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CHAP. VI.

Owen O'Nial and the Nuncio reject the peace.

THE marquis of Ormond seemed not more unwilling to have the peace proclaimed, after it was agreed to, than desirous of an occasion to dissolve it, after it was proclaimed. Unhappily for both sides, such an occasion soon presented it self. The peace had been generally received by the confede rate nobility and gentry, and by the greatest and best part of their clergy, conformable in that respect, to the established clergy of Ireland; who, in a remonstrance to the lord lieute nant on that occasion, signed by two archbishops, nine bishops, and seventy-seven clergymen," did most heartily acknow ledge, that by his excellency's very great pains and labor, he had, at last, concluded a most necessary peace; which they humbly conceived to be the only means to continue the blessings of religion and loyalty among them; and to be the only hopeful way to reduce the kingdom wholely to his majesty's obedience."*

But the Nuncio Renuccini, and general Owen O'Nial, abso lutely refused to submit it; the former, because there was no provision made for the free exercise of the catholic religion; without which the confederates were engaged by their oath of association, never to conclude a peace; and the latter, on the same account, as well as that no stipulation was made for restoring him, and his numerous followers to their forfeited estates in Ulster. The Nuncio alleged besides, that the com missioners who had concluded the peace, did not, according

1 Bor. Hist. of the Irish Rebel.

* Yet Carte does not scruple to say, "that the protestants shewed the greatest aversion to that peace."-Life of Ormond, vol. ii. fol. 10.

Yet, "the pope himself (says Dr. Leland) had declared, that a con nivance was all that could at present be reasonably demanded.”—Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 277.

"Over and above those demands which concerned religion, to which they seemed to adhere with more than ordinary zeal, and thereby drew a dependency of the clergy to them, they insisted upon the restitution of the great estates in Ulster, which was not in the power of the crown to make." --Borl. Hist. of the Irish Rebel. fol. 313. Clarendon.

to their instructions, insist upon the repeal of the penal sta tutes against the Roman catholic religion.* The marquis of Ormond could not deny the fact; but he maintained" that the peace which the confederates' commissioners had concluded, by virtue of an authority derived from their general assembly, whether advantageous or prejudicial to those that trusted them, ought to have been inviolably stuck to, how blame-worthy soever they might be pretended, for transgressing instructions." This manner of reasoning, however, seems to have been taken up by his excellency, only for present convenience; for he argued very differently on the same topic of instructions, when, in a former treaty with the confederates, the case was to be his own; and when, in order to justify his rejecting some of their propositions, he told them3 that if he had exceeded his instructions, he would have deluded those he treated with, with the shadow of concessions; for that the substance would be lost, by his transgressing the rules given him, in any one par ticular."

But however that might have been, the Nuncio's casuistry differed materially from that of his excellency on this occasion; and therefore that prelate resolved to enforce his opinion by such means as, it appears, he had neither commission nor instructions to pursue.t For, having called together, at Water

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In the sixth article of (the supreme council's) instructions of the 17th of April, to Mr. Nicholas Plunket, the confederates order him to let his excellency know," that if he cause the articles of peace to be proclaimed, then they must publish those articles concerning religion made with the earl of Glamorgan; and that it was not in their power to do otherwise, for fear of losing their foreign friends, and the danger of a rupture at home." Enquiry into the share, &c. p. 201.-But no sooner after upon a refusal by his excellency," they promise to omit the publication of the earl of Glamorgan's concessions, and expressed their willingness and resolution to concur and agree to the publishing of the articles of pacification as already settled. But the marquis of Ormond had not yet received his majesty's pleasure with regard to the articles of peace." Id. ib. p. 203-4.— "On the 6th of February 1645-6, the Nuncio sent to the supreme council a protestation against the peace, signed by himself, and the archbishops, bishops, and clergy." Id. ib. p. 204.-"The Nuncio did not discover that the confederates had made peace with the marquis of Ormond till the 25th of June following."—Id. ib. p. 206.

The Nuncio's violent measures were, it seems, contrary to the in

ford, such of the Irish bishops and other clergy, as were mostly under his influence, on pretence of forming a synod to settle ecclesiastical matters, they entered all at once on a debate concerning the lawfulness of the late peace ;* and having soon determined, that all those who were instrumental in making it, were, for the reasons before-mentioned, guilty of a formal breach of their association, they issued an excommunication against them; as also against those of their communion who should afterwards adhere to it; forbidding, under the same penalty, any public dues to be collected by or paid to such per sons as were formerly appointed to receive them; and giving encouragement, at the same time, to the people to resist any force that might be used for that purpose.t "This," says Mr. Belling," of all their commands, met with the promptest

+ Belling's MSS.

structions he had received from Rome, and made it necessary for him to send an apology to the pope."-Lel. Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 292.. Note.

