a Pardon for nay not so much as a Protection from his Majesty for sins past without the consent of their Supreme Council This is a fine bearing Faith and Allegiance to the King this is a good upholding and maintaining the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom They swear too that these Acts of highest Rebellion they will to the hazard of their Lives and Estates assist prosecute and maintain But they proceed further for they swear not to accept of or submit to ANY PEACE made or to be made without the consent and approbation of the General Assembly of the said Catholicks ANY PEACE that is let the Conditions be never so good let the Person that grants them be the King Himself they will not accept of it they will not submit unto it without c. If the King would so far forget those signal Crimes which made them need his Pardon and Protection and would not so much as name them but make a Peace with them as if they had never done any offence yet they swear that not one of them shall accept of or submit to such a Peace but as is before expressed nay to show how perfect a ROMISH Confederacie it is if any Individual should be struck with the horrour of his Crimes he cannot fly to the Kings Mercy for Pardon or Protection without Perjury And to inveagle such as had not then been polluted with those sins they swear to protect all such as shall enter into their guilt and thereby in consequence threaten to ruine such as shall not This is admirable bearing true Faith and Allegiance to the King and maintaining the Laws of the Kingdom But this is not all for they further swear in these words viz. For the preservation and strengthening of the Vnion of the Kingdom upon any peace to be made or concluded with the said confederate Catholicks as aforesaid They will to the uttermost of their Power insist upon and maintain the ensuing Propositions until a peace as aforesaid be made and the matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of peace be established and secured by Parliament The first Proposition to which this Oath relates and to which it is annexed is expressed in these words viz. That the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity in their several capacities have the free and publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh or other Catholick King his Predecessours Kings of England and Lords of Ireland or in England That is to say That none should be admitted to live in Ireland but Papists for none or very few but such were in the Reign of those Kings in Ireland The second Proposition mentioned follows in these words viz. That the secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Archbishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Prebendaries and all other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and all persons of the secular Clergy and their respective successours shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Iurisdictions Priviledges and Immunities in as full and ample manner as the Roman Catholicks secular Clergy had or enjoyed the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late King Henry the Seventh sometime King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power or Authority whatever to the contrary notwithstanding That is to say Their Wills must be the Law and since they think fit to set up POPERY in Ireland and to banish the true Religion out of it it is but requisite they should take the maintenance from the Legal and give it to the Titular Clergy And least we should doubt this to be the true meaning of the second Proposal they clearly explain it in the fourth which follows in these words viz. That the Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Chancelours Treasurers 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 enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample manner as the LATE PROTESTANT CLERGY respectively enjoyed the same on the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1641. together with all the profits emoluments perquisites liberties and the rights of their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in places now in possession of the Confederate Catholicks as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said Confederate Catholicks from the adverse Party within the Kingdom SAVING to the said Roman Catholick Laity their Rights according to the Laws of the Land That is to say Our Clergy shall have All therefore yours can have nothing this is a perfect Fifth-Monarchy Principle for here Dominion is onely founded in pretended Grace none being to have the benefit of the Laws of the Land but the Papists Nay his Sacred Majesty because a PROTESTANT is as such denied any one of those Rights which the meanest of the Irish Rebels because a PAPIST is to enjoy as such and lest their words for it should not be taken they confirm it with an OATH The Legal and Orthodox Clergy of Ireland may see in this what goodly Provision had been made for them and their respective Successours if this pious Roman Catholick Confederacy had succeeded But least this their first Oath of Confederacie might be thought a thing they were surprized into in the first heat and fury of the Rebellion and least the takers of it should forget what the Imposers of it would have them believe they were bound unto by it some time after premeditately and in cool blood they caus'd it a second time to be taken in terminis and subscribed