several lords and gentlemen, and was received with much greater magnificence than he had hitherto seen in Ireland. Here as elsewhere, the local notables who visited him, complained bitterly of the misery and waste of the country by their great men, and begged for an English force to protect them, and English Sheriffs to execute the laws, offering to surrender their lands and hold them of the queen. The letter mentions amongst his visitors the Bourkes, Supples, Purcells, the "Red Roches," and divers original Irish, as O'Moylan, Mac Brien, Ogoonah, MacI Brien Arra, O'Brien of Aherlow, on the South side of the Shannon, and many other personages of distinction. The Earls of Ormond and Upper Ossory also waited on him, the latter of whom he had left governor of the English Pale during his absence, and found kept in good order. Ulick and John Bourke, sons of the Earl of Clanrickarde, also waited on the Deputy, having received their pardon and being ordered to meet him at Galway. The Earl of Thomond, the letter continues, and all the principal gentlemen of his name, though enemies to each other, with two Lords in Thomond called Macnamara, also came and made the same complaints as the others; but the counties of Kerry and Tipperary being Palatinates the Lord Deputy did not visit, "but thinks that no perfect refor mation could be in Munster until these grants were resumed"-so far Sir Henry Sidney's letter. The palatine authority here referred to was about this period pleaded by the Earl of Desmond, who had been nominated one of the Council of Sir William Drury, who in the year 1576, was appointed Lord President of Munster on the return of Sir John Perrott to England, as a preliminary step towards the reform of the Province. The new President proceeded to extend his jurisdiction into Kerry, notwithstanding Desmond's plea and subsequent appeal to the Chief Governor; and there, after a short struggle with the Earl's followers, he proceeded at once to execute the law without any further obstruction.

In the year 1576, Thomond according to the annals of the Four Masters was separated from Connaught and joined to Munster. The annals for the year 1577, which is memorable for the massacre of the men of Leix and some of the Keatings at Mullaghmast by the English, aided, some say, by the O'Dempseys, mention a visit paid to Thomond at this period by the Lord President, accompanied by a great multitude of the English and the chiefs of the two provinces of Munster, on which occasion he held a court for eight days at Ennis, and "the Dalgais having refused to become tributary to their sovereign, he left," says the annalist, "a marshal with a vigorous and merciless body of troops to reduce them. The President then returned to Limerick, and proceeded to behead the chieftains and rebels of the districts adjacent to Limerick: amongst these was Murrough the son of Murtough, son of Mahon, son of Donough, son of Brian Duv O'Brien, the most renowned and noble of the heirs of Carraigh O'Coinnell and Eatherlah," now Carrick O'Gunnell and the Glen of Aherlow, in the county of Tipperary.'

In this year Thomas Leary, Catholic Bishop of Kildare died in banishment. The Earl of Thomond, Conor O'Brien, in the same year, according to the annals of the Four Masters, went to England to complain to the queen of his distresses and oppression, and obtained a charter of his territory and towns, and also a general pardon for his people. He received great honor

and respect from Elizabeth, but he was disappointed in his expectations that thenceforward his territory would be free from the unjust jurisdiction of the Marshal, who before the Earl's return had imposed a severe burden on the people, so that they were obliged to become tributary to the sovereign, paying ten pounds for every barony. "This" adds the annalist "was the first tribute paid by the Dalcassians." For they had been free from tribute before the English invasion, and they had resisted the payment of tribute up this

year.

In 1579 Thady Daly, a Franciscan of the convent of Askeaton, was executed in Limerick for the faith. Edmond Donnelly, of the Society of Jesus, a native of Limerick, after suffering different torments, was hanged and quartered in Cork.'

In the same year Nicholas Stritch, Mayor of Limerick, presented Sir William Pelham the Lord Justice with a thousand citizens well armed; with these forces Sir William marched to Fanningstown, where he was presented with letters by the Countess of Desmond, to excuse her husband for not obeying the Lord Justice; these were filled with evasions and trifling excuses. Desmond was proclaimed a traitor, and the army was ordered to enter his country with fire and sword, if he did not within twenty days, surrender. In their progress they hanged the Mayor of Youghal at his own door.2

In this year was fought the celebrated battle of Manister or Monasternenagh, five miles to the north-west of Bruff-a battle of which such singularly discrepant accounts have been given by O'Daly in his History of the Geraldines, and by Camden. The latter, who has been followed by Ware, Cox, and Leland, asserts that Sir John of Desmond was defeated with the loss of two hundred and sixty of his army, together with the famous Dr. Allen the Jesuit who was left dead on the field. Allen and Sanders, the Jesuit and Papal Legate, had arrived from Spain at Smerewick, on the coast of Kerry, in the previous year, with three ships, men and money, &c. O'Daly, who mentions the loss of Thomas Geraldine, Johnston, and Thomas Brown, Knight, says nothing about Allen. The Irish force assembled here by Sir John Fitzgerald, brother of the Earl of Desmond, consisting of 2000 Irish and Spaniards, headed by Father Allen, and aided by the abbot of the monastery, were attacked by Sir William Malby at the head of 150 cavalry, of 600 infantry, and defeated with great slaughter, including a great number of the Clann-Sheehy.