"At the same time (15th of August, 1646)" the archbishops of Dublin and Cashel, and the bishop of Elphin, wrote in the name of the congregation of the clergy, a letter to the queen, in which they say, they dislike the peace, because all things are referred to the pleasure of the king, which (add they) we would readily submit to, if he were not environed on all sides with the enemies of our religion, and at such a dis tance from your majesty." He was then in the hands of the Scots.-Enquiry, &c. p. 217, 218.

+ The supreme council, in order to prevent the clergy's taking this rash step, had remonstrated to them among other things, " that though in the articles (of the peace) now published, there were few things satisfactory with relation to religion, yet there is a reference in them to the king's further concessions; that articles had been concluded between the earl of Glamorgan and the confederates, in which many concessions had been made of great advantage to the catholic religion, which might justly be understood to be implied in the clause of the lord lieutenant's articles, referring to his majesty's further concessions; that earl having a commission from his majesty, the original of which, signed by the king's own hand, was deposited by the earl with the confederate catholics; that, the king being in the hands of the Scots, there was no possibility of engaging him to make any other concessions in point of religion for the present; but that as his majesty could have no other method of recovering his crown, but by the catholics and foreign princes, who were zealous for that religion, all just concessions in favor of it might be expected from him, when he should have it in his power to grant them."-Enquiry into the share, &c. p. 215. from the Nuncio's Mem

obedience; and men were so pleased with the observance of it, that, when the clergy themselves, had soon after, formed a new government, by the name of the council and congregation, they found much difficulty to bring the people to open their purses."

CHAP. VII.

The bad effects of the clergy's proceedings.

BY this spiritual weapon alone, the Nuncio and his party contributed more, in one week, towards the defeat of the confederate army, than the marquis of Ormond, with all his forces, had been able to effect during the whole preceding time of the war. The cause of religion, which is said to have first moved them to take arms, and afterwards, to have united them in a regular and formidable body, was now made an instrument to split them into parties more exasperated against each other, than they were before against the common enemy. The titular bishop of Ossory shut up, by an interdict, all their churches and houses of prayer in Kilkenny, the place where their general assembly and supreme council, usually met; upon which the marquis of Ormond sarcastically observed, "that they were a strange sort of people, who after fighting so long for liberty to open their churches, and having got it, shut them up again of their own accord, and hindered their people to resort to them.”

The Nuncio's violent measures, as I have already observed, were contrary to the instructions he had received from the court of Rome. By these he was directed, in case peace was made, to do nothing, either by word or deed, to shew that he either approved or disliked the same. Nay there was great reason to believe that the peace concluded with the marquis of Ormond, was agreeable to his holiness's sentiments. For, some time before, when Mr. Belling had audience of him on that subject, the pope told him3 "it was no wonder, if the king thought it unsafe pubficly to grant the Irish the conditions they demanded, lest it might disoblige his protestant subjects, and that therefore, a connivance ought to content them for the present."

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The terror, however, of this excommunication drew off great numbers of the common soldiers; and it so far scared general Preston and his officers, who had submitted to and proclaimed the peace at the head of his troops, that he and his whole army, went over to these militant ecclesiastics. Their plea of the breach of their association oath,* and of the failure of their commissioners to insist on the public exercise of their religion, according to their instructions, was indeed plausible ; but they had a much better excuse, in the insecurity of that peace from the king's before-mentioned order of the 11th of June to the marquis of Ormond, to proceed no further in it; and in that order's not having come to their knowledge, till after it was proclaimed. But notwithstanding this defection of some of the commanders, soldiers, and common people,+ "all the confederate nobility and gentry (except a very few of the latter) and all the old bishops and regulars, whose mis sionary powers were not subordinate to the Nuncio's authority, still adhered to the peace, in defiance of the censures denounced against them; and the Nuncio himself, soon after, received a severe reprimand from Rome, for having acted in the matter contrary to his instructions."

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* In that oath, the following among other propositions, was agreed to, viz. "that they would not consent to lay down their arms until all the laws and statutes made since the time of king Henry VIