they had no ground nay not so much as a colour for it 2. In the year 1646 and after a peace concluded with them they attempted by a Treachery not to be parallel'd by any but themselves to cut off the Lord Lieutenant and Army with him who marched out of Dublin on security and confidence of that peace 3. The same year the Council and Congregation of the confederate Catholicks of Ireland obliged their General Preston by a solemn Oath in these very words viz. To exercize all acts of Hostility against the L. Marquess of Ormond by name and his party and to help advise with counsel and assist in that service the L. General of Vlster employed in the same expedition This Oath is a fruitful Theme to declame upon but I will limit my observations upon it onely to these following particulars 1. Least any should doubt they are his Majesties Subjects least any of themselves should repent the sin of not having been such they swear that they may raise their crimes above pardon to exercize all acts of Hostility against his Majesty in the person of that noble Lord who had then as now the high honor to represent him If killing be an act of hostility they in this Oath swear to kill him if this be not actual Regicide I am sure 't is not their fault that it is not This horrid Oath takes off all disguises and makes their sin as visible as great And if such a Crime be capable of accession it did contract it by the same persons engaging privately about the same time as I have been assur'd by an undeniable Testimony That he would serve the King which he afterwards endeavour'd to excuse onely by saying His Army was not Nuntio-proof By which it appears indisputably whether the Irish Papists are Subjects to the King or to the Pope 2 Instead of repenting and making amends for the late violated peace in the year 1646 they swear to destroy him with whom they had made it 3 This Oath reduc'd the taker of it to a sad Dilemma either to Rebellion or Perjury 4 This Oath evidences that nothing is so powerful with the Irish Papists as to destroy his Majesties Government since the uniting of the Old Irish Papists and the Old English Papists which the Pope himself could not effect the dethroning of his Sacred Majesty has accomplish'd They that could never agree in any thing else agree in this and 't is made the very Bond of their iniquity I will say no more on this subject but that Herod and Pilate could be friends when it was to crucifie Christ. 4. In the year 1647 from Kilkenny Ian. 18. the Popish Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of the confederate Catholicks of Ireland employ Commissioners to Rome France and Spain to invite a forreign power into Ireland particularly to Rome their titular Bishop of Ferns and Nicolas Plunket Esq who was Knighted by the Pope for his good service therein and is now one of the confident Advocates for the Irish Papists as defenders of his Majesties Rights and against the Protestants of Ireland as deserters of the Royal Cause these I say were authorized to declare viz. That they raised arms for the freedom of the Catholick Religion which are their own very words in the third Article of those their Instructions In their Remonstrance in the begining of the Rebellion whatever they said necessitated some few discontents to take up arms then they took off the vail and positively said That they raised arms for the freedom of the Catholick Religion Certainly if ever they may be believed to speak true it is when they speak to the POPE and if ever any thing may be believed to be the voice of all the Irish Papists it is when the Popish Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of the confederate Catholicks speak in one Assembly What is meant by the Freedom of the Catholick Religion has been practically expounded by the Professors of it in Ireland not onely affirmatively that those which are of it should enjoy the publick and undisturbed exercize thereof themselves but negatively to be an exclusion of the publick if not private exercize of the True Religion Many instances I could present the Reader of this but I shall onely set down two The 1. is Dean York a reverend Minister of Gods word during his residence at Gallway was not allowed to pay the last duties of Christian burial to those Protestants which died in that Town but was forced to bury them nay his own children privately in his Garden The 2. is That my L. Duke of Ormond though owned by the Irish Papists to be the Kings L. Lieutenant and consequently representing his Sacred Majesties person was still denied the use of so much as one Church or Chappel wherever the said Papists had the power nay one of the Generals of the Irish PAPISTS now living told my L. Lieutenant at Kilkenny That if the King in person came into Ireland he should not be allowed by them One Church to celebrate his Devotions in to whom his Grace made a return proportionate to the disloyalty of that Declaration and part of that return being prophetical and since fulfilled I shall here insert the words viz. I hope to live to soe all of that mind to be without one Church in Ireland to say Mass in By these two instances it is evident That the direct meaning of those words The Freedom of the Catholick Religion is no other than the total banishing out of this Kingdom the exercize of the Religion established in it by Truth it self and by the good and wholsom Laws of the Land 5. In another part of the third Article of the said Instructions these very words are inserted viz. The cofederate Catholicks do intend 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 This palpably evinceth that the Papists of Ireland being Subjects or Rebels depends wholly upon the Popes pleasure For let his Majesty grant them what he will yet his pretended Holiness's approbation must be the rule by which onely they will be bound And this is made most evident by the words of the nineth Article in the said Instructions which follow in these words viz. 