The Irish were well commanded by Spanish officers, and fought with such fury that the battle was a long time doubtful. The Earl of Desmond, who, with Lord Kerry, had viewed the action from the neighbouring eminence called Tory Hill, on perceiving the result, retired into his strong castle at Askeaton, where Malby remained nearly a week, the Geraldines every day threatening to give him battle, though they did not do so.3 Malby destroyed the monastery of that town, and then proceeded to Adare, where he remained, subjugating the people of that neighbourhood until he was joined by Sir William Pelham the newly patented Lord Justice, the Earl of Kildare, and the Earl of Ormonde. During the engagement the Irish and Spanish soldiers took shelter in the abbey of Monasternenagh, which suffered greatly from the

Rothe's Analecta.

2 Ware's Annals.

3 Annals of the Four Masters.

4 Ibid.

fire of the English cannon, the refectory and cloisters being destroyed, and the surrounding walls razed to the ground, so that the monastery, though it survived until the dissolution, never recovered its original importance. It was here that a horrible slaughter was made of the Cistertian monks by the murderous soldiers of Malby, who cut the throats of those defenceless recluses, and perpetrated the most revolting atrocities. The Desmond castles, garrisoned by the English after this battle, were Loughgur, Rathmore, Castlemorrison, Adare, and Kilmalloch.

MARTYRDOM OF BISHOP

CHAPTER XVI.

HELY AND FATHER O'ROURKE.-CONTINUED
ATROCITIES.

THE Earl of Ormond, in the same week, made a chieftain's first expedition into the territory of the Geraldines, and proceeded as far as Newcastle West in the county Limerick, whence he carried off all the flocks and herds in the country that he could seize upon, but he returned back without receiving battle or conflict, because that at that time the Earl of Desmond was with his relatives in Kerry.2

The martyrdom of the holy Bishop of Mayo, Patrick Hely, and his companion, Father O'Rourke, occurred in this year at Limerick by the order of the Deputy, soon after his visit. Pope Gregory had earnestly recommended Father Patrick Hely to his flock in Ireland, on account of his "incredible zeal," and had him consecrated Bishop of Mayo. After a certain number of days the Holy Father, having provided him with whatever he required, sent him forward, recommending to him the care and spiritual health of the faithful in this country. The pious bishop proceeded on his journey, and having arrived at Paris he remained there for seven or eight months, where he spent his time, partly in the convent of his own order, and partly in the city itself; and, says my authority, he did not do so without meriting the hearty commendations of all who approached him, as he was not only an example but a perfect mirror for every one to see himself, not as he was, but as he ought to be; and who was not only admirable for his talents and virtues, but in whom, charity, in particular, burned so strongly, that he may have been said to have been a warming "sun" (helios), who was not deterred by the most imminent dangers from studying the salvation of the Irish. He held a public

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth a part of the army entered the monastery of Nenay, or Maigue, sometimes called Commogue (see White's MSS.), in the county of Limerick, of the order of St. Bernard, and because the abbot and his monks would not renounce the Catholic faith, he and forty of his monks were put to death and afterwards beheaded, and that in the church in presence of the Blessed Sacrament. This happened on the 14th of August, the eve of the Assumption, says Broduinus. Angleus Manriquez and Chrisostome Henriquez tell a curious story about an old monk, the only one left alive by the victors, who, they state, entered the choir weeping copiously, and found all his murdered brethren with a bloody mark round their throats, and with crowns on their heads and palms in their hands, singing the usual vespers, Deus in adjutorum, &c.

Annals of the Four Masters.

* Thomas Bourchier de Martyrio Fratrum Ordinis Minorum Ingolstad, 1583.

thesis in Paris, in which he manifested, in the most indisputable manner, the wonderful resources of his great intellect, in which, not only in the abstract sciences, but in the varied range of controversy and logic, he shewed a superior genius, astute, vigorous, complete, deficient in nothing that constituted the perfect theologian; bending even to the studies of the juniors, and making easy to them the pathway of learning. In an age when learning was so general in France, and when Paris was filled with many of the ablest men of the age, the praise bestowed by Father Thomas Bourchier on Doctor Patrick Hely, would seem extravagant were it not vouched for by an earnestness and emphasis not to be misunderstood or mistaken, in the elaborate panegyric of the illustrious man who was soon destined to bedew the scaffold with his blood in Limerick his only crime was that he loved the faith and evangelised the poor. He had a full conception of the peril he incurred in coming to Ireland, where the ravening wolves which at this period, were thirsting for the blood of a priest, were sure to scent him out; but he did not hesitate wherever zeal and obedience urged him forward. He resolved to bow to the mandate of the Holy Father rather than be dictated to by his own apprehensions of what was to happen to him. He prepared, at once, like a good shepherd, who is ready to lay down his life for his flock if the occasion should arise. He made himself up for the voyage, therefore, and the ship which bore him having touched on England, he sailed for Ireland, which when he reached he at once proceeded to seek the Earl of Desmond. When he reached his residence, he found that the Earl was from home, but he was hospitably and politely received by his wife, the Countess of Desmond; but not indeed to the honor of her name, must it, alas! be told, that like other women, she too acted a fearfully treacherous and dreadful part. "Like the dancing girl who brought the head of Saint John to Herod-like Delilah who shore Samson of his strength, and delivered him into the hands of the Philistines-like the woman who caused the fall of David"-this lady of the house of Desmond, forgetful of everything that became her position and name, betrayed the holy Doctor Patrick Hely and his companion, Father O'Rourke, a native of Connaught, into the hands of their enemies, after a period of about three days.