with a preamble to it the close whereof runs in these Words viz. And for that it is requisite that there should be an unanimous consent and real union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the premises and strengthen them against their adversaries it is thought fit by them that they and whosoever shall adhere unto their party as a Confederate should for their better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the publick Cause take the ensuing Oath viz. I A. B. c. In the begining of the said Preamble they give the priority and precedency of place to the Defence of their own Estates and Liberties to that of the defence of his Majesties Regal Power Prerogatives Honour State and Rights That is to say They will mind themselves before the King which they fully explain in the third Oath of their Union and Confederacie which after their rejection of the Peace concluded with them by his Majesties Authority they entered into took and subscribed and which follows in these words viz. I do swear and protest that I will adhere to the present Vnion of the Confederate Roman Catholicks that REJECTED THE PEACE lately agreed
upon Articles of War and others who are to have a certain proportion of their estates by the Act for the settling of Ireland held forth in the year 1652. Wherein to use their own words They humbly show That the Petitioners upon confidence of enjoying the benefit of several Declarations and Articles of War held forth unto them by Authority of this Parliament c. did readily subject and put their Consciences Lives and Fortunes as in a secure Sanctuary under the protection of this Commonwealth having ever since walked peaceably and in due conformity to the Government without the least defection therein That since the Interruption given to the sitting of this Parliament in the year 1653. No Christian Nation can parallel the sufferings of the Petitioners c. which render the Petitioners as fit Objects of your Honors piety justice and compassion as any who may challenge your protection Notwithstanding the Petitioners withered hopes and former confidence being afresh revived by your Honors return to the management of the present Government and their propensions so great to peace and quietness that rather than ravel into the settlement They do willingly acquiesce in the Transplantation albeit it was not executed by any legal power as not being derived from your Honors Soon after in the same Petition follow these words They do apprehend that contrary to your Honors pious intentions manifested in the said Act for settling of Ireland they may be postponed or neglected unless provided for in the Act of settlement now to be established And therefore the Petitioners humbly pray c. This Petition was delivered by the said two Agents for the Irish Papists at the door of the House of Commons in England and entered by the Clerk of the Rump The other Petition was in writing and subscribed Robert Talbot Garret Moor the Title of it is To the Supreme Authority the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England c. Supplications humbly tendered by Sir Robert Talbot Bar. and Garret Moor Esq for and on the behalf of themselves and the distressed Roman Catholicks of Ireland in order to be therein relieved by the Act of Settlement now to be passed Their second Supplication in this Petition is set down in these words viz. That the estates assigned unto the Petitioners in the Province of Connaught and County of Clare be confirm'd unto them The third Supplication in the said Petition is in these words viz. That the Decrees obtained by any of the Petitioners pursuant to the Articles and Qualifications be put in a way of satisfaction and for the time past put in equal condition with others who have had the benefit of their Decrees The fourth Supplication of this Petition is expressed in these words viz. That there having been no time limited by this Parliament for the Petitioners to enter and prosecute the claims according to their respective Qualifications and the interruption given to the sitting thereof soon after the Act of Settlement having hinderd many from doing the same and that others through absence poverty and the short sitting of the Court for the adjudication of Claims appointed since the said Interruption could not do it That a farther time be allowed unto such to enter and prosecute as aforesaid their Claims The fifth Supplication is expressed in these words viz. That several of the Petitioners are able to make appear their constant good affection and adherence to the Common-wealth for whom a competent time to be allowed to make out the same is humbly supplicated and that these and such of the Petitioners as have already done the same may have the benefit held forth unto them by the Act for settling of Ireland These expressions being verbatim in the said two Petitions I shall onely observe from thence what follows 1. The persons who presented these Requests to the RVMP did it not onely for themselves but for the Papists of Ireland in whose behalf they own themselves to be Sollicitors 2. Those two Gentlemen their publick Agents were persons of too much knowledg and discretion to have done any thing especially of so high a nature as this for so great a body of people without sufficient power from themselves so to do 3. That these their Agents Addresses to the RVMP were by allowance and command from themselves needs