirators and to depart from them and from their wicked Counsels and Actions and according to the duty of Loyal Subjects to submit themselves to his Sacred Majesty and to his Royal Authority intrusted with Us. But in case those persons which were no Plotters nor Contrivers of the said Treason but were since seduced to joyn with them as aforesaid lay not hold of this his Majesty's Grace and Favour now tendred unto them then We do by this Proclamation Publish and Declare that they shall hereafter be reputed and taken equally guilty with the said Plotters and Contrivers and as uncapable of Favour and Mercy as they are Given at His Majesties Castle of Dublin the 30. of October 1641. La. Dublin R. Ranelagh Ant. Midensis John Rophoe R. Dillon J. Temple P. Crosbie Ja. Ware Rob. Meredith APPENDIX IV. Fol. 32. By the Lords Justices and Councel A Proclamation for the discovery and present removal of all such as do or shall continue in the City of Dublin or places adjacent Without just or necessary cause W. Parsons Jo. Borlace VVHereas through the great concourse of people to this City of Dublin the Countrey is deprived of Defence and left open to the rapine and depredation of the Rebels now in Arms in this Kingdom the poor of those parts are destitute of Succour and Relief and divers other inconveniences do and may thence arise unless some timely remedy be applied thereunto VVherefore We do hereby in his Majesties name and under the pains and punishments hereafter mentioned command That all and every person and persons whatsoever not having necessary cause of residing in this City of Dublin and the Suburbs thereof and the places within two miles about the same aswell within Liberties as without to be approved of by our very good Lord James Earl of Ormond and Ossory who is appointed Lieutenant General of His Majesties Army in this Kingdom and the Councel of War here for the time being or by such other persons as shall be by them appointed for examination thereof do within four and twenty hours after publication hereof repair to their respective homes and dwellings And also that no person or persons of what quality or condition soever do keep with him or them any more or other then his or their own domestick servants And that this Proclamation and the service hereby intended be not in any wise eluded or evaded VVe do hereby in His Majesties name and under the pains and punishments hereafter mentioned charge and command That all and singular the Citizens Inhabitants and Residents of and within this City of Dublin the Suburbs thereof and all places within two miles about the same do within four and twenty hours after publication hereof return under their hands unto the next Alderman of the Ward or Seneschall or other chief Officer of Liberty respectively the names sirnames qualitie and condition of all persons now lodged and remaining in their houses and also that they and every of them for the future until Declaration be made to the contrary do within two hours after the receipt or entertainment into his or their house or houses of any stranger or strangers not being of his or their familie or families return under his and their hand and hands unto the next Alderman of the Ward Seneschall or other chief Officer as aforesaid the names sirnames quality and condition of all and
Cahel mac Bryne Farrall APPENDIX VI. Fol. 65. By the Lords Justices and Councel W. Parsons Jo. Borlasse IT is well known to all men but more particularly to his Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom who have all gathered plentiful and comfortable fruits of his Majesties blessed Government how abundantly careful his Majesty hath been in the whole course of his Government of the peace and safety of this his Kingdom and how graciously he hath laboured to derive to all his Subjects therein all those benefits and comforts which from a most gracious King could be conferred on his Subjects to make them a happy people whereof he hath given many great testimonies And as at all times he endeavoured to give them due contentment and satisfaction so even then whilst the Rebels now in Arms were conspiring mischief against Him and his Crown and Kingdom he was then exercising Acts of Grace and benignity towards them granting to his Subjects here the fulness of their own desires in all things so far as with Honour or Justice he possibly could and particularly when the Committees of both Houses of Parliament here this last Summer attended his Majesty in England at which time amongst many other things graciously assented to by Him he was content even with apparent loss and disadvantage to himself to depart with sundry his Rights of very great value which lawfully and justly he might have retained And as his continual goodness to his people and his Princely care of their prosperity and preservation shall to the unspeakable joy and comfort of all his good Subjects render him glorious to all Posterity so the wicked ingratitude and treacherous disloyaltie of those Rebels shall render them infamous to all Ages and utterly inexcusable even in the judgment of those who for any respect either formerly wished well to their persons or now pity them in their transgressions And although the said persons now in Rebellion were in no degree provoked by any just cause of publique grief received from his Majesty or his Ministers to undertake such desperate wickedness neither can justly assign any severity or rigour in the execution of those Laws which are in force in this Kingdom against Papists nor indeed any cause at all other then the unnatural hatred which those persons in Rebellion do bear the Brittish and Protestants whom they desire and publickly profess to root out from amongst them The more strange in that very many of themselves are descended of English whence is the original and foundation of all their Estates and those great benefits which they have hitherto enjoyed and whence their Predecessors and others then well affected in this Kingdom have been at all times since the Conquest cherished relieved countenanced and supported against the ancient Enemies of the Kings people of England many of the Irish also having received their Estates and livelyhood from the unexampled bounty and goodness of the Kings of England Yet such is their inbred ingratitude and disloyaltie as they conspired to massacre Us the Lords Justices and Councel and all the Brittish and Protestants universally throughout this Kingdom and to seize into