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
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
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
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
and Commanding as well in Secular as Ecclesiastical Matters to the Popes Nuncio who began his Empire with committing to Prison the Commissioners who had been Instrumental in the Treaty and making of the Peace by order of the general Assembly and issued out an Excommunication against all those who had or should submit to the Peace which comprehended all the Nobility and almost all the Gentry and some of the Clergy which Excommunication wrought so universally upon the minds of the People that albeit all Persons of Honour and Quality received infinite scandal and well foresaw the irreparable damage Religion it self would undergo by that unwarrantable Proceeding and used their utmost Power to draw the People to obedience and submission to the said Agreement and to that purpose prevail'd so far with General Preston that he gave them reason to hope that he would joyn with them for the vindication of the publick Faith and the Honour of the Nation and compel those that oppos'd it to submit to the Peace Yet all these endeavours produced no effect but concluded in unprofitable Resentments and Lamentation In the mean time Owen O Neil when he found himself disappointed of his Design to have cut off the Lord-Lieutenant before he should reach Dublin enter'd into the Queens-County and committed all Acts of Cruelty and Outrage that could be imagined took many Castles and Forts which belong'd to the King and put all who resisted to the Sword and his Officers in cold blood caus'd others to be murther'd to whom they had promised Quarter as Major Pigot and others of his Family About the latter end of June this year Major General Monro received a severe defeat from Owen Roe O-Neil at Benburgh alias Benburge near Charlemont in the County of Ardmagh whereby the whole Province was exposed to the Rebels fury in as much as if they had had the Courage or Policy to have prosecuted it they might have destroyed all the Scotch Quarters and endanger'd their Towns but Owen Roe instead of prosecuting the Victory went presently with the Prisoners and Colours in Triumph to Kilkenny so gave our Forces a breathing whilst the Parliament suspecting his union with Preston immediately ordered 50000 l. out of the Excise for the raising of more men for Ireland and some Horse besides Foot were presently sent over with Ammunition and other necessaries these called at Dublin but the Design being not then fit for their Reception they were otherwise disposed of And shortly after the Nuncio prevail'd so much that he united General Preston to his Army at which time he took this Oath I A. B. Swear and Protest that I will adhere to the present union of the Confederate Roman Catholicks that reject the Peace lately agreed and proclaimed at Dublin and do nothing by Word Deed Writing Advice or otherwise to the Prejudice of that Union and will to the uttermost of my Power advance and further the Good and Preservation of it and of his Majesties Rights and the Priviledges of free-born Subjects to the Natives of this Kingdom And then the Nuncio as Generalissimo lead both Armies towards Dublin where the Lord Lieutenant was so surprized with their Perfidiousness that he found himself in no less straights and distresses from his Friends within then from his Enemies without who totally neglected those Forces which being under the obedience of the Parliament of England had always waged a sharp and bloody War with them and at present made inroads into their Quarters to their great damage and intirely ingaged themselves to suppress the Kings Authority to which they had so lately submitted Lest so prodigious an alteration as is now set forth may seem to be wrapt up in too short a discourse and it may appear almost incredible that an Agreement so deliberately and solemnly entred into by the whole Nobility and Gentry of the Nation in a Matter that so intirely concern'd their own Interest should in such an instant be blasted and anihilated by a Congregation of Clergy assembled onely by their own authority And therefore without the vice of curiosity all men may desire to be inform'd by what Degrees and Method that Congregation proceeded and what specious Pretences and Insinuations they us'd towards the People for the better perswading them to depart from that Peace they were even again restored to the Possession of It will not be impertinent therefore to set down some important particulars of their Proceedings and the very forms of some Instruments publish'd by them that the World may see the Logick and Rhetorick that was used to impose upon and delude that unhappy People and to intangle them more in that Labyrinth of Confusion wherein they were long involved They were not content not to suffer the Peace not to be proclaimed in Waterford and to disswade the People from submitting to it But by a Decree dated the 12 day of August 1646. which they commanded to be published in all places in the English and Irish Tongue they declared by the unanimous consent and votes of all even none contradicting as they say That all and singular the Confederate Catholicks who should adhere or consent to the Peace or to the Fautors thereof or otherwise embrace the same should be held absolute perjur'd especially for this cause that in those Articles there is no mention made of the Catholick Religion or the security thereof or any care taken for the Conservation of the Priviledges of the Country as had been promised in an Oath formerly taken by them but rather all things referred to the Pleasure of the most renowned King from whom in his present state they said nothing of certainty could be had And in the Interim the Armies and Arms and Fortunes even the Supream Council it self of the Confederate Catholicks were subjected to the Authority and Rule of the Council of State and Protestant Officers of his Majesty from whom that they might be secured they had taken that Oath And the next day being informed that the Lord Viscount Mountgarret and Lord Viscount Muskery were appointed by the Supream Council at Kilkenny to go to Dublin to confer with the Lord Lieutenant upon the best way to be pursued for the execution and observation of the Peace they made an Order in Writing in which were these words We admonish in our Lord and require the Persons who are departed to Dublin that they forbear and abstain from going thither for the said end or if they be gone that they return and this under pain of Excommunication commanding the Right Honourable the Bishop of Ossory and other Bishops as well assembled as not assembled here and their Vicars General as also Vicars Apostolical and all Priests even Irregulars that they intimate these Presents or cause to be intimated even by affixing them in publick places and that they proceed against the disobedient in denouncing of Excommunication as it should seem expedient in our Lord. When the Supream Council notwithstanding these new
and to the Peace of this Kingdom to be put into the actual possession of his Estate he paying and contributing to the maintenance of the Army and necessary burdens of the Countrey proportionable to the rest of his Neigbours 2. That you cause the Articles of War to be put in execution amongst all the Forces under your Command whereof we send you down herewithall a Copy 3. Whereas it is well known to belong to us as General of the Army in this Kingdom under his Majesty to dispose of all Military Offices and Commands whether in Chief or Subordinate which Right we cannot in Honour suffer to be lost from the Sword and whereas some Commissions lately have been Procured giving Power to other Commanders to name and place all sorts of Military Officers under the respective Commands in which Commissions nevertheless and much more in the Instructions there is an express reference to us and to our Approbation from which they are to receive their validity We do therefore Order and Declare our Pleasure thereby That no Commander whatsoever within the Province of Ulster do assume to themselves the nomination of Military Officers as Colonels Lieutenant-Colonels Majors Captains Lieutenants Cornets or Ensigns upon pretence of any late Commission but leave them to our discretion as in this Kingdom hath ever been accustomed 4. If any Person shall speak or act to the prejudice of his Majesties Authority or Affairs let him upon proof be forthwith Imprisoned and his Estate secured and an Information sent up to us of the nature of his Crime that we may give further Order therein And if any Ecclesiastical Person in his Prayer or Sermon shall presume to exercise the People to Sedition or Disobedience or shall intermeddle in Pulpit or Consistory with the managery of Civil Affairs or shall derogate from the present Government or Governours of this Kingdom or shall teach that his Majesty is not to be admitted to the possession of his Crown until he hath given satisfaction to his Subjects or until he have taken such Oaths and Covenants as are impos'd upon him without his Consent without Law contrary to the Dictates of his own Conscience upon proof thereof without further Circumstance let his Estate be confiscated to the use of the Army and himself be either imprisoned or banished or tryed for his Life as the Enemy shall deserve 5. If there be any Person whose Loyalty is suspected let the Chief in Command upon the Place administer unto him the Oath of Allegiance and if he refuse it let them secure both his Person and Estate and send up an information to us that we may cause proofs to be made against him 6. Although we cannot now take notice of the Scotch Army in this Kingdom or of any distinct from that which is committed into our hands by his Majesty we expecting a joynt obedience of all Forces English Scotch and Irish indifferently as branches of the Army under our Command yet in respect your old Quarters are straightn'd by the Garrison of Belfast by our very good Lord the Lord Vicount Montgomery of the Ards we are well pleased in lieu thereof to assign unto you for the enlargement of your Quarters so much of the Countreys of Antrim as was possessed or enjoyed by Sir John Clotworthie's Regiment now disbanded of themselves and because we cannot but judge that this dissolution of them proceeds from the aversness to his Majesties Service and therefore we require that none of them be admitted into any Troops as Horsemen or Dragooners 7. For Answer to your other Proposition if any Postage shall be sent down from them or from the other Provinces of the Kingdom into Ulster for his Majesties Service upon any occasion it is our Pleasure they have their Quarter and Provision for the present in these Quarters through which they pass but the whole Province of Ulster is to contribute proportionably towards the Charge 8. Let the Siege of Derry be prosecuted by the common advice of the Lord Vicount Mountgomery of Ardes Robert Stewart Sir George Monro and Colonel Audley Meryin 9. We desire the said four Persons last mention'd likewise to consider and certifie what fit Augmentation of Quarter and further Provision may be assign'd to the Regiment and Troops of Esteline without prejudice or with the least prejudice to any other of his Majesties Forces ORMOND Upon the Lord Inchiquin's success at Dundalk the lesser Garrisons of Newry Narrow-water Green-Castle and Carlingford were easily subjected and the Lord Inchiquin in his return being appointed to visit the Town of Trim the onely Garrison left to the Parliamentarians in those parts except Dublin in two days after he had besieged it he made himself Master of it and so return'd with his Party not impair'd by the Service to the Lord Lieutenant in his Camp at Finglass Owen O Neil still continued his affection to the Parliamentarians and when he found that his design of drawing the Marquis of Ormond's Army from Dublin could not prevail he hastned into Ulster and upon the payment of 2000 l. in money some Ammunition and about 2000 Cows he rais'd the Siege of London-derry the 8th of August the onely considerable Place in that Province which held for the Parliament under Sir Charles Coot and which was even then reduc'd to the last extremity by the Lord Viscount Mountgomery of Ardes Sir George Monro Sir Robert Stewart Colonel Audley Mervin and others and must in few days have submitted to the Kings Authority if it had not in that manner been relieved by the Irish under O Neil with whom Colonel Richard Coal in the behalf of Sir Charles Coot Lord President of Connaght had made Articles of Cessation as Colonel Monk had done before on the grounds of necessity the 22. of May 1649. the benefit of which he acquainted the State with desiring that the Propositions presented by him might be accepted which was thought by them a demand so extravagant and of such dangerous consequence to the whole Kingdom as it was ill resented Owen Roe and his Party having been first engaged in those horrid Massacres and presently rejected And though Sir Charles Coot was not censur'd because it was presum'd he did it out of necessity yet several Votes passed against him as to that Cessation though he was continued in his Imployment and having received the pleasure of the Parliament concerning the Cessation made by him with Owen Roe presently acquainted him therewith who according to Articles betwixt them did soon retire and as we shall see afterwards came to an agreement with the Marquis of Ormond finding he could not by any means he could use draw himself or his Party to be accepted of by the Parliament an attempt he earnestly solicited engaging to maintain their Interest with the hazard of his Life and Fortune against all opposers whatsoever with whom joyn'd the Lords Gentry and Commons of the Confederate Catholicks of Ulster though many were of
that it proceeded not from the Spirit that was included and confined within the Walls but that it was the same that was generally working in other places He was well enough satisfied that they who were most passionately possessed with it had no correspondence with the Parliament nor had a mind to be subjected to their Power he was willing therefore to believe that they had fancied and imagined to themselves some expedient for their own preservation which could not fall within his comprehension and that they might have contracted a prejudice to his Person or to his Religion which might keep them from such an union and confidence as they might be reduc'd unto under some Catholick who might be as zealous to preserve his Majesties Interest and recover the Kingdom to his obedience and he was the more confirmed in this his apprehension by revolving the several passages which had hapned at his being at Limerick during the time that they seem'd to pay him all respect when the Lord Inchiquin had been then with him towards whom they had observed the Marquis had a great confidence and friendship as he well deserved at which time some principal Persons of the City and with them some of the Bishops had under a shew of great confidence and trust repaired to the Lord. Lieutenant and declared unto him That all that indisposition and waywardness of the People proceeded from the prejudice they had against the Lord Inchequin who had always they said prosecuted the War against them with the most rigour and animosity and the Places and Persons which had been most at his devotion having treacherously revolted to the Parliament the People were not confident of him and jealous that the Marquis had too great a confidence in him so that if he would dismiss that Lord and discharge the Troops that yet remained under his Command of which some frequently ran away to the Parliament not onely that City but the whole Nation would as one man be at his disposal While these insinuations were thus proposed to the Lord Lieutenant other Persons and those as leading men with an equal number of Bishops applied themselves to the Lord Inchequin and told him That whilst the affairs were conducted by the Marquis of Ormond they expected no good fortune that they looked upon him as not of their Nation and one so solicitous for the English Interest and all English-men that he was nothing regardful of them and theirs But that his Lordship was of the most antient Extraction of Ireland and under that notion look'd upon with great affection and reverence by the Irish and if the Government and Command were exercis'd by him there would be such an Obedience paid to him that he would in short time grow strong enough to oppose the Enemy and recover his Countrey When these two Lords had communicated each to other as they quickly did the excellent Addresses which had been made to them and agreed together how to draw on and encourage the Proposers that they might discover as much of their purposes as was possible they easily found their design was to be rid of them both And when they perceived by the continuance of the same Friendship that they had communicated with each other they less dissembled towards both but proceeded with those disrespects which are mention'd before The Marquis having sadly considered all this and that nothing might remain unattempted by him that he could possibly imagine might tend in any degree to the recovery or preservation of the Kingdom he appointed another meeting to be at Loghreogh the 25th of April and summon'd thither all the Catholick Bishops as many of the Nobility as could with any security come thither the chief Gentlemen of Quality of the Parts adjacent and several Officers of the Army where being met together he gave them in the first place an Answer in writing to a Paper he had received from the Archbishop of Tuam the first of April intituled The Grievances presented by the Congregation of Prelates assembled propria motu at Cloanmacnoise in which he made it evident how much they were mistaken in the matter of Fact and that which was really amiss proceeded from themselves and their not observing the Orders and Rules they were bound by and could not be prevented by him and consented to all the good and practicable ways proposed by themselves for remedying the like for the future He remembred them of the pains he had taken of the Propositions he had made of the Orders he had given and of the Neglects Disobedience and Affronts he had received by which alone the Enemy made that progress in their Successes He shewed them a Letter he had received lately from his Master the King bearing date on the 2d of February from Castle Elizabeth in the Isle of Jersey in answer to one writ from Kilkenny in December in which his Majesty signified his gracious pleasure to him That in case of the continuance of that disobedience in the People and contempt of his Authority he should withdraw himself and his Majesties Authority out of that Kingdom Whereupon he told them having received so little effect of all the pains he had taken and so ill returns for all the affection he had shewed to them he was resolved to make use speedily of the liberty the King had given him as to his own Person which he found was rendred so unacceptable to the People yet if they could propose to him any way how he might deposite the Kings Authority in such manner as it might not be exposed to the same affronts it had received in him and might be applied to the preservation of the People and recovery of the Nation he would gladly gratifie them and would heartily wish that they might receive that happiness by his absence which they could not receive in his presence and to that purpose desired them to consult seriously and maturely among themselves Upon this all the Bishops Nobility and Commissioners of Trust with the principal Gentlemen expressed very much trouble at the resolution the Marquis had taken and on the last day of April from Loghreogh 1650 made an Address to him in writing under their several hands in which amongst other things they told him That they conceiv'd themselves in duty bound for his better information of the inclination of that Nation humbly to present to him That however his Excellency might not have met with a ready concurrence to some Proposals made for the advancing his Majesties Service occasion'd through some misunderstanding in some few Persons and Places yet the Country generally and the Nation in it as they had already by expending their Substance in an extraordinary measure and their Lives upon all occasions abundantly testifi'd their sincere and irremovable affections to preserve his Majesties Rights and Interests intire to him so they would for the future and with like cheerfulness endeavour to overcome all difficulties which the Enemies
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
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
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
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
