THE ANSWER OF A PERSON of QUALITY To a Scandalous LETTER Lately Printed and Subscribed by P. W. Intituled A Letter desiring a just and merciful Regard of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland given about the end of October 1660. to the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond and the second time L. Lievtenant of that Kingdom DVBLIN Printed by I. C. Anno Dom. 1662. The Answer c. HAving lately seen a Printed Paper the Title whereof is A Letter desiring a just and merciful regard of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland given about the end of October 1660. to the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond and the second time L. Lievtenant of that Kingdom Subscribed by P. W. And finding it in effect whatever the words of it are extremely undutiful to his sacred Majesty very disrespectful to the Duke of Ormond L. Lievtenant of Ireland and most scandalous not onely to the Protestants of Ireland but also to those of the same Religion in his sacred Majesties other Kingdoms I have esteemed my self obliged as a faithful subject to the King as an humble servant to the L. Lievtenant and as a son of the Protestant Church whose Members are as highly as falsly asperst by it to expose in print an Answer to that Letter which before I enter upon I will onely say P. W. professing not a little to be his Graces servant if he meant not this Letter as a respect to his Grace why was it written if he did why was it printed But P. W. despairing to receive from his Grace the effects of his unjust desires for his Countrey-men chose this way to acquaint them 't was not for want of his sollicitation He would let them see since he could not make them beholding to My L. Lievtenant that they were so to him Since I shall often have occasion to name IRISH PAPISTS I have thought fit here once for all to declare That I mean not thereby in all or any part of my Answer any of those Worthy Persons of that Nation and Religion who have still faithfully served the King whose merit I highly respect and the more because it has been preserved from infection even in a very Pest-house nor any of those who having been truly sorrowful for it and in the constancy of their subsequent services to his Majesty have washt themselves clean For I take a perfect delight in any change from bad to good and I heartily wish that every one of them had not so much indangered their being polluted again as interceding and pleading for their guilty Countrey-men does amount unto Having thus made this necessary digression I shall now proceed The parts separate of this Letter are three First a Preface Secondly a Petition Thirdly a Conclusion or concluding Wish P. W. prefaceth First the Fears and Iealousies of those whom he calls the Catholicks of Ireland Secondly His own affection to and confidence in his Grace the Duke of Ormond Fears and Iealousies are no less than must in reason be expected in the Generality of the Irish Papists For though the goodness and indulgence of the best of Kings may make their condition safe yet the conscience of their own guilt will never suffer them to be secure Pretended Fears and Iealousies were the Forerunners if not Causers of Troubles past I hope P. W. intends them not as such for Troubles to come Fear is founded on at least attended with Hatred and if one of the Best of his Majesties Servants one of the chiefest of his Ministers be thus 1. Vniversally 2. Intensly fear'd and therefore 3. hated 4. as P. W. says by his own Countrey-men but let all that P. W. prints stand or fall as this last particular is true or false for his Grace is neither his Countrey-man by birth Religion or any other relation to which that Name is appliable yea 5. by his own Fiduciares as is expressed in the Printed Letter If I say all this be not true why does P. W. say it if it be true what can others expect For if the flame be so in the green Tree what will it be in the dry The Irish Papists in their former and later Apologies for the horridest of Rebellions have not to this very day within any of his Majesties Dominions even pretended publickly any other cause for their Rapines Murthers Massacres and Treasons but what resolves it self into Fears and Ielousies And if their Passions be the same it is to be fear'd their Wills are not alter'd And if their Wills be the same nothing under God can prevent the effects but want of strength Especially considering that 1. in 1641. no such antecedent animosities or hatreds had prepared matters for Fears and Ielousies as by the worst of Rebellions is now become even nationally violent but by the way it seems to me somewhat hard that those which give the rise for the Cause should first cry out in the Effects 2. In 1641. these Fears and Ielousies if really in any were but in a Few but now P. W. confesseth That they have seized upon almost all the Nobility Gentry and others yea the Generality of the Catholicks of Ireland even the constant Believers of passionate Sticklers for and fastest Friends to his Grace the Duke of Ormond and this so intensly that it produceth the loss both of Faith and Hope Here it may well be observed what temper they are of whom P. W. pleads for Ielousies Fears and want of faith are so inseparable from them that those in 1641 were onely said to be derived from his Majesties Enemies but now all such by the mercy of God being blown away they are derived from his Majesties chief Minister of State of this Kingdom and who is made such as P. W. saith and as I most heartily acknowledg by his own great deserts What is it can suppress the Fears and Ielousies of P. W's Countrey-men when his Majesties free Election of a chief Governor and such a one as the Duke of Ormond is cannot do it This acknowledgment of P. W's fully proves that the Irish Papists Fears and Ielousies of the chief Governors of this Kingdom in 1641 were onely taken up by those and not cause given for them by these The plain English is this though his Majesty should from time to time nominate for Lord Lieutenant of this Kingdom the wisest and the faithfullest of his Subjects yet because the King commissionates them or because they are such or both many I wish I could not say most of the Irish Papists will be jealous and fearful of them Concerning P. W's affection to and confidence in his Grace the Duke of Ormond exprest by several instances of free and frequent access to him of his and others reliance on his word of his daily care and trouble to support his esteem and of blaming distrusters as guilty of ignorance of State affairs and the Intrigues obstructing as yet or of inconsideration of those wiser ways though slower than folly or rashness could chalk