their hands not only his Majesties Castle of Dublin the principal Fort in this Kingdom but also all other the fortifications thereof though by the infinite goodness and mercy of God those wicked and devillish Conspiracies were brought to light and some of the Principal Conspirators imprisoned in his Majesties Castle of Dublin by Us by his Majesties Authority so as those wicked and damnable plots are disappointed in the chief parts thereof His Majesties said Castle of Dublin and City of Dublin being preserved and put into such a condition of strength as if any of them or their Adherents shall presume to make any attempt thereupon they shall God willing receive that correction shame confusion and destruction which is due to their treacherous and detestable disloyaltie And in pursuit of their bloody intentions they assembled themselves in Arms in hostile manner with Banners displayed surprised divers of his Majesties Forts and Garrisons possessed themselves thereof robbed and spoiled many thousands of his Majesties good Subjects Brittish and Protestants of all their Goods dispossessed them of their Houses and Lands murthered many of them upon the place stripped naked many others of them and so exposed them to nakedness cold and famine as they thereof died imprisoned many others some of them persons of eminent quality laid Siege to divers of his Majesties Forts and Towns yet in his Majesties hands and committed many other barbarous cruelties and execrable inhumanities upon the Persons and Estates of the Brittish and Protestant Subjects of the Kingdom without regard of quality age or sex And to cover their wickedness in those cruel Acts so to deceive the World and to make way if they could to the effecting of their mischievous ends they add yet to their wickedness a further degree of impiety pretending outwardly that what they do is for the maintenance and advancement of the King's Prerogative whereas it appears manifestly that their aims and purposes inwardly are if it were possible for them so to do to wrest from him his Royal Crown and Scepter and his just Soveraignty over this Kingdom and Nation and to deprive him and his lawful Ministers of all Authority and Power here and to place it on such persons as they think fit which can no way stand with his Majesties just Prerogative nor can any equal-minded man be seduced to believe that they can wish well to his Royal Person or any thing that is his who in their actions have expressed such unheard-of hatred malice and scorn of the Brittish Nation as they have done And such is their madness as they consider not that his Sacred Majesty disdains to have his Name or Power so boldly traduced by such wicked malefactors Rebels having never in any Age been esteemed fit supporters of the King's Prerogative much less these who under countenance thereof labour to deface and shake off his Government and extirp his most loyal and faithful Subjects of his other Kingdoms and here whose preservation above all earthly things is and always hath been his Majesties principal study and endeavour which even these Traytors themselves have abundantly found with comfort if they could have been sensible of it And whereas divers Lords and Gentlemen of the English Pale preferred petition unto Us in the behalf of themselves and the rest of the Pale and other the old English of this Kingdom shewing that whereas a late conspiracy of Treason was discovered of ill-affected persons of the old Irish and that thereupon Proclamation was published by Us wherein among other things it was declared that the said Conspiracy was perpetrated by Irish Papists without distinction of any and they doubting that by those general words of Irish Papists they might seem to be involved though they declared themselves confident that we did not intend to include them therein in regard they alleadged they were
who shut up the said places and other passages and ways to his Majesties Justice and Mercy from his Majesties well-affected Subjects of this Kingdom for the Exaltation therefore of the holy Roman Catholick Church for the advancement of his Majesties Service and the preservation of the Lives Estates and liberties of his Majesties true Subjects of this Kingdom against the Injustice Murders Massacres Rapes Depredations Robberies Burnings frequent breaches of Quarter and publick Faith and destruction daily perpetrated and acted upon his Majesties said Subjects and advis'd contriv'd and daily exercis'd by the said malignant Party some of them managing the Government and Affairs of State in Dublin some other parts of this Kingdom to his Highness great disservice and complying with their Confederates the malignant Party in England and elsewhere who as it is manifest to all the world do complot and practice to dishonour and destroy his Majesty his Royal Consort the Queen their Issue and the Monarchal Government which is of most dangerous consequence to all the Monarchs and Princes in Christendom The said Assembly doth order and establish a Councel by name A Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland who are to consist of the number of 24. to be forthwith nam'd by the Assembly whereof 12 at the least to be forthwith nam'd shall reside in this Kingdom or where-else they shall think expedient And the members of the said Council shall have equal Votes and two parts of the three or more concurring present Votes to conclude and no fewer to sit in Council than 9 whereof 7 at least are to concur And of the 24 a President shall be nam'd of the Assembly who is to be one of the twelve resident and if in case of his death absence or sickness the rest of these who shall be resident may name a Vice-president of the 24. And the said Council shall have the Power and preheminence following viz. The Lords Generals and all other Commanders of Armies and Civil Magistrates and Officers in the several Provinces shall observe their Orders and Decrees and shall do nothing contrary to their directions and shall give them speedy advertisement and account of their proceedings and actions with as much expedition as may be That the said Council shall have power to order and determine all such matters as by this Assembly shall be left undetermined and shall be recommended unto them and their Orders therein to be of force until the next Assembly and after until the same be revoked That the said Council shall have Power and Authority to do and execute all manner of Acts and things conducing to the advancement of the Catholick Cause and the good of this Kingdom and concerning this VVar as if done by the Assembly And shall have power to hear and determine all matters Capital Criminal or Civil except the Right or Title of Land That the Generals and other Commanders of Armies and all Governors and civil Magistrates and all other persons within this Realm shall obey the Orders and Decrees of the said Council touching the present Service That the Council shall have for their Guard the number of 500 Foot and 200 Horse to be equally extracted out of the Armies of the four Provinces 5. