Reformed Churches and many Roman Catholicks declar'd that they would rather have had us profess no Religion at all than the Protestant In short whether it was from the loosness of the Principles of their Religion or from a design to gain on Protestants Impiety Prophaness and Libertinism were highly encouraged and favoured and it was observable that very few came with King James into Ireland that were remarkable for any strictness or severity of Life but rather on the other hand they were generally signal for their viciousness and looseness of their Morals Sir Thomas Hacket confess'd that in the whole year 1688. wherein he was Mayor of Dublin there was not one Protestant brought before him for Theâ—â— and hardly one for any other immorality whereas he was crouded with Popish Criminals of all sorts The Perjuries in the Courts the Robberies in the Country the lewd Practices in the Stews the Oaths Blasphemies and Curses in the Armies and Streets the drinking of Confusions and Damnations in the Taverns were all of them generally the acts of Papists or of those who own'd themselves ready to become such if that Party continued uppermost But more peculiarly they were remarkable for their Swearing and Blaspheming and Prophanation of the Lord's Day if they had any signal Ball or Entertainment to make any Journey or weighty Business to begin they commonly chose that day for it and lookt on it as a kind of conquest over a Protestant and a step to his Conversion if they could engage him to prophane it with them This universal viciousness made Discipline impossible and whatever Protestants were infected with it were intirely lost to the Church and their Religion for the stress of Salvation according to the Principles of the Reformed Religion depends on Virtue and Holiness of Life without which neither sorrow for Sin nor Devotion will do a Man any Service whereas he that hears Mass daily in the Roman Church kneels often before a Crucifix and believes firmly that the Roman Church is the Catholick and that all out of her Communion are damned makes not the least doubt of Salvation though he be guilty of habitual Swearing Drunkenness and many other Vices and the observation of this Indulgence gained them most of those Proselites that went over to them of the Lewd Women and Corrupted Gentry and many amongst themselves had so great a sense of this advantage that it made them very favourable to debauchery and openly profess that they had a much better opinion of the lewdest Persons that dyed in their own Communion than of the strictest and most devout Protestant and they would often laugh at our scrupling a Sin and our constancy at Prayers since as they would assure us with many Oaths we must only be damned the deeper for our diligence and they could not endure to find us go about to punish Vice in our own Members since said they it is to no purpose to trouble your selves about Vice or Virtue that are out of the Church and will all be damned SECT XVIII 4. King James and his Party in order to destroy the Protestant Religion took away the Protestants Churches and hindred their Religious Assemblies 1. TOwards the beginning of these Troubles the Papists boasted much of their kindness to the Protestant Clergy in leaving them their Churches They thought us very unreasonable to complain of our being robb'd or plunder'd or of the loss of our Estates whilst our Churches were left us and they would not own that they had done any injury to our Ministers whilst they had not turn'd them out of those This was urged upon all Occasions as an unanswerable Argument that King James intended in earnest to preserve inviolably that Liberty of Conscience he had promis'd but this was as all their other Promises a meer pretence the Priests told us from the beginning that they would have our Churches and that they would have Mass in Christ Church the chief Cathedral in Dublin in a very little time we knew well enough that this was intended whatever King James and his Ministers averr'd to the contrary for the same Act of Parliament that they had past to make their Priests and Bishops capable of Preferments and Benefices did also give them a Legal Title to the Churches belonging to those Preferments as they who drew the Act very well knew in the mean time their Affairs were not in such a forward Posture as to encourage them to seize on those Churches to which they could pretend no right tho some had been seized before the Act passed 2. But immediately upon the passing of the Act Duke Schonberg's landing alarm'd them and they were in so great fear of him that they rather thought of running into Munster or leaving the Kingdom than of possessing Churches And therefore they contented themselves with their former Methods for some time which was to let the Rabble break into them and deface them with barbarous and contumelious Circumstances breaking the Windows pulling up the Seats and throwing down the Pulpit Communion-Table and Rails and stealing what was portable out of them An instance of this sort and a remarkable Accident upon it of undoubted credit I have put in the Appendix In some Churches in the Diocess of Dublin they hung up a black Sheep in the Pulpit and put some part of the Bible before it In some places the Creaghs a sort of wild Irish that chose to fly out of the North at Duke Schonberg's landing rather than stay to give an account of the Robberies and Insolencies that they had committed there turn'd the Protestants Churches into lodging places defacing and burning whatever was combustible in them 3. And in Dublin the Government ordered the Churches several times to be seiz'd First the Earl of Tyrconnel fill'd them with Soldiers February 24. 1688. in order to receive the Arms of Protestants and they were kept some for a longer some for a shorter time upon this pretence Then they ordered them to be seiz'd anew September 6. 1689. pretending that the Protestants had hid their Arms in them and I doubt not but that they had Affidavits as they pretended to this purpose sufficient to induce them to search but not to justifie their committing such rudeness and barbarity as they did in them for the Soldiers not only broke open the Monuments and Graves but likewise the Coffins of the dead and tumbled out the dead Bodies and so left them expos'd till they were pleased to let the Protestants come into the Churcheâ— again to bury them though after all they found no Arms nor indeed were there any hid Thus far they proceeded whilst their fear was upon them resolving since they could not hopo to enjoy them themselves that they would make them as useless as they could to Protestants But when they found that Duke Schonberg stopt at Dundalk and they understood the State of his Army the Priests took Courage and in the Months of October and November they
make it an incredible Thing is so far from being impossible that it is very common of which there are so many Examples both ancient and modern that it is a wonder that Men who know any thing of History should overlook them Nero Caligula Domitian Maximinus Heliogabalus Commodus not only endeavoured but professed it and some of them were mightily concerned that it was not in their power to accomplish it No longer ago than the time of Philip the Second of Spain we have an Example of a Christian King no better than those Heathens Whoever reads the Story of his dealing with the Low Countries must confess that he design'd the utter Destruction of the Laws and Liberties of those People and that in particular he was resolved that not one Protestant should be left alive amongst them The same has been designed and effected in a great measure by the present French King against his Protestant Subjects and he must have a great share either of Impudence or Stupidity that can deny this Prince to have designed and purposely contrived that destruction and by the same Rule that a Man can be so wicked and barbarous as to design the destruction of a third or fourth part of his People he may design the destruction of the greatrr part if they will be such Fools as to suffer him to effect it SECT II. Shewing from the Obligations of his Religion that King James designed to destroy us IT is easie to demonstrate that every Roman Catholick King if he throughly understand his Religion and do in earnest believe the Principles of it is obliged if he be able to destroy his Protestant Subjects and that nothing can excuse him from doing it but want of power This is plain from the third Chapter of the fourth Lateran Council and from the Council of Constance in the Bull that confirms it read in the 45. Session if therefore a Popish King can persuade his Protestant Subjects to submit to him whilst he doth it he is obliged by his Principles to destroy them even when they are the greater part and Body of his Subjects Now King James was as is known to all the World a most zealous Roman Catholick and ingaged with that party of them that most zealously assert and practise this Doctrine of rooting out Hereticks He gave himself up intirely to the Conduct and guidance of Jesuits these were the Governors and Directors of his Conscience and he seemed to have no other Sentiments than such as they inspired into him If then these have prevailed with the French King whom some report to be a merciful Man in his own Nature and certainly a mighty Zealot for his Honor to break his most solemn established Laws violate his repeated Declarations and Oaths and in spite of all these to persecute and destroy his Protestant Subjects if the same have prevailed with the Duke of Savoy to do the like though as he is now convinced manifestly against his Interest nay almost to his own Destruction having lost thereby his best and most resolute and useful Subjects who would have served him most Cordially against France the Enemy he ought most to dread and which one day will swallow up his Dukedom if his Allies do not prevent it If lastly they have prevailed with the Emperor to involve himself in a War that has now lasted about twenty years and almost lost him his Empire rather than suffer a few Protestants to live quietly in Hungary Is not our late Kings being of the same Principles and under the Government of the same Directors of Conscience is not his fondness of France and his Alliance with it his affecting to imitate that King in every thing and above all his prosecuting the same if not worse methods towards the Protestants in Ireland that the King of France did with the Hugonots in his Dominions a clear and full proof of both Kings being in the same design to root out not only the Protestants of these Kingdoms but likewise of all Europe and that we must all have expected the same usage our Brethren met with in France Nor could our Kings Promises and Engagements be any greater assurances to us than those of the French King were to his Subjects It is observable that King James was more than ordinarily liberal in his Promises and Declarations of favour towards Protestants He boasted in a Declaration sent to England and dispersed by his Friends there dated May 8. 1689. at Dublin That his Protestant Subjects their Religion Priviledges and Properties were his especial care since he came into Ireland He often professed that he made no distinction between them and Roman Catholicks and both he here and his Party there did much extol his kind dealings with his Protestants in Ireland What those dealings truly were I shall have occasion to shew the representation of them made in England by him and his Party was no less false than his Promises were unsincere it being plain he had a reserve in them all It is a maxim as I take it in Law that if the King be deceived in his Grant though it pass the Great Seal yet it is void much more must all his verbal Promises be void if he be deceived in them Now if we consider who were the Directors of the Kings Conscience we ought not to wonder that he made no great scruple to evade them Doctor Cartwright one of his Instruments gives us a right notion of King James's Promises in his Sermon at Rippon where in effect he tells us that the Kings Promises are Donatives and ought not to be too strictly examined or urged and that we must leave his Majesty to explain his own meaning in them this Gloss pleased King James so well that he rewarded the Author with the Bishoprick of Chester though very unfit for that Character and shewed in all his actions that he meant to proceed accordingly and the humour run through the whole party whenever they were at a pinch and under a necessity of serving themselves by the assistance or credulity of Protestants they promised them fair and stuck at no terms with them but when their turn was served they would not allow us to mention their promise much less to challenge the performance 2. It plainly appeared that it was not in King James's power if he had been disposed himself to perform his promises to us The Priests told us that they would have our Churches and our Tyths and that the King had nothing to do with them and they were as good as their words nor could his Majesty upon trial hinder them One Mr. Moore preached before the King in Christs Church in the beginning of the year 1690. his Sermon gave great offence he told his Majesty that he did not do justice to the Church and Churchmen and amongst other things said that Kings ought to consult Clergymen in their temporal affairs the Clergy having a temporal as well as a spiritual right in the
