other Church Goods pertaing unto their respective Titles with obligations to pay proportionable Rent unto the Souldiers as aforesaid or his payment of their own competent maintenance and lett the Houses Tenements and other Church goods be taken from the Catholicks who heretofore had them as Tenements or otherwise 26. It is committed to the will and disposition of the Ordinary whether and when to enter into the Churches and celebrate Masses therein we command all and every the general Colonels Captains and other Officers of our Catholick Army to whom it appertaineth that they severally punish all transgressors of our aforesaid Command touching Murtherers Maimers Strikers Thieves Robbers and if they fail therein we Command the Parish Priests Curats or Chaplains respectively to declare them interdicted and that they shall be Excommunicated if they cause not due satisfaction to be made unto the Common-wealth and the party offended And this the Parish Priests or Chaplains shall observe under pain of Excommunication of sentence given ipso facto 27. To the end that these Acts Propositions and Ordinances may have more happy success We thought it fitting to have recourse unto God Almighty by Prayers Fastings and Alms We therefore will pray and as far as it is needful do command that every Priest as well Secular as Regular do celebrate one Mass a week and that all Lay-men do fast upon Wednesday Friday and Saturday in one week and thence forward one day a week and upon that Wednesday or Saturday as long as the Ordinary shall please and that they pray heartily unto God for the prosperous success of this our Catholick War for which they shall gain so many days indulgences as every Prelate shall publish in their several Diocesses respectively after the Fast of the aforesaid three days in one Week having first confessed and received the blessed Sacrament and bestowed some Alms to this effect 28. In every Regiment of Souldiers let there be appointed at least two Confessors and one Preacher to be named by the Ordinaries and by the Superiors of the Regulars whose competent maintenance we commend and command to every Colonel in their respective Regiments And to the end that all those Ordinances and Statutes may effectually be put in Execution We will and decree that all Arch-bishops Bishops Apostolical Vicars and Regular Superiours as well here present as absent may be very serious and careful of the Execution of the aforesaid as they tender not to incur displeasure wrath and revenge and herewith we charge their Consciences 29. Moreover VVe pray and require all Noblemen Magistrates and all other Marshal Commanders that with their helps and Secular forces they assist and set forward in Execution the aforesaid Statutes in their several Precincts respectively as often as it shall be needful If in any of the aforesaid Statutes any doubt or difficulty may by chance arise the explication thereof we reserve to the Metropolitans in every Province respectively and to the Bishops in every their Diocesses such of them as are no way contrary to this Cause no other person may presume to expound the aforesaid difficulties Haec dicta acta ordinata statuta subscripta erant nominibus sequentium Praelatorum All those Judgments Sayings Acts and Covenants VVe submit to the Judgment of the See Apostolick Hugo Archiepiscopus Armachanus Thomas Archiepiscopus Casselensis Malachius Archiepiscopus Guamenum David Episcopus Osoren Frater Boetius Episcopus Elphinensis Frater Patricius Episcopus Waterforden Lysmoren Frater Rochus Episcopus Kildaren Johannis Electus Claunfarten Emerus Electus Dunen Conoren Frater Josephus Everard Procurator Archiepiscopi Dublinens Doctor Johannes Creagh Procurator Episcopus Lymeriten David Bourck Willielmus O Connell Procurator Episcopi Imolacen Donatus O Tearnan Procurator Episcopi Laonen Doctor Dionysius Harty Decanus Laonensis Doctor Michael Hacket Vicar gener Waterforden Gulielmus Devocer Vic. gener Fernesen Thomas Roch Vicar Generalis Ossoren Frater Lucas Archer Abbas Sanctae Crucis Frater Anthonius de Rosario Ord. praed Vicar Provincial Robertus Nugent Societat Jesu in Heb. Frater Thadeus Connoldus Ang. pro Provinc Johannes Wareinge Decanus Lymericen Frater Patricius Darcye Guardian Dublin Frater Thomas Strange Guardian Waterford Frater Joseph Lancton Prior Kilkenny Frater Tho. Tearnon Guard de Dundalk Frater Johannes Reyly Guard Kilkenny Frater Boetius Egnanus Guard Buttevant Jordanus Boork Archidiaconus Lymericensis APPENDIX VIII Fol. 98. Orders made and established by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the rest of the general Assembly for the Kingdom of Ireland met at the City of Kilkenny the 24th day of October Anno Dom. 1642. and in the Eighteenth year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord the King Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. 1. IMprimis That the Roman Catholick Church in Ireland shall and may have and enjoy the Priviledges and Immunities according to the great Charter made and declared within the Realm of England in the ninth year of King H. 3. sometime King of England and the Lord of Ireland and afterwards enacted and confirmed in this Realm of Ireland and that the Common Law of England and all the Statutes of force in this Kingdom which are not against the Catholick Roman Religion on the Liberties of the Natives and other Liberties of this Kingdom shall be observed throughout the whole Kingdom and that all Proceedings in Civil and Criminal Cases shall be according to the said Laws 2. Item That all and every person and persons within this Realm shall bear Faith and true Allegiance unto our Soveraign Lord King Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland His Heirs and Successors and shall uphold and maintain his and their Rights and lawful Prerogatives with the utmost skill and power of such person or persons against all manner of persons whatsoever 3. Item That the Common Laws of England and Ireland and the said Statutes called the great Charter and every Clause Branch and Article thereof and all other Statutes confirming expounding or declaring the same shall be punctually observed within this Kingdom so far forth as the Condition of the present times during these times can by possibilities give way thereunto and after the War is ended the same to be observed without any Limitation or Restriction whatsoever 4. Inasmuch as the City of Dublin is the usual and principal Seat of Justice in this Kingdom where the Parliament and ordinary Courts were held and some other places where principal Councils were sometimes kept and as yet possessed and commanded by the malignant party who are Enemies to God and their King and his Majesties well-affected Subjects The Assembly is necessitated during this VVar in some formalities and circumstances to deviate from the proceedings prescrib'd by the said Laws and Statutes nevertheless retaineth the substance and Essence thereof so far-forth as the endless malice and cruelty of their Enemies the said malignant party doth permit
Oratory is seldom unsuccessful but what the people got by following this thrifty Counsel some have taken the pains to compute and it is found that the Impositions laid and levied upon the people to support Usurpation and Tyrannie in a few bad years came to more than the most chargeable Princes had raised in some Ages to conquer Enemies and Infidels abroad whilest this was employed to make Enemies of Friends and little better than Infidels of Christians at home I confess this Animadversion is not so seasonable now or proper to he applyed to you who in your Liberalities have outgone all Example and prevented even the Kings wishes nor are those Liberalities the less but the more valued by Him that he intends to apply them intirely to the security and improvement of a true Protestant and a right English Interest in this Kingdom There is nothing that declares indeed that constitutes perfect Union and a happy Harmony so much as mutual trusts and confidence and the interchange of gifts and benefits it is so in private Friendship and it is much more so in that good Intelligence which must make a King and His people happy The King has trusted you as far as ever King trusted Subjects and He has given you more than ever any King or Lord of Ireland had to give You have trusted the King with all you had and all you had to pretend to and you have given Him more than he thought of to desire Let it not therefore be apprehended that this Commerce must cease by the Prodigality on both sides as if there were no more to be given or received No my Lords and Gentlemen protection from Forreign Invasion and Rebellion at home the due and uncorrupt administration of Government and of the Laws and under them the advancement and encouragement of Piety and Learning Trade and all sorts of Industry and Improvements are benefits that may to the end of time descend from the Throne to you and yours And a due subjection to that Government and obedience to those Laws and application to that Piety and Learning to that Trade and Industry and to those Improvements may be as lasting Retributions from the People to the Throne I should here end this unusual Exercise but that I am commanded by the King to let you know that as He is abundantly satisfied with those demonstrations of Duty Loyalty and Affection you have given him during the whole time of your sitting so he looks with great Pleasure and Delight upon those Acts of Grace and Bounty that have past from him to you and he commands me to be sure not to forget to assure you upon all Proper Occasions that all his Promises shall be inviolably observed and that he will consent to whatever else may make this Kingdom flourishing and happy whether it shall be the Enacting of new and profitable or the repeal of old unuseful or burthensom Laws To say anything of or from my self in this place may be Presumption but to say nothing to you my Lords and Gentlemen to whom I owe so much must be Ingratitude You have before and since My Arrival been pleased to make many and obliging Expressions of your Approbation of the Kings choice of Me for this Government I have great reason to fear both the King and you consulted your Indulgence to Me more than your judgement of Me. Yet without much Presumption or Vanity I think I may say thus far the King and you may be excusable that He chose and You approved a Person whose Fortune and Family must prosper or decay must Ruine or Subsist by and with this Kingdom This has not perhaps always been the case and it is possible mean Abilities thus stimulated may be more profitable and industrious than greater actuated by less or by contrary Incentives There are upon me all imaginable Obligations to apply all that is in me to the safety and prosperity of this Kingdom Those of duty fidelity and thankfulness to the best and most bountiful Master in the World those of Retribution and Gratitude to you for extraordinary and liberal manifestations of kindness and affection and those self-preservation and Happiness Hence it may be concluded reasonably and naturally that my endeavours will be hearty and faithful and my failings which shall be as few as I can unvoluntarily and therefore the more pardonable You will presently when I am retired be at liberty to adjourn your selves to the time you desired Referrable to fol. 326. A form of Divine Service to be used October 23d appointed by Act of Parliament Anno Regni Car. 2di 14. die 27. Sep. 1662. to be kept and Celebrated as an Anniversary Thanksgiving in this Kingdom of Ireland THe begining of the Service to be according to the Form of the Common-Prayer then proper Psalms as 3. 9. 12. 46. 144. Proper Lessons for the First 2 Chron. 13. or Jer. 30. For the Second Lesson Mat. 9. or Acts 5. or Acts 23. And after the Collect for the Sunday this following Collect. ALmighty God and heavenly Father who out of thy most wise and watchful Providence and tender mercies towards us thine unworthy Servants hast been pleased as at all other times so on this day to prevent the extreme malice michievous imagination and bloody intention of our Enemies by revealing so wonderfully and opportunely their Rebellion and cruel Enterprises plotted against our dread Soveraign Lord the King and the whole State of this Realm for the subversion of this Government and the utter extirpation of the truth of thy Gospel and pure Religion professed amongst us We most humbly praise and magnifie thy glorious name for thine infinite goodness in this our marvellous deliverance We confess it was thy mercy thy mercy alone most merciful Father that we were not consumed And therefore not unto us not unto us O Lord but unto thy name be ascribed all honour and glory in all Churches of the Saints throughout all Generations For thou Lord didest discover unto thy Servants the snares of death thou didst break them and we were delivered Be thou still our mighty Protector and scatter our Enemies that delight in blood infatuate their Councils enfeeble their strength put fear in their hearts and accomplish this thy mercy in our safety and future deliverance And to that end strengthen the hands of our gracious King the Lord Lieutenant the Nobility and Magistrates of the Land with Jugdment Justice and Power to restrain such workers of Iniquity who pretend Religion and practise Rebellion and devout thine Inheritance This Lord we crave at thy merciful hands together with the continuance of thy powerful Protection over our dread Soveraign the whole Church and these Kealms and the speedy Conversion of all our Enemies and that for thy dear Sons sake Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Advocate Amen After the Litany this Prayer for the Second Collect. O Eternal God in whom we live move and have our being and by whom alone
insequutus est cum multis sequalibus in Lagenia vero se adjunxerant Jacobus Vice-Comes de Baltinglass cum Kavanachiis Briniis aliis Nobilibus illius Provinciae visa est magnis piis Principibus Causa Dei tractari quia pro fide bellum susceptum intellexerunt Copias etiam auxiliares transmiserunt sed propter Delicta seculi irritus fuit Conatus Deo tunc non decernente speratum Bellatoribus effectum tribuere quem in aliud tempus pro alia Generatione aliis Instrumentis modis parandum reservavit atque ita difflatum est Consilium illud dissiluit in partes opus coeptum ipsum infaeliciter dissolutum est neque enim in illa Commotione transire ad refrigerium nostrum voluit Dominus 3. Illa vero Geraldinorum commotione sic praetervecta successit ignis omni late devastans dum flamma ferroque omnia populatur Comes Tyronensis plusquam decennali bello intercipiens hujus Insulae quietem multa visus prospere aggredi multis etiam congressibus victor sed nonnullis victoriis infolescens exercitus tametsi Cohortium antesignari ipse Gubernator Dactor exercitus causam praetulerit honorificam restituendae Religionis nec ullam vellet capitulationem admittere cum Anglis in qua Primario non ageretur De fide Orthodoxa publicè stabilanda per universum regnum quia Tamen via violentia tunc exercita non erat secundum propositum Dei efficax hinc peccatis Hominum irato Numine frustra se exerebant vires Hominum 4. At King James's access to the Crown Waterford Cork and Limerick in Munster Kilkenny and Wexford in Lemster openly oppos'd the King's Title as not being a Catholick but were soon brought into obedience by the Lord Deputy Mountjoy 5. Within four years after the Lord Chichester Deputy Tyrone and O Donnel conspiring with Mac-guire Cormack O Neal O Cahan the Lord Delvin and others design'd a notable Rebellion but were prevented in May 1607. and an Act of Attainder past Anno 11 12 13 Jacobi Cap. 4. 6. The year following Anno scil 1608. Sir Doghertie's War succeeded sharp though short determining in five months encourag'd by the Priests That all who died in that Service went forthwith into Heaven Afterwards the State of Ireland seemed very happy both as to Improvement of Land Plenty and Peace till the year 1634. that Ever Mac-Mahon before mention'd discover'd an intended Plot which by the prudence of the Governour the Lord Wentworth never arriv'd at its design nor afterwards was any thing further suspected till Sir Henry Vane by his Majesties command K. C. 1. gave the Lords Justices the 16th of March notice of a suspected Rebellion of which with its circumstances we have already insisted Though we must say that the result of the former Conspiracies which by the blessedness of the Times prudence of Governours or other accidents were delayed in this Anno sc. 1641. met the accomplishment of them all Yet nothing was here attempted which the bleeding Iphigenia the great Incendiary of that Nation doth not passionately justifie it being in his Divinity and Logick rational That the Irish though not then visibly assaulted might however assume Arms in defence of their Religion and Property both threatned it being writes he a common Doctrine of Divines That it is lawful to prevent an evil that cannot be otherwise avoided than by preventing it nor need the authority of the Prince in that case be required A Doctrine so hellish as none certainly is so besotted but he may easily read therein the ruine of States and Kingdoms excellently answered by the Learned and accurate late Proselyte Dr. Andrew Sal to whom in this point we must refer you And as to matter of Fact bequeath you to the ensuing History clearly evidencing That before the Irish assumed Arms no Instrument was ever thought on much less found against them Formerly indeed it hath been strongly imputed to the State of England that conquering Ireland they did not also endeavour to make them one People holding them Enemies not taking care to settle Civility and a Property amongst them the cause as some thought of frequent Rebellions But though these and some other defects in the Civil Policy some think are inexcusable it may clearly be demonstrated they were not of so large a size as they are mark'd And it may appear by antient Records that the Laws of England were at first communicated to the meer Irish as far as their Barbarism and Cruelties exercis'd on occasions upon the English would well admit But to let these times pass whereof we cannot speak much with any certainty let us now see what fruits we have of all the Royal endeavours of his Gracious Majesty and his two Glorious Predecessors what return for all their Care for all their Charge and for all the English Blood which hath within the compass of the last Age been spilt for purchasing of Peace and introducing of the true Religion and common Civility into Ireland It cannot be denied that since the happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth all the former defects in the Government and Civil Policy have been abundantly supplied and all those Means us'd those Acts perform'd those Designs fully accomplish'd and all things else perfectly brought to pass which in the judgement of all wise Men were conceiv'd would undoubtedly effect the full settlement and reduction of that Kingdom As first The barbarous Customs continually us'd by the Irish have been quite abolished all sorts of People even the most wicked amongst them have been allowed the benefit of the Law and liv'd under the King 's immediate Protection all the Laws of England found useful for that Kingdom have been made currant by Act of Parliament in Ireland many other good Laws enacted and the execution of them hath had free course through all parts of the Kingdom the Courts of Justice have been open and the Judges for the more free distribution of Justice to the People have constantly twice every year gone their Circuits through the several Counties of the whole Land the Church-Government hath been fully setled many preaching Ministers generally plac'd throughout the several Parishes as likewise Free-Schools together with sufficient Maintenance for them have been establisht the Lands belonging to the Natives have been always duely setled according to Law in the Proprietor and what noise soever was rais'd entituling the Crown to Roscommon Mayo Slego Galloway Clare besides some parts of Limerick and Tipperary as one of the Master-pieces of the Earl of Strafford's Service in Ireland nothing was ever effected thereupon though it had cost his Majesty 10000 l. upon the enquiry and had they had patience till the next Sessions of Parliament there was an Act for Limitations pass'd by his Majesty to bar all Titles Claims and Challenges of the Crown before 60 years last past to have cut off all expectations upon the ancient Title and have strengthned by new Grants and Patents all Titles
Orders and Injunctions continued still their desire to observe the Peace The titular Bishop of Ossory publisht this extraordinary Writing WHereas we have in publick and private meetings at several times declared to the Supream Council and others whom it might concern That it was and is unlawful and against conscience the implying Perjury as it hath been defined by the special Act of the Convocation at Waterford to both Common-Wealths Spiritual and Temporal to do or concur to any Act tending to the approbation or countenancing the Publication of this unlawful and mischievous Peace so dangerous as it is now Articled to both Common-Wealths Spiritual and Temporal And whereas notwithstanding our Declaration yea the Declaration of the whole Clergy of the Kingdom to the contrary the Supream Council and the Commissioners have actually proceeded to the Publication yea and forcing it upon the City by terror and threats rather then by any free consent or desire of the People We having duly considered and taken it to heart as it becometh us how enormous this Fact is and appears in Catholicks even against God himself and what a Publick Contempt of the Holy Church it appeareth beside the evil it is like to draw upon this poor Kingdom after a mature Deliberation and Consent of our Clergy in Detestation of this hainous and scandalous Disobedience of the Supream Council and others who adhered to them in matter of conscience to the Holy Church and in hatred of so sinful and abominable an Act do by these Presents according to the Prescription of the Sacred Cannons pronounce and command henceforth a general Cessation of Divine Offices throughout all the City and Suburbs of Kilkenny in all Churches Monasteries and houses in them whatsoever Given at our Palace of Nova Curia the 18th of August 1646. Signed David Ossoriensis This extravagant Proceeding did not yet terrifie those of the Confederate Catholicks who understood as they pretended how necessary the observation of the Peace was for the preservation of the Nation But as they desired the Lord Lieutenant to forbear all acts of Hostility upon how unreasonable a Provocation soever So they sent two Persons of the Supream Council Sir Lucas Dillon and Dr. Fennel to the Congregation at Waterford to dispose them to a better temper and to find out some Expedient which might compose the minds of the People and prevent those Calamities that would unavoidably fall upon the Nation upon their declining and renouncing the Peace which you must understand in them to be very real But after they had attended several days and offered many Reasons and Considerations to them The Congregation put a Period to all the Hopes and Consultations of that nature by issuing out a Decree of Excommunication which they caused to be Printed in this Form and in these Words and with these Marginal Notes By John Baptist Rinuccini Archbishop and Prince of Firmo and by the Ecclesiastical Congregation of both Clergies of the Kingdom of Ireland A Decree of Excommunication against such as adhere to the late Peace and do bear Arms for the Hereticks of Ireland and do aid or assist them NOt without Cause saith the Oracles of Truth doth the Minister of God carry the Sword for he is to punish him that doth Evil and remunerate him that doth Good hence it is that we have by our former Decrees declared to the World our sence and just Indignation against the late Peace Concluded and Published at Dublin not onely in its nature bringing prejudice and destruction of Religion and Kingdom but also contrary to the Oath of Association and withall against the Contrivers of and Adherers to the said Peace In pursuance of which Decrees being forced to unsheath the Spiritual Sword We to whom God hath given power to bind and loose on Earth assembled together in the Holy Ghost tracing herein and imitating the Examples of many Venerable and holy Prelates who have gone before us and taking for our Authority the Sacred Canons of Holy Church grounded on Holy Writ Ut tollantur èmedio nostrum qui hoc opus faciunt Domini nostri Jesu deliver over such Persons to Satan that is to say We Excommunicate Execrate Anathematize all such as after the Publication of this our Decree and notice either Privately or Publickly given to them hereof shall defend adhere to or approve the Justice of the said Peace and chiefly those who bear Arms or make or joyn in War with for or in behalf of the Puritans or other Hereticks of Dublin cork Youghall of other places within this Kingdom or shall either by themselves or by their appointment bring send or give any Aid Succour or Relief Victuals Ammunition or other Provision to them or by advice or otherwise advance the said Peace or the War made against us Those and every of them by this present Decree We do declare and pronounce Excommunicated ipso facto ut non circumveniamini à Satana non enim ignoramus Cogitationes ejus Dated at Kilkenny in our Palace of Residence the 5th day of October 1646. Signed Johannes Baptista Archiepiscopus Firmanus Nuncius Apostolicus de Mandato Illustrissimi Domini Nuncij Congregationis Ecclesiasticae utriusque Cleri Regni Hiberniae Nicholas Firmence Congregationis Cancellarius The Nuncio having thus fortifi'd himself made great preparations to march with two Armies to Dublin which consisting of 16000 Foot and as many hundred Horse he believ'd or seem'd to believe would take the Town by Assault as soon as he should appear before it and in this confidence that we may not interrupt the series of this Discourse by any intervening action when the Armies were within a days march of the City the two Generals sent this Letter with the Propositions annexed to the Lord Lieutenant May it please your Excellency BY the Command of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom who offer the inclosed Propositions we have under our Leading two Armies our thoughts are best to our Religion King and Countrey our ends to establish the first and make the two following secure and happy It is the great part of our care and desires to purchase your Excellency to the effecting of so blessed a work We do not desire the effusion of blood and to that purpose the inclosed Propositions are sent from us we pray to God your consideration of them may prove fruitful We are commanded to pray your Excellency to render an Answer to them by two of the Clock in the afternoon on Thursday next be it War or Peace We shall endeavour in our Ways to exercise Faith and Honour and upon this thought we rest From the Camp 2. March 1646. Your Excellencies most humble Servants J. Preston Owen O Neile 1. That the exercise of the Romish Religion be in Dublin Tredagh and in all the Kingdom of Ireland as free and as publick as it is now in Paris in France or Bruxels in the Low-Countreys 2. That the Council of State
do crave his Holiness's Mediation with the Queen and Prince as also with the King and Queen Regent of France and with the King of Spain and all other Christian Princes in all Matters tending to the Avail of the Nation either in point of settlement to a Peace or otherwise 3. The Confederate Catholicks having raised Arms for the freedom of the Catholick Religion do intend in the first place that you let his Holiness know their resolution to insist upon such Concessions and Agreements in Matters of Religion and for the security thereof as his Holiness shall approve of and be satisfied with wherein his Holiness is to be prayed to take into his Consideration the imminent danger the Kingdom is in according to the Representations aforesaid to be made by you and so to proceed in Matters of Religion as in his great Wisdom and Piety may tend best and prove necessary to the preservation of it and the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland 4. You are to represent to his Holiness That the Confederates think fit to insist upon as security for such Agreements in Religion as his Holiness will determine that the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or other Chief Governour or Governours of the Kingdom from time to time should be Roman Catholicks unless his Holiness upon the said Representation of State-Affairs here or for some other Reason shall think fit to wave that Proposition 5. You are to represent to his Holiness That the Confederate Catholicks desire that all the Concessions to be made and agreed on for the setling of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom be publisht at the same time with the Temporal Articles of the Settlement if his Holiness on representation of the State of Affairs here or for some other Advantages shall not think fit to determine or suspend the publishing of those or some of them for a time 6. You are to represent to his Holiness That no change or alteration is to be in any part of the present Government of the Confederate Catholicks until the Articles of Peace or Settlement pursuant to the present Authority and Instructions you and the Commissioners to the English Court in France have been concluded and expected and published in this Kingdom by those intrusted in Authority over the Confederate Catholicks 7. You are to take notice That the resident Council now named are the Persons to serve for the interval Government until the next Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks and the Assembly is at liberty to name others if they please and that no less than eight of the said Residents concurring during the said interval shall make any Act or Order obliging and according as it is provided in the former Articles for the interval Government in the late rejected Peace the Forts Cities Towns Castles and Power of the Armies of the Confederate Catholicks to remain and continue in their hands during the said interval Government 8. You are to take notice That the Persons to be imployed into France to the Queen and Prince are to finish their Negotiation with the Queen and Prince pursuant to their Instructions with all possible speed after they shall receive his Holiness's Resolution from you out of Rome in the Matters referred as aforesaid to his Holiness and you are to use all possible diligence in procuring and sending his Holiness's said Resolution unto our said Commissioners imployed to the Queen and Prince 9. In case his Holiness will not be pleased to descend to such Conditions as might be granted in Matters of Religion then you are to solicit for considerable Aids whereby to maintain War and to ascertain and secure the same that it may be timely applied to the use of the Confederate Catholicks And in case a Settlement cannot be had nor considerable Aids that may serve to preserve the Nation without a Protector you are to make application to his Holiness for his being Protector to this Kingdom and by special instance to endeavour his acceptance thereof at such time and in such manner as the Instructions sent by our Agents to France grounded on the Assembly doth import whereof you are to have a Copy 10. Though Matters be concluded by his Holiness's Approbation with the Prince and Queen yet you are to solicit for Aids considering our distress and setting before him that notwithstanding any such Aids we have a powerful Enemy within the Kingdom which to expulse will require a vast charge 11. You are to take with you for your instruction and the better to enable you to satisfie his Holiness of the full state of Affairs here the Copies of the Instructions at Waterford the Articles of the late rejected Peace and Glamorgan's Concessions and the Propositions from Kilkenny to the Congregation at Waterford in August 1646. 12. If Moneys be receiv'd in Rome by you by way of Gift Engagement or otherwise you are to bring or send the same hither to those in Authority and not to dispose the same or any part thereof otherwise than by Order from the general Assembly or supream Council and for all sums of Money so by you to be receiv'd you are to give account to the Authority intrusted here over the Confederate Catholicks 13. You are to manage the circumstance of your Proceedings upon the Instructions according as upon the Place you shall find most tending to the Avail of the Confederate Catholicks Tho. Dublin Tho. Cashell Thom. Tuamen Electus Ewerus Clougherensis David Ossoriens Joha Episc. Roscotensis Fr. Edmundus Laglensis Franc. Ardensis Episc. Robert Elect. Coses Cluomer Francis Patricius Ardack Electus Rob. Dromore Elect. Henry O Neal Rich. Bealing J. Bryan Robert Devereux Gerald Fennel Farren By the Command of the General Assembly N. Plunket These having been solicited we shall now present you with their further Instructions to importune other Princes Instructions for France Jan. 18. 1647. YOu are to present your Letters of Credence to his most Christian Majesty and the several Letters you have with you to the Queen the Prince and Cardinal Mazarine declaring the special affection of the Confederate Catholicks to his Majesties service upon all occasions wherein they may serve him You are to desire his most Christian Majesty the Queen Regent and Cardinal Mazarine their Favourable and Friendly regard of the Affairs of the Confederate Catholicks and to direct their assistance in what they may to further the settling of the happy Peace of this Kingdom with advantagious and honourable Conditions Commissioners being now sent to conclude the same if they may You are to let his most Christian Majesty the Queen Regent and Cardinal Mazarine know That there be a considerable Enemy in the heart of the several Provinces of this Kingdom that yet we have many Cities and Parts of the greatest consequence in our hands and have sufficient stock of Men to defend the Nation and expel the Enemy but do want aids of Money and Shipping without which we shall be in danger the next Summer-service and therefore to