more in their esteem Gossiping fostering to the Publick Peace by their as flourishing so free condition and to all by those Royal Graces which his sacred Majesty at that time indulg'd their Commissioners such as themselves could desire 't was then but ask and have yet all this honey turn'd into gall for at that very time in which the King was exercising such high acts of Grace to them the Irish Papists plotted and soon after perpetrated the worst of Rebellions the worst extensivè exulcerating generally and intensivè breaking forth with more perfidy barbarism and cruelty than can be parallel'd in any History 6. Principles of Religion ingage English Protestants to submit to the King as Supreme but Principles of Religion ingage Irish Papists to advance as Supreme a Forreign Prince and limits all their obedience with a Saving to the pretended Apostolick See Certainly his Majesty may expect more future obedience from Protestants whose consciences ingage them to Loyalty than from Irish Papists whose consciences are ingaged to the Pope Can his Majesty trust them if they be not faithful to their Conscience-ingagement and if they be can he trust them when their Consciences ingage them to his Enemy The next sort of Arguments respect some special Cases as 1 of the Transplantation 2 of the Corporation Concerning the Transplantation P. W. peremptorily concludes That it cannot be continued on account of their Crimes since 1648. nor stand with the Articles or with the equity of the Laws much less with the Iustice of the Prince 1. This Conclusion without any proof with the same facility as it is said may be gainsaid 2. The foundation of those Articles and consequently the Articles themselves are thrown down by the Irish Papists wherefore it matters not as to his Majesty what can or cannot stand with them 3. Many other Countreys and Ages have formerly on less grounds used Transplantation and been justified therein as just and equal by Lawyers and Casuists 4. Observe his Sacred Majesties Royal and Fatherly indulgence even to those Irish Papists who being Innocent sued out Decrees and obtained possession of Lands in the Province of Connaught and County of Clare First Positively for though they had bound themselves up therein by their own Act in which though his Majesty saith in the 14 page of his Gracious Declaration of the 30 of November 1660. We might without any injustice deny to relieve them yet his Clemencie is so great That in the same 14 page of his said Declaration he breaks those fetters which they had bound themselves in and orders them to be restored unto their former estates Secondly Comparatively his Majesty uses those innocent Irish Papists with more tenderness than even those which He honors with the high Title of his Friends in England and Ireland as appears in the 18 and 19 pages of the said Declaration For though such are not to expect that his Majesty should pay back to them the Moneys they were compelled in the evil times to disburse for their Compositions the payment whereof they would have avoiden had it been in their power as much as the Irish Papists would have avoided their Transplantation yet his Majesties Friends are not relieved from their own Act when the innocent Irish Papists are relieved from theirs 5. Observe the insolency of P. W. for though his Sacred Majesty in Council by his said Declaration published to the world in print declared that some other transplanted Irish are to stand bound by their own Act and not to be relieved against it yet P. W. is so far from acknowledging and magnifying his Majesties Mercy in using the innocent Irish Papists with more favor than even those happy persons whom his Majesty honors with the high title of being his Friends that P. W. peremptorily says viz. The Transplantation cannot be continued on account of their crimes since 1648. nor can it stand with the Articles or with the equity of the Laws much less with the Iustice of the Prince 6. That the Justice of his Sacred Majesty in Council may appear to be such in not breaking so much of the Transplantation as is confirmed by the said Declaration I desire these following particulars may be throughly considered 1 If such transplanted Irish Papists into Connaught and Clare should plead that the Force of the late horrid Usurpers constrained them to go thither in person I answer yet no Force lay upon them to sue out Decrees and obtain possessions of Lands there in liew of their former forfeited Estates in the other Provinces And it is onely in point of Land that the said Transplantation is continued so that their doing of what they could not avoid is not made conclusive to them but onely their doing of that which they could avoid and yet sollicited and brought to effect is made binding to some of them To which I shall add that those to whom it is made obliging are onely such as having no title to innocency for all Innocents are freed from Transplantation have no title to any of their former Estates And therefore this confirming of them in the compensation of that to which they had no right should invite them to acknowledg his Majesties Mercy which yet P. W. in their behalf exclaims against as injustice 2 Though all these guilty Transplanted Irish have forfeited their right to the Articles extorted from his Majesty in 1648. and though by those Articles had they been as punctually observed by them as they have been generally and often violated by themselves yet his Majesty was not obliged to hinder them from making an unequal bargain or exchange for those their forfeited Lands which by his mercy they were restored unto nor to confirm to them those Lands which they sued for in satisfaction of their former Estates yet his sacred Majesty confirms to them in confirming their Transplantation those Lands which they themselves had obtained from the Usurpers as a compensation for the Lands they left and to which they had not the least shadow of a Title because they had broken yea often if not always the said Articles of peace vouchsaved to and extorted by them in the year 1648. 3 The persons themselves who are transplanted have by their publick Agents made the continuance and settlement of the Transplantation the subject matter of several Petitions and Addresses to the RVMP therefore as for them to decry it now argues in them a fuller readiness to obey Force than Right so the continuance of it being in effect but a granting of their own desires and petitions they can justly blame none but Themselves To prove the truth of this I shall set down the Titles and chief Heads of two petitons presented to the RVMP The one is in print and thus addressed To the Supreme Authority the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England c. The humble Petition of Sir Robert Talbot Baronet and Garrot Moor Esq on the behalf of themselves and the distressed Irish Submittees