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that in every Province of this Kingdom there shall be a Provincial-councel and in every County a County-councel the Provincial-councel to be compos'd of the number of two of each County and the said Provincial-councel shall chuse a President for themselves 6. That the Provincial-councel shall sit four times a Year and oftner if there be cause for it That they shall have power and Authority to renew or reverse the Judgment of the County-councel the party complaining entring Security De adjudicat ' solvend ' And shall during the trouble have power to hear and determine all matters of the Crown as Judges of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol-delivery were wont to do so that no Spiritual person be present at the determining matters of blood And shall have power to hear and determine all civil Causes and to establish Rents and Possessions so that they meddle not with the Title of Land other than in case of Dower and Joynture And the Sheriffs Provincial-generals and all Commanders of the Armies in case of Disobedience are respectively required to execute the Decrees and Orders And in case of Debts and Accounts great consideration is to be had of the disabilities of Creditors occasion'd by the VVar. 7. Item In every County there shall be a County-councel consisting of one or two of each Barony at the Election of the County and where there are no Baronies the Councel of such County to consist of the number of 12. And the said County-council shall have power and Authority in all points as Justices of the Peace to hear and determine all the matters concerning the Offices of the Justice of Peace and all matters of the Crown happening within every such County and the Delinquent may if he please have his Trial in the Province and to hear and determine Debts Trespasses and personal Demands and to do all things as Justices of the Peace were accustomed to do and to restore and establish possessions taken by force or fraud since these troubles And likewise to take a special care that Tenants and Farmers be kept to their Farms where they were used and to be preserv'd from Extortion and Oppression And that Trades Tradesmen Manufactures Agriculture and Husbandry be maintained and duly kept 8. Item In Cities and Towns Corporate Justice is to be done and the Laws executed as is accustomed 9. Item In every County there shall be Coroners High-Sheriffs High-Constables and petty-Constables and Gaolers who are to do their respective Offices as accustomed the High-Sheriff to be confirm'd or nominated by the Supream Council and the High-Sheriff is required to execute the Commands Orders and Decrees of the Provincial and County-council 10. Item In every County the High-Sheriff shall be Provost-Marshal and shall have power to execute a Layman not worth 5 l. and none other for Murther Man-slaughter Burglary Theft Robbery or other capital Offence provided the party to be executed may have 24 hours time to prepare his Soul And that the Supream and Provincial-council shall and may name more Provost-Marshals as they shall think expedient qualified with the like Authority 11. Item It is further order'd that no Temporal Government or Jurisdiction shall be assumed kept or exercised in this Kingdom or within any County or Province thereof during these troubles other than is before expressed except such Jurisdiction and Government as is or shall be approv'd by the General Assembly or the Supream Council 12. Item It is further order'd that whosoever hath enter'd since the first day of October 1641. or shall hereafter during the continuance of the War in this Kingdom enter into the Lands Tenements or Hereditaments at or immediately before the first day of
October either by himself or his Under-tenants or by receiving the Rents Issues or profits thereof shall immediately restore upon demand the said possession to the party or parties so put out with such reasonable damages as the Council-provincial shall think fit And if the party do refuse to restore the said possession as aforesaid upon the Demand of the party so put out his Heirs or Assigns made to the said possessor his Servants and Adherents in the Premisses or publication of this Order in the Parish where such Land lieth that upon his or their denial thereof or default therein he his Heirs and Assigns shall be for ever after debarr'd and secluded from all and every Right Title Interest or Demand which he or they make or pretend to all or any the said Lands Tenements Hereditaments And if after such Denial or Default made the said party his Heirs or Assigns shall not immediately restore the possession of the said Lands Tenements or Hereditaments so gain'd to the party griev'd his Heirs or Assigns That he they or his Adherents in the premises shall be declared and proceeded with as Enemies provided and so it is meant That if any of the parties so put out be declar'd a Neuter or Enemy by the Supream or Provincial-councel then the party who gain'd the possession as aforesaid shall give up the possession to such person or persons as shall be nam'd either by the said Council-provincial or Supream Council to be dispos'd of towards the maintenance of the general Cause upon the pain and penalty aforesaid And as for the Rents and mean profits of the said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments and all kind of Rents and the Goods or Chattels taken or detain'd from any Catholick as aforesaid due satisfaction is to be made for the same to the parties from whom the Rents Goods or Chattles were or shall be detain'd since these troubles begun as the Provincial and County-council shall respectively order 13. Item It is further ordered and established for the removal of evil disorder and enmity and to the end all Men may bend their thoughts and actions to the common Cause that all possessions of Lands and