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 sollicit for considerable aids whereby to maintain a war and to ascertain and secure the same c. And soon after in the same nineth Article these words follow viz. You are to make application to his Holiness for his being Protector of this Kingdom and by special instance to endeavor his acceptance thereof c. Still the Pope is their King and that he may be so almost in name as well as in power they sollicit him by special instance to accept
THE ANSWER OF A PERSON of QUALITY To a Scandalous LETTER Lately Printed and Subscribed by P. W. Intituled A Letter desiring a just and merciful Regard of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland given about the end of October 1660. to the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond and the second time L. Lievtenant of that Kingdom DVBLIN Printed by I. C. Anno Dom. 1662. The Answer c. HAving lately seen a Printed Paper the Title whereof is A Letter desiring a just and merciful regard of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland given about the end of October 1660. to the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond and the second time L. Lievtenant of that Kingdom Subscribed by P. W. And finding it in effect whatever the words of it are extremely undutiful to his sacred Majesty very disrespectful to the Duke of Ormond L. Lievtenant of Ireland and most scandalous not onely to the Protestants of Ireland but also to those of the same Religion in his sacred Majesties other Kingdoms I have esteemed my self obliged as a faithful subject to the King as an humble servant to the L. Lievtenant and as a son of the Protestant Church whose Members are as highly as falsly asperst by it to expose in print an Answer to that Letter which before I enter upon I will onely say P. W. professing not a little to be his Graces servant if he meant not this Letter as a respect to his Grace why was it written if he did why was it printed But P. W. despairing to receive from his Grace the effects of his unjust desires for his Countrey-men chose this way to acquaint them 't was not for want of his sollicitation He would let them see since he could not make them beholding to My L. Lievtenant that they were so to him Since I shall often have occasion to name IRISH PAPISTS I have thought fit here once for all to declare That I mean not thereby in all or any part of my Answer any of those Worthy Persons of that Nation and Religion who have still faithfully served the King whose merit I highly respect and the more because it has been preserved from infection even in a very Pest-house nor any of those who having been truly sorrowful for it and in the constancy of their subsequent services to his Majesty have washt themselves clean For I take a perfect delight in any change from bad to good and I heartily wish that every one of them had not so much indangered their being polluted again as interceding and pleading for their guilty Countrey-men does amount unto Having thus made this necessary digression I shall now proceed The parts separate of this Letter are three First a Preface Secondly a Petition Thirdly a Conclusion or concluding Wish P. W. prefaceth First the Fears and Iealousies of those whom he calls the Catholicks of Ireland Secondly His own affection to and confidence in his Grace the Duke of Ormond Fears and Iealousies are no less than must in reason be expected in the Generality of the Irish Papists For though the goodness and indulgence of the best of Kings may make their condition safe yet the conscience of their own guilt will never suffer them to be secure Pretended Fears and Iealousies were the Forerunners if not Causers of Troubles past I hope P. W. intends them not as such for Troubles to come Fear is founded on at least attended with Hatred and if one of the Best of his Majesties Servants one of the chiefest of his Ministers be thus 1. Vniversally 2. Intensly fear'd and therefore 3. hated 4. as P. W. says by his own Countrey-men but let all that P. W. prints stand or fall as this last particular is true or false for his Grace is neither his Countrey-man by birth Religion or any other relation to which that Name is appliable yea 5. by his own Fiduciares as is expressed in the Printed Letter If I say all this be not true why does P. W. say it if it be true what can others expect For if the flame be so in the green Tree what will it be in the dry The Irish Papists in their former and later Apologies for the horridest of Rebellions have not to this very day within any of his Majesties Dominions even pretended publickly any other cause for their Rapines Murthers Massacres and Treasons but what resolves it self into Fears and Ielousies And if their Passions be the same it is to be fear'd their Wills are not alter'd And if their Wills be the same nothing under God can prevent the effects but want of strength Especially considering that 1. in 1641. no such antecedent animosities or hatreds had prepared matters for Fears and Ielousies as by the worst of Rebellions is now become even nationally violent but by the way it seems to me somewhat hard that those which give the rise for the Cause should first