Kingdom but Kings had nothing to do with the managing of spiritual affairs but were to obey the Orders of the Church It is true King James highly resented this and the Preacher was banished or voluntarily withdrew from Court but in this he spake the general sense of the Clergy indeed of the Roman Church to which the King had given himself up and must be forced to submit to it at last The Kings Promises therefore or his Laws could signifie nothing towards the securing us except he could get the Roman Church to join in them and become a party to them for whilst the Governours of that Church challenge the whole management of spiritual things and King James owned their power so far that he consented to abolish the Oath of Supremacy that denies it for him to promise safety and liberty to Hereticks and make Laws about the worship of God and Liberty of Conscience is clearly according to their Doctrine to give away what is not his own and dispose the rights of another without consulting the party interessed and according to all Casuists such promises are void they that speak most favourably of the Council of Constance which is supposed to determine that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks make this Apology for the Council The Emperor Sigismond granted without consulting the Council a safe conduct to Jerome of Prague the Council condemned him for Heresie and ordered him to be burnt the Emperor interpos'd to justifie his safe conduct but the Council answered that he was not obliged to make it good to the Heretick because it was not in the Emperor to grant a safe conduct to secure a Man against the Justice of the Council without consulting it this is the most favourable representation I have met with of this matter and even thus it is a sufficient caution for all Protestants not to trust Kings or Princes of the Roman Communion in matters that relate to the Church or Religion without the express consent of that Church or Religion without the express consent of that Church if they do it is at their own peril and they cannot blame those Princes when they fail in their Promises for they had sufficient warning not to trust them since they engage for a thing that according to their own confession is not in their power but is avowedly the right of another SECT III. The same proved from the Professions of that whole party who were most privy to King James's Counsels THE second Argument whence it appears that the King designed utterly to destroy and ruin his Protestant Subjects in Ireland is from the Oaths Professions and Affirmations of those who were his Confidents and Instruments used by him to bring it to pass From the very beginning of the French Persecution the Papists of Ireland began to shew their fondness of that Monarch and as their love to him commenced with that Persecution so it increased in proportion to his barbarity and they could never speak of it without Passion and Transport but after his late Majesty came to the Crown they openly declared that they liked no Government but that of France that they would make the King as absolute here as that King was there they affirmed both publickly and privately with many Oaths that they would in a short time have our Estates and Churches that if they suffered us to live they would make us hewers of wood and drawers of water that Ireland must be a Catholick Country whatever it cost and as for the English they would make them as poor devils as when they came first into Ireland and they assured us that this was no rash surmise of their own but that it was premeditated and resolved and that we should quickly find it by the effects of which they were so confident though we could not believe them that some of the most serious amongst them advised their Protestant Friends in private with all earnestness to change their Religion for said they you will be forced to do it at length and if you delay but a little time it will be too late and perhaps you may not be accepted for no Protestant must expect to injoy any thing in this Kingdom and we resolve to reduce all things to the state they were in under Henry VII before Poinings Act. In answer to this we told them that the Laws were on our side and the King had promised to Govern according to Law and to protect our Church and Liberties but they laught at our Credulity pisht at the Laws as mere Trifles and unanimously declared that the Kings Promises to maintain the Government in Church and State were intended only for England and were not meant to reach us and withal intimated that the same would be done in England though not so soon for the truth of all which I may refer my self to almost as many Protestants as were then in Ireland there being few but were Witnesses of such Discourses and the Kings Conduct towards us was such as left no room for us to doubt but that these People knew his mind and that all his Promises and Declarations in our favour were perfectly coppied from the French Kings Declarations to preserve the Edict of Nants and of as little Sincerity and that notwithstanding these he had as fully determined our ruin as that King had resolved the voiding the Edict of Nants when he made his solemn Declarations to the contrary SECT IV. The same destructive designs against his Subjects proved from the qualifications of the Officers employed by King James 1. THIS destructive design appears in the third place from the persons he Employed in all Offices of Trust or Power It is well known to the World and to many thousands yet alive that in the year 1641. there was a most bloody Massacre committed in this Kingdom on the Protestants by their Neighbours the Papists in which some hundred thousands perished and that not one Protestant whom they spared escaped without being robbed and plundered of all he had if not stripped and turned out naked to the extremities of Cold and a desolate Country and to such a degree of madness they proceeded that they destroyed the Houses Buildings Churches and Improvements of the Kingdom out of their malice and inveteracy to the Protestants the Founders of them but these Barbarians at last were by the Protestants subdued and brought to submit to mercy after which Conquest the Conquerors in the year 1660. joined indeed were more forward than the People of England in bringing home King Charles II. and generously gave up themselves together with the Kingdom of Ireland without Articles or Conditions into his hands The King in recompence of so signal a Service and to reprise the Conquerors for their Blood Treasure and Losses gave them back a part of what they had given him but withal restored the Conquered under certain qualifications to another part of the forfeited Lands who though restored by the Kings mere
or Law whatsoever being taken off There were already vacant in Ireland one Archbishoprick and three Bishopricks they had Attainted Two of the surviving Archbishops and Seven Bishops so that they had already the Jurisdiction of ¾ of the Kingdom by a Law of their own making secured into the Hands of Papists and the rest were quickly to follow 4. But Third where any shadow of Jurisdiction remain'd with the Protestant Clergy they rendered it insignificant by encouraging the most Obstinate and Perverse Sectaries and by shewing them Favour according as they were most opposite and refractory to all Ecclesiastical Discipline and paying their Dues to the Clergy this may be suppos'd one reason of their peculiar Fondness of Quakers and that it was upon this account chiefly they made them Burgesses or Aldermen in their new Corporations and reckoned them as most useful Tools to pull down the Discipline of the Church tho their Tythes were not given away to the Popish Priests yet there was no way left for the Protestant Clergy to recover them they being exempted from their Jurisdiction and from the very beginning of King James's Reign they so ordered the matter that Quakers were generally exempted from paying Tythes which at last became a more sensible loss to the Protestant Clergy because these were the only People that call'd themselves Protestants who had any thing left them out of which Tythes were due 5. 'T was on the same account that lewd and debauch't Converts were encouraged amongst them and a Man needed no more to escape the Censures and punishments due to his Crimes but to profess himself reconcil'd upon which all proceedings against him must immediately cease Thus many lewd Women turn'd Converts and continued their Wickedness without fear of the Ecclesiastical Judg. 6. If at any time a Bishop went about to correct a Scandalous Clergy-man the Kings Courts immediately interpos'd and granted prohibitions tho the matter did not bear one They knew it must put the Bishop to much pains and costs to have it removed and they were in hopes to weary him out before he could get a Consultation and so zealous were the Popish Lawyers to protect a Scandalous Minister against his Bishop that they would of their own accord gratis plead his Cause they thought it Fee enough to weaken the Jurisdiction of a Protestant Bishop and to do a mischief to our Religion by keeping in a wicked scandalous Clergy-man to be a reproach to it One Mr. Ross was prosecuted by his Bishop for very leud and notorious Crimes but the King's Judges interpos'd and Serjeant Dillon then Prime Serjeant pleaded his Cause gratis against the Bishop of Kilmore who prosecuted him If any Clergy-man turn'd Papist as we have reason to thank God that very few did whatever his Motives of Conversion were he was sure to keep his Livings by a Dispensation and to be exempted from the Power of his Bishop 7. King James by an order under his Privy Signet took on him to appoint Chancellors to exercise jurisdiction over Protestants Thus he appointed one Gordon who called himself Bishop of Galloway in Scotland to be Chancellor in the Diocess of Dublin this Gordon was a very ignorant lewd Man and a profest Papist yet he took on him by Vertue of King James's Mandate to exercise Ecelesiastical Jurisdiction over the Protestants of the Diocess to grant Licenses for Marriages Administrations of Wills and to Cite and Excommunicate whom he pleas'd But the Clergy refus'd to submit to him or to denounce his Excommunications which obliged him to let that part of his Jurisdiction fall but as to the other part that concern'd Wills he made his advantage of it he cited the Widow or Relation of any deceased Person and if they refused to appear he granted Administrations to some of his own Creatures and they came by force and took away the Goods of the Defunct It is incredible what wicked brutish things he with a parcel of ill Men he got to act with him did on this pretence and how he oppress'd and squeez'd the Widows and Orphans the poor People not being strong enough to oppose him and the Crew he employed for force was all the Right he could pretend it being notorious that in the vacancy of the Archbishoprick or in his absence when he cannot have intercourse with his Diocess the Jurisdiction devolveth to the Dean and Chapter as Guardians of the Spiritualities and they notwithstanding the difficulty of the times and danger they were in chose the Right Reverend the Bishop of Meath to administer the Jurisdiction which he did with all the meekness modesty and diligence that is peculiar to him though he could not hinder the forementioned Gordons Encroachments as to Administrations of Wills and Testaments In short King James by Vertue of his Supremacy claim'd a despotick Power over the Church and pretended that he might do what he pleas'd as to matter of Jurisdiction tho his Ecclesiastical Supremacy no more entitled him to encroach on the Liberties and Priviledges of the Church than his Civil entitled him to dispose of the Civil Rights of the Subjects of his Kingdoms He had indeed taken away the Oath of Supremacy by an Act of his pretended Parliament but yet he would not disown the Power vested in him by it tho the Papists would have had him renounce it expresly but he answered that he did not claim any Ecclesiastical Authority over his Roman Catholick Subjects nor pretended to be Supream in their Church in his Dominions but only over the Protestants the Mystery of which was plainly this he foresaw that the Ecclesiastical Authority which is settled by the Laws and trusted in the Crown as he could abuse it might be a means to destroy the Protestant Religion and to hinder the exercise of Ecclesiastical Discipline and therefore was resolved not to part with it not considering that such a manifest and designed abuse of a Trust in direct opposition to and destruction of the end for which it was granted to him was a provoking Temptation to his People on the first opportunity that offered to think of transferring it to some other Person that would administer it with more faithfulness according to the design for which it was granted 8. I might add as a Fifth means of destroying the Protestant Religion and slackening Discipline the universal Corruption of Manners that was encouraged at Court I do not charge King James with this in his own Person nor will I insinuate that he design'd it though he took no care to redress it but it lookt like a design in some and whether design'd or no it serv'd the Ends of Popery more than easily can be imagined and opened a wide Door for it That Kingdom that is very corrupt in Morals and debaucht is in a very fair way to embrace that Perswasion and generally their Proselites were such as had renounced Christianity in their Practice before they renounced the Principles thereof as taught in the