Hereditaments shall continue and remain unto such as have already join'd in this Union as they have been for three years past next before the beginning of these Troubles And that no Title of Lands shall be drawn into any Debate or Question until the next Assembly other than in case of Mortgages Leases and particular Estates de facto determin'd or determinable by Effluxion or other determination thereof 14. Item For the avoiding of National distinction between the Subjects of his Majesties Dominions which this Assembly doth utterly detest and abhor and which ought not to be endured in a well-govern'd Commonwealth It is ordered and established that upon pain of the highest punishment which may be inflicted by Authority of this Assembly that every Roman Catholick as well English Welsh as Scotch who was of that profession before the troubles and who will come and please to reside in this Kingdom and join in the present Union shall be preserv'd and cherish'd in his Life Goods and Estates by the Power Authority and force if need require of all the Catholicks of Ireland as fully and freely as any Native born therein and shall be acquitted and eas'd of one third part in three parts to be divided of publick Charges or Levies rais'd or to be rais'd for the maintenance of this holy VVar. 15. Item And it is further ordered and establish'd that there shall be no distinction or comparison made betwixt old Irish and old and new English or between Septs or Families or between Citizens and Townsmen and Countreymen joyning in union upon pain of the highest punishment that can be inflicted by any of the Councils aforesaid according to the nature and quality of the Offences and Division like to spring thence 16. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that all new Converts born in any of his Majesties Dominions or elsewhere without occasion given by the persons converted to the contrary and joyning in this Cause shall be accounted Catholick Natives to all intents and purposes 17. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that all Artificers Artizans Navigators and Mariners not being Denizens who shall please to reside in this Kingdom shall during their Residence in this Kingdom after such time as they and their Families shall be here setled have and enjoy the free liberty and priviledges of Natives in all respects 18. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that in regard of of the present Estate and condition of this Kingdom if any Catholick or Catholicks are admitted of or permitted to continue in the Inns of Court and to the end the laudable Laws of England may not die amidst the Disasters of these times one Inn of Court shall be erected in such a place of this Kingdom as to the Supream Council shall be thought fit for the training of the Gentry of this Kingdom to the knowledg of these Laws 19. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that no Lord Gentleman or any other person shall raise or keep any Company of Souldiers but such as shall be authoriz'd by the Supream Council Provincial-council or County-council or Magistrate within their own Corporate Towns And that the Statute against Sesse and Coin or Livery be duly put in execution And that no Company or Souldiers whatsoever shall be paid or reliev'd by the Countrey except such as are and shall be inrolled in the Marshal List And none shall be billeted but by the Constable 20. Item It is further ordered and establish'd for the advancement of Learning that in every Province of the Kingdom Free-Schools shall be erected and maintain'd so many and in such places and in such manner and form as by the Metropolitan of the Diocess in their respective Provinces shall be thought fit 21. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that the King's Customs Rents Revenues Arrears and Debts And the Rents Estates and profits of the Lands Hereditaments Goods and Chattels of the Enemies which are or shall be declared by the Provincial or Supream Council or by the General Council to be receiv'd and collected and be dispos'd for his Majesties use and service 22. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that Church-lands and Tithes impropriate in the Catholick-owners before these troubles and joyning in this Cause may be left to them according to their several Estates until the same be disposed of by Parliament they in the interim answering the Rents as accustomed 23. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that in every County there be Collectors and Receivers to be approved in the County-council for the same And that they be accountable to the County-council for the same which County-council shall be accountable to the Provincial-council therein half-yearly and the Provincial-council to the Supream-Council yearly to the end the same may not be conceal'd or
misapplied 24. Item It is ordered and agreed where any Arch-bishops Bishops or other Dignitary or any other person or persons whatsoever hath or enjoyeth any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments Tithes or other Church-Livings in one County or Province or doth or shall keep his or their Residence in another County or Province and hath his or their Creation or Nomination in any other County or Province where the said Lands Tenements Hereditaments Tithes or Church-Livings to the general use shall be employed within the said County or Province where the said Lands Tenements Tithes or Church-Livings do lie as by the several County-councils respectively shall be thought fit for the publick Cause 25. Item It is ordered and establish'd by the general Assembly that any Woman being a Roman Catholick and Wife of any Protestant or Catholicks that hath forsaken his Houses Estate and Wife and adhered unto the Enemy that every such VVife may enter into her Jointure if any be convey'd unto her or may recover her Thirds of her said Husband's Estate as if her said Husband were actually dead And that every such VVife shall be in such condition and capacity to sue and be impleaded as if her Husband had been exiled and banished the Realm by judgment of Law except the Provincial-council or Supream-Council in Particular Cases order the contrary 26. Item It is ordered and establish'd that the possession of Protestant Arch-bishops Bishops Deans Dignitaries and Parsons in right of their respective Churches or their Tenements in the beginning of these troubles shall be deem'd taken and construed as the then Possession of the Catholick