than a shifting excuse; for though P. Walsh and his brethren had been excommunicated by James de Ridderes, commissary general of the Franciscans in Flanders, for not appearing before him at a time prefixed, yet it was Peter Talbot and his adherents who promulged that excommunication in Ireland, and made it of effect by forbidding all persons to receive them into their houses, or to have any thing to do with them either in religious or civil matters. And the latter part of it was a mere calumny, for no particular crime or fact was ever objected against any of the poor sufferers, who were really men of learning, and exemplary in their lives and conversations. The lord lieutenant never gave himself the trouble of hearing the complainants, nor vouchsafed them the favour of an audience, which they earnestly desired; but contenting himself with receiving this apology from their enemies, transmitted it into England.

93 The excuse was not so readily admitted in the English council, where the duke of Ormond was present to refute it. P. Walsh was also at this time in London, and had presented his majesty with a petition in behalf of his brethren, representing their grievances, and beseeching his royal protection. The king had suffered enough in 418 the beginning of his reign from the turbulent spirit and furious proceedings of that part of the Irish clergy, who had renounced his authority to subject the kingdom to a foreign power, that he was ready enough to give credit to any accounts of their violence and insolencies. He sent fresh orders to the lord lieutenant to observe his instructions, to prosecute the anti-remonstrants, and to put a stop to their persecution of the loyal clergy. As the duke of Ormond's letter on this occasion to the lord chancellor gives some account of the condition of popery in Ireland when he left the government, it may not be improper to give it at length. It is dated on July 19, and runs in these words:

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"I suppose by this time his majesty's renewed pleasure for the protection of the remonstrants will have been received by my lord lieutenant, and pursued with that vigour and diligence, which to me the nature of the matter seems to require. It is, I confess, to me, and may in time appear so to others, that those, and those only, who have declared and subscribed to a declaration of their loyalty, should be suffered to be run down in Ireland, by a contrary party armed with foreign jurisdiction, contrary to laws ancient and modern, visibly dangerous to the interest of the crown, and against the king's express directions. I cannot on this occasion but mention to your grace the collection I sent you of the grievances of those poor men, which, if proved, will sufficiently manifest that the prosecution they suffer is only for their remonstrance and loyalty. And sure it ought and might easily have been tried, whether it could have been made good or no. Now it may be more difficult in that those men are become poorer, perhaps so poor that they are not able to attend their justification; which, give me leave to say, is not now of their lives and conversations, (with which we have little to do,) but of their doctrine. Your grace well knows that that sort of people never want calumnies to load those with that are not of their principles, or having been of them, quit them; which undoubtedly is now the case. Else was father Gernon removed from Dublin for his ill life, to make room for F. Tom Talbot, for the sobriety and sanctity of his? These, my lord, are subterfuges too gross to pass upon a state; and surely it is not the work of the government to capitulate with such a sort of people, as if they stood on even ground. When I left that kingdom all was quiet; the tide ran the right way; there were but one or two bedrid popish bishops in Ireland. Now the loyal are oppressed; the disloyal in power to suppress them. Every province hath a popish archbishop; and all this known and complained of to the right archbishops, as it ought to be by them to the chief goverPardon my zeal and freedom in this matter, with which you shall be no more troubled.

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nor.

"In a letter from F. Ant. Gernon to P. Walsh, he says, your grace told him, that for the generality of the remonstrants, or as such, you believed nothing would or could be done: but if any particular person of them had any thing to complain of, and could prove it, he might be relieved. I cannot but think Gernon mistook your grace; for though it is true, any subject of the

king's complaining is to have just relief; yet surely in this case particular persons are only considered by the king as they are of the number of the remonstrants, which gives them just title to the king's protection in a more immediate and peculiar manner, than as they are subjects at large. In short, if this be not more the king's business than theirs, they ought to be told so, and left to shift for themselves; which must be by complying with the most violent and disloyal. When they shall have done so, you will hear no more of their ill lives, nor ever again be able to make so useful a division amongst the Romish clergy."

