A N HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL REVIE W OF THE CIVIL WAR S IN IRE L AN D. 66 The State of the Irish under king James I. SOME few years before queen Elizabeth's death, king James was at the utmost pains' to gain the friendfhip of Roman catholic princes, as a neceffary precaution to facilitate his acceffion to the English throne. Lord Home, who was himself a Roman catholic, was entrusted with a fecret commiffion to the Pope; the archbishop of Glafcow, another Roman catholic, was very active with those of his own religion. Sir James Lindsay made great progrefs in gaining the English papists." And as it feems to have been part of that king's policy, in order to pave the way to his fucceffion, to waste the vigour of the state of England by some insensible, yet powerful means," he had his agents 1 Robertfon's Hift. of Scotland, &c. 2 Secret Correspondence between King James and Sir Robert Cecil, p. 75. agents in Ireland fomenting Tirone's war," ("the Scots daily carrying munition to the rebels in Ulfter.") So that the queen was driven to an almost incredible expence in carrying it on, and her enemies ftill encouraged by James's fecret affiftance and promises. 3 b "It is certain," fays Mr. Ofburne," that the promife, king James made to Roman catholics, was regiftered and amounted so high at least, as a toleration of their religion.' "Of these intrigues, queen Elizabeth received obfcure hints from feveral quarters." Her majesty in a letter to the king himself in 1599, gave him to underftand, "that there were many letters from Rome and elsewhere, which told the names of men, authorifed by him (tho' fhe hoped falfely) to affure his conformity as time might ferve, to establish the dangerous party, and fail his own." 3 Ofburne's Works. 4 Robertson ubi fupra. The * And this wicked policy had its full effect; for we find that in the year 1602," the queen had a fharp encounter with fecretary Cecil, about the poverty of the state. She was made to fear all kinds of distress, that want in the subject, and excess of charges to the state, is likely to bring her to: they (Cecil's enemies) fought to make thofe suspected who perfuaded the Irish war, and thofe either negligent or corrupt, who conducted it; putting a firm conceit, and not improbable, as it is set out in colours, that the Irish war, being the chiefeft drain of her confumption, is fortified, and fed for other men's particulars." Secret Correfpondence, &c. p. 75. "After Tirone's return from rebellion, he told Sir Thomas Philips and many others, that if his fubmiffion had not been accepted, he had contracted with the Spaniard to fortify two or three places in the north, where his allies and friends in the Scottish ifles fhould, and might with eafe, relieve and supply him." Harris Hibernic. part i. fol. 130. b"The queen's charge for Ireland," fays Morriffon, "from the 1st of April 1600, to the 29th of March 1602, was two hundred and eighty-three thoufand, fix hundred and feventythree pounds nineteen fhillings and four-pence halfpenny." Hift. of Ireland, fol. 197. The catholics, in the different provinces of Ireland, were, on James's acceffion, fo much elated with the hopes of the above-mentioned toleration, and had taken up fuch an opinion that the king himself was a catholic, that they ran into fome exceffes, which have been fince unfairly reprefented by adverse historians, as fo many overt acts of treafon and rebellion. For, on that mistaken notion, they exercised their religion publicly, and even feized on fome churches for their own ufe. The mayors of Cork and Waterford are faid to have refufed to proclaim the king, because • There never were more glaring instances of royal hypocrify exhibited by any prince, than frequently appeared in James I. thro' the whole courfe of his reign. His feeming favour towards, or enmity againft, his Roman catholic fubjects, was always regulated by fome prefent intereft in view. In the year 1616, in compliance with the request of his puritanical parliament, he thus ridiculously expreffes his fentiments, with respect to the punishment he would have inflicted on popish priests: "I confefs," fays he, "I am loath to hang a priest only for religion-fake, and faying mafs: but if he refuses to take the oath of allegiance (which, let the pope and all the devils in hell fay what they will, yet, as you find by my book, is merely civil) thofe that fo refufe the oath, and are polypragmatic, I leave them to the law: to them I join those that break prison; for fuch priests as the prifon will not hold, 'tis a plain fign nothing will hold them but the halter." Speech in the Starchamber. Yet in the year 1622, when he had a favourite point to carry (the marriage of prince Charles) at a popish court, he told his council in a public fpeech, "that the Roman catholics of England had fuftained great and intolerable furcharges, impofed on their goods, bodies and confciences, during queen Elizabeth's reign, of which they hoped to be relieved in his : that now he had maturely confidered their penury and calamities, that they were in the number of his faithful fubjects, and that he was refolved to relieve them.' Sir Peter Pett. Oblig. of