Favourable circumstances at the King's accession. Popish disturbances notwithstanding. Proclamation of Indemnity and Oblivion. Efforts of the Jesuits and Seminary Priests. Trial and conviction of Robert Lalor. Progress of Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, through three Counties of Ulster. Sir John Davies's account of their condition.

THE first occurrences, in the reign of King James the First, relative to the state of religion in Ireland, afforded an ill omen of future tranquillity to the Church, notwithstanding many circumstances conspired to render probable a more peaceable state of things. The royal family of the Stuarts, from whom the new king descended, was partly of Irish blood: and the sovereign himself was not only of Irish extraction, but of the royal line, and entitled by the Irish law to be King of Ireland. Thus the jealousy, which the natives had entertained of the English domination, was calculated to be allayed by the consideration of their now becoming the subjects of their rightful hereditary king.

The state of the country also was such as to pre

Natural connex

ion of the king

with Ireland.

State of the

country favourable to tranquillity.

Question concerning the obedience due to a Protestant king.

Irritation conscquent in the

answers of the universities.

1603.

clude the apprehension of fresh outrages for the present. The great lords had submitted to the royal authority; the number of native Irish had been greatly diminished by their many, prolonged, and obstinate rebellions: the remainder in the rural districts were in such a condition of poverty, that the men of property had not wherewithal to stock or cultivate their land, nor had any improvements left upon their estates, except perhaps a dismal castle and a few pitiful cabins. Such a miserable condition of things required a long interval of rest and peace for its amendment: and gave additional ground of expectation that people would live peaceably and loyally under a new king of their own favourite lineage.

But a question had been submitted to the universities of Salamanca and Valladolid, "Whether an Irish Papist may obey or assist his Protestant king?" And this question had been about this time resolved by them in the negative by the two following assertions: "1st, That since the Earl of Tyrone undertook the war for religion, and by the Pope's approbation, it was as meritorious to aid him against the hereticks, as to fight against the Turks." "And 2nd, That it was a mortal sin in any way to assist the English against him; and that those, who did so, could have neither absolution nor salvation, without deserting the hereticks, and repenting for so great a crime'."

This new declaration, aided by the activity of their restless priests, threw the Irish Papists again into a state of irritation; which showed itself first at Cork on the arrival of the commissioners, who had been sent thither by the Lord Deputy, the Lord

1 Cox's History, vol. ii. 3.

Cork;

Mountjoy, in common with the other cities and boroughs, to make proclamation of the accession of King James. After some apparent hesitation and Disturbances at delay on the part of the mayor and his brethren, in allowing the proclamation to be made, they in the end assumed an attitude of decided resistance, hostility, and rebellion; and took military measures for setting up their religion by force. In pursuance of this object, they carried the cross in procession about the city, and forced all persons to reverence it; they ejected the ministers of the reformed faith from their churches, defaced the sentences of Scripture which were written on the church walls, and painted the places with pictures; they re-consecrated the churches, and went daily in procession; they seized those religious houses which had been converted to civil uses; they paraded the city in attendance on the ecclesiasticks, who led them on clothed in the habits of their respective orders; they also took the sacrament to spend their lives in the defence of the Roman Catholick religion; they disarmed such Protestants as were in their power, shot at the episcopal palace and threatened to murder the bishop, and actually killed a Protestant minister; and having been taught by a seditious priest, "that he could not be a lawful king who was not approved by the Pope, nor sworn to maintain the Catholick religion," they took a resolution in publick council to excite the other cities and towns to confederate with them for the preservation of the Catholick faith.

Other cities and towns showed symptoms of the same rebellious and anti-Protestant spirit. At Waterford, they pulled down their Recorder from At Waterford; the cross, where he was reading the proclamation of the king's accession: they broke open the doors of

Wexford;

At Limerick;

the hospital, and admitted a Dominican friar to preach a seditious sermon in St. Patrick's Church, where among other injurious aspersions on the late queen, he said, "That Jezebel was dead." They also took the keys of the cathedral from the sexton, and caused a priest to celebrate mass there. The At Clonmell and towns of Clonmell and Wexford, were not free from the like insolences; but being weaker and less populous, they became sooner sensible of their danger, if not of their fault, and more promptly restored the churches to the Protestants. Limerick, on the other hand, was one of the most forward and daring in the insurrection, and gave the priests the possession of all the churches, where they erected altars, and publickly celebrated mass. The religious at Kilkenny were not less precipitate and arrogant than their brethren elsewhere. A Dominican headed the sedition in that city; and broke open the Blackfriars, which had for some time been used as a court-house, and pulled down the seats, and erected an altar, forced the keys of his house from the occupier of that part of the abbey, and gave possession of the whole abbey to the friars, although by Act of Parliament it had been turned into a lay-fee, and by legal conveyances became the property of others.

At Kilkenny.

Lord Deputy's

progress through the disturbed districts.

These rebellious proceedings rendered it necessary for the Lord Deputy to undertake a progress into Munster. Waterford, after ineffectually claiming some privilege founded upon an ancient charter, tamely opened its gates: having previously sent a young Dominican friar, to discourse with his lordship in matters of religion, and to explain the grounds and reasons of their proceedings; when the friars had the confident audacity to come in their habits,

with the crucifix exalted before them, and to tell the Lord Deputy, "That the citizens of Waterford could not in conscience obey any prince that persecuted the Catholick faith."

tranquillity.

After sending a letter to Cork, announcing his Restoration of approach, in which, amongst other things, he charged them on their allegiance "to desist from publick breach of his majesty's laws in the celebration of mass prohibited by the same, and to yield due obedience to his magistrates," he was received into Cork also without resistance, where the inhabitants, as well as those of Waterford had been, were compelled to take the oath of allegiance, and to abjure all foreign dependencies. He did the same at Limerick, and thence proceeded to Cashel, where he understood that a certain priest had bound a Protestant goldsmith to a tree, and threatened to burn him and his heretick books; that he had really burned some of the books, and kept the man in that miserable condition for six hours, expecting every minute that fire should be set to the fagots; nothing, however, is recorded of his punishment, so that the criminal appears to have made his escape.

indemnity and

Thence the Lord Deputy returned to Dublin, Proclamation of where, in the hope of quieting the people, and lay- oblivion. ing them under an obligation to loyalty, and inducing them to an industrious, peaceful, and regular mode of life, he issued a proclamation of general indemnity and oblivion; and restored all persons, not attainted, to their former possessions; and prohibited private actions for trespass committed during the war. Acting on the same principles as his deputy, the king was induced to show marks of favour to some of the Irish chiefs; and by these 2 Cox, ii. pp. 4-8.