though the Protestants concerned sollicited it with the utmost eagerness and diligence even to the hazard of their Lives yet they could never procure the King and Councils Order for the restitution of their Church to be executed or obeyed and so they continued out of it till His present Majesties success restor'd them and their fellow Protestants to their Churches as well as to their other just Rights 12. Now here we had a full demonstration what the Liberty of Conscience would come to with which King James thought to have amused Protestants and of which he boasted so unmeasurably if once Popery had gotten the upper hand He and his Parliament might have made Acts for it if they pleas'd but we see here that the Clergy would have told them that they medled with what did not concern them and that they had no power to make Acts about Religious Matters or dispose of the Rights of Holy Church and we see from this Experiment who would have been obeyed We found here upon tryal that when King James would have kept his word to us it was not in his power to do it and that his frequently repeated Promises and his Act of Parliament for Liberty of Conscience could not prevent the demolishing defacing or seizing Nine Churches in Ten through the Kingdom and discovered to us That the Act for Liberty of Conscience was only design'd to destroy the Establish'd Church and not that Protestants should have the Benefit of it 13. Having taken away our Churches and publick Places of meeting the next thing was to hinder our Religious Assemblies It is observable that the Act of their pretended Parliament for Liberty of Conscience promises full and free exercise of their respective Religions to all that profess Christianity within the Kingdom without any molestation loss or penalty whatsoever but assigns no punishment to such as shall disturb any in their Religious Exercises and there was good reason for that omission for by this means they had left their Officers and Soldiers at liberty to disturb the Religious Assemblies of Protestants without fear of being call'd to any account 14. By the Act an open free and uninterrupted access was to be left into every Assembly and they commonly had their Emissaries in every Church to see if they could find any thing to object against the Preacher But the Ministers did not fear any thing could be objected even by malice on this Account and therefore when they found they were not like to make much of this they let it fall and the Officers and Soldiers came into the Churches in time of Divine Service or in time of Sermons and made a noise sometimes threatning the Ministers sometimes cursing sometimes swearing and sometimes affronting or assaulting Women and picking occasions of quarrels with the Men and comitting many disorders it vex'd and grieved them to see the Churches full contrary to their expectation that neither their Liberty of Conscience nor multiplying their Mass-houses nor their driving away several thousands of Protestants into England had in the least emptied them that their Liberty of Conscience instead of dividing had rather united Protestants and that the zeal and frequency of Devotion amongst those that remained supplyed the absence of those that were gone and crowded the Churches rather more than formerly it grieved them much to see those things and they on all occasions vented their spleen against the Assemblies of Protestants 15. In the Country where Churches were taken from the Protestants they met in private Houses and where their Ministers were gone and their maintenance seiz'd others undertook the Cures either gratis or were maintain'd by the voluntary Contributions of the People So that there appear'd no probability that Protestantism would be destroy'd without violence The Papists saw this and therefore watched an opportunity to begin it On the Sixth of Septem 1689. upon pretence of a Case of Pistols and a Sword found in some out part of Christ Church in Dublin they lockt it up for a Fortnight and suffered no Service to be in it On the Twenty seventh of October they took it to themselves and hindred Protestants to officiate any more in it On the Thirteenth of September on pretence of some Ships seen in the Bay of Dublin they forbad all Protestants to go to Church or assemble in any Place for Divine Service July 13. 1689. there issued out a Proclamation forbidding Protestants to go out of their Parishes one design of this was to hinder their Assemblies at Religious Duties for in Ireland generally Two or Three Parishes have but one Church and consequently by this one half were confined from the Service of God through the Kingdom June 1690. Colonel Lutterel Governour of Dublin issued his Order forbidding more than Five Protestants to meet together on pain of Death he was askt whether this was designed to hinder meeting at Churches it was answered that it was design'd to hinder their meeting there as well as in other places and in execution of this all the Churches were shut up and all Religious Assemblies through the Kingdom forbidden under pain of Death and we were assured that if King James had return'd Victorious from the Boyn it was resolved that they should never have been opened any more for us and the same excuse would have served for his permitting this that serv'd him the former year for not restoring the Churches taken away in his absence at the former Camp even that he must not disoblige his Roman Catholick Clergy Thus God gave them opportunity to shew what they intended against our Religion even to take away all our Churches and hinder all our Religious Assemblies and when they had brought their Liberty of Conscience to this and we had been obliged upon pain of Death to forbear all publick Worship for a Fortnight then he sent us deliverancâ— by means of his present Majesties Victory at the Boyn which restor'd us the Liberty of worshiping God together as well as the use of our Churches SECT XIX 5. The violences used by King James's Party to make Converts and to discourage the Protestant Ministers 1. BUT all these methods of ruining the Protestant Religion seem'd tedious to the Priests and therefore they could not be prevail'd with to abstain from violence wherever they had a fair opportunity to use it they applyed it with all diligence Several Protestant Women were married to Papists many of these used unmerciful Severities to their Wives and endeavoured by hardships and unkindness to weary the poor Women out of their Religion some stript them of their Clothes kept them some days without Meat or Drink beat them grievously and at last when they could not prevail turn'd them out of their Houses and refus'd to let them live with them Some sold off all that they had turn'd it into Money and left their Wives and Children to beg for no other Reason but because they would not forsake their Religion And this carriage was
again into our communion at his death and that with such remarkable circumstances of repentance and sorrow that King James heard of it and blam'd his Physician Dr. Constable for his neglect in not giving notice to the Priest 7. They endeavoured to bring the Ministers of Dublin under all the Contempt they could and at last put on them the drudgery that belonged to the Office of Constables and Deputy Aldermen it belonged to those Officers on all occasions to return the names of the several Inhabitants and Inmates of their Wards the Government desired to know the names of Protestants in each Parish and their numbers and they took them several times but Colonel Lutterel the Governour of Dublin would not be satisfied till the Ministers went about in Person and returned every Man his respective Parishioners names it was in vain for them to plead the unreasonableness of this imposition they aleadged the pains the charges and the meanness of the thing which was done more effectually already than could be done by them by the proper Officers but all in vain they must comply or go to Jail This return made by the Ministers was of no real use to the Government for they had an exact account given about a Fortnight before by their own Officers and took another about a Week after the design therefore was either to lay a Snare for the Ministers or else to render them contemptible to their People but instead of doing that it only incensed the People against their unreasonable Governours who thus affronted their Clergy SECT XX. 6. King James and his Party endeavoured to destroy the Protestant Religion by misrepresenting the Persons and Principles of Protestants 1. THe violences used to out us of our Churches and to discourage our Clergy had no great success in making Converts but there was another way set on foot which did seduce some and it was by making a Monster of the Protestant Religion and Protestants insomuch that young People who liv'd remote from Conversation and had not opportunity to inform themselves of the Truth conceiv'd strange Ideas of both by the insinuation of the Priests 2. It was one of the first steps of the Reformation to renounce the usurped power of the Pope and to restore to the Crown the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which originally belongs to the Civil Magistrate that is the power of punishing Offenders with the Temporal Sword whatever their Crime be whether Ecclesiastical or Civil Now the Priests represented this Doctrine after a strange manner they perswaded those that would lend them their attention that the Protestants believed all Spiritual power to be in the King that he could Consecrate whom he pleas'd Bishops set up what Religion he had a mind to and oblige all his Subjects to be of his Faith and they railed most grievously at the Protestants for not turning Papists in complyance to their King calling them Traitors and perjur'd Persons from their own Principles 3. 