the Oath of Supremacy, fol. 338. In king James I.'s reign, even chief justice Coke maintained publicly at the trial of Mr. Turner, that popery was one of the feven deadly fins. And Bacon on the fame occafion, then attorney general, and afterwards chancellor, took care to obferve, that poifoning was a popish trick. Stowe tells us, that when 1 because they did not proclaim him precisely at the time appointed by the deputy; and the citizens of Cork would not, it seems, fuffer the king's munition and artillery, which was entrusted to their keeping, to be conveyed to a new fort, built within their franchises, but against their confent. But we can easily make it appear, that these paffages admit of a much more favourable interpretation, than that which has been given them. For it is not furely probable, that men who had preserved their allegiance under a fevere perfecution of their religion, during all the time of queen Elizabeth's reign, would, without any new cause, all at this king came to Newcastle, on his first entry into England, he gave liberty to all the prisoners, except thofe confined for treafon, murder and papistry. Such, fays my author, were the bigotted prejudices which prevailed in this age." See Hume's Hift. of Eng. vol. iv. p. 84. Lord Mountjoy, in a letter to the fovereign of Wexford, acquaints him, that whereas they excused their erecting of popifh rites, by the report they had heard of his majesty's being a Roman catholic, he could not but marvel at their fimplicity." Morrif. Hift. fol. 287. And in a letter to the mayor of Cork he fays, "I am given to understand that you have fuffered the public celebration of the mafs to be fet up in your city, of your own fancies; and I affure you, contrary to the religion which his majefty zealoufly profeffeth." Morrif. ib. fol. 288. Indeed his majefty's notions in that respect, feem to have been, on fome occafions, perfectly wild and romantic: for in one of his public fpeeches we find the following strange declaration addreffed to the papifts: " ye are intolerably filly," faid he, "for thinking that the government of your fouls was committed by God to the pope. For my part, I fwear, and call God to witnefs, that if I had found out now, after all my deep ftudy, daily reading, frequent conferences and disputations with learned men, and my most intense meditation on all I have read and heard, that the pope was Chrift's vicar on earth, and that the fame authority which Chrift delegated to Peter, defcended to him, I would not only turn papift, but would also kill any king, whofe fubject I was, that perfecuted or oppofed the popith religion, if the pope commanded me to do fo." Porter. p. 270. Had his majesty been fincere in this speech, is it credible that he would have fuffered any perfon to live in his dominions, who really believed the pope to be Chrift's vicar on earth, (as 6 at once become rebels to a prince, from whom they hourly expected a toleration of it; and whom they generally believed to be privately of their own way of thinking in that refpect. They excufed their delay in proclaiming the king, by affuring his excellency, that it was occafioned, "only by their defire of doing it with the greater folemnity;" which excufe appears to have been accepted; for when they had, foon after, proclaimed his majefty, in the folemn manner they intend ed, Lord Mountjoy told them," " that in regard of their joyful and folemn way of doing it, he was willing to interpret their actions to the beft, and took their good performance for an excufe." And as to the hindering the munition and artillery to be carried to the fort, they alleged, 8" that the fort was commanded by a perfon, who had, on feveral occafions, fhewn great contempt and enmity to their city; and that the foldiers there had offered them many abufes, fhooting at their fishermen, and at the boats fent out for provifion; and ufing them at their pleasure." And they made it their request to his excellency, that, as the fort was built within their franchises, they might have the keeping of 6 Morrif. Hift. 7 Id. ib. & Id. ib. it (as all Roman catholics do) and who confequently must be fuppofed capable and ready to execute that, by the pope's command, which he himself thus folemnly declares he would do, in confequence of fuch belief. In the eleventh year of this king's reign, " "John Boys, D. D: dean of Canterbury, gained great applaufe by turning the Lord's prayer into the following execration, when he preached at Paul's cross on the fifth of November. "Our pope, which art in Rome,, curfed be thy name, perifh may thy kingdom, hindered may thy will be, as it is heaven, fo in earth. Give us this day our cup in the Lord's fupper, and remit our monies, which we have given for thy indulgences, as we fend them back unto thee, and lead us not into herefy, but free us from mifery; for thine is the infernal pitch and fulphur, for ever and ever. Amen." Grainger's Biograph. Hift. of England, vol. i. p. 356. Such was then, the almoft incredible malignity and rancour against popery, that fo prophane and ridiculous a travesty fhould be celebrated, as a performance of fingular merit, in a dignified protestant divine. |