On the day after this visit he departed for Limerick, which Bourchier describes as at this time the first city in Munster, in which, as there were many Catholics, Hely expected to gather good fruit in the vineyard of souls; and there, his intended work and mission having been made known to the Mayor, through the exertions of the Countess of Desmond, he was cast into prison. The enterprize was unquestionably a most perilous one, and the holy Bishop must have been perpetually aware of the snares which awaited him in a locality where destruction was prepared for the devoted sons of the Church. But he was so filled with love of his heavenly Father, as Father Bourchier observes, that he despised all terrors. He was immediately transmitted from Limerick to the town of Kilmalloch, where at that time the Deputy resided, and by his orders sentenced with his companion to death, without any other form, except the process of martial law. The Deputy, however, offered him full right and possession of his benefice, provided he would deny the faith and betray his whole business to him; to which the bishop replied, that as regarded his faith, he would not part with it for the enjoyment of life and honors; but as for the business on which he had come, he said he came to discharge the episcopal function (which he had openly professed to do) and thereby to promote the cause of religion and effect the salvation of souls,

nor did he refuse a death which was attended by any advantage to religion, or even avoidance of disadvantage. The Deputy further called upon him to reveal the plan formed by the Pontiff and king Philip of Spain for the invasion of Ireland, which he absolutely refused to do, although his silence was the cause of grievous tortures to him. For, placing small iron bars across his fingers, they struck them so violently with a hammer, that his fingers were cut to pieces, and as he still refused to reveal anything, they immediately led him to the gallows. While he was being conducted to the place of execution he asked permission to read the litanies and to receive absolution from his companion, and to give it in turn; both of which he was permitted to do. He then exhorted his companion, who was affected by a natural horror of death, to be of good cheer, for that though the feast was a bitter one, the triumph would be noble. Having restored his companion's courage by this exhortation, and made a most impressive address to the people, in which he spoke at length of the necessity of preserving an unswerving faith, and of his professional duties, for asserting which he, together with his companion, cheerfully met a happy death for the love of Christ, both were immediately hanged. But Bourchier observes, that the Deputy who passed sentence on the bishop, was immediately after seized with an incurable disease of which he died at Waterford, "though struck by no wound, as one who undoubtedly fell under the vengeance of God." Be the cause of his death what it may, certain it is that Sir William Drury, the Deputy or Lord Justice, who had been summoned from Cork to Kilmalloch, to suppress the insurrection which had suddenly burst forth on the arrival of James, the son of Maurice, formerly temporary leader of the Geraldines, who had recently landed from France with a supply of men and arms, to raise the standard of the Pope amongst the disaffected Irish and English, did die at Waterford, whither he had returned, and was succeeded in his office by Sir William Pelham. Dr. Patrick O'Hely, who thus suffered with Father Cornelius O'Rourke, and another whose name is not mentioned, was, as I have stated, bishop of Mayo; both martyrs were of the Franciscan order. They were hanged upon a tree, and their bodies remained suspended for fourteen days, to be used as targets by the soldiery.2

As a proof that this persecution was not confined to Limerick, we may mention that in 1579 Thomas Hierlihy, Bishop of Ross, who was born in the country of Ross, in the district of Carberry, was raised to the Bishoprick of that see, and assisted at the council of Trent in 1563, together with Donald Magongail, Bishop of Raphoe, and Eugene O'Hair, Bishop of Achonry. Upon his return to Ireland, he endeavoured to enforce the decrees and discipline of that council: he was driven from his see in 1570, and fled from the violent persecution against him into a small island, where he was taken, together with his chaplain, by the eldest son of O'Sullivan, and delivered up prisoner to Sir John Perrott, President of Munster. He was sent prisoner to England, and for three years and seven months was confined in a dark nauseous dungeon of the tower of London, together with Richard Creagh, Primate of Armagh. He was there offered great honours and dignities if he would renounce the faith, which offers he constantly rejected and chose death in preference to them. At length, Cormac M'Carthy becoming bail for him, he was released out of the tower and returned to Ireland: upon his landing in Dublin, he