Recognition and that their Ruling Power published the Breach thereof to the world as is evident by their Declaration of the twelfth of August 1650. so by many other insolent violations though His Majesties Grace and Mercy hath indulg'd to the particular actings of many Individuals yet in relation to those Articles or an account of any Obligation in Iustice due to them they are not to be regarded Yet his sacred Majesties justice to and tenderness of the said Irish Papists has abundantly appeared not only in his having in person still heard them upon the said Articles of Peace but also in giving them near 2 years time to prove all they pleaded and so long left the Kingdom unsettled that they might be fully heard in all their Allegations nay even by his giving Them a liberty which never yet was given to any even a free sight of the Bill of Settlement which was humbly presented to Him by the Lords Justices and Council pursuant to Poynings Law and a full liberty to make all the objections they could against it which yet they have been so far from acknowledging as an effect of his Royal Care and Indulgence that in all their Answers which I have diligently perused I do not find so much as a bare taking notice of that unpresidented Favour But possibly since by that Indulgence their guilt has been but the more evidenced they untruly consider the consequences of that mercy to be what only was intended in the extending of it and therefore were loth to pay his Majesty thanks for what has but more discover'd their Crimes But yet this is but proportionate to the rest of their proceedings for since they call his sacred Majesties mercy an injustice they may at the same rate decline paying Acknowledgments for his condescentions to them Having thus proved that the Peace was broken by the Irish Papists after it was made I shall now say something to prove that it was DESIGNEDLY broken BEFORE IT WAS MADE If by a previous Ingagement and Oath the Irish Papists confirmed their first confederacie not to be dissolved by the Peace which then they seemingly pursued If they combin'd to make themselves IVDGES of his Majesties Actions and to appeal to themselves upon every Occurrence that they should be inclinable to misinterpret notwithstanding their Protestations of obedience to his Majesties Authority then I conceive the whole peace thereby is on their part made void and null But that they did so is clearly evident and that by an OATH solemnly taken not by private men or a factious party but by all the Prelates Noblemen and Gentlemen that were the Grand Committee upon concluding the said Peace That in case of non-performing of the Articles thereof that is to say If all the particulars therein were not carried on according to their liking they were to continue the Association and Vnion of Confederate Catholicks and to do ALL Acts preservative thereunto In this place it seems to me requisite to let the Reader know what that Vnion and Association of the Confederate Catholicks was which they swear to continue which I shall instane in somce particulars out of their own Originals now remaining on Record In the first Roll they swear in these very words viz. I A. B. do promise protest and swear before God and his Saints and his Angels That I will during my life bear true Faith and Allegiance to my Soveraign Lord Charles by the grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland and to his HEIRS and lawful Successors and that I will to my power during my life defend uphold and maintain all his and their IVST PREROGATIVES Estate and Rights the Power and Priviledges of Parliament of this Realm the Fundamental Laws of Ireland and the FREE EXERCISE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICK FAITH AND RELIGION THROUGHOUT THIS LAND and the Lives just Liberties Possessions Estate and Right of all those that have taken or shall take this Oath and perform the Contents thereof and that I will OBEY and RATIFIE all the ORDERS and the DECREES MADE and TO BE MADE by the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom concerning the said publick Cause And that I will not SEEK or RECEIVE directly or indirectly ANY PARDON or protection for any Act DONE or TO BE DONE touching the General Cause without the consent of the Major Part of the said Council and that I will not directly or indirectly do any Act or Acts that shall prejudice the said Cause but will to the hazard of my life and estate assist prosecute and MAINTAIN the same Moreover I do further swear That I will not accept of or submit unto ANY PEACE made or to be made with the said Confederate Catholicks without consent and approbation of the General Assembly of the said Confederate Catholicks and for the preservation and strengthning of the Association and Vnion of the Kingdom that upon any peace or accommodation to be made or concluded with the said Confederate Catholicks as aforesaid I will to the uttermost of my power insist upon and maintain the ensuing propositions until a peace as aforesaid be made and the matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of peace be ESTABLISHED and SECURED by PARLIAMENT So help me God and his holy Gospel In this their first Confederacie Oath they swear flat and known contradictions for they swear to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the King and with the same breath they swear they will obey and ratifie all the Orders and Decrees made and to be made by their supreme Council who had then actually cast off the Kings Authority and set up a Government in opposition to his Majesties It had sure been at least enough to swear to obey and ratifie all Orders and Decrees they had made without increasing that guilt by the high accession of swearing to obey and ratifie all to be made by the Supreme Council Herein they show what the POPE is to them in Spirituals their Supreme Council is in Temporals whom they obey with a blinde and implicite Faith They swear also to maintain the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom and in the same breath they swear to maintain the free exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion which is expresly against Law as it is that any should govern the Kingdom but by his Majesties Authority which they assumed and usurped in all the essentials of it nay not onely the matter of the Oath is against those Laws they swear to maintain but even the taking or imposing of any Oath which by Law is not warranted is a violation of the Laws But they are so far from owning these their Crimes that they swear they will not seek or receive directly or indirectly any pardon or protection for any thing done or to be done touch-this General Cause c. They can be content to seek and receive a Pardon from the POPE for sins to come but they swear they neither will seek or receive directly or indirectly