their Quarters In the interim the Parliament of Ireland then sitting at Dublin finding into what straights the Kingdom was brought and how his Excellency had strugled with the greatest difficulties imaginable for his Majesties and their Interest they the 17th of March sent this Remonstrance in acknowledgment of great Care and Indulgence The Remonstrance of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled declaring the Acknowledgment of their hearty thankfulness to the most Honourable James Marquis of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General of Ireland his Excellency WE the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in our whole Body do present our selves before your Lordship acknowledging with great sense and feeling your Lordships singular goodness to us the Protestant Party and those who have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them who have been preserved to this day under God by your Excellencies providence and pious care which hath not been done without a vast expence out of your own Estate as also to the hazarding of your Person in great and dangerous difficulties And when your Lordship found your self with the strength remaining with you to be too weak to resist an insolent and upon all advantages a perfidious and bloody Enemy rather than we should perish you have in your care transferred us into their hands that are both able and willing to preserve us and that not by a bare casting us off but by complying so far with us that you have not denied our desires of Hostages and amongst them of one of your most dear Sons All which being such a free Earnest of your Excellencies love to our Religion Nation and both Houses do incite us here to come unto you with Hearts fill'd with your love and Tongues declaring how much we are oblig'd to your Excellency professing our resolutions are with all real service to the utmost of our power to manifest the sincerity of our acknowledgment and affections unto you and to perpetuate to posterity the memory of your Excellencies merits and our thankfulness We have appointed this Instrument to be entred into both Houses and under the hands of both Speakers to be presented to your Lordship Rich. Bolton Canc. 17 die Martii 1676. intr per Val. Savage Dep. Cler. Parl. Maurice Eustace Speaker Int. 17. die Martii 1676. per Philip Fernely Cler. Dom. Com. What effect this made upon his Excellency you will here see My Lords and Gentlemen WHat you have now read and deliver'd hath much surpriz'd me and contains matter of higher obligation laid upon me by you than thus suddenly to be answer'd yet I may not suffer you to depart hence without saying somewhat to you And first I assure you that this Acknowledgment of yours is unto me a Jewel of very great value which I shall lay up amongst my choicest Treasures it being not onely a full confutation of those Calumnies that have been cast upon my actions during the time I have had the Honour to serve his Majesty here but likewise an Antidote against the virulency and poison of those Tongues and Pens that I am well assur'd will be busily set on work to traduce and blast the Integrity of my present Proceedings for your preservation And now my Lords and Gentlemen since this may perhaps be the last time that I shall have the Honour to speak to you from this Place and since that next to the words of a dying man those of one ready to banish himself from his Country for the good of it challenge credit give me leave before God and you here to protest That in all the time I had the Honour to serve the King my Master I never receiv'd any Command from him but such as spake him a Wise Pious Protestant Prince zealous of the Religion he professeth the welfare of his Subjects and industrious to promote and settle Peace and Tranquility in all his Kingdoms and I shall beseech you to look no otherwise upon me than upon a ready Instrument set on work by the Kings wisdom and goodness for your preservation wherein if I have discharg'd my self to his Approbation and Tours it will be the greatest satisfaction and comfort I shall take with me where-ever it shall please God to direct my steps And now that I may dismiss you I beseech God long long to preserve my Gracious Master and to restore Peace Rest to this afflicted Church and Kingdom But to return In conclusion the Commissioners from the two Houses of Parliament having performed all that on their part was expected the Marquis of Ormond delivered up Dublin and the other Garrisons into their hands the 17th some write the 18th of June 1647. on condition to enjoy his Estate and not to be subject to any Debts contracted for the support of his Majesties Army under his Command or for any Debts contracted before the Rebellion That he and all such Noblemen and Officers as desir'd to pass into any part of that Kingdom should have travelling Arms and free Passes with Servants for their respective Qualities That he should have 5000 l. in hand and 2000 l. per Annum for five years till he could receive so much a year out of his own Estate And that he should have liberty to live in England without taking any Oaths for a year he engaging his Honour to do nothing in the interim to the prejudice of the Parliament However he delivered not up the Regalia till the 25th of July at which time he was transported with his Family into England where they admitted him to wait on the King and to give his Majesty an account of his Transactions who received him most graciously as a Servant who had merited highly from him and fully approved all that he had done The straits his Excellency was then put to were great and in consideration into whose hands the Government might fall his surrender of Dublin to the Parliament seem'd extreme hazardous yet Providence so steer'd his Resolution in that act as doubtless the ground of his Majesties Sovereignty and the English preservation how many Channels soever it past through first proceeded thence Before He came away the Soldiers had receiv'd such a tincture of Mutiny as Mr. Annesly and Sir Robert King for fear of violence privately quitted the Kingdom before which they with Sir Robert Meredith Colonel Michael Jones and Colonel John Moore took notice of the insolency of the Soldiers to exact Contribution and free Quarters at their pleasure forbidding them so to do c. by a Proclamation at Dublin the 20th of June 1647. Soon after the Parliaments Commissioners were warm in the Government having regulated their Militia they put their Sickle into the Service of the Church where they found many so tenâ—cious to the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy and their Vows to their Ordinaries as they could not be wean'd from the Liturgy of the Church of England in which Ministery they desir'd to finish their Course with joy and the 9th of July
by a Letter from Sir Robert Stewart they were pacified and all the Affairs of that Province managed by Sir Charles Coot Sir Robert Stewart being at Liberty upon his Parole Before this Townsend and Doily two Colonels under Inchequin in Munster sent over to the Committee at Derby-House some Propositions for the surrender of the Towns in Munster upon Condition of indempnity and receiving part of the Arrears for the whole Army this was pretended to be acted by the consent of Inchequin and that he with his own hand had approved and interlin'd them in several Places Hereupon the Committee at Derby-House sent back Colonel Edmond Temple with an Answer to those Colonels and Power withall to Treat with the Lord Inchequin about somewhat more certain and more reasonable to be propounded by him But before his arrival there Sir Richard Fanshaw the Princes Secretary was come from the Prince to Inchequin with a Declaration of the Princes Design to send the Duke of York into Ireland with such of the revolted Ships as remain'd in Holland and to let him know the hopes he had that by his assistance and the Army under his Command both he and his Father might be restored This so puft up Inchequin as that he would hear of no Overtures and made him absolutely dis-avow to have had any knowledge of the Propositions sent over and thereupon imprisoned Townsend and Doily thereby putting an issue to that Negotiation Fortifying besides all the Harbours against the Parliaments Forces placing and displacing their Officers as he thought most convenient to introduce the Kings keeping a Correspondence with the West of Ireland as yet free to all Trade and holding frequent intelligence with Jarsey where the Prince was said would keep his Court Thus the Interest of the Parliament was wholly lost in Munster where Sir William Fenton Colonel Fair Captain Fenton and other Officers for their affections to the Parliament being imprison'd were exchang'd in December for the Lord Inchequin's Son imprison'd in the Tower about October 1648. Near this time Owen Roe attempted to rescue Fort-Falkland besieged by the Lord Inchiquin and Colonel Preston joyn'd but he was repulsed with the loss of many men as his Lieutenant General Rice Mac-Guire and Lewis More dangerously hurt which put Owen to such straits as he made an Overture to Colonel Jones by his Vicar-General O Rely to surrender Athy Mary-burrough and Rebban and lay down his Arms if he and his Confederates might have the priviledges they had in King James's time But Jones could better improve the Offers to a beneficial delay than ascertain any thing Though afterwards Owen Roe and his Council of Officers further offered That if he nor the new expected Army from England would not molest him in his Quarters but give him leave to depart with his Forces into Spain he would not joyn with Ormond Preston or Inchiquin And here we must resume our account of the Marquis of Ormond who after he had in vain solicited supplies of Money in France to the end that he might carry some Relief to a Kingdom so harrassed and worn and be the better thereby able to unite those who would be sure to have temptation enough of Profit to go contrary to the Kings obedience his Excellency was at last compelled being with great importunity called by the Lord Inchiquin and the rest who were resolv'd to uphold his Majesties Interest to transport himself unfurnish'd of Money sufficient Arms or Ammunition considerable and without any other Retinue than his own Servants and some old Officers of the Kings And in this Equipage he Embarqu'd from Haure de Grace in a Dutch Ship and arriv'd about the end of September 1648. at Cork where he was receiv'd by the Lord Inchiquin Lord President of Munster and the Irish with much contentment soon after whose arrival even the 6th of October he published the ensuing Declaration By the Lord Lieutenant General of Ireland ORMOND TO prevent the too frequent prejudices incident through jealousies distrusts and mis-constructions to all undertakings We account it not the least worthy our labour upon the instant of our arrival to prepare this People whose welfare we contend for with a right understanding of those intentions in us which in order to his Majesties Service we desire may terminate in their good To enumerate the several Reasons by which we were induc'd for preservation of the Protestant Religion and the English Interest to leave the City of Dublin and other his Majesties Garrisons then under our Power in this Kingdom in the hands of those intrusted by his two Houses of Parliament were to set forth a Narrative in place of a Manifest It may suffice to be known that those Transactions had for one main ground this confidence That by being under the Power of the Houses they would upon a happy expected composure of Affairs in England revert unto and be revested in his Majesty as his proper right But having found how contrary to the inclinations of the well-affected to his Majesties restauration in England the Power of that Kingdom hath unhappily devolv'd to hands imployed onely in the art and labour of pulling down and subverting the Fundamentals of Monarchy with whom a pernicious Party in this Kingdom do equally sympathize and co-operate And being filled with a deep sense of the Duty and obligations that are upon us strictly to embrace all opportunities of employing our endeavours towards the recovery of his Majesties just Rights in any part of his Dominions Haing observed the Protestant Army in the Province of Munster by special providence discovering the Arts and practises used to intangle the Members thereof in engagements as directly contrary to their Duties towards God and Man as to their intentions and resolutions to have found means to manifest the Candor and Integrity thereof in a disclaimer of any obedience to or concurrence with those Powers or Persons which have so grosly vari'd even their own professed Principles of preserving his Majesties Person and Rights by confining him under a most strict Imprisonment his Majesty also vouchsafing graciously to accept the Declaration of the said Army as an eminent and seasonable expression of their fidelity toward him and in testimony thereof having laid his Commands upon us to make our repair unto this Province to discharge the duties of our Place We have as well in obedience thereunto as in pursuance of our own duty and desire to advance his Majesties Service resolved to evidence our approbation and esteem of the proceedings of the said Army by publishing unto the World our like determination in the same ensuing particulars And accordingly we profess and declare First to improve our utmost endeavours for the settlement of the Protestant Religion according to the example of the best Reformed Churches Secondly to defend the King in his Prerogatives Thirdly to maintain the Priviledges and Freedom of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subjects that in order hereunto we shall oppose
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
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
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
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
through the World ever equall'd it in the Circumstances that accompanied the Butcheries Massacres Cruelties yea the mercy of the Rebels in that War though in the end fatal to the Irish themselves above any thing that ever befel that Nation so as the greatness of their Sufferings may well testifie the remarkableness of their Crimes sutable to the innocent blood they had barbarously shed and the devastations they had made of a most flourishing and well setled Kingdom APPENDIX I. Fol. 10. Questions wherein the House of Commons humbly desires that the House of the Lords would be pleased to require the Judges to deliver their Resolutions INasmuch as the Subjects of this Kingdom are Free Loyal and Dutiful Subjects to his Most Excellent Majesty their Natural Leige Lord and King and to be governed only by the Common Laws of England and Statutes of force in this Kingdom in the same manner and form as his Majesty's Subjects of the Kingdom are and ought to be governed by the said Common Laws and Statutes of force in that Kingdom which of right the Subjects of this Kingdom do Challenge and make their Protestation to be their Birthright and best Inheritance Yet inasmuch as the unlawful Actions and Proceedings of some of his Majesties Officers and Ministers of Justice of late years Introduced and Practised in this Kingdom did tend to the Infringing and Violation of the Laws Liberties and Freedom of the said Subjects of this Kingdom contrary to his Majesties Royal and Pious intentions Therefore the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled not for any doubt or ambiguity which may be conceived or thought of for or concering the Premises nor of the ensuing questions but for manifestation and declaration of a clear Truth and of the said Laws and Statutes already planted and for many Ages past setled in this Kingdom The said Knights Citizens and Burgesses do therefore pray that the House of the Lords may be pleased to command the Judges of this Kingdom forthwith to declare in Writing their Resolutions of and unto the ensuing questions and subscribe to the same 1. Whether the Judges of this Kingdom be a Free People and to be governed only by the Common Laws of England and Statutes of force in this Kingdom 2. Whether the Judges of this Land do take the Oath of Judges And if so Whether under pretext of any Act of State Proclamation Writ Letter or direction under the Great or Privy Seal or Privy Signet or Letter or other Commandment from the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy Justice Justices or other Chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom they may hinder stay or delay the Suit of any Subject or his Judgement or Execution thereupon If so in what Cases and whether if they do hinder stay or delay such Suit Judgement or Execution thereupon what punishment do they incurr for their deviation and transgression therein 3. Whether the King's Majesties Privy Councel either with the Chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom or without him or them be a place of Judicature by the Common Laws and wherein Causes between Party and Party for Debts Trespasses Accounts Portions or Title of Lands or any of them and which of them may be heard and determined and of what Civil Causes they have Jurisdiction and by what Law and of what force are their Orders and Decree in such Cases or any of them 4. The like of the Chief Governours alone 5. Whether Grants of Monopolies be warranted by Law and of what and in what Cases and how and where and by whom are the pretended trangressions against such Grants punishable and whether by Fine mutilation of Members Imprisonment Loss and forfeiture of Goods or otherwise and which of them 6. In what Cases the Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or other Chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom and Councel may punish by Fine Imprisonment mutilation of Members Pillory or otherwise and whether they may Sentence any to such the same or the like Punishment for infringing the Commands of or concerning any Proclamation of and concerning Monopolies and what Punishment do they incurr that Vote for the same 7. Of what force is an Act of State or Proclamation in this Kingdom to bind the Liberty Goods Possessions or Inheritance of the Natives thereof whether they or any of them can alter the Common Law or the Infringers of them loose their Goods Chattels or Leases or forfeit the same by infringing any such Act of State Proclamation or both what Punishment do the sworn Judges of the Law that are Privy-Councellors incurr that Vote for such Acts and Execution thereof 8. Are the Subjects of this Kingdom subject to Marshal Law and whether any man in time of Peace no Enemy being in the Field with Banners displayed can be sentenced to Death If so by whom and in what Cases If not what Punishment do they incurr that in time of Peace execute Marshal Law 9. Whether voluntary Oaths taken freely before Arbitrators for affirmance or disaffirmance of any thing or for the true performance of any thing be Punishable in the Castle-Chamber or any other Court and why and wherefore 10. Why and by what Law and by what rule of Policy is it that none is admitted to reducement of Fines and other Penalty in the Castle-Chamber or Councel-Table untill he confess the Offence for which he is censured when as revera he might be innocent thereof though suborned Proofs or circumstances might induce a Censure 11. Whether the Judges of the Kings-Bench or any other Judge of Goal-delivery or of any other Court and by what Law do or can deny the Copies of Indictment of Felony or Treason to the Parties accused contrary to the Law 12. What Power have the Barons of the Court of Exchequer to raise the respit of homage arbitrarily to what rate they please to what value they may raise it by what Law they may distinguish between the respit of homage upon the diversity of the true value of the Fees when as Escuage is the same for great and small Fees and are approportionable by Parliament 13. Whether it be Censurable in the Subjects of this Kingdom to repair into England to appeal unto his Majesty for redress of Injuries or for other lawful Actions if so why and in what condition of Persons and by what Law 14. Whether Deans or other Dignitaries of Cathedral Churches be properly and de mero Jure Donative by the King and not Elective or Collative If so why and by what Law and whether the Confirmation of a Dean de facto of the Bishops grant be good and valid in Law or no if not by what Law 15. Whether the issuing of Quo warrantoes out of the Kings-Bench or Exchequer against Bourroughs that antiently and recently sent Burgesses to Parliament to shew cause why they sent Burgesses to the Parliament be legal if not what punishment ought to be inflicted upon those that are or have been the Occasioners Procurers and
Judges of and in such Quo warrantoes 16. By what Law are Jurors that give Verdict according to their Conscience and are the sole Judges of the fact Censured in the Castle Chamber in great Fines and sometimes Pillored with loss of Eares and boared through the Tongue and sometimes marked in the forehead with a hot Iron and other like infamous Punishment 17. By what Law are men Censurable in the Castle-Chamber with the mutilation of Members or any other brand of Infamy and in what Causes and what punishment in each Case there is due without respit of the quality of the Person or Persons 18. Whether in the Censures in the Castle-Chamber regard be to be had to the words of the great Charter viz. Salvo continemento 19. Whether one that steals a Sheep or commits any other Felony and after flieth the Course of Justice or lyeth in Woods or Mountains upon his keeping be a Traitor if not whether a Proclamation can make him so 20. VVhether the Testimony or Evidence of Rebells Traitors protected Thieves or other infamous Persons be good Evidence in Law to be pressed upon the Trials of men for their lives or whether the Judge or Jurors ought to be Judge of the matter in fact 21. By what Law are Faires and Markets to be held in Capite when no other express Tenure is mentioned by his Majesties Letters Patents or Grants of the same Faires and Markets although the Rent or yearly summe be reserved thereout Declarations of the Law made in Parliament upon the Questions propounded to the Judges in a Sessions this present Parliament 1. THE Subjects of this his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland are a free People and to be governed only according to the Common Law of England and Statutes made and established by Parliament in this Kingdom of Ireland and according to the lawful Customs used in the same 2. That Judges in Ireland ought to take the Oath of the Justices or Judges declared and established in several Parliaments of force in this Kingdom and the said Judges or any of them by colour or under pretext of any Act of State or Proclamation or under colour or pretext of any Writ Letter or direction under the Great-Seal Privy-Seal or Privy-Signet from the King 's most Excellent Majesty or by colour or pretext of any Letter or Commandment from the chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom ought not to hinder or delay the Suit of any Subject or his Judgment or Execution thereupon And if any Letters Writs or Commands from his Majesty or any other or for any other cause to the Justices or other deputed to do the law and right according to the usage of the Realm in disturbance of the Law or of the execution of the same or of right to the parties the Justices and others aforesaid ought to proceed and hold their Courts and process where the Pleas and matters be depending before them as if no such Letters Writs or Commandments were come to them And in case any Judge or Judges Justice or Justices be found in default therein he or they so found in default ought to incur and undergo due punishment according to the Law and the former Declarations and Propositions in Parliament in that Case made and of force in this Kingdom or as shall be ordered adjudged or declared in Parliament and the Barons of the Exchequer Justices of Assize and Goal-delivery if they be found in default as aforesaid It is hereby declared that they ought to undergo the punishment aforesaid 3. The Councel-Table of this Realm either with the chief Governour or Governours or without the chief Governour or Governours is no Judicature wherein any Actions real personal popular or mixt or any Suit in the nature of the said Actions or any of them can or ought to be Commenced heard or determined And all proceedings at the Councel-Table in any Suit in the nature of the said Actions are void especially Causes particularly provided for by express Acts of Parliament of force in this Kingdom only excepted 4. The proceedings before the Chief Governour or Governours alone in any Action real personal popular or mixt or in any Suit in the nature of any of the said Actions are voted upon Question coram non Judice and void 5. All grants of Monopolies are contrary to the Laws of this Realm and therefore void And no Subject of the said Realm ought to be fined imprisoned or otherwise punished for exercising or using the lawful liberty of a Subject contrary to such Grants 6. The Lord Lieutenant Lord Deputy or other Chief Governour or Governours and Councel of this Realm or any of them ought not to imprison any of his Majesties Subjects but only in Cases where the Common Laws or Statutes of the Realm do inable and warrant them so to do and they ought not to Fine or to Censure any subject in mutilation of Members standing on the Pillory or other shameful punishment in any Case at the Councel-Table and no Subject ought to be Imprisoned Fined or otherwise punished for infringing any Commands or Proclamations for the support or countenance of Monopolies And if in any Case any person or persons shall be committed by the Command or Warrant of the Chief Governour or Governours and Privy Councel of this Realm or any of them That in any such Case any person or persons so committed or restrained of his or their liberty or suffering imprisonment upon demand or motion made by his or their Councel or other imployed by him or them for that purpose unto the Judges of that Court of King's Bench or Common Pleas in open Court shall without delay upon any pretence whatsoever for the ordinary Fees usually payed for the same have forthwith granted unto him or them a Writ or Writs of habeas Corpus to be directed generally unto all and every Sheriff Gaol-Minister Officer or other person in whose custody the party or parties so committed or restrained shall be at their retorn of the said Writ or VVrits and according to the Command thereof upon due and convenient notice thereof given unto him at the charge of the party or parties who requireth or procureth such VVrit or VVrits and upon security by his or their own Bond or Bonds given to pay the charge of carrying back the Prisoner or Prisoners if he or they shall be remanded by the Court to which he or they shall be brought as in like Case hath been used such charges of bringing up and carrying back the Prisoner or Prisoners to be always ordered by the Court if any difference shall arise thereabouts bring or cause to be brought the bodies of the said party or parties so committed and restrained unto and before the Judges and Justices of the said Court from whence the said VVrit or VVrits shall issue in open Court and shall then likewise Certify the true cause of such his or their detainor or imprisonment and
raised by my Lord Strafford against Scotland First that every one should endeavour to draw his own friends into that Act. and at least those that did live in one County with them and when they had so done they send to the Irish in the Low-Countryes and Spain to let them know of the day and resolution so that they be over with them by that day or soon after with supply of Arms and Ammunition as they could that there should be a set day appointed and every own in his own quarters should rise out that day and seize on all Arms he could get in his County and this day to be near Winter so that England could not be able to send forces into Ireland before May and by that time there was no doubt to be made but that they themselves should be supplied by the Irish beyond Seas who he said could not miss of help from either Spain or the Pope but that his resolutions were not in all things allowed For first it was resolved nothing should be done until first they had sent to the Irish over-Seas to know their advice and what hope of success they could give for in them as they said all their hope of relief was and they would have both their advice and resolution before any further proceedings more than to speak to and try Gentlemen of the Kingdom every one as they could conveniently to see in case they would at any time grow to a resolution what to be and strength they must trust to then Mr. Moore told them that it was to no purpose to spend much time in speaking to the Gentry For there was no doubt to be made of the Irish that they would be ready at any time And that all the doubt was in the Gentry of the Pale but he said that for his own part he was really assured when they had risen out the Pale Gentry would not stay long after at least that they would not oppose them in any thing but be Neuters and if in case they did that they had men enough in the Kingdom without them Moreover he said he had spoke to a great man who then should be nameless that would not fail at the appointed day of rising out to appear and to be seen in the Act. But that until then he was sworn not to reveal him and that was all that was done at that meeting only that Mr. Moore should the next Lent following make a journey down into the North to know what was done there and that he also might inform them what he had done and so on parting Mr. Phillip Reyly and I did importune Mr. Moore for the knowledge of that great man that he spake of and on long entreaty after binding us to new secrecy not to discover him till the day should be appointed he told that it was the Lord of Mayo who was very powerful in Command of men in those parts of Connaght wherein he lived and that there was no doubt to be made of him no more than was of himself and so we parted The next Lent following Mr. Moore according to his promise came into Ulster by reason it was the time of Assizes in several Counties there he met only with Mr. Reyly and nothing was then done but all matters put off till the May following where we or most of us should meet at Dublin it being both Parliament and Term-time In the mean time there landed one Neale O Neale sent by the Earl of Tyrone out of Spain to speak with the Gentry of his Name and Kindred to let them know that he had treated with Cardinal Richelieu for obtaining succour to come for Ireland and that he prevailed with the Cardinal so that he was to have Arms Ammution and Money from him on demand to come for Ireland and that he only expected a Convenient time to come away and to desire them to be in a readiness and to procure all others whom they could to be so likewise which message did set on the proceedings very much so that Mr. Moore Mr. Reyly my brother and I meeting the next May at Dublin and the same Messenger there too It was resolved that he should return to the Earl into Spain with their Resolution which was that they would rise out twelve or fourteen dayes before or after Allhallontide as they should see cause and that he should not fail to be with them by that time There was a report at that time and before that the Earl of Tyrone was killed which was not believed by reason of many such reports formerly which we found to be false and so the Messenger departed with directions that if the Earls death were true he should repair into the Low-Countrys to Colonel Owen O Neale and acquaint him with his Commission from the Earl whereof it was thought he was not ignorant and to return an Answer sent by him and to see what he would advise or would do himself therein But presently after his departure the certainty of the Earls death was known and on further Resolution it was agreed that an express Messenger should be sent to the Colonel to make all the Resolutions known to him and to return speedily with his Answer And so one Toole O Comely a Priest as I think Parish Priest to Mr. Moore was sent away to Colonel O Neale In the interim there came several Letters and News out of England to Dublin of Proclamations against the Catholicks in England and also that the Army raised in Ireland should be disbanded and conveyed into Scotland And presently after several Colonels and Captains Landed with directions to carry away those men amongst whom Colonel Plunkett Colonel Burne and Captain Bryan O Neale came but did not all come together for Plunkett landed before my coming out of Town and the other two after wherein a great fear of Suppressing of Religion was conceived and especially by the Gentry of the Pale and it was very common amongst them that it would be very inconvenient to suffer so many men to be conveyed out of the Kingdom it being as was said very confidently reported that the Scottish Army did threaten never to lay down Arms until an uniformity of Religion were in the three Kingdoms and the Catholick Religion suppressed And thereupon both Houses of Parliament began to oppose their going and the Houses were divided in their Opinions some would have them go others not but what the definitive conclusion of the Houses was touching the point I cannot tell for by leave from the House of Lords I departed into the Country before the Prorogation But before my departure I was informed by John Barnewall a Fryer that those Gentlemen of the Pale and some other Members of the House of Commons had several meetings and consultations how they might make stay of the Souldiers in the Kingdom and likewise to arm them in defence of the King being much injured both of England and Scotland then as they were
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
Protestant Religion and all the Brittish Professors thereof out of this Your Majesties Kingdom And to the end it may the better in some measure appear Your Suppliants have made choice of Captain William Ridgeway Sir Francis Hamilton Knight and Baronet Captain Michael Jones and Mr. Fenton Parsons whom they have employed and authorized as their Agents to manifest the truth thereof in such Particulars as for the present they are furnish'd withal referring the more ample manifestation thereof to the said Captain William Ridgeway Sir Francis Hamilton Captain Jones and Fenton Parsons or any three or more of them and such other Agents as shall with all convenient speed be sent as occasion shall require to attend Your Majesty from Your Protestant Subjects of the several Provinces of this Your Kingdom VVe therefore Your Majesties most humble loyal and obedient Protestant-Subjects casting down our selves at Your Royal feet and flying to You for succour and redress in these our great Calamities as our most gracious Soveraign Lord and King and next and immediately under Almighty God our Protector and Defence most humbly beseeching Your Sacred Majesty to admit into Your Royal Presence from time to time our said Agents and in Your great VVisdom to take into Your Princely Care and Consideration the distressed Estate and humble desires of Your said Subjects so that to the Glory of God Your Majesties Honour and the happiness of Your good Subjects the Protestant Religion may be restored throughout the whole Kingdom to its lustre that the losses of Your Protestant Subjects may be repaired in such manner and measure as Your Majesty in Your Princely VVisdom shall think fit and that this Your Kingdom may be setled as that Your said Protestant Subjects may hereafter live therein under the happy Government of Your Majesty and Your Royal Posterity with comfort and security whereby Your Majesty will render Your self through the whole VVorld a most just and Glorious Defender of the Protestant Religion and draw down a Blessing on all other Your Royal Undertakings for which Your Petitioners will ever pray c. Subscribed by the Earl of Kildare Lord Viscount Montgomery Lord Blany and many others To which they received this Answer by His Majesties Command At Our Court at Oxford the 25th of April 1644. His Majesty being very sensible of the Petitioners Losses and sufferings is ready to hear and relieve them as the Exigencie of his Affairs will permit and wisheth the Petitioners to propose what they think fit in particular for his Majesties Information and the Petitioners Remedy and future Security Edw. Nicholas Upon the reading of the Petition His Majesty was pleased to say That He knew the Contents of the Petition to be Truth APPENDIX XII Fol. 142. The Propositions of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland humbly presented to His Sacred Majesty in pursuance of their Remonstrance of Grievances and to be annexed to the said Remonstrance together with the humble Answer of the Agents for the Protestants of Ireland to the said Propositions made in pursuance of Your Majesties directions of the 9th of May 1644. requiring the same 1. Pro. THAT all Acts made against the Professors of the Roman Catholick faith whereby any restraint penalty Mulct or incapacity may be laid upon any Roman Catholicks within the Kingdom of Ireland may be repealed and the said Catholicks to be allowed the freedom of the Roman Catholick Religion Answ. To the first we say that this hath been the pretence of almost all those who have entred into Rebellion in the Kingdom of Ireland at any time since the Reformation of Religion there which was setled by Acts of Parliament above eighty years since and hath wrought good effects ever since for the peace and welfare both of the Church and Kingdom there and of the Church and Kingdom of England and Protestant party throughout all Christendom and so hath been found wholesom and necessary by long experience and the repealing of those Laws will set up Popery again both in Jurisdiction profession and practice as that was before the said Reformation and introduce among other inconveniencies the Supremacy of Rome and take away or much endanger Your Majesties Supream and just Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical Administration of honour and power not to be endured the said Acts extending as well to seditious Sectaries as to Popish Recusants so as by the repeal thereof any man may seem to be left to chuse his own Religion in that Kingdom which must needs beget great confusion and the abounding of the Roman Clergy hath been one of the greatest occasions of this late Rebellion besides it is humbly desired that Your Majesty will be pleased to take into Your gracious consideration a Clause in the Act of Parliament passed by Your Majesties Royal Assent in England in the 17th year of Your Raign touching punishments to be inflicted upon those that shall introduce the Authority of the See of Rome in any Cause whatsoever 2. Pro. That Your Majesty will be pleased to call a free Parliament in the said Kingdom to be held and continued as in the said Remonstrance is expressed and the Statute of the 10th year of King Hen. 7. called Poyning's Acts explaining or enlarging the same be suspended during that Parliament for the speedy settlement of the present Affairs and the repeal thereof be there further considered of Answ. VVhereas their desire to have a free Parliament called reflecteth by secret and cunning implication upon Your Majesties present Parliament in Ireland as if it were not a free Parliament we humbly beseech Your Majesty to present how dangerous it is to make such insinuation or intimation to your people of that Kingdom touching that Parliament wherein several Acts of Parliament have already past the validity whereof may be endangered if the Parliament should not be approved as a free Parliament and it is a point of high nature as we humbly conceive is not properly to be dismissed but in Parliament and Your Majesties said Parliament now sitting is a free Parliament in Law holden before a person of honour and fortune in the Kingdom composed of good loyal and well-affected Subjects to Your Majesty who doubtless will be ready to comply in all things that shall appear to be pious and just for the good of the True Protestant Religion and for Your Majesties service and the good of the Church and State that if this present Parliament should be dissolved it would be a great terrour and discontent to all Your Majesties Protestant Subjects of the Kingdom and may be also a means to force many of Your Majesties Subjects to quit that Kingdom or peradventure to adhere to some other party there in opposition of the Romish Irish Confederates rather than to be liable to their power which effects may prove of most dangerous consequence and we humbly offer to Your Majesties consideration Your own gracious Expression mentioned in the grounds and motives inducing Your Majesty to agree to a