the issue of that Treaty was and what regard there was had therein to the King's Honour we have in the next Place reason to mention And the rather for that those whom the Marquess of Clanrickard authorized to Treat with the Duke of Lorraign had most perfidiously wav'd his Instructions resuming to themselves a Deputation and Authority from the People and Kingdom of Ireland An Insolency so great as the Lord Deputy resents it with a just Indignation First we shall give you their Agreement then his Letter An Agreement betwixt Charles the 4th Duke of Lorrain and Theobald Lord Viscount Taaff Sir Nicholas Plunket and Jeffrey Brown deputed and authorized by the People and Kingdom of Ireland 1. THe most Illustrious Duke is to be vested with Royal Power under the Title of Protector Royal of Ireland 2. Because Religion is the prime End and Subject of the Treaty all is to begin with an Imploring Application to the Pope for his Paternal Benediction and Help That he will not be wanting in things Spiritual or Temporal in consideration whereof it is Protested that constant perpetual Obsequiousness of Duty and Faithfulness shall be paid to his Holiness and the Apostolick See 3. In consideration of this Royal Protector 's Power granted the Duke is by War to prosecute the Kings Enemies and afford him all possible Assistance 4. The said Duke is to do nothing in Derogation of the Kings Authority or Jurisdiction in Ireland but rather to amplifie it And having restored the Kingdom and Religion to its due pristine Estate he is to resign cheerfully the Kingdom to the King 5. Before Resignation as aforesaid the Duke is to be re-imbursed all by him pre-impended in this Business and for this Re-imbursment a general and exact Obedience to the Duke in Faith and Fidelity from the Kingdom and People is made and to be observ'd without reservation to any other Superiority whatsoever 6. The Duke is not to fail on his part to expel out of Ireland Hereticks Enemies to the King and his Religion and to recover and defend all things belonging to the faithful Subjects of Ireland 7. The Duke is Solely and Absolutely to exercise all Military Power for the present and future in Ireland as to the nomination of all Commanders and guiding all Martial Proceedings at his own Pleasure and in his own Person unless he in his absence substitute some other Catholick Person 8. The Duke is to introduce no Innovation in the Towns c. to him assigned repugnant to the Securities Priviledges Immunities Proprieties Lands Estates or antient Laws of the Irish reserving onely to himself Authority to apply Remedies to any thing accruing wherein publick prejudice may be concern'd 9. The Duke is not to interpose in Administration of Judicial or Civil Affairs but leave them to be proceeded in according to the Fundamental Laws and publick Form of the Kings chief Governor and the Assembly instituted 10. The manner of calling Assemblies to be as formerly unless complaint arise against their Government or other extraordinary Emergencies hinder And then according to the antient Laws the cutting off the Assembly is to be at the Pleasure of his Highness 11. When the work is done in Ireland by consent of a General Assembly the Duke promises to afford Agents to the King against Rebelling Adversaries in other Kingdoms 12. In case the Duke cannot go in Person into Ireland it is free in his Choice and Pleasure to depute any other man of Catholick Piety who shall be independent on the Militia and in Civil Matters shall be received to all manner of Councils in the same right as any other Counsellor or Commissioner 13. All Cities Castles Lands taken from the English shall revert to the Owners if Catholicks who have constantly persevered in the Catholick Quarters under the Duke Yet the Duke's Military Power shall be intire over the same to Garrison and dispose of them for publick Security at his Pleasure 14. All Pay to the Souldiers is to pass from the Duke as well out of the publick Revenues as the Duke's Coffers when that fails Provided that the Duke disburses of his proper Money for publick uses for the future to be repaid him as his former Disbursements 15. All Goods of Enemies and Dilinquents are to be converted to the publick Military Charges and towards rewarding great Merits by the Duke with advice of the General Assembly 16. The Duke besides 20000 l. already contributed promises all further Accommodations and Supplements for War together with his Power and Industry what is not above the reach of his Faculties and beneath the necessities of the War towards the repayment whereof as well principal as the annual provenue and use thereof the whole Nation of Ireland is to be liable until the last penny be paid And for Caution in the mean time the Duke is to be seized and possessed in his own hands of Galway Limerick Athenry the Castle and Town of Athlone and Waterford and the Royal Fort of Duncannon when recovered from the Enemy and these are to remain to him and his Heirs until full and intire satisfaction receiv'd and to pay just Obedience and be garrison'd and commanded at his Pleasure 17. In laying of publick Taxes and levying the same for the Dukes satisfaction the Duke do proceed by Advice of the General Assembly and all aggrieved Parties in case of inequality to seek Redress from the General Assembly 18. For liquidating and stateing the Dukes Disbursements a certain Method shall be agreed on between the Duke and the said Transactors but for the Persons to be intrusted in that Charge the General Assembly is to alter them at their Pleasure 19 The Duke shall make no Peace nor Cessation without the Lord Deputy or General Assembly 20. The Lord Deputy and General Assembly shall make no Peace without the consent of the Duke July 22. 1651. Signed Charles of Lorraign The Lord Marquess of Clanrickard Lord Deputy of Ireland his Letter to the Duke of Lorraign Octob. 20th 1651. May it please your Highness I Had the Honour on the 12th of this instant to receive a Letter from your Highness dated the 10th of September wherein you are pleased to express your great zeal for the advancement of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom your great affection to the King my Master and your good opinion of this Nation and your compassion of their sufferings and your great readiness to afford them aid and assistance even equal with your own nearest concernments and that your Highness received such satisfaction from the Queen and Duke of York as did much strengthen those resolutions so as they might sooner appear but for the stay made here of Monsieur St. Catherin and his long Northern Voyage upon his return and referred what concerned the agreement to the relation of those Commissioners I had imployed to your Highness to treat upon that subject of Assistance and Relief for this Kingdom I with much alacrity congratulate
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
it by any publick Writing that the Design seem'd a Birth acceptable to the Catholick Community And the Pope by his Nuncio afterwards to whom the general part of the Clergy and Natives adhear'd in effect maintain'd what Mahony had deliver'd for wholesome Doctrine accounting the Popes Bulls and Interdictions and Absolutions how long soever since publish'd still in the same force and vigour as they were the first day of their publication And it is very few years since writes this Honourable Person that upon the meeting of the Secular and Regular Clergy of Ireland before-mention'd to frame an Address to the King in testimony of their obedience disclaiming any Temporal Authority in the Popes the Court of Rome was so alarm'd by it that Cardinal Barbarin writ to them to desist from any such Declaration putting them in mind that the Kingdom of England was still under Excommunication And Walsh acquaints us at large of Mac-Mahon the Irish Jesuits printed Book of the lawfulness of killing not onely all the Protestants but even all such of the Roman Catholick Irish who should stand for the Crown of England and the Rights of the King to Ireland A Tenent agreeable to Salamanca's approbation of Oneal's Rebellion 1602. instigated by Pope Clement the 8th whereby it 's declared That all Catholicks who followed the English Standard against Prince Oneal mortally sinned And Osulevan the Priest in King James's Reign said It was a Doctrine fetch'd from Hell that Catholicks in Ireland should joyn with the Queens Forces which were Protestants against the Rebels Catholicks in Ireland and that such English ought to be no less set upon than the Turks So that whatsoever delusive Tenents have been broach'd of late as to perswade us the Adder is without sting the contrary hath been written in letters of blood not in his Majesty's Kingdoms only but wheresome-ever the Papal Power was exalted That persons professing the Reformed Religion are but Tenants at Will for their Lives and Fortunes and through Centuries of Ages it appears that as their Fleeces grow they are shorn till a time of slaughter be appointed That hence we may see at what we should have arriv'd had the Irish been fortunate in their attempt for though the loyal Formulary or Remonstrance highly magnified by some may seem a Bond of Iron it may easily by the Pope become weaker than a Rope of Straw During the Summer Sessions of Parliament already spoke of wherein the Heads of the Rebellion were closely complotting some under a suspicion that the Earl of Strafford's Servants in revenge of their Lord's death intended a Mischief to the Parliament mov'd the House and accordingly had Orders that the Lords Justices would let his Majesty's Stores for Powder and Arms be search'd which by a Committee they so curiously perform'd as they turn'd over several improbable Chests to find it out and when they had seen that there was none according to what the Officers of the Ordnance had before assur'd them yet they seem'd unsatisfied and repair'd on a new Order to the Lords Justices to be admitted to see the Stores of Powder and Arms plac'd in other Parts in and about the Castle To whom the Lord Justice Borlase Master of the Ordnance principally interess'd in securing his Majesties Stores answer'd That those were the King 's precious Jewels not to be without special Gause shewed assuring them further that they needed not to be afraid for that upon his Honour there was no Powder underneath either of the Houses of Parliament as at the Trial of the Lord Mac Quire at the King's Bench in Westminster was openly in Court testified by the Lord Blaney a great sufferer a worthy and gallant Person the said Lord Justice Borlase having at that time such a motion in his blood upon the importunity of that enquiry as he would afterwards often mention that action of theirs as aiming how slightly soever then looked on by others at some further mark than was thâ—n discernable So that at that instant he denied them whereat they seem'd discontented as being left in uncertainty in what state his Majesty's Stores stood which they desired particularly to know the late new Army being disbanded then and their Arms brought in that if the Powder and Arms were not there they might find them elsewhere or if there then by the intended surprize to be sure of them and to know where on the sudden to find them In which search the Lord Mac Quire was a chief actor and very inquisitive Thus in order to their Design they made ready for the Business passing that Session of Parliament began the xi of May 1641. for the most part away in Protestations Declarations Votes upon the Queries the stay of Souldiers from going over Seas and private Petitions little to the good of the Common-wealth or advancement of his Majesty's Service whereof the Lords Justices and Councel having notice finding withal that the Popish Party in both Houses grew to so great a height as was scarce compatible to the present Government they imparted by a Message to both Houses the 14th of July following their intention to give a recess for some months the harvest coming on and both Houses growing thin Which intimation of a recess both Houses readily assented to so that the 7th of August the Lords Justices adjourn'd the Houses to the 9th of November following which afterwards the Members of Parliament aggravated as a great unkindness the Committee of Parliament being expected from England and arriv'd at Dublin near the end of August Whereas when the Parliament was adjourn'd and before there was no certainty of their Committee's return the Earl of Roscommon who few days before coming from England expressing in plain terms that the Bills desired were not likely in any short time to be dispatch'd as the Letters from the Irish Committee at London which this Lord brought over inform'd too and That they were daily about their dispatch but could not guess when they might have it Yet as I have took notice in August beyond expectation the Committee return'd upon whose arrival the Lords Justices and Councel desirous to give them all satisfaction imaginable sate daily composing of Acts to be passed the next Sessions of Parliament for the benefit of his Majesty and the good of his Subjects on which the Members of Parliament then at Dublin and their Committee newly arriv'd seem'd with great contentment to retire into the Countrey the Lords Justices forthwith sending Briefs to all the Ports in the Kingdom of the Graces concerning Customs commanding the Officers punctually to obey those his Majesty's Directions particularly what-ever concern'd Wool Tobacco as all other things of that nature wherein his Majesty had been pleas'd to gratifie the Committee They gave Order also for drawing a Bill for repeal of the Preamble of the Act of Subsidies They also desired Sir William Cole and Sir James Montgomery two of the Committee if they could ever take the Assizes in the County
his Majesty the 18th of April 1644. did agree with their sence in order to the present condition of the Kingdom Whereby it 's thought that if it had been said that the 24 Propositions had been agreed to by the Protestants in general there would have been an Endeavour to have got some to have signed an Instrument against the Agent 's Proceedings and therefore their Proceeding was acknowledged to be according to their Instructions and their Correspondent's Advice in Town As in the Answer May it please your Lordships IN Obedience to your Lordship's Commands signified in your Order of the 5th of June 1644. directed to us the Persons under-named requiring us to certifie your Lordships Whether the 24 Propositions of his Majesty's Protestant Agents of Ireland presented to his Majesty do agree with our sence in order to the present condition of this Kingdom We the said Persons do humbly certifie That we have perused the Propositions in the said Order mention'd and do humbly conceive them to be in substance pursuant to the humble Petition of his Majesty's Protestant Subjects as well Commanders of his Majesty's Army here as others a Copy of which Petition hath been formerly presented to your Lordships and from that Honourable Board transmitted to his Sacred Majesty and by him graciously receiv'd as may appear by his Majesty's Letters of the 6th of November last whereof your Lordships were pleas'd to grant the Petitioners a Copy And that the said Propositions are as we humbly conceive in substance pursuant unto certain Instructions entituled Instructions for the Agents who are to attend his most Sacred Majesty on the behalf of his Majesty's Protestant Subjects of Ireland Which Instructions were also presented at that Honourable Board and there upon serious Debate according to the Pleasure of your Lordships in some things altered and so a Copy thereof was delivered to your Lordships And we humbly conceive that the said Propositions are such in substance as if way may be found whereby his Majesty may bring to pass the Particulars therein conceiv'd they would conduce to the Establishment of the true Protestant Religion the Honour and Advantage of his Majesty and the future Security of his Highness his Royal Posterity this his Kingdom and the Protestant Subjects therein But how these Propositions stand in order to the present condition of this Kingdom is a thing far above us to resolve All which we humbly leave to your Lordship's Grave Considerations Signed Will. Cooley Will. Usher Hen. Jones Anth. Dopping Will. Plunket Theod. Schoute Peter Wybrants When the Irish Confederates Agents return'd into Ireland most of them as far as acted in view perform'd their Promise and Engagements to the King so as many of the Nobility and Gentry and most of the Persons of considerable Fortune together with the moderate Clergy who are easie to be number'd were convinc'd of the necessity of submitting themselves entirely to the King till he was able to grant them more that they might not be glad to accept of less But the evil Genius of that People condemn'd to wilful ruine and misfortune soon evidenc'd how unripe they were for mercy and that it was not so easie to allay the Spirits they had conjur'd up as to foment and irritate them The Nobility and Men of known Fortune whom self-Interest by this time had taught Loyalty found that they had lost their Power and the Reverence they had parted with to the Clergy had much Influence on he common People who devoting themselves solely to their Clergy's Dictate oppos'd all Conclusions which according to Wisdom and true Policy were to be the Ingredients of a happy and lasting Peace And so above 2 years were spent after these Agent 's departure from the King in fruitless and in-effectual Treaties the Earl of Glamorgan in the interim treating in that wilde order with the Rebels as under a pretended sufficient Authority from the King utterly disown'd he blew them up to such a pernicious Expectation by the feigned Articles he sign'd to them the 25th of August 1645. so destructive both to Church and State and so repugnant to his Majesty's publick Professions and known Resolutions as the Treaty of Peace proceeding on more agreeable Terms by the Lord Lieutenant found many rubbs and impediments Whilst the Strength and Power of the Parliament's Forces in England exceedingly increased and his Majesty's Forces were defeated and himself for want of Succours promis'd out of Ireland was compelled to deliver up himself to his Scottish Subjects and was shortly after by them given into the hands of the Parliament of England who being at last split into several Factions so varied Councils as in conclusion he was betrayed and suffer'd to the astonishment of the World But that I may not o're-slip the Series of this Story which through a conflux of Matter will sometimes unavoidably be disturbed I must take notice that the first Cessation being near determin'd the 5th of Sept. 1644. there was a new Cessation agreed on by the Lord Lieutenant and the Irish Commissioners to begin on the 15th of September and continue till the 1st of December following And in respect that the Treaty of Peace had several Matters of weight and consequence which necessarily required further time to be prepared and drawn into writing it was agreed on at the Castle of Dublin the 2d of Octob. anno praedict that the Treaty should be adjourn'd to the 4th of November ensuing the Irish Agents in the interim to have liberty to continue in or come to Dublin as often as they should think fit which time they improved and Affairs were so managed as there was never any other Cessation till the Peace About which time the Earls of Thomond Clanrickard and St. Albans the Lord Rannelagh Fitz-williams Taaff and Dillon who had never receded from his Majesty's Commands writ to him That betwixt two Parties one if they were disposed to make Invasion upon them and the other who sticking to the Covenant dis-obey'd the Cessation they were like to be ruin'd and therefore implor'd his Majesty to reconcile the Difference betwixt those who were too high either of the Confederates or Protestants in their Demands and declare against the Scots who would make little distinction were it in their power between them and those whom they now assaulted In treating of Peace we must not forget that the Lord Inchequin having been easily wrought on to agree to the Cessation carried over many of his Munster Forces to the King who in memory of his service bestowed on him a noble Wardship and would have made him an Earl But the Presidency of Munster pre-dispos'd of to the Earl of Portland being his aim he returns again into Ireland and from Cork the 17th of July 1644. he and other Officers there writes to his Majesty That no Peace could be concluded with the Irish Rebels which would not bring unto his Majesty and the English in general a far greater prejudice than