not better to be proved than by the Irish Papists ever since continuing those their two Agents in publick employment for them even to this day 4. To that very RVMP by whose immediate Commission the horridest of Murthers was acted they scruple not to make their application and even by the stile of the Supreme Authority the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England c. and that twice If P. W. should say they were necessitated to petition and that their petition would not be received without it were so directed I answer No consequence of their suffering could be so great as the guilt of owning the RVMP by the twice before mentioned Titles The single Advocate of the Irish Papists viz. P. W. lays it as a guilt upon all the Protestants of Ireland that some of them fought under one of the Regicides to recover their own Estates and punish the guilt of the first Rebellion and their often violation of their Articles and yet their publick Agents in behalf of all the Papists of Ireland own all those Regicides to be that Supreme Authority 5. But if the Consciences of the Irish Papists were hardened enough to run into a certain sin but in the expectancy of an uncertain advantage why yet in their printed Petition did they use these guilty expressions viz. They did readily subject and put their CONSCIENCES Lives and Fortunes as in a secure Sanctuary under the protection of that Commonwealth Though if they would petition they may say there was a necessity to stile the RUMP the Supreme Authority yet sure they cannot say there was a necessity in the body of the Petition to insert such criminal words therefore since the Body of the Petition is more than consonant to the Title of it it is but reasonable to believe the Title they gave the RVMP was as voluntary as the expressions with which they treat them If they would but make his Sacred Majesty what in print they acknowledged the RVMP was to them viz. A secure Sanctuary to put their Consciences Lives and Fortunes in if what is past could not be remedied yet the mischiefs to come might perhaps be prevented 6. But as if the immediate before mentioned respects to the RVMP had not been sufficient they pay them others professing in these words viz. Their withered hopes and former confidences are a fresh revived by the RVMPS return to the management of the Government under which their propensions to peace and quietness are so great that they willingly ACQVIESCE in the TRANSPLANTATION Would they be but as joyful for his Sacred Majesties restauration as they say they were for the RVMPS and had they been as willing
thence follows That his Majesty in Council has adjudg'd They have no right to those Articles For as an adjudication of his Sacred Majesty of their title to any one of the said Articles had entitled them to all so an adjudication of his Majesty in Council That they had not a right to that one they pleaded for has adjudg'd them to have no right to any 2. Was not his late Majesty of glorious memory before those Articles 1 preingaged to the Adventurers for many of the forfeited Lands in Ireland 2 in the strictest form of ingagement even by an ingagement in Parliament 3 on the account of strictest justice even by way of sale 4 on the best account of sale the end thereof being to reduce the Irish Rebels therefore might not these Arguments which P. W. urgeth in this instance against the breach of publick Faith be at least more appliable to this engagement of his late Majesty to his now Majesties Declaration at Breda and his gracious Declaration of the 30. of November 1660 which were all Acts of choice premeditation and freedom than to those Articles of 1648 which was an act of necessity and rebellious force The Casuists and School-men will easily resolve P. W. that the later and lesser obligation ought to give place to the elder and greater But if P. W. object that if his Majesty were under an obligation preceding and opposite to theirs why did he enter into an obligation unto them To that I answer 1. That then it was not Res integra for his Majesties Rebellious Subjects even some of the Adventurers themselves had superinduc'd a necessity upon his Majesty which as he could not foresee when he made his first contract so by all the ties of natural preservation he was bound to take away when they were brought upon him and it could not be a breach of Faith in the King to them who made it as things then stood impossible to perform it 2. Though necessity be an unhappy plea yet when 't is a true it is an allowable one 3 That very necessity which constrain'd his Majesty to those Articles had they been observed by those with whom they were made would have invited all honest Englishmen to have cheerfully waited till by the expected fruits and effects of that Peace his Majesty might have been enabled to have satisfied them nay they would rather have lost their money than his Majesty should have broken his Faith with them that had kept it with him and would have been so serviceable to him besides his Majesty might have been so soon reseated in his throne that the debts of the Crown would have been so small his Subjects ability and affections so great that he might and would easily have satisfied the Adventurers desires without forfeited Land in Ireland even by their own consent But the breach on the Irish Papists side has occasion'd so long and chargeable a War that their forfeitures together with the vast