'T was another Principle amongst Protestants that private Men should not take up the Sword or resist the King upon any pretence such resistance being against Law by which no more was understood than that Subjects should according to the Laws and Gospel behave themselves peaceably and submissively towards their Superiors and not upon any pretence of private injury or wrong done to them in particular enter into Conspiracie and Combinations against their Governours but by it was never intended to give up the Constitution of the Government or to part with the Liberties and Priviledges of the Kingdom yet the Priests would needs perswade the World that by this Principle the Protestants were obliged to part with all at the King's command that he might use them if he pleased as the Grand Signior or the French King use their Subjects and their Lives their Liberties and Estates were all at his Mercy and they Devils and Traitors and Perjur'd Villains I use their words if they demur'd at his Command There was hardly any Principle peculiar to the reform'd Religion but they thus misrepresented it 4. Nor did the persons of Protestants escape better than their Principles They loaded them with the most odious Calumnies and Misrepresentations they aleadged that the Protestants had no Religion at all that they only pretended to it but were Atheists and Traitors in their Hearts they were more especially malicious against the Clergy King James himself contributing to it as appear'd on this occasion two young Gentlemen Brothers to the Earl of Salisbury followed King James out of France they profest themselves Protestants and associated with such the Bishops of Meath and Limerick had an Eye on the Gentlemen and endeavoured to secure them against any attempts which might be made to pervert them but King James called the young Men to him forbad them the company of Protestants nay even of one Mr. C ham a Gentleman that came over with them but above all he forbad them conversing with the Bishops and Clergy-men for said he they are all false to me and will pervert you to disloyalty and Treason this was the common saying of them all even of the Chancellour on the Bench and tho they would on occasion magnifie the loyalty of some of the Protestant Clergy in England and Scotland yet at other times they would profess that they believed them all treacherous and would never trust any of them 5. In order to abuse the Protestants and especially the Clergy they set up one Yalden a Convert Councellor at Law to write a weekly Paper which he called an Abhorrence in which he endeavoured to rake together all the little Stories that might reflect on Protestants and all the arguments his Wit could furnish him with for his Cause he made it his business to invent false stories and lies concerning the Clergy and began with Dr. King and Dr. Foy He had published a Collection of passages out of the Bishop of Ely's Sermon and some Sixteen others for Passive Obedience whether this was his own work or only as I have been informed a Peice compos'd by some others which he assumed to himself I cannot say but it met with very slender reception in Ireland and lay on the Booksellers hand To vent it therefore as some thought or rather to abuse the Clergy he published an Advertisement in his Abhorrence declaring that Dr. King and Dr. Foy had approv'd this Book by their Certificate under their hand by this he thought to intrap them for either they as he imagined must have let this pass and then the Protestants must think them if not ill at least very imprudent Men or else they must disown it and then he knew how to improve their refuting his calumny so as to render them odious to the Government and the Papists did a little please themselves with the contrivance But Dr. Foy and Dr. King found means without concerning themselves much in the matter to let all Dublin know that they never read Mr. Yalden's
of them 9. Secondly It was not safe for any Officer that was not forcibly turn'd out to refuse to act if he had either voluntarily resign'd his Place or refused to officiate in it he must have expected to be treated with more severe usage than other People as one peculiarly disaffected Some therefore were forc'd to keep even in the Army in their own defence but these were so few that there need not much be said for them I do not remember above three that had Commissions in the Army who were desirous to leave it and those were kept in only for a pretence of Impartiality and for such as acted as Justices of Peace they were often serviceable to Protestants in freeing them from Oppressions and Injuries Those few Protestants that took Commissions of Oyer and Terminer did it on a Publick Account and always acted for the Benefit of Protestants 3. Protestants by keeping in Employments though never so insignificant found means and opportunities of serving their distressed and oppressed Friends and they seldom fail'd to improve these means to the best advantage the poor People that stay'd in Ireland were sensible of this and often wisht that more had stay'd on this account and truely if they had by the advantage of their Address and Understanding above the Papists who generally were ignorant of business they might probably have done much good and have gained farther time for the poor People from their destruction 10. However I do not intend to justifie all that was done by Protestant Officers if any of them advanced abetted or concurr'd in an ill thing let them suffer for it but I humbly conceive the Protestants of Ireland that staid here and saw and observed every Man's behaviour and were the only sufferers by the ill management of any Officer whatever his Station was may be safely trusted to give a Character of each I own that it is not reasonable that a Certificate under a few hands should be accepted as a Vindication of any Man for an Officer might have serv'd and oblig'd a few who cannot in gratitude refuse to certifie for him and yet have done mischief enough to others but on the other hand is it reasonable that secret whispers or surmises especially of such as were absent and strangers to their behaviour should undo or misrepresent any Man and therefore I think if any dispute should arise concerning such Matters a fair and legal hearing in publick were the most equal way and is all the favour that generally any Protestant Gentleman who staid and officiated under King James needs desire They are so few that this would not be any great trouble and their Honesty and Prudence generally so notorious that it would not be any blemish to them nor were they guilty of any servile or mean Compliances or paid any other deference than what was due to a Government under whose Power God's Providence had placed them and which by unseasonable opposition they would only have exasperated to their own destruction 11. Fourthly As to the Clergy that staid it were an injustice to them to make any Apology for them they staid in pure sense and conscience of their Duty and minded it so effectually that their Labours were acceptable and useful to their People in many respects and I doubt not but will be approv'd by all good Men they foresaw what use Papists would make of empty Churches and deserted Congregations and that the Priests would not be wanting to perswade the People that they were no true Pastors that deserted them in time of danger they were acquainted with the Artifices us'd to draw Protestants from their Religion and that the present juncture would afford new Temptations which the Seducers would not fail to press with all possible advantage it required therefore all their Skill and Industry to arm their People against these Instruments of Seduction and keep them steady to their Principles under such mighty Temptations and we owe it to the Prudence Industry and Courage of the Clergy that remain'd next to God's goodness that so few were prevail'd with to change their Religion notwithstanding that they saw they must be ruined if they stood firm whereas if they comply'd they would not be only safe but sharers likewise in the Booty 'T is true many of them suffered by their staying and lay under great difficulties but it pleas'd God to support and deliver them and if they had perished it had been with this comfort that it was in their Office and in their Masters Work The Conclusion 1. AND here I do solemnly protest that no private disatisfaction that no ill will to King James's Person nor prejudice against any Body has moved me to say what I have said but that I might vindicate our selves by speaking truth in a matter that so nearly concern'd us both in our Temporal and Eternal Interest And I must likewise protest before God who will judge between us and our Enemies in this Point that I have not aggravated the Calamities we have suffered nor misrepresented the Proceedings against us out of favour or affection to a Party but have rather told things nakedly and in general than insisted on such Particulars as might seem to serve no other purpose but to make our Adversaries odious 2. It were much to be wished and in due time it is hoped that Commissions may be issued by the proper Authority into the several Counties to enquire of the treatment the Protestants underwent and the damages they suffered and I am well assured that if this be done and an Account be taken on Oath from the Eye Witnesses and Sufferers the matter will appear with a much worse Face than it is here represented and where one Story may happen undesignedly to be aggravated twenty worse will be to be added to supply it There is not a more necessary or effectual Means can be taken for clearing the Protestants in this Kingdom or justifying the State in their proceeding against the Irish and we are ready and willing to stand or fall in the Censure of the World by this Plea according as on proof of Particulars by sufficient Evidence the Truth shall appear 3. Upon the whole the Irish may justly blame themselves and their Idol the Earl of Tirconnel as King James may them both for whatever they have or shall suffer in the issue of this Matter since it is apparent that the necessity was brought about by them that either they or we must be ruin'd King James if the Earl of Tirconnel may be believed chang'd his Religion on His Sollicitations for he often brag'd that he was the King's Converter He preferr'd the gratifying this Favourites Ambition to the affections of his Protestant Subjects in England and Ireland He left England and came into Ireland on his invitation and he brought ruin and desolation on the Kingdom especially on his Protestant Subjects in prosecution of the measures laid down by him yet so far was he in love with
Thirdly From Orders about Garrisoning Mansion-Houses Sending the Protestant Owners to the Goal who must never have expected either their Houses or Lives if King James had prevailed ibid. Estates of Absentees disposed of and promised to Papists p. 162 20. Objection That King James did not know the Consequence of Repealing the Acts of Settlement ibid. Answer First King James understood them better than any and held ten thousand pounds a year by them when Duke of York ibid. Secondly King James would not hear the Protestants plead at the Bar against the Repeal p. 163 Thirdly Bishop of Meath in a Speech in the House set forth the ill Consequences at large ibid. Fourthly The Protestants opposed it from Point to Point ibid. Fifthly Protestants were resolved to use their utmost that the ill intents of their Adversaries might appear the more p. 164 Sixthly Lord chief Justice Keating's Paper given to King James in behalf of Purchasers rejected ibid. 21. Protestants lost more in Ireland than all that favour King James's Cause in England are worth p. 165 Sect. 13. Eighthly The danger into which King James brought the lives of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland ibid. 1. At King James's Coming no General Pardon though it had been his Interest in respect of England ibid. 2. Is not chargeable with particular Murders further than by arming such Men as would be guilty of them p. 166 3. The Governments Design upon our Lives ibid. First by feigned Plots and Protecting the Perjured Witnesses Instance in Spikes Case The Dumb Friar p. 167 Secondly By wresting Facts to Treason Nugent declar'd Protestants having Arms to be so p. 168 Thirdly By violating Articles Mr. Brown of Cork Town of Bandon Earl of Inchiquin Captain Boyle Sir Thomas Southwell and his Party Lord Mountjoy's Soldiers Fort of Culmore King James's approach to Derry Captain Dixy Kenaght Castle p. 169 170 Fourthly By violating Protections p. 171 Protestants of Down p. 171 Protestants brought before Derry by General Rosen Bishop of Meath applyed to King James about it King James excused Rosen p. 173 174 Captain Barton of Carrick Mac Cross p. 175 Fifthly By private Orders and Proclamations with the penalty of Death Several Instances p. 178 Sixthly By the Act of Attainder Abstract of it Archbishops 2 Duke 1 Temporal Lords 63 Ladies 22 Bishops 7 Knights 85 Clergymen 83 Esquires and Gentlemen 2182 2445 p. 179 180 Not equalled by the Proscription at Rome Great part Attainted on Common Fame p. 182 Observations on the Act ibid. 1. Leaves no room for the King to Pardon ibid. 2. The Act concealed Out of the Power of an English Parliament to Repeal it by the Act for cutting off Ireland from England p. 183 3. The hast in drawing it up ibid. 4. Many left out particularly the Collegians and how ibid. 5. Applications in behalf of Protestants made their Case worse p. 184 6. Allowing of time to prove Innocency a meer Collusion ibid. 1. None knew what time was given ibid. 2. None knew what they would call Innocency Instance Desmineer and Ginnery ibid. 3. The Embargo on this side would not let them know on the other side 4. The Embargo on the other side would not let them come hither 5. To have come would have been an unwise Venture p. 177 4. Objection That few Protestants lost their Lives p. 178 Answer 1. When it is known how many have perished they will not appear few ibid. 2. The Irish Papists