96 The chancellor in his answer to the duke of Ormond 419 on the 30th of the same month, beseecheth the duke to believe, that if he did not serve the remonstrants so far as his grace desired, it was not for want of inclinations, but because it was not in his power:

97 "I am very sensible," says he, "of the great affront that is given the king's authority by the exercise of a foreign jurisdiction; and I am as sensible, that if this division which is made between the Romish clergy by P. Walsh's remonstrance be not pursued, it will be a very hard matter to find any new expedient that may prove as effectual to that purpose.

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This was truly the case; but whether the lord lieutenant had private instructions from the faction in power to the contrary, or whether it was the effect of his own. inclinations, he would never execute the king's orders. He did not scruple to declare his resolution, that he would take no notice of what had been sent him from the council of England, for it was a thing only procured by the duke of Ormond. He publicly complained of the duke's meddling in the matter, as if it was arraigning him of neglect in the duty of his post, which gave occasion to an expostulatory letter from his grace, in which, after stating the case, and how far he had been concerned in it, (as hath been here represented,) he concludes in this

manner:

99 "And now, my lord, that you may not judge me to be impertinent in my interposition in this matter, and in your govern

ment, give me leave to tell you, why I take myself to lie under more than the ordinary obligation of a counsellor to mind his majesty of the remonstrators, and to endeavour to free them from the slavery and ruin prepared for them for that reason, however other pretences are taken up. Some of these very remonstrators, and others of their principles, are and were those who opposed the rebellious violence of the nuncio and his party, when the king's authority, then in my hands, was invaded, and at length expelled that kingdom; for which they suffered great vexation in foreign parts, when the fear of the usurpers had driven them out of their own country. These are the men, who on the king's return in their remonstrance disowned the doctrine, upon which those proceedings of the nuncio were founded; and these are the men very particularly recommended by the king to my care and encouragement, during all the time of my government. And now I leave it to your lordship to judge, whether in duty to the king, with safety to my reputation, or in honesty to them, I can receive so many complaints of oppression from them as I do, and not endeavour, that at least they may quietly enjoy their share of that indulgence, which his majesty vouchsafes to others of their profession, free from those disturbances which are given them upon that account by those who abetted the contrary proceedings. I have drawn this to a greater length than is necessary, being directed to one so reasonable as your excellency; but it is my desire to acquit myself from the imputation of so mean a thing as seems to be laid to my charge, and to shew that in this matter I have done nothing but what may consist with my being, as I am,

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"Ormond."

The lord lieutenant was not moved by any thing that could be said in favour of the remonstrators, to interpose his authority in their behalf. They were left to shift for themselves, and to be crushed in the end by the power and violence of their adversaries. Peter Talbot and his colleagues were allowed to go on securely in the exercise of a foreign jurisdiction, and to reunite all the Irish papists under the direction of spiritual guides, that considered the pope as the supreme judge of conscience, and

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the only sovereign to whom their allegiance was due, 420 even in temporal matters. Whilst they were divided, the duke of Ormond was sure that no design to the disturbance of the public peace, no plot for a rebellion, could be carried on by them, but he should have early intelligence of the conspirators and their motions; but their union put them again into a capacity of concerting measures, with as much secrecy as ever, against a government which they did not think themselves obliged to obey whenever the pope should command the contrary. The suffering of this union to take place, however it was intended, does not seem calculated to advance the king's service, though it might possibly answer the designs of those who wanted to embroil England, and thought no way so likely to do it with success, as by raising disturbances in Ireland.

Nor was this indulgence of the Romish ecclesiastical jurisdiction the only favour indulged the Irish; it was soon after followed with orders for their admission to inhabit and trade in corporations. Whether this was done in virtue of that power which lord Berkeley was soliciting earnestly at this time for settling corporations, seems uncertain, because it does not appear to me that he obtained it, though he complained heavily that a difficulty was made to grant him an authority which had been intrusted to the duke of Ormond, when after the restoration it was thought necessary for the security of the state to purge the seaports and other great towns of those fanatics and Cromwellians, that had intruded themselves into the magistracy and government thereof during the times of usurpation. But as the admission of the Irish into those corporations was certainly done at this time, I have taken notice of it, because their being there was afterwards objected to the duke of Ormond, when he returned to the government, though it was done when others had the administration of the affairs of the kingdom. And I