Ware, who writeth these very words of him in his book, entitled De Præsulibus Hiberniæ. pag. 120, 1554, Circa tempus Georgius Browneus (quod conjugatus esset) per Dowdallum Archiepiscopum Armachanum & alios Delegatos exauthoritatus est, otherwise the pope, if he had granted such a Bull, must likewise have dispensed with his marriage, it being contrary to the Romish tennets for bishops to marry. Having related thus much of George Browne, and of ecclesiastical matters, during his life, we shall proceed a little further concerning a short sermon of his, preached unto the people in Christ-church, upon the first Sunday after Easter, Anno 551, being a copy of the same given to Sir James Ware, knight, by Anthony Martin, late Bishop of Meath, who formerly was tutor to the said Sir James Ware, when he was a student of Trinity College, Dublin.

THE TEXT, Psal. cxix. ver. 18.

Open mine eyes, that I may see the wonders of thy law.

The wonders of the Lord God have for a long time been hid from the children of men, which hath happened by Rome's not permitting the common people to read the Holy Scriptures; for to prevent you, that you might not know the comfort of your salvation, but to depend wholly on the Church of Rome, they will not permit it to be in any tongue but in the Latin, saying that Latin was the Roman tongue. But the wonderful God inspired the holy apostles with the knowledge of all languages, that they might teach all people in their proper tongue and language; which caused our wise King Henry, before his death, to have the Holy Scriptures transcribed into the English tongue, for the good of his subjects, that their eyes may be opened to behold the wondrous things out of the law of the Lord." But there are false prophets at this instant, and will be to the end of the world, that shall deceive you with false doctrines, expounding this text, or that, purposely to confound your understandings, and to lead you captive into a wilderness of confusion, whom you shall take as your friends, but they shall be your greatest enemies, speaking against the tenents of Rome, and yet be set on by Rome; these shall be a rigid people, full of fury and envy.

But, to prevent these things that are to come, observe Christ and his apostles: Let all things he done with decency, with mildness, and in order; fervently crying unto God, 'Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold the wondrous things out of thy law: then should you rightly keep the law and the prophets. It is the part of a prince to be wise, for he hath a great charge to rule and govern a nation. Your late king foreseeing Rome and her pope' intentions, how that he intended to inslave his subjects, and to keep them in the state of ignorance, consulted with the learned of his realm, knowing that youth might quickly be wrought on; therefore he prepared, before his death, a wise and learned sort of counsellors for his son's overseers; not trusting to one or two, but to several, that he might the better rule his people; whose eyes the Lord God Almighty hath opened betimes, to behold his wondrous works.

Though the words of my text be plainly thus (open thou mine eyes) the meanest of you that hear me have eyes, but the true meaning of the words is, endue us with understanding; for a fool hath eyes, and sees. men, women, beasts, birds, and other things, but yet wants understand. ing: so, when we say, open thou our eyes, we desire the Lord God to instruct and teach us the knowledge of his laws.

When you were lately led in blindness, your eyes beheld the images that then stood in several of the monasteries and churches, until they were removed yet all this while were your understandings blinded, because ye believed in them, and placed your trust in them.

Suppose an artist or workman make an image either of man or woman, and at last a clergyman of Rome give it such a name, calling it St. Peter, or St. Paul, or St. Mary, or St. Anne; must not that man, though he behold his own handy-work, and knows in his heart that it was his own work, be blind, and void of reason and understanding of the law of God, and of the wondrous things that are contained in the law of the Lord? Yes, surely, he must be blind, and void of reason, and of the true faith, that would worship the same.

The workman carved the eyes, but these eyes see not; he likewise carved the ears, but they hear not; the nose, and it smells not; the mouth, and it neither breathes nor speaks; the hands, they feel not; the feet, but they stand stock still.

How therefore can your prayers be acceptable unto this image, that sees you not approaching towards it, that hears you not when you pray to it, that smells not the sweet smells, be they of myrrh or frankincense burning before it? How can it absolve you, when the mouth is not able to say,Thy sins are forgiven thee? And if you place a certain sum of money in the palm of the hand of that image; come you again to-morrow, the money, it is true, shall find a customer, but the image never the wiser, who took it; and, if you desire to have it come unto you, it cannot without help; therefore the workman, that made this image, is as blind, as deaf, as dumb, and as void of sense as the image itself, and so, be ye all that put your trust in them.