they had no ground nay not so much as a colour for it 2. In the year 1646 and after a peace concluded with them they attempted by a Treachery not to be parallel'd by any but themselves to cut off the Lord Lieutenant and Army with him who marched out of Dublin on security and confidence of that peace 3. The same year the Council and Congregation of the confederate Catholicks of Ireland obliged their General Preston by a solemn Oath in these very words viz. To exercize all acts of Hostility against the L. Marquess of Ormond by name and his party and to help advise with counsel and assist in that service the L. General of Vlster employed in the same expedition This Oath is a fruitful Theme to declame upon but I will limit my observations upon it onely to these following particulars 1. Least any should doubt they are his Majesties Subjects least any of themselves should repent the sin of not having been such they swear that they may raise their crimes above pardon to exercize all acts of Hostility against his Majesty in the person of that noble Lord who had then as now the high honor to represent him If killing be an act of hostility they in this Oath swear to kill him if this be not actual Regicide I am sure 't is not their fault that it is not This horrid Oath takes off all disguises and makes their sin as visible as great And if such a Crime be capable of accession it did contract it by the same persons engaging privately about the same time as I have been assur'd by an undeniable Testimony That he would serve the King which he afterwards endeavour'd to excuse onely by saying His Army was not Nuntio-proof By which it appears indisputably whether the Irish Papists are Subjects to the King or to the Pope 2 Instead of repenting and making amends for the late violated peace in the year 1646 they swear to destroy him with whom they had made it 3 This Oath reduc'd the taker of it to a sad Dilemma either to Rebellion or Perjury 4 This Oath evidences that nothing is so powerful with the Irish Papists as to destroy his Majesties Government since the uniting of the Old Irish Papists and the Old English Papists which the Pope himself could not effect the dethroning of his Sacred Majesty has accomplish'd They that could never agree in any thing else agree in this and 't is made the very Bond of their iniquity I will say no more on this subject but that Herod and Pilate could be friends when it was to crucifie Christ. 4. In the year 1647 from Kilkenny Ian. 18. the Popish Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of the confederate Catholicks of Ireland employ Commissioners to Rome France and Spain to invite a forreign power into Ireland particularly to Rome their titular Bishop of Ferns and Nicolas Plunket Esq who was Knighted by the Pope for his good service therein and is now one of the confident Advocates for the Irish Papists as defenders of his Majesties Rights and against the Protestants of Ireland as deserters of the Royal Cause these I say were authorized to declare viz. That they raised arms for the freedom of the Catholick Religion which are their own very words in the third Article of those their Instructions In their Remonstrance in the begining of the Rebellion whatever they said necessitated some few discontents to take up arms then they took off the vail and positively said That they raised arms for the freedom of the Catholick Religion Certainly if ever they may be believed to speak true it is when they speak to the POPE and if ever any thing may be believed to be the voice of all the Irish Papists it is when the Popish Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of the confederate Catholicks speak in one Assembly What is meant by the Freedom of the Catholick Religion has been practically expounded by the Professors of it in Ireland not onely affirmatively that those which are of it should enjoy the publick and undisturbed exercize thereof themselves but negatively to be an exclusion of the publick if not private exercize of the True Religion Many instances I could present the Reader of this but I shall onely set down two The 1. is Dean York a reverend Minister of Gods word during his residence at Gallway was not allowed to pay the last duties of Christian burial to those Protestants which died in that Town but was forced to bury them nay his own children privately in his Garden The 2. is That my L. Duke of Ormond though owned by the Irish Papists to be the Kings L. Lieutenant and consequently representing his Sacred Majesties person was still denied the use of so much as one Church or Chappel wherever the said Papists had the power nay one of the Generals of the Irish PAPISTS now living told my L. Lieutenant at Kilkenny That if the King in person came into Ireland he should not be allowed by them One Church to celebrate his Devotions in to whom his Grace made a return proportionate to the disloyalty of that Declaration and part of that return being prophetical and since fulfilled I shall here insert the words viz. I hope to live to soe all of that mind to be without one Church in Ireland to say Mass in By these two instances it is evident That the direct meaning of those words The Freedom of the Catholick Religion is no other than the total banishing out of this Kingdom the exercize of the Religion established in it by Truth it self and by the good and wholsom Laws of the Land 5. In another part of the third Article of the said Instructions these very words are inserted viz. The cofederate Catholicks do intend that you let his Holiness know their resolution to insist upon such Concessions and Agreements in matters of Religion and for the security thereof as his Holiness shall approve of and be satisfied with This palpably evinceth that the Papists of Ireland being Subjects or Rebels depends wholly upon the Popes pleasure For let his Majesty grant them what he will yet his pretended Holiness's approbation must be the rule by which onely they will be bound And this is made most evident by the words of the nineth Article in the said Instructions which follow in these words viz. In case his Holiness will not be pleased to descend to such Conditions as might be granted in matters of Religion then you are to sollicit for considerable aids whereby to maintain a war and to ascertain and secure the same c. And soon after in the same nineth Article these words follow viz. You are to make application to his Holiness for his being Protector of this Kingdom and by special instance to endeavor his acceptance thereof c. Still the Pope is their King and that he may be so almost in name as well as in power they sollicit him by special instance to accept