implorant demisse benedictionem obsecrantes Kilkenniae 7. Jan. 1645. Vestrae Sanctitatis ad Pedum Oscula But to proceed to the Peace in which all the Particulars which might concern the Interest and Security of either Party being maturely weighed and considered and then every Article being first read debated and approved in the general Assembly without one dissenting voice the whole was concluded and the Confederate Catholicks obliged to transport within a very short time an Army of 10000 Men into England for the Service and Relief of the King as by the succeeding Propositions with Colonel Fitz-Williams is fuller evident Fitz-Williams's Propositions about the Treaty with the Queen to bring Irish into England Col. Fitz-Williams humbly prays and propounds as followeth THat your Sacred Majesty will vouchsafe to prevail with his Majesty to condescend to the just Demands of his Irish Subjects the Confederate Catholicks in Ireland at least in private That upon the consideration thereof Colonel Fitz-Williams humbly propounds and undertakes with approbation of Mr. Hertogen now imployed Agent for the said Confederate Catholicks in Ireland to bring an Army of 10000 Men or more of the King's Subjects in his Kingdom of Ireland for the King's Service into England That Colonel Fitz-Williams undertakes for the sum of 10000 l. sterling to levy Ships and arm the 10000 Men and so proportionably for more or less and that the said Moneys may be paid into such hands as may be safe for your Majesty as well as ready for the said Colonel when it shall appear the said Army shall be in readiness to be transported into England That upon the Landing of the said Men there shall be advanced to the Colonel one months Pay for all the Army according to the Muster for the present support of the Army That Colonel Fitz-Williams may be Commander in Chief thereof and dispose of all the Officers and only be commanded by the King Prince and and qualified with such Benefits as have been formerly granted unto your Majesty's Generals that have commanded Bodies apart from the King 's own Army as the Earl of Kingston and others whereby the better to enable him in the Levies as well as in the general Conduct of the Business And in respect the Order gives no Power to the Irish therefore that the said Forces shall not by any Order whatsoever be divided at least that the Colonel may be supplied with a Body of 2000. to be ready at the Place of Landing That the Colonel may be provided with Arms and Ammunition or with Money requisite for himself to provide necessary Proportions for to bring with him That the Army shall be paid as other Armies of the King Having taken these Propositions into Consideration We have thought fit to testifie our Approbation and Agreement thereunto under our Sign Manual assuring what hath been desired of us therein shall be forthwith effectually endeavour'd and not doubting to the satisfaction of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland and of the said Colonel so that we may justly expect an agreeable compliance and performance accordingly from all Parties in their several Concernments Henriette Marie All things thus stated and setled the Commissioners who had treated in the Peace were sent by and in the Name of the Assembly to Dublin where the Lord Lieutenant resided to sign the said Articles and to receive his Lordship's Confirmation of them And accordingly the Articles were the 30th of July 1646. interchangeably signed and perfected with all formality requisite notwithstanding his Majesty's Letter from Newcastle the 11th of June 1646. to treat no farther with the Rebels and shortly after they were with great Solemnity and Ceremony published and proclaimed by the King at Arms at Dublin and at Kilkenny where the Supream Council and the Assemblies of all the Confederate Catholicks were held and then Printed by their Authority The Arch-Bishop of Firmo manifesting his approbation of all that had been done giving his blessing to the Commissioners when they were sent to Dublin to conclude the Treaty and other Ministers from Foraign Princes being present consenting to and witnessing the Conclusion By the Lord Lieutenant and Council Ormond WHereas Articles of Peace are made concluded accorded and agréed upon by and between Us James Lord Marquiss of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General and General Governor of his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland his Majesties Commissioner to Treat and Conclude a Peace with his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects of the said Kingdom by vertue of his Majesties Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing Date at Buckingham on the 24th day of June in the Twentieth year of his Reign for and on the behalf of his Most Excellent Majesty of the one part and Donogh Lord Viscount Muskery and others appointed and Authorized by his Majesties said Roman Catholick Subjects by vertue of an Authority of the said Roman Catholick Subjects bearing Date the sixth day of March 1645. and in the 21. year of his Majesties Reign of the other part a true Copy of which Articles of Peace is hereunto annexed We the Lord Lieutenant and Council do by this Proclamation in his Majesties Name Publish the same And do in his Majesties Name strictly charge and command all his Majesties Subjects and all others Inhabiting or Residing within his Majesties said Kingdom of Ireland to take notice thereof and to render due Obedience to the same in all the parts thereof And as his Majesty hath been induced to this Peace out of a deep sense of the Miseries and Calamities brought upon this his Kingdom and People and out of a hope conceived by his Majesty that it may prevent the further effusion of his Subjects blood redeem them out of all the miseries and calamities under which they now suffer restore them to all quietness and happiness under his Majesties most gracious Government deliver the Kingdom in general from those slaughters deprecations rapines and spoils which always accompany a War encourage the Subjects and others with comfort to betake themselves to Trade Traffick Commerce Manufacture and all other things which un-interrupted may increase the wealth and strength of the Kingdom beget in all his Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom a perfect Unity amongst themselves after the too long continued Division amongst them So his Majesty assures himself that all his Subjects of this his Kingdom duly considering the great and inestimable benefits which they may find in this Peace will with all duty render due obedience thereunto And We in his Majesties Name do hereby Declare That all Persons so rendring due Obedience to the said Peace shall be protected cherished countenanced and supported by his Majesty and his Royal Authority according to the true intent and meaning of the said Articles of Peace Given at his Majesties Castle of Dublin the Thirtieth day of July 1646. Ri. Bolton Canc. Roscomon Dillon Cha. Lambart Gerrard Lowther Fr. Willoughby Robert Forth La. Dublin Geo. Cloyne Arthur Chichester Hen. Tichborn Tho. Lucas
Toleration of the Romish Catholick Religion had in truth prov'd for the extirpation of the Protestant when they should think fit to put the same in execution Nor was the only Argument and Excuse which they published for these Proceedings more reasonable than the Proceedings themselves which was That the Concessions and Promises made unto them by the Earl of Glamorgan were much larger and greater security for their Religion than those consented to by the Marquess Whereas in truth those Concessions and Promises made by the Earl as we have took notice were dis-avowed and dis-own'd by the Lord Lieutenant before the Peace was concluded and the Earl committed to Prison for his Presumption which though it produced some interruption in the Treaty yet was the same after resumed and the Peace concluded and proclaimed upon the Articles formerly mention'd so that the Allegation of what had been undertaken by the Earl of Glamorgan can be no excuse for their violating the Agreement afterwards concluded with the Marquess Whereby it appears let the most favourable Fucus imaginable be put upon it that though they released the Commissioners for the Treaty as justifiable yet Herod and Pilate were then made Friends each Party consenting to dam the Peace This last wonderful Act put a period to all Hopes of the Marquess of Ormond which Charity and Compassion to the Kingdom and Nation and his discerning Spirit would fain have cherisht in that in-evitable ruine and destruction both must undergo from that distemper of mind that possessed them and had so long boy'd them up against his experience and judgement And now those whose Natures Dispositions and Interest made them most averse to the Parliament of England grew more affrighted at the thoughts of falling under the Power of the Irish so that all Persons of all humours and inclinations who lived under his Government and had dislikes and jealousies enough against each other were yet united and reconciled in their opinions against the Irish. The Council of State besought the Lord Lieutenant to consider whether it were possible to have any better security from them for the performance of any other Agreement he should make than he had for the performance of that which they now receded from and disclaimed And since the Spring was now coming on whereby the number power and strength of their Enemy would be increas'd on all sides and their hopes of Succours was desperate and so it would be only in his election into whose power he would put those who had deserved as well from his Majesty by doing and suffering as Subjects could do whether into the hands of the English who could not deny them protection and justice or of the Irish who had not only dispoil'd them of all their Fortunes and prosecuted them with all animosity and cruelty but declared by their late carriage that they were not capable of security under them they therefore entreated him to send again to the two Houses of Parliament and make some agreement with them which would probably be for their preservation whereas with the other what-ever could be done it was evident it would be for their destruction That which amongst other things of importance made a deep impression in the Marquess was the knowledge that there had been from the beginning of these Troubles a Design in the principal Contrivers of them entirely to alienate the Kingdom of Ireland from the Crown of England to extirpate not only the Protestant but all the Catholicks who were descended from the English and who in truth are no less odious to the old Irish than the other and to put themselves into the protection of some foreign Prince if they should find it impossible to erect some of the old Families And how impossible and extravagant soever this Attempt might reasonably be thought in regard not only all the Catholicks of the English Extraction who were in Quality and Fortune much superiour to the other but many Noble and much the best and greatest Families of the ancient Irish perfectly abhorred and abominated the same writ some Yet it was apparent that the violent Part of the Clergy that now govern'd had really that intention and never intended more to submit to the King's Authority whosoever should be intrusted with it And it had been proposed in the last Assembly by Mr. Anthony Martin and others That they should call in some forreign Prince for protection from whom they had receiv'd Agents as from his most Christian Majesty Monsieur de Monry and Monsieur de Molin from his Catholick Majesty Don Diego de Torres his Secretary from the Duke of Lorrain Monsieur St. Katherine and from Rome they had Petrus Franciscus Scarampi and afterwards Rinuccini Archbishop and Prince of Fermo Nuncio Apostolick for Ireland whose exorbitant Power was Earnest enough how little more they meant to have to do with the King and as it would be thought gave no less an umbrage offence and scandal to the Catholicks of Honour and Discretion than it incensed those who bore no kind of Reverence to the Bishop of Rome to whom as their publick Ministers they sent their Bishop of Ferns and Sir Nicholas Plunket as before Mr. Richard Bealing to Spain they sent Fa. Hugh Bourk to Paris Fa. Matthew Hartegan and to the Duke of Lorrain by general Commission Theobald Lord Viscount Taaff Sir Nich. Plunket and Mr. Geoffry Brown some of whose Instructions we shall here give you that the Temper of that Council and the Affections of those Men what pretence soever veils their Designs may appear from the Instruments themselves Kilkenny 18. Jan. 1647. By the Supream Council and others the Lords Spiritual and Temporal here under-Signing and the Commons of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland Instructions to be observed and by the Lord Bishop of Fernes and Nicholas Plunket Esq Commissioners appointed and authorized by and in the behalf of the Confederate Roman Catholicks of Ireland in the Court of Rome 1 Imprimis YOu are to represent unto his Holiness the deplorable Condition wherein the Confederate Catholicks are and for your better information to take with you the Draught of the Representation of the present Condition of the Countrey which you are to enlarge and second by your own Expressions according to your knowledge and therefore desire in regard Ireland and Religion in it is humanely speaking like to be lost that his Holiness in his great Wisdom and Piety will be pleased to make the Preservation of a People so constantly and unanimously Catholick his and the Consistory of the Cardinals their Work And you are to pray his Holiness to afford such present effectual Aids for the preservation of the Nation and the Roman Catholick Religion therein as shall be necessary 2. You are to let his Holiness know That Application is to be made to our Queen and Prince for a settlement of Peace and Tranquillity in the Kingdom of Ireland And that for the effecting thereof the Confederate Catholicks
Quality arrived at Dublin having been privately dispatch'd by his Majesty with signification of his Majesties Pleasure upon the advertisement he had receiv'd of the Condition of Ireland to this purpose That if it were possible for the Marquess to keep Dublin and the other Garrisons under the same intire Obedience to his Majesty they were then in it would be acceptable to his Majesty But if there were or should be a necessity of giving them up to any other Power he would rather put them into the hands of the English then of the Irish which was the Rule the Marquess was to guide himself by who had likewise his other very important considerations which if all the rest had been away had been enough to have inclin'd him to that resolution The King was now in the Power and hands of those who rais'd a War against him principally upon the credit of those reproaches and scandals that had perswaded the People to a belief of his inclinations to Popery and of his contriving or at least countenancing the Rebellion in Ireland in which so much Protestant Blood had been so wantonly and cruelly let out The Cessation formerly made and continued with those Rebels though prudently charitably and necessarily entred into had been the most un-popular Act the King had ever done and had wonderfully contributed to the Reputation of the two Houses of Parliament if according to the general opinion then currant there should a Peace ensue between the King and them so that his Majesty would lose nothing by the Parliament being possessed of Dublin and those other Towns then in the disposal of the Lord Lieutenant On the contrary if they intended to pursue his Majesty with continued and new reproaches and thereby to make him so odious to his Subjects that they might with more facility and applause execute their horrible Conspiracy against his Life there could be nothing so disadvantagious to his Majesty as the surrender of Dublin to the Irish Confederates which being done by the Kings Lord Lieutenant would easily be interpreted to be by his Majesties direction and so make a confirmation of all they had published of that kind and amongst the ignorant seduced People might have been a countenance to though nothing could be a justification of their unparalell'd Dealings Hereupon the Marquess took a Resolution since he could not possibly keep it himself to deliver it into the hands of the English and to that purpose sent again to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster that he would surrender Dublin and the other Garrisons to them upon the same condition they had before offered who quickly dispatcht their Ships with Commissioners Men and Money and all other Provisions necessary to take the same into their possession The Confederate Catholicks were no sooner inform'd of this but they sent again to the Lord Lieutenant an overture of Accommodation as they call it yet the Messengers intrusted by them were so wary lest indeed by accepting what they proposed they might be obliged to a Conjunction that they refused to give their Propositions in Writing And when upon their Discourse the Lord Lieutenant had writ what they had propounded and shewed it to them albeit they could not deny but that it was the same yet they refused to Sign it whereby it was very natural to conclude that the Overture was made by them onely to lay some imputation upon the Marquess of not being necessitated to agree with the two Houses of Parliament rather then with any purpose of submitting to the Kings Authority At last being so far pressed they found it necessary to let the Marquess know in plain terms what he was to trust to they sent him a Message in Writing in which they declared That they must insist upon the Propositions of the Clergy formerly mention'd to be agreed at Waterford and to which they had sworn and that if he would have a Cessation with them he must promise not to receive any Forces from the two Houses of Parliament in 6 or 7 months Not proposing in the mean time any way how his Majesties Army should be maintain'd but by a full submission unto all their unreasonable Demands Notwithstanding all which the Parliament failing to make that speedy performance of what they had promised and their Commissioners not having as it was agreed on brought Bills sufficiently drawn to be accepted of for 10000 l. and the Marquess having it thereby in his Power fairly to comply with the Irish if they had yet recovered the temper and discretion that might justifie him He sent again to them as well an Answer to their Overtures of accommodation as an offer not to receive any Forces from the two Houses for the space of three weeks if they would during that time consent to a Ceassation that a full Peace might be treated and agreed upon To which Motion they never vouchsafed to return any Answer about the same time Owen O Neil wisely foreseeing that the Nuncio or the Supream Council did not enough consider or foresee the evil consequences that would undoubtedly attend the Lord Lieutenant's being compelled to leave the Kingdom and to put Dublin and the other Garrisons into the possession of the English Rebels sent his Nephew Daniel O Neil to the Marquess of Ormond that if the Marquess would accept of a Cessation for two months which he believ'd the Assembly or Supream Council would propose with what mind soever he would promise and undertake to continue it for a Twelvemonth and in the mean time he would use his utmost power to procure a Peace Owen O Neil was a man of an haughty and positive humour and rather hard to be inclined to submit to reasonable Conditions then easie to decline them or break his word when he had consented therefore the Lord Lieutenant return'd this Answer that if he would give him his word to continue the Cessation for a full year he would accept it when proposed from the Supream Council for two months and he would in the mean time wave any further Treaty with the Parliament yet sent him word he would not hold himself by this promise longer then fourteen days engaged if he did not in that time receive such a positive effect of his Overture as he expected Owen O Neil accepted of the Condition and with all possible speed dispatched his Nephew Daniel to the Supream Council at Clonmel with a Letter containing his Advice and another to the Bishop of Clogher his chief Confident to whom he sent Reasons at large which ought to induce the Nation to desire such a Cessation When the Council receiv'd the Letter and knew that the Lord Lieutenant expected an Answer within 14 days they resolved to return no Answer till those days were expired and during that time committed Daniel O Neil to Prison that he might not return to his Unkle and when the time was passed they releas'd him on condition that he should come no more into
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
the Marquis Whereupon his Majesty signifi'd That in case other things were compos'd by the Treaty the Concerns of Ireland should be left wholely to the management of the Houses And in the interim writes to the Marquis of Ormond this Letter C. R. RIght Trusty and Well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor We greet you well Whereas We have received several Informations from Our two Houses of Parliament concerning your proceedings with the Confederate Roman Catholicks in the Kingdom of Ireland the several Votes and Extracts whereof We do herewith transmit unto you and forasmuch as We are now engaged in a Treaty of Peace with Our two Houses wherein We have made such large Concessions as We hope will prove the foundation of a blessed Peace And We having consented by one Article if the said Treaty take effect to entrust the Prosecution and Management of the War in Ireland to the Guidance and Advice of Our two Houses We have therefore thought fit hereby to require you to desert from any further Proceedings upon the Matters contained in the said Papers And We expect such Obedience unto this Our Command that Our Houses desires may be fully satisfi'd Given at Newport in the Isle of Wight the 25th of November in the 24th Year of Our Reign To Our Right Trusty and Well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor James Marquis of Ormond As soon as the Parliament received this Letter some were of opinion that it should be immediately sent to the Marquis of Ormond yet others aiming at what afterwards was brought upon the Stage laid it as it 's said aside We find by the event it produced nothing for the Treaty proceeded a Peace ensuing though as yet Owen Roe was so far from being reconcil'd to the Supreme Council or any that adher'd thereunto as he fell most violently in the end of November upon the Earl of Clanrickard's Party gaining Jamestown by Composition and Drumrusk by the Sword Rory Mac-Guire the prime Instrument herein with several other Officers and Common Soldiers to the number of 4 or 500 being there slain Roe's Party afterwards putting all to the Sword save Major Bourk his Wife and Children cruelly harassing the whole County of Roscommon The 19th of October the Confederate Catholick's Commissioners came to Carrick an House of the Marquis's where he continued about twenty days which they spent principally in matters of Religion in treating whereof they were so bound and limited by their Instructions and could make so little progress of themselves being still to give an account to the Assembly of whatsoever was propos'd or offer'd by the Lord Lieutenant and to expect its Direction or Determination before they proceed that for the husbanding of time which was now very precious the prevailing Party in England every day more discovering their bloody purposes towards the King the Assembly thought it fit to desire the Marquis to repair to his own Castle at Kilkenny which they offered to deliver into his hands and that for his Honour and Security he should bring his own Guards who should have the reception due to them And upon this invitation about the middle of November he went to Kilkenny before the entry into which he was met by the whole Body of the Assembly and all the Nobility Clergy and Gentry and in the same Town was receiv'd with all those requisite Ceremonies by the Mayor and Aldermen as such a Corporation use to pay to the Supreme Authority of the Kingdom so that greater evidence could not be given of an entire union in the desire of the People of returning to the Kings obedience or of more affection and respect to the Person of the Lord Lieutenant who by his steady pursuing those professions he had always made by his neglect and contempt of the Parliamentarians and their prodigious Power whilst he was in England by his refusing all Overtures made by them unto him for his particular benefit if he would live in the Kingdom and by their declared manifest hatred and malice towards him was now superiour to all those Calumnies they had aspersed him with and confessed to be worthy of a joynt trust from the most different and divided Interests and Designs However there were so many Passions and Humours and Interests to be compli'd with and all Conclusions to pass the Approbations of so many Votes that it was the middle of January before all Opinions could be so reconciled as to produce a perfect and entire Contract and Agreement which about that time passed with that miraculous consent and unity that in the whole Assembly in which there were Catholick Bishops there was not one dissenting Voice So that on the 17th of January 1648. the whole Assembly repair'd to the Lord Lieutenant in his Castle at Kilkenny and there with all solemnity imaginable presented him by the hand of their Chair-man or Speaker the Articles of Peace as concluded assented and submitted unto by the whole Body of the Catholick Nation of Ireland which he receiv'd and solemnly confirm'd on his Majesties behalf and caus'd the same that day to be Proclaim'd in that Town to the great joy of all who were present and it was with all speed accordingly Proclaim'd and as joyfully receiv'd in all the Cities and Incorporate Towns which professed any Allegiance to the King throughout the Kingdom and for the better reception thereof amongst the People and to manifest the satisfaction and joy they took in it the Catholick Bishops sent out their Declarations and Letters that they were abundantly satisfi'd in whatsoever concern'd Religion and the secure practice thereof Certainly well they might for unless it had been at such a time that his Majesty had been reduc'd to the utmost extremity a Prince could be compell'd to such disingenious and hard terms could never have been stood upon with a free and generous Prince in as much as his present Majesty in his Declaration for the settlement of Ireland there takes notice That no body could wonder that he was desirous though upon difficult conditions to get such an united Power of his own Subjects as might have been able with Gods blessing to have prevented the infamous and horrid Parricide intended But how ineffectual this his Indulgence after prov'd will appear by these Wretches foolishly forfeiting all the Grace which they might have expected from him But to proceed When the Articles of Peace were presented in that solemn manner to him by the Assembly after a Speech made by the Chair-man The Lord Lieutenant express'd himself in these words My Lords and Gentlemen I Shall not speak to those expressions of Duty and Loyalty so eloquently digested into a Discourse by the Gentleman appointed by you to deliver your sence you will presently have in your hands greater and more solid Arguments of his Majesties Gracious acceptance than I can enumerate or perhaps you your selves discern For besides the provision made against the remotest fears fear of severity of certain Laws and besides