Therefore of late new artificers by springs have made artificial ones, which for a certain time shall move, and ye shall believe it to be real and certain; but beware, good people, for they be but lying wonders, purposely that ye may break the law of God. And thus hath the devil devised a lying wonder, that ye may be deluded to break the law of the Lord, which is, Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image.' O Lord, open thou our eyes, our ears, and our understanding, that we may behold the wondrous things that are in thy law. The law of God is an undefiled law. Oh! why should we be so wicked then as to defile that law, which the almighty God hath made so pure without blemish. Jesus came to fulfil the law, and not to abolish the law.' But there are a new fraternity of late sprung up, who call themselves Jesuits, which will deceive many, who are much after the Scribes and Pharisees manner amongst the Jews; they shall strive to abolish the truths, and shall come very near to do it: for these sorts will turn themselves into several forms, with the heathen, an heathenist; with atheists, an atheist; with the Jews, a Jew; and with the reformers, a refor.

made; purposely to know your intentions, your minds, your hearts, and your inclinations, and thereby bring you at last to be like the fool that said in his heart there was no God.' These shall spread over the whole world, shall be admitted into the councils of princes, and they never the wiser; charming of them, yea, making your princes reveal their hearts, and the secrets therein, unto them, and yet they not perceive it; which will happen from falling from the law of God, by neg lect of fulfilling of the law of God, and by winking at their sins; yet in the end, God, to justify his law, shall suddenly cut off this society even by the hands of those who have most succoured them, and made use of them; so that at the end they shall become odious to all nations: They shall be worse than Jews, having no resting place upon earth, and then shall a Jew have more favour than a Jesuit. Now, to arm you all good Christians against these things that are to come, lest ye be led into temptation cry unto the Lord your God, and heartily pray that he would be so merciful unto you as to open the eyes of your understanding, that you may behold the wonders and pleasantness that is in his law,' which God of his mercy grant that you may all do.

Thus concluding with the acts and deeds of this reverend father, we shall end with Queen Mary's designs, how she intended to have persecuted the Protestants in Ireland, but was by Providence prevented; as you shall further know by this following relation, being averred by several sufficient persons as well ecclesiastical as civil.

Queen Mary, having dealt severely with the Protestants in England, about the latter part of her reign, signed a commission for to take the same course with them in Ireland, and, to execute the same with greater force, she nominates Doctor Cole one of the commissioners, sending the commission by this Doctor, who in his journey coming to Chester, the mayor of that city, hearing that her majesty was sending a messenger into Ireland, and he being a churchman, waited on the doctor, who in discourse with the mayor taketh out of a cloke-bag a leather box, saying unto him, Here is a commission that shall lash the hereticks of Ireland,' calling the Protestants by that title. The good woman of the house, being well affected to the Protestant religion, and also having a brother named John Edmonds of the same, then a citizen in Dublin, was much troubled at the doctor's words; but watching her convenient time, whilst the mayor took his leave, and the doctor complimented him down the stairs, she opens the box and takes the commission out, placing in lieu thereof a sheet of paper with a pack of cards, the knave of clubs faced uppermost, wrapped up. The doctor coming up to his chamber, suspecting nothing of what had been done, put up the box as formerly. The next day, going to the water-side, wind and weather serving him, he sails towards Ireland, and landed on the seventh of October, 1558, at Dublin; then coming to the castle, the Lord FitzWalters, being lord deputy, sent for him to come before him and the privy-council; who coming in, after he had made a speech relating upon what account he came over, he presents the box unto the lord deputy, who causing it to be opened, that the secretary might read the commission, there was nothing save a pack of cards with the knave of clubs uppermost; which not only startled the lord deputy and council,

but the doctor, who assured them he had a commission, but knew not how it was gone. Then the lord deputy made answer, 'Let us have another commission, and we will shuffle the cards in the mean while.' The doctor being troubled in his mind went away, and returned into England; and coming to the court obtained another commission; but, staying for a wind at the water-side, news came unto him, that the queen was dead, and thus God preserved the Protestants in Ireland.