that Title under which he might act that power so that it is not the Confederate Catholicks fault if a PROTECTOR were not in Ireland before the Sectaries had set up one in England Nay their Commissioners then sent to France and Spain were required in case of the Popes refusal of being their Protector to offer it to either of those Kings nay to any Popish Prince from whom to use their own words they might have most considerable aids In effect they are willing any one should govern them but he who onely had the Right to do it But yet as becomes obedient sons of the Church of Rome the Pope has the advantage of the preemption It appears the Irish Papists hang as their Faith in God so their Loyalty to their Prince on the Popes sleeve and certainly it is not probable that those should defend his Majesties Right over whom 1 a forreign Prince 2 such a forreign Prince as considers His Majesty as an Heretick and consequently an enemy hath full power and 3 That power on the strongest account even that of Conscience and Religion In the year 1648 another Peace was concluded with the Irish Papists but after that they disowned disobeyed opposed conspired to murther excommunicated and banished his Majesties Viceroy as appears by the former instances In sum when the power of Ireland was in the hands of the Irish Papists they design'd and endeavour'd to betray it to Forreigners But when in the hands of the Protestants of Ireland they absolutely and without antecedent conditions submitted it and themselves to his Sacred Majesty As to their fighting against the Regicides I answer 1. Vitious extremes are not onely opposite to virtue but also one to the other Papists and Sectaries oppose each other and both the Protestants 2. The Spaniard and the Dutch fought against the Regicides yet neither of them in the day of Tryal proved themselves friends to his Majesties Rights 3. 'T is the Cause not the Suffering onely which makes the Martyr 't is not the fighting but the ground and end of the fighting which proves which is the good Subject and of that let even P. W. judg by the former Instances The last Argument pretends to commutative Justice and is usher'd in by a comparison and preoccupation The former thrice pressed way of comparison is yet propounded here again but with less injustice here than before the comparison before was between Papists and Protestants here between Papists and Presbyterians Anabaptists Quakers Fifth Monarchy men Independents To which I shall onely say Whatever tenents opposit to Regal power may be found among any Sectaries are if not learn'd from I am sure taught by the Romish Schools Papists and Sectaries like Sampsons Foxes are tyed by their tails though their heads be divided their way may seem contrary but they all tend to the same end the ruine of the Corn-field As P. W. ushers in his Arguments on one side with a comparison so on the other with a preoccupation relating to the power of those which he calls Adversaries and declareth it to be no greater than his Majesty is pleased to make it To the truth of this Declaration the Protestants of Ireland freely consent professing to the world that though their Army is such as sufficed to subdue the Irish Rebels when universally confederated throughout the Kingdom and supplied by Forreigners with Money Arms and Ammunition and strengthen'd with no less than the Popes blessing and Nuntio yet their power consists not in Arms or Armies Fortifications or Men but in loyalty and obedience to his Sacred Majesties Commission and Authority and is consequently as P. W. says no greater than his Majesty is pleased to make it And since this is the true State of the Protestant both principle and interest As in truth it is even their Adversary being their Judg 't is likely therefore that P. W. declares they are his Adversaries for I believe his Friends are other guess men But doubtless those are fittest to be trusted with power who are no stronger by it even by their enemies acknowledgments than He which gives it is willing to make it than those who never had power but what they forc'd from his Majesty and who never employ'd that power the whole stream of their own actions being their Judges but against that Sacred Majesty from whom they wrested it The Arguments following plead Iustice and that Iustice grounded on the Articles of 1648. and judged by the sad consequences threatned on the breach thereof whether we regard men or God Though concerning the Articles of 1648 enough hath been instanced already yet to leave P. W. without occasion of Cavil it will not be unfit to add somewhat more here 1. The Contents of those Articles are in themselves unwarrantable except in case of Necessity which hath no Law 2. The Condition of those Articles whereon they were principally if not onely founded hath been often and intirely violated by the Irish Papists The Contents of those Articles are unwarrantable unless in case of necessity because they are contrary to an higher obligation according to the Rule both of publick and private justice 1. His Majesty at his Coronation binds himself to God to govern these Kingdoms according to their respective Laws and let P. W. himself consider how agreable it is to Law or publick Justice that the Militia Treasury an Army of fifteen thousand Foot two thousand five hundred Horse of Irish Papists and even in effect the Legislative power it self should be in the hands of twelve men to be chosen by Irish Papists or that there should be no alteration in England of what they in Ireland should think fit to transmit to his Majesty for the settlement of that Kingdom or even that the Irish Rebels should be pardoned without the consent of Parliament when his Majesty in Parliament the seventeenth year of his Reign adjudged such pardon before conviction to be null and void hereby even when they treated with his Majesty concerning the affairs of this Kingdom assuming the Legislative authority of it by repealing the Statute made the 10. of Henry the VII commonly called Poynings Law and the explanatory Law thereof in 3. and 4. of Philip and Mary And though hitherto they chiefly pleaded before his Sacred Majesty in Council but for so much benefit of the Articles of peace in 1648 as would restore them to their forfeited Estates yet if they had prevailed therein upon the score of that plea it must in consequence have adjudged for them the benefit of all the other Articles as a right For if any of those Articles are due to them by an obligation of Iustice all are then due to them by the same obligation and since as appears by his Majesties Gracious Declaration in Council of the 30 of November 1660. that they have no right to any of their forfeited estates nor any title but what his Majesties mercy and bounty hath vouchsafed safed to diverse of them it