Angliae tuerentur Jura Regia in Hiberniam Quique interdixerent nè sibi proprium Regem Eligerent Profecto circa initia Rebellionis immensum quantum obstitit in coeptis molitionibus Rebellium Illustrissimus Parens tuus destinatus ad id à potentissimo Rege Cui nota erat virtus fortissimi viri pacis belli artibus clari Cujus prudentia par erat animi Robori qui hacce virtute res nutantes ad ruinam properantes incompositasque firmavit adversus Consiliarios Magna negotia administrantes majori cum Studio privatae quam publicae Utilitatis quo in Conatu per virtutem vitamque piè innocenter actam muneri magis suo consuluit quam facultatibus parandis Cujus Vestigiis insistens Johannes ejus filius eques auratus frater tuus clarissimus ob res fortiter gestas Droghedam Rossam nec pro meritis pensatas non debuit à te praeteriri Quanquam nulla privata ratione sed solo Elatere veritatis proferendae commovearis ad imputandum publicò Historiam tuam Quae tua est Modestia Idus Novembris 1678. Vale. To this as a Resepect I must ever acknowledge I cannot but annex the following Letter lately receiv'd from the Honourable and Eminent Lord Bishop of Meath a constant Assertor of the English Interest and the Protestants Sufferings minding me from whom I had several Passages in the ensuing History A History which must want much of its due Method and more Eloquence not having his Doctor I Understood by Letters from London and after by Two from your self of your forwardness in the History of the Irish Rebellion Anno 1641. that being I find now in the Press How far you have therein proceeded or what is your way in that I know not that not having been to me by any communicated To that therefore I can say no more than that its passing your hands assures me of what may satisfie What may satisfie I mean not those who shut their eyes against light and even Rebel against it There are who contrary to all evidence confidently averr write and openly proclaim to the World that there was then no such Rebellion of the Irish neither such Massacres of the British and Protestants in Ireland but that they themselves the Irish and Papists of Ireland were then the Sufferers and that by the Protestants they say the first aggressors This bold assertion in the face of the Sun and in that very age when things were acted there having been many also then and some yet living who can speak to the truth in that This I say might gain on Strangers to the Kingdom and hath already on some even at home especially at this time about 40 years after But the contrary appear'd by those Collections which you had from me to which herein as in other particulars I refer And what do they in this but what was before and is by them done ordinarily Have they not with like confidence disclaimed that black and hellish Powder-Plot Nov. 5. 1605. from being Popish do they not give that out for false and as a forg'd Calumny cast on that Party of whom none of theirs they say was therein concern'd whereas it is well known that Hammond Baldwin Gerard and Tesmond Jesuits with their Provincial Garnet were all in that Conspiracy Thomson also a Jesuit boasted after at Rome that his shirt was often wet with digging under the Parliament-House in London besides others in that Conspiracy who were all Papists and many of them Suffering for their so practicing the publick proceedings on those Tryals remaining extant on Record And do They not now even now cry down what our eyes behold of their horrid and bloody Design and hellish Treason against the Royal Person of our Gracious Sovereign King Charles II. and against his Protestant Subjects and for total extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of the Three Kingdoms The truth of which is every day even as by miracle more and more evidenc'd to the Glory of Gods watchful Providence over this his Church and People Among which I find our selves threatned with a yet other like demonstration of zeal for the promoting of the Catholick Religion and Interest in Ireland Dr. Oates Nar. § 50. so they term those Massacres and Blood for rooting out the Protestant Religion and casting off the English Government in Ireland which their other demonstration of Zeal as they term it shews the former actings in that kind to have bin theirs and how such their Actings are by them esteemed a demonstration of Zeal for promoting the Catholick Religion But He that sits in Heaven laughs them to scorn and hath them in derision speaking to them in his wrath and vexing them in his sore displeasure saying yet or notwithstanding all such their Designs have I set up my King preserving our Gracious Soveraign the breath of our Nostrils by the care and vigilance of those our worthy Patriots whom God hath raised up happy instruments in it As to Ireland To evidence the restless Spirits of such there for mischief I shall mind here in brief what in the mentioned Collections had bin given you more at large so to lay all open at one view thereby not to wonder at Rebellions here than which comparing times nothing will appear so ordinary In which passing what occurs of that kind in elder ages and fixing only on such as had Religion for a pretence and was by Rome influenc'd and by its Emissaries fomented Therefore I begin with the Reign of that Queen of famous memory Queen Eliz. of whose Troubles in England from that Party I speak not as not of present consideration but recounting what work they found Her in this her Kingdom of Ireland only I. Anno 1567. There was a Rebellion in the Province of Ulster of Shane O-Neal who for the suppressing of the Title of O-Neal had bin by King Hen. 8. created Earl of Tyrone His Forces were broken by Sir Henry Sidney then Lord Deputy and he himself fleeing for succour to Alexander Mac Donnel then in the Clandeboyes with 600. Highlander-Scots He was by them there slain in revenge of one of theirs by him formerly killed his Head was June 20. 1567. sent to the Deputy by Captain William Piers then eminent for Service and Command at Carrickfergus and thereabout that Arch-rebels head was pitch't on the Castle of Dublin II. Since after Anno 1569. followed in the Province of Munster the Rebellion of James Fitz Mauris Fitz Gerald and John Fitz Gerald brothers to Gerald Earl of Desmond in which the Earl himself after declared Anno 1578. His Parties were considerable in Leimster to whom joyned the Viscount Baltinglas with the Pools Birns and Cavenaughs having also Foraign assistance the design being pretended for Religion the Pope and his giving therefore Aid and Countenance but Desmond being defeated he was after by his own murthered III. About 6. years after Anno 1595. brake out in Ulster also
the late exorbitances so bitterly decried in Parliament of Paper Petitions or Bills in Civil Causes to be brought before them at the Council-board or before any other by their Authority reducing by his Majesties approbation the Subsidies from 40000 l. a Subsidy to 12000 l. a Piece Bringing all things to that compliance as best suited with his Majesties Interest and the quiet of the Nation that if it were possible there might not be the least discontent or jealousie rais'd amongst the People and for a season all things seem'd so peaceable as never any Government was less excepted against Yet then in the end of the year 1640. his Majesty being inform'd of an intention to raise Troubles in Ireland commanded Sir Henry Vane his Principal Secretary to write unto these Lords Justices this Letter Right Honourable HIs Majesty hath commanded me to acquaint your Lordships with an advice given him from abroad and confirm'd by his Ministers in Spain and elsewhere which in this distemper'd time and conjuncture of affairs deserves to be seriously consider'd and an especial care and watchfulness to be had therein which is That of late there have passed from Spain and the like may well have been from other Parts an unspeakable number of Irish Church-men for England and Ireland and some good old Soldiers under pretext of asking leave to raise men for the King of Spain whereas it is observ'd among the Irish Friers there a whisper runs as if they expected a Rebellion in Ireland and particularly in Connaght Wherefore his Majesty thought fit to give your Lordships this notice that in your wisdoms you might manage the same with that dexterity and secresie as to discover and prevent so pernicious a Design if any such there should be and to have a watchful eye on the proceedings and actions of those who come thither from abroad on what pretext soever And so herewith I rest Your Lordships most humble Servant Henry Vane White-hall March 16. 1640. Which was delivered to the Lord Justice Parsons and since his death found in his Study and by Sir James Barry Lord Baron of Santry a right Honourable and worthy Person presented to his present Majesty who look'd upon it as a precious Jewel discovering his Father's Royal thoughts towards the preservation of his Protestant Subjects and People But how far it was at first communicated is uncertain though being of so great a Trust it may very well be believed to have been often reflected on with caution and prudence Certain it is that notwithstanding that there was an Item that there should be an especial care against levying of Soldiers for Spain yet Colonel John Barry Colonel Taaff Colonel Garret Barry and Colonel Porter had all Warrants to transport 4000 Men thither which several of the House of Commons in Ireland and England too with much artifice though with divers ends endeavour'd to prevent on plausible terms As that from the experience of what they might learn abroad they afterwards might prove ill Instruments at home whereas it was more necessary that they should be employ'd on Husbandry whereof that Kingdom had great need And many of the active men of the House of Commons in Ireland as Darcy the Lawyer Plunket Chevers Martin and others urg'd their stay with a passion seemingly much concern'd for that amongst many Reasons which I will not undertake at so long a distance positively to remember though I had the honour to be a Member of that House yet I cannot forget that their chief Argument was drawn from the Spaniards having long born an ill will to England and her Empire And therefore they did not know mark the insinuation how soon those very Regiments acquainted with every Creek of the Kingdom might be return'd on their own Bowels having naturally a love to their Religion which such an Incendiary as the King of Spain might soon inflame to the highest prejudice Which I the longer insist on for that the Collection of Murthers committed on the Irish published by R. S. 1662. would insinuate the better to invalidate the Abstract of Murthers committed by the Irish that the Catholick Members of the House of Commons in Ireland never hindred as that Abstract affirms the Transportation of the Earl of Straffords disbanded Soldiers into Spain purposely to advance the Rebellion which is clear they did Inasmuch as upon these and other Arguments their Transportation was deferr'd though if the discontented Irish Army had been disposed of beyond-Sea according to the Contracts with the French and Spanish Ambassadors it was very clear as is judicially affirmed that there could have been no Rebellion in Ireland the Pretence and Means thereof having been thereby taken away though some were of opinion that where-ever these Forces had been they could yet easily have been brought over again as others have been since the principal Heads of the Rebels Army being led by old experienc'd Soldiers who at the breaking out of the Rebellion were generally beyond-Sea as the Leimster Forces by Colonel Preston a branch out of the House of Gormanston the Ulster Forces by Owen Roe O-Neal both bred in Flanders Munster Forces by Garret Barry and the Connaght Forces by one Burck animated with their Cause and the Pope's encouragement And it cannot be denied that the promiscuous compleating of the Army lately rais'd of 8000 Foot and 1000 Horse in Ireland taught many of the Common Soldiers the use of Arms who otherwise would have been ignorant thereof And evil in Perrot's and Fitzwilliam's Government much took notice of and by Camden in his Eliz. Anno 1593. towards the end observ'd in the like case to be most improvidently done as afterwards was found the Irish being always disloyal to the English Upon which I cannot but reflect on what Antalcidas in Plutarch * tells Agesilaus of being sorely hurt by the Thebans That they had paid him his deserved hire for teaching them against their wills to be Soldiers who before had neither will nor skill to fight Certain it is that most of these Soldiers thus rais'd betook themselves to the Rebels Party although very few of their Officers if we may credit a late Historian were polluted with the crime Yet notwithstanding the Letter fore-cited and many troublesome passages in Parliament wherewith the Lords Justices and Council were not seldom alarm'd sufficient to waken their confidence no Cloud not the breadth of a hand appear'd but the Lords Justices kept a fair correspondence with the Parliament giving all the furtherance they could to the going of their Committee into England hoping that what his Majesty should be pleased to grant at their requests might redound to the common benefit of the Nation Neither did the Lords Justices or Council transmit unto his Majesty or any of the State of England any mis-reprehensions of the proceedings and actions of that Parliament as some maliciously insinuated in as much as a Noble Person a Peer in the Lords House said That the Lords Justices had
always cheerfully receiv'd their Requests and Messages and were ready to comply with them desiring that this their compliance might be entred in the Journal to the end that it might remain to Posterity Having by his Majesties Commission dated the 4th of January 1640. authority to Continue Prorogue or Determine the Parliament as they thought fit which liberty they indulg'd much to the freedom of the Parliament However being resolv'd as the sequel prov'd to pretend any thing rather than not to have some exceptions against the Government the Irish Parliament sent to his Majesty a Declaration therein magnifying the Six entire Subsidies they had given in the 10th year of his Majesties Reign and the Four Subsidies in the 15th year of his Reign pretending moreover that they had been ill presented to his Majesty which was clearly evinc'd to the contrary and several Graces vouchsaf'd them thereupon Amongst other things the State at that time found difficult to do the Disbanding of the new rais'd Army was not the least which the Parliament of England had great jealousies of and besought his Majesty that it should be dissolv'd In answer whereof his Majesty repli'd That the thing was already upon consultation but he found many difficulties in it and therefore told the Parliament He held it not onely fit to wish it but to show the way how it might conveniently be done However in August 1641. it was effectually perform'd for which afterwards the Lords Justices had his Majesties gracious approbation and the Arms and Ammunition were carefully brought into his Majesties Stores by the vigilance of the Master of the Ordnance the Lord Justice Borlase else certainly most of those Arms as well as the Men had been undoubtedly listed in the Confederates Army which many of their Party in the House of Commons in Ireland having an eye to made them so averse to have them Disbanded And the Plot proceeded being so cunningly manag'd by some of the Members of Parliament subtil in their insinuations that many of the Protestants and well-meaning people of the House blinded with an apprehension of Ease and Redress lying under the same pretended Yoak with the rest were innocently decoi'd into their acting violently with them Hence Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland was impeach'd of High Treason and others of the prime Officers and Ministers of State were Articled against yea some of the Bishops were not spar'd contrary to all presidents of that nature as was certifi'd by the Lords Justices to the Principal Secretary on search made upon his Majesties commands for that purpose So as besides some of the active men of the House Lawyers Darcy Martin Plunket Cusack Brown Linch Bodkin Evers and others took upon them with much confidence to declare the Law to make new Expositions of their own upon the Text as That killing in Rebellion was no forfeiture of Lands and to frame 21 Queries Which in a solemn Committee of the House Adjourn'd from time to time they discuss'd at their own freedom in the Dining-Room at the Castle disdaining the moderate Qualifications of the Judges who gave them modest Answers such as the Law and Duty to their Sovereign would admit and in stead of them vented their own sense as if the State were then in its Infancy and from them meerly to receive its Constitution as Sir John Temple observes resolving upon an alteration in the Government and drawing of it wholly into the hands of the Natives Sir Phelim Oneal making it plain in his Letters of Triumph to his Holy Confessor That his purposes were Conquest and not defence of Religion his Majesties Prerogative or their Liberty No! No King of England writes Mahony a Jesuit nor Crown nor People nor state of that Kingdom having at any time any kind of Right to the Kingdom of Ireland or any part thereof that the English Title to it was but meer Usurpation and Violence and that therefore the old Natives i. e. the meer Irish might chuse and make themselves a King of one of their own Irish and in the then Circumstances of Charles the First of England ' s being a Heretick ought i. e. were bound in Conscience to do so and throw off together the Yoak both of Hereticks and Foreigners Which Tenents being roughly drawn the Confederate Irish seem'd afterward to condemn forsooth in a Council of their own at Kilkenny Yet it is very observable and that from Walsh himself who says He can never forget it having extraordinary great admiration thereat That there was not one in the National Congregation met by an extraordinary favour the 11th of June at Dublin 1666. that open'd once his mouth for confession of any Villanies committed against the King at any time in the late Rebellion or Civil War or even to speak a word for so much as a general Petition to be exhibited to his Majesty imploring his Majesties gracious Pardon Notwithstanding the first Rebellion 1641. and what follow'd upon the Nuncio's access and the violation of the first Peace 1646. and the Nuncio's Censures against the Cessation with the Lord Inchequin and the Peace 1648. And the Declaration and Excommunication of the Bishops as James-Town 1650 against the Lord Lieutenant the Marquis of Ormond and those who obey'd him Emphatically enough exprest by P. W. No. 1. He enforces this Argument further There was no crime writes he at all committed by All or any of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland nor even at any time nor in any occasion or matter hapen'd since the 23d of October 1641. that needed Petitioning for Pardon either for themselves or any other of the Irish Clergy if we must believe the Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Plunket pleading for them in so express terms and the tacit approbation of his words by the universal silence of that Assembly In pursuance of which the Protestant Commissioners of Ireland in their Answer to the Objections the Rebels Agents put in against the Preamble of the Bill of Settlement took notice that in the whole Volume of Papers which were put in by the Catholicks about that Affair there was not one grateful Acknowledgment or so much as one civil mention of his Majesties singular Condescention They having the favour to inspect that Act of Settlement and object as they pleas'd as if all his Majesty could do for them were no more than he ought And further it is these Commissioners observation That in all the Irish Papers they do not own the slaughter of so many thousands to be a Rebellion or once give the Title of Rebels to those who were the first Agents in that horrid and bloody Massacre which being not acknowledged by them more easily absolves the rudeness of their Ingratitude for his Majesties favours And a Person of Honour in his Animadversions on Fanaticism who deserves much for his excellencies in the case takes notice That no Catholick ever made any profession against the Rebellion or manifested his detestation or dislike of
Relie and Roger Mac-Guire this Examinant's Brother dispatched a Priest one Toole O Conley who lived in Leimster unto Owen O Neal into Flanders to acquaint him with the Business concerning the General Rebellion then in preparation which said Priest return'd about a month before the time appointed for execution thereof And the Answer which the said Priest brought from the said Owen O Neal was That he would within 15 days after the People were up be with them with his best Assistance and Arms And it being demanded Why he the said Owen would bring Arms considering the Castle of Dublin was to be taken and the Arms therein this Examinant answer'd That they so provided for Arms that they might not want any in case they could not take the said Castle whereof they doubted And this Examinant acknowledgeth That the Castle of Dublin was to have been surpriz'd by himself Capt. Bryan O Neal Capt. Con O Neal Capt. Mac-Mahon one Owen O Relie Roger Moore Hugh Mac-Mahon Col. Plunkett and Capt. Fox and likewise further acknowledgeth That Hugh Mac-Phelim Capt. Con O Neal and Bryan O Neal brought from Owen O Neal out of Flanders the very same Message which the Priest brought And this Examinant further saith That he was told by Roger Moor that a Great Man was in the Plot but he might not name him for the present And at another time and during the sitting of the Parliament the last Summer he this Examinant was inform'd by one John Barnewell a Franciscan Frier then resident in this City That those of the Pale were also privy to the Plot meaning the present Rebellion And lastly saith That of those Persons who came to attend him this Examinant for the surprize of the Castle of Dublin only Cohonough Mac-Guire was privy to the Business in hand and that the last Meeting when the day appointed for the execution thereof was resolv'd on was at Loghross where were present only Ever Mac-Mahon Vicar-General of the Diocess of Clogher Thomas Mac-Kearnan a Frier of Dundalk Sir Phelim O Neal Roger Moor and Bryan O Neal. Charles Lambert Robert Meredith Concordat cum originali Ex. per Paul Harris Which Examination he also acknowledged before Judge Bramston Lord Chief Justice of England and Justice Mallet the 22. of June 1642. in the presence of Jo. Conyers W. Ayloffe Nath. Finch And being Prisoner in the Tower of London he delivered to Sir John Conyers then Lieutenant thereof a Relation of the whole Scene to be presented to the Lords in Parliament which being stor'd with many remarkable Circumstances sufficiently evidencing the dis-satisfaction long contrivance and general combination of the Natives I shall commit to posterity in his own words that it may be seen what Fucus soever is now endeavour'd to be cast on the horrid Conspiracy it was not any ill miscarriage of the State at that time or any real suspicions that the Irish had of any violence to be obtruded on their Religion or Persons which drove the Natives into a general revolt but the deliberate complotted Counsels of many years that anvil'd out the Rebellion in detestation of the English that was the Sore however skin'd which they endeavour'd again to exulcerate to which end Neal's Regiment in Flanders consisting most of Irish Papists was purposely rais'd to train up the Irish in Arms against a fitting opportunity as by Mac-Art's Examination is most evident Thus was this inhumane and treacherous Rebellion unanimously complotted which brake forth the 23. of October 1641. St. Ignatius his day that less than such a Patron might not be entituled to so close and bloody a Conspiracy fourty years before fore-warn'd by the incomparable and pious Archbishop Usher preaching soon after the overthrow of the Spaniards at Kinsale 1601. on the Vision of Ezek. Chap. 4. Vers. 6. whence in reference to a connivance of Popery following he drew this Application From this year a day being for a year I will reckon the sin of Ireland that those whom you now embrace shall be your ruine and you shall bear this iniquity A little before which time this Reverend Primate went for England I cannot say his reflecting on this Prophesie was the cause of his repair thither no! many things were thought to be in dispute which his moderation might probably have compos'd However writes Armachanus Redivivus towards the end Monitu proculdubio divino tempestivus ab Hibernia recessit priusquam funestae calamitates erupissent illi lupi bipedes belluaeque deproedatrices dispersas oves horribili Laniena jugulassent The Castle of Dublin as you have read was the chief Place they aim'd at as in the Lord Grey's Government 1580. it was then the design of the Rebels to have kill'd him and his Family and to have surpris'd the Castle of Dublin wherein was all the Provision of War The like was intended by the Conspirators about the beginning of the Reign of King James Sir Arthur Chichester Lord Deputy The full determination of the Conspiracy we now speak of was as Dr. Jones in his clear and excellent account he gives thereof in his Depositions took the 3d. of March 1641. design'd at the Abbey of Multifernan notwithstanding that Tyroen's Son who had long consulted it in Flanders was suddenly strangled about that time in Bruxels and the Earl of Tirconnel drown'd near the time of the Earl of Strafford's death prime Instruments in anvilling the Design abroad and great hopes of countenancing it at home where there was a Covent of Franciscans conven'd it seems on a pious intent in the County of West-Meath after the last Sessions of Parliament where amongst many other things there debated the question was What course should be taken with the English and all others that were found in the whole Kingdom to be Protestants Some were onely for their Banishment as the King of Spain dismis'd the Mores out of Granado with some of their Goods Others were urgent that all the Protestants should be universally cut off the King of Spain's lenity being his and his Queen's act not the advice of his Council which say they afterwards cost Christendom dear the Mores surviving to return with Swords in their hands and infest them as Algiers and Sally doth at present Those Disputes held long at last some lean'd a middle way neither to dismiss or kill And we find by the event each of these thoughts had some execution in some places All being generally put to the Sword or a more deplorable end in other places Imprisonment accompanied with the utmost extremity of that condition was the lot of many and others who being dismiss'd with their Goods were afterwards stript of all expos'd to Cold and Famine worse than Sword or Halter Thus having determin'd what to do with the Protestants which in general too sadly succeeded to their wishes they according to the presumption of the event consulted in the next place what course they would peruse in reference to their Government of
the State First they agreed That their Loyalty to his Majesty should be still reserv'd say they of the modest sort but both his Revenues and Government must be reduc'd to certain bounds His Rents none other than the antient Reservations before the Plantations and the Customs so order'd as to them should be thought fitting Secondly For the Government such as would be esteem'd Loyal would have it committed into the hands of two Lords Justices one of the antient Irish Race the other of the antient British Inhabitants in the Kingdom provided that they be of the Romish Profession Thirdly That a Parliament be forthwith call'd consisting of whom they shall think fit to be admitted wherein their own Religious Men shall be Assistants Fourthly That Poining's Act must be repeal'd and Ireland declar'd to be a Kingdom independent on England and without any reference to it in any case whatsoever Fifthly All Acts prejudicial to the Romish Religion shall be abolish'd and it to be Enacted That there be none other Profession in the Kingdom but the Romish Sixthly That onely the antient Nobility of the Kingdom shall stand and of them such as shall refuse to conform to the Romish Religion to be remov'd and others put in their room Howsoever the present Earl of Kildare must be put out and another put in his place Seventhly All Plantation Lands to be recall'd and the antient Proprietors to be invested into their former Estates with the Limitations in their Covenant express'd That they had not formerly sold their Interests on valuable Considerations Eighthly That the respective Counties of the Kingdom be subdivided and certain Bounds or Baronies assign'd to the Chief Septs and other of the Nobility who are to be answerable for the Government thereof and that a standing Army may be still in being the respective Governours are to keep a certain number of men to be ready at all Risings out as they term it they also being to build and maintain certain Fortresses in places most convenient within their Precincts And that these Governours be of absolute Power onely responsible to the Parliament Lastly For maintaining a Correspondency with other Nations and for securing the Coasts that also they may be render'd considerable to others a Navy of a certain number of Ships is to be maintain'd that to this end five Houses are to be appointed one in each Province accounting Meath for one of them that to these Houses shall be allotted an Annual Pension of certain thousands of Pounds to be made up of part of the Lands appropriate to Abbeys and a further Contribution to be rais'd in the respective Provinces to that end That these Houses are to be assign'd to a certain order of Knights answerable to that of Malta who are to be Sea-men And to maintain this Fleet that all Prizes are to be apportion'd some part for a Common Bank the rest to be divided to which purpose the selling of Woods serviceable for this use is forbidden The House for this purpose to be assign'd to the Province of Leimster is Kilmainham or rather Howth the Lord of Howth being otherwise to be accommodated provided he joyn with them that place being esteem'd most convenient in respect of situation which they have small grounds to hope for For the effecting of which they consider'd that the Forces of the Kingdom would easily amount to two hundred thousand able men wanting onely Commanders which as I have already took notice of might be supplied from O-Neals Regiment in Flanders and other places breeding up the Irish in Arms and Rebellion And for Money the other Sinew of War they were resolv'd not to want it if it could be rais'd-either from Tenant or the Farmers of the Customs who having it then ready were to bring it to their respective Banks So as nothing was omitted which rationally might further their design Which after the State by Proclamation had made known and many on suspicion were daily seiz'd on Certainties of its success were hourly brought to the State That night the Lord Blany brought the ill news of the Rebels seising upon Castle Blany in the County of Monaghan and his Wife and Children and Servants as also of the surprisal of Carrick Mac-ross a House of the Earl of Essex's and Sir Spotswood's in the same County burning divers Villages robbing and spoiling many English none but Protestants On Sunday Sir Arthur Tirringham gave intelligence that the Irish in Newry had broken up the King's Store of Arms and had seiz'd upon them and the Ammunition there listing themselves under the command of Sir Con Mac-Gennis Knight and one Creely a Monk Thus almost every hour some like Job's Messengers hasted to the State as preserv'd onely to acquaint them of the disasters of their Relations and the sufferings of the Protestants of which with all circumstances to it the Lords Justices and Council gave his Majesty an account by Sir Henry Spotswood being then in Scotland and sent Owen O Conally with Letters dated the 25th of October to the Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the effect of which Letter you may see in its proper place In the interim the State being from all parts terrifi'd with the insolencies of the Rebels they scarce knew how to steer their course no Money being in the Treasury and the main part of the Citizens being justly suspected for that being mov'd to advance Money on the occasion will Posterity believe it their whole Community would not reach 50 l. And such as had escaped the violence of the Rebels having nothing but their Persons for a prey could contribute little many of which were so frighted with what they had seen and suffered that like inanimate Bodies they appear'd sensless and stupid However the Lords Justices and Council having secur'd the Castle by a Company of Foot under the command of Sir Francis Willoughby one of the Privy Council a known and experienc'd Soldier and setled Sir Charles Coote also of the Privy Council in the Government of the City wherein as in other Services he proved afterwards signally eminent and noble They advertis'd the Earl of Ormond whom the Rebels boasted they had made of their Party then at his House at Carrick of what had hitherto happen'd desiring him to repair to Dublin with his Troop which he accordingly observ'd about the beginning of November About the 27th of October the Lords Justices and Council sent Commissions to the Lords Viscounts of Clandeboys and of the Ardes to raise the Scots in the Northern Parts they also writ to Sir William and Sir Robert Stewart with other Gentlemen of Quality in the North Giving them power to prosecute the Rebels with Fire and Sword yet so as to rescue such as should submit to his Majesties Grace and Mercy signifying withall That although by the said Commission they gave them full power thereunto yet they did then let them know that for those who were chief among the Rebels and Ring-Leaders of the