This being a copy of Richard Earl of Cork's Memorials, as also of Henry Usher, sometime Lord Primate of Armagh, being also entered amongst Sir James Ware's manuscripts, who hath often heard the late James Usher, nephew to the said Henry, and also Primate of Armagh, aver the same, and wondered that Mr. Fox had not inserted it in his Acts and Monuments. There is yet living a reverend father of the church, Henry now Lord Bishop of Meath, who can affirm this relation, from the same James Usher, late Lord Primate of all Ireland.

Upon the recalling of the Lord Fitz-Walters into England, Queen Elisabeth, who succeeded her sister, discoursing with the said lord, concerning several passages in Ireland, amongst other discourses he related the aforesaid passage that had happened in Ireland; which so delighted the queen, that her majesty sent for the good woman named Elisabeth Edmonds, but by her husband named Mattershad, and gave her a pension of forty pounds durante vita, for saving her Protestant subjects of Ireland.

THE

LAST SPEECH OF MR. OLIVER PLUNKET, TITULAR PRIMATE OF IRELAND,

I

WHO WAS EXECUTED AT TYBURN,

ON FRIDAY THE FIRST OF THIS INSTANT JULY, 1681.

WRITTEN BY HIS OWN HAND.

London, printed by N. Thompson, 1681. Folio, containing four pages.

Have, some few days past, abided my trial at the King's Bench, and now very soon I must hold up my hand at the King of Kings Bench, and appear before a judge, who cannot be deceived by false witnesses, or corrupted allegations: for he knoweth the secrets of hearts: Neither can he deceive any, or give an unjust sentence, or be misled by respect of persons; he being all goodness, and a most just judge, will infallibly decree an eternal reward for all good works, and condign punishment for the smallest transgression against his commandments.

* This is the 436th article in the catalogue of pamphlets in the Harleian Library.

Which, being a most certain and undoubted truth, it would be a wicked act, and contrary to my perpetual welfare, that I should now, by declaring any thing contrary to truth, commit a detestable sin, for which, within a very short time, I must receive sentence of everlasting damnation; after which, there is no reprieve, or hope of pardon. I will therefore confess the truth, without any equivocation, and make use of the words according to their accustomed signification; assuring you, moreover, that I am of that certain persuasion, that no power, not only upon earth, but also in heaven, can dispense with me, or give me leave to make a false protestation: and I protest, upon the word of a dying man, and as I hope for salvation, at the hands of the Supreme Judge, that I will declare the naked truth, with all candour and sincerity; and, that my affairs may be the better known to all the world.

It is to be observed, that I have been accused in Ireland of treason and præmunire, and that there I was arraigned and brought to my trial; but the prosecutors, men of flagitious and infamous lives, perceiving that I had records and witnesses, who would evidently convince them, and clearly shew my innocency, and their wickedness: they voluntarily absented themselves, and came to this city, to procure that I should be brought hither to my trial (where the crimes objected were not committed) where the jury did not know me, or the qualities of my accusers, and were not informed of several circumstances conducing to a fair trial. Here, after six months close imprisonment, or thereabouts, I was brought to the bar, the third of May, and arraigned for a crime, for which I was before arraigned in Ireland: a strange resolution! a rare fact, of which you will hardly find a precedent these five-hundred years past: but, whereas my witnesses and records were in Ireland, the Lord Chief Justice gave me five weeks time, to get them brought hither: but by reason of the uncertainty of the seas, of wind and weather, and of the difficulty of getting copies of records, and bringing many witnesses from several counties in Ireland, and for many other impediments (of which affidavit was made) I could not at the end of the five weeks, get the records and witnesses brought hither; I therefore begged for twelve days more, that I might be in a readiness for my trial, which the Lord Chief Justice denied; and so I was brought to my trial, and exposed, as it were, with my hands tied, to those merciless perjurors, who did aim at my life, by accusing me of these following points:

First, that I have sent letters by one Nial O Neale, who was my page, to Monsieur Baldeschi, the pope's secretary; to the Bishop of Aix, and to Principe Colonna, that they might sollicit foreign powers to invade Ireland; and also to have sent letters to Cardinal Bullion to the same effect.

Secondly, to have employed Captain Con O Neale, to the French King for succour.

Thirdly, to have levied and exacted monies from the clergy of Ireland, to bring in the French, and to maintain seventy-thousand

men.

Fourthly, 40 have had in a readiness seventy-thousand men, and lists made of them, and to have given directions to one Friar Duffy to