would not venture at much Murthering till they were past an after Reckoning they feared such Cruelty would be revenged on Roman Catholicks in England ibid. 3. Protestants were cautious not to provoke them and were true to one another p. 179 4. We dont know what would have been done with Attainted Persons ibid. 5. Protestants if Obnoxious absconded or escaped ibid. 6. The Support of King James's Army depended on the Protestants p. 179 Scotch Officers that came here wondered to find how Protestants were used having heard so much the contrary at home p. 180 The same given out in England Pity but those who believed and forwarded it had been sent hither ibid. The Irish doing what they did in their Circumstances what would they have done if left to their swing ibid. Sect. 14. Ninthly The method King James took to destroy our Religion p. 181 1. The Attempts against our Lives and Fortunes no sudden thing but the result of a long Design for which Tirconnel had 20000 l. per annum ibid. 2. King James pretended Liberty of Conscience but not to be expected from a Roman Catholick ibid. 3. The Laws and Coronation Oath secured our Religion The Clergy had merited from King James by opposing the Exclusion and disobliged their People p. 182 4. At his coming to the Crown the Roman Catholicks declared that his Promises to the Church were not intended for Ireland p. 183 Sect. 15. First By taking away our Schools and Universities p. 184 1. Lord Tirconnell put the Schools contrary to Law into the hands of Papists ibid. 2. And would have put in Popish Fellows into the College ibid. 3. Stopt the College Pension of 388 l. per annum from Easter 1688. turned out the Fellows and Students seized on the Library and Furniture p 193 4. Forbid three of them on pain of Death not to meet together p. 194 5. King James did not fill up vacant Bishopricks and Livings in his Gift ibid. 6. And allowed nothing for supplying the Cures p. 195 7. All the Bishops and Livings in the Kingdom would soon have come into the Kings hands p. 196 8. This not the effect of our Constitution the same in Popish Countries Thirty five Bishopricks void in France in 1688. King James's Ungratefulness to the Protestant Clergy ibid. Sect. 16. Secondly By taking away the Maintenance of the Clergy p. 197 1. Book-Mony denyed by the Papists from King James's coming to the Crown ibid. 2. Priests put in for Tythes Hardly recovered by Protestants p. 198 3. An Act of their Parliament applied Papists Tythes to the Priests ibid. 4. And Protestants Tythes too when the Priests had the Benefices ibid. 5. The Priests forc'd into Possession of Glebes where there were any p. 199 6. Protestant Clergy little better for the Tythes left to them Protestants had little Tythings left Priests by Dragoons seized what there was never wanted Pretences ibid. 7. House-Mony in Corporations taken away by their Parliament Pleaded against before the House of Lords but in vain p. 200 8. The same took away Ulster Table of Tythes p. 201 9. Duties payable to the King out of Livings were exacted wholly from the Protestant Incumbents though they had nothing left to them of their Livings their Persons seized and sent to Goal ibid. Collonel Moore Clerk of the First Fruits imprisoned because he would not be severe against them p. 202 Sect. 17. Thirdly By taking away the Jurisdiction of the Protestant Church ibid. 1. The Churches Right by Prescription to Jurisdiction ibid. 2. Act
formerly been taken up and bred by Protestants some in one station and some in another they commonly were taught to read and write and many of them by the kindness of their Masters were preferred some became Counsellors at Law some Attornies some Clerks others continued menial Servants and Footmen Upon the Change of Affairs most of these began to despise their Benefactors or Masters and to count themselves better than those who had educated and taught them and in order to get Preferments altered their Religion in which their Masters with much care had instructed them and declared that in their Hearts they had been all along Roman Catholicks Above one hundred Footmen on these Declarations were advanced to be Captains Whereas their living so long in the profession of the Protestant Religion if they did not believe it was to all honest Men an Argument of so great Hypocrisie that the person guilty of it one would think should not have been trusted by any that valued either Truth or Honesty but if this Declaration was only feigned as I am apt to believe it was in many then their Conversion was an effect of Covetousness or Ambition and an Act of H pocrisie to be abhorred by all good Men. However to perswade the World that they were real they were very severe and mischievous to Protestants in general especially to those that had been kind to them whilst in an inferior condition And it was observable of these Converts that they immediately on their Reconcilement made themselves signal by some eminently wicked Act. Thus the Earl of Clancarty soon after his being reconciled murthered a Butcher at Moyallo by â—ossing him in a Blanket Captain Nangle after his murthered one Kelly in the Street Lieutenant Mac Gennis murthered Captain Hamilton Sir Maurice Eustace murthered I think two upon his Conversion One Warren murthered one Wilton Captain Waller murthered a Player one Blacbourn Captain Maurice murthered a poor Piper and was made High Sheriff of the Queens County Sir Gregory Birn turned in order to carry a Suit at Law against Captain Fitz Gerald which he is supposed to have carried by very indirect means as most that heard the Tryal believed it being strongly surmised by them that he had suborned Witnesses and corrupted the Sheriff to pack a Jury Captain Callahan was content to introduce his Conversion by affronting the Judge at Waterford breaking open a House and beating the Cryer of the Court to the hazard of his Life In short their Converts both Men and Women became infamous by very notorious Wickednesses The Men by Murthering Forgery Perjury Robbery Swearing and Cursing and the Women by Lewdness and prostituting themselves yet those of both Sexes were cherished and encouraged amongst them and for being Converts were in special request and next in the way to preferment 3. Lastly It was remarkable amongst them all Converts and others that they were very uncharitable and void of all compassion They turned vast numbers of Protestants out of their Houses and left them no other way of subsisting but begging and yet we rarely found that any of them gave a Farthing to the most necessitous Protestant Beggar they did not look on themselves at least did not act as if they had owed Faith Truth Justice or Civility to any Protestant They affronted abused betrayed and imprisoned every Body that would not be as wicked and as irreligious as themselves They often drank Damnation and Confusion to all Hereticks especially to the Prince and Princess of Orange and not content with this if any Protestant chanced to be in company they would endeavour to force it on him and abused or imprisoned him for his refusal 4. When they came to put in for Possessions of their ancient Estates it was frequently observed that several put in for the same Estate and pretended to be the Sons or Descendents of the Proprietors insomuch that four or five Affidavits point blank contrary to one another have been produced in Chancery at the same time the Chancellor was a little at a loss what to do till a Protestant Lawyer told him there was a Survey taken of the Kingdom in which twelve Men upon their Oaths had returned who was Proprietor of each parcel of Land in 1641. This he found to be a more certain Rule than a thousand Affidavits so little value had the King's Courts and his Popish Chancellor for the Oaths of those persons whom King James chose to employ and cherish instead of Protestants The Truth is they were People that made no distinction between Right and Wrong but as they served their Interest and therefore he chose them purposely to destroy the Liberties and Laws of the Kingdom in general and the Protestants in particular and no body can deny but they were well chosen for the Work for which he designed them and unfit for any else SECT VIII IV. King Jame's Officers were of such a Genius and Inclination as led them to destroy the Laws Liberties and Religion of the Kingdom 1. WHoever will be at the pains to look back on the State of Ireland before it was conquered by the English will find that the Heads of Septs were absolute over their Tenants their Wills passed for Laws and all their Proceedings were merely arbitrary and despotick This was the ancient Constitution of Ireland and the English who came over at first had by their Conversation with the Irish learn'd much of their Manners they made their Tenants Vassals and Slaves as much as the Irish had been to their Chiefs except in the English Pale which was a Scope of Ground that reached about twenty Miles from Dublin and even in some Places there the Tenures of the Country Farmers were exactly that which the Law of England calls Villanage the Tenant having nothing he could properly call his own Whatever the Landlord had occasion for he sent to his Tenants House and caused it to be brought to him without consideration or allowance or if he pleased he went to the Tenant's House with his Retinue and there staid as long as he thought fit eating and drinking and using every thing the Tenant had as his own This Practice was called Coshering and several Laws have been made against it 2. The old Landlords that had not forfeited their Estates in 1641 still kept up this way of dealing with their Tenants tho secretly and were so burthensom to them by their Exactions and Cosherings that the Tenants were miserable and poor and their Estates unimproved whereas the English and those that had English Education and took to their manner of Living were content with their Rents from their Tenants who by that means were able to live well grow rich and improve their Farms The native Irish who happened to fall under a Protestant Landlord would hardly ever after be perswaded to come under one of his own Religion a little Experience sufficiently shewing unto him the Difference between a Landlord who required no more than his Due
assistance rather more than on the Roman Catholicks now they knew very well that Murther is so hateful a thing that if they once fell a Massacring it would shock many of their Friends in England and Scotland from whom they expected great matters and therefore they thought it their interest to be as tender of Lives as they could and even the Priests when they encouraged them to Rob their Protestant Neighbours charg'd them not to kill them assuring them that every thing else would be forgiven them 3. The Protestants were extreamly cautious not to give the least offence they walked so warily and prudently that it was hardly possible to find any occasion against them and they were so true to one another and conversed so little with any of King James's Party that it was as difficult to fix any thing on them or to get any Information against them though several designs were laid against them and several false Witnesses produc'd as has been shewn yet their Stories still destroyed themselves by their Improbabilities inconsistency and the notorious infamy of the Witnesses 4. We had no experiment of what would have been done with the attainted Absentees for none of them run the hazard of a Tryal but we are sure no good could have been done them for they could neither have been pardoned for Estate nor Life and the best they could have expected was to have been sent to some other Kingdom as Sir Thomas Southwell was sent to Scotland for there could have been no living for them in Ireland 5. When any Protestant found himself obnoxious to the Government or but fancyed they had any thing to object against him he got out of the Kingdom or made his escape to the North as well as he could and in the mean time absconded many escaped hanging by these means which otherwise in all probability had been executed Lastly It was so much the Interest of King James in his Circumstances to have been kind to the Protestanâ—s of Ireland that we might rather have expected to have been courted than ill used by him the whole support and maintenance of his Army in Ireland depended on them they clothed fed armed and quartered them which they could not avoid doing with any safety to themselves or indeed possibility of living and the Officers of the Army were so sensible of this that when it was propos'd to turn all the Protestants out of the City of Dublin one of them answered that whenever they were turned out the Army must go with them for they could not be furnished with what