many other Freedoms and Bounties conveyed to you and your Posterity by those Articles there is a door and that a large one not left but purposely set open to give you entrance by your future Merit to whatsoever of Honour and Advantage you can reasonably wish So that you have in present fruition what may abundantly satisfie and yet there are no bounds set to your hopes but you are rather invited or to use a new phrase but to another and better end you seem to have a Call from Heaven to exercise your Arms and uttermost Fortitude in the Noblest and Justest Cause the World hath seen for let all the Circumstances incident to a great and good Cause be examined and they will be found comprehended in that which you are now warrantably call'd to defend Religion not in the narrow circumscribed definition of it by this or that late found out name but Christian Religion is our Quarrel which certainly is as much and fatally struck at I may say more by the blasphemous License of this Age than ever it was by the rudest Incursions of the most barbarous and avowed Enemy to Christianity the Venerable Laws and Fundamental Constitutions of our Ancestors are trodden under Impious and for the most part Mechanick feet The Sacred Person of our King the Life of those Laws and Head of those Constitutions is under an ignominious Imprisonment and his Life threaten'd to be taken away by the Sacrilegious hands of the basest of the People that owed him obedience and to endear the Quarrel to you the Fountain of all the benefits you have but now acknowledg'd and which you may further hope for by this Peace and your own Merit is endangered to be obstructed by the execrable murther of the worthiest Prince that ever Ruled these Islands In short Hell cannot add any thing to the desperate Mischiefs now openly projected and now judge if a greater and more glorious Field was ever set open to Action and then prepare your selves to enter into it receiving these few advices from him that is throughly Embarqu'd with you in the Adventure First let me recommend to you that to this as unto all holy Actions as certainly this is you will prepare your selves with perfect Charity a Charity that may obliterate what-ever Rancor the long continued War may have contracted in you against any that shall now co-operate with you in so blessed a Work and let his Engagement with you in this whoever he is be as it ought to be a Bond of Unity of Love of Concord stronger than the nearest Tyes of Nature In the next place mark and beware of those who shall go about to renew jealousies in you under what pretence soever and account such as the infernal Ministers imploy'd to promote the black design on foot to subvert Monarchy and to make us all slaves to their own avaritious lusts Away as soon and as much as possible may be with distinction of Nation and Parties which are the fields wherein the seeds of those Rancour-weeds are sown by the great Enemy of our Peace In the last place let us all divest our selves of that preposterous and ridiculous ambition and self-interest which rather leads to our own threatned general ruine than to the enjoyment of advantages unreasonably desired And if at any time you think your selves pinch'd too near the bone by those Taxes and Levies that may be imposed for your defence consider then how vain how foolish a thing it will be to starve a righteous Cause for want of a necessary support to preserve your selves fat and gilded Sacrifices to the rapine of a merciless Enemy And if we come thus well prepared to a Contention so just on our Parts God will bless our Endeavours with success and victory or will crown our Sufferings with honour and patience for what honour will it not be if God hath so determin'd of us to perish with a long glorious Monarchy and who can want patience to suffer with an oppressed Prince But as our Endeavours so let our Prayers be vigorous that he may be delivered from a more unnatural Rebellion than is mention'd by any Story now raised to the highest pitch of Success against him I should now say something to you as to my self in Retribution to the advantagious mention made of me and my Endeavours to the bringing this Settlement to pass But I confess my thoughts were taken up with those much greater Concernments Let it suffice that as I wish to be continued in your good Esteem and Affection so I shall freely adventure upon any hazard and esteem no trouble or difficulty too great to encounter if I may manifest any Zeal to this Cause and discharge some part of the Obligations that are upon me to serve this Kingdom It will not here be necessary to insert the Articles of Peace at large which are publickly known to the World though we shall sum them up in brief It is sufficient that the Lord Lieutenant granted all that was enough in the Judgements of the Romish Catholick Bishops and even of the Bishop of Ferns that Incendiary and still waspish Prelate requisite to a peaceable and secure profession of that Religion with such countenancing of and support to it as from the first planting of it it had never in some respects been possessed of in that Kingdom but was likewise compelled so far to comply with the Fears and Jealousies of divers who by often breaking their Faith and from a greater guilt were apprehensive that all that was promised to them might not be hereafter observed as to divest himself of that full and absolute Power that was inherent in his Office and was never more fit to be exercised than for the carrying that Design in which they seem'd all to agree and to make 12 Commissioners nam'd and chosen by the Assembly to look to the observation and performance of the said Articles until the same should be ratified in a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament joynt sharers with him in his Authority So that he could neither levy Souldiers raise Money or so much as erect Garrisons without the approbation and consent of the major part of those Commissioners the danger and mischief of which limitation and restraint he foresaw enough but found the uniting that People and composing them to an entire confidence in the Peace which could be compassed no other way was so necessary that he could not sacrifice too much to it And then the abilities and the affections of the Commissioners were so well known and approved by him that having most of them in appearance the same good Ends with him he presum'd he should with less difficulty be able to perswade which were the nearest and most natural ways that conduced thereunto The Heads of the Articles of Peace 1648. 1. THat the Roman Catholicks of Ireland have free Exercise of Religion all Penalties taken off not obliged to the Oath of Supremacy to enjoy all
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
three months Pay should be given to those that go 5. That private Souldiers and non-Commission-Officers should receive 2 Months Pay of Arrears and Commission-Officers under a Captain one Months Pay 6. That Magazines for Provisions be settled at Bristol Chester Liverpool Beaumaris and Milford 7. That a sufficient Squadron of Ships be appointed for the Irish Coast. 8. That Ships should be Victuall'd at Dublin Liverpool and Beaumaris and a Court of Admiralty should be erected at Dublin to prevent their coming into England to dispose of Prizes and so neglect the Service 9. That the Pay of the Officers and Souldiers should be according to the Irish Establishment onely the Officers to receive for the present the same Pay as here 10. That an Hospital for sick and maim'd Souldiers should be erected at Dublin 11. That the Parliaments Forces already in Ireland and those then ready to go over should be in one Army and one Establishment 12. That 5000 Quarters of bread-Corn 200 Tun of Salt 200 Tun of Cheese should be transported with those who now go over 13. A Competent Train of Artillery with Arms Ammunition c. should be sent and a care to be taken to send over Recruits of Horse as there should be occasion Lastly That there be Recruits of Horse Foot Arms Saddles c. ready to supply the Service of Ireland to be sent over as need shall require Thus provided Cromwel prepares for his Journey though to accommodate him with an Army of 8000 Foot and 4000 Horse no small difference arose betwixt the Presbyterian and Independent at that time undermining each other the Levellers being pragmatick He however carried over some of the discontented Persons on each side finding them there work enough against a common Enemy And so prepared for his Journey 120000 l. being borrowed of the City upon the Credit of the Ordinance of 90000 l. a month In the interim he gets Sir Theophilus Jones who was sent to the Parliament from his Brother dispatch'd for Ireland with 1500 Quarters of Corn and 10000 l. in Money little enough to hearten the Souldiers frequently then deserting the Parliament and flying to the Marquess of Ormond yea the Regiment the Parliament sent under Colonel Tuthil being made up of Voluntiers most of those engaged in Colchester Design mutinied being sent over without Money Provisions or Cloaths thereby indangering the City more then the Marquess The Scots in the interim in a Remonstrance and Declaration to which on the least Motive they are naturally inclin'd of the general Assembly of the Church of Scotland concerning present and eminent danger the 13th of Febr. 1649. declared amongst other things as Grievances That the standing Armies in Ireland under the Marquess of Ormond the Lord Inchequin and the Lords of Ards and George Monro forgetting all the horrible cruelty that was exercised by the Irish Rebels upon many thousands of the English and Scottish Nations in that Land have enter'd into a Peace and Association with them that they may the more easily carry on the old Designs of the Popish Prelatical and Malignant Party and the Lords of Ards and George Monro have by treachery and oppression brought the Province of Ulster and Garrisons therein under their Power and Commands which urging with much violence afterwards produced a Declaration from the King in dislike of the Peace 1648. much insisted on by the Irish and indeed as you will hear begat the grounds of a future distast So that whosoever will wisely revolve and consider this wilde Conjuncture of Affairs and that to the subduing the Power Strength and Wealth of the Parliament and the equal malice and headiness of Owen O Neal and his Party as much or in truth more contracted against the Confederate Irish then the Kings Authority and the forming and disposing the useless and unprofitable pretences of affection in the Scots and reducing them to obedience the Marquess brought over with him neither Men nor Money considerable nor any advantage but that of his own Person Wisdom and Reputation and was now upon the Peace to constitute an Army not only of several Nations and Religions and of such Passion and Superciliousness in these Opinions which flowed from their several Religions but of such men who had for about the space of eight years prosecuted a sharp War against each other with all the Circumstances of Animosities Rapine and Revenge and who were now brought into this Reconciliation and Conjunction rather by the wonderful Wisdom and Dexterity of the Principal Commanders then by their own Charity and Inclination And that in the forming of this Army he had not above 6 or 7 Officers upon whose skill in Martial Affairs and affection to him he could with any confidence depend but was to make use of very many who were utterly unknown to him and such who either had no experience in the War or who had been alway in the War against him I say whosoever without passion considers all this will rather wonder that the Marquess did not sink under the weight of the first Attempt nay that he could proceed with success in any one Enterprize then that an Army so made up should upon the first mis-adventure be dissolv'd into jealousies and prejudices amongst themselves and that all confusions should follow which naturally attend such Compositions As soon as the Peace was thus concluded proclaim'd and accepted the Lord Lieutenant took a survey of the Stores of Arms Ammunition and other Provisions necessary for the Army which was to be brought together in the Spring and found all very short of what he expected and what was absolutely necessary to the Work and ways for raising of Money with which all the rest was to be supplied in no degree to be depended upon The Cities and Incorporate Towns where upon the matter all the Wealth was having never submitted further to the General Assembly then by declaring themselves to be of their Party but like so many Common-Wealths order'd all Contributions and payments of Money by their own Acts and Determinations nor would upon the most Emergent occasions suffer any Money to be rais'd in any other proportion or in any other manner then best agreed with their Humours and Conveniencies So that the Commissioners advised and besought the Lord Lieutenant to make a Journey in Person to such of those Corporations as were best able to assist him and by his own Presence Assistance and Interest endeavour to perswade them to express that affection to the Peace they had professed And thereupon he went with a Competent number of the Commissioners to Waterford which gave 8000 l. and 3000 Barrels of Corn and from thence he went to Limerick and then to Gallway and Kilkenny from which several Places he procured the Loan of more Money Corn and Ammunition then the General Assembly had ever been able to do for most of which last he was forced to bargain with Patrick Archer and other Merchants for a Supply
Lieutenant-General of the Army with a strong Party of Horse to pursue Jones his Horse which were sent for Tredagh which he did so successfully that he surprized one whole Troop and afterwards encountred Colonel Chidley Coot in the head of 300 Horse whereof he slew many and routed the rest who in great disorder fled to Tredagh The Lord Inchequin presently sent advertisement of this success and that he had reason to believe that if he pursued this advantage and attempt the Town while this terror possessed that Party he should make himself Master of it whereupon in respect of the great importance of the Place the reduction whereof would produce a secure correspondence with and give encouragement to the Scots in Ulster who made great professions in which they were ever free of Duty to the King and had now under the conduct of the Lord Viscount Montgomery of Ards driven Sir Charles Coot into the City of London-derry and upon the matter beleagu'd him there the Lord Lieutenant by the advice of the Council of War approved the Lord Inchequin's Design and to that purpose sent him two Regiments of Foot and two Pieces of Artillery and such Ammunition and Materials as could be spared wherewith he proceeded so vigorously that within 7 days he compelled the besieged to yield to honourable Conditions so reduced Tredagh to the Kings Obedience after he had been twice beaten off the Town having not above 600 Men who had spent all their Ammunition left to defend so large a circuit some of which afterwards revolted to the Marquess and Colonel Coot with 150 Horse and near 400 Foot march'd to Dublin There was now very reasonable ground for hope that the Parliaments Party would quickly find themselves in notable streights and distresses when it was on a suddain discover'd how very active and dexterous the spirit of Rebellion is to reconcile and unite those who were possessed by it and how contrary soever their Principles and Ends seem to be and contribute jointly to the opposing and oppressing that Lawful Power they had both equally injured and provoked The Parliament Party who had heap'd so many Reproaches and Calumnies upon the King for his Clemency to the Irish who had founded their own Authority and Strength upon such foundations as were inconsistent with any toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion and some write so bitter are their Pens even with Humanity to the Irish Nation and more especially to those of the old Native Extraction the whole Race whereof they had upon the matter sworn to an utter extirpation And Owen O Neal himself was of the most antient Sept and whose Army consisted onely of such who avowed no other cause for their first entrance into Rebellion but Matter of Religion and that the Power of the Parliament was like to be so great and prevalent that the King himself would not be able to extend his Favours and Mercy towards them which they seem'd to be confident he was in his gracious disposition inclined to express and therefore professed to take up Arms against the exorbitant Power onely of them and to retain hearts full of Devotion and Duty to his Majesty and who at present by the under-hand and secret Treaties with the Lord Lieutenant seem'd more irreconcilable to the Proceedings of the General Assembly and to the Persons of those whom he thought govern'd there then to make any scruple of submitting to the Kings Authority in the Person of the Marquess to which and to whom he protested all Duty and Reverence These two so contrary and dis-agreeing Elements had I say by the subtile and volatile spirit of Hypocrisy and Rebellion the Arts of the time found a way to incorporate together and Owen O Neal had promised and contracted with the other that he would compel the Lord Lieutenant to retire and draw off his Army from about Dublin by his invading those Parts of Leimster and Munster with his Army which yielded most yea all the Provisions and subsistance to the Marquess and which he presumed the Marquess would not suffer to be spoil'd and desolated by his Incursions for the better doing whereof and enabling him for this Expedition Colonel Monk Governor of Dundalk who was the second Person in Command amongst the Parliaments Forces had promised to deliver to him out of the stores of that Garrison a good quantity of Powder Bullet and Match proportionable for the fetching whereof Owen O Neal had sent Farral Lieutenant General of his Army with a Party of 500 Foot and 300 Horse At that time Tredagh was taken by the Lord Inchequin who being there advertised of that new contracted friendship resolved to give some interruption to it and made so good hast that within few hours after Farral had receiv'd the Ammunition at Dundalk he fell upon him routed all his Horse and of the 500 Foot there were not 40 escaped but were either slain or taken Prisoners and got all the Ammunition and with it so good an Account of the present state of Dundalk that he immediately engaged before it and assisted by the Lord of Ards who a little before had been chosen by the Presbyterian Ministers their Commander in Chief thereby possessing himself of Carrigfergus and Belfast in two days compelled Monk who would else have been delivered up by his own Souldiers to surrender the Place where was a good Magazeen of Ammunition Cloath and other Necessaries for War most of the Officers and Souldiers with all alacrity engaging themselves in his Majesties service though the Governor Shipt himself for England and landing shortly after at Chester he went immediately to Bristol where Cromwel the Parliaments Lord Lieutenant was then to come for Ireland who receiv'd him very courteously but after he had remain'd some days there advised him to go up to the Parliament to give them satisfaction in the Cessation he had made with Owen Roe O-Neal the 8th of May 1649. which he did And the business of that Cessation being brought into the House it was much resented and after some debate more then ordinarily had on other occasions several severe Votes passed against it onely Colonel Monk being conceived to have made it out of a good intent for preserving the Interest of the Parliament was held to be clear and not thought fit hereafter to be question'd But this was taken as a fair way of laying him aside whereupon Colonel Monk retir'd to his own Estate unhappy onely in being the Instrument of their preservation who were not sensible of his Merits And now that all Parties might be kept entire the Marquess of Ormond publishes a Declaration upon Instructions from the King design'd purposely for Ulster AFter my hearty Commendations upon some Representations that have been lately made unto us we have thought fit to send you down the ensuing Instructions First That so far as your Power extends you cause every Person without distinction who have submitted to his Majesties Authority