many other testimonies of their Conjunctions that which is confirm'd by a very credible Person of Colonel Richard Plunket of Dunsaghly in the County of Dublin within the Pale one destin'd for the taking of the Castle of Dublin who affirm'd openly That he had a Contract under the hands of all the Lords of Ireland that were Catholicks to stand firm in this Insurrection most of their actions confirming his words And Relie's Wife told James Talbot a Person of eminent note amongst them That if those of the Pale would have let them alone and not set them on work they were so well at ease as they would never have begun that troublesome task Upon which it is evident though Some would insinuate the contrary that both the old Irish and old English what ends they would severally pretend to have centred in the destruction of the Protestants and that the old English Papists were a little backwarder than the Irish was in that they had something more to loose than the other and so would put them first upon the work wherein themselves were equally engag'd Which the Lords Justices and Councel perceiving writ the 3d. of Decemb to the Earl of Fingal the Lord Viscount Gormanston and the rest of the Lords of the Pale To come to Dublin and consult for the safety of the Kingdom Luke Nettervile and others having caus'd Proclamation to be made at Lusk twelve miles from Dublin that all the Gentry of the County should upon pain of death meet within three or four days at Swoards within six miles of Dublin which accordingly they did constituting Captains Richard Golding Thomas Russel Francis Russel Robert Travers Christopher Hollywood and other Commanders their Militia amounting on that short warning to 1200. which would have been impossible to have rais'd had they not before been Armed and instigated to that Cause Upon which these Lords of the Pale Conspirators with the first return'd to the Lords Justices the 7th of Decemb. this Answer receiv'd the 11th May it please your Lordships WE have received your Letters of the 3d. instant intimating that you had present occasions to confer with us concerning the present state of the Kingdom and the safety thereof in these times of danger and requiring us to be with you there on the 8th of this instant We give your Lordships to understand that we have heretofore presented our selves before your Lordships and freely offered our advice and furtherance towards the particulars aforesaid which was by you neglected which gave us cause to conceive that our Loyalty was suspected by you We give your Lordships further to understand that we have receiv'd certain advertisement that Sir Charles Coote Knight at the Council-board hath offered some speeches tending to a purpose and resolution to execute upon those of our Religion a general Massacre by which we are all deterr'd to wait on your Lordships not having any security for our safety from those threatned evils or the safety of our lives but do rather think it fit to stand upon our best guard until we hear from your Lordships how we shall be secur'd from those perils Nevertheless we all protest that we are and will continue faithful advisers and resolute furtherers of his Majesties Service concerning the present state of this Kingdom and the safety thereof to our best abilities And so with the said tender of our humble service we remain Your Lordships humble Servants Fingall Gormanston Slane Dunsany Nettervile Oliver Lowth Trimblestone And Luke Nettervile Esq George Blackney of Rickenhore Esq George King of Clantarfe Gent. and others met at Swoards being charged on their Allegiance the 9th of Decemb. immediately on sight of the Lords Justices Warrant to separate and not to unite any more in that manner without direction from the State They instead of obedience to the States command return'd this answer That they were constrain'd to meet there together for the safety of their lives That they were put into so great a terror by the rising out of some Horse-Troops and Foot-Companies at Dublin who kill'd four Catholicks for no other reason than that they bore the name of that Religion as they durst not as they pretended stay in their houses and therefore resolved to continue together till they were assured by their Lordships of the safety of their Lives before they ran the hazard thereof by manifesting their obedience due unto their Lordships Upon which the Lords Justices and Council publish'd a Proclamation the 13th of Decemb. to satisfie the world of the innocency of the State from the guilt of any mans blood and concerning the four they alledg'd were kill'd as Papists they were such as were found faulty in rebellious actions of which one was a Protestant Commanding them furthermore on the allegiance to his Majesty to separate upon the sight of their Warrant and that Luke Nettervile and his Accomplices should appear before the State on the eighteenth of the said month to the end they may be fully heard by the State To which end the Lords Justices and Council thereby gave them and every of them the word of the State that they might then securely and safely repair thither without danger of any trouble or stay whatsoever And that the Lords of the Pale might not be less satisfi'd in what they objected the same day also the Lords Justices and Council publish'd a Proclmation and sent it to those Noblemen positively affirming That the Lords Justices and Council did never hear Sir Charles Coote or any other utter at the Council-board or else-where any speeches tending to a purpose or resolution to execute on those of their Profession or any other a general Massacre nor was it ever in their thoughts to dishonour his Majesty or the State by so odious impious and detestable a thing giving them assurance of their safety if they would repair thither the 17th of that Month. Yet notwithstanding these Condescensions or whatsoever else the State could do whereby the doubts of those men might be remov'd and their security ascertain'd still the Torrent of the Pale ran to make up the intended Deluge despising whatsoever security or faith the State was pleased to promise them Whereupon the Lords Justices and Council were enforc'd to send this Warrant to the Earl of Ormond and Ossory to send out a Party of Soldiers Horse and Foot against those that dar'd so impudently to affront them By the Lords Justices and Council William Parsons John Borlase FOrasmuch as divers of the Inhabitants of Clantarfe Rhaheny and Kilbarrock have declared themselves Rebels and having robb'd and spoil'd some of his Majesties good Subjects are now assembled thereabouts in Arms in great numbers mustering and training of their rebellious Multitudes to the terrour and danger of his Majesties good Subjects as well at Land as at Sea which their boldness is acted in such manner as to put scorn and affronts upon this State and Government they acting such depredations even before
our faces and in our view as it were in despight of us It is therefore order'd That our very good Lord the Earl of Ormond and Ossory Lieutenant General of the Army do forthwith send out a Party of Soldiers of Horse and Foot to fall upon those Rebels at Clantarfe and thereabouts who in such disdainful manner stand to outface and dare us and to endeavour to cut them off as well for punishment as terrour to others and to burn and spoil the Rebels Houses and Goods And to prevent their farther annoying any Shipping going out and coming in and lying in harbour those Souldiers are to bring up or cause to be brought up to the new Crane at Dublin such of the Boats and Vessels now lying there as they can upon the sudden and to burn spoil sink and make unserviceable the rest Given at his Majesties Castle of Dublin December the 14th 1641. Ormond Ossory Rob. Dillon Char. Lambert Ad. Loftus John Temple Char. Coote Francis Willoughby The Lords of the Pale however effectually endeavour'd to strengthen the Northern Rebels and thereupon declared the Lord Viscount Gormanston General of the Forces to be rais'd in the Pale Hugh Birn Lieutenant General the Earl of Fing all General of the Horse who in several Baronies rais'd Captains accordingly and Provisions suitable to every hundred men in a Company for their daily allowance one Beef and half a Barrel of Corn during the Siege of Tredath And that nothing might be wanting to straighten the State Nettervile and his Party being increas'd by their confederacy with Wickloe and Kildare the 15th of December sent two strong Parties to Santry and Finglass where they continu'd till the 22d of the said December when they were beaten by Colonel Crafford from Finglass two miles from Dublin after they had like to have put us to a shameful retreat Those at Santry hearing of Sir Charls Coot's approach saved themselves by a cowardly quitting of their Quarters leaving their best Equipage and Provisions behind them whilst near 300 men shew'd themselves at Clantarf a Village on the Sea-side about a mile and half from Dublin The Inhabitants strengthning the Rebels confidence with store of strong Fishing-boat having the day before spoil'd two English Barcks lying at Anchor near Clantarf in the Road of Dublin much to the disquiet of the Lords Justices and Council suspecting thereby that the Port to Dublin might have been blocked up Robberies also of that nature having been committed at Skirries twelve miles from Dublin and the Prey of those Barks carried to Barnewell of Brimore a prime Man as the Prisoners to the Lord Gormanston's who sent them to Balrothry sufficient to prove the Robberies Murthers and other Outrages committed on the British Protestants were by the allowance and privity of the principal Gentlemen of the Pale if not their command how speciously soever in their humble Protestation a piece of as much vanity as falshood against the States Proclamation the 8th of Febr. 1641. they would insinuate That none of the better sort had robb'd or pillaged any of them nor dispossess'd them of their Estates Whereas by the example of what is here produc'd the falsity of all they assert is clearly prov'd though further particulars without much sifting may easily be expos'd were not the story like to be tedious And the truth of these assertions may be fully read in the end of the Answer to the Eighth Article of the Rebels Remonstrance of Grievances at Trym 1642. Whereupon the Lords Justices found it absolutely necessary that some Forces should be sent against them at Clantarf which Forces were commanded by Sir Charles Coote the 15th of Decemb. who burnt the Village destroy'd their Boats and excellently well quitted the service injoyn'd him clearing that place of Piracy and Rebels Though in the interim Nettervile being frighted from Santry lay with near 2000 men at Swoards and possess'd himself of the Castle of Artain and some other places within two miles of Dublin On the West side of which at Tassagard Rath-Coole Castle-Lyons and other Villages there lay 2000 more of the Rebels out of the Counties of Katerlagh Kings County and Kildare under the command of Roger Moore and Sutton Eustace of Castle-Martin and others The Clandonells Birns and Tooles frâ—m Wickloe towards the Sea three or four miles on the South of Dublin came also down blocking up on all sides Passages thereunto their Forces in Lemster amounting to 20000 men So as the State being now put in eminent danger few hopes survived of her recovery The Naas and Kildare as Trim and Ashboy in the County of Meath being taken by the Rebels Which in a Letter to the Lord Lieutenant dated the 14th of December the Lords Justices and Council very emphatically express'd adding in the close That if notwithstanding all this so often and truly made known by us to your Lordship we shall perish for want of Supplies we shall carry this comfort with us to our graves or any other burial we shall have That your Lordship can witness for us to his Royal Majesty and all the world that we have discharg'd our duties to God to his Majesty and to that Nation and to this in humbly representing to his Majesty by your Lordship the chief Governour of the Kingdom the extremities and dangers wherein his Kingdom and People stand and the necessities of hasting Supplies hither by all possible means for preservation of Both so as whatever become of our Persons our Memory cannot be justly stain'd with so wretched a breach of Faith and Loyalty to the King our Master as to forbear representing thither the extremities wherein we are whether we have receiv'd credit to be believ'd or no and that we write truth and most needful truth will be found true when perhaps we shall perish and which is more considerable the Kingdom also for want of being believ'd and succour'd in time The Consideration of which long before presented to his Majesty wrought so sensibly on Him that being then newly return'd out of Scotland before the Letter mention'd arriv'd at the Parliament He took the first opportunity which was the 2d of December 1641. to tell the Lords and Commons in Parliament other things being rehearsed That He had one Particular more to recommend unto Them which was Ireland for which saith He I doubt not your Care yet methinks the preparations for it go on but slowly And being touch'd with the truth of what He had observ'd in this Business he came to the Parliament the 14th of December and thus exprest his resentment My Lords and Gentlemen THE last time I was in this Place and the last thing that I recommended unto you was the Business of Ireland whereby I was in good hope that I should not have needed again to have put you in mind of that Business But still seeing the slow proceedings therein and the daily dispatches that I have out of Ireland of the lamentable Estate of my
any Levies he should make to that purpose Being loath saith his Majesty in his Solitudes to shoot at any mark here less than himself or that any should have the glory of his destruction but themselves Whilst at the same time his Majesties Subjects of Scotland in an Act of Council at Edinburgh the 22d of April following upon this occasion takes notice That there could be no greater demonstration of Care and Princely Courage than this his Majesties intention to go in Person into Ireland against the Rebels Upon the signification of which Royal Intent to the State there the Lords Justices and Council in a Letter to his Majesty the 23d of April 1642. taking notice of his Princely Purpose to take just vengeance on the perfidious Rebels humbly besought him to come so provided as to appear in that Kingdom suitable to the Greatness and Wisdom of so mighty a King Which Letter how finely soever it was covered went not in some mens opinion without a discouragement forasmuch as that though some at Court might conceive by his Majesties coming over a Peace might be made with the Irish when his Majesty pleas'd yet by taking in so base perfidious and barbarous a People who in so execrable a manner had cut off such multitudes of the English the event as was privately signifi'd by some could not redound to his Majesties Honour Besides the Soldiers were then grown so implacable to the Irish as they would scarce endure any ordinary Papist much less suffer a Rebel to be admitted amongst them After all his Majesties resolutions for Ireland were prevented not without several constructions as each Party apprehended the Scene Though his Majesty express'd that he would never refuse or be unwilling to venture his Person for the good and safety of his People yet he was not so weary of his life as to hazard it impertinently and therefore at present should desist However as yet the Protestant Army in Ireland being competently supplied the Rebels were frequently chastized To say truth after the raising of the Siege of Tredath and the consequences thereupon his Majesties Forces so enlarged their Quarters as no considerable Enemy save some Castles lay nearer Dublin than twenty miles on any side that now the Lords Justices thought it high time to provide for the safety of such places as lay more remote in the Countrey the English having in many Places upon the first rising of the Irish possess'd themselves of some Forces Strong Holds Towns and Castles which though very ill provided they did for many months yea some for years after the first breaking out of the Rebellion defend notwithstanding long Sieges multitudes of Rebels encompassing them and all means by Treachery Force or Famine experienc'd to draw them into their possession It will here take up too large a space in this Story where many considerable things may fall besides the Pen to recite the gallant actions perform'd by several private Persons in some inconsiderable in respect of Strength Places many Women shewing more courage constancy and resolution in the defence of what they were necessitated to than the Men without did in their undertakings against them Great were the Straits many of them were put unto enduring all manner of extremities subjecting themselves to all kind of dangers not daunted with the multitudes of Rebels that lay about them they in many places issued out and lived onely on the Spoils they took from them fighting continually for their daily bread which they never wanted as long as their Enemies had it The Rebels were so undextrous in the management of their Sieges as they took very few Places by force in all their Attempts whether by Mine Battery Assault they seldom prosper'd The great Engine whereby they master'd any Fort of the English was Treachery Offers of safe Conduct and other Conditions of Honour and Advantage which might induce the Besieged sometimes reduc'd to the utmost extremities to surrender their Places into their hand which though solemnly sworn and sign'd they yet seldom or never kept but left several Places as Monuments of their Treachery and Infidelity using those who surrender'd them as they did the poor Protestants in the Town and Castle of Longford whom they having besieged and drawn to yield up into their hands upon condition of Quarters and safety for their Persons they as soon as they issued out fell upon with their Skenes their Priest as a signal for the rest to fall on first ripping open the belly of the Minister amongst the English then his followers soon kill'd and hang'd the rest After this manner used they the 150 Protestants who yielded up upon fair Quarter the Castle of Tullagh and the Church of Newtown in the County of Fermanagh And the 1400 or 1500 at Belturbet and the Inhabitants of Ardmagh and Loughgell and those under the conduct of the Lord Mayo and those 120 murther'd by the Mac-Swynes as those who yielded the strong Castle of Cloghleigh situate upon the Manningwater to Richard Condon who promised Quarter and a safe Convoy to Castelions contrary to which they were all of them either hang'd kill'd wounded or kept Prisoners by him and his Company In the same manner also he used a Party of the Earl of Barrimore's Troop who having bravely maintain'd themselves in a House in Coole against his Forces were by his Promise on the Faith of a Soldier and a Christian of a safe Conveyance to Castelions contented to yield it up but were immediately upon their coming forth murther'd As some English Families and the Garrison Soldiers at Sligo were used by O Connor Slygah who upon the quitting of their Holds promis'd them Quarter and to convey them over the Curlew Mountains in safety to Abbeyboyle or Roscommon but he first imprison'd them in a most nasty Goal allowing them onely Grains for their food and afterwards when the Rebels were merry with Company that came to congratulate their Victory over these poor Creatures those which survived were brought forth by a Frier Connor's Brother and others and kill'd or precipitated over the Bridge into a swift Water where they were presently destroy'd And at Teagh-Temple after the English and Scots who retired thither were not able longer to resist the Enemy had yielded the Place on Conditions to be brought in safe Conduct to Abbeyboil were murther'd hang'd or buri'd alive At which terrible sight Mrs. Olyfant a Ministers Wife being great with Child fell in Labour but was still beat forward till at last the Child slipt from her and what was horrible she was forced to draw that poor Infant and the Concomitants of such an accident after her till she died with sport to them The Story would be too long should we mention those 140 taken forth to be sent for England and drown'd at Portadown or those numbers drawn to Florence Fitz-Patricks house and there slain Or those 60 and odd persons gathered together on pretence of sending them to Clanhughboyes drown'd by them
Rebels attesting that the 100000 l. borrowed of the Subscription-Money for Ireland they soon re-paid with advantage being then forc'd to make use of it to prepare a competent Army for the defence of the King and Kingdom without any prejudice to the Affairs of Ireland whose subsistence depends on the welfare of this In Answer to which it was replied That that Kingdom were the Money restored in the mean time suffered by that Diversion and that had the Lord Wharton's Forces been approved of there was no further security that those should have been sent for Ireland than other Forces that were rais'd for that purpose and yet imployed against his Majesty at Edge-hill the other Exceptions of the Parliament in his Majesty's Papers being also answer'd which begot a Reply not altogether pertinent in this place to pursue However the Parliaments imploying the 100000 l. contrary to the Interest of the foremention'd Act in the 17th year of Car. 1. with his Majesties full consent before he left the Parliament was the cause that it produced so little good effect for Ireland many of the Subscribers taking that occasion as others before had done upon his Majesties motion to go for Ireland to withdraw their subscriptions and others not to pay in their Money which was with so much Caution provided for and guarded with so many advantagious Circumstances for all the Adventurers as if it had been carried on and seasonably applied with that Care and Sincerity it ought to have been it would in a little time have reduc'd that whole Kingdom and have eas'd that poor People of many of those Calamities they have since endur'd The want of which put the Lords Justices and State on many difficulties Yet that something might seem to be done there was an Order of the Commons House of Parliament the 3d. of August 1642. That the Ministers about the City of London should be desired to exhort the People to bestow old Garments and Apparel upon the distressed Protestants in Ireland in reference to which the 19th of September following the Lord Mayor of London ordered that those Cloaths should be brought to Yorkshire-hall in Blackwel-hall to be ready for shipping them for Ireland and a vast Supply was brought in Charity never so much manifested its compassion as in that Cause which afterwards was entrusted to a Reverend Person who discharged his trust with singular Prudence and Integrity though as to the Army these Cloaths never reach'd or intended And now the Rebels finding their Strength much augmented by the unhappy differences in England their chief Contrivers of the Conspiracy the Clergy met at Kilkenny and there Established in a General-Congregation several Considerations for their future Government Upon which Proceedings and the validity of the 6th Article of those Prelate-Dignities and learned men the first General-Assembly at Kilkenny sate the 10th of November 1642. according to what Scobel gives us an account of Though Peter Walsh one of the Assembly certainly to be credited in his second part of the first Treaties of his History and vindication of the Loyal Formulary writes that the first General or National-Assembly of the Confederates began at Kilkenny the 24th of October 1642. and continued to the 9th of January following upon which day they were dissolved having constituted to succeed them the Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland and that they might be the better tied together with the Holy bond of Union and Concord as is expressed in the thirty third Article of the General Assembly and the third of the Congregation They framed the ensuing Oath of Association to be taken by all in that Confederacy The Preamble to the Oath of Association WHereas the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom have been inforc'd to take Arms for the necessary defence and preservation as well of their Religion Plotted and by many foul Practises endeavour'd to be quite suppress'd by the Puritan Faction as likewise their Lives Estates and Liberties as also for the defence and safeguard of his Majesties Regal Power just Prerogatives Honour State and Rights invaded upon and for that it is requisite that there should be an unanimous Consent and real Union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the Premisses and strengthen them against their Adversaries It is thought fit by them that they and whosoever shall adhere unto their Party as a Confederate should for the better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the publick Cause take the ensuing Oath The Oath of Association I A. B. do profess swear and protest before God and his Saints and his Angels that I will during my life bear true Faith and Allegiance to my Soveraign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland and to his Heirs and lawful Successors and that I will to my power during my life defend uphold maintain all his and their just Prerogatives Estates and Rights the Power and Priviledge of the Parliament of this Realm the Fundamental Laws of Ireland the free exercise of the Roman Catholick Faith and Religion throughout this Land and the Lives just Liberties Possessions Estates and Rights of all those that have taken or shall take this Oath and perform the Contents thereof and that I will obey and ratifie all the Orders and Decrees made and to be made by the supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom concerning the said publick Cause and that I will not seek directly or indirectly any Pardon or Protection for any Act done or to be done touching this general Cause without the consent of the major part of the said Council and that I will not directly or indirectly do any Act or Acts that shall prejudice the said Cause but will to the hazard of my Life and Estate assist prosecute and maintain the same Moreover I do further swear That I will not accept of or submit unto any Peace made or to be made with the said Confederate Catholicks without the consent and approbation of the general Assembly of the said Confederate Catholicks And for the preservation and strengthning of the Association and Union of the Kingdom that upon any Peace or Accommodation to be made or concluded with the said Confederate Catholicks as aforesaid I will to the utmost of my power insist upon and maintain the ensuing Propositions until a Peace as aforesaid be made and the Matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of Peace be establish'd and secured by Parliament So help me God and his holy Gospel The Propositions mention'd in the aforesaid Oath 1. THat the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity to their several Capacities have free and publick Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the 7th or any other Catholick King 's his Predecessors Kings of England and Lords of Ireland either in
high and eminent trust of your Affairs here deposited with us by your Sacred Majesty we may not forbear in discharge of our Duty thus freely and plainly to declare our humble apprehensions to the end your Majesty thus truly understanding the terribleness of our Condition may find out some such means of support to preserve to your Majesty and your Royal Posterity this your ancient and rightful Crown and Kingdom and derive deliverance and safety to the Remnant of your good Subjects yet left here as in your excellent Judgment you shall find to be most to your Honour and Advantage And so praying to the King of Kings to guide and direct you for the best in this high and important Cause and in all other your Councels and Actions we humbly remain From your Majesties Castle at Dublin the 11th of May 1643. Your Majesties most Loyal and most Faithful Subjects and Servants The 12th of May the Lord Taaffe Roch and Fitzwilliams arrived out of England and that morning Major Warren and Sir Francis Butler came to the Council the Lords sitting and presented a Petition to the Lords Justices accusing the Lord Parsons of high Misdemeanors and other Treasonable Matters requesting that his Person and Goods might be secur'd though in conclusion nothing was ever filed against him an Evidence to most that there was more of a Design then Crime in the Accusation And having as before presented you with the Lords Justices Letter to his Majesty we should now give you the Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament the 16th of June 1643. concerning the present lamentable estate and miserable condition of Ireland In answer to what the Lords Justices and Council had faithfully acquainted them withall that it may appear how sensible they were of the information they had receiv'd of the straights and exigencies of the Protestant Forces in Ireland which certainly is very Emphatical resenting with a just aggravation the miserable condition of that Kingdom but being legible in Husbands Collections we shall refer you thither not busing our selves how far it prevail'd Certainly the Exigencies of the Souldiers and State of Ireland were then very considerable in as much as his Majesty not being able by any other expedient to remedy as he was perswaded their complaints then by a Cessation he to that end sends this Letter to the Lords Justices C. R. RIght trusty and well beloved Counsellors and right trusty and intirely well beloved Cousen and Counsellor we greet you well The present Distractions here have rendred us as unable as by experience we find the remaining part of the two Houses are unwilling to supply or relieve our Army in Ireland and if the Money we consented should be rais'd in this our Kingdom for the Relief of Ireland had not been diverted by them and Rebelliously imployed against us here in England we should not have been constrain'd to have hearkned to a Cessation of Arms now on that side But since we see no other hope during the unhappy distempers here to settle the Peace of that our Kingdom but by a Cessation of Arms between us and the Irish now in Arms there and doubt very much how our Forces now in that our Kingdom will be there maintain'd if we shall admit of a Cessation We have thought it expedient by these our Letters to recommend it to your care and industry to consider seriously how our Forces on that side may be enabled to subsist during the Cessation and if there may be means found for that we do then hereby Authorise and require you to agree to a Cessation of Arms there for a year and in our Names to assure the said Irish that we are graciously inclin'd to dissolve the present Parliament and call a new one between this and the 10th of November next and to take a course to put all those that shall be chosen Members of the said Parliament into such a condition as they shall not be prejudiced of their Liberty of Assisting Sitting and Voting in the said Parliament for better effecting whereof we do hereby further authorise and require you to give License to such Commissioners as the said Irish shall appoint to come over hither to us to treat of that Business and such other Particulars to be proposed by way of Petition as shall necessarily conduce not onely to the satisfying of the said Cessation but to a preparation of what shall be requisite for the setling of a just honourable and perfect Peace in that our Kingdom And we further require in case the said Irish now in Arms shall agree to such a Cessation and Treaty to advertise us of some such able and fitting Ministers or Servants of ours on that side as you conceive fit to be sent over hither to assist in the Treaty here when Commissioners shall come over from the said Irish. In which Business we require you to use all convenient expedition and to give us a speedy Account for which these our Letters shall be your Warrant Given under our Signet at our Court at Oxford the second day of July in the 19th year of Our Reign 1643. To our right trusty and well-beloved Counsellors Sir John Borlase and Sir Henry Tichborn Kts. Lords Justices of our Kingdom of Ireland and to our right trusty and intirely beloved Cosen and Counsellor James Marquiss of Ormond Lieutenant-General of our Army there But before this Letter came to the Lords Justices the means to a Cessation were thought of Yet the day before the Marquiss of Ormond proceeded to the Treaty which was the 22. of June the chief Protestants of the City of Dublin were called before the Council to know if they would give 10000 l. or have a Cessation the latter they were very unwilling to and the former they could not advance indeed it was well known though it serv'd as an Argument to evidence the necessity the State was put to And the Irish Commissioners the 23. of June presented themselves unto the Marquiss of Ormond in his Tent near Castle Martin in the County of Kildare in the presence of divers Colonels Captains and Officers in his Majesties Army his Lordship sitting in his Chair covered and the Irish Commissioners standing bare after several passages betwixt them all tendred in writing the Irish Commissioners gave his Lordship a Copy of the Authority they had receiv'd from the supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland at Kilkenny in these words WHereas his Majesty's most faithful Subjects the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland were inforced to take Arms for the preservation of their Religion for the defence of his Majesty's just Prerogatives and Rights and the maintenance of the Rights and Liberties of their Countrey labour'd to be destroyed by the Malignant Party And whereas his Majesty in his high Wisdom and Princely Care of his said Subjects Welfare and Safety and at their humble Suit That his Majesty might be graciously pleas'd to hear