Arch-bishops Bishops Deans Dignitaries Pastors and their Tenements respectively to all intents and purposes and that those Possessions are intended within the Precedent Order for settlement of Possessions 27. Item It is ordered and established that no man being Prisoner by Authority of any of the Councils aforesaid without order of the said Councils respectively shall be enlarged And that no Protection be given to servants and other men of the Enemies Party without the like Order or the Order of the chief Commander of the Army in the several Provinces or Counties 28. Item Whereas abuses have been committed in some parts of this Kingdom in taking of Arms Ammunition and other Merchandizes from Merchants arrived in the Creeks and Harbours far from their intended Port by reason of Tempest or the danger of Enemies to the great discouragement of Merchants It is therefore ordered and established that where any Ship or Ships or other Vessels shall come or arrive in any Harbour Bay or Creek within this Kingdom loaden with Arms Ammunition or other Merehandize that in such cases all those that are or shall be in Command in the adjacent Counties respectively shall protect and defend the said Merchants procure Carriage for the said Goods and safely convey the same to the said Merchants intended Port and not to suffer the same or any of the same under colour of paying for the same or otherwise to be disposed of or taken before the same come to the intended Port and be entred into the List of the Commissioners And any that shall Rob Steal or Violently take away any of the said Goods contrary to this Order shall be deemed and punished as Enemies to the publick good of this Kingdom and suffer death therefore 29. Item That certain Commissioners shall be appointed in every Port-Town of the Free-men and Residents therein by the Provincial or Supreme Council for the viewing of all the Arms and Ammunition that shall be hereafter imported into this Kingdom from beyond Seas and to certifie the same to the Supreme Council with all speed and to prevent abuses in the Sale for issuing or disposing of them 30. Item It is ordered and established that where Souldiers do run from their Garrisons or Commanders unto other Counties or or Provinces that the Commanders or chief Governours of the said County or Province upon complaint made thereof shall send back the Fugitive Souldiers to their Commanders to be dealt withal according to Justice 31. Item It is ordered and established that the Debts and other Duties owing to Creditors of this Union being Neuters and Enemies shall be paid out of the Goods Lands Tenements and Hereditaments of the said Neuters and Enemies respectively before any other publick charge be answered thereout 32. Item It is ordered and established that no Souldiers or other Persons without Command from the County-Council meddle with the Lands or Goods of Neuters or Enemies 33. Item it is ordered and established that to prevent the springing up of all National distinctions the Oath of Association or Union be taken solemnly after Confession and receiving the Sacrament in the Parish Churches throughout the Kingdom and the Names of all the Persons of Rank and Quality in every Parish that take the same to be enrolled in Parchment and to be Return'd Sign'd and Seal'd by the Parish Priest to the Ordinary of every Diocess who is to keep the same in his Treasury and to certifie a Copy thereof under Seal to the Metropolitan who is to keep that and to certifie a true Copy thereof under his Metropolitical Seal to the Rolls of the Kingdom where the same is to be enrolled APPENDIX IX Fol. 99. By the Lords Justices and Councel W. Parsons Jo. Borlase WHereas for special reasons of State moving Us thereunto We issued divers VVarrants forbidding his Majesties Army to burn certain Houses and Corn and to forbear pillaging spoiling and taking away Goods and Cattle of divers persons And whereas also not only We the Lords Justices or one of Us or our very good Lord the Earl of Ormond and Ossory Lieutenant General of the Army but also the late and present Commander or Commanders of his Majesties Forces in the City of Dublin or in Drogheda and other places within the Province of Lemster some of them having no authority or direction so to do and issued Warrants admitting sundry persons many of which persons by their present ill demerits in this General Rebellion might justly have been forthwith prosecuted with fire and sword with safety to bring or send to the Markets of Dublin Drogheda and other places Corn and other provisions to be there sold which was done in expectation that by that forbearance used towards them when they saw just vengeance taken on others for the same adhering to and relieving those who in this Rebellion publickly carry Arms and commit open Acts of Hostility they might be moved to depart from adhering to or relieving those notorious Actors in the Rebellion in gratitude to his Majesty and this State for so much clemency used towards them yet so ungrateful have many or most of those persons been found and so insensible of the duty and loyaltie of good Subjects to his Majesty as notwithstanding that clemency used towards them they have not returned the fruits of Loyaltie expected from them but on the contrary have run on in their
Protestant Religion and all the Brittish Professors thereof out of this Your Majesties Kingdom And to the end it may the better in some measure appear Your Suppliants have made choice of Captain William Ridgeway Sir Francis Hamilton Knight and Baronet Captain Michael Jones and Mr. Fenton Parsons whom they have employed and authorized as their Agents to manifest the truth thereof in such Particulars as for the present they are furnish'd withal referring the more ample manifestation thereof to the said Captain William Ridgeway Sir Francis Hamilton Captain Jones and Fenton Parsons or any three or more of them and such other Agents as shall with all convenient speed be sent as occasion shall require to attend Your Majesty from Your Protestant Subjects of the several Provinces of this Your Kingdom VVe therefore Your Majesties most humble loyal and obedient Protestant-Subjects casting down our selves at Your Royal feet and flying to You for succour and redress in these our great Calamities as our most gracious Soveraign Lord and King and next and immediately under Almighty God our Protector and Defence most humbly beseeching Your Sacred Majesty to admit into Your Royal