been two hours in the Town before Captain James Stafford Governour of the Castle whom the Lord Lieutenant would have remov'd from that Charge not as being unfit for it but because he was a Catholick and had exercised that Charge during the time that the Confederates were in Arms against the King gave up that Place to Cromwel and took Conditions under him Cromwel having thus gain'd the Castle advanc'd his Flag upon the Castle and turn'd the Guns against the Town which the Townsmen perceiving their hearts fail'd them and the Soldiers in confusion quitted the Walls not expecting the return of their Commissioners who treating with Cromwel had procured the safety of the Inhabitants of the Town and the preservation of it from Plunder as leave for the Soldiers to depart every one to their own homes they engaging not to bear Arms any more against the State of England and lastly of life to the Officers Yet in great consternation fear having surprized the Townsmen and Soldiers before their Commissioners return they endeavour'd to pass over the Water for the safety of their lives Which Cromwel's Soldiers perceiving about 14. of October presently clapt Scaling Ladders to the Walls and entred the Town without any resistance wherein all found in Arms were put to the Sword to the number of 2000 amongst which was Sir Edmond Butler endeavouring when he discovered their Treachery to escape was killed before he had been two hours in that City Cromwel in the interim not losing 20 men in the whole Siege though as you may see Colonel David Synot Governour of the Town and Castle of Wexford had confidence by the Propositions he sent 1. That the Inhabitants of the Town should exercise without disturbance the Roman Catholick Religion 2. Their Religious Orders and Priests should enjoy their Monasteries and Churches 3. The Bishop Nicolus Ferns and his Successors should have their undisturb'd Jurisdiction of their Diocess 4. Their Officers and Soldiers should march out with flying Colours and the other punctilio's of Honour 5. Whosoever of the Inhabitants hereafter should desire to depart the Town should have what-ever was theirs with them 6. That all Free-men should have their Immunities and Liberties hitherto enjoyed they adhering to the State of England 7. None to be disturb'd in their Possession 8. Who-ever afterwards should desire to depart may have safe Conduct into England or else-where 9. That all enjoy a full liberty of Free-born English Subjects in what Port soever they should Traffick in England 10. That no memory remain of any Hostility or distance betwixt the Parliament and those that kept the Town and Castle All which Cromwel accounting impudent had no effect From this Torrent of Success and Corruption no body will wonder That Cromwel march'd thence without control and took in Ross a strong Town situate upon the Barrow and far more considerable for Navigation than Wexford the River admitting a Ship of 7 or 800 Tun to ride by the Walls of this Place Major General Lucas Taaff was Governour who had with him a strong Garrison re-enforced by 1500 Men even in the fight of Cromwel's Army who when he came before it to save Blood sent a Summons to the Town which was answer'd suitable to his mind by the Governour but the Great Guns sending in the next Summons the Town was surrendred on condition the 19th of October That they within should march away with Bag and Baggage Capitulating for which Taaff demanded Liberty of Conscience for such as should stay To which Cromwel repli'd That he medled not with any mans Conscience but if by Liberty of Conscience was meant a Liberty to exercise the Mass he judged it best to use plain dealing and to let him know where the Parliament of England had power that will not be allowed The Marquis of Ormond out of a too deep sense of the stupidity nay madness and ingratitude of that People for whose Protection and Defence he had embarqu'd himself his Fortunes and his Honour and whose jealousie and fond obstinacy made the work of their own preservation more difficult and impossible than the Power of their Enemy could do about this time desired nothing so much as an opportunity to fight Cromwel and either to give some check to his swelling Fortune or to perish gloriously in the action and to that purpose drew all his Friends to him then about the Graige and Thomastown with an intention to fight him his Excellency's Army being exceedingly increas'd by the conjunction of Inchiquin's and Roe's Armies had he not been diverted by a false Alarm of the Enemy's being gone as far as Bennets-bridge towards Kilkenny whereby he was drawn thither for the defence of that City otherwise he had engaged them before their getting to Carrick Ross being now in Cromwel's possession he caus'd a Bridge of Boats to be made under protection of the Town over the River Barrow and the Army to sit down before Duncannon a strong Fort commanded by Colonel Wogan but the Place being so well provided of all Necessaries it was judged convenient not to lose time about it And presently after Colonel Abbot reduced Enisteoge a little wall'd Town about 5 miles from Ross to the Parliaments obedience And about the same time Colonel Reynolds with 12 Troops of Horse and 3 of Dragoons march'd toward Carrick having divided his Men into two parts whilst the Besieged were amused with the one Party he enter'd a Gate with the other taking the Place and about 100 Prisoners without the loss of one Man But to look back From the time that the Peace was concluded at Kilkenny the Lord Lieutenant well discerned the mischief he should sustain by being to provide against the Attempts of General Owen O Neal as well as against the English Forces and that at least he could hope for no assistance from the Scots in Ulster as long as they fear'd him And therefore he sent Daniel O Neal Nephew to the General to perswade him to be included in the same Peace but he was so un-satisfied with the Assembly that he declared he would have nothing to do with them or be comprehended in any Peace they should make But if the Marquess would consent to some Conditions he propos'd he would willingly submit to the King's Authority in him The Marquess was content to grant him his own Conditions having indeed a great esteem of his Conduct and knowing the Army under his Command to be better disciplined than any other of the Irish. But the Commissioners of Trust would by no means consent to those Conditions whereby it is evident though these would be thought to adhere to the Marquess that they had alien thoughts to his Majesty's Happiness and declared if the Lord Lieutenant should proceed thereupon to an Agreement it would be a direct breach of the Articles of Peace And thereupon Owen O Neal made that Conjunction with Monk as is before spoken of and about the very time of the
Enemy though the Inhabitants had so obstinately and disobediently refused to receive a Garrison which would have prevented their present pressures whereas they were now closely besieged to their Walls on all that side of the Town which lay to Munster the other being open and to be reliev'd by the River Sure which there severs Leimster and Munster and washeth the Walls of the Town on that side The Inhabitants seeing Destruction at their Door abated so much of their former Madness as to be willing to receive a Supply of Souldiers yet under a condition that they might be all of the old Irish of Ulster who under the Command of Owen O Neal had long oppos'd the King's Authority and were now newly joyn'd with the Marquess and in express terms refused any of their Neighbours and Kindred the Confederate Irish Catholicks of Munster or Leimster to the great offence and scandal of that Part of the Nation which had been as zealous for their Religion as any However since there was no other way to preserve them the Lord Lieutenant was content to comply even with that Humour and so choosing a strong Party of near 1500 Men and putting them under the Command of Lieutenant General Farral who was the most acceptable to them his Excellency himself march'd with them and put them into the Town which he had no sooner done than Cromwel thought it convenient to raise his Siege having taken in Passage-Fort within 2 miles of Waterford and march'd to Dungarvan delivered up the 3d. of December where he found the Lord Broghal who partly by his own Interest and the dis-affection in the Souldiers to the Lord Inchiquin had gotten in all the Towns in Munster that had formerly been under the Parliament A Service most considerable and such as was of very great advantage to Cromwel who was now in great straits where to take up his Winter-Quarters for his sick and distressed Regiments his Army partly by sickness partly by leaving Garrisons in the several Places he had taken in being so much weakned and impair'd so as he brought not of all the Men he carried over with him above 5000 Horse and Foot to Dungarvan where Colonel Jones who sickned in his way thither died about the 18th of December 1649. of a Purple Fever a Person certainly of much Gallantry and one in the Discipline of the Army whereof he was Lieutenant General very exact carrying his Victories oftner more by the dint of his Sword than the number of his Men And though he passes not in the History of our Age without some Reflections as too obstinately adhering to Cromwel whom he us'd to call Companion in Labours yet those who were intimate with him had that certainty of his Worth as nothing so much steer'd him in the Service of Ireland as a just Reflection on the Murthers and Insolencies committed by the Irish on the Protestants not otherwise to be pacified than by a due Revenge And had he surviv'd this Service it is confidently believ'd Cromwel how well soever he spoke of him would have found some Expedient to have laid him aside Cromwel having thus gain'd Dungarvan shortly after betook himself to his Winter-Quarters garrisoning at Bandonbridge Colonel Ewer and his Regiment at Kinsale Colonel Stabber at Cork Colonel Phaier and Colonel Cook at Wexford and Youghal and other adjacent Places was assign'd the head-Quarters Whilst the Marquess of Ormond sensible of what might be the product of so un-controul'd a Success having left Waterford in his thoughts full of the sence of the late benefit and preservation which by his vigilance that City had receiv'd in December a season much colder than usually had been observ'd in that Countrey cast all ways imaginable to hinder the Enemy's future Attempt upon that Place and to reduce Passage Wexford and other Places weakly mann'd and provided by Cromwel And accordingly he drew his Forces together and leaving them on the other side of the River Sure himself with a Train only of 40 or 50 Horse consisting of his Friends and Servants went into the Town presuming he should be able to perswade them to submit to joyn in whatsoever should manifestly appear for their own benefit or advantage When he came into the Town he found Lieutenant General Farral engaged in a Design to take Passage a Place seized on by Cromwel when he had retir'd from Waterford and which was an in-convenient Neighbour to that City Colonel Wogan who had been seasonably sent by the Marquess into Duncannon even when the first Governour placed thereby the Confederate Catholicks was ready to deliver it up to the Enemy and who had with notable courage defended it against Cromwel and in the end after the loss of a great number of his Men compell'd him to retire had agreed to meet Lieutenant General Farral Commander of the Ulster Forces at a Place and House appointed and together to fall on Passage Though the Marquess had not been informed of the contrivance of the Design yet he knew well enough what interpretation would be made of his Interposition or Command or Wariness should he declare against it therefore he was very willing it should proceed The Matter was well laid and carried with secrecy being hopeful enough Lieutenant General Farral had not been march'd from the Town many hours when the Marquess discovered from some Place of prospect in the Town a strong Party of Horse marching in good order the way that led to Passage which belonging to the Enemy made him conclude that they had notice of the Design Whereupon he presently sent for the Maior of the Town and shewing him the in-evitable danger their whole Party was in which was the only Srength against any Enterprize of the Enemy if they were not instantly reliev'd required him presently to send some Body over the Water for the transporting from the other side of the River of a Regiment or two of Horse with which he would himself endeavour to rescue them How apparent soever the danger and mischief was and how visible and natural soever the remedy all the Commands and Entreaties he could use could not prevail to get one Body or their Consent that any of his Horse should be suffered to march through the Town without which they could not go to their Relief When he had in vain tryed all the means he could invent to convince and perswade them to so natural an Action he caused all his Friends and Servants aforemention'd to mount their Horses and with all imaginable haste himself led them towards Passage that he might at least discover though he was not like to prevent the loss that was to ensue When he came within sight of the Town he could discern a Party of Foot marching in great haste and disorder towards him being pursued by the Enemy's Horse who had even over-taken them having fallen upon the remainder and either killed them upon the Place or taken them Prisoners Though the
company which attended the Marquess was too few to encounter the Enemy's Horse with any considerable hope yet he drew them up in that manner on the side of an Hill that the Enemy imagining their number to be more considerable thought fit to lessen their pace and to send small Parties to discover them which being again entertain'd by the like number in like skirmishes the Foot as much improving their March they were in the end by the Marquess's frequent opposing of his own Person to retard the Enemy's pursuit preserv'd and so brought back with him into the Town about half of those who had march'd thence the rest being killed or taken Prisoners by Colonel Zanckey which also had been infallibly destroyed if the Marquess had not taken that desperate course to redeem them as he might in hope have recovered all the others who were made Prisoners and defeated all that Body of the Enemy and consequently have taken Passage if the City would have permitted his Horse to have been transported over the River and to have march'd through it His Excellency's Forces had not better success in their Attempt to re-take Carrick governed by Colonel Reynolds meerly through the want of Pick-axes and Spaces though his confidence of the Design built on the brittle assurance of his Commanders had brought him almost thither where if it had not been for Colonel Milo Power who acquainted him of his Armies being baffled and of its removal thence he had been surprized by the Enemy And the Lord Inchiquin's Lieutenant Colonel Trevor's Sir Armstrong's Expeditions against Wexford and Ross ended in the like loss and misfortune The Marquess however leaves nothing un-attempted to fortifie Waterford what dis-couragements soever he had received by the Insolency of some Men instigated by the Violence and Opiniastrise of the Clergy In as much as he knew Passage or the other Places could not be regain'd without he might bring his Army over the River which they would not admit of nay desiring that his Army might for a little time be but hutted under their Walls where they should receive their Provisions and Pay duely out of the Countrey and so should be a Security and Benefit to the Town without the least damage in any Degree This Proposition also found no more regard then the former and instead of consulting with what Circumstances to comply with so just and necessary a Demand of the Kings Lieutenant it was proposed in the Council of the Town To seize on his Person and to fall on all who belonged to him as an Enemy Which Advice met with no other Reprehension then that for the present the major part did not consent unto it Of all which when the Marquess was fully informed he thought it time to depart thence and to leave them to their own Imaginations and so marched away with his Army which after this Indignity it was a thing impossible to keep them together And because the Principal Towns refused to admit them in he was fain in the depth of Winter to scatter them over all the Kingdom The greatest part of the Ulster Forces were sent into their own Province there to chuse a new General according as their Conditions allowed them for Owen O Neal was dead And Luke Taaff with his Men were sent back into Connaght to my Lord of Clanrickard The Lord Inchequin with the remainder of such as belonged unto him went over into the County of Clare The Lord Dillon with his into Meath and towards Athlone all the rest were scattered several ways Onely Major General Hugh O Neal was admitted with 1600 Ulster Men into Clonmel as Governor whilst the Marquess went to his Castle of Kilkenny From thence he dispatch'd the 24th of December an Account to the King who was then in the Isle of Jersey of the true Estate of his Affairs in that Kingdom By which his Majesty might see how much Cromwel's Forces who disclaimed any Subjection to him prevail'd against his Authority And how it was equally contemned deluded or dis-regarded by his Subjects who made all the Professions of Obedience and Duty to him which was a Method these ill times had made his Majesty too well acquainted with And from this time which was towards the end of December 1649. the Marquess never did or could draw together into one Body a number of 500. what endeavours he used to do it will be mention'd in order hereafter Assoon as the Lord Lieutenant came to Kilkenny he consulted with the Commissioners of Trust without whose approbation and consent he could do no act that was of importance what remedy to apply to the disorder and confusion which spread it self over all their Affairs they had been still Witnesses of all his actions of his unwearied pains and industry and of the little fruit that was reaped by it how his Orders and Commands and their own had been neglected and dis-obeyed in all those Particulars without which an Army could not be brought or kept together how those places which the Rebels had possessed themselves of had been for the most part lost by their own obstinate refusal to receive such assistance from him as was absolutely necessary for their preservation and yet that they had rais'd most unreasonable Imputations and Reproaches on him as if he had fail'd in their Defence and Relief They had seen the wonderful and even insupportable wants and necessities the Army had always undergone and knew very well how all Warrants had been disobeyed for the bringing in of Money and Provisions for the supply thereof And yet their Countrey was full of clamour and discontent for the payment of Taxes and being exhausted with Contribution He desired them therefore to examine where any mis-demeanors had in truth been and that they might be punished and from whence the Scandal and Calumnies proceeded that the minds of the People might be informed and composed The Commissioners for the most part had discharged the Trust reposed in them yet there were some amongst them too able and dexterous in Business who alway malign'd the Person of the Marquess or rather his Religion and the Authority he represented And what professions soever they made of respect to him still maintain'd a close Intelligence and Correspondence with those of the Clergy who were the most dis-affected to his Majesties Interest and who from the misfortune at Rathmines had under-hand fomented and cherish'd all the ill humours and jealousies of the People The Commissioners advised the Marquess as the best expedient to satisfie the Countrey that Orders might be sent to them to elect some few Persons amongst themselves to send to Kilkenny as Agents to represent those Grievances which were most heavy upon them and to offer any desires which might promote their security alledging that they could by this means be clearly inform'd how groundless those jealousies were and the Artifices would be discover'd which had been used to corrupt their affections though the