cry out in the Effects 2. In 1641. these Fears and Ielousies if really in any were but in a Few but now P. W. confesseth That they have seized upon almost all the Nobility Gentry and others yea the Generality of the Catholicks of Ireland even the constant Believers of passionate Sticklers for and fastest Friends to his Grace the Duke of Ormond and this so intensly that it produceth the loss both of Faith and Hope Here it may well be observed what temper they are of whom P. W. pleads for Ielousies Fears and want of faith are so inseparable from them that those in 1641 were onely said to be derived from his Majesties Enemies but now all such by the mercy of God being blown away they are derived from his Majesties chief Minister of State of this Kingdom and who is made such as P. W. saith and as I most heartily acknowledg by his own great deserts What is it can suppress the Fears and Ielousies of P. W's Countrey-men when his Majesties free Election of a chief Governor and such a one as the Duke of Ormond is cannot do it This acknowledgment of P. W's fully proves that the Irish Papists Fears and Ielousies of the chief Governors of this Kingdom in 1641 were onely taken up by those and not cause given for them by these The plain English is this though his Majesty should from time to time nominate for Lord Lieutenant of this Kingdom the wisest and the faithfullest of his Subjects yet because the King commissionates them or because they are such or both many I wish I could not say most of the Irish Papists will be jealous and fearful of them Concerning P. W's affection to and confidence in his Grace the Duke of Ormond exprest by several instances of free and frequent access to him of his and others reliance on his word of his daily care and trouble to support his esteem and of blaming distrusters as guilty of ignorance of State affairs and the Intrigues obstructing as yet or of inconsideration of those wiser ways though slower than folly or rashness could chalk
out or of prejudice and evil Passion I will onely say That though P. W. would make us believe as if some word in secret had post by his Grace to the Irish Papists which they dare thus mention to himself and publish to the world at least that he who is a profest Enemy to the English Interest and Protestant Religion is his Graces intimate and familiar Confident and by such as visible as false arts endeavour to infect the Protestants with the disease of him and his Country-men Ielousies and fears of the L. Lieutenant Yet I dare as truly as confidently aver though P. W's Oratory were as great as his malice his insinuations could not shake much less overthrow that irremoveable confidence his Majesties Protestant Subjects of Ireland â—ave built with great reason and experience upon his Grace even on the double Accompts of his Principles and Practises To attempt to betray with a Kiss is neither a new art nor a new sin But he that would destroy by undermining would do it by open force if his power proportion'd his will Concerning P. W's affection to his Grace he says no more for that in particular than he says in general for his Countrey-mens having a right to the Peace made in 1648. Therefore I believe his Grace will take his measure of the former by his knowledg of the later After this Preface P. W. petitions That his Grace would no longer delay than shall be necessary yea that he would in this present conjuncture effectually demonstrate that justice and favor he intended to the Catholicks of Ireland in the Articles of Peace made in 1648. Though P. W. in the first clause petitions onely that his Grace would no longer delay than shall be necessary yet as if struck with the Fears and Jealousies of his Countrey-men and not daring to submit the determination of that period of necessity to his Graces judgment he petitions limitedly if not positively in the later clause for the present conjuncture If the subject matter of that Justice and Favor petition'd for may be measur'd as is exprest by his Graces intendment I am confident the Protestants of Ireland should his Majesty think fit will freely submit their All to that Decision without either Articling with him first or breaking Articles after the guilt of making them P. W. inforceth his Petition by Arguments pretending to Justice Distributive In the common case consider'd Absolutely comparatively Justice Commutative In some special cases of the Transplantation Corporation In respect of the common Case considered absolutely P. W. argues That the Irish Papists in 1648. FREELY put themselves and their power into his Graces hands But Freely in this instance if it signifies ought meritoriously it signifies the same as gratis when as it was made 1. upon Articles 2. even upon such Articles as forced from his Majesty all the Regalia both Ecclesiastical and Temporal 3. when as at such a season and in such a Tempest every good Subject should freely have cast his Goods over-board to prevent the common Wrack even then the Irish Papists would not contribute to prevent one Leak but at a Rate unproportionate and as the Tempest or Leaks increased so increased their Rates But to show how freely the Irish put themselves and their power into his Majesties hands I need but rehearse his sacred Majesties own words in the preamble of his Majesties Gracious Declaration of the 30. of November 1660. page 3. viz. We well remember the Cessation of the Peace which Our Royal Father of blessed Memory had been FORCED during the late Troubles to make with his Irish Subjects of that Our Kingdom and by which he was COMPELLED to