sums sent out of England into Ireland and raised in Ireland it self are scarse able to defray that expence which their own violation of Faith has engag'd the Crown in so that it is but just that the Bear-skin as far as it will go should contribute to pay for the healing of those wounds which the Bear it self had given His Sacred Majesty in the 3. page of his Declaration speaking upon these Articles uses these very words viz. When they who wickedly usurped the Authority in this Kingdom had erected that odious Court for the taking away the life of Our dear Father no body can wonder that we were desirous though upon DIFFICVLT CONDITIONS to get such an united power of our own Subjects as might have been able with Gods blessing to have prevented that infamous and horrible Parricide In these clear and Royal expressions the world may see what was the onely incentive to his Majesty for his granting of that Peace even no less than the preventing of the Murther of his blessed Father and the bloudy consequences of it And therefore if that were the hopeful effect of those Concessions had they been observed on the Irish side may not we without too much straining inferr that the breach on their side contributed to if not acted that unparallel'd Crime To commit the sin and not to prevent the sin when men have the preventative power of it are very near ally'd if not the same Crimes I shall also here again observe that what P. W. calls Freely putting themselves and their power into my L. Lievtenants hands his Sacred Majesty justly marks with these observable expressions upon difficult Conditions may I not therefore from thence also well infer That P. W's Clients do nothing so freely as when they put difficult Conditions on His Majesty Though I have said and prov'd by undeniable evidences That the Irish Papists have violated and broken the Articles they extorted in 1648 yet because P. W's Tenents obliges him to believe Works of supererrogation I will gratifie him in practicing in this particular one of his own principles by adding farther what follows to evince the Irish Papists have egregiously broken the said Peace the foundation of which is the Recognition made by them of his Majesties Soveraignty and their Obligation to obey and uphold it with their Lives and Fortunes which is therefore not onely inserted after the Title as a part of the Agreement but premised to all the rest as the Ground and Principle of the following Graces and Securities which without it are like a Castle in the air that has no foundation and therefore cannot stand Besides the 18th Article of the said Peace expresly excludes from the benefit thereof such as should after offend The doubt then that remains turns on these two Hinges 1. Whether this Condition or Recognition were broken 2. By whom it was broken The first appears affirmatively beyond contradiction in the many former instances for after the conclusion of those Articles the Irish Papists despised disowned rejected expelled banished and excommunicated the L. Lieutenant and all adhering to him and in him his Majesties Authority Secondly It clearly appears That even those who made these Articles with the Lord Lieutenant were guilty of their Breach For if they were not able to keep this Condition inviolable they transgressed that duty express'd in the Recognition and were Abusers both of His Majesties Authority and Service And if they were able to keep this Condition inviolable they are guilty for not accordingly keeping it Thirdly These Articles were not made with any individuals singly consider'd but with the then Ruling Power of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland for accordingly the phrase in the Title is viz. Articles of Peace made and concluded with the General Assembly And in the Conclusion Signed by Sir Richard Blake Knight in the Chair of the General Assembly by Order Command and unanimous Consent of the said Catholicks in full Assembly Seeing then their Ruling Power made the said
it in Ireland had been LOST but also this Kingdom had been LOST to the Crown of England for the said Irish Papists were to have held what they then rebelliously possest till their Articles of Peace had been establish'd and secured by Parliament and if they could have had a Parliament such as they designed all the Kingdom would in effect have been theirs by Authority of Parliament so that either way they had secured themselves as much as their CONFEDERATED WISDOMS could project But since the most essential parts of the Articles of Peace were to be finally obliging but as they were to be confirm'd by Act of Parliament in the next Parliament which should be assembled after the perfecting the said Articles let P. W. remember this present Parliament is the first that has been call'd together in Ireland since the conclusion of the Peace and let him see in the GREAT BILL OF SETTLEMENT how far the Parliament thinks fit to put their sanction to those Articles If P. W. should say This is not such a Parliament as his Countrymen intended at and before the making of those Articles I shall joyn with him in his saying thereof and shall onely add That GOD AND HIS SACRED MAJESTY be praised it is not such a Parliament I must desire the Readers excuse for these digressionâ— which I thought necessary that he might the better know even out of the Originals of the Papers of the Irish Papists what kinde of Parliament that was by which they