they wanted by others And as it was King James's Interest to use them well upon the account of their being necessary to him in Ireland so his Affairs in England and Scotland did more particularly require it and he was forced to employ his Emissaries there to give it out that he did so Sir Daniel Mac Daniel who came out of the Isles of Scotland to Dublin in Winter 1689. and several Gentlemen of the Highlands with him declared that their Ministers in the Pulpit had assured them that the Protestants in Ireland lived under King James in the greatest freedom quiet and security both as to their Properties and Religion and that if their Countrymen knew the truth of the matter as they then found it here they would never fight one stroak for him and they seemed to stand amazed at what they saw and could hardly believe their own Eyes It is certain that King James had the like Instruments in England as I have noted before who forced down the World in Coffee-Houses and publick places that the Protestants in Ireland lived easie and happy under his Government however this shews how much it was really his Interest to have given his Protestant Subjects here no just cause of complaint and that it must proceed from a strange eagerness to destroy them that King James and his Party ventured in their Circumstances to go so far in it as they did their own imminent danger disswaded them from severity and their Interest manifestly obliged them to mildness and if notwithstanding these they condemned near Three thousand of the most Eminent Gentlemen Citizens Clergymen and Nobility of the Kingdom to death and loss of Estates we may easily guess what they would have done when their fear and interest were removed and they left to the swing of their own natural Inclinations and the tendency of their Principles Whosoever considers all Circumstances will conclude that no less was designed by them than the execution of the third Chapter of the Lateran Council the utter extirpation of the Hereticks of these Kingdoms SECT XIV Ninthly Shewing King James's Methods for destroying the Protestant Religion 1. THE design against the Lives and Fortunes of the Protestants is so apparent from the execution thereof especially by the Acts of the late pretended Parliament that they themselves can hardly deny it nay some were apt to glory in it and to let us know that it was not a late design taken up since the revolt of England as they call it from King James they thought fit to settle on the Duke of Tirconnel above 20 m. Pounds per Annum in value out of the Estates of some Protestant Gentlemen attainted by them as aforesaid in consideration of his signal Service of Twenty Years which he spent in contriving this Work and bringing it to pass as one of their most eminent Members exprest it in his Speech in Parliament and the particular Act which vests this Estate in him shews 2. But it may be thought that King James was more tender in the matter of Religion and that he who gloried so much in his resolution to settle Liberty of Conscience wherever he had Power as he told his pretended Parliament and set forth almost in every Proclamation would never have made any open Invasion on the Consciences of his Protestant Subjects But they found by experience that a Papist whatever he professes is but an ill Guardian of Liberty of Conscience and that the same Religion that obliged the King of Spain to set up an Inquisition could not long endure the King of England to maintain Liberty If indeed King James had prevailed with Italy or Spain to have tolerated the open exercise of the Protestant Religion it had been I believe a convincing Argument to England to have granted Roman Catholicks Liberty in these Dominions but whilst the Inquisition is kept up to the height in those Countries and worse than an Inquisition in France against the publick Edicts and Laws of the Kingdom and against the solemn Oath and Faith of the King it is too gross to go about to perswade us that we might expect a free exercise of our Religion any other way than the Protestants enjoy it in France that is under the Discipline of Dragoons after the Papists had gotten the Arms the Offices the Estates and Courts of Judicature into their Hands 3. The Protestant Religion and
Clergy were established in Ireland by as firm Laws as the Properties of the Laity The King by his Coronation Oath was obliged to maintain them Their Tithes and Benefices were their Free-holds and their Priviledges and Jurisdiction were settled and confirmed to them by the known and current Laws of the Kingdom according to which the King was obliged to govern them and whereof he was the Guardian The Clergy had beside all this peculiar Obligations on him and a Title to his Protection for they had espous'd his Interest most cordially Whilst Duke of York they used their utmost diligence to perswade the People to submit to Gods Providence and be content with his Succession to the Crown in case his Brother dyed before him and they prest that point so far that many of their People were dissatisfied with them and told them often with heat and concern what reward they must expect for their pains if ever he came to the Throne they saw their danger but could not imagine any man would be so unpolitick and ungrateful as to destroy such as had brought him to the Throne and could only keep him safe in it and therefore they ventured all to serve him and many of them by their Zeal for him lost the Affections of their People and their Interest with them It was chiefly due to their diligence and care that his Title from the beginning met not the least opposition in Ireland tho the Army in it were intirely Protestant Had they and the rest of the Protestants in this Kingdom been in any measure disloyally principled in the time of Monmouth and Argile's Rebellion they might easily have made an Insurrection more dangerous than both those and the least Mutiny or revolt amongst them could hardly have failed to have ruined King James's Affairs at that critical time but they were so far from attempting any such thing that they were as ready and as zealous to assist him as his very Guards at Whitehall which he himself could not but acknowledge how he rewarded them I have already shewn and how grateful he was to the Clergy that thus principled them will appear by the Sequel 4. First therefore when his Majesty came to the Crown he declared that he would protect the Church of England in her Government and Priviledges under which we suppos'd the Church of Ireland to be concluded And accordingly the Clergy and People of this Kingdom return'd his Majesty their Address of Thanks though they very well knew that this was no more than was due to them by the Laws and by the King's Coronation Oath in particular But they were soon told by the Roman Catholicks that his Majesty did not intend to include Ireland in that Declaration and that it must be a Catholick Kingdom as they term'd it Every discerning Protestant soon found by the method they saw his Majesty take that he in earnest intended to settle Popery in England as well as Ireland but he thought himself so sure of effecting it suddenly in Ireland that his Instruments made no scruple to declare their intentions nay they were so hasty to ruin our Religion that they did not so much as consult their own Safety but even before it was either seasonable or safe in the opinion of the wiser sort amongst themselves they began openly to apply all their Arts and Engines to effect it 1. By hindring the Succession and Supplies of Clergy-men 2. By taking away their maintenance 3. By weakning and then invading their Jurisdiction 4. By seizing on their Churches and hindring their Religious Assemblies 5. By violence against their Persons And 6. By slandering and misrepresenting them and their Principles SECT XV. 1. King James in order to destroy the Protestant Religion hindred the Education and Succession of Clergy-men 1. THE Good and Support of Religion doth very much depend on the educating and principling Youth in Schools and Universities and the Law had taken special care that these should be in the hands of English men and Protestants and the better to secure them the Nomination of the Schoolmasters in every Diocess except four is by a particular Act of Parliament lodged in the Lord Lieutenant or Chief Governour for the time being The Clergy of each Diocess by the Act are obliged to maintain a Schoolmaster and his Qualifications are described in the Act. But when the Earl of Tyrconnel came to the Government he took no notice of those Laws but when any School became void he either left it unsupplyed or put a Papist into it And in the mean time great care was taken to discourage such Protestant Schoolmasters as remain'd and to set up Popish Schools in opposition to them Thus they dealt with the School of Killkenny founded and endowed by the charitable Piety of the late Duke of Ormond they set up a Jesuits School in the Town and procured them a Charter for a Colledge there they drove away the Protestant Schoolmaster Doctor Hinton who had officiated in it with great industry and success and seiz'd on the School-house commonly call'd the Colledge and converted it to an Hospital for their Soldiers Thus in a few years they would not have left one publick School in the hands of a Protestant for the Education of their Youth 2. There is but one University in Ireland and there is a Clause in the Statutes thereof that gives the King Power to dispense with the said Statutes it was founded by Queen Elizabeth and certainly never designed by her or her Successors to be converted against the fundamental Design of its Institution into a Seminary of Popery yet advantage was taken of this Clause though we had reason to believe it would have been done if there had been no such Clause to put in Popish Fellows as soon as the Fellowships became vacant one Doyle a Convert was the first who was named a Person of so exceedingly lewd and vicious a Conversation as was fully prov'd before the Lord Tyrconnell and of so little Sence or Learning that it seemed impossible that any Government should have countenanc'd such a Man yet this did not much weigh with his Excellency and therefore the Colledge insisted upon another Point the Dispensation that Doyle had gotten through his ignorance was not for his purpose for it required in express Terms that he should take the Oath of a Fellow and that Oath includes in it the Oath of Supremacy the Provost tendered it to him but he durst not take it for fear of disobliging his own Party upon this they refused to admit him he insists on his Claim and complains to the Lord Deputy upon a hearing Justice Nugent Baron Rice and the Attorny General supplyed the Place of Advocates for him but the Case was so plain that even Justice Nugent had not the confidence to deny the insufficiency of his Dispensation and therefore they ordered him to get another But to be even with the Colledge for demurring on the King's Mandate they stopt