give them a full pardon for what they had before done amiss upon their return to their duty and their promise of giving his Majesty a vigorous assistance In the same page of the same Declaration soon after follow these words viz. We could not forget the Peace which Our selves was afterwards NECESSITATED to make with our said Subjects in the time when they who wickedly usurped the Authority had erected that odious Court for the taking away the life of Our dear Father c. That which his Majesty calls Forced Compelled and Necessitated P. W. calls Freely putting themselves into his Graces hands so that that untrue suggestion of his needs no other refutation as to the time past and as to the time to come I wish I had not cause to doubt if ever they put themselves into his Graces hands that which they will call Freely will be an effect of compulsion force and necessity Whatever the Submission was in 1648. and how free soever pretended yet the express letter of those Articles Article 18. precludes all offences which shall be committed or done after their Date and after that the Irish Papists instead of freely putting themselves and their powers in the L. Lievtenants hands signally declared their Contempt of him Disobedience to him and Opposition against him For proofs whereof among many I shall set down one undeniable instance of each 1. For their Contempt In April 1650. by a Message they desired the L. Lieutenant to Leave the Kingdom and commit the Government to one of their own election in whom they could confide That which Now P. W. varnisheth with a modester phrase of Fears and Iealousies was Then contempt and diffidence At the same time that they own'd the L. Lievtenants Authority they desire him to resign it without his Majesties consent nay so much as his knowledg yet this is but consonant to the whole Series of their practises never to acknowledg the Kings Right but to affront it or to get their ends by it 2. For their Disobedience when the L. Lieutenant refused upon weighty reasons of Piety Duty and State to conform to this Message and leave the Kingdom in August following they by their publick Declaration professed their Disobedience in these very words We do hereby manifest to the People that they are no longer oblig'd to obey the Orders or Commands of the Marquess of Ormond Words which so clearly evidence their Rebellion and the vastness of it that they need no Comment nor ought but the Text it self to prove both those Truths Nor is there need of any other proof to evince their intire breach of those Articles which they now so fiercely plead for the benefit of They are so far from giving proofs of their duty to the King and of their gratitude for his mercy extended in those Articles that least any should suspect them guilty of those they declare their power paramount to his Majesties authority 3. They proceed from bad to worse from worse to worst from Contempt to Disobedience from disobedience to down-right Opposition And accordingly the very next month they cause their Clergie to excommunicate not onely the L. Lievtenant but all that should feed or adhere to him That which Christ commands us to do to our Enemies if thy Enemy hunger feed him and that
a Pardon for nay not so much as a Protection from his Majesty for sins past without the consent of their Supreme Council This is a fine bearing Faith and Allegiance to the King this is a good upholding and maintaining the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom They swear too that these Acts of highest Rebellion they will to the hazard of their Lives and Estates assist prosecute and maintain But they proceed further for they swear not to accept of or submit to ANY PEACE made or to be made without the consent and approbation of the General Assembly of the said Catholicks ANY PEACE that is let the Conditions be never so good let the Person that grants them be the King Himself they will not accept of it they will not submit unto it without c. If the King would so far forget those signal Crimes which made them need his Pardon and Protection and would not so much as name them but make a Peace with them as if they had never done any offence yet they swear that not one of them shall accept of or submit to such a Peace but as is before expressed nay to show how perfect a ROMISH Confederacie it is if any Individual should be struck with the horrour of his Crimes he cannot fly to the Kings Mercy for Pardon or Protection without Perjury And to inveagle such as had not then been polluted with those sins they swear to protect all such as shall enter into their guilt and thereby in consequence threaten to ruine such as shall not This is admirable bearing true Faith and Allegiance to the King and maintaining the Laws of the Kingdom But this is not all for they further swear in these words viz. For the preservation and strengthening of the Vnion of the Kingdom upon any peace to be made or concluded with the said confederate Catholicks as aforesaid They will to the uttermost of their Power insist upon and maintain the ensuing Propositions until a peace as aforesaid be made and the matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of peace be established and secured by Parliament The first Proposition to which this Oath relates and to which it is annexed is expressed in these words viz. That the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity in their several capacities have the free and publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh or other Catholick King his Predecessours Kings of England and Lords of Ireland