These fresh advantages and promises so raised the spirits of the earl of Tyrone, or THE O'NEILL, as he was now called, that he recommenced hostilities as soon as the truce had expired, and sent forth a proclamation to all his countrymen, calling upon them to forsake heresy and defend their country's liberty and the Catholic faith. But in the following year (1600) Lord Mountjoy having been appointed chief-governor of Ireland, commenced vigorous operations against the rebels, which greatly checked their progress, and reduced many of them to submission. To encourage them to greater zeal in the work, Pope Clement VIII. issued in this year a fresh bull in favour of Hugh O'Neill, "captain general of the Catholic army in Ireland," conferring upon him and his followers the same privileges as were formerly bestowed on the Geraldines, and "mercifully granting them in the Lord, plenary pardon and remission of all their sins, and the same indulgences as were wont to be allowed to persons engaging in the war with the Turks, and for the recovery of the Holy Land." The vigorous movements of the new viceroy were

* See Appendix III. where this bull is given entire.

"*

however continued with such steadiness and energy, that O'Neill's forces suffered greatly, sustaining many losses, and growing daily less formidable; while other commanders were equally successful in reducing the rebel army in Munster. But in the latter end of 1601 a large Spanish fleet arrived at Kinsale, and landed there five thousand additional troops under Don Juan d'Aquila, who took possession of the town, and immediately sent notice of their arrival to their friends in Ulster: two thousand additional troops were soon after landed at Castlehaven; and the northern chieftains, Tyrone and O'Donnel, having now arrived with fresh forces, the English army was hemmed in on all sides, and reduced to the last extremity, and must ere long have surrendered, had not the Spaniards from impatience hastened to engage in battle, instead of continuing to besiege their enemies: the result of this engagement was that the rebel forces were entirely routed and dispersed by an army vastly inferior in numbers.

Kinsale and the other towns lately held by the rebels were soon surrendered to the English army. Three thousand Spaniards were allowed to return

home free; O'Donnel also retired into Spain, and O'Neill into Ulster. The latter chieftain was soon pursued thither also by the energetic viceroy, who at length obliged him, just at the period of Queen Elizabeth's death, to make his humble submission, and sue for pardon from her majesty.

Thus was terminated this destructive rebellion. From the brief account of it here given, my readers will be able to perceive why it was that Romish priests were sometimes treated with severity in Elizabeth's reign: it was not for their religion they were punished, as Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley were in Mary's reign, but because they were engaged in acts of treason, rebellion, and insurrection against their lawful sovereign and her government. This is a fact which so far as it is connected with Ireland, is admitted even by prejudiced Romish historians; an eminent one of whom asserts that in England indeed it was otherwise, but that "during her whole reign in Ireland we read of no imprisonment, banishment, or execution of any priest for the sake of his religion.”* This statement is a sufficient refutation of many false and mischievous

* Plowden's History of Ireland. Book II. chap. iv.

The

stories, commonly circulated relative to the cruelty which this monarch is represented as having used towards the Romish priests in Ireland. instances above given of their treasonable attempts against her government, are but some of many. Numerous other like cases might be added, as that of M'Egan, a Romish vicar-apostolic, who in the earl of Tyrone's rebellion, issued excommunications against all who should give quarter to prisoners taken from the queen's army, and at last fell in battle, leading a troop of horse, with his sword in one hand, and his breviary and beads in the other. But enough has been already said on this painful subject, and were it not necessary to explain these things for the sake of meeting misrepresentations as to the past, and affording admonitions for the present and the future, it would be a more agreeable task to endeavour to forget for ever such crimes of professing Christians, and efface from memory the cruel injuries done to our Church in former times by the head and members of the Church of Rome. To dwell on such subjects beyond what is absolutely necessary for the exposing of error, or to irritate the popular mind by

detailed accounts of the cruelties of by-gone days, as it is no fit employment for a Christian or a churchman, so neither is it any part of the object of the present work. It shows little of the spirit of Him who taught us to forgive as we hope to be forgiven; to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us;* and it savours as little of the principles of our holy apostolic Church, whose faithful members are ever ready to join, with heartfelt earnestness, in the prayer which she puts into their mouths, that God would be pleased "to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their hearts."

§ 31.

FORMATION OF A NEW CHURCH IN IRELAND.-ORIGIN OF THE MODERN IRISH BRANCH OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. CONCLUSION.

While the friends and allies of the Church of Rome in Ireland were making use of such violent

* St. Matt. v. 44.