Presence from time to time our said Agents and in Your great VVisdom to take into Your Princely Care and Consideration the distressed Estate and humble desires of Your said Subjects so that to the Glory of God Your Majesties Honour and the happiness of Your good Subjects the Protestant Religion may be restored throughout the whole Kingdom to its lustre that the losses of Your Protestant Subjects may be repaired in such manner and measure as Your Majesty in Your Princely VVisdom shall think fit and that this Your Kingdom may be setled as that Your said Protestant Subjects may hereafter live therein under the happy Government of Your Majesty and Your Royal Posterity with comfort and security whereby Your Majesty will render Your self through the whole VVorld a most just and Glorious Defender of the Protestant Religion and draw down a Blessing on all other Your Royal Undertakings for which Your Petitioners will ever pray c. Subscribed by the Earl of Kildare Lord Viscount Montgomery Lord Blany and many others To which they received this Answer by His Majesties Command At Our Court at Oxford the 25th of April 1644. His Majesty being very sensible of the Petitioners Losses and sufferings is ready to hear and relieve them as the Exigencie of his Affairs will permit and wisheth the Petitioners to propose what they think fit in particular for his Majesties Information and the Petitioners Remedy and future Security Edw. Nicholas Upon the reading of the Petition His Majesty was pleased to say That He knew the Contents of the Petition to be Truth APPENDIX XII Fol. 142. The Propositions of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland humbly presented to His Sacred Majesty in pursuance of their Remonstrance of Grievances and to be annexed to the said Remonstrance together with the humble Answer of the Agents for the Protestants of Ireland to the said Propositions made in pursuance of Your Majesties directions of the 9th of May 1644. requiring the same 1. Pro. THAT all Acts made against the Professors of the Roman Catholick faith whereby any restraint penalty Mulct or incapacity may be laid upon any Roman Catholicks within the Kingdom of Ireland may be repealed and the said Catholicks to be allowed the freedom of the Roman Catholick Religion Answ. To the first we say that this hath been the pretence of almost all those who have entred into Rebellion in the Kingdom of Ireland at any time since the Reformation of Religion there which was setled by Acts of Parliament above eighty years since and hath wrought good effects ever since for the peace and welfare both of the Church and Kingdom there and of the Church and Kingdom of England and Protestant party throughout all Christendom and so hath been found wholesom and necessary by long experience and the repealing of those Laws will set up Popery again both in Jurisdiction profession and practice as that was before the said Reformation and introduce among other inconveniencies the Supremacy of Rome and take away or much endanger Your Majesties Supream and just Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical Administration of honour and power not to be endured the said Acts extending as well to seditious Sectaries as to Popish Recusants so as by the repeal thereof any man may seem to be left to chuse his own Religion in that Kingdom which must needs beget great confusion and the abounding of the Roman Clergy hath been one of the greatest occasions of this late Rebellion besides it is humbly desired that Your Majesty will be pleased to take into Your gracious consideration a Clause in the Act of Parliament passed by Your Majesties Royal Assent in England in the 17th year of Your Raign touching punishments to be inflicted upon those that shall introduce the Authority of the See of Rome in any Cause whatsoever 2. Pro. That Your Majesty will be pleased to call a free Parliament in the said Kingdom to be held and continued as in the said Remonstrance is expressed and the Statute of the 10th year of King Hen. 7. called Poyning's Acts explaining or enlarging the same be suspended during that Parliament for the speedy settlement of the present Affairs and the repeal thereof be there further considered of Answ. VVhereas their desire to have a free Parliament called reflecteth by secret and cunning implication upon Your Majesties present Parliament in Ireland as if it were not a free Parliament we humbly beseech Your Majesty to present how dangerous it is to make such insinuation or intimation to your people of that Kingdom touching that Parliament wherein several Acts of Parliament have already past the validity whereof may be endangered if the Parliament should not be approved as a free Parliament and it is a point of high nature as we humbly conceive is not properly to be dismissed but in Parliament and Your Majesties said Parliament now sitting is a free Parliament in Law holden before a person of honour and fortune in the Kingdom composed of good loyal and well-affected Subjects to Your Majesty who doubtless will be ready to comply in all things that shall appear to be pious and just for the good of the True Protestant Religion and for Your Majesties service and the good of the Church and State that if this present Parliament should be dissolved it would be a great terrour and discontent to all Your Majesties Protestant Subjects of the Kingdom and may be also a means to force many of Your Majesties Subjects to quit that Kingdom or peradventure to adhere to some other party there in opposition of the Romish Irish Confederates rather than to be liable to their power which effects may prove of most dangerous consequence and we humbly offer to Your Majesties consideration Your own gracious Expression mentioned in the grounds and motives inducing Your Majesty to agree to a