Cluanensis Nicholaus Fernensis Edmundus Limericensis Procurarator Episcopi Ossoriensis Franciscus Aladensis Andraeus Finiborensis Joan. Laonensis Fr. Oliverus Dromorensis Fr. Antonius Clonmacnosensis Fr. Hugo Duacensis Fr. Arthur Dunensis Connerensis Fr. Terentius Imolacensis Fr. Patr. Ardagh Oliverius Deis Procurator Episco Medensis Dr. Joa Hussey Procurator Episco Ardfertensis Fr. Joannes Cantwel Abbas S. Crucis Dr. Thadeus Clery Episcop Rapo Procurator Fr. Gregorius o Ferraile Provin Ordinis Praedicatorum Provin Hiber Fr. Thomas Mackeyernane Provin Fratrum Minorum Provin Hiber Walterus Clonfortensis Congregationis Secretar By the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Kingdom of Ireland WE the Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries and Prelates of the Kingdom of Ireland having met at Clonmacnose propria Motu the fourth day of December in the year of our Lord God 1649. to consider of the best means to unite our Flocks for averting Gods wrath fallen on this Nation now bleeding under the evils that Famine Plague and War bring after them for effecting a present Union Decreed the ensuing Acts. 1. We Order and Decree as an Act of this Congregation That all Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries within their respective Diocesses shall enjoyn Publick Prayers Fasting General-Confession and Receiving and other works of Piety toties quoties to withdraw from this Nation Gods Anger and to render them capable of his Mercies 2. We Order and Decree as an Act of this Congregation That a Declaration issue from us letting the People know how vain it is for them to expect from the Common Enemy commanded by Cromwel by Authority from the Rebels of England any assurance of their Religion Lives or Fortunes 3. We Order and Decree as an Act of this Congregation That all Pastors and Preachers be enjoyned to Preach amity And for inducing the People thereunto to declare unto them the absolute necessity that is for the same and as the chief means to preserve the Nation against the extirpation and destruction of their Religion and Fortunes resolved on by the Enemy And we hereby do manifest our detestation against all such Divisions between either Provinces or Families or between old English and old Irish or any the English or Scots adhering to his Majesty And we Decree and Order that all Ecclesiastical Persons fomenting such Dissentions or un-natural Divisions be punished by their respective Prelates and Superiors Juxta gravitatem excessus si opus fuerit suspendantur beneficiali Pastores à beneficio officio ad certum tempus Religiosi autem à Divinis juxto circumstantias delicti Leaving the Laity offending in this kind to be corrected by the Civil Magistrate by Imprisonment Fine Banishment or otherwise as to them shall seem best for plucking by the root so odious a Crime The Execution whereof we most earnestly recommend to all those having Power and that are concerned therein as they will answer to God for the evils that thereout may ensue 4. We Decree and Declare Excommunicated those High-way Robbers commonly called the Idle-Boys that take away the Goods of honest men or force me to pay them Contribution and we likewise declare Excommunicated all such as succour or harbour them or bestow or sell them any Victualing or buy Cattle or any other thing else from them wittingly Likewise all Ecclesiastical Persons Ministring Sacraments to such Robbers or Idle-Boys or burying them in Holy Grave to be suspended ab officio beneficio si quod habent by their respective Superiors juxta gravitatem delicti This our Decree is to oblige within fifteen days after the Publication thereof in the respective Diocesses Signed by Hugo Ardmachanus Fr. Thomas Dublin Thomas Casshel Joan. Archiep. Tuam Fr. Boetius Elphyn Fr. Edmundus Laghlinensis Procurator Waterfordiensis Emerus Clogher Robertus Corcagiensis Cluanensis Nicholaus Fernensis Edmundus Limericensis Procurator Episcopi Ossoriensis Franciscus Aladensis Andreas Finiborensis Joan. Laonensis Fr. Oliverus Dromorensis Fr. Antonius Clonmacnosensis Fr. Hugo Duacensis Fr. Arthurus Dunensis Connerensis Fr. Terentius Imolacensis Fr. Patric Ardagh Oliverius Deis Procurator Episco Medensis Dr. Joannes Hussey Procurator Episcop Ardfertensis Fr. Joannes Cantwel Abbas S. Crucis Dr. Thadeus Clery Episcop Rapo Procurator Walterus Clonfortensis Congregationis Secretar By the Ecclesiastical Congregation of the Kingdom of Ireland WE the Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries and Prelates of this Kingdom of Ireland having met at Clonmacnose propria Motu on the fourth day of December in the year of our Lord God 1649. taking into our consideration among other the Affairs then agitated and determinated for the preservation of the Kingdom that many of our Flock are mislead by a vain opinion of Hopes that the Commander in Chief of the Rebels Forces commonly called the Parliamentaries would afford them good Conditions and that relying thereon they suffer utter destruction of Religion Lives and Fortunes if not prevented To undeceive them in that their ungrounded expectation We do hereby Declare as a most certain Truth that the Enemies Resolution is to extirpate the Catholick Religion out of all his Majesties Dominions as by their several Covenants doth appear and the Practice where-ever their Power doth extend as is manifested by Cromwel's Letter of the 19th of Octob. 1649. to the then Governor of Ross. His words are For that which you mention concerning Liberty of Religion I meddle not with any man's Conscience but if by Liberty of Conscience you mean a Liberty to exercise the Mass I judge it best to use plain dealing and to let you know where the Parliament of England have Power that will not be allowed of This Tyrannical Resolution they have put in execution in Wexford Drogheda Ross and elsewhere And it is notoriously known that by Acts of Parliament called The Acts of Subscription the Estates of the Inhabitants of this Kingdom are sold so as there remaineth now â—o more but to put the Purchasers in possession by the power of Forces drawn out of England And for the common sort of People towards whom if they shew any more moderate usage at the present it is to no other end but for their private advantage and for the better support of their Army intending at the close of their Conquest if they can effect the same as God forbid to root out the Commons also and plant this Land with Colonies to be brought hither out of England as witness the number they have already sent hence for the Tobacco Island and put Enemies in their places And in effect this banishment or other destructions of the common People must follow the Resolution of extirpating the Catholick Religion which is not to be effected without the Massacring or Banishment of the Catholick Inhabitants We cannot therefore in our Duty to God and in discharge of the Care we are obliged to have for the preservation of our Flocks but admonish them not to delude and lose themselves with the vain expectation of Conditions to be had from that merciless Enemy And consequently we
Bishop of Clougher held a Council at Baltimore in West-Meath to consult the security of the Nation which Cromwel hearing of sent Colonel Reynolds and Sir Theophilus Jones with 2500 Horse Foot and Dragoons against them with which they dispersed them and those Forces which the Marquis of Clanrickard and the Earl of Castlehaven had brought out of Connaght to the Relief of Tecrogham within 20 miles of Dublin and being joyn'd with the Dublin Forces took in Trim Balahuse Finagh and other Places In the time that Clonmel was Besieged the Bishop of Ross with 4000 Foot and 300 Horse endeavours its Relief but is overcome by the Lord Broghil near Bandon-Bridge and himself taken Prisoner and hang'd in the sight of Caringdred which Castle thereupon yielded to the Lord Broghil In this Hurry the Forces in Ulster being besides much shaken by reason of several Interresses the Nobility Gentry and Commanders for the King scattered a Declaration that none who would submit to his Authority should suffer either in Religion or State but it prevailed little During the Leaguer of Clonmel absolute Orders were brought to Cromwel from the Parliament for his sudden return as also two Expresses from the Council of State to that purpose which after the compleatment of that Siege he fulfilled leaving the Kingdom about the end of May 1650. having made Colonel Ireton his Deputy Here we cannot but take notice that there were several Precepts by the Archbishop of Ardmagh and others to pray for the success of Oliver's Forces whilst Dominick Dempsy a Franciscan esteem'd a grave and holy man and therefore a leading Person and Long the Jesuit asserted that the King being out of the Roman Catholick Church it was not lawful to pray for him particularly or publickly in general on any other day than on Good-Friday as comprehended amongst the Infidels alias Jews Mahometans Pagans and Hereticks and then for the Spiritual welfare of his Soul not for his Temporal prosperity Though the Parliamentarians by the Faction and obstinacy of the Irish who could not hitherto be induced to make reasonable provision for defence had prevail'd far and possessed themselves of many good Places without considerable opposition yet there remain'd a good part of the Kingdom free from their Power the whole Province of Connaght was still entire and the Cities of Waterford Limerick and Galway in possession of the Catholicks which might be made so strong as not to fear any strength Ireton could bring before them and are so situated for all advantages of Sea that they might being well supplied maintain a War against the whole Kingdom they had also the Forts of Duncannon and Sligo as also the strong Castles of Caterlough Athlone Charlemont Carlo and Neanagh from whence the Confederates might bring into the Field twice the number of Men which the Enemy had so that there wanted onely Unity Order and Resolution to preserve themselves to improve which the Marquis of Ormond resolved to begin with Limerick and if he could have disposed that City unto a full obedience and to receive a Garrison he made no question not onely to fortifie it against any attempt of the Enemy but under the countenance of it and by the security of the River Shannon to Quarter his Troops raise Contribution for their support Discipline his Men and in effect by the Spring so to recruit his Army that he might not suspect to prevail against the Enemy where-ever he should engage And to this purpose he went himself thither from Kilkenny in January hoping that the good resolution of the Bishops of Cloanmacnoise had well prepared the People to comply with him but when he came thither albeit he was receiv'd with outward demonstrations of respect he found the temper not such as he desired whatsoever the Bishops had declared The Clergy had observed none of those Directions nor were any in so much credit as they who behaved themselves quite contrary to those Determinations And if no way could be found to allay this Spirit all his endeavours he saw would be without any fruit Hereupon he resolv'd to try whether that part of the Clergy which wished well to the Kingdom could use as efficacious means to preserve as the other who desired confusion did to destroy it And upon advice with the principal Persons of the Catholick Nobility and with the Commissioners of Trust he did by his Letters of the 27th of February 1649. desire as many of the Catholick Bishops as were within convenient distance to meet him at Limerick which they accordingly did the 8th of March following When they came thither he conferred with them in the presence of â—he Commissioners of Trust with all frankness upon the distracted and disjoynted state of Affairs and freely told them That without the People would be brought to have a full confidence in him and yield perfect obedience to him and without the City of Limerick might be perswaded to receive a Garrison and obey his Orders it was not to be hoped that he could be able to do any thing considerable against the Enemy He desired them therefore if they had a mist rust of him or a dislike of his Government that they would as clearly let him know it assuring them that such was his desire of the Peoples preservation that there was nothing within his Power consistent with his Duty to the King and agreeable with his Honour that he would not do at their desires for that end Withall letting them see that his continuance with the Name and not the Power of the Lord Lieutenant could bring nothing but ruine upon the Nation as well as dishonour on him So that again he propounded to them in plain terms Either that they would procure a due obedience to be yielded to him or propose some other way by his quitting the Kingdom how it might be preserved After consultation together they return'd with many expressions of respects and affection to his Person and faithfully promis'd to endeavour all that obedience he desir'd withall presenting the 13th of March to him a Paper of Advice which contained as they said certain Remedies for removing the discontents and disgusts of the People and for the advancing of his Majesties Service Amongst which they proposed That a Privy Council might be framed by the Peers and other of the Natives of the Kingdom as well Spiritual as Temporal to sit daily with him and determine all the weighty Affairs of the Countrey by their Council and many other Particulars concerning the raising of Men and conducting the War To every one of which his Excellency from Limerick gave them sitting at Loghreogh an Answer in writing amongst which he told them That he could not understand how the present distresses of the Kingdom could proceed from the want of a Privy Council or how the framing of such a Council could advantage the management of the War which by the Articles of Peace was to be done by the Commissioners of Trust with whom he
did always communicate all matters of importance and therefore he could not think it fit unnecessarily to presume upon doing a thing for which he had neither Power nor President the Nomination of all Persons to be of the Privy Council being always reserv'd by the King to himself Yet rather than he should be wanting in any thing that was in his power to satisfie the People in he wished that the particular Acts which the Privy Council had heretofore done and were now necessary to be done might be instanced and as far forth as should appear necessary and fit he would qualifie Persons free from just exceptions with such And so answer'd all their Propositions that they seem'd to be well satisfi'd therewith and thereupon published a Declaration dated at Loghreogh the 28th of March 1650. in which they professed That they did and would endeavour to root out of mens hearts all jealousies and finister opinions conceiv'd either against his Excellency or the present Government and that they intreated him to give them further Instructions declaring that they were not deterr'd from the want of the expected Success in the Affairs of the Kingdom but rather animated to give further Onsets and to try all other possible ways and did faithfully promise that no Industry of Care should be wanting in them to receive and execute his Directions When the Marquis first proposed to the Commissioners of Trust that Limerick and other Places might be Garrison'd he offer'd to them the names of three Persons of the Roman Catholick Religion and of eminent Quality Reputation and Fortunes that out of them they might choose one for the Command of Limerick But resolving afterwards to call this Assembly of Bishops thither and to be there himself in Person he deferred the proceeding further in it till then that with their own advice such a Person might be chosen for that important Charge that should be beyond any possibility of a just exception from that Corporation Now he took all imaginable pains and descended to all the Arts of Perswasion to satisfie those Citizens who he perceived were the most leading men of the necessity of their speedy receiving a Governour and a Garrison for the preservation of their Interest and whatsoever could be of any value with any People But he was so far from prevailing with them That they perform'd not those outward Civilities and Respects to him which had been in no other Place denied The Officer who Commanded the City Guards neither came to him for Orders or imparted them to him no Officer of the Army or any other Person could without special leave from the Mayor which was often very hardly obtain'd be admitted to come to his presence to receive his Commands and Directions for the resisting and opposing the Enemy who at that very time prevail'd in the County of Limerick And to publish more the contempt they had of the Kings Authority they committed to Prison the Lord Viscount Kilmallock a Catholick Peer of the Realm and an Officer of the Army the Lord Lieutenant being on the Place for no other reason than for Quartering for one night some few Horsemen under his Command by the Marquis of Ormond's Order within the Liberties of that City All this being done so contrary to the Injunction which the Bishops had published for the direction of the People and at a time when they were assembled there And when the Marquis of Ormond despaired their contempts being so high of perswading them to what absolutely concern'd their proper Interest he thought it not agreeable to the Honour of his Master to remain any longer in the Place where such affronts and contempts were put upon his Authority and yet being willing still to expect some good effects from the observation and discretion of the Bishops who could not but discern what ruine must immediately attend such license and disobedience he appointed all the said Bishops and as many more as could be perswaded to come thither and the Commissioners to meet him at Loghreogh where about the 19th of March they attended him at Loghreogh When they appeared at Loghreogh the Marquis represented to their memories what they had before been themselves witnesses of and observ'd at Limerick and the neglects he had born there Desired them to remove those causless distrusts which being maliciously infused into the Peoples minds did slacken if not wholely withdraw their obedience from his Majesties Authority and wished them to consider how impossible it was for him with Honour or any hope of success to contend against a powerful absolutely obey'd and plentifully supplied Enemy himself under such domestick disadvantages of distrust and disobedience and concluded that if the consequence of the Service could not induce them to be all of one mind in putting a Garrison into Limerick or if being all of one mind they could not induce the City to obedience and submission to such their determination he could no longer entertain a hope of giving any check to the Enemy and would thereupon consider how otherwise to dispose of himself Both the Bishops and Commissioners were really or at least seem'd so and entirely convinc'd of the necessity of erecting that Garrison and of putting that City into a better posture of defence than it then appear'd to be in The Commissioners in whom that Trust was reposed by the Articles of Peace order'd it to be done and sent two of their own Members viz. Sir Richard Everard Baronet and Dr. Fennel with their Order to Limerick and with a Letter to the Mayor to conform thereunto and the Bishops writ to the Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishop of Limerick both then at Limerick desiring them to use their utmost endeavours to incline the City to submit to the direction of the Lord Lieutenant and the Commissioners And having done this they departed to those Places they thought fit to dispose the People as they professed to all acts of conformity and obedience But the Commissioners in short time return'd from Limerick without having in any degree prevail'd with them to receive either a Governour or Garrison or to conform themselves to any Orders the Lord Lieutenant or the Commissioners should send to them otherwise than as they agreed with their own inclinations in stead of making choice of any of those three who were nominated to them for their Governour they upon the matter declared That they would keep that Power in their own hands and for receiving of a Garrison they proposed some particulars what men of the Irish Catholicks and what they would not what course should be taken for the support of them and through what hand it should pass and many other things directly contrary to the Articles of Peace which had been with solemnity proclaimed in that City and unto which they had professed all submission All this perversness obstinacy and ingratitude could not yet extinguish the affections and compassion the Marquis had towards them and he clearly discern'd
from making any Acts which might discourage the People from their Obedience to the Kings Authority And the Duke of Ormond acknowledges that for these 20 years he had to do with the Irish Bishops he never found any of them either to speak the Truth or to perform their Promise to him onely the Bishop of Clogher excepted who during the little time he lived after his submission to the Peace and Commission receiv'd from him he could not charge And therefore how inconvenient soever his Service had been to the Peace and Happiness of that Nation his Death was very unseasonable Upon the news of the Bishop of Clogher's defeat the 26 of June the Lady Fitzgarret after a well-regulated defence surrender'd up her Castle of Tecrochan to Colonel Reynolds and Colonel Huetson who had taken in Kilmallock Harristown Naas Ballymole Rabridge Tallo Athy Maryborrough Dermots Castle besides the Places mention'd before And on the 19th of August followed the surrender of Carlow which by the care of Ireton together with Waterford and Duncannon had since the beginning of June been close blocked up which Preston understanding surrender'd also Waterford within few days on Conditions which brought with it the delivery of the strong Fort of Duncannon about the same time Charlemont and Caterlagh were surrender'd to Sir Charles Coot and Colonel Venables after they had took in Culmore London-derry Eniskillen which was deliver'd by Sir George Monro to Sir Charles Coot for 500 l. though a little before he had receiv'd 1200 l. from the Marquess of Clanrickard for to secure it Colrain also Ardmach Carrickfergus Knockfergus Belfast Cloughouter Castle Jordon Carlingford Margrave Monaghan Liskelaghan In the mean time Colonel Henry Ingolsby who was sent to block up Limerick at a distance overcame 3000 Rebels coming to its Relief whereof 900 were slain the rest routed and taken Prisoners In August the Lord Inchequin gathering Forces in Kerry was disturb'd by Colonel Phaer who in his return thence took in the Castle of Kilmurry and thence went against the Lords Roch and Muskery who headed the Rebels in the West The Army having refresht it self at Waterford Ireton from thence intended for Limerick yet wanting Provision for such a Siege takes his Journey through the County of Wicklow which afforded him 1600 Cows besides Sheep and other Provisions From thence Sir Hardress Waller with an equal share of the Booty was sent with a considerable Force to straighten Limerick who in his way near Limerick took in Bally-Glaughan Bally-Cubbain and Garrygaglain three strong Castles whilst Ireton and Sir Charles Coot joyning Forces appear'd before Athlone to try if they could gain that Garrison but finding the Bridge broke and the Town on this side burnt Sir Charles Coot staid there to straighten it whilst Ireton taking two Castles in Colcohe's Country and the Burr which the Enemy had left and burnt presently seated himself before Limerick where he had certain Intelligence that the Marquess of Clanrickard who upon notice of the Enemies being at Athlone march'd with considerable Forces towards its Relief if any thing should have been attempted had retaken the two Castles and laid Siege to the Burr to whose Relief Colonel Axtell Governor at Kilkenny having made a conjunction at Rocrea with the Wexford and Tipperary Forces resolutely marched whereupon the Marquess of Clanrickard's Forces under their chief Commander he being gone with the other part of his Army towards Limerick