had designed to establish and secure the Articles of their Peace as also what that Association and Vnion of the Confederate Roman Catholicks is which their Grand Committee swore to continue and to return unto upon the concluding of the Peace in 1648. in case they themselves judged the Articles thereof at any time unobserved unto them I wish the said Irish Papists think not themselves TO THIS DAY bound by it nay I wish they do not think it INDISSOLVEABLE This horrid Oath of the Grand Committee before-mentioned is now so undeniable though it was then manag'd in the dark and carried on with all possible secreeie that it was by all their Titular Bishops in their published Excommunications against the Lord Lieutenant interpreted and insisted on as a most CONSCIENTIOVS engagement to invite all their Nation to a disobedience of his Majesties Authority whereby they have not onely argued themselves guilty of the greatest unworthiness and treachery men could possibly be faulty in they have not onely forfeited all that Grace and Favour which could be intended them by that Peace and invalidated all the Articles of it but they have likewise continu'd to themselves the guilt of their Rebellion and Confederacie to this present DAY and lie obnoxious to the utmost penalty of the Law for the same unless his Majesties Mercy be greater then their Crimes and consequently P. W's causeless curses and threatnings are not to be feared Those Threatnings respect MEN The Irish Papists The Judicious Protestants Those Threatnings respect GOD. First P. W. tells us that the hearts of the Irish Papists would by such proceedings be estranged from his Majesty The sense whereof is that the Irish will follow the King for nought but the LOAVES nay it had been happy for Ireland if the very Loaves themselves would have prevented their hearts from being estranged but 't is morally impossible while such a National and Religional distinction continues The experience of the last Rebellion if no other proof thereof had been evinceth the estrangedness of the Irish Papists to be such that the Interest in them of the greatest Nobleman in Ireland when for the Crown is not so considerable as a popish priests against it Wherefore the estrangedness P. W. mentions must still be expected but with this difference That the BEAST if pamper'd will Kick if kept low OBEY Secondly P. W. fore-tells that the Iudicious Protestants will on such proceedings be perpeturlly jealous notwithstanding any Declaration from Breda or Acts from Westminster Though P. W. may be a true Seer of the estranged hearts of the Irish papists yet I dare charge him to be a false Prophet concerning judicious protestants for though they duly value his Majesties Declarations and Acts of Grace as signal Expresses of his Goodness yet their confidence rests on the inward principle in his Majesties Brest whereto without such Expresses or Articling or capitulating for such as the Irish papists did they freely submitted and are more confirm'd by their late experience to continue in that duty But if in P. W's judgement the ungrounded apprehension of any violation or breach of promise may estrange the hearts of the Irish papists from his Majesty whom they are bound in conscience to love honour and obey notwithstanding miscarriages in Government and if the like apprehensions may cause jealousies in judicious protestants notwithstanding Declarations and Acts of Parliament let it not seem strange or hard at least to P. W. and his Countrymen if a continued Series of Covenant-Breaches Rapines Murthers Massacres Crueltys Perfidies Treasons and Rebellions exercised by the Irish papists against the Crown and protestant Religion raise jealousies in the hearts of all judicious Protestants Or if his Majesty be pleas'd on these accompts in his great Iustice Wisdom and Goodnsss to restrain them from further ruining others first and then themselves The Crown hath often lost by Credulity what it hath got by Valour it hath lost by pretence of Peace what it had gain'd in open War The Kings interest in France was thus lost the GOD of peace prevent the like in Ireland The consequence threatned in respect of God are dreadful judgements such as P. W. confesseth to have bin wonderfully inflicted on the Irish Nation for their breach of the peace in 1646. and such as were inflicted on Sauls house for his breach with the Gibeonites I see the best Wits have not always the best Memories else P. W. would have remembred the breach made by his Nation in 1641. and since 1648. as well as in 1646. for those doubtless were as criminal as this but possibly he thinks it was more sin for his Country-men to violate what they oblig'd themselves to as a FREE STATE then what they were oblig'd to do as SUBJECTS and therefore thinks their sins in 1646. were greater then in 1641. But if all were pardoned by the peace made in 1648. why does he remember the Judgements for the breaches in 1646 if he thinks all were not why does he not remember the breaches made in 1641. and at least attribute some of those Judgements to that breach But I had almost forgot what perhaps P. W. may plead in answer to my Objection and that is no less then the POPE's BULL of indulgence and pardon published in Latin in Ireland and thus carefully for so much of it as follows translated into English URBANUS OCTAVUS Ad futuram rei memoriam Having taken into our serious consideration the great Zeal of the