or in England That is to say That none should be admitted to live in Ireland but Papists for none or very few but such were in the Reign of those Kings in Ireland The second Proposition mentioned follows in these words viz. That the secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Archbishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Prebendaries and all other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and all persons of the secular Clergy and their respective successours shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Iurisdictions Priviledges and Immunities in as full and ample manner as the Roman Catholicks secular Clergy had or enjoyed the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late King Henry the Seventh sometime King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power or Authority whatever to the contrary notwithstanding That is to say Their Wills must be the Law and since they think fit to set up POPERY in Ireland and to banish the true Religion out of it it is but requisite they should take the maintenance from the Legal and give it to the Titular Clergy And least we should doubt this to be the true meaning of the second Proposal they clearly explain it in the fourth which follows in these words viz. That the Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Chancelours Treasurers Chaunters Provosts Wardens of Collegiate Churches Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and other Pastors of the Roman Catholick secular Clergy and their respective successors shall have hold enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample manner as the LATE PROTESTANT CLERGY respectively enjoyed the same on the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1641. together with all the profits emoluments perquisites liberties and the rights of their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in places now in possession of the Confederate Catholicks as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said Confederate Catholicks from the adverse Party within the Kingdom SAVING to the said Roman Catholick Laity their Rights according to the Laws of the Land That is to say Our Clergy shall have All therefore yours can have nothing this is a perfect Fifth-Monarchy Principle for here Dominion is onely founded in pretended Grace none being to have the benefit of the Laws of the Land but the Papists Nay his Sacred Majesty because a PROTESTANT is as such denied any one of those Rights which the meanest of the Irish Rebels because a PAPIST is to enjoy as such and lest their words for it should not be taken they confirm it with an OATH The Legal and Orthodox Clergy of Ireland may see in this what goodly Provision had been made for them and their respective Successours if this pious Roman Catholick Confederacy had succeeded But least this their first Oath of Confederacie might be thought a thing they were surprized into in the first heat and fury of the Rebellion and least the takers of it should forget what the Imposers of it would have them believe they were bound unto by it some time after premeditately and in cool blood they caus'd it a second time to be taken in terminis and subscribed with a preamble to it the close whereof runs in these Words viz. And for that it is requisite that there should be an unanimous consent and real union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the premises and strengthen them against their adversaries it is thought fit by them that they and whosoever shall adhere unto their party as a Confederate should for their better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the publick Cause take the ensuing Oath viz. I A. B. c. In the begining of the said Preamble they give the priority and precedency of place to the Defence of their own Estates and Liberties to that of the defence of his Majesties Regal Power Prerogatives Honour State and Rights That is to say They will mind themselves before the King which they fully explain in the third Oath of their Union and Confederacie which after their rejection of the Peace concluded with them by his Majesties Authority they entered into took and subscribed and which follows in these words viz. I do swear and protest that I will adhere to the present Vnion of the Confederate Roman Catholicks that REJECTED THE PEACE lately agreed
that Title under which he might act that power so that it is not the Confederate Catholicks fault if a PROTECTOR were not in Ireland before the Sectaries had set up one in England Nay their Commissioners then sent to France and Spain were required in case of the Popes refusal of being their Protector to offer it to either of those Kings nay to any Popish Prince from whom to use their own words they might have most considerable aids In effect they are willing any one should govern them but he who onely had the Right to do it But yet as becomes obedient sons of the Church of Rome the Pope has the advantage of the preemption It appears the Irish Papists hang as their Faith in God so their Loyalty to their Prince on the Popes sleeve and certainly it is not probable that those should defend his Majesties Right over whom 1 a forreign Prince 2 such a forreign Prince as considers His Majesty as an Heretick and consequently an enemy hath full power and 3 That power on the strongest account even that of Conscience and Religion In the year 1648 another Peace was concluded with the Irish Papists but after that they disowned disobeyed opposed conspired to murther excommunicated and banished his Majesties Viceroy as appears by the former instances In sum when the power of Ireland was in the hands of the Irish Papists they design'd and endeavour'd to betray it to Forreigners But when in the hands of the Protestants of Ireland they absolutely and without antecedent conditions submitted it and themselves to his Sacred Majesty As to their fighting against the Regicides I answer 1. Vitious extremes are not onely opposite to virtue but also one to the other Papists and Sectaries oppose each other and both the Protestants 2. The Spaniard and the Dutch fought against the Regicides yet neither of them in the day of Tryal proved themselves friends to his Majesties Rights 3. 