a Pardon for nay not so much as a Protection from his Majesty for sins past without the consent of their Supreme Council This is a fine bearing Faith and Allegiance to the King this is a good upholding and maintaining the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom They swear too that these Acts of highest Rebellion they will to the hazard of their Lives and Estates assist prosecute and maintain But they proceed further for they swear not to accept of or submit to ANY PEACE made or to be made without the consent and approbation of the General Assembly of the said Catholicks ANY PEACE that is let the Conditions be never so good let the Person that grants them be the King Himself they will not accept of it they will not submit unto it without c. If the King would so far forget those signal Crimes which made them need his Pardon and Protection and would not so much as name them but make a Peace with them as if they had never done any offence yet they swear that not one of them shall accept of or submit to such a Peace but as is before expressed nay to show how perfect a ROMISH Confederacie it is if any Individual should be struck with the horrour of his Crimes he cannot fly to the Kings Mercy for Pardon or Protection without Perjury And to inveagle such as had not then been polluted with those sins they swear to protect all such as shall enter into their guilt and thereby in consequence threaten to ruine such as shall not This is admirable bearing true Faith and Allegiance to the King and maintaining the Laws of the Kingdom But this is not all for they further swear in these words viz. For the preservation and strengthening of the Vnion of the Kingdom upon any peace to be made or concluded with the said confederate Catholicks as aforesaid They will to the uttermost of their Power insist upon and maintain the ensuing Propositions until a peace as aforesaid be made and the matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of peace be established and secured by Parliament The first Proposition to which this Oath relates and to which it is annexed is expressed in these words viz. That the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity in their several capacities have the free and publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh or other Catholick King his Predecessours Kings of England and Lords of Ireland or in England That is to say That none should be admitted to live in Ireland but Papists for none or very few but such were in the Reign of those Kings in Ireland The second Proposition mentioned follows in these words viz. That the secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Archbishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Prebendaries and all other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and all persons of the secular Clergy and their respective successours shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Iurisdictions Priviledges and Immunities in as full and ample manner as the Roman Catholicks secular Clergy had or enjoyed the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late King Henry the Seventh sometime King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power or Authority whatever to the contrary notwithstanding That is to say Their Wills must be the Law and since they think fit to set up POPERY in Ireland and to banish the true Religion out of it it is but requisite they should take the maintenance from the Legal and give it to the Titular Clergy And least we should doubt this to be the true meaning of the second Proposal they clearly explain it in the fourth which follows in these words viz. That the Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Chancelours Treasurers Chaunters Provosts Wardens of Collegiate Churches Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and other Pastors of the Roman Catholick secular Clergy and their respective successors shall have hold enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample manner as the LATE PROTESTANT CLERGY respectively enjoyed the same on the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1641. together with all the profits emoluments perquisites liberties and the rights of their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in places now in possession of the Confederate Catholicks as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said Confederate Catholicks from the adverse Party within the Kingdom SAVING to the said Roman Catholick Laity their Rights according to the Laws of the Land That is to say Our Clergy shall have All therefore yours can have nothing this is a perfect Fifth-Monarchy Principle for here Dominion is onely founded in pretended Grace none being to have the benefit of the Laws of the Land but the Papists Nay his Sacred Majesty because a PROTESTANT is as such denied any one of those Rights which the meanest of the Irish Rebels because a PAPIST is to enjoy as such and lest their words for it should not be taken they confirm it with an OATH The Legal and Orthodox Clergy of Ireland may see in this what goodly Provision had been made for them and their respective Successours if this pious Roman Catholick Confederacy had succeeded But least this their first Oath of Confederacie might be thought a thing they were surprized into in the first heat and fury of the Rebellion and least the takers of it should forget what the Imposers of it would have them believe they were bound unto by it some time after premeditately and in cool blood they caus'd it a second time to be taken in terminis and subscribed with a preamble to it the close whereof runs in these Words viz. And for that it is requisite that there should be an unanimous consent and real union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the premises and strengthen them against their adversaries it is thought fit by them that they and whosoever shall adhere unto their party as a Confederate should for their better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the publick Cause take the ensuing Oath viz. I A. B. c. In the begining of the said Preamble they give the priority and precedency of place to the Defence of their own Estates and Liberties to that of the defence of his Majesties Regal Power Prerogatives Honour State and Rights That is to say They will mind themselves before the King which they fully explain in the third Oath of their Union and Confederacie which after their rejection of the Peace concluded with them by his Majesties Authority they entered into took and subscribed and which follows in these words viz. I do swear and protest that I will adhere to the present Vnion of the Confederate Roman Catholicks that REJECTED THE PEACE lately agreed