the Money due to it out of the Exchequer 3. The Foundation consists of a Provost Seven Senior and Nine Junior Fellows and Seventy two Scholars these are partly maintain'd by a Pension out of the Exchequer of 388. l. per Annum this Pension the Earl of Tyrconnel stopt from Easter 1688. and could not be prevail'd with by any intercession or intreaties to grant his Warrant after that time for it by which means he in effect dissolv'd the Foundation and stopt the Fountains of Learning and of Religion this appeared to have been his design more plainly afterwards for King James and his Party not content to take their maintenance from them proceeded and turn'd out the Vice Provost Fellows and Scholars seiz'd upon the Furniture Books and publick Library together with the Chappel Communion Plate and all things belonging to the Colledge or to the private Fellows or Scholars notwithstanding that when they waited on him upon his first arrival in Dublin he promis'd That he would preserve them in their Liberties and Properties and rather augment than diminish the Priviledges and Immunities granted to them by his Predecessors In the House they placed a Popish Garrison turn'd the Chappel into a Magazin and many of the Chambers into Prisons for Protestants the Garrison destroy'd the Doors Wainscots Closets and Floors and damnified it in the Building and Furniture of private Rooms to at least the value of 2000. l. One Doctor Moore a Popish Priest was nominated Provost one Macarty Library Keeper and the whole designed for them and others of their Fraternity 4. It is observable that there was not the least Colour or Pretence of Law for this violence nor could they give the least Reason in Law or Equity for their proceeding except the necessity of destroying of the Protestant Seminaries of Learning in order to destroy their Religion This made them so eager against the Collegians that they were not content to turn them without Process or Colour of Law out of their Free-holds but they sent a Guard after them to sieze and apprehend their Persons and it cost the Bishop of Meath their Vice-Chancellor all his Cunning and Interest with the Governour Lutterell to prevent their Imprisonment With much ado he was prevailed on to let them enjoy their Liberties but with this Condition that on pain of Death no Three of them should meet together So sollicitous were they to prevent the Education of Protestants under Persons of the same Profession and that there might be none to succeed the present Clergy 5. With the same design they hindred the succession of Bishops and inferiour Clergy-men into the room of those that dyed or were removed the Support of Religion as is well known depends very much on the choice and settling of able and fit Persons in Vacancies and it so happened that partly by the uncertainty of Estates partly by frequent Forfeitures to the King partly by the grasping of the Prerogative and other Accidents most of the considerable Preferments and Benefices of the Church were in the disposal of the Crown there are very few Livings in Ireland in the Presentation of Lay Patrons but they either belong to the King or the Bishops The Bishopricks are all in the King and all the Livings in the Bishops Patronage are in the Vacancy of the Bishoprick likewise the Kings This is a great Trust and the King is bound to dispose of it for the good of the Church But King James plainly design'd by the means of his Trust to destroy the Church that had intrusted him for instead of giving the Preferments as they fell to good and able men who might preserve and maintain the Interest of their Religion he seiz'd them into his own hand had the Profits of them returned into the Exchequer and let the Cures lye neglected The Archbishoprick of Cashell the Bishopricks of Clogher of Elphin and of Clonfert were thus seiz'd with many Inferiour Livings and the Money received out of them dispos'd to the maintenance of Popish Bishops and Priests directly against the Laws and Constitution of the Kingdom 6. At this rate in a few years all the Preferments and Livings of the Kingdom of any value must have fallen into the King's hands and we must have expected to have seen them thus dispos'd of for as many as fell after King James's time were put to this use and we were assured by the Popish Priests that all the rest as they became vacant were design'd to the same Purpose and they were so unreasonable that though both Law and Justice allow a competency for serving the Cure whilst a Living upon any Account whatsoever is in the King's Hand yet the Commissioners of the Revenue and Barons of the Exchequer would allow nothing the Bishop of Meath made an Experiment of this Some Livings in his Diocess upon the Death of one Mr. Duddle the Incumbent were seiz'd by the Commissioners of the Revenue being in the King's Presentation the Bishop did what was in his Power towards supplying the Cure and according to his Duty appointed a Curate assigning him a Salary according to the Canons but the Commissioners would not allow him any thing and though the Bishop endeavoured it and petition'd both the Commissioners and Barons of the Exchequer yet he could never get any thing for the Curate This was a Precedent and the same was practis'd in all other Cases all the Absentees Cures were in the same Condition and though they yielded plentifully to King James yet the Curates had no other maintenance than the voluntary Contributions of the poor plunder'd Protestant Parishioners who were forced to pay their Tythes either to King James's Commissioners or to Popish Priests who had Grants of them 7. This was an effectual though a slow way of putting an end to the Ministry at least to deprive them of all legal Title to Preferments for the Bishops being most of them old would soon have dropt off and King James was resolved to have named no more and so the legal Successions of Bishops must in a short time have ceas'd and all the Livings depending on them must likewise have gone in course to maintain Popish Priests that is all the Deanries Dignitaries and most other Benefices 8. The Papists upbraided us with out want of Power and seem'd to laugh at the Snare into which we were fallen by means of our Popish King not considering that this proceeded from a manifest Breach of Trust and Faith in him and that the Case is the same in all Trusts if the Trustees prove faithless and even in all Popish Countries the Kings have the nomination of Bishops as well as in England and that the Succession of Bishops had almost lately failed in Portugal upon some difference between the King and Pope and the Advocate General of France Mr. Dennis Tallon tells us in 1688. that Thirty five Bishopricks being about a third part of the whole Number were vacant in that Kingdom on the same account
and Corn belong'd to Protestants by these and other such Contrivances from the year 1686. till King James's Power was put to an end by the Victory at the Boyn hardly any Protestant enjoy'd any Tythes in the Country all which was represented to the Government but to no purpose 7. In Corporate Towns and Cities there was a peculiar Provision made for Ministers by Act of Parliament in King Charles the Second's time by which Act the Houses in those Places were to be valued by Commissioners at a moderate value and the Lord Lieutenant or chief Governour for the time being did assign a certain Proportion for the Ministers maintenance not greater than the Twentieth part of the yearly value return'd by the Commissioners That therefore the City Protestant Clergy might not be in a better condition than those in the Country an Act was past in their pretended Parliament to take away this altogether the Clergy of Dublin desir'd to be heard concerning this Act at the Bar of the House of Lords before it past and their Council were admitted to speak to it who shew'd the unreasonableness and unjustice of it so evidently and insisted so boldly on King James's Promise to the Protestant Clergy at his first arrival in this Kingdom when he gave them the greatest assurances of maintaining them in their Rights and Priviledges and further bid them if aggriev'd in any thing to make their Complaints immediately to him and engaged to see them redrest that he seemed to be satisfied and the House of Lords with him yet the design to ruin them was so fixt that without offering any thing by way of Answer to the Reasons urged against it the Act past and thereby left the Clergy of the Cities and Corporate Towns without any pretence to a maintenance except they could get it from the voluntary Contributions of their People nay so malicious were they against the Protestant Clergy that they cut off the Arrears due to them as well as the growing Rent having left no means to recover them as appear'd upon Tryal at the Council-board afterward when some of the Clergy petitioned for relief therein 8. Upon the Plantation of Ulster 1625. there was a Table of Tythes agreed on by the King and Council and the Planters to whom the Grants were made by the King obliged to pay Tythes according to that Table the pretended Parliament took away this Table also for no other Reason that we could learn but because most of the Inhabitants of Ulster were Protestants and consequently the Protestant Clergy would pretend to them 9. The Livings of Ireland were valued by Commissions in Henry the Eight and Queen Elizabeths time and paid First Fruits and Twentieth Parts according to that valuation other Livings were held in Farm from the Crown and paid yearly a considerable reserved Rent commonly call'd Crown Rents others appertain'd to the Lord Lieutenant and other Officers of State and paid a certain rate of Corn for their use commonly call'd Port Corn. Now all these Payments were exacted from the Protestant Clergy notwithstanding the greatest part of their Tythes were taken from them The remaining part where any remained was seiz'd in many Places by the Commissioners of the Revenue and a Custodiam granted of it for the King's use for the payment of the Duties which accru'd out of the whole and not one Farthing allow'd for the Incumbent or the Curate nay in some Places they seiz'd the Incumbents Person and laid him in Jail till he paid these Duties though at the same time they had seiz'd his Livings and found that they were not sufficient to answer what they exacted and because the Clerk of the First Fruits Leiutenant Colonel Roger Moore being a Protestant himself would not be severe with the Clergy and seize their Livings and Persons to force them to pay what he knew they were not in a capacity to do they found pretence to seize his Person and sent him with Three Files of Musquetiers Prisoner to the Castle of Dublin where he and two Gentlemen more lay in a cold nasty Garret for some Months By these Contrivances the few Benefices yet in the hands of the Protestants instead of a support became a burthen to them and they were forced to cast themselves for a maintenance on the kindness of their People who were themselves undone and beggar'd SECT XVII 3. King James took away the Jurisdiction of the Church from Protestants 1. IT is impossible any society should subsist without a power of rewarding and punishing its Members now Christ left no other power to his Church but what is purely Spiritual nor can the Governours of the Church any other way punish their Refractory Subjects but by refusing them the Benefits of their society the Administration of the Word and Sacraments and the other Spiritual Offices annexed by Christ to the Ministerial Function But Kings and Estates have become Nursing Fathers to the Church and lent their Temporal power to second her Spiritual Censures The Jurisdiction therefore of the Clergy so far as it has any Temporal effect on the Bodies or Estates of Men is intirely derived from the Favour of States and Princes and acknowledged to be so in the Oath of Supremacy However this is now become a right of the Clergy by ancient Laws through all Christendom and to take it away after so long continuance must needs be a great blow to Religion and of worse Consequence than if the Church had never possessed it yet this was actually done by King James to the Protestant Clergy and is a plain sign that he intended to destroy their Religion when he depriv'd them of their support 2. For first he past an Act of Parliament whereby he exempted all that dissented from our Chruch from the Jurisdiction thereof and a Man needed no more to free him from all punishment for his Misdemeanors though only cognizable and punishable in the Ecclesiastical Courts than to profess himself a Dissenter or that it was against his Conscience to submit to the Jurisdiction of our Church nay at the first the Act was so drawn and past the House of Commons that no Protestant Bishop could pretend to any Jurisdiction even over his own Clergy but that and several other passages in the Commons Bills were so little pleasing to some who understood the King's Interest that Sir Edward Herbert was employed by King James to amend the Act for the House of Lords which he did in the form it is now in nothing of the Commons Bill being left in it but the word Whereas tho after all it effectually destroyed the Jurisdiction of the Church 3. But second in most places there was no Protestant Bishop left and consequently the Popish Bishop was to succeed to the Jurisdiction they being by another Act invested in Bishopricks as soon as they could procure King Jame's Certificate under his privy Signet that they were Archbishops or Bishops all incapacities by reason of their religion by any Statute