manifessing of the truth of the Protestant Petition and proposing in the behalf of the Protestants according to the Instructions given them which the said Agents were ready to perform whensoever they should be admitted thereunto Touching which and other Particulars there were many motions but the Proofs they would have insisted upon by the importunity of other Affairs never came to their due discussion APPENDIX XV. Fol. 120. THE SPEECH Of His GRACE James Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland My Lords and Gentlemen THere is no duty incident to the Place I have the Honour to serve the KING in to which I come with less willingness or conscience than to this of speaking to such an Assembly And by that time I have done you will acknowledg I have reason to be unsatisfied with the necessity imposed by custom upon all that sit in this Place to make Speeches a Custom perhaps reasonably introduced by those that did or at least thought they did it well but somewhat hardly continued upon those that were sure they did it ill And yet though I am in the Number of the Last I will rather obey the Necessity than hazard the Imputation of Sullenness or Singularity Besides I do not know but that to be silent at this time and in this Place may be a greater Fault than any I hope I shall commit in speaking for we are taught by Infallible Authority and enjoyned by Indispensible Precept and it seems to be agreeable to the Dictates of NATURE and REASON as well as of RELIGION and PIETY that for all the Blessings we receive from the Divine MAJESTIE we should make as proportionable Returns as lie within our Power And therefore Publique and National BLESSINGS do require Publique and Solemn CELEBRATIONS This was it that induced the Transmission of that Act for an Anniversary Thanksgiving for his Majesties most Happy RESTAURATION and this is it which if it be dully that is sincerely performed is most like to perpetuate to us and to our POSTERITY all the Happinesses consequent to that BLESSING What these Happinesses are or at least may be if we Our selves obstruct not the course of them would be best discerned and set off by a RETROSPECT into the state of things for above twenty years past and by opposing to that Dismal Object of Our remembrance the Chearfulness and Serenity of the Prospect forwards If the Miseries and Desolations of those years could be enumerated in the time I mean to allow this Discourse or if they could be described to the Life by so ill an Orator as I am they would be fewer and more supportable than I doubt the sad experience of too many have found them to be I shall therefore only put you in mind of some more Remarkable and Fundamental deliverances and Restitutions wrought by most wonderful Providence as a thankful acknowledgment fit as I conceive to be the subject of the first Discourse from this place where I have the honour how unworthily and how unresemblingly soever to represent the Majestie of my Great Master This very Seat of Royaltie is delivered from some neglected Corner or contemptible Use or from a Profanation worse than either from the Usurpation of mean and low Aspirers who having no shadow of right to it had no other way to ascend it than by treading down and destroying whatever was ordained by God or Man to fence and guard it their extravagant Ambition transporting them and darkning their understanding to that degree as not to consider how short their possession of that Throne must be to the disarming and violation of which they themselves had but newly shewn the way VVe see this Throne now restored to its proper place and Natural use surrounded and supported by Peers and Prelates by Officers Magistrates and Judges the Out-works as well as Ornaments of Majestie VVe see it restored to the approach and I doubt not to the delight of the meanest of the Commons whom you Gentlemen do nor ought not disdain to represent for they are the Foundation upon which Monarchy is built the strength wherewith it is guarded and the wealth whereby it is sustained inriched and beautified It is restored to the undoubted Lawful Possessour the Off-spring of a long-continued Race of Princes in whom all the Contested Titles of former Ages are met without the pretence of a Competitor and in whom all the Vertues of the Princes of those Ages are united without the severity to say no worse of some of the Great and Warlike and without the as harmful weaknesses of others of more devout and peaceable dispositions A PRINCE that hath given frequent proof that though he loves and seeks peace for his Subjects sakes he fears not War for his own This Sword the Instrument of conferring Military Honour and the Emblem of inflicting Punishment is delivered from the ridiculous Stage-like Pageantry of later times and from a more execrable and Tragical Abuse from cutting off the most Innocent and defending the most guilty VVe see it now by the visible immediate hand of God restored and put into that Hand that only had His Commission to bear and use it and let it be Our Prayer That he bear it long and that he may bear it long that he bear it not in vain but to the terrour and extermination of Evil-doers and to the support and Protection of those that do well The King himself whose Throne and Sword these are is accountable to God and we to God for him for many and great deliverances He is delivered from the Murtherers of his Father and the Usurpers of his Inheritance from their restless endeavours to destroy his Person and to blast his Fame from their open violence and secret contrivements against both from Exile and all the Afflicting consequences of that miserable state of a King from comfortless wandrings from Protections from cold Receptions from narrow supports and from such applications for them as were more unsupportable than the want of them could be to him that was born and delights to give rather than receive them He is deliver'd from a continual tormenting Anxietie for the danger of his Friends and the oppression and slavery of his Countrey from the importunity of impertinent Arguments drawn from his misfortunes to draw him from his Religion and from a necessity of hearing and bearing with the Reproaches and Revilings cast upon our then Desolate Church only because she was desolate and made so by her own unnatural Children From this dejected despised and in all humane appearance desperate condition he is raised and restored to the Throne of his Fathers to his Native Countrey become more dear and valuable to him by his Experience of others to the free and uncontrol'd exercise of the Religion he was bred in to a capacity of making Royal Retribution for any kindness he hath received abroad or from home and which is the greatest earthly Felicity so good a KING as he could wish he is not only