retreated to Meleake Island a strong Fastness but were beaten thence the 25. of October with the loss of near 1500 Men 200 Horse Waggons and Baggage Upon this success the Irish quitted all their adjacent Garrisons and Ireton the Winter coming hard on drew off from Limerick having settled the Garrisons round about it with about 1200 Men and took in Neanagh a strong Castle in Low Ormond upon whose surrender Castleton and Dromaneer yielded also whence endeavouring to gain Killalough Pass though without effect he went to his Winter Quarters about the 10th of November at Kilkenny To provide for whom and the Forces in Ireland the Parliament was at a great stand the Prosecution of the War in Scotland having exercis'd the uttermost Force they could raise so as they now began to cast about which way might be most likely to disburthen themselves of some part of that Charge And for this purpose they appointed Commissioners to be sent into Ireland which were four Members of Parliament Mr. Corbet Colonel Ludlow Colonel Jones and Mr. Weaver The main Errant they went upon was to find out some means in that Kingdom for the raising of certain sums of Money yearly towards the maintenance of the Army These were designed about the beginning of October and were to be in readiness to imoark at Milford-Haven by the midst of December 1650. But to return to the Marquess of Ormond whose endeavours could not work the Confederates to any reasonable resistance though they saw their Cities and Towns won on every side who towards the end of July receiv'd a Letter subscribed by two Persons who Stiled themselves Archbishops of Dublin and Tuam in these words May it please your Excellency THis Nation become of late the Fable and Reproach of Christianity is brought to a sad Condition notwithstanding the frequent and laborious Meetings and Consultations of Prelates we find jealousies and fears deep in the hearts of men thorns hard to be plucked out we see most men contributing to the Enemy and rendring their Persons and Substance useful to his malice and destructive to Religion and the Kings Interests This Kind of men if not timely prevented will betray ir-remediably themselves and us We find no Stock or Subsistance ordered for maintaining the Souldiery nor is there an Army any way considerable in the Kingdom to recover what is lost or defend what we hold So as humanely speaking if God will not be pleased for his Mercies sake to take off from us the heavy Judgment of his Anger we are fair for losing Sacred Religion the Kings Authority and Ireland The four Archbishops to acquit their Consciencies in the eyes of God have resolved to meet at Jamestown about the 6th day of the next month and to bring along as many of the Suffragans as may repair thither with safety The end of this Consultation is to do what in us lies for the amendment of all Errors and the recovery of this afflicted People if your Excellency shall think fit in your Wisdom to send one or more Persons to make Proposals for the safety of the Nation we shall not want willingness to prepare a good Answer nor will we dispair of the Blessings of God and of his Powerful Influence to be upon our Intentions in that Place Even so we conclude remaining Your Excellencies most humble Servants Fra. Tho. Dub. Joh. Archbishop Tuamen 24. July 1650. For his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Whosoever reads this Summons or Intimation will believe it to be Satis pro Imperìo and
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
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
towards Castleliskin one of the fastest Places in Ireland and directly in the way to Limerick upon which the Lord Broghil hastned towards them and about midnight in a horrid storm of rain and wind fell upon their Horse-Guards and beat them in upon which their Camp took so hot an alarm as he drove them soon to the Place from whence they came thereby securing the Army before Limerick The Enemy in the interim getting over the Blackwater and afterwards were pursued by the Lord Broghil till finding a convenient ground to draw up their Battle in they were faced by him who kept the Right Wing Major Wally the Command of the Left and Major Cuppage the Foot so happily on each part secured that though indeed the Irish never more resolutely and in better order maintain'd their Station they were at last wholly routed Bogs and Woods usually their safety being not near them The chief Prisoners that day taken were Lieutenant Colonel Mac Gillacuddy Commanding young Muskeries Regiment a man more Popular then Muskery himself Major Mac-Gillariagh an old Spanish Souldier Major Mac-Finine and some considerable Commanders of Horse But to return to the Marquess of Clanrickard who notwithstanding all the fore-mention'd Discouragements some whereof he expected not hearing of Sir Charles Coot's intentions of entring Connaght issued out his Orders to all the Forces which for conveniency of Quarter and the more to infest the Enemy were scattered over the Provinces that they should meet at the General Rendezvous at the time and place appointed Resolving with as much expedition as he could to engage the Enemy where hearing that Sir Charles Coot to whom Ireton had left the Care of that Province was marched towards Athlone he made all possible haste to fall in his Rear or to wait his Motion but after he had gone two days march towards that Place he received certain Intelligence that Sir Charles had taken Athlone and being furnished with all necessary Guides was marched towards Gallway to block it up whereupon he made what haste he could back the same way he came and sent Orders to the Earl of Castlehaven General of the Horse to meet him with the Forces under his Command at a certain Village where the Deputy would expect him The Enemy being then within less then a Mile with their main Body and onely a narrow Pass between them which the Lord Deputy doubted not to defend until all his Forces should come up and then resolved to sight them which was the onely thing he desired and thought himself to be in a very good posture to do it But the Earl of Castlehaven before he would advance to the Lord Deputy thought it convenient to secure a single Pass over the River Shannon whereby the Enemy might possibly get over that so the Enemy might be entirely engaged where the Lord Deputy was without any danger in the Rear But by the time the Earl had marched some miles he heard the report of Muskets and looking back he saw the two Troops of Horse he had left to secure that Pass and the 60 Foot running and dispersing without being pursued for the Enemy having Intelligence of the Earl's march sent over 2 or 3 Boats with Musketiers from the other side of the River and landed without opposition at the Castle scituate on the Pass Upon which news notwithstanding the Earl's Commands or Intreaties his Army in that Consternation without the sight of an Enemy fled and disbanded insomuch that of 4000 which in the morning the Body consisted of the Earl brought not with him to the Place where the Lord Deputy was above 40 Horse whereupon the Lord Deputy saw he was in no case to engage the Enemy that he should be quickly attacked in the Rear by that part of the Army which had already and speedily would pass the River and that the same fright possessed his men who had hitherto kept the Bridge and who now began to yield ground and that in truth very many of his Souldiers had that night run away And thereupon he drew off and marched away both Horse and Foot when they were gotten out of danger of the Enemies pursuit And from this time the Lord Deputy could never draw any considerable and firm Body into the Field nor make any opposition to the Enemies Progress The Irish in all Places submitting to and compounding with them murmuring as much now against the Lord Deputy as they had before against the Lord Lieutenant Before the Lord Lieutenant had left the Kingdom he had sent the Lord Viscount Taaff who had been an Eye-Witness of all his Proceedings and had in vain labour'd to compose and dispose the minds of the Clergy to the Kings Service to give the King an Account of the Affairs of Ireland and how impossible it would be to preserve his Authority in that Kingdom without some more then ordinary Supplies from abroad which joyning with the most considerable and Loyal Part of the Irish might have kept the Refractory in awe His Lordship landed in Flanders the King being then in Scotland and quickly understood how unlikely his Journey into that Kingdom was to advance the Business upon which he came or indeed that he should be admitted to the Presence of the King from whom most were remov'd that attended him thither and thereupon he staid in Flanders and found an opportunity to present the Condition of the Papists of Ireland in such manner to the Duke of Lorrain who being nearly Allied to the King always professed singular affection to his Majesty and his Interest as in the end he prevail'd with him to send them some Relief And assoon as it was known that the Lord Lieutenant was landed in France the Duke sent a Person of Principal Trust about him the Abbot of St. Katharines into Ireland with a Credential as his Ambassador to the Clergy and Catholick Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom to treat with them in order to their receiving Aid and Supplies from the Duke and to the end that his Highness might in truth understand in what Capacity they were to be relieved and how much they could themselves contribute thereunto it being not then known that the Marquess of Ormond had left the Kings Authority behind him but rather conceiv'd that upon those many Provocations and Affronts which had been offered to him he had withdrawn with his Person the Countenance and Authority they had so much undervalued and so little deserved When the Abbot landed in Ireland which was about the end of February and within little more then 2 months after the Lord Lieutenant departed thence he heard that the Marquess of Clanrickard was the Kings Deputy and thereupon he gave him presently notice of his arrival addressed himself to him shewed his Commission and Credentials and assured him That the Duke his Master had so entire an Affection to the King of England the preservation of whose Interest in that Kingdom was the chief Motive to him
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
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
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
of them that would accept of it together with the Excommunication of the Marquess now Duke of Ormond and the order of Publication thereof whereupon Sir Nicholas Plunket who subscribed the said Instructions and principally insisted on the forementioned Particulars was sent for by the Committee of Lords who had the Examination of that Affair and acknowledging his hand-writing Report thereof was made to his Majesty and Council by whom it was ordered about the 14th of March 1661. That no more Petitions or Addresses should be received by the Irish to the obstruction of the Settlement of that Kingdom and that Sir Nicholas Plunket should thence-forward no more presume to come into his Majesties Presence nor to Court Likewise there was produced an Oath previously taken by several of the Popish Nobility Clergy and others of the Gentry of Ireland before the Articles of Peace made in 1648. which they so much insist upon wherein they swear and engage That if those Articles of Peace were not in every particular for their advantage performed they would not be concluded by any thing therein Which appear'd to be so damnable a Piece of Treachery as it was highly resented in Council and the rather for that his Grace stood up and justified that to his knowledge it was a Truth And lest the memory of so great a Deliverance should slip out of our thoughts I shall in the next place present you with the Anniversary Act for its observance that this may be to us not less then the Passover to the Israelites for a Memorial and a Feast to the Lord throughout our Generations by an Ordinance for ever AN ACT FOR Keeping and Celebrating the three and twentieth day of October as an Anniversary Thanksgiving in this Kingdom WHereas many Malignant and Rebellious Papists and Jesuits Friers Seminary Priests and other Superstitious Orders of the Popish pretended Clergy most disloyally treacherously and wickedly conspired to surprize His Majesties Castle of Dublin His Majesties principal Fort of this Kingdom of Ireland the City of Dublin and all other Cities and Fortifications of this Realm and that all the Protestants and English throughout the whole Kingdom that would not joyn with them should be cut off and finally by a general Rebellion to deprive our late Sovereign Lord of ever blessed memory King Charles the First of this his ancient and rightful Crown and Sovereignty of this Kingdom and to possess themselves thereof all which was by the said Conspirators plotted and intended to be acted on the three and twentieth day of October in the year of our Lord God One thousand six hundred forty and one a Conspiracy so generally inhumane barbarous and cruel as the like was never before heard of in any Age or Kingdom and if it had taken effect in that fulness which was intended by the Conspirators it had occasioned the utter ruine of this whole Kingdom and the Government thereof And however it pleased Almighty God in his unsearchable Wisdom and Justice as a just punishment and deserved correction to his People for their sins and the sins of this Kingdom to permit then and afterwards the effecting of a great part of that Destruction complotted by those wicked Conspirators whereby many thousand British and Protestants have been massacred many thousands of others of them have been afflicted and tormented with the most exquisite torments that malice could suggest and all Mens Estates as well those whom they barbarously murthered as all other good Subjects were wasted ruined and destroyed yet as his Divine Majesty hath in all Ages shown his Power and Mercy in the miraculous and gracious deliverance of his Church and in the protection of Religious Kings and States so even in the midst of his Justice he was graciously pleased to extend Mercy to his Majesty and to this his Kingdom and good Subjects therein not only in mercifully discovering to the then Lords Justices by one Owen O Connelly a meer Irish Man but trained up in the Protestant Religion who out of a sense of his Duty and Loyalty to his Majesty and for the preservation of his good People and as an effect of that Religion he was trained up in revealed that hideous and bloody Treason not many hours before the appointed time for the Execution thereof but also in preserving the said Castle and City of Dublin and some other Cities Towns and Castles in the Kingdom from the bloody hands of the barbarous Conspirators as also in thereby rendring deliverance of the Lives of the said Lords Justices and Council and of all the British and Protestants in Dublin and in the said other Cities Towns and Castles preserved and of sundry other British and Protestants faln into the hands of those rebellious Conspirators and likewise in sending us Succours out of England hither by the Piety Care and Wisdom of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles the First whereby with Gods blessing the good Subjects of this Kingdom have hitherto continued safe under his mighty Protection notwithstanding the unexampled rage and implacable malice of those merciless Rebels Wherefore as we do most humbly and justly acknowledge Gods Justice in our deserved punishments in those Calamities which from the Councils and Actions of those Conspirators and their Adherents have faln upon us in this Kingdom in general so we do in like manner acknowledge that even in exercising of that his Justice he remembred Mercy also and magnified his Mercies to us in those great Blessings which we humbly confess to have proceeded meerly from his infinite Goodness and Mercy and therefore to his most holy Name we do ascribe all Honour Glory and Praise And to the end this unfeigned Thankfulness may never be forgotten but may be had in a perpetual Remembrance that all Ages to come may yield Praises to his Divine Majesty for the same and have in memory that joyful Day of Deliverance Be it therefore Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty with the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same that the three and twentieth day of October shall be kept and celebrated as an Anniversary holy day in this Kingdom for ever and that all Persons do at that day forbear all bodily Labour and the exercise of their Trades and that all and singular Ministers in every Cathedral and Parish Church or other usual place for Common-Prayer within this Realm of Ireland shall always upon the three and twentieth day of October say Morning Prayer and give thanks to Almighty God for that most happy and miraculous Deliverance and Preservation far above the expectations of those wretched Conspirators And that all and every Person and Persons inhabiting within this Realm of Ireland shall yearly upon the three and twentieth day of October diligently and faithfully resort to the Parish Church or Chappel accustomed or to some usual Church or Chappel where the said Morning Prayer Preaching or other Service of God
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
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
feed the Souldiers with from hand to mouth is spent I know no way to prevent their sudden disbanding and therefore I do again beseech your Lordship to endeavour that I may not be exposed to the dishonour and misery of being abandoned by the King's Forces and left my self single to the mercy of the Enemy but that Moneys may be speedily transmitted unto me with directions what pay to allow the Horsemen and Officers of the Foot with an overplus of Money as I have always desired for extraordinary and emergent occasions about either the Ordinance or Forts whereas yet nothing is in a right posture but things only shuffled together for a shift by reason we had not wherewithal to the work as it ought Your Lordships most humble Servant W. Saintleger Cork April 2. 1642 APPENDIX VII Fol. 95. In the Name of the holy Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen Acts agreed upon ordained and concluded in the General Congregation held at Kilkanny the 10 11 and 13 days of May 1642. by those Prelates whose Names are subscrib'd the Proctors of such other Prelates as then were absent being present together with the Superiours of the Regulars and many other Dignitaries and learn'd Men as well in Divine as also in Common Law with divers Pastors and others of the Catholick Clergy of all Ireland whose Names are likewise hereafter set down 1. WHereas the VVar which now in Ireland the Catholicks do maintain against Sectaries and chiefly against Puritans for the Defence of the Catholick Religion for the maintenance of the Prerogative and the Royal Rights of our gracious King Charles for our gracious Queen so unworthily abus'd by the Puritans for the Honour safety and Health of their Royal Issue for to avert and refrain the Injuries done unto them for the Conservation of the just and lawful Safeguard Liberties and Rights of Ireland and lastly for the defence of their own Lives Fortunes Lands and Possessions VVhereas I said this VVar is by the Catholiques undertaken for the aforesaid causes against unlawful Usurpers Oppressors and their Enemies chiefly Puritans And that hereof we are enformed aswel by divers and true Remonstrances of divers Provinces Counties and Noblemen as also by the unanimous consent and agreement of almost the whole Kingdom in this VVar and Union VVe therefore declare that VVar openly Catholick to be lawful and just in which VVar if some of the Catholicks be found to proceed out of some particular and unjust Title covetousness cruelty revenge or hatred or any such unlawful private intentions VVe declare them therein grievously to sin and therefore worthy to be punished and refrained with Ecclesiastical Censures if advised thereof they do not amend 2. VVhereas the Adversaries do spread divers rumours do write divers Letters and under the King's Name do print Proclamations which are not the King 's by which means divers plots and dangers may ensue unto our Nation VVe therefore to stop the way of untruth and forgeries of the Political Adversaries do will and command That no such rumours Letters or Proclamations may have place or belief until it be known in a National Councel whether they truly proceed from the King left to his own freedom and until the Agents of this Kingdom hereafter to be appointed by a National Councel have free passage to his Majesty whereby the Kingdom may be certainly enformed of his Majesties intention and will 3. VVhereas no Family City Common-wealth much less any Kingdom may stand without union and concord without which this Kingdom for the present standeth in most danger VVe think it therefore necessary that all Irish Peers Magistrates Noblemen Cities and Provinces may be tied together with the holy bond of Union and Concord and that they frame an Oath of Union and agreement which they shall devoutly and Christianly take and faithfully observe And for the conservation and exercise of this Union VVe have thought fit to ordain the ensuing Points 4. VVe straightly command all our inferiours aswell Churchmen as Laymen to make no distinction at all between the old and ancient Irish and no Alienation comparison or differences between Provinces Cities Towns or Families and lastly not to begin or forward any emulations or comparisons whatsoever 5. That in every Province of Ireland there be a Councel made up both of Clergy and Nobility in which Councel shall be so many persons at least as are Counties in the Province and out of every City or notable Town two persons 6. Let one general Councel of the whole Kingdom be made both of the Clergy Nobility Cities and notable Towns in which Councel there shall be three out of every Province and out of every City one or where Cities are not out of the chiefest Towns To this Councel the Provincial Councels shall have subordination and from thence to it may be appealed until this National Councel have opportunity to sit together Again if any thing of great importance do occur or be conceived in one Province which by a negative Vote is rejected in the Councel of one Province let it be sent to the Councels of other Provinces except it be such a matter as cannot be delayed and which doth not pertain to the Weal-publick of the other Provinces 7. Embassage sent from one Province to forraign Nations shall be held as made from the rest of the Provinces and the fruit or benefit thereof shall be imparted and divided between the Provinces and Cities which have more need thereof chiefly such helps and fruits as proceed from the bountiful liberality of forreign Princes States Prelates or others whatsoever provided always that the charge and damage be proportionably recompenced 8. If there be any Province which may not conveniently send Embassage from it self unto forraign Nations let it signifie it to another Province which may conveniently supply it and ought in regard of their Union to supply it according to the instructions sent from the other Provinces concerning the place and Princes to which they would have their Embassage employed 9. Let a faithful Inventory be made in every Province of the Murthers Burnings and other Cruelties which are committed by the Puritan Enemies with a Quotation of the place day cause manner and persons and other circumstances subscribed by one of publick Authority 10. In every Parish let a faithful and sworn Messenger be appointed whereby such Cruelties and other affaires may be written and sent to the neighbouring places and likewise from one Province to another Let such things be written for the comfort instruction and carefulness of the People 11. Great men taken prisoners in one Province may not be set at liberty for any price prayers or exchange without the consent of the Prelates and Nobility of the other Province united and let every Province be careful of the Liberties of such Prisoners as are from the other Provinces as far as it conveniently may 12. If any one stubborn or dangerous be found in one Province County or