'T is the Cause not the Suffering onely which makes the Martyr 't is not the fighting but the ground and end of the fighting which proves which is the good Subject and of that let even P. W. judg by the former Instances The last Argument pretends to commutative Justice and is usher'd in by a comparison and preoccupation The former thrice pressed way of comparison is yet propounded here again but with less injustice here than before the comparison before was between Papists and Protestants here between Papists and Presbyterians Anabaptists Quakers Fifth Monarchy men Independents To which I shall onely say Whatever tenents opposit to Regal power may be found among any Sectaries are if not learn'd from I am sure taught by the Romish Schools Papists and Sectaries like Sampsons Foxes are tyed by their tails though their heads be divided their way may seem contrary but they all tend to the same end the ruine of the Corn-field As P. W. ushers in his Arguments on one side with a comparison so on the other with a preoccupation relating to the power of those which he calls Adversaries and declareth it to be no greater than his Majesty is pleased to make it To the truth of this Declaration the Protestants of Ireland freely consent professing to the world that though their Army is such as sufficed to subdue the Irish Rebels when universally confederated throughout the Kingdom and supplied by Forreigners with Money Arms and Ammunition and strengthen'd with no less than the Popes blessing and Nuntio yet their power consists not in Arms or Armies Fortifications or Men but in loyalty and obedience to his Sacred Majesties Commission and Authority and is consequently as P. W. says no greater than his Majesty is pleased to make it And since this is the true State of the Protestant both principle and interest As in truth it is even their Adversary being their Judg 't is likely therefore that P. W. declares they are his Adversaries for I believe his Friends are other guess men But doubtless those are fittest to be trusted with power who are no stronger by it even by their enemies acknowledgments than He which gives it is willing to make it than those who never had power but what they forc'd from his Majesty and who never employ'd that power the whole stream of their own actions being their Judges but against that Sacred Majesty from whom they wrested it The Arguments following plead Iustice and that Iustice grounded on the Articles of 1648. and judged by the sad consequences threatned on the breach thereof whether we regard men or God Though concerning the Articles of 1648 enough hath been instanced already yet to leave P. W. without occasion of Cavil it will not be unfit to add somewhat more here 1. The Contents of those Articles are in themselves unwarrantable except in case of Necessity which hath no Law 2. The Condition of those Articles whereon they were principally if not onely founded hath been often and intirely violated by the Irish Papists The Contents of those Articles are unwarrantable unless in case of necessity because they are contrary to an higher obligation according to the Rule both of publick and private justice 1. His Majesty at his Coronation binds himself to God to govern these Kingdoms according to their respective Laws and let P. W. himself consider how agreable it is to Law or publick Justice that the Militia Treasury an Army of fifteen thousand Foot two thousand five hundred Horse of Irish Papists and even in effect the Legislative power it self should be in the hands of twelve men to be chosen by Irish Papists or that there should be no alteration in England of what they in Ireland should think fit to transmit to his Majesty for the settlement of that Kingdom or even that the Irish Rebels should be pardoned without the consent of Parliament when his Majesty in Parliament the seventeenth year of his Reign adjudged such pardon before conviction to be null and void hereby even when they treated with his Majesty concerning the affairs of this Kingdom assuming the Legislative authority of it by repealing the Statute made the 10. of Henry the VII commonly called Poynings Law and the explanatory Law thereof in 3. and 4. of Philip and Mary And though hitherto they chiefly pleaded before his Sacred Majesty in Council but for so much benefit of the Articles of peace in 1648 as would restore them to their forfeited Estates yet if they had prevailed therein upon the score of that plea it must in consequence have adjudged for them the benefit of all the other Articles as a right For if any of those Articles are due to them by an obligation of Iustice all are then due to them by the same obligation and since as appears by his Majesties Gracious Declaration in Council of the 30 of November 1660. that they have no right to any of their forfeited estates nor any title but what his Majesties mercy and bounty hath vouchsafed safed to diverse of them it