of their Interest and security Each Party arrived at Oxford near the midst of April the Confederate Agents got thither soonest having less Remora's in their dispatch The Confederates as men who thought themselves possessed of the whole strength and Power of the Kingdom and the Kings condition in England so weak as he would buy their assistance at any rates demanded upon the Matter the total alteration of Government both in Church and State the very form of making and enacting Laws which is the foundation of Government and which had been practis'd ever since the Reign of King H. 7. must be abolished and instead of Liberty or Toleration for the exercise of the Romish Religion they insisted on such Priviledges Immunities and Power as would have amounted at best but to a Toleration of the Protestant Religion and that no longer then they should think fit to consent to it On the other hand the Committee of Parliament as men who too much felt the smart and anguish of their late sufferings undervalued and condemned the Irish as inferior to them in Courage and Conduct and as possessed of much greater Power by the Cessation then they could retain in War very earnestly prest the execution of the Laws in force Reparation for the dammages they had sustain'd disarming the Irish in such manner and to such a degree as it might not be hereafter in their Power to do more mischief and such other Conditions as People who are able to contend are not usually perswaded to submit unto which the Committee at Oxford for Irish Affairs insisted on with powerful Reasons and Arguments In these so different and distant Applications they who were sent as moderate Men from the Council knew not how to behave themselves but enough discovered that they had not the confidence in the Irish as to be willing that they should be so far trusted that the performance of their Duty should depend onely on their Affection and Allegiance But that there should be a greater Restraint upon them then they were inclin'd to submit to otherwise that the Protestant Religion and English Interest would be sooner rooted out by the Peace they proposed then it could be by the War It is very true that the Irish Agents demean'd themselves to his Majesty with great shew of Modesty and Duty they were Men that lack'd neither Art nor Behaviour and confessed that they believ'd that the Demands they were enjoyn'd to insist upon were such as his Majesty could not consent unto and that the present condition of his Affairs was not so well understood by them or by those who sent them before their coming out of Ireland as it now was which if it had been they were confident they should have had such Instructions as would better have complied with their own Desires and his Majesty's Occasions and therefore frankly offer'd to return and use their utmost Endeavours to incline the Confederate Council whose Deputies they were and who then exercised the supream Power over the Confederate Catholicks of that Kingdom to more Moderation and to return their full submission and obedience to his Majesty upon such Conditions as his Goodness would consent unto for their security But how little of this was perform'd you shall find in the sequel of the Story however the King sent his Command the 16th of Feb. 164. to the Marquess of Ormond to continue and renew their Cessation for another year and likewise a Commission under the Great Seal of England to make a full Peace with his Catholick Subjects upon such Conditions he found agreeable to the publick Good and Welfare and might produce such a Peace and Union in that Kingdom as might vindicate his Regal Power and Authority and suppress the Rebels in England and Scotland And so his Majesty dismissed the Catholick Agents with demonstration of much Grace and Confidence with this good Council which he most pathetically poured out to them at their departure That they should not forget the preservation of the Nation and Religion which they professed and were so zealous for in Ireland depended upon the preservation of his just Rights and Authority in England That they saw his Subjects of Scotland contrary to all Obligations had invaded England and joyned with those Rebels against him who without that assistance would have been speedily reduced to their obedience And therefore if his Catholick Subjects of Ireland made haste upon such Conditions as he might then grant without prejudice to himself and which should be amply sufficient for the security of their Fortunes Lives and Exercise of their Religion to assist him whereby he might be enabled by God's Blessing to suppress that Rebellion they might confidently believe he would never forget to whose Merit he owed his Preservation and Restauration and it would then be in his absolute Power to vouchsafe Graces to them to compleat their happiness and which he gave them his Royal Word he would then dispence in such manner as should not leave them disappointed of any of their just and full Expectations But if by insisting on such Particulars as he could not in Conscience consent to and their Consciences obliged them not to ask or on such as though he could himself be content to yield to yet in that Juncture of Time would bring such great damage to him that all the Supplies they could give or send to him could not countervail and might be as beneficially granted to them hereafter when he might better do it they should delay their joyning with him and so look on till the Rebel's Power prevail'd against him in England and Scotland and suppress'd his Party in those Kingdoms it would then be too late for them to give him help and they would quickly find their Strength in Ireland but an imaginary Support for his or their own Interest and that they who with much difficulty had destroyed him would without any considerable Opposition ruine their Interest and root out their Religion with their Nation from all the Dominions which should be subject to their exorbitant Jurisdiction How much of this prov'd a Prophesie their sad Experience knows and the World cannot but take notice of Soon after the Confederate's Agents were dismissed the Protestant's Committee of Parliament who had managed their Scene with much Courage and Integrity drew off with the King's Favour and Promise to do the utmost he could for them In the managing of which Affairs if they had not been very resolute arm'd with much Truth they would certainly have fall'n under many Inconveniencies For besides what they met with at Oxford they had still Correspondence and accordingly acted as they were animated by a Party of the Protestant Committee of the Parliament of Ireland then resident in Dublin who that they might decline the height of what those at Oxford proposed were tempted by an Order of the Council-Board to certifie Whether the 24 Propositions of his Majesty's Protestant Agents of Ireland presented to
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
called ordinarily the Council-Table be of Members true and faithful to his Majesty and such of which there may be no fear or suspition of going to the Parliament Party 3. That Dublin Tredagh Trim Newry Catherlagh Carlingford and all Garrisons within the Protestant Quarters be Garrison'd by Confederate Catholicks to maintain and keep the said Cities and Places for the use of our Sovereign Lord King Charles and his Lawful Successors for the defence of this Kingdom of Ireland 4. That the present Council of the Confederates shall swear truly and faithfully to keep and maintain for the use of his Majesty and his lawful Successors and for the defence of the said Kingdom of Ireland the above Cities of Dublin and Tredagh and all other Forts Places and Castles as above 5. That the said Council and all General Officers and Soldiers whatsoever do swear and Protest to fight by Sea and Land against the Parliamentarians and all the Kings Enemies And that they will never come to any Convention Agreement or Article with the said Parliamentarians or any the Kings Enemies to the prejudice of his Majesties Rights or of this Kingdom of Ireland 6. That according to our Oath of Association we will to the best of our power and cunning defend the fundamental Laws of this Kingdom the Kings Rights the Lives and Fortunes of the Subjects His Excellency is prayed to make Answer to the above Propositions at furthest by two of the Clock in the afternoon on Thursday next J. Preston Owen O Neile Let all dis-passionate men now consider what could the Marquis do his Quarters were so strait and narrow that they could yield no support to the few Forces he had left all his Garrisons besieg'd without an Enemy being destitute of all Provisions within all the Army he had for the Field and Garrisons amounted not to 5000 Foot and 1100 Horse without Cloathes Money or Fixed Arms and with so inconsiderable a Store of Ammunition that when the Nuncio was upon his march towards Dublin he had not in that most important City the Metropolis of the Kingdom more than 14 Barrels of Powder So that not onely the Inhabitants but the Soldiers themselves grew impatient of the distresses they were in and which inevitably they saw must fall upon them and they who had before presum'd in corners and whispers to tax the Marquis of not being zealous enough of the English Interest and too credulous of what was promised and undertaken by the Irish had now the boldness to murmur aloud at him as if he had combined with the Irish to put all into their hands They who from the beginning of the Troubles had been firm and unshaken in their Duty and Loyalty to the King and chearfully suffered great losses and undergone great hazards for being so and been of the most constant affection to and confidence in the Marquis and resolved to obey him in whatsoever he should order for the King's Service for the conducting whereof he was solely and entirely trusted by his Majesty could not yet endure to think of being put into or falling under the power of the Irish who by this new breach of Faith had made themselves utterly uncapable of any future Trust for what security could they publickly give for performance of the Contract which they had not lately given for the observation of that which so infamously they had receded from Whereupon he found it absolutely necessary to make a shew of inclining to the English and sent to the Ships then riding in the Bay of Dublin that they would transport some Commissioners from him to the Parliament to treat about the surrender of the City and the other Garrisons under his Command Which Proposition was embrac'd by them and the Persons deputed accordingly conveyed into England By this means the Marquis was forthwith supplied with 20 Barrels of Powder which the Captain of those Ships delivered to him the 10th of March by the permission of the Lord Lisle the Parliaments Lord Lieutenant without which he could have made no defence against the Nuncio whereby the Irish had a fair warning to bethink themselves in time of returning to their Duty since they might discern that if they would not suffer Dublin c. to continue in the Kings obedience it should be delivered to them who would deal less graciously with them and had power enough to punish those indignities which had been offered And the Marquis was still without other Engagement than to do what he should judge most conducing to his Majesties Service However the Rebels persisted in their intentions against Dublin where for a while we must leave them and see what course the Parliament took to infest their Quarters much they were concern'd that affairs went not on so successfully there as they expected where that they might have one Governour answerable to the exigencies of that Kingdom they Voted Philip Viscount Lisle Lord Lieutenant passing thereupon in April 1646. a Patent to him for one year allotting him 40000 l. with what else was requisite for his dispatch in raising which they were so slow many of the House being of an opposite Party as he could not get away from London till the 1st of Febr. 1646. arriving at Bristol the 6th where he found several of his own Troops and his Brother Colonel Sidney's in readiness to be transported for Ireland But Money being not come he was forc'd to Quarter them thereabouts till its arrival and himself with 30000 l. 7 Pieces of Battery 1000 Muskets 100 Barrels of Powder embarqu'd the 18th at Minhead and landed near Cork the 20th and came thither the day following where he was altogether unexpected especially by the Lord Inchequin he found things in great disorder the Army filled with Officers disaffected to him the Custodiums and Contributions no way manag'd to the publick advantage thereupon reform'd the defects and marching the 15th of March to visit Talloe Lismore Toughall Fermoy and other Places found the Countrey protected even to the Walls of the Protestant Garrisons so as no mischief could be done by them to the Rebels and about the 20th of March Knockmohun was delivered to him He order'd all things for the best advantage of the Interest he was put upon and finding his Commission was near expir'd the General Officers petition'd that in case his Lordship were not continued the Command of the Army might rest in them which the Lord President with others oppos'd The Lord Lieutenant's Commission determind ' the 15th of April 1647. And shortly after such animosities arose betwixt the Parliaments Commissioners and the Lord Inchequin as doubtless if some Privy Counsellors had not interpos'd great inconveniencies would certainly thence have risen The Lord Lisle accompani'd with the Lord Broghil and Colonel Sidney went presently for England and arriv'd at London about the beginning of May following taking the first occasion to give the House an account of his Journey which may
solicite for considerable Aids in Moneys to be sent timely the preservation of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom depending thereon If you find upon the place that a settlement of Peace cannot be had according to the several Instructions that go with the Commissioners to his Holiness and Christian Majesty and Prince of Wales nor such considerable Aids that may probably prove for the Preservation of the Nation then you are to inform your self by correspondence with our Commissioners imployed to Rome whether his Holiness will accept of this offer of being Protector to this Nation and if you find he will not accept thereof nor otherwise send such powerful and timely Aids as may serve to preservation then you are by advice of other the Commissioners imployed to his Majesty and Prince of Wales and by correspondence had with the Commissioners imployed to Rome and by correspondence likewise with our Commissioners imployed since if it may be timely had to inform your self where the most considerable Aids for preserving this Nation may be had by this offer of the Protectorship of the Nation in manner as by other Instructions into France grounded on the same of the Assembly is contain'd and so to manage the disposal of the Protectorship as you and the rest of our said Commissioners shall find most for the advantage of the Nation The like Instructions for Spain bearing the same Date Upon these and other considerations ever in his view the Marquess thought it much more prudent and agreeable to the Trust reposed in him to deposite the Kings Interest and Right of the Crown of Ireland into the hands of the Lords and Commons of England who still made great profession of Duty and Submission to his Majesty from whom it would probably return to the Crown in a short time then to trust it with the Irish from whom less then a very chargeable War would never recover it in what state soever the Affairs of England should be and how lasting and bloody and costly that War might prove by the intermedling and pretences of Foraign Princes was not hard to conclude In that such Auxiliaries many times prove dangerous Assistance not being over-tender or much distinguishing betwixt the Party they come to assist and that they come to subdue when they are made Umpires in such Quarrels as may be guessed by the Accompt in the 14th Appendix of which the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of Ireland being very sensible they thus in March expressed themselves and their condition to the Parliament of England The Declaration of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled in Ireland of the present Estate and distressed Condition of the Protestants in the said Kingdom and their Address unto the most Honourable the Parliament of England for Relief WE the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of Ireland having by the Mercy of God your Care of us and the Industry of those intrusted by his Majesty with the Government here preserved unto us the means of sitting together and of delivering freely our thoughts concerning the condition of this miserable Kingdom whereof we are the representative Body and finding withall the Government our Selves and indeed the Protestants in the Kingdom reduced to that final point of Extremity that if not very speedily supported and preserved all in these Parts must become a Prey unto the bloody and inhumane Rebels and this City of Dublin the chief Seat and Cittadel of this Kingdom with the other Garrisons depending thereupon be turn'd into the prime Seats and Strengths of those who have given evident proof that they aim not at less then the extirpation of all Protestants and the setting up the abominable Idol of the Mass and Superstition and at the shaking off of all Loyalty and Subjection to the Crown of England We therefore hold it our duty as being also perhaps the last which we by reason of the near approach of a powerful and pernicious Enemy may have the means to discharge in this Capacity to make the present Address and Representation of our miserable Condition to the most Honourable the Parliament of England which as it hath in all times of common Danger been the Fountain from whence the Power and Lustre of the Crown of England in this Kingdom hath sprung so it is now the onely Sanctuary unto which in behalf of our selves and the distressed Interest thereof we can fly for Succour and Preservation We hold it un-necessary to particularize our present Wants and Miseries and Imposibilities of further subsistance of our selves since they are too well known even to our Enemies in so much as it may be feared that the benefit which we confidently expect by the great diligence and Wisdom of the most Honourable the Parliament of England may not arrive timely for our Relief and Preservation nor can we so misdoubt the Wisdom Justice and Piety of those Honourable Houses whereof we have had heretofore very real and great experience which we do here with all thankfulness acknowledge as to fear that they will suffer the Protestant Religion the Interest of the Crown of England and of the Protestants in these important Garrisons and Quarters to be sacrificed unto the fury of the merciless Rebels But on the contrary as we do earnestly desire so are we most confident that the Goodness and Wisdom of the most Honourable the Parliament of England will so seasonably send over a sufficient Power as well to subdue and suppress these merciless and bloody Rebels as to maintain these places accompanied with an assurance from the most Honourable the Parliament of England for enjoying those Conditions of Honour subsistance and safety which have been lately offered by their Commissioners for and in the name of the most Honourable the Parliament of England to those who have hitherto govern'd and preservd them and to his Majesties Protestant Subjects and those who have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them unto which they may be pleased to joyn such further additions of Grace and Bounty as to their Wisdoms and Goodness shall be thought fit as that they and all the Protestants and such others as have faithfully and constantly adhered unto them may find Security and Preservation therein whereby we may heartily joyn under those whom the said most Honourable the Parliament of England shall appoint in prosecuting so Pious a War and being Gods Instruments for the bringing just Vengeance upon such Perfidious Rebels and in restoring the Protestant Religion and Interest of the Crown of England in this Kingdom to its due and former Lustre which we will ever strive with the hazard of our Lives and Fortunes to maintain While the Marquess was in this deliberation being privy to the Parliaments actions he receiv'd information that the King was delivered by the Scots to the Commissioners of the two Houses of Parliament who were then treating with him for the settling of Peace in all his Dominions and at the same time several Persons of
1647. they unanimously publish'd a Declaration to that end exactly drawn up with great Reason Perspicuity and Eloquence The time that the Marquis of Ormond agreed with the Parliaments Commissioners was near the time that the Army had gotten the King into their hands having taken him from Holmbey out of the custody of the Commissioners to whom the Scots had delivered him And the Marquis of Ormond at his arrival in England found so many specious pretences and professions publish'd by that Party which then had the whole Power of the Army and consequently of the Kingdom that very many believ'd his Majesties Affairs to be in no ill condition more seeming respect was paid to his Person and less restraint upon the resort of his faithful Servants to him than had been from the time that he first put himself into the Scots power The Army took upon them the Government of the Kingdom having solemnly declared That there could be no reasonable hope of a firm and lasting Peace if there were not an equal care to preserve the Interest of the King Queen and Prince as of the Liberties of the People and that both should be with equal care provided for together In this time of freedom and hypocritical compliance the Marquis had free liberty of repairing to the King where he gave him an account of all his actions and of the course he had taken for the reviving and preserving his Majesties Interest in Ireland by setling a Correspondence with many Persons of Honour there who would keep the two Houses of Parliament how great an advantage soever he had given them by the delivery up of Dublin c. into their power if they refus'd to return to his Majesties obedience from obtaining any absolute Dominion in that Countrey and who were most like to reduce the Nation from the Distemper with which they were transported and to incline them to that submission that was due from them to the King with all which his Majesty was very graciously and abundantly satisfied and gave the Marquis direction in case the Independent Army should proceed otherwise than they pretended how he should behave himself and comply with the Irish if he could reduce and dispose them to be instrumental towards his or their own delivery And when his Majesty discovered by the double dealing and hypocritical demeanour of the Officers of the Army of whom he had earlier jealousie than other men as seeing farther into their dark Design the little good they meant him he found it fit to receive some Overtures from the Scottish Commissioners who were still admitted to reside at London and to bear a part in the Managery of the Publick Affairs and now plainly saw that the Independent Army which they had so much despised was grown superiour to them and meant to perform nothing less than what they had so Religiously promised before the King was delivered up at Newcastle The King hereupon commands the Marquis of Ormond to confer with the principal Persons of that Commission who seem'd very sensible of the dishonour their Nation had incurr'd and resolved by uniting the power of that Kingdom for his Majesties Service to undo some of the mischief they had wrought And desired that the Marquis of Ormond would likewise transport himself into Ireland to try once more if he could compose the humours of that People to his Majesties obedience that so those two Kingdoms being entirely reduc'd to their duty might with that assistance they were like to find in England perswade the violent Party to comply with those moderate and just Conclusions which would establish the Peace and Tranquility of the whole in a full happiness to Prince and People And from hence was that first Engagement design'd which was afterwards so unfortunately conducted by the elder Duke Hamilton and concluded with the ruine of himself and of many Worthy and Noble Persons When the Army had by their civil and specious carriage and professions disposed the Kings Party to wish well to them at least better than to the Presbyterians who seem'd to have erected a Model of a more formid and insupportable Tyranny and were less endu'd with the appearances of Humanity and good Nature and had by shuffling themselves into new shapes of Government and admitting Persons of all Conditions to assemble and make Propositions to them in order to the publick Peace given encouragement to most men to believe that all Interests would in some degree be provided for and so had brought themselves into an absolute Power over all Interests they began to lessen their outward Respects and Reverence to the King to inhibit some of his Servants absolutely to resort to him and more to restain the frequent access of the People who out of their innate Duty and Affection delighted to see his Majesty they caused reports to be raised and scattered abroad of some intentions in desperate persons of violence upon his Majesties Person and upon this pretence doubled their Guards and put Officers of stricter vigilance and more surly disposition about him so that whatsoever he said or did or was said unto him was more punctually observed The Marquis of Ormond was look'd upon with a very jealous eye and was forbid to continue his attendance on him or to come within 25 miles of London and that Article in the Agreement at the delivery of Dublin viz. That he should engage his Honour not to act any thing to the prejudice of the Parliament in a twelvemonth there was an intention to put him in mind of by a Letter from the Committee at Derby-house but before the Messenger came where he had been near Bristol he knowing of the King 's being close Prisoner in Carisbrook-Castle and that it would be to little purpose to contest his Articles with the Parliament privately shipt himself away for France where he arrived safely about the end of the year 1647. having spent in England little more than six months For a time we must leave the Marquis in France and return to Colonel Jones in Dublin who with those Forces that were left there by the Marquis of Ormond and such as he brought and received out of England amounting in all to 3000 marched against Colonel Preston approaching with his Leimster Forces to infest Dublin and met him about 12 miles from Dublin who having gotten great advantage of ground routed Jones killed many of his men and took not a few Prisoners Jones himself escaping with much difficulty to Dublin Whether upon this accident or otherwise I cannot determine but great divisions then arose betwixt the old English who had Preston for their General and the old Irish who had Owen Roe O Neal for theirs The old English had a gallant Army consisting of near 10000 Foot and Horse well Arm'd and well Disciplin'd who thought that if they would offer themselves Instruments to destroy the old Irish they might at any time have good Conditions from England therefore under
declar'd by the Council together with Owen Roe O Neal's offer to drive Inchequin quite out of Munster at his own charge and at the charge he would force out of those parts by his Souldiers But at this time Inchequin was in a deeper Correspondence with the Scots Nation which way Ormond was also to biass his Designs The Nuncio thus disappointed called a new assembly of his Clergy compos'd of Hugh O Rely Primate of Ireland Thomas Fleming Archbishop of Dublin Thomas Welsh Archbishop of Cassel John de Bourk Archbishop of Tuam and ten Bishops who unanimously declared That this Cessation of Arms was much prejudicial to the Catholick Religion and could not be embraced in Conscience and so Excommunicated all that adher'd thereto Hitherto the Council had born it self with some respect toward the Catholick Church remembring the Clemency us'd by the Nuncio in delivering some of them from Prison but upon this last Excommunication they so threatned him that he was forced to go privately from Kilkenny to a Castle where Preston by order of the Council following he fled to Gallway and called there a National Council to pacifie the Troubles of the Kingdom which the aforesaid Council endeavour'd to hinder forbidding the appearance of the Clergy taking hold of divers Ecclesiastical Persons of his houshold imprisoning them So that the Nuncio despairing of re-establishing of the Affairs of the Catholicks and having information That Ormond had resolv'd with all his Forces to advance the Protestant Religion and to destroy all opposers and that the Supream Council of Catholicks had declar'd their departure from the League with their Confederates he departed arriving in France In the interim Owen Roe judging that he could not in conscience joyn his Armies any longer with a Party that called it self Catholick and yet chas'd away the Nuncio declar'd his separation from them until they recal the Nuncio and endeavour to obtain a Catholick Vice-Roy and execute in all other points the Oath they had taken This was taken very ill by the Marquess of Ormond and his Council who charg'd O Neal with a Design under colour thereof to oppose the Affairs of the King which occasion'd him to object to them not the aforesaid Oath but a particular Declaration which he had published where he with all his Officers profess That they intend onely to re-establish the Catholick Religion the Liberties of the Kingdom and the Prerogatives of the King in their former Glory and Splendor The Ormond Party Catholick being in such perplexity by reason of these differences and their sleighting the Nuncio appeal'd to his Holiness but from Rome it is certified That the Pope well understanding their deportment refused to give Audience before he had heard his Nuncio Who in the end rather receiv'd a Check as before is mention'd then an Approbation from his Holiness for what he had done in Ireland And now as to the difference betwixt their Generals and our Proceedings thereupon Colonel Jones finding the Distractions amongst the Rebels to grow very high and that the old English under the Marquess of Clanrickard had taken the Castle of Athlone and other Places from Owen Roe and that Athy was besieged by Colonel Preston and Owen Roe came up to Relieve it and burnt and spoil'd the Countrey thereabouts thought it high time to be stirring out amongst them and thereupon sent out some of his Forces which took in the Garrisons of the Nabber and Ballihoe formerly surprized by the Rebels But yet not having his Provisions come from England durst not himself stir forth till he had sufficiently secured Dublin which in the first place he began more strongly to Fortifie that it might receive no prejudice in his absence About which time Flemming an active Officer among the Rebels took in Cruces Fort and Killaloe two Garrisons in Pudsonbyes Quarters Next Jones secured Sir Maurice Eustace Colonel Gifford Capron Flower Willoughby and several others who continuing their affection to the Marquess he suspected and by Order of the Committee of Derby-House sent them to the Castle of Chester detaining Colonel Byron and Sir Thomas Lucas Prisoners at Tredagh suspecting these would deliver him and the City to the Marquess of Ormond then every day expected Lord Lieutenant out of France The Scots Army under Duke Hamilton about this time entered England to whose Proceedings Major General Monro sent over into Scotland his Son or Nephew George Monro with 2000 Foot and 600 Horse as Sir Robert Stewart his Son with a Troop and Sir Fred. Hamilton his with a Regiment and several others disaffected to the Parliament of England in hope to settle with advantage there By which means Belfast Carrigfergus and Colrain were left very weak and much un-guarded which Colonel Monk finding and understanding how contrary to all compact Monro had dealt with the Parliament of England in sending over the Forces maintain'd by them in Ireland to fight against them in England he began to think of some means to make himself master of those Towns he was at present at Lisnegarvy and prepared a Party to go out to make an inroad into the RebelsQuarters he march'd away in the morning but having sent some Persons of trust to remain near Carigfergus to attend his advance thither he return'd in the night over the mountains and came at break of day to the Gates of Carigfergus which he found open and so enter'd without resistance he seiz'd upon Major General Monro and sent him Prisoner into England where he was by the House of Comons committed to the Tower Colonel Monk having thus seized upon Carigfergus caus'd some Horse to march presently away to Belfast which was surrendred into his hands by the Governor and so was likewise Colrain so as he presently became Master of all those Towns disbanding and sending away most of those Forces into Scotland which oppos'd the Parliament and hindred those broken Troops of Monro's which fled out of England upon Duke Hamiltons defeat at Preston in Lancashire from returning into Ireland and did use all means to settle the Country in such a posture as that the Interest of the Parliament might be secur'd there He planted Garrisons upon the Frontiers of Ulster to hinder the incursions of the Rebels and he gave the Quarters the Scots had to such of the British as he found faithful to the service This was about September 1648. a Service very acceptable in England in manifestation whereof the Parliament sent him 500 l. and made him Governor of Carigfergus by an Order of the 4th of October and sent over Cloaths for some of those Scottish Regiments which came into him and 5000 l. in Money for the two Provinces of Ulster and Connaght to be equally divided Sir Charles Coot there being very active not long after took in the strong Fort of Culmore near Londonderry seizing on at the same time Sir Robert Stewart whom he sent Prisoner to the Parliament upon which the Scots Mutinied but
and General Governor of the Kingdom of Ireland Chancellor of the University of Dublin and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter To our Trusty and Well-beloved Bishop Ever Mac Mahon ORMOND WHereas upon the Treaty with General Owen O Neal deceased it was amongst other Particulars Concluded and Agreed upon that in case of death or removal of him such other General or Commander in Chief should be authorised by Commission from us to Command his Majesties Forces of the Province of Ulster Natives of the Kingdom as should be by general consent of the Gentry of that Province elected and made choice of for the same And whereas in a general Meeting lately held by the Gentry for that purpose it was agreed upon and so represented unto us that you should exercise that Command over the said Forces We therefore upon the Consideration thereof and of the Care Judgment Valour and Expedience in Martial Affairs as also of the readiness and good affections of you to do his Majesties Service have nominated and appointed and we do hereby nominate and appoint you the said Bishop Ever Mac Mahon to be General of all his Majesties said Forces of Horse and Foot of the Province of Ulster Natives of the Kingdom Giving thereby unto you the said Bishop Ever Mac Mahon full Power and Authority to take the said Charge and Employment upon you and the said Forces and every of them to Lead and Command according to the use and discipline of War and such further Order and Instructions as you shall from time to time receive from us or other his Majesties chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom the time being in that behalf willing and hereby requiring all the Officers Troopers and Soldiers of the said Forces to obey you as their General and to be at and perform your Commands as they shall issue unto them upon all occasions of his Majesties Service as they will answer the contrary In witness whereof we have Signed this our Commission and caused our Seal of Arms to be thereunto affixed at Loghreogh the first day of April 1650. In execution of which the Bishop with great activity and courage proceeded in infesting the English Garrisons and Army in that Province as much as was in his Power And having an Army consisting of about 5000 Horse and Foot about the 20th of June 1650. when the Lord Lieutenant himself could not draw 1000 men together or keep them if together the space of 48 hours he encountred not far from London-derry with Sir Charles Coot who Commanded the Parliaments Forces in Chief in that Quarter and was then inferior in Foot to the Bishop though otherwise he had a great advantage of him by having near treble the number of Horse Notwithstanding which inequality the Irish for a while behaved themselves handsomly but in the end were totally defeated so that the Bishop was compelled after he saw the day was irrecoverably lost to quit the Field with a small party of Horse The next day in his flight he had the misfortune near Eniskelin to meet with the Governor Major King of that Town in the Head of a Party too strong for him against which however the Bishop defended himself with notable courage though after he had received many wounds he was taken Prisoner and soon after by the positive Order of Sir Charles Coot whom within less then a year he had reliev'd when in great extremity hang'd This was a most happy Victory for the Parliament in that 3000 of the Rebels were there slain all meer Irish out of an opinion they could not prosper as long as they had any English joyn'd with them and for that end had throughly purg'd their Army which being stiled by them the Confident Victorious Army of the North had a full return of Gods Vengeance they being the first Incendiaries and Actors in those barbarous Cruelties which ensued their Insurrection This was the unfortunate end of that unhappy Prelate of whom since he bore so great a Part in the Troubles of Ireland and was much superior in Parts to any man of that Party it will not be impertinent or uncharitable to mention some Passages of his Life that thereby his nature and disposition may be the better collected and indeed the spirit and temper of mind which those kind of men were possessed with who had the greatest abilities to do hurt Some few years before the Rebellion this Ever Mac Mahon being then an Arch Priest and residing for the most part in or near Dublin repair'd as you have heard to a Prime Instrument of State and discovered to him the Contrivances abroad in reference to bring Troubles upon that Kingdom who being thereupon Pardon'd still as any thing of that nature proceeded inform'd the State thereof And though according to the formality of Law he should have sued out his Pardon yet that he might still be confided in by the Confederates who knew not who the Discoverer was he meerly trusted to the Kings Mercy and Clemency and through the Government of the Earl of Strafford he prov'd faithful to the Crown From the beginning of this Rebellion his Power was very great with those that were opposite to any Reconciliation upon the first and 2 Conclusion of Peacy by the Confederate Catholicks continuing firm to that Party which followed Owen O Neal or rather Govern'd Owen O Neal who commanded that Party and over and above those demands which concern'd Religion to which they seem'd to adhere with more then ordinary zeal and thereby drew a dependency of that Clergy to them they insisted upon the Restitution of the great Estates in Ulster which was not in the Power of the Crown to make without violation of several Acts of Parliament and defeating many descents and purchases which had passed without any interruption or claim for the space of 150 years This impossible expectation kept both Owen O Neal and the Bishop of Clogher from concurring with the Confederate Catholicks in the Peace they made with his Majesty 1648. and the Animosity they contracted against the Confederates inclined them to relieve London-derry when as is remembred before it was even ready to be reduced by his Majesties Forces rather then to submit to the Peace made by them with the Lord Lieutenant To whose Divisions the State of England saith Rely Archbishop of Armagh ows their present Possession of Ireland and therefore infers that that Party of the Irish Natives ought to be not onely on that account Favour'd and Trusted but because also they never had affection for the King or his Family Yet after they had found it necessary to make that agreement with the Marquess in 1649. being neglected by the Parliament it must be acknowledged that the Bishop performed and observ'd it very justly as he was punctual in what he promised and applied himself with all dexterity and industry to the advancement of his Majesties Interest so that during his time he restrain'd the Clergy