confess they had not power to confer any new Authority on their Faculty of destroying being more prevalent than that of preserving Their second Reason was They feared they should lose the few Churches remaining under his Government as they had lost under him all the Churches in the Cities of Waterford Kilkenny Wexford Ross Clonmel Cashel Featherd Kilmallock and the rest in which they said they agreed with the Maccabees Maximus vero primus pro sanctitate timor erat Templi By whose ill Government those Cities were lost appears by what hath been said before and how well the few that were then left were kept after they had forced the Marquis to depart the Kingdom is well known to the World The third Reason they thought fit was Because the Lord Lieutenant had declared at Cork that he would maintain during his life the Protestant Religion according to the example of the best Reformed Churches which might be the same with the Covenant for ought they knew They said They could not expect from him the defence of the Catholick Religion which was a strange objection against a Protestant Lieutenant of a Protestant King under whose Government they pretended to be desirous to live And whatsoever had been declared by the Lord Lieutenant at Cork in that particular before the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and Published and Printed the 6th of October 1648. and well known to the Bishops who after the same and notwithstanding that Declaration with all demonstrations of cheerfulness gave their consents to that Peace which they now think fit to break because of that Declaration The fourth Reason was cast in the same mould The scandal over the World to make choice of one of a different Religion especially in Rome where his Holiness expected that a Catholick Governour should be placed over them according to his Agreement or Articles as it was reported with the Queen of England which the Marquis knew to be an aspersion and they said They did fear the scourges of the War and the Plague that had faln so heavy upon them were some evidence of Gods anger for putting Gods Cause and the Churches under such an hand whereas that trust might have been managed in a Catholicks hand under the Kings Authority Which Reason indeed had most ingenuity in it and whensoever they digested their malice and their prejudice in those Personal Reproaches and Calumnies which they knew to be most untrue if they had frankly declared and excepted against him for being a Protestant they had more complied with the dictates and integrities of their hearts And yet it might appear a very unskilful and imprudent suggestion to make the humour of the Court of Rome the Rule of obedience to their Sovereign and to discourse of choosing a Person of what Religion they thought fit to be his Vice-gerent as if they not he were to be consulted in it which would administer much cause of jealousie unto a Protestant King and to his Protestant Subjects if it were not well known to them that some of the Catholick Nobility and Gentry of the Nation were Enemies at least seemingly to those resolutions that unhappy part of the Catholick Bishops did broach and propagate which alone have reduced that Nation to the calamities it then and since underwent The fifth Reason that they should find no favour nor countenance but reproach and disgrace from any Catholick Prince Church or Laity while the Marquis Governed when in truth since that time and that their proceedings have been taken notice of the Catholick Princes have looked upon them as incapable of any succour or countenance and have accordingly left them to the rage of their Persecutors Their other Reasons were more Vulgar and too often before recited exceptions to his Person in respect of the ill success of his Conduct and the prejudice the People had to him in regard of the same And the too considerable Corporations remaining which were Limerick and Galway were at so great distance with the Lord Lieutenant that they were resolved to appear as in their intentions and actions they conceiv'd they were faithful to the Crown and obedient to the Kings Authority if placed in another Person To which suggestions nothing need to be added to what hath been said in this Discourse of the demeanor of those particular Places nor can the observation be avoided That it was the natural practice of this Congregation to use all their industry and artifice to infuse jealousie and sedition into the People and distrust and obstinacy into the Corporations and then to urge that jealousie prejudice and indisposition of the People and Corporations to countenance any thing they thought fit to do or oppose They concluded that the event of War being uncertain if the Nation should be reduced to a condition of agreeing with the Enemy the Lord Lieutenant would not be a fit man to agree for the exercise of their Religion for their Churches Altars or any thing concerning the same And therefore they said That the best way that occurred to them in this pressing exigency for the union of the Nation and keeping them from agreeing with the Enemy was That the Marquis of Clanrickard in whom according to the sense of the Congregation at James-town they desired the Kings Authority should be left that he might Govern the Nation with the consent of all Parties and the Kings Authority be taken away from the Lord Lieutenant until an Assembly And to that end that a free and lawful Assembly might be made to sit to judge upon the Peoples preservation and to decree and order what should be best and safest for the defence of the Nation Touching the Kings Authority to be kept over them and the Peace to be asserted and made good or to renew the Association or any thing else they should find best and most expedient and unto that they would willingly submit for they said they never intended to hinder an Assembly or to give Laws to the People all that they endeavour'd was to defend the Altars and Souls entrusted to them And as they were of opinion that the Soldiers would follow the Marquis of Clanrickard and the People obey him so they would contribute their best endeavours to that effect They further gave assurance that if any free and lawful Assembly upon due consideration of their own state and condition should find it the best way for their own safety and preservation to make an Agreement with the Enemy as they intended never by the grace of God to grant away from them by an Affirmative consent to the Churches and Altars if forced from them they were blameless so would they not hinder the People from compounding with the Enemy for the safety of their Lives and Estates when no way of offence was appearing though upon such an Agreement they saw that they alone should probably be losers of Lives States Churches Altars Immunities and Liberties But in such Contracts with the Enemy if any