same any thing in this or the said Act of Repeal to the contrary notwithstanding And it is further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Letters Patents hereafter to be granted of any Offices or Lands whatsoever shall contain in the same Letters Patents a Clause requiring and compelling the said Patentees to cause the said Letters Patents to be enrolled in the Chancery of Ireland within a time therein to be limited and all Letters Patents wherein such Clause shall be omitted are hereby declared to be utterly void and of none effect Provided always that if your sacred Majesty at any time before the first Day of November next by Letters Patents under the Broad Seal of England if reâ—â—ding there or by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of Ireland during your Majesties abode here shall grant your gracious Pardon or Pardons to any one or more of the Persons herein before mentioned or intended to be attainted who shall return to their Duty and Loyalty that then and in such case such Person and Persons so pardoned shall be and is hereby excepted out of this present Act as if they had never been therein named or thereby intended to be attainted and shall be and are hereby acquitted and discharged from all Attainders Penalties and Forfeitures created or inflicted by this Act or the said Act of Repeal excepting such Share or Proportion of their real or personal Estate as your Majesty shall think fit to except or reserve from them any thing in this present Act or in the said Act of Repeal contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always that every such Pardon and Pardons be pursuant to a Warrant under your Majesties Privy Signet and Sign manual and that no one Letters Patents of Pardon shall contain above one Person and that all and every such Letters Patents of Pardon and Pardons shall be enrolled in the Rolls Office of your Majesties High Court of Chancery in this Kingdom at or before the last Day of the said Month of November or in Default thereof to be absolutely void and of none Effect any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided likewise that if any Person or Persons so pardoned shall at any time after the Date of the said Pardon join with or aid or assist any of your Majesties Enemies or with any Rebels in any of your Majesties Dominions and be thereof convict or attainted by any due Course of Law that then and in such Case they shall forfeit all the Benefit and Advantage of such Pardon and shall be again subject and liable to all the Penalties and Forfeitures inflicted on them and every of them by this or the said Act of Repeal as if such Pardon or Pardons had never been granted Provided always that nothing in this Act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to or vest in your Majesty any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments or other Interest of any ancient Proprietor who by the said Act of Repeal is to be restored to his ancient Estate but that all such Person and Persons and all their Right Title and Interest are and shall be saved and preserved according to the true Intent and Meaning of the said Act any thing in these Presents to the contrary notwithstanding Copia vera Richard Darling Cleric in Offic. M ri Rot. The Perswasions and Suggestions the Irish Catholicks make to his Majesty Supposed to be drawn up by Talbot titular Arch-bishop of Dublin and found in Col. Talbot's House July 1. 1671. 1. THAT the Rebellion in Anno 1641. was the Act of a few and out of fear of what was doing in England That they were provoked and driven to it by the English to get their Forfeitures That they were often willing to submit to the King and did it effectually Anno 1648 and held up his Interest against the Usurper who had murdered his Father till 1653. After which time they served his Majesty in Foreign Parts till his Restauration 2. That they acquiesce in his Majesty's Declaration of Novemb. 30. 1660. And are willing that the Adventurers and Souldiers should have what is therein promised them but what they and others have more may be resumed and disposed of as by the Declaration 3. They desire for what Lands intended to be restored them shall be continued to the Adventurers and Souldiers that they may have a Compensation in Money out of his Majesty's new Revenues of Quit-Rents payable by the Adventurers and Souldiers The Hearth Money and Excise being such Branches as were not in 1641 and hope that the one will ballance the other 4. They say That his Majesty has now no more need of an Army than before 1641 That the remainder of his Revenue will maintain now as well as then what Forces are necessary 5. They desire to be restored to Habitations and Freedom within Corporations 1. That the General Trade may advance 2. That Garisons and Cittadels may become useless 3. That they may serve his Majesty in Parliament for bettering his Revenue and crushing and securing the Seditious in all Places 6. They desire to be Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace c. for the Ends and Purposes aforesaid and to have the Power of the Civil and Ordinary Militia 7. They also desire to be form'd into a Militia and to be admitted to be of the standing Army 8. That their Religion is consonant to Monarchy and implicit Obedience That they themselves have actually serv'd his Majesty in Difficulties That they have no other way to advantage themselves than by a strict adherence to the King That they have no other Refuge whereas many of his Majesty's Subjects do lean hard another way 9. That the Roman Catholicks are six to one of all others that of the said one to six some are Atheists and Neuters who will profess the Roman Catholick Religion others devoutly given will affect the same course that the rest may have their Liberty of Conscience and may be corrected in case they abuse it 10. That the Roman Catholicks having the full Power of the Nation they can at all times spare his Majesty an Army of Sixty thousand Men there being Twelve hundred thousand Souls in Ireland and so consequently an Hundred and fifty thousand between sixteen and sixty Years old Which Forces if allowed to Trade shall have Shipping to transport themselves when his Majesty pleaseth 11. That they have a good Correspondence abroad for that great numbers of their Nation are Souldiers Priests and Merchants in esteem with several great Princes and their Ministers 12. That the Toleration of the Roman Catholicks in England being granted and the Insolence of the Hollanders taken down a Confederacy with France which can influence England as Scotland can also will together by God's Blessing make his Majesty's Monarchy Absolute and Real 13. That if any of the Irish cannot have their Lands in specie but Money in lieu as aforesaid some of them may transport themselves into America possibly
Encouragers and Abettors of them by an unpardonable neglect in the Execution of his Royal Orders And whereas the Issuing out Commissions of Oyer and Terminer in all the Counties of the Kingdom which was done some Months ago was judged by his Majesty with the Advice of his Privy Council the most Efficacious means to prevent and quash such horrid Disorders I. You are Ordered by his Majesty on sight hereof to let Me his Principal Secretary of State know what you can alledge to justifie your selves from the Imputation of having strangely Neglected all this time the Execution of your Commission which proves the chiefest Cause of this general Desolation of the Country II. You are Commanded by his Majesty to proceed without the least delay to the Execution of your Commission and send to me for his Majesties information a Weekly Account of your Proceedings III. That you Adjourn from one Week to another and at farthest not above a Fortnight IV. That you proceed with all Just Severity against such of the Justices of the Peace as have Bayled contrary to Law Malefactors And against all such as favour in any manner Robbers and Thieves V. That you proceed against all persons whatsoever who have given or will give any Obstruction to the Execution of your Commission And if they prove Officers of the Army or Absent so as you do not think fit to proceed against them that you forthwith send me an Account thereof VI. That you proceed with all Rigour against all persons found Guilty of Counterfeiting the Kings Coyn. VII And lastly That you Order all men to fall upon publick Robbers who have no regard of their Duty towards GOD their King or Country destitute of all sense of humanity and consider them but as wild beasts who live upon Prey and Rapine This is Gentlemen what I have at present in Command from his Majesty to send to you to which I will adde this Advertisement That you cannot light upon better Measures to Allay the KINGS just Resentment of your former Neglects the occasion of a world of Mischief then by a speedy and vigorous Execution of your Commission Let the present general cryes of the people for Justice and the present general Oppression under which the Country groans move you to have a Compassion of it and to raise in you such a publick spirit as may Save it from this inundation of Miseries that break in upon it by a Neglect of his Majesties Orders and by a general relaxation of all Civil and Military Laws Consider that our Enemies leaving us to our selves as they do conclude we shall prove greater Enemies to one another than they can be to us and that we will destroy the Country and enslave our selves more than they are able to do What Inhumanities are daily committed against one another gives but too much ground to the truth of what our Enemies conclude of us I had almost forgot a special Command of his Majesty that is That you will consider the Liberty of Conscience granted by Act of Parliament and to punish the Infringers of that Law who by an indiscreet and inconsiderable Zeal usurp his Majesties Prerogative not reflecting how much his Majesties and the Nations interest and not only the Religion of the Nation but the Catholick Religion in all the parts of Christendom is involved in a Religious Execution of that Liberty of Conscience Dublin-Castle Jan. 2. 1689. I am Gentlemen Your most humble Servant Marquis D Albaville To the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer for the County of Dublin or to any or either of them to be Communicated to the rest To the Lord Chief Justice Nugent No. 26. A Copy of a Petition of the Minister of Wexford for his Church and the Order thereupon To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of Alex r. Allen of Wexford Clerk Most humbly Sheweth THAT your Petitioner being Minister of the Parish Church of St. Iberius in the Town of Wexford hath therein for several Years past daily celebrated Divine Service and exercised all other Offices of his Function with Piety to GOD and constant Loyalty to your Majesty Yet Your Petitioner on the 25th of October last was Dispossessed of his said Church contrary to the late Act of Liberty of Conscience by Edward Wiseman Esq Mayor of Wexford who a few dayes after did not only by the Rabble introduced by him brake down and demolish all the Pewes and Altar of the said Church but did seize and unjustly deny your Petitioners Vestmonts Church Book and other Ornaments thereof to the great prejudice of your Petitioner and his Parishoners although your Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects have several Chappels fit for the free Exercise of their Religion both within and without the Walls of the said Town and whereunto several Protestant Inhabitants have given liberal Contribution Your Petitioner further sheweth That he the said Edward Wiseman as Magistrate of the Town of Wexford is obliged as usually it hath been by Act of Vestry to encourage and provide for the relief of distressed Orphans and other poor of the said Town of Wexford yet uncharitably refuseth to interpose his Authority in the behalf of such poor whereby they must inevitably perish if not speedily Relieved May it therefore please Your Majesty to Restore your Petitioner to his Parish Church which was never Forfeited by Absence or otherwise And that the said Edward Wiseman may be obliged to Repair it and leave it in the same condition he found it and that such care may be taken for Relief of distressed Orphans and other Poor from Famine as is usual And Your Petitioner shall ever pray c. At the Court in Dublin-Castle Jan. 28th 1690. Present the KING 's most Excellent Majesty in Council WHEREAS His Majesty is Informed upon Oath That Edw. Wiseman late Mayor of the Town of Wexford did Illegally seize upon the Parish Church of St. Iberius in the said Town of Wexford broke down the Pews and Altar of the said Church and detained the Vestmonts Church-Books and other Ornaments thereunto belonging His Majesty was Graciously pleased to Order Mr. Nicholas Stafford present Mayor of the said Town of Wexford forthwith to cause the said Church and Goods to be Restored to Alex r. Allen Minister of the said Parish in the same condition they were in when Seiz'd upon by the said Edward Wiseman Hugh Reily No. 27. Mr. Prowd Minister of Trim his Account of the Remarkable Accident that hapned upon Plundring the Church of Trim. SIR THIS will give you an Account of an eminent Instance of Gods Vengeance shewn on one John Keating a Church Rapparee who in the very act of Plundring and Breaking of our Church was struck with a sudden Madness in which he continued for the space of Three Weeks and that day three weeks he was struck Mad dyed in a sad and miserable Condition The manner of it was thus This Keating was a Souldier in the Lord of Kinmares