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
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
to prescribe invite all his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects to such a Declaration which yet until they should understand the Clergies sense upon the first Proviso they said they did humbly as fit for a time to forbear To the fourth they answered That whatsomever his Excellency should find to be within their power and would direct to be done concerning the Place of Residence for his Person they would readily obey his Lordships command therein To the fifth they answered That upon conference with his Excellency of the Places fit to be Garrison'd and the number of Men fit to be put in them they would according to the Articles of Peace use their utmost endeavours to have such Garrisons so agreed upon admitted And to the last they said They had at all times been ready and willing that his Excellencies Charge should be supported out of the Revenue of the Kingdom and that they were now ready to concur in assigning any of the Dues already accrued or such as should grow due hereafter or to impose any new Allotment upon the Subject towards his maintenance When the Lord Lieutenant perceived that the temper and desire of the Commissioners of Trust was so different from that of the Congregation and that in truth they were afflicted and scandalized at the exorbitancy of the other and that they thought they should be able to reduce them from the destructive Counsels they were engaged in He would not upon any experience or judgment of his own restrain them from attempting what was not impossible to compass and which many would have concluded would be compassed if attempted and which what other effect soever it had would make evident that there was not a concurrence in the Nation in those Acts which were likely to destroy the Kingdom And therefore he willingly consented that the Commissioners should go to Gallway where the Committee of the Congregation resided whereof the Bishop of Ferns was one to whom they shewed the Letter they received from the Lord Lieutenant and desired them to consider the state of the Kingdom and to know from them what they conceiv'd remain'd that might best tend to the preservation of the Nation without keeping the Kings Authority amongst them for that many of the most considerable would instantly make their conditions with the Enemy if the Kings Authority were taken away and that there was no hope of keeping or leaving that Authority but by revoking the Excommunication and Declaration For the Lord Lieutenant would not stay to keep it nor would he leave it nor the Marquis of Clanrickard undergo it but on these terms And hereupon they used all those Reasons and Arguments which cannot but occur to all men who are not blinded with Passion and Prejudice to induce them to such a Retraction as could onely advance the happiness or indeed the subsistence of the Nation But the Bishops were inexorable and instead of abating any of that fury they had formerly express'd that added new contumelies and reproaches to all the Authority of the King they said They observ'd by the Lord Lieutenants Letter that he had informed his Majesty of the Disobediences and Affronts that had been put upon his Authority and consequently that he had suggested matter unto his Majesty for making that Declaration against the Peace That they had perused the Declaration which had been published in Scotland disavowing the Peace And that they were of opinion for ought appeared to them That the King had withdrawn his Commission and Authority from the Lord Lieutenant That in the said Declaration the Irish Nation as bloody Rebels were cast from the protection of the Kings Laws and Regal Favours And therefore it might be presum'd that he would not have his Authority kept over such a Nation to govern them whereas they had been of opinion and all their endeavours had been employ'd to keep the Kings Authority over them But when his Majesty throws away the Nation as Rebels from his protection withdrawing his own Authority they could not understand the mystery of preserving the same with them or over them nor how it could be done That they believed the best remedy the Kings Authority being taken away by that Declaration of meeting the Inconveniency of the Peoples closing with the Parliament is the returning to the Confederacy as they said was intended by the Nation in case of the breach of Peace on his Majesties part that they said would keep an union amongst them if men would not be precipitately guilty of the breach of their Oath of Association which Oath by two solemn Orders of two several Assemblies was to continue binding if any breach of the Articles of Peace should happen on his Majesties part That the Kings Authority and the Lord Lieutenants Commission being recalled by that Declaration they were of opinion that the Lord Lieutenant had no Authority to delegate his Authority to any other And if they must expose their Lives and Fortunes to the hazard of fighting to the making good of that Peace seeing the danger was alike to defend that or get a better Peace why should they bind themselves within the limits of those Articles so disowned And so with several Tautologies urged the Declaration in Scotland as a ground and excuse for all their proceedings when what they had done as we have before took notice of was before the issuing forth of that Declaration In fine they concluded they could not consent with safety of Conscience to the revoking their Declaration and Excommunication demanded by the Lord Lieutenant nor to give assurance to him or the Commissioners of Trust for not attempting the like for the future And to manifest their inveterate malice against him being in Galway the Captain of the Guard of the Town commonly called The Captain of the Guard of the young men did make search for him in the said Town as after a criminal person or a fugitive thereby endeavouring to bring contempt and scorn upon him and his Majesties Authority placed in him And now you must know they would not make this Declaration in case of Conscience of so vast an extent and importance without forsooth setting down their Reasons under their hands which for the Doctrine sake I would not conceal from the world that it may better judge of those Spiritual Guides who made themselves guilty of that mass of mischief and ruine that flowed from thence Their first Reason was Because the Kings Authority was not in the Lord Lieutenant nor was then they said power in them to confer a new Authority on him which would be destructive to the Nation if it continued in him and preservative in another and that they said was their sense when they declared against the Kings Authority in his Person so that though they had presumption enough to take the Kings Authority out of his Lieutenants hands by their Declaration and Excommunication and to inhibit all men to submit unto it they had now modesty to
should happen which they wished God would avert they should pray and conjure the Romish Clergy of England that that of the Maccabees might be recorded of them to future Ages Erat pro uxoribus filiis pro fratribus cognatis minor solicitudo maximus vero primus pro sanctitate erat timor Templi And this was the Answer delivered to the Commissioners of Trust upon the 5th day of November 1650. at Galway by the Bishops of Killala Ferns Kilmacduogh Clonfert Kilfinara and Dromore after several and long Conferences with the Commissioners of Trust who were Authorised by the Nation unto the Proposals presented by the Commissioners to the Committee of the Congregation the 29th of Octob. 1650. Here we cannot avoid observing by the express words of the Conclusion upon their Reasons in their Conference with the Commissioners that though they seem'd to desire that the Marquis of Clanrickard whose zeal to the Romish Religion and Interest in the Nation was so notorious and confessed that they durst not publickly repine at his known affection and integrity to the King might govern the Nation with the consent of all Parties and that the Kings Authority in the Lord Lieutenant might be left in him yet they declared they meant it should onely be until an Assembly which they well knew by the express terms of the Articles of Peace could be onely lawfully conven'd by the Lord Lieutenant and then that Assembly should judge of the Peoples preservation and to decree and order what should be the best and safest for the defence of the Nation touching the Kings Authority to be kept over them the Peace to be asserted and made good or to renew the Association or any thing else they should find best and most expedient So that they intended no other Honour to the Marquis of Clanrickard than that by his countenance and reputation they might perswade the Lord Lieutenant to leave the Kings Authority behind him and that he should call an Assembly which they would otherwise do themselves which they were sure should be constituted for the most part of such Men as would follow their Dictates by which himself should be divested of that Power and the King deposed from any further Dominion over them when they perswade any foreign Prince to take them into his Protection which practice they quickly set on foot And for the further manifestation of their Affection and Loyalty to the King which they cannot endure should be called yet in question it is observable that these Men who had so often contradicted and controuled the express Acts of every Assembly that had been convened since the beginning of these Troubles and now commanded the People under pain of damnation not to yield any obedience to the King's Authority in his Lieutenant and declared that they could not with the safety of their Consciences consent to the Propositions which he had lately made for the uniting the Nation in defence of the Peace so advantagious to their Liberty and Religion which the Commissioners intrusted by and for the Nation thought so reasonable These Men I say made no scruple of professing and declaring that if an Assembly upon due consideration of their state and condition should find it the best way for their safety and preservation to make an Agreement with the Enemy they would not hinder the People from compounding with them for the safety of their Lives and States Which being seriously considered we cannot sufficiently wonder at the strange stupid resignation of their Understandings who believed or rather at the wonderful contempt of those Understandings which would be perswaded to believe that this Congregation had loyal Purposes toward the King or that they never intended to hinder the Assembly or give Law to the People when they cancell'd all fundamental Laws broke through all Acts of their own Assembly and forbad the People to pay any obedience to the King's Vicegerent who had only the lawful Power of Government over them The more extravagant and unreasonable these Proceedings were of the Congregation and Clergy the more confident many honest and wise Men were that the Assembly of the Nation would regulate and controul that il-limited Power and utterly dis-avow all that they had done and therefore they who were exceedingly offended and enraged against the Congregation were solicitous and importunate with the Lord Lieutenant to call an Assembly And though he had too much experience of the Nature and Temper of the People and of the transcendent Power the Clergy should still have over any Assembly or at least over the People when the Assembly had done what it could to hope for any good effect from it And though he saw he should thereby the more expose his own Honour and which he considered more the Dignity of his Master to new Insolencies yet since he resolved to leave the Kingdom himself and was only un-resolved whether he should leave the King's Authority behind him liable to the same Indignities and Affronts in the Person of the Marquess of Clanrickard which it had been subject to in his own and could have no kind of assurance that it should not but by the Professions and Protestations of an Assembly he did resolve to call one and issued out his Letters for their meeting upon the 15th of November 1650. at Loghreogh where they met accordingly And the Bishops for removing as they said of any Jealousies that any might apprehend of their Proceedings declared and protested That by their Excommunication and Declaration at James-town they had no other aim than the preservation of the Catholick Religion and the People and that they did not purpose to make any visible Usurpation on his Majesty's Authority nor on the Liberty of the People confessing that it did not belong to their Jurisdiction so to do With which Protestation so contrary to what they had done and which in truth they had so often made even at the time they did all things contrary to it the Assembly was satisfied and did not so much as make another Protestation that the Bishops had done what they ought not to do nor exact a Promise from them that they would not do the like in time to come So that the Lord Lieutenant was resolv'd to look no more for satisfaction from them nor expose the King's Authority any further by leaving any Deputy behind him but prepared for his departure When the Assembly understood his Resolution and saw plainly that he was even ready to depart his Goods and many of his Servants being on Ship-board they sent four Members the Lord Dillon Clanrickard c. of their House to him at Kilcogan with an Instrument in writing bearing date from Loghreogh the 7th of December in which they repeated concerning the Excommunication and Declaration what the Bishops had protested in that Assembly and of his Excellency's Letter dated the 16th of November last recommending to them as the chief End for which that Assembly was
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
the Rebellion all found guilty thereof were excepted from Pardon their Estates confiscated and the others who had only assisted in the War were to forfeit two parts of their Estates and be banished And accordingly great numbers of them were transported into Spain the latter end of this Summer Yet the Marquess of Clanrickard did not leave the Kingdom in many months after the Surrender of Galway but endeavour'd by all means possible to draw the scattered Forces together that he might prosecute the War afresh according to his Majesty's Letters in the years 1650 and 1651. encouraging him to his continuance in Arms as advantagious by way of Diversion to his then intended progress of promoting his Design in Scotland and coming into England And to that end the 16th of May the Marquess of Clanrickard with the Connaght Forces marched to Ballishannon which he took by storm and presently after Dungal-Castle where the Ulster Forces under Sir Phelim O Neal the Relie's and Mahon's joyned with him but upon intelligence that Sir Charles Coot and Colonel Venables were marched against him he retired to Armagh intending for Raphoe Whilst Sir Charles Coot in his pursuit of him retook Ballishanon and Dungal-Castle gaining also Sligo Ballymote and many other Garrisons so as the Marquess was forced to shelter himself in the Isle of Carrick And having receiv'd his Majesty's Command to take care of his own security that he fell not into the Enemy's hands he having no Port to friend where he might choose a Vessel and being so betrayed by the Irish as not securely to stay 24 hours in a Place was compelled to have a Pass from the Parliaments Forces not excepting any other Conditions for himself than that he might for some time remain secure in their Quarters without taking the Oath usually imposed by them and have liberty to transport himself and 3000 Irish more into any Prince's Countrey and Service then in Amity with England which was granted and in March 1652. he was transported into England in a Vessel belonging to the Parliament after he had born the Title of the King's Deputy in Ireland little more than two years not with greater submission from the Catholick Irish than had before been paid to the Lord Lieutenant and so retired to London where not long after he died and was thence carried to Summerhill a pleasant Seat of his own which Bradshaw had in Custodium near Tunbridge in Kent and was buried in the Parish-Church He was a Person much respected for his Integrity and though of a contrary opinion to those then in Usurpation looked on as a Favourer of the English and one that no ways indulged the Cruelties and Pretensions of the Irish. This was the Fate of that unhappy Nation both under Protestant and Roman Catholick Governours neither having had the credit to be Masters of the Irish Temper fomented by the Insolencies of the Priests and whatever might instigate them against the English Government Soon after the Marquess of Clanrickard's Departure the lesser Concerns of that Nation were with little trouble and charge brought in obedience to the Parliament who declared the 26th of September 1653. That the Rebels were subdued and the Rebellion appeased and ended and thereupon proceeded to the Distribution of their Lands in pursuance of the Act for Subscriptions 17 Carol. 1. Some time before which a High Court of Justice was setled in Ireland a Name we have reason not to mention without horrour and astonishment considering who was summoned to such a Tribunal which certainly would never have been how vain how ambitious how prodigious soever some mens Success was a Strumpet often leading one to Attempts above their first thoughts had not the Rebels of Ireland for carrying on their pernicious Practices avouched the sacred Authority for their pretence and colour that though these with Pilate washed their hands from the Blood of this Righteous One yet they have as the shame so the guilt of that Royal Blood on themselves who originally gave the occasion of such a Discourse which afterwards was made one of the pretended Causes for the most barbarous and inhumane Act ever perpretated Inter tragicoe Fortunoe Exempla omnibus retro seculis memorandus Upon which eloquent Du Moulin one of the clearest Lights of the French Church honouring me with a Letter on that Subject thus passionately discovers his Resentment La Morte de vostre bon Roy d'une facon si indigne si horrible par les Maims des Independans M'outre le Coeur de Douleur C'est une action sans Example un opprobre ineffacable a nostre Religion vostre Nation tant Genereuse a elle perdu tout Courage Les Escossoes se taisent ils la dessue Mais quoy Il faut Mettre le doigt sur la bouche adorer les Conseils de Dieu qui sont Inscrutables It is observable let some foam as they please that there were none who so much as pretended to have a Reverence for the Church of England that ever had the least hand in this foul and ugly Business An instance of that is in what the Lord Chancellor Hide acquainted the Parliament with in express words from his Majesty when he was imployed in an Embassy to Spain That the Horrid Murther of his Royal Father was not the Act of the Parliament or People of England but of a very wretched and little Company of Miscreants in the Kingdom fol. 41. Upon which Monsieur Moses Amiraldus the Excellent French Divine hearing of the Protestant Religion aspersed as seditious and treasonable writ a Piece in French in vindication of the Protestant Religion and dedicated it to our King Charles the 2d in the time of his Exile when Militiere and others would have inforced the barbarous Martyrdom of his Royal Father as a just Motive to his apostatizing and not trusting his safety to the Protestant Religion whereas all these blustering Storms as the Bishop of Derry observes in his excellent Tract against Militiere radicated him deeper in his Religion that what these intended for his evil proved his good And certainly whatsoever conspired to compleat so execrable a Design as the Murther of the King nothing contributed more than the Irish deluding his Sacred Majesty so long with their Promises of a competent Army whereby he relying on them too confidently assured of their Ability and Power to perform it deferred those Agreements which else he might have seasonably composed at home And could there ever be an equaller Distribution of God's Vengeance than that they by a parallel Court should suffer the loss of their Estates Lives and Fortunes Which though un-usual was the only Expedient sufficiently set forth in the ensuing Speech of the Lord Lowther's a Person of that Gravity and Worth as whatsoever may be said by others can never reach the State of the Question more fully with less animosity and greater truth than he hath done at the Trial of Sir Phelim O Neal in February
Person who openly shewed himself against the Anabaptists then raging and countenanced the University then in a low Ebb bestowing upon it Bishop Usher's Library composed of the choicest and best picked Books extant carrying himself so as some of the Rigour of his Father was thereby taken off and that disordered Nation brought into the Condition of a flourishing State Yet afterwards when he might have had many to have seconded him he tamely yielded in 1659. the Government to Steel the Parliaments Lord Chancellor and Miles Corbet their Chief Baron of the Exchequer his Brother Richard having surrendred the Protectorship in England very meanly with a submission as he termed it to Providence So that Family expired And the Affairs of England growing every day full of change Ireland understanding what Sir George Booth had nobly attempted in England grew thence early in its dutiful Address to his Majesty And Sir Theophilus Jones further'd by his Reverend Brother Colonel Warren Bridges Thompson Lisle Warder and Temple seized Dublin Castle Sir Charles Coot about the same time preferring an Impeachment of Treason against Ludlow Tomlinson Corbet and John Jones and weighing the Consequences of the present Distempers he together with the Council of the Officers of the Army present at Dublin the 16th of February 1659. made a Memorable Declaration concerning the Re-admission of the Secluded Members about the same time sending Captain Cuffe to attend Colonel Monk into England a General Convention being the 7th of February before Summon'd by the Vigilance and excellent Contrivance and Industry of Doctor Dudley Loftus in which Sir James Barry afterwards Lord Baron of Santry was Chairman Several Affairs of greatest Consequence came there to be considered First the Arrears of the Souldiers they were to be fastned to the Design by their Interest and by the discharge of what was due to them then what was most popular and look'd least to the mark they aim'd at came under consideration in as much as they continued till May 1660. having readily accepted of the Kings Declaration from Breda of the 14th of April 1660. laying hold by their Declaration of the 14th of May of his Condescentions as the fittest expedient to cement the divided Interests in his three Kingdoms which his Majesty in his Printed Declaration for the settlement of Ireland takes especial notice of in these words That our good Subjects the Protestants not Usurpers as the Irish in their Case entitle them in our Kingdom of Ireland have born a very good part in the Blessing of our Restitution and that they were early in their dutiful Addresses unto Us and made the same Professions of a Resolution to return to their Duty and Obedience to Us during the time of Our being beyond the Seas which they have since so eminently made good and put in practice And here I cannot pass over that when the Irish Brigade came to assist Lambert against Sir George Booth now Lord Delameere and were in the North with him at that time advancing to know what General Monk intended they under Redman and Bret first drew back though some of their Officers in their canting mood thought to have wheedled General Monk into a Compliance The Convention gave his Majesty 20000 l. the Duke of York 4000 l. and the Duke of Glocester 2000 l. and in May adjourned to the first of November a standing Committee remaining in the interim And the 18th of December 1660. his Majesty by his Letter approved of this Convention which met again the 22. of January and Sir William Dumvell was appointed Chairman it continued till May 1661. Before they determined they had by a Committee very sensible and gallantly defended at Court the English Interest against the Irish who by reason of the Peace which had been made with them in 1646. and 48. thought they had very much to plead for his Majesties favour when upon the whole it was proved that if any of them were afterwards Loyal the generality disobeyed whatever had been indulged them and the Contract was not to be understood to be made with a Party but the Community of which more in its due place His Majesty was no sooner setled in England but upon both Houses of Parliaments apprehension of the late Rebellion and the Irish flocking at his Return into England he within few days published his sence of that horrible Conspiracy in the ensuing Proclamation By the King A PROCLAMATION Against the Rebels in Ireland C. R. CHarles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all Our loving Subjects of England and Ireland Greeting We taking notice by the Information of the Lords and Commons now Assembled in Parliament That after the vast expence of Blood and Treasure for the suppressing of the late horrid Rebellion in Ireland begun in October 1641. There are yet many of the Natives of that Our Kingdom deeply guilty of that Rebellion who have of late broke out into new Acts of Force and Violence some Murthering Robbing and Despoiling several of Our English Protestant Subjects there planted and others of them by force Entring upon and Disquieting the Possessions of several Adventurers and Souldiers there to the great and manifest disturbance and hinderance of Our English Plantation And being very sensible of the innocent bloud of so many thousands of Our English Protestant Subjects formerly slain by the hands of those barbarous Rebels and of new mischiefs of the same kind likely to fall out as the sad issue and consequents of so unhappy beginnings Do therefore by the advice of the said Lords and Commons now assembled as well to testifie Our utter abhorring of the said late Rebellion as to prevent the like for the future and for the present establishment of the Peace of that Our Kingdom hold it Our duty to God and the whole Protestant Interest to Command Publish and Declare and do by this Our Proclamation accordingly Command Publish and Declare That all Irish Rebels other than such as by Articles have liberty to reside in these Our Dominions and have not since forfeited the benefit thereof now remaining in or which hereafter shall resort to England or Ireland be forthwith apprehended and proceeded against as Rebels and Traitors according to Law And that the Adventurers and Souldiers and other Our Subjects in Ireland their Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns who on the first day of January last past were in the Possession of any of the Mannors Castles Houses Lands Tenements or Hereditaments of any the said Irish Rebels shall not be disturbed in such their Possessions until We by the advice of the Lords and Commons now assembled as aforesaid or such Parliament as We shall call in England or Ireland shall take further Order or that they be Legally evicted by due course of Law And all Our Justices of Peace Mayors Sheriffs and other Officers both Civil and Military both in England and Ireland are hereby
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
thereupon the Court after such retorn made and delivered in open Court shall proceed to examine and determine whether the cause of such Commitment appearing upon the said Retorn be just or legal or not and shall thereupon do what to Justice shall appertain either by delivering bayling or remanding the Prisoner or Prisoners 7. An Act of State or Proclamation in this Kingdom cannot bind the liberty Inheritance possession or goods of the Subjects of the said Kingdom nor alter the Common Law and the Infringers of any such Act or Proclamation ought not to forfeit Lands Leases Goods or Chattels for the infringing of any such Act of State or Proclamation and the Judges of the Law who do vote for such Acts of State or Proclamation are punishable as breakers and violaters of their Oaths of Judges 8. No Subject of this Kingdom ought to be sentenced to death or Executed by Martial Law in time of peace and if any Subject be so sentenced or executed by Martial Law in time of peace the Authors and Actors of any such Sentence or Execution are punishable by the law of the Land for their so doing as doers of their own wrong and contrary to the said law of the Land 9. No Man ought to be punished in the Castle-Chamber or in any other Court for taking a voluntary Oath before Arbitrators for affirmance or disaffirmance of any thing or the true performance of any thing in Civil Causes Nor are the Arbitrators before whom such voluntary Oaths shall be taken punishable 10. By the Laws and Statutes of the Realm no Man is bound or ought to be compelled to acknowledge the offence layed to his charge or the justness of any Censure past against him in the Castle-Chamber or at the Councel-Table nor ought to be detained in Prison or abridged of his liberty or the reducement of his Fine stayed or delayed until he do acknowledg such offence or the justness of such Censure And it is further declared That no such inforced or wrested confession or acknowledgment can or ought to debar or hinder any Subject from his Bill of Reversal or review of any Sentence or Decree past or conceived against him in the Castle-Chamber or in any other Court 11. The Judges of the Kings Bench or Justices of Gaol-delivery or the Judges of any other Court ought not to deny Copies of Indictments of Felony or Treason to the parties indicted 12. The Barons of the Exchequer ought not to raise the respit of Homage above the usual rates appertaining in and by the course and presidents of that Court continued until the year of our Lord God 1637. And the raising thereof since that time was Arbitrary and against the Law And the Barons of the Exchequer ought not to distinguish between the respit of Homage upon any diversity of the true values of the Knight's Fees 13. The Subjects of this Kingdom may lawfully repair into England to repeal to his Majesty for redress of Injuries or for other their lawful occasions And for their so doing ought not to be punished or questioned upon the Statute of 5. of King Richard the second nor by any other Law or Statute of force in this Kingdom eminent Officers or Ministers of State Commanders and Souldiers of his Majesties Army The Judges and Ministers of his Majesties Courts of Justice and of his Highness Revenues and Customes whose attendance is necessary requisite by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm only excepted 14. Deaneries or other Ecclesiastical Dignities of this Realm are not de mero Jure Donative but some are Donative and some Elective and some are Collative according to their respective foundations And the confirmation of the Bishops grants by a Dean de facto having actually stallum in Choro vocem in Capitulo togegether with the Chapter is good in Law 15. The issuing of Quo warrantoes out of the Court of Kings Bench Court of Exchequer or any other Court against Borroughs that antiently or recently sent Burgesses to the Parliament to shew cause why they sent Burgesses to the Parliament and the proceedings thereupon are Coram non Judice illegal and void And the right of sending Burgesses to the Parliament is questionable in Parliament only And the occasioners procurers and Judges in such Quowarrantoes and proceedings are punishable as in Parliament shall be thought consonant to Law and Justice 16. Jurors are the sole Judges of the matter in fact and they ought not for giving their Verdict to be bound over to the Court of Castle-Chamber by the Judge or Judges before whom the Verdict was or shall be given 17. No man ought to be censured in the Castle-Chamber in the mutilation of Members or any other Brand of Infamy otherwise or in other Cases then is expresly limited by the Statutes of this Realm in such cases provided 18. In the Censures of the Castle-Chamber especially regard ought to be had to the words of the great Charter viz. Salvo contenemento c. 19. A Felon who flies the course of Justice and lieth in VVoods Mountains or elsewhere upon his keeping is no Traytor and a Proclamation cannot make him a Traytor 20. The Testimony of convicted or protected Rebels Traytors Felons is no sufficient evidence in Law upon the Trial of any person for his life And the credit of the Testimonie of persons accused or impeached and not convicted of Felony or Treason ought to be left to the Jury who are sole Judges of the truth and validity of the said Testimony 21. The King grants Lands to be held in free and Common Soccage as of a Castle or Mannor by Letters Patents under the great Seal and by the same Letters Patents or by other Letters Patents grants a Fair and Market reserving a yearly Rent or sum without expressing any Tenure as to the said Fair or Market the said Fair or Market is not held by Knights-Service in Capite or otherwise in Capite FITZ GERALD's Edict manifesting the Cause of his Rebellion relating to fol 15. Edictum Illustrissimi Domini Jacobi Geraldini de Justitia ejus Belli quod Hibernia pro fide gerit SI ut bellum aliquod justè geratur tria requiruntur Causa Justa Potestas Legitima Legitimus belli administrandi Modus Haec tria in hoc Bello concurrere jam planum fiet Causa enim hujus belli est dei Gloria Cui externum Sacrificii cultum visibilem Sancti Altaris honorem ab Haereticis impiè ablatum nos restituendum curamus Gloria item Christi Cujus Sacramenta gratiam conferre cum Haeretici blasphemè negent Christi Evangelium ejusdem infirmitatis accusant ob quam lex reprobata fuit Gloria item Ecclesiae Catholicae quam contra Scripturarum veritatem Haeretici aliquot saeculis obscuram mundo ignotam fuisse mentiuntur At in Dei Nomine per Christi Sacramenta sanctificando