former rebellious courses not so much as having to this time offered any assistance to this State or any the Governors or Commanders of the Army and have murdered many English and other Subjects in several parts it being observed that if any of his Majesties good Subjects Souldiers or others pass by not strongly guarded they are set upon and murthered in the High-ways and passages as they travel the very Plowmen and those that keep Cattle having continually Arms lying by them in the Fields to murther those his Majesties good Subjects when they find them weakly guarded and on the other side when they find them strongly guarded they seem to go on in their Plowing and Husbandry shewing those Warrants for their safety and seeming to be poor innocent and harmless Labourers And although the aforesaid open Rebels were frequently in some of their Houses and continually round about them they never gave us any intelligence concerning the proceedings of those open Rebels nor of the places where they had often meetings and where they might be found to be fallen on by his Majesties Army which they might easily have done if their affections to his Majesty and his Government had been such as by the Laws of God they ought to be or if they desired to live humbly in obedience to the Laws as some of them pretend And albeit in many of the said VVarrants there were conditions expressed and in all of them Conditions implyed that the parties taking benefit thereby should behave themselves as becomes dutiful and Loyal Subjects whereby We might justly proceed to their deserved Correction without any violation on Our parts of the said VVarrants or the word thereby given And albeit also that most of those VVarrants were not in themselves Protections to the parties further than in giving them leave to bring or send Corn and other provisions to the Markets whereby their Servants or Horses or Provisions should not be seized on by the Souldiers when they came to the Markets which admittance fell out as well for their benefit as intended for the furnishing of the Market Yet because We find that the further continuing of those VVarrants do now appear inevitably to induce a great inconvenience to his Majesties General Service and many of those people do either ignorantly or perhaps purposely mistake the true sense and meaning of those VVarrants and do give out to interpret them to be Protections granted to them for the safety of their Lives and Estates how foul soever they are in their crimes which is an interpretation that cannot justly be made out of the letter or meaning of those VVarrants yet in regard We who are entrusted here by His Majesty for the government of this His Kingdom and People are so tender of His Majesties Honour as VVe neither have done nor will do anything that by any construction can be interpreted a Breach of any word given by Us neither have desired or willingly permitted any violence or hurt to be done to any Inhabitant or any prejudice other than for the necessary Defence and safety of this State and other His Majesties good Subjects against those that tookup Arms against His Majesty And for that we are now necessitated to resolve not to suffer this State to be any longer deluded and abused and His Majesties good Subjects murthered even as it were in our own view in scorn and affront of the State and some of the actors passing with impunity under countenance of these VVarrants VVe think fit before we proceed to the just Correction of those who have so declared themselves Enemies to the Peace of this Kingdom hereby to publish and declare that the said VVarrants so granted by Us the Lords Justices or either of Us or by Us the Lords Justices and Councel or by the said Lieutenant General of the Army or by the said late or present Commanders of the Forces of this City or by any His Majesties Commanders in Drogheda or other places to any person or persons within the Baronies of Castle-knock Nethercrois Balrothery or Coolock in the County of Dublin or within the Baronies of Duleeke Skryne Moyfenragh Ratoath Deece and Dunboyne in the County of Meath shall from and after the four and twentieth day of this Month stand void and be annulled repealed and revoked and we do hereby accordingly from and after the said day revoke repeal make void and annul them and every of them to all intents and purposes as if they had never been granted and do order that from and after the said day they be of no force nor derive any benefit Protection or Security in the parties to whom they were granted And this Proclamation we hereby require the Major and Sheriffs of the City of Dublin to cause to be proclaimed and published on two Market-days in and throughout the said City and Suburbs and to be publickly fixed up in the Market-place and other publick places in the said City and Suburbs that so all men may take notice thereof and that hereafter when by the power and strength of his Majesties Army Offenders receive due punishment they may appear inexcusable and not have any colour to pretend the least Breach of word in this State Given at his Majesties Castle of Dublin the 10. of June 1642. Ormond Ossory Roscomon Ad. Loftus J. Temple Tho. Rotherham Fra. Willoughby Tho. Lucas Ja. Ware Geo. Wentworth Rob. Meredith God save the King This relates to what is mentioned in the end of the second Paragraph Fol 102. Justifying the State in the revoking of Protections given contrary to their Order and the Abuse the Protected made thereof By the Lords Justices and Council W. Parsons Jo. Borlase WHereas in the beginning of this hideous and detestable Rebellion We the Lords Justices and Council desirous if it might be to give some sudden stop thereunto so to prevent the spreading thereof and the growth of it to that height to which it hath sithence risen and conceiving that at that time the multitude were by evil Council or false rumors seduced to partake in that Rebellion who not knowing the truth and depth of the Combination We did think could not so wretchedly fail in their Duty and Loyalty to their most Gracious King and Soveraign as so universally to persist in their course of Disobedience to his Majesties Authority but would with treatable and fair admonitions laying before them their great danger and the iniquity of their enterprise have returned to their obedience We therefore on the 27th of October last authorised divers persons of quality and trust for the several Counties of Down Antrim Armagh Monaghan Cavan Tirone and Fermanagh amongst other Powers then entrusted with them to parly with the Rebels or any of them and by Proclamation or otherwise to proffer his Majesties Grace and Mercy to them or any of them and to receive such of them into his Majesties Grace and Mercy as should submit themselves and desire the same Yet We held fit
we are protected in all our dangers and distresses we thy people and sheep of thy Pasture do acknowedge our selves above all others infinitely bounded unto thy heavenly Majesty for thy many unspeakable benefits daily conferred and heaped upon us especially for the enlightning us with thy heavenly truth and planting thy Gospel amongst us for placing over us a most gracious King a faithful Professour and Defender of the same a wise and vigilant Lieutenant And as at this time especially we praise thee for the discovery and prevention of the bloody and treacherous designs of the Enemies of thy Truth and People We laud and magnifie thy Glorious name for these thy Mercies and will ever shew forth thy praise from generation to generation for it was thy goodness alone that we were not delivered over for a prey unto their Teeth Thy prudence not our foresight thy love not our merit that we appear this day before thee That the Enemy did not triumph in our utter destriction nor root up the Uine which thy right hand had planted O Lord God of hosts look down from Heaven and behold and visit this thy Uine water it with thy blessing and make it to fill the Land to the astonishment of our Enemies but unto the joy of all that wish well unto our Sion So will we not go back from thee but will serve thee in fear and holiness all the days of our lives through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Third Collect after the Litany O Most Gracious Lord God we of this Nation whom thou didst snatch as a brand out of the fire of the late horrid Massacre we this day assembled before thee do with shame and sorrow acknowledge and confess That our Sins had most justly provoked thee to Wrath when thou didst suffer those men of blood to make their Sword fat with the Slaughter of so many thousand Innocents-And we may as justly fear that our not being made better by thy former Judgements thou mayest be compelled to make thy Sword sharper and return upon us in greater fury because our sins are greater more bold more provoking in particular our neglect and contempt of thy sacred Ordinances our vain and false swearing for which the Land mourns our unchristian uncharitableness and shameful intemp rance our sacriledge and covetousness hypocrisie slandering and deep security in the midst of all our sins and dangers These together with a glorying in our impieties might in justice have brought upon us a sudden and horrible destruction But contrary to the method of thy proceedings against others thou hast spared us thereby woing us to return unto thee by unfeigned Repentance Thou hast magnified thy mercy towards us that we may magnifie thee as we do this day this memorable day O Lord for thy patience and long suffering notwithstanding all our provocations we repent O pardon we return O vouchsafe to receive us and enable us to walk worthy of thy great past deliverance by a more strict and holy future obedience for the merits of Jesus Christ our only Saviour and Redeemer Amen At the second Service this Fourth Collect to be said after the Collect for the King MOst merciful and bountiful Lord God seeing thou hast been graciously pleased to preserve thy most unworthy people from total desolation and dayly to follow us with the blessing of peace and good Government make us therefore O Lord in all thankfulness to be obedient to thy will in all things to be faithful and constant in our duty to the King and to all that are in Authority under him to be sincere in thy worship zealous of good works of one faith and one mind studying to be quiet forbearing one another and forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us so that when every one in his several place shall labour to advance the good both of Church and State and by a through Reformation of our lives shall become a people whom thou mayest take delight to bless then thy Judgements which we have deserved and therefore fear may be averted and our sinful Souls saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Then with one heart and voice we may all praise thee in thy Church and always sing joyfully that thy loving kindness is ever more and more towards us and the truth of the Lord endures for ever These mercies we most unworthy to ask humbly beseech thee to grant for the benefit of this Church and Nation and glory of thy Name through Jesus Christ our only Saviour and Redeemer Amen For the Epistle Nehem. 4. from ver 7. to ver 16. or 2 Cor. 1. from ver 3. to ver 11. For the Gospel Mat. 14. from ver 23. to ver 34. or Mat. 15. from ver 1. to ver 13. or Mat. 5. from ver 1. to ver 14. And then proceed as in the Book of Common Prayer Other Particulars We might add but how can We conclude better then with the voice of the Church for so wonderful a deliverance from so unnatural and inhuman a Conspiracy which hath produced besides other horrid effects this Abbreviate of so sad a Tragidy and the expence of so vast a Treasure Omissions containing several Additions to the History FOl. 9. line 23. Crime which for the Honour of those Gentlemen rather then that it 's undeniably true I would willingly believe it being easy to be made out that many of these instigated if not headed the Commonalty afterwards Fol 10. l. 25. of Lands though the Law heretofore was held otherwise and much of his Majesties Revenue stands upon that Title Fol. 13. l. 39. Epistle which expression of his is the more to be took notice of in that being a prime Instrument of State He hath more Grounds then others to build these Conjectures upon Fol. 28. l. 12. Rebellion the Commission Granted to the Lord Gormanston was as follows By the Lords Justices and Council W. Parsons Jo. Borlase RIght Trusty and well beloved We greet you well Whereas divers and most disloyal and malignant Persons within this Kingdom have traiterously conspired against his Majesty his Peace Crown and Dignity and many of them in Execution of their Conspiracy are traiterously assembled together in a Warlike manner and have most inhumanly made destruction and devastation of the Persons and Estates of his Majesties good and loyal Subjects of this Kingdom and taken slain and imprisoned great Numbers of them We out of our care and zeal for the common good being desirous by all means to suppress the said Treasons and Traitors and to conserve the Persons and Fortunes of his Majesties loving Subjects here in safety and to prevent the further spoil and devastation of his Majesties good People here do therefore hereby require and authorize you to Levie Raise and Assemble all every or any the Forces as well Footmen as Horsemen within the County of Meath giving you hereby the Command in chief of all the said Forces and hereby further
Irish Rebels or conclude any Peace or Cessation with them without the consent and express Command of the King and Parliament of England 4. He will engage himself to the true performance of all these things by Oath or any other means that can be propos'd to a Man of Honour and Conscience Septemb. 26 1646. Ormond Which he frequently insisted on in his Treaty with the Parliaments Commissioners who seem'd not before to be acquainted therewith or thought it expedient upon the Treaty to receive the same from him which however as most important He insisted upon as also to have Directions from His Majestie ere he would deliver up the Hoord or render up the Garrisons in his Power to their hands waving notwithstanding the first Proposition rather than that should be any leâ—t to the Treaty which in conclusion ended in delivering up all to the Parliament Fol. 169. l. 29. in the Irish concluding thereby that there would not be only a loss of the Kingdom but of thousands of Protestants and together with them the Protestant Religion also Fol. 177. l. 41. other Considerations As that the English Interest in Ireland must be preserv'd by the English and not by the Irish. Fol. 184. l. 21. and Eloquence as follows in these words To the Honourable Commissioners from the Parliament of ENGLAND The humble Answer and Petition of the Protestant Clergy of the City of Dublin Humbly shewing THAT whereas we having received from your Honours by Anthony Dopping Esquire a Message consisting of two branches one of Demand Whether the Ministers will officiate in their several Churches not using the Book of Common Prayer The other a Concession to this effect That such as will officiate may use the Directory or such Service as is agreeable to the Word of God but not use the Book of Common Prayer VVe hereto with all meekness and lowliness of minds return this our joint Answer 1. That forasmuch as we see and know that the Protestants of this City for the most part are much grieved in heart for the want of the daily accustomed Service of God in the two Cathedrals and the Parish Churches of this City and for their late being deprived of us and our Ministery which they have long enjoyed VVe are very much troubled and are very sorrowful in our selves for their grief We acknowledg our selves bound to preach the Gospel of Christ unto the People and are so far from a voluntary desertion of our Churches People Ministery and the exercise thereof as that we shall rejoyce in nothing more than that we may finish our course with joy and the Ministry which we have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the grace of God 2. That we have been and still are effectually debarred from our Churches and the exercise of our Ministry by your Honours Injunction and Command bearing date the 24. of June 1647. wherein you require the discontinuance of the Book of Common-Prayer and the receiving of the Directory c. which Injunction lies still upon us with the danger of non-protection in case we disobey the same 3. That we cannot consent with a good conscience to the discontinuance of the Book of Common-Prayer and receiving the Directory in lieu thereof or any other private form of publick Service for the reasons exhibited and alledged in our Answer the 22. of June last whereto we humbly annex these Reasons following amongst others which we debated upon in our mutual conference the 25. of June and on the same day touched some of the Heads of them before your Honours I. VVe all at our Ordination or being made Presbyters have among other things made this solemn Promise before God which we account the same with or little different from an Oath that we would so minister the Doctrine and Sacraments and Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same II. VVe have often taken the Oath of Supremacy and sworn that the King's Highness is the only supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all spiritual and Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal and that we shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. granted or belonging to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom Now should we receive a Directory printed or any other form without Royal Authority we do not conceive how this can stand with this our Oath III. As the Act of Parliament 2 Eliz. still in force in this Kingdom expresly commands the use of this Book of Common-Prayer so it forbids Common-Prayer or Administration of the Sacraments otherwise or after any other manner or form with any private dispensation whereof we cannot comply we being bound to the obedience thereof not only for fear of penalty but for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. IV. VVhereas the Book of Common-Prayer is one main part of the Reformation established in the Churches of England and Ireland the laying aside thereof and the receiving of the Directory or any other form would be we conceive considering the present state and circumstances of things a departing in this from the Communion of the Church of England and Ireland V. It is evident that as the Constitution of a Law in any matter Ecclesiastical the order ever observed in the Church since Kings became nursing Fathers thereto was is and ought to be this That it first pass the consultation and determination of a lawful Ecclesiastical Council and then that it receive the sanction and confirmation of the civil Supreme Magistrate for this gives it the formal strength and vigour of a Law outwardly obliging and that gives it materiality and substance and supplies ground sufficient to make it a Law inwardly obliging Christian People to receive it So in the promulgation and execution of that Law concerning a matter Ecclesiastical there was and is this order observed First the supreme civil Magistrate remands and recommends it to the Ecclesiastical Governours and they deliver it to the rest of the Pastors and they to the People So that the immediate actual reception of an Order Ecclesiastical by the Ministers is from the hand of the Bishop or Ordinary And upon this is founded that solemn Promise made before God by every Minister at his Ordination That he will reverently obey his Ordinary and other chief Ministers unto whom the Government and Charge over him is committed following with a glad mind their godly admonitions and submitting himself to their godly judgments Since then in this matter concerning the Book of Common-Prayer all the required premisses were fulfilled and that any other form that for the present we can use wants all of them we cannot without breach of our Promise forementioned and disordered anticipation or neglect of the judgment of our Ordinances receive any such or other form considering the King's Command concerning the only use of the Book of Common-Prayer expressed in the Act of Parliament is still 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
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
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