it in Ireland had been LOST but also this Kingdom had been LOST to the Crown of England for the said Irish Papists were to have held what they then rebelliously possest till their Articles of Peace had been establish'd and secured by Parliament and if they could have had a Parliament such as they designed all the Kingdom would in effect have been theirs by Authority of Parliament so that either way they had secured themselves as much as their CONFEDERATED WISDOMS could project But since the most essential parts of the Articles of Peace were to be finally obliging but as they were to be confirm'd by Act of Parliament in the next Parliament which should be assembled after the perfecting the said Articles let P. W. remember this present Parliament is the first that has been call'd together in Ireland since the conclusion of the Peace and let him see in the GREAT BILL OF SETTLEMENT how far the Parliament thinks fit to put their sanction to those Articles If P. W. should say This is not such a Parliament as his Countrymen intended at and before the making of those Articles I shall joyn with him in his saying thereof and shall onely add That GOD AND HIS SACRED MAJESTY be praised it is not such a Parliament I must desire the Readers excuse for these digressionâ— which I thought necessary that he might the better know even out of the Originals of the Papers of the Irish Papists what kinde of Parliament that was by which they had designed to establish and secure the Articles of their Peace as also what that Association and Vnion of the Confederate Roman Catholicks is which their Grand Committee swore to continue and to return unto upon the concluding of the Peace in 1648. in case they themselves judged the Articles thereof at any time unobserved unto them I wish the said Irish Papists think not themselves TO THIS DAY bound by it nay I wish they do not think it INDISSOLVEABLE This horrid Oath of the Grand Committee before-mentioned is now so undeniable though it was then manag'd in the dark and carried on with all possible secreeie that it was by all their Titular Bishops in their published Excommunications against the Lord Lieutenant interpreted and insisted on as a most CONSCIENTIOVS engagement to invite all their Nation to a disobedience of his Majesties Authority whereby they have not onely argued themselves guilty of the greatest unworthiness and treachery men could possibly be faulty in they have not onely forfeited all that Grace and Favour which could be intended them by that Peace and invalidated all the Articles of it but they have likewise continu'd to themselves the guilt of their Rebellion and Confederacie to this present DAY and lie obnoxious to the utmost penalty of the Law for the same unless his Majesties Mercy be greater then their Crimes and consequently P. W's causeless curses and threatnings are not to be feared Those Threatnings respect MEN The Irish Papists The Judicious Protestants Those Threatnings respect GOD. First P. W. tells us that the hearts of the Irish Papists would by such proceedings be estranged from his Majesty The sense whereof is that the Irish will follow the King for nought but the LOAVES nay it had been happy for Ireland if the very Loaves themselves would have prevented their hearts from being estranged but 't is morally impossible while such a National and Religional distinction continues The experience of the last Rebellion if no other proof thereof had been evinceth the estrangedness of the Irish Papists to be such that the Interest in them of the greatest Nobleman in Ireland when for the Crown is not so considerable as a popish priests against it Wherefore the estrangedness P. W. mentions must still be expected but with this difference That the BEAST if pamper'd will Kick if kept low OBEY Secondly P. W. fore-tells that the Iudicious Protestants will on such proceedings be perpeturlly jealous notwithstanding any Declaration from Breda or Acts from Westminster Though P. W. may be a true Seer of the estranged hearts of the Irish papists yet I dare charge him to be a false Prophet concerning judicious protestants for though they duly value his Majesties Declarations and Acts of Grace as signal Expresses of his Goodness yet their confidence rests on the inward principle in his Majesties Brest whereto without such Expresses or Articling or capitulating for such as the Irish papists did they freely submitted and are more confirm'd by their late experience to continue in that duty But if in P. W's judgement the ungrounded apprehension of any violation or breach of promise may estrange the hearts of the Irish papists from his Majesty whom they are bound in conscience to love honour and obey notwithstanding miscarriages in Government and if the like apprehensions may cause jealousies in judicious protestants notwithstanding Declarations and Acts of Parliament let it not seem strange or hard at least to P. W. and his Countrymen if a continued Series of Covenant-Breaches Rapines Murthers Massacres Crueltys Perfidies Treasons and Rebellions exercised by the Irish papists against the Crown and protestant Religion raise jealousies in the hearts of all judicious Protestants Or if his Majesty be pleas'd on these accompts in his great Iustice Wisdom and Goodnsss to restrain them from further ruining others first and then themselves The Crown hath often lost by Credulity what it hath got by Valour it hath lost by pretence of Peace what it had gain'd in open War The Kings interest in France was thus lost the GOD of peace prevent the like in Ireland The consequence threatned in respect of God are dreadful judgements such as P. W. confesseth to have bin wonderfully inflicted on the Irish Nation for their breach of the peace in 1646. and such as were inflicted on Sauls house for his breach with the Gibeonites I see the best Wits have not always the best Memories else P. W. would have remembred the breach made by his Nation in 1641. and since 1648. as well as in 1646. for those doubtless were as criminal as this but possibly he thinks it was more sin for his Country-men to violate what they oblig'd themselves to as a FREE STATE then what they were oblig'd to do as SUBJECTS and therefore thinks their sins in 1646. were greater then in 1641. But if all were pardoned by the peace made in 1648. why does he remember the Judgements for the breaches in 1646 if he thinks all were not why does he not remember the breaches made in 1641. and at least attribute some of those Judgements to that breach But I had almost forgot what perhaps P. W. may plead in answer to my Objection and that is no less then the POPE's BULL of indulgence and pardon published in Latin in Ireland and thus carefully for so much of it as follows translated into English URBANUS OCTAVUS Ad futuram rei memoriam Having taken into our serious consideration the great Zeal of the