Dublin without suspicion and it was answered that under pretence of carrying them to those Colonels that were conveying Souldiers into the Kingdom it might safely be done and to that purpose Sir Phelim O Neale Mr. Moore and the Captain had several blank Patents with Deputations to make Captains to those Colonels which they sent to those that should send men to Dublin for the more colour they bethought of what was to be done in the Country that day and it was resolved that every one privy to that matter in every part of the Kingdom should rise up that day and seize on all the Forts and Arms in the several Counties to make all the Gentry Prisoners the more to assure themselves against any averse fortune and not to kill any but where of necessity they must be forced thereunto by opposition and that those that were appointed for taking of the Castle should observe and in particular the Gentry All their Army in Ulster to take that day Londonderry which Sir Phelim did undertake and Knockfergus which they thought Sir Henry mac O Neale would do and to that end Sir Phelim's Brother Torilagh O Neale should be sent to them and the Newry which should be undertaken by Sir Conne Magennis and his Brothers for whom Sir Phelim in regard they were his Brothers in Law his deceased Lady being their Sister did undertake Moreover it was agreed that Sir Phelim Mr. Reyly Mr. Coll mac Mahone and my Brother should with all the speed they could after that day raise all the forces they could and follow us to Dublin But to Arm the men and succour and attend and garrison the Town and Castle And likewise Mr. Moore should appoint Lemster Gentlemen to send like supply of men then there was fear of the Scots conceived that they should presently oppose themselves and that would make the matter more difficult and to avoid which danger it was resolved on not to meddle with them or any thing belonging to them and to demean themselves towards them as if they were of themselves which they thought would pacifie them from any opposition and if the Scots would not accept of that offer of amity but would oppose them they were in good hope to cause a stir in Scotland that might divert them from them and I believe the ground for that hope was that two years before in or about the beginning of the Scots troubles my Lord of Tyrone sent one Torilagh O Neal a Priest out of Spain and that this I take it was the time that he was in Treaty with Cardinal Richelieu to my Lord of Argile to Treat with him for help from my Lord for him to come into Ireland as was said for Marriage between the said Earl and my Lord of Argiles Daughter or Sister I know not which and this Messenger was in Ireland with whom Mr. Torilagh O Neale Sir Phelim's Brother had conference from whom this Relation was had that said Messenger went into Scotland as I did hear from the said Mr. Neale or from Ever mac Mahone aforenamed I know not from which of them but what he did there I could never hear by reason that my Lord of Tyrone was presently after killed they were the more confirmed therein hearing that my Lord of Argile did say near to the same time as I guess and when the Army was raised in Ireland as I think to a great Lady in Scotland I know not her name but did hear that she was much imbarqued in the troubles of that Kingdom there she questioning how they could subsist against the two Kingdoms of England and Ireland that if the King did endeavour to stir Ireland against them he would kindle such a Fire in Ireland as would hardly or never be quenched And moreover they knew my Lord to be Powerful with the Highlanders Redshanks in Scotland whom they thought would be prone and ready to such Actions they for the most part descended out of Ireland holding the Irish Language and Manners still and so we parted The next day being Wednesday Leghrosse every man went about his own task and so when I came home I acquainted my Brother with all that was done and what they had appointed him to do and did like according as they had appointed me send to Mr. Reyly to let him know as much and the 18th of the same Month I began my Journy to Dublin and when I came to Dublin being the day bofore the appointed day for putting that Resolution in execution there I met with Captain Conne O Neale sent out of the Low-Countreys by Colonel O Neal who was sent after the Messenger sent by us formerly to the said Colonel was by him disappointed with his Answer to encourage us in our Resolution and to speedy Performance with assurance of Succour which he said would not fail of the Colonels behalf and for the more certainty of help from him and to assure us that the Colonel had good hopes to procure aid from others he said that it was he himself that was imployed from him to Cardinal Richelieu twice that some men who gave very fair promises to assure the Colonels expectations with which he said that the said Colonel was really with himself assured of the Cardinals aid and that he was likewise commanded by the Colonel upon our Resolution of the day to give notice thereof to him and that he would be within 14. days over with them with aid but he landed 9. or 10. days before and meeting with Captain Brian O Neal who made him acquainted with what was Resolved He did write all the matter to Colonel O Neale so as he was sure of his speedy coming And so that Evening he and I came to meet the other Gentlemen and there were met Mr. Moore Colonel Bourne Colonel Plunkett Captain Fox and other Lemster Gentlemen a Captain I think of the Bournes but I am not sure whether a Bourne or Toole and Captain Bryan O Neale and taking an account of those that should have been there it was found that Sir Phelim O Neale Mr. Collo mac Mahone did fail of sending their men and Colonel Bourne did miss Sir Morgan Gavanagh that had promised him to be there but he said he was sure he would not fail to be that Night or the next Morning in Town And of the two hundred men that were appointed there were only eighty present yet notwithstanding they were resolved to go on in their Resolution and all the difference was at what time of the day they would set on the Castle and after some debate it was resolved in the Afternoon and the rather hoping to meet the Colonel there then for they said if they should take Castle and be enforced by any extremity for not reciving timely succour out of the Country having them they could not want and so parted that Night but to meet in the Morning to see further what was to be done and immediately thereon I came to my
every stranger and strangers so received or entertained And We do hereby in his Majesties name and under the pains and punishments here after mentioned command all Aldermen of Wards to transmit all Returns and Certificates made by the Citizens Inhabitants and Residents afore-mentioned to the Major or Recorder of the City of Dublin within twelve hours after receipt thereof or sooner if they conceive any sinister suspition of the persons returned together with the names of such of the said Citizens Inhabitants and Residents as shall not within the time afore limited make such Returns unto them And We do further in his Majesties name and under the pains and punishments hereafter mentioned command the said Major and Recorder of the said City of Dublin and also the Seneschalls or other chief Officers afore-mentioned to cause all Returns and Certificates that shall come to their hands to be delivered to the said James Earl of Ormond and Ossory within twelve hours after receipt thereof or sooner upon suspition as aforesaid together with the names of such Aldermen of Wards Inhabitants and Residents as shall not make such Returns and deliveries of Certificates as aforesaid respectively And if the said Major or Recorder or any Seneschall chief Officer Alderman of any Ward or any Citizen Inhabitant or Resident of or within this City the Suburbs thereof or two miles about the same or any other person or persons whatsoever shall offend contrary to the tenour of this Proclamation in not repairing to their dwellings in keeping any unnecessary retinues in not making any Return or Certificate in making any false or partial Return or Certificate in not returning the names of those who shall not in not making delivery of the said Returns and Certificates to the persons aforesaid in manner and within the times afore limited respectively they and every of them shall respectively incur and suffer such pains of death or such other severe pains and punishments as the said Earl and the Councel of War for the time being shall think fit to inflict and impose and as the danger of the persons and times shall require Given at His Majesties Castle of Dublin the 11. day of Novemb. 1641. Ormond Ossory R. Dillon Cha. Lambert J. Temple Cha. Coote P. Crosbie God save the King APPENDIX V. Fol. 35. A Copy of a Letter directed to the Lord Viceco Cossilough from the Rebels of the County of Longford in Ireland which he presented to the State in their behalf Novemb. 10. 1641. Our very Good Lord OUR Alliance unto your Lordships Ancestors and your self and the Tryal of your and their performance of Trust unto their Friends in their greatest Adversity encourageth us and engageth your Honour to our fruition of your future favours The fixion of our Confidence in you before any other of the Peers and privy Councellors of the Kingdom doubleth this Obligation Your Lordship may therefore be pleased to acquaint the Lords Justices and Councel to be impanted unto his Sacred Majesty with our Grievances and the causes thereof the reading of which we most humbly pray and the manner of it First The Papists in the neighbouring Counties are severely punished and their miseries might serve as Beacons unto us to look unto our own when our Neighbours Houses are on fire And we and other Papists are and ever will be as loyal Subjects as any in the King's Dominions For manifestation whereof we send herein inclosed an Oath solemnly taken by us which as it received indeleble Impression in our hearts shall be sign'd with our hand and seal'd with our Blood Secondly There is an incapacity in the Papists of Honour and the Immunities of true Subjects the royal Marks of distributive Justice and a dis-favour in the Commutative which rais'd Strangers and Foreigners whose valour and vertue was invincble when the old Families of the English and the major part of us the meer Irish did swim in blood to serve the Crown of England and when Offices should call Men of worth Men without worth and merit obtain them Thirdly The Statute of the 2. Eliz of force in this Kingdom against us and they of our Religion doth not a little disanimate us and the rest Fourthly The avoidance of Grants of our Lands and Liberties by Quirks and Quiddities of the Law without reflecting upon the King 's Royal and real Intention for confirming our Estates his Broad Seal being the pawn betwixt his Majesty and his people Fifthly The restraint of purchase in the meer Irish of Lands in the Escheated Counties and the taint and blemish of them and their posterities doth more discontent them than that plantation Rule for they are brought to that Exigent of povertie in these late times that they must be sellers and not buyers of Land And we conceive and humbly offer to your Lordships consideration Principiis obsta that in the beginning of this Commotion Your Lordship as it is hereditary for you will be a Physitian to cure this Disease in us and by our Examples it will doubtless beget the like auspicious success in all other parts of the Kingdom For we are of opinion it is one sickness and one pharmach will suffice Sublatâ causâ tollitur Effectus And it will be recorded that you will do service unto God King and Countrey And for salving every the aforesaid Soars Your Lordship is to be an humble Suitor in our behalf and of the rest of the Papists that out of the abundance of his Majesties Clemency there may be an Act of Oblivion and general pardon without restitution or Account of Goods taken in the time of this Commotion a liberty of our Religion a repeal of all Statutes formerly made to the contrary and not by Proclamation but Parliamentary way A Charter free Denizen in ample manner for meer Irish All which in succeeding Ages will prove an Union in all his Majesties Dominions instead of Division a Comfort in Desolation and a Happiness in perpetuity for an imminent Calamitie And this being granted there will be all things Quae sunt Caesaris Caesari and Quae sunt Dei Deo And it was by the Poet written though he be prophane in other matters yet in this prophetically Divisum Imperium cum Jove Caesar habet All which for this present we leave to your Honourable Care And we will as we ever did and do remain Your very humble and assured ever to be Commanded Hugh mac Gillernow Farrall James Farrall Bryan Farrall Readagh Farrall Edmond mac Cael Farrall John Farrall in Carbuy Garret Farral Lisagh mac Conel Farrall Bryan mac William Farrall John mac Edmund Farrall John Farrall Roger mac Bryne Farrall Barnaby Farrall James mac Trig Farrall his Mark. Morgan mac Carbry Farrall Donnagh mac Carbry Farrall Richard mac Conel Farral William mac James Farrall James Farrall Taghna mac Rory Farrall Cormack mac Rory Farrall Conock mac Bryne Farrall Readagh mac Lisagh Farrall Connor Oge mac Connor Farrall Ed mond mac Connor Farrall
Town Let him be sent to another Province County or Town where he may be safely kept and with less danger or loss of others remain 13. Whosoever shall be declared in one County or Province Adversary or Traitor of this Cause and Country shall likewise be held and punished in other Countries and Provinces where he shall be found and such as receive or favour him or be his Messengers knowing his misdemeanour shall be liable to such punishment as the Traitor himself 14. We Command and Ordain as a main point pertaining to this Union that no Province County City Town or Person whatsoever shall demand Peace or submit himself to the Enemies without the consent of the general Council of the whole Kingdom and that under pain of Excommunication to be incurred ipso facto and for further force of this Statute to be observed We will that in every Province a firm Oath be taken by the Peers Nobility Corporation and commonalty of every Province and thereupon a Publick and Authentical Instrument be made And that every Province do send into every other Province an Instrument subscribed with the proper hands of such as have taken this Oath for the assurance of their Oaths and whosoever shall refuse to take this Oath let him be held as Adversary of the common Cause and of the Kingdom and let him be punished as such as hereafter shall be declared except he be excused for the Reasons hereafter to be set down 15. The Ordinaries of every place The Preachers Confessors Parish-Priests and other Churchmen shall endeavour to see perfect peace and charity observed between Provinces Counties Cities and Families as the obligation of this Union requireth 16. Such Goods as well moveable as unmoveable pertaining to Catholicks as were recovered from the Enemies by this present War shall be restored to their former owners Provided that such necessary and reasonable charges shall be paid as the next general or Provincial Council or Commitees of the County where the Parties dwell shall decree 17. Whereas diverse persons do diversly carry themselves towards this Cause some with helps and supplies do assist the Adversaries others with Victuals and Arms others with their Advice and Authority supporting as it were the contrary Cause some also as Neuters behaving themselves and others lastly neglecting their Oath do forsake the Catholick Union and Cause We do therefore declare and judge all and every such as do forsake this Union do fight for our Enemies accompany them in their War defend or in any other way assist them as giving them Weapons Victuals Counsel or Favour to be Excommunicated and by these Presents do Excomunicate them Provided that this present Decree shall be first published in every Diocess respectively and having received admonition before hand which shall supply the treble admonition otherwise requisite and we do hereby declare so it be made in a place where it may easiy come to the knowledge of those whom it toucheth But as touching the Judgment and Punishment of the Neuters we leave it to the Ordinaries of every place respectively so that the Ordinaries themselves be not contrary to the Judgment and Opinion of this Congregation in which cause we Commit power to the Metropolitans or Archbishops to proceed against such Ordinaries according to the common course of Law wherein they are to be very careful and speedy and if the Metropolitans be found herein careless or guilty let them be lyable to such punishment as is ordained by the holy Canons and let them be accused to the See Apostolick 18. We Ordain and Decree that all and every such as from the beginning of this present War have invaded the Possessions of Goods as well moveable as unmoveable spiritual or temporal of any Catholick whether Irish or English or also of any Irish Protestant being not Adversary of this Cause and do detain any such Goods shall be Excommunicated and by this present Decree we do Excommunicate them if admonished they do not amend and with the like censure we do bind such as henceforward shall invade or detain such Goods and not only them but also all and every such as shall keep Lands or Possessions against publick authority as also such as favour or assist them therein And we declare involved in this censure all and every of them who directly or indirectly hinder or forbid to pay their due Rents unto such as have possessed the said Lands from the beginning of this War and such likewise as without the License of such Possessors do take or extort Rents or equivalent payment from the Tenants of such Possessors under colour of paying Souldiers therewith or otherwise 19. We command all and every the Churchmen as well Secular as Regular not to hear the Confessions of the aforesaid Excommunicated persons nor to Administer unto them the Holy Sacrament under pain of Excommunication ipso facto 20. VVe will and declare all those that Murther Dismember or grievously Strike all Theives unlawful Spoilers Robbers of any Goods Extortors together with all such as favour receive or any ways assist them to be Excommunicated and so to remain until they compleatly amend and satisfie no less then if they were namely Proclaimed Excommunicated and for satisfaction of such Crimes hitherto committed to be enjoyned we leave to the discretion of the Ordinaries and Confessors how to absolve them 21. Tradesmen for making Weapons or Powder brought into this Countrey or hereafter to be brought in shall be free from all Taxations and Customs as also all Merchants as shall transport into this Countrey such wares as are profitable for the Catholick Cause as Arms and Powder may lawfully traffick without paying any Custom for Commodities brought out of this Kingdom or transported hither of that kind and let this be Proclaimed in all Provinces Cities and Towns 22. We think it convenient that in the next National Congregation some be appointed out of the Nobility and Clergy as Embassadours to be sent in the behalf of the whole Kingdom unto the Kings of France and Spain to the Emperour and his Holiness and those to be of the Church Prelates or one of the Nobility and a Lawyer 23. We will and ordain that Ordinaries Dignitaries and other Properietors of Church livings with the assistance of the Colonel or some other prime Gentleman of the County Barony or Parish as the Ordinary and Dignitaries or Proprietors shall appoint do set unto Tenants the Lands Houses Tenements and Tithes and other Church livings and let competent means be appointed for the maintainance of the said Ordinaries Dignitaries and Proprietors and the rest to be appointed for the Souldiers until it be otherwise ordained 24. Collectors and Receivers of the Rents of Church-livings shall be appointed by the Ordinaries with the consent of the Proprietors in the presence of the chiefest Gentlemen of every County Barony or Parish respectively 25. The Ordinaries and other Proprietors of Church-livings may take unto themselves the Houses Tenements and
October either by himself or his Under-tenants or by receiving the Rents Issues or profits thereof shall immediately restore upon demand the said possession to the party or parties so put out with such reasonable damages as the Council-provincial shall think fit And if the party do refuse to restore the said possession as aforesaid upon the Demand of the party so put out his Heirs or Assigns made to the said possessor his Servants and Adherents in the Premisses or publication of this Order in the Parish where such Land lieth that upon his or their denial thereof or default therein he his Heirs and Assigns shall be for ever after debarr'd and secluded from all and every Right Title Interest or Demand which he or they make or pretend to all or any the said Lands Tenements Hereditaments And if after such Denial or Default made the said party his Heirs or Assigns shall not immediately restore the possession of the said Lands Tenements or Hereditaments so gain'd to the party griev'd his Heirs or Assigns That he they or his Adherents in the premises shall be declared and proceeded with as Enemies provided and so it is meant That if any of the parties so put out be declar'd a Neuter or Enemy by the Supream or Provincial-councel then the party who gain'd the possession as aforesaid shall give up the possession to such person or persons as shall be nam'd either by the said Council-provincial or Supream Council to be dispos'd of towards the maintenance of the general Cause upon the pain and penalty aforesaid And as for the Rents and mean profits of the said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments and all kind of Rents and the Goods or Chattels taken or detain'd from any Catholick as aforesaid due satisfaction is to be made for the same to the parties from whom the Rents Goods or Chattles were or shall be detain'd since these troubles begun as the Provincial and County-council shall respectively order 13. Item It is further ordered and established for the removal of evil disorder and enmity and to the end all Men may bend their thoughts and actions to the common Cause that all possessions of Lands and Hereditaments shall continue and remain unto such as have already join'd in this Union as they have been for three years past next before the beginning of these Troubles And that no Title of Lands shall be drawn into any Debate or Question until the next Assembly other than in case of Mortgages Leases and particular Estates de facto determin'd or determinable by Effluxion or other determination thereof 14. Item For the avoiding of National distinction between the Subjects of his Majesties Dominions which this Assembly doth utterly detest and abhor and which ought not to be endured in a well-govern'd Commonwealth It is ordered and established that upon pain of the highest punishment which may be inflicted by Authority of this Assembly that every Roman Catholick as well English Welsh as Scotch who was of that profession before the troubles and who will come and please to reside in this Kingdom and join in the present Union shall be preserv'd and cherish'd in his Life Goods and Estates by the Power Authority and force if need require of all the Catholicks of Ireland as fully and freely as any Native born therein and shall be acquitted and eas'd of one third part in three parts to be divided of publick Charges or Levies rais'd or to be rais'd for the maintenance of this holy VVar. 15. Item And it is further ordered and establish'd that there shall be no distinction or comparison made betwixt old Irish and old and new English or between Septs or Families or between Citizens and Townsmen and Countreymen joyning in union upon pain of the highest punishment that can be inflicted by any of the Councils aforesaid according to the nature and quality of the Offences and Division like to spring thence 16. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that all new Converts born in any of his Majesties Dominions or elsewhere without occasion given by the persons converted to the contrary and joyning in this Cause shall be accounted Catholick Natives to all intents and purposes 17. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that all Artificers Artizans Navigators and Mariners not being Denizens who shall please to reside in this Kingdom shall during their Residence in this Kingdom after such time as they and their Families shall be here setled have and enjoy the free liberty and priviledges of Natives in all respects 18. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that in regard of of the present Estate and condition of this Kingdom if any Catholick or Catholicks are admitted of or permitted to continue in the Inns of Court and to the end the laudable Laws of England may not die amidst the Disasters of these times one Inn of Court shall be erected in such a place of this Kingdom as to the Supream Council shall be thought fit for the training of the Gentry of this Kingdom to the knowledg of these Laws 19. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that no Lord Gentleman or any other person shall raise or keep any Company of Souldiers but such as shall be authoriz'd by the Supream Council Provincial-council or County-council or Magistrate within their own Corporate Towns And that the Statute against Sesse and Coin or Livery be duly put in execution And that no Company or Souldiers whatsoever shall be paid or reliev'd by the Countrey except such as are and shall be inrolled in the Marshal List And none shall be billeted but by the Constable 20. Item It is further ordered and establish'd for the advancement of Learning that in every Province of the Kingdom Free-Schools shall be erected and maintain'd so many and in such places and in such manner and form as by the Metropolitan of the Diocess in their respective Provinces shall be thought fit 21. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that the King's Customs Rents Revenues Arrears and Debts And the Rents Estates and profits of the Lands Hereditaments Goods and Chattels of the Enemies which are or shall be declared by the Provincial or Supream Council or by the General Council to be receiv'd and collected and be dispos'd for his Majesties use and service 22. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that Church-lands and Tithes impropriate in the Catholick-owners before these troubles and joyning in this Cause may be left to them according to their several Estates until the same be disposed of by Parliament they in the interim answering the Rents as accustomed 23. Item It is further ordered and establish'd that in every County there be Collectors and Receivers to be approved in the County-council for the same And that they be accountable to the County-council for the same which County-council shall be accountable to the Provincial-council therein half-yearly and the Provincial-council to the Supream-Council yearly to the end the same may not be conceal'd or
contrary to the Liberty and Freedom of the Subject to be by any such Oath or Covenant pre-engaged And for that the setting on foot at this time in this Kingdom the said League or Covenant without His Majesties Allowance may not only beget much distraction and unquietness amongst His Majesties good Subjects but also may prove very penal to all those who shall presume to tender or take the same We therefore for prevention of such mischiefs do in His Majesties Name strictly charge and command all His Majesties good Subjects of what degree or quality soever within this Kingdom upon their Allegiance to His Majesties that they presume not to enter into or take the said League Covenant or Oath And we do likewise inhibit and forbid all His Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom to impose administer or tender the said League Oath or Covenant And if notwithstanding this our Proclamation any person shall presume to impose tender or take the said League Oath or Covenant We shall proceed against him or them with all severity according to the known Laws of the Land Given at His Majesties Castle of Dublin the 18. day of Decemb. 1643. Ri. Bolton Canc. La. Dublin Ormonde Roscomon Edw. Brabazon Ant. Midensis Cha. Lambart Geo. Shurley Gerrard Lowther Tho. Rotherham Fra. Willoughby Tho. Lucas Ja. Ware G. Wentworth GOD SAVE THE KING APPENDIX XI Fol. 141. The Copy of a Letter written by direction of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled to several Commanders and Officers of his Majesties Army and others in the Kingdom of Ireland AFter our very hearty Commendations The Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament in this His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland have commanded us to signifie unto you that they have lately seen a Printed Paper intituled a solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the Peace and safety of the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland which seems to have been Printed at London on the ninth day of October 1643. That they have also seen a Printed Proclamation dated the eighteenth day of December last and set out by the Right Honourable the late Lords Justices and Council expressing diverse great and Weighty Reasons against the said League and Covenant and therefore Commanding all his Majesties good Subjects of what Degree or Quality soever within this Kingdom upon their Allegiance to his Majesty That they presume not to enter into or take the said League Covenant or Oath and inhibiting and forbidding all His Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom to impose administer or tender the said League Oath or Covenant That upon serious debate and consideration taken by the Lords and Commons of the said League and Covenant and Proclamation They find the said Proclamation to have been set out with great Wisdom and Reason and do highly Commend the Judgement of the said Lords Justices and Council therein and as both Houses do fully concurr therein in all the parts thereof So they have expresly Commanded us to signifie the same unto you and in their names to let you know That it is their express Pleasure that you and all the Commanders Officers and Souldiers of His Majesties Army and all others His Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom whom it may concern do render all due Obedience and Observation to the said Proclamation in all the parts thereof And this being to no ther end We remain Your very Loving Friends Ri. Bolton Canc. Maur. Eustace Speaker of the House of Commons Dublin Castle xviii die April Anno Dom. 1644. Fol. 142. There is mention made of the Protestants Arrival at Oxford where they deliver'd to his Majesty this Petition To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of divers of your Majesties Protestant Subjects in your Kingdom of Ireland as well Commanders of Your Majesties Army here as others whose Names are subscrib'd in the behalf of themselves and other Your Protestant Subjects in this Your Kingdom Sheweth THAT this Your Highness Kingdom reduced with the vast Expence of Treasure and much effusion of British blood to the obedience of the Imperial Crown of England hath been by the Princely care of your Royal Progenitors especially of Queen Elizabeth and of Your Royal Father of ever blessed Memory and your Sacred Majesty in many parts happily planted great sums of Moneys disbursed in Buildings and Improvements Churches edified and endowed and frequented with multitudes of good Protestants and your yearly Customs and Revenues rais'd to great yearly sums by the industry of your Protestant Subjects especially and great sums of Money by way of Subsidies and Contributions chearfully paid unto your Majesty by your said Subjects In which happiness this your Kingdom hath flourished in a long-continued Peace and under your Highness most glorious and happy Government until that by the present general Conspiracy and Rebellion rais'd out of Detestation of Your blessed Government and for rooting out of the Protestant Religion and so for the dispossessing of Your Majesty of this Your said Kingdom without the least occasion offered by Your Majesty or Your Protestant Subjects And notwithstanding that Your Majesty immediately before had enlarg'd beyond president Your Royal favour and bounty to them in granting all that their and our joint Agents did desire of Your Majesty And we continuing amongst them in all Love and Amity without distrust Your Petitioners and others who labour'd to oppose those damnable Designs and Practices have been driven from their Dwellings Estates and Fortunes their Houses and Churches burnt and demolished All Monuments of Civility utterly defaced Your Majesties Forts and places of strength thrown down and the Common and Statute-Laws of this Your Kingdom utterly confounded by taking upon themselves the exercise of all manner of Authorities and Jurisdictions Ecclesiastical and Civil both by Sea and Land proper and peculiar to Your Sacred Majesty being Your just Prerogatives and the Royal Flowers of Your Imperial Diadem to the Disherison of Your Crown and Your Royal Revenues brought to nothing and the Protestant Clergy with their Revenues and support for the present destroyed This Your Kingdom in all parts formerly inhabited with Brittish Protestants now depopulated of them and many thousands of Your Protestant Subjects most barbarously used stripped naked tortur'd famish'd hang'd buried alive drown'd and otherwise by all barbarous cruel sorts of Death murther'd such as yet remain of them are reduced to that extremity that very few of them have wherewithal to maintain a Being and all of them so terrified and afflicted with those barbarous and inhuman cruelties the true report whereof being now spread abroad into the Christian World Your Suppliants conceive fears that Your Majesties Brittish Subjects will be discouraged from coming again to inhabit this Kingdom and the remnant of what is left will be forced to depart All this being done by the Conspiracy of the Papists who did publickly declare the utter extirpation of the
them 6. Pro. That the late Officers taken or found upon feigned or old Titles since the year 1634 to intitle Your Majestie to several Counties in Connaght Thornond the County of Typperary Limrick and Kelkenny and Wicklowe be vacated and taken off the File and the possessors thereof setled and secure in their ancient Estates by act of Parliament and that the like Act of limitation of Your Majesties Titles for the security of the Estates of your Subjects in that Kingdom be passed in that Parliament as was Enacted in the 21. year of his late Majesties Raign in this Kingdom Answ. VVe know not of any Offices found or feigned Titles nor what the Confederates may demand in respect of any graces promised by your Majesty which we intend not nor have any occasion to dispute but do humbly conceive that all those who have committed Treason in the late Rebellion subsequent to your Majesties promise of those Graces have thereby forfeited the benefit thereof together with the Lands to which the said Graces might else have related and so their whole Estates are now justly fallen to your Majesty by their Rebellion which we conceive is of great importance for your Majesties service to be taken into consideration as First with regard of the Statutes made in the present Parliament of England Secondly That necessary increase of your Majesties Revenue decayed by the present Rebellion Thirdly The abolishing the evil Customs of the Irish and preservation of Religion Laws and Government there Fourthly The satisfaction of the Protestant Subjects losses in some measure Fifthly The Arrears of your Majesties Army and other debts contracted for the War and for preservation of that Kingdom to your Majesty Sixthly The bringing in of more Brittish on the Plantation Seventhly The building of some walled-Towns in remote and desolate places for the security of that Kingdom and your Maiesties good Subjects there Eightly The taking of the Natives from their former dependency on their Chieftains who usurped an absolute Power over them to the dimunition of all Regal Power and to the oppression of the inferiors 7. Pro. That all marks of incapacity imposed upon the Natives of that Kingdom to purchase or acquire Lands Leases Offices or Hereditaments be taken away by Act of Parliament and the same to extend to the securing of Purchases Leases or Grants already made and that for the Education of Youth an Act be passed in the next Parliament for the erecting of one or more Inns of Court Universities Free and Common-Schools Answ. This we conceive concerneth some of the late Plantations and no other part of that Kingdom and that the restriction herein mentioned is found to be of great use especially for the indifferency of Tryals strength of the Government and for Trade and Traffick and we humbly conceive that if other Plantations shall not proceed for the setling and securing of the Kingdom and that if no restraint be made of Popish purchasing or buying of the Protestants out of their former Plantations where they were prudently settled though now cast out of their Estates by the late Rebellion and unable to Plant the same again for want of means and therefore probably upon easy terms will part from their Estates to the Confederates that those Plantations will be destroyed to the great prejudice of your Majesties Service and endangering of the safety of that Kingdom Touching bearing of Offices we humbly conceive that their now conformity to the Laws and Statutes of that Realm is the only mark of incapacity imposed upon them we humbly conceive that they ought not to expect to be more capable there then the English Natives are here in England in like case for Schools in Ireland there are divers setled in that Kingdom already by the Laws and Statutes of that Realm if any person well affected shall erect and endow any more Schools there at their own charges so that the School-master and Scholars may be governed according to Laws Customs and Orders of England and the rest of Free-Schools here we cannot apprehend any just exception thereunto but touching Universities and Inns of Court we humbly conceive that this part of the proposition savoureth of some desire to become Independant upon England or to make aspersion on the Religion and Laws of the Kingdom which can never be truely happy but in the good unity of both in the true Protestant Religion and in the Laws of England for as for matter of charge such of the Natives that are desirous to breed their Sons for Learning in Divinity can be well content to send them to the Universities of Lovane Doway and other Popish places in forreign Kingdoms and for Civil Law or Physick to Padua and other places which draws great Treasure yearly out of your Majesties Dominions but will send few or none of them to Oxford or Cambrige where they might as cheaply be bred up and become as Learned which course we conceive is holden out of their Pride and disaffection towards this Kingdom and the true Religion here professed and for the Laws of the Land which are for the Common Law agreeable to England and so for the greatest part of the Statutes the Inns of Court in England are sufficient and the Protestants come thither without grudging and that is a means to civilize them after the English customs to make them familiar and in love with the Language and Nation to preserve Law in the Purity when the Professors of it shall draw from one Original Fountain and see the manner of the Practice of that in the same great Channel where his Majesties Courts of Justice of England do flow most clearly whereas by separation of the Kingdoms in that place of their principal instruction where their foundations in Learning are to be laid a degenerate corruption in Religion and Justice may haply be introduced and spread with much more difficulty to be corrected and restrained afterwards by any Discipline to be used in Ireland or punishment there to be inflicted for departing from the true grounds of things which are best preserved in unity when they grow out of the same root then if such Universities and Inns of Court as are proposed should be granted all which we humbly submit to your Majesties most Pious and Prudent consideration and judgment 8. Pro. That the Offices and Places of Command Honour Profit and Trust within that Kngdom be conferred upon Roman Catholicks Natives in equality and indifferency with your Majesties other Subjects Answ. We humbly conceive that the Roman Catholicks Natives of Ireland may have the like Offices and Places as the Roman Catholicks Natives of England here have and not otherwise howbeit we conceive that in the generality they haye not deserved so much by their late Rebellion therefore we see not why they should be endowed with any new or farther capacities or priviledges then they have by the Laws and Statutes now in force in that Kingdom 9. Pro. That the insupportable Oppression
of your Subjects by reason of the Court of Wards and respit of Homage be taken away and certain revenue in Lieu thereof setled upon your Majesty without diminution of your Majesties profits Answ. We know of no Oppression by reason of the Court of Wards and we humbly conceive that the Court of Wards is of great use for the raising of your Majesties Revenues the preservation of your Majesties Tenures and chiefly the Education of the Gentry in the Protestant Religion and in Civility and Learning and good Manners who otherwise would be brought up in ignorance and barbarism their Estates be ruined by their Kindred and Friends and continue their depending upon their Chieftains and Lords to the great prejudice of your Majesties service and Protestant Subjects and there being no colour of exception to your Majesties just Title to Wardships we know not why the taking away of your Court concerning the same should be pressed unless it be to prevent the Education of the Lords and Gentry that fall Wards in the Protestant Religion For that part of this Proposition which concerns respit of Homage we humbly conceive that reasonable that some way may be settled for that if that standeth with your Majesties good pleasure without prejudice to your Majesty or your Majesties Protestant Subjects 10. Pro. That no Lord not estated in the Kingdom or estated and not resident shall have Vote in the said Parliament by Proxie or otherwise and none admitted to the House of Commons but such as shall be estated and resident within the Kingdom Answ. We humbly conceive that in the year 1641. by the Graces which your Majesty then granted to your Subjects of Ireland the matter of this Proposition was in a fair way regulated by your utter abolishing of blank Proxies and limiting Lords present and attending in the Parliament of Ireland that no one of them should be capable of more Proxies then two and prescribing the Peers of that Kingdom not there resident to purchase fitting proportions of Land in Ireland within five years from the last of July 1641. or else to loose their Votes till they should make such purchases which purchases by reason of the troubles hapning in the Kingdom and which have continued for two years and a half have not peradventure yet been made and therefore your Majesty may now be pleased and may take just occasion to enlarge that time for five years more from the time when that Kingdom may again be settled in a happy firm peace and as to members of the House of Commons the same is most fit as we humbly conceive to be regulated by the Laws and Statutes of that Kingdom 11. Pro. That an Act be passed in the next Parliament declaratory that the Parliament of Ireland is a free Parliament of it self independant of and not subordinate to the Parliament of England and that the Subjects of Ireland are immediately subject to your Majesty as in right of your revenue and that the Members of the said Parliament of Ireland and all other the Subjects of Ireland are independant and no way to be ordered or concluded by the Parliament of England and are only to be ordered and governed within that Kingdom by your Majesty and such Governours as are or shall be there appointed and by the Parliament of that Kingdom according to the Laws of the Land Answ. This Proposition concerns your Majesties High Court of Parliament both of England and Ireland and is beyond our abilities who are not acquainted with the Records and Presidents of this Nature to give an answer thereunto and therefore we humbly desire your Majesties pardon for not answering unto the same 12. Pro. That the assumed Power or Jurisdiction in the Council-Board of determining all manner of Causes be limited to matters of State and all Patents Estates and Grants illegally and extrajudiciously avoided there or elsewhere be left in state as before and the parties grieved their Heirs or Assigns till legal eviction Answ. The Council-Table hath aways excercised Jursdiction in some cases ever since the English Government was setled in that Kingdom and is of long continuance in cases of some Nature as the beginning thereof appeareth not which seemeth to be by prescription and hath always been armed with Power to examin upon Oath as a Court of Justice or in the nature of a Court of Justice in cases of some natures and may be very necessary still in many cases especially for the present till your Majesties Laws may more generally be received in that Kingdom and we conceive that Board is so well limited by printed Instructions in your Majesties Royal Fathers time and by your Majesties Graces in the seventeenth year of your Reign that it needeth for this present little or no regulating at all howbeit they humbly referr that to your Majesties great wisdom and goodness to do therein as to Law and Justice shall appertain 13. Pro. That the Statutes of the 11th 12th and 13th years of Queen Elizabeth concerning the Staple Commodities be repealed referving to his Majesty lawful and just Poundage and a Book of Rates be setled by an indifferent Committy of both Houses for all Comodities Answ. The matter of this Proposition is settled in a fitting and good way by your Majesty already as we conceive amongst the Graces granted by your Majesty to your people of Ireland in the Seventeenth year of your Majesties Reign to which we humbly referr our selves 14. Pro. That insomuch as the long continuance of the chief Governour or Governours of that Kingdom in that place of so great eminency and power hath been a principall occasion that much Tyranny and Oppression hath been used and exercised upon the Subjects of that Kingdom that your Majesty will be pleased to continue such Governours hereafter but for three years and that none once employed therein be appointed for the same again until the expiration of six years next after the end of the first three years and that an Act pass to disanul such Governour or Governours during their Government directly or indirectly in Use Trust or otherwise to make any manner of Purchase or acquisition of any Mannors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments within that Kingdom other then from your Majesties own Heirs and Successors Answ. We humbly conceive that this Proposition tendeth to lay a false and scandalous aspersion on your Majesties gracious Government over Ireland and that it toucheth very high upon your Wisdom Justice and Power and under colour of supposed Corruptions pretended to be in the greatest Officer that Commandeth under your Majesty there if he continue so long in his Government as may well enable him to find out and discover the true State of the Kingdom and the dangerous disposition and designs of the Popish party there to prevent him therein and to turne him out from doing Service before or as soon as he is throughly informed and experienced how to do the same and then to hold him excluded so long
restored to but by the love of his People without the chargeable and many times dangerous assistance of Strangers who are not over-tender nor much distinguishing betwixt the party they come to assist and that they come to subdue when they are made Umpires in such Quarrels for they rarely employ their Auxiliary Treasure and Blood purely out of Generosity and Justice which may in Romance be found the ultimate end of such Assistance but seldom in the truth of History Here it may be observed that if the revolt and deviation of our Nations from their KING and from Monarchy it self was the most unreasonable and prodigious that any Age hath known their voluntary uncompelled Return to both is as much without Example nor indeed could that Return have been so miraculous if the Revolt had not been so prodigious And it may also be worth the observing that as the first most bloody Eruption from Peace to Rebellion took birth in this Kingdom so from hence came the first Overtures to Peace and Submission By and with the Kings deliverance and Restitution our Church is delivered from Contempt Sacriledge and Desolation and restored to a due veneration a competent improving support and to fair beginnings of Decency and Order Our Laws are delivered from corrupt incompetent Interpreters from monstrous unnatural expositions and applications and Justice is restored to the distribution of upright learned lawfully sworn and authorized Judges The noblest Acts of Loyaltie shall now no more receive the judgment due to the foulest Treason due to the unrighteous Judges that pronounced it without Authority in the Persons or Justice in the Sentence High Courts of Justice shall no more usurp that name nor our Benches be crouded or oppressed with the throng and wicked weight of those that ought rather to have stood manacled at the Bar. A happy change to those for whose destruction those extravagant Tribunals were erected and a secure change to all for it hath been often an observed Method in God's never-failing Justice to catch Cruelty and Oppression in those very snares they had prepared for others All Men are delivered from the intanglements of two-edged Oaths from the conflicts raised by them in Mens Brests betwixt Conscience and conveniency betwixt the prostitution of Conscience and the ruine of their Fortunes than which a harder a more Tyrannical choice cannot be obtruded upon Christians For here the election was not Swear thus against your Conscience or you shall have no part in the Civil Government no Office in the Army no Benefice in the Church but Swear thus or you shall have no House to put your Headin no Bread to sustain your selves your Wives and Children To conclude these Observations who is not delivered from some Oppression and restored to some Advantage Even those that shall lose the wages of iniquitie their ill-got possessions shall be delivered from the oppression of a bad and if they have any shall be restored to a good Conscience if they have none they were not in the Kings and I hope will not be in Your care Those that shall be kept out of their ancient Estates the Inheritance of their Fathers through the defect of their Qualifications and by the All-disposing Providence of God who was not pleased to make them active Instruments in this Happy Change are delivered from Tyrannous Confinements causeless Imprisonments and a continual fear of their lives The good Land lies afore them their industry is at Liberty and they are restored to the freedom of Subjects and protection of the Laws If an irish Papist be opprest they shall relieve him if the blood of the meanest of them be shed it shall be strictly enquired after Let this state be compared with that they were in before the King's Restitution and it will be found the greatest loser has got something by it As it is our duty thus thankfully to commemorate these great things done for us so it is our duty to endeavour in our several Stations to improve and secure them to Our selves and Our Posterity And sure the most Natural way to that end is to call to mind and avoid those Errours that brought us into those miseries from which we are redeemed Many are the causes too boldly assigned for the Calamities these Nations so long laboured under But in such Inquisitions the verdict is seldom impartially brought in the Jury are too often the Criminals But I think I may safely say that one and that a fundamental cause was that the late King was maliciously represented to the People I am sure the Freedom Peace Plenty and Happinesses they were told they should enjoy without him proved miserable and fatal delusions Let us mistrust those that shall use the same Arts lest they involve us in the same misery and let us judge of the King's intentions to His People by His Publique Acts of grace and bounty by His mild and easy Government by His desire and endeavours to make His Subjects happy at home and renowned abroad and by the reluctancy of His Nature to just severity when the wickedness or frenzy of the worst Offendors extort it from him That something will be amiss in the Administration of the most perfect Government in this World must be expected but whoever shall think that these things are to be rectified by force upon the Government and that effected proposes to acquiesce and return to Obedience cannot know himself so well as to be sure that Opportunity and success may not suggest more inordinate Appetites to him And there are those alive that know how far further than their first intention the Reformers of our times were led on till the unwarrantable force they had raised grew too strong for their Management flew in their faces and in conclusion acted those villanies that I dare say their Souls abhorred but neither their Policy or Power could restrain VVe have had sad experience and let us be the wiser for it in how short a time in how few days the industry of many years nay of an Age may be destroyed and laid waste when Rage and Rapine are let loose If once Sedition grow too strong for the Law and Rebellion for the Magistrate so that the Law is silenced or the language of it corrupted or invented and the Magistrate removed as burthensom and unnecessary let us remember what variety of misery and mischief is brought upon the people how unsupportable their sufferings are and how Intolerable their fears of suffering they know not what more by whom or how long Let the people remember how many and how chargeable their Masters nay how many and chargeable the changes of their Masters were when once they foolishly affected the misery indeed the impossibility of having none VVhen Misrepresentations had taken place and root in the minds of the people their heart grew narrow and barren towards the King those that soon after rob'd them both perswading them to keep their purses full for them to empty This close
force and the Commands and Constitutions of our lawful Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy still live and speak unto us in the Canons made in the year 1634. whereof the third thus expresly That Form of Liturgie or divine Service and no other shall be used in any Church of this Realm but that which is established by Law and comprized in the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments VVhich Canon with all the rest is confirmed and published by His Majesties Authority under the great Seal of Ireland VI It may be added that the Reformed Church of Ireland under the Government of our dread Soveraign the King is and ever was reputed a free National Church and not subordinate unto or depending upon the convocation of any other Church And hence it was that till the Convocation held at Dublin Anno 1634. the Articles of the Church of England were not held or reputed the Articles of the Church of Ireland and when they were received they were not received in any acknowledged subordination to the Church of England but for manifestation of our agreement with that Church in the confession of the same Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as is expressed in the first Canon Hence it is besides that our Canons were not imposed by the Church of England nay when somewhat highly the Clergy was invited to submit to the Book of English Canons the Convocation utterly refused the same and framed a new Book of Canons for the Church of Ireland Should we therefore receive or admit of any other form without the Authority of this Church we should be held and esteemed before God and the World guilty of unconscionably betraying of the Liberty of the free National Church of Ireland VII The Book of Common-Prayer hath been in use in this Church from the beginning of the Reformation we have preached for it and recommended it to the people as a form of God's publick Worship and Service the people of God in this City for the most part generally do love it have been edified by it are loath to part from it and earnestly desire the continuance of it Now should we consent to the taking it away and receive or use any other form not established by Law we should not avoid the guilt of Sin it being all one to destroy that which is well built as to build that which a man once destroyed which in the Apostles judgement Gal. 2. 8. renders a man a transgressor And withall we should as matters stand give great offence and scandal to the Consciences of our Brethren and so sin against them who deserve better at our hand and for whom Christ dyed VIII Lastly that reason given by the University of Oxford in this point is not to be forgotten that by our leaving of the Book of Common-Prayer and receiving any other Form we should condemn the Church and State for the penalties and censures against Recusants and justifie them in their accusations and imputations of injustice and tyranny wherewith they boldly charge both our Churches of England and Ireland The premisses considered as we hope your Honours discern hereby that we have not lightly or obstinately or out of faction or any spirit of opposition forborn the exercise of our Ministry since your Honours injunction so we do now with all humility present these our fervent Petitions to your Honours 1. That you would be pleased in pity and compassion to the Protestants of this City and to us the Ministers who else by your Injunction aforesaid are indangered to be exposed to banishment loss of estate and of present subsistance with our wives and families to restore us to our Churches Ministry and exercise thereof by permitting of us to use the Book of Common-Prayer in our several Cathedral and Parish Churches as formerly we used the same before your Injunction aforesaid and to grant us your Protection therein till such time as further order be taken by a Convocation of the Clergy and an Act of Parliament in this Kingdom and in the mean time we shall endeavour to demean our selves in the whole course of our Ministry with such Christian faithfulness and moderation as that we shall by the help of God give no just occasion of offence 2. That in case your Honours shall be pleased to grant this Petition which we hope you will if after our stay and residence here we or any of us shall be by the imposal of any thing against our Consciences be forced hereafter to depart the Kingdom we may then respectively have free passes and convenient time to remove our persons families and goods 3. That during the time of our residence here we may enjoy the profits benefits and meanes of our several Church-livings for our subsistance which are due or allotted to us by the Law of the Land and Acts of State 4. That whereas the monthly fast observed hitherto by command of authority on a Friday was grounded upon the horrid Rebellion of the Irish Papists begun and the danger we were all in as on that day wherein the Rebells came to this City to surprise it and the evening of that day was the time wherein that bloody treachery and conspiracy was discovered that we may be permitted still to keep the monthly Fast on that day being a day of preparation for the monthly Communion according to our custom these five years past And we shall ever pray c. Delivered the 9th day of July 1647. Subscribed as followeth Ed. Laonensis Jac. Margetson Since Armachanus Ben. Culme Ambr. Anngier Ja. Sybold Godf. Rhodes Hen. Hall Since Ep. Academ Jos. War Jo. Brookbank Gilbert Deane Dud. Boswel Rob. Parry Joan. Creighton Can. Edw. Syng Since Arfeitensis Rob. Dickson Rand. Ince Henry Byrch Rich. Powel Fol. 190. l. 36. the Loyallists An. 160 3 After that the Nuncio was driven to Galoway He the 2d of August took an occasion to expostulate with the Marquess of Clanrickard about one of the Provincial Fathers of the Franciscans being by the Presidents Souldiers clap'd up in Clare-Castle wondring so pious and true a Catholick should permit a Subject of the Apostolick See to which the Clergy are only accountable to be so used by Laicks unto which the 8th of of August the Marquess excellently replied That unknown to him the Father was at the Command of the supream Council taken and by their order was to be brought to Kilkenny He reverenced the Clergy but could not recede from the Order of that Council for that the Holy Church gives not Protection to Criminals or the God of Peace Impunity to the Seditious enlarging well on that Subject concluding that if under pretext or title of the Immunities of the Church any should escape unpunished There would be soon an end of the State and Temporal jurisdiction And having been thus entertained by the Nuncio the Marquess freely proposes to Him these Questions That He might understand the difference
betwixt the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Authority Quaedam percontationes Reverendissimo Domino Nuncio a Clanrichardiae Marchione propositae 1. QUâ potestate vel Authoritate Nuncius Regiae Magistatis subditos à fide sua obedientia Statuto Regni Regnique Ordinibus debitâ abducat 2. Quâ potestate vel Authoritate Tribunos Centuriones creet militemque conscribat Qui nihil in communem hostem molitus Catholicorum Majestatus subditorum castella passim expugnet praedas agat omnia compilat 3. Quâ potestate vel ratione hominibus perjurus faveat eosque contra Rectores universique regni Ordines teneat ac tueatur 4. Quâ potestate manifestos proscriptos perduelles in retinendis ac propagandis validis munitionibus contra eos Qui Regni clavum tenent animet sustentet 5. Quâ potestate Regiae Majestatis obsequium professos Ejusque in hoc regno proinde Praefectis adhoerentes quos potest excommunicatos carceribus mancipet aliosque omnes promiscuè excommunicet To which no Answer that I could ever discover was returned but his Will Or that of Anastasius I will command but not be commanded Fol. 190. l. 49. The Pope Himself But before we proceed to that we shall be so just that wherein the supream Council disowned the Nuntio's Exorbitances Oppressions and Divisions through his Insolency we shall manifest their resentment acquainting you first that the Nuntio disliking the Cessation writes somewhat sharply to the Supream Council inveighing with more then ordinary detestation against the Lord Iuchiquin telling them that it was known through Europe how he had sack'd Cashell slain in St. Patrick's Church with horrible Sacriledge several Priests and Women at the Altar and afterwards compelled many Counties to pay Contribution and at last even before the Walls of Kilkenny insulted over the chief Magistrate To which the Supream Council having replied with much respect and ingenuity they as to this of the Lord Inchiquin told the Nuntio that what he did he did as an Enemy But upon the Cessation the means to induce a Peace Cashell the Cathedral and all the Churches thereabouts would fall into their Hands putting the Nuntio further in mind That when there was but a rumour only of agreeing with the Parliamentary Scots he was forward to encourage them to joyn in that Association That their Treasure was low that Jones had all necessary supplies from the Parliament whilst they lack'd even Corn That the Confederate Commissioners Ferns and Plunket returned from Rome onely with some Reliques but no Money Which working nothing upon the Nuntio who the 27. of May Excommunicated all that adhered to that Cessation the supream Council in their Declaration of the 3d. of June first admonished both seculars and Regulars as all of their Association That they no wise molest any of their respective Subjects Priests or Religious for persevering in their Loyalty or in pursuance thereof for approving the late Cessation made by them with the Lord Baron of Inchiquin Which not prevailing they in persuance of the Oath of Association the 20th of June 1648. enjoyned this Oath to be taken by all the Confedrate Catholicks I A. B. do swear and protest before God and his Saints and Angels that I will to the uttermost of my power observe the Oath of Association maintain the Authority of the Supream Council and the Government established by the general Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom notwithstanding the present Excommunication issued forth by the Lord Nuncio and four Bishops against the Concluders Maintainers and Adherents thereof and unto the Cessation concluded with the Lord Baron of Inchiquin and notwithstanding any other Excommunication to be issued upon the said Ground against which Excommunication and those who issued it I do appeal unto his Holiness as the indifferent Judge And I do further Swear that to the Hazard of my life I will suppress and oppose any Person or Party that shall stand in Arms in opposition of the said Association So help me God And that their further sence which they seemed to be much satisfied in might be fully known We shall here give you their Prolocutors following Letter who though he joyned with the Confederates we must from our knowledge of his Parts and Affections assure you in his own Nature was not averse to the English interest Concilii Catholicorum Regni Hiberniae Denunciatio ad Nuncium Domine mi PRaeceptum mihi est ab hoc Generali Regni Conventu Dominationi tuae significare varias Oppressiones Divisiones Exorbitantia Crimina Capitales Offensas Quas à Dominatione tua à tribus annis jam penè elapsis in hoc regno commissas hoc ipso Tempore in ineffabile Religionis Catholicae detrimentum Nationisque jam tam Antiquae quam Catholicae ruinam ac Subversionem sedisque Apostolicae dedecus continuatas ac perpetratas faederati Hiberniae Catholici ex sua Officiosa filiali in summum Pontificem reverentiâ nimiâ inauditâ apud ullam Nationem patientiâ hactenùs toleraverunt in hunc usque diem tolerant tandem compulisse haec Generalia Comitia ad valida legitima ejus Presidia recurrere pro conservandis Reliquiis Majorum Regni commodorum jam ad proximum integrae Ruinae punctum actibus tuis pravaque rerum Administratione redactorum Quapropter Dominationem tuam certiorem faciunt Declarationem * ac Protestationem contra te paratam ad suam Sanctitatem brevi mittendam esse cujus argumenti partem aliquam quam tibi placebit notare inclusum scriptum continet ac deinde ad iter Romam versus suscipiendum ibique te contra accusationem illam defendendam quam primùm parare Ac interim Dominatio tua sub interminatione paenarum caeteroqui tam divinarum quam humanarum legum vigore incurrendarum cavebit ne per se aut per ullum aliud Instrumentum directe aut indirectè ullis Regni sese hujus rebus immisceat Maneo Kilkenniae 19. Octobris 1648. Dominationis tuae admodum amicus de mandato Comitiorum Generalium Rich. Blaka Prolocutor But we suspect this Denunciation of theirs was rather delusive then entire for that afterwards we shall finde many of the Members of this Council though it drove the Nuncio out of the Kingdom stomach'd his Majesties Authority seated in his Excellency Fol. 228. l. 46. or allay In answer to whose Revolt it 's said besides what may be drawn from the Munster Remonstrance that those Towns declared with the Lord Inchiquin for the King in hopes that the Marquess would so have adjusted the Differences betwixt them and the Irish that there might have been such a visible power left in Him as to have managed the Government answerable to the Dignities of his Office and the security of the Protestants and their Religion But when they perceiv'd that the first was slighted and the latter not ascertain'd nay in effect at the Confederates mercy they again
she my Brother the Earl of Antrim hath taken the Castle and City of Dublin having lately moved thither for the same purpose and not to please the Dutchess as was given out and my brother Alexander mac Donnell according to the general Appointment hath taken the Town and Castle of Carrickfergus He the Deponent then asked what they meant to do with those whom they had disarmed and pillaged She said as long as their preservation should be deemed consistent with the publick safety they should injoy their lives when otherwise better their enemy perish than themselves which was but a very cold comfort to a Freshman prisoner as my self was And also said That Sir Phelim O Neil told this Deponent in December last that his stock in money amounted to 80000 sterling wherewith he said he was able to maintain an Army for one year though all shifts else failed And that Captain Alexander Hovenden told him that as soon as his brother Sir Phelim was created Earl of Tyron and great O Neil he wrote Letters and sent them by Friars to the Pope and Kings of Spain and France but would not discover the Contents And further saith That about the first of March last the said Alexander told the Deponent that the Friars of Drogheda by Father Thomas brother to the Lord of Slane had the second time invited Sir Phelim thither and offered to betray the Town unto him by making or discovering the Deponent knoweth not whether a breach in the Wall through which he might march six men a breast The Deponent saw this Friar the same time in Armagh whom Sir Phelim took by the hand and brought to the Deponent saying This is the Friar that said Mass at Finglass upon Sunday morning and in the Afternoon did beat Sir Charles Coote at swords I hope said the Friar to say Mass in Christ-Church Dublin within eight weeks And further Deposed that he this Deponent asked many both of their Commanders and Friars what chiefly moved them to take up Arms They said Why may not we as well and better fight for Religion which is the Substance than the Scots did for Ceremonies which are but Shadows and that my Lord of Strafford's Government was intolerable The Deponent answered That that Government how insupportable soever was indifferent and lay no heavier upon them then on him and the rest of the Brittish Protestants They replied That the Deponent and the rest of the Brittish were no considerable part of the Kingdom and that over and above all this they were certainly informed that the Parliament of England had a plot to bring them all to Church or to cut off all the Papists in the Kings Dominions in England by the English Protestants or as they call them Puritans in Ireland by the Scots And further deposeth That he asked as seeming very careful of their saftety what hope of Aid they had and from whom as also what discreet and able men they had to imploy as Agents to their Friends beyond the Sea They said if they held out this next Winter they were sure and certain in the Spring to receive Aid from the Pope France and Spain and that the Clergy of Spain had already contributed five thousand Arms and Powder for a whole year then in readiness They said their best and only Agents were their Priests and Friars but especially the forenamed Paulo Neil upon whose coming with advice from Spain they presently opened the War and that since the War began in the very dead of Winter he both went with Letters and returned with Instructions from Spain in one Month professing the good Cause had suffered much prejudice if he had been hanged in Dublin And this Deponent further saith That he demanded why sometimes they pretended a Commission from the King at other times from the Queen since all Wisemen knew that the King would not grant a Commission against himself and the Queen could not They being Commanders and Friars said That it was lawful for them to pretend what they could in advancement of their Cause That many of the Garrison Souldiers now their Prisoners whom they determined to imploy in the War and to train others would not serve them in regard of their Oath unless they were made so to believe That in all Wars rumours and lies served many times to as good purpose as Arms and that they would not disclaim any advantage But they said for the Queen in regard as a Catholick she had enemies enough already they would command their Priests publickly at Mass to discharge the people from speaking of her as a Cause or Abetter of the present Troubles And the Deponent also asked Sir Phelim O Neil what his demands were without which his Lordship and the rest would not lay down Arms At first he told this Deponent That they required only Liberty of Conscience But afterwards as his Power so his Demands were multiplied They must have no Lord Deputy great Officers of State Privy Councellors Judges or Justices of Peace but of the Irish Nation no standing Army in the Kingdom all Tythes payable by Papists to be paid to Popish Priests Church Lands to be restóred to their Bishops All Plantations since primo Jacobi to be disannulled none made hereafter no payments of debts due to the Brittish or restitution of any thing taken in the Wars all Fortifications and Strengths to be in the hands of the Irish with power to erect and build more if they thought fit all Strangers meaning Brittish to be restrained from coming over all Acts of Parliament against Popery and Papists together with Poynings Act to be repealed and the Irish Parliament to be made Independent But saith that others told him this Deponent that although all these Demands were granted yet Sir Phelim for his own part was not resolv'd to lay down Arms unless his Majesty would confirm unto him the Earldom of Tyrone with all the ancient Patrimony and Priviledges belonging to the O Neils And further saith that in March 1641. Alexander Hovenden by Sir Phelim's direction sent from the Camp before Drogheda a Prophecy said to be found in the Abbey of Kells importing that Tyrone or Sir Phelim after the Conquest and Settlement of Ireland should fight five set Battels in England in the last whereof he should be killed upon Dunsmore-heath but not before he had driven King Charles with his whole Posterity out of England who should be afterwards profugi in terra aliena in aeternum The Paper it self with the Deponents whole Library to the value of seven or eight hundred pounds was lately burnt by the Scots under the Conduct of the Lord Viscount Montgomery since that Prophecy the Deponent saith he hath often seen Captain Tirlagh mac Brian O Neil a great man in the County of Armagh with many others no mean Commanders drinking Healths upon the knee to Sir Phelim O Neil Lord General of the Catholick Army in Ulster Earl
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
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