Irish towards the propagating of the Catholick Faith AND THE PIETY OF THE CATHOLICK WARRIORS IN THE SEVERAL ARMIES OF THAT KINGDOM which was for that singular fervency in the true worship of God and notable care had formerly in the like case by the Inhabitants thereof for the maintenance and preservation of the same Orthodox Faith called of old THE LAND OF SAINTS and having got certain notice how IN IMITATION OF THEIR GODLY AND WORTHY ANCESTORS they endeavour BY FORCE OF ARMS to deliver their thralled Nation from the Oppressions and grievous Injuries of the Hereticks wherewith this long time it hath been afflicted and heavily burthened and GALLANTLY do what in them lyeth TO EXTIRPATE AND TOTALLY ROOT OUT those Workers of Iniquity who in the Kingdom of Ireland had infected and always striven to infect the Mass of Catholick purity with the pestiferous Leaven of their Heretical contagion WE THEREFORE BEING WILLING TO CHERISH THEM with the gift of those Spiritual Graces whereof by God we are ordained the onely Disposers on earth by the mercy of the same almighty GOD trusting in the authority of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and by vertue of that power of binding and losing of souls which GOD was pleased without our deserving to confer ' upon us To ALL and EVERY ONE of the faithful Christians in the aforesaid Kingdom of Ireland NOW and FOR THE TIME MILITATING AGAINST THE HERETICKS and other Enemies of the Catholick Faith they being truly and sincerely penitent after confession and the Spiritual refreshing of themselves with the sacred Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ DO GRANT A FULL AND PLENARY INDULGENCE AND ABSOLUTE REMISSION FOR ALL THEIR SINS and such as in the holy time of Iubilee is usual to be granted to those that devoutly visit a certain number of priviledged Churches within and without the walls of our City of Rome by the tenour of which present Letters for once only and no more we freely bestow the favour of this absolution upon all and every one of them and withal desiring heartily all the faithful in Christ now in Arms as aforesaid would be partakers of this most previous Treasure To all and every one of the aforesaid FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS We grant licence and give power to chuse unto themselves for this effect any fit Confessor whether a secular Priest or a regular of some Order as likewise any other selected person approved of by the Ordinary of the place who after a diligent hearing of their Confessions shall HAVE POWER TO LIBERATE AND ABSOLVE THEM from Excommunication Suspension and all other Ecclesiastical Sentences and Censures by whomsoever or for what cause soever pronounced or inflicted upon them as also FROM ALL SINS TRESPASSES TRANSGRESSIONS CRIMES AND DELINQUENCIES HOW HAINOUS AND ATROCIOUS SOEVER THEY BE c. Dated at Rome in the Vatican or St. Peters Palace the 25th day of May 1643. and in the 20th year of our Pontificate M. A. MARALDUS This BULL of Indulgence and Pardon of the Pope either is an answer to my question or it is not if P. W. should say it is not an answer to my Question then it remains still in force if P. W. should say that it is an answer to my Question then I desire the unbyass'd Reader to consider whose Subjects the Irish papists are For His late Majesty of Glorious Memory under His Great Seal declares in these very words viz. We do extremely detest the ODIOVS REBELLION which the Recusants of Ireland have without Ground or Colour raised against Vs Our Crown and Dignity But the Pope by his Bull calls that Rebellion of the Irish Papists an imitation of their godly and worthy Ancestors with this farther addition That the said Irish Papist GALLANTLY do what in them lieth TO EXTIRPATE AND TOTALLY ROOT OUT THE PROTESTANTS who he is pleas'd to call Workers of Iniquity Nay his Holiness proceeds farther for being willing to cherish them in their Rebellion he dispenses to them the gift of spiritual Graces of which he says he is under GOD the onely Disposer on earth and therefore grants them a full plenary indulgence and absolute remission for all their sins trespasses transgressions crimes and delinquences how hainous and atrocious soever they be If the Pope's power over the Irish Papists be so great I shall not wonder their obedience to the King is so little neither shall I admire that Rebellions have been so frequent in Ireland for the time past nor doubt they will be as frequent for the time to come if the strength of the Irish Papists proportions their inclinations if the said Papists consider fighting against the Kings Authority is Merit and dying in that Quarrel is MARTYRDOM Their propensity to the sin of Rebellion needed not those two double incentives to it viz. If they succeed HEAVEN and IRELAND is theirs if they succeed not HEAVEN is theirs His Sacred Majesty will have but little hold of men who are acted by such Principles and by such beliefs I desire also it may observ'd this BVLL was sent them in May 1643. at which time the Irish Papists were in the height of their Rebellion for they then had neither Cessation or Peace to plead which might intitle them so much as to the Name of Subjects It may be also this Pope's made them the more cheerfully swear neither to seek or receive directly or indirectly a pardon from a King I hope the Reader will also observe that the designe of the Irish Papists by their Rebellion what ever they pretended for it was no less then TO EXTIRPATE AND TOTALLY ROOT OUT THE PROTESTANTS and this attested by the POPE himself which he calls a GALLANT ACT and an imitation of their GODLY ANCESTORS which proves that General if not Vniversal Massacrings has not been onely the attempted sin of the Irish papists of this Age but had descended to them by inherritance and some wish it may not be convey'd to their Posterities 'T is likewise worthy the Readers observation Though his Sacred Majesty might warrantably have done unto those Irish papists what they would have done to the protestants and though persons of such bloody principles and designes as the POPE owns the said Irish papists to be and incourages them to persevere in with assurance of pardon here and Heaven hereafter are not very likely to be obedient Subjects to the King or good Neighbours to their fellow Subjects yet not one of them suffers meerly for his Religion and many of them though guilty are pardon'd and restor'd This practically and clearly shows the difference between the true mother and the false mother as also how much more consonant to CHRIST's Doctrine and Practise the HEAD OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH does act then the HEAD OF THE POPISH CHURCH does act and MAN can in nothing be so well like unto GOD as in being merciful as GOD is merciful But for all P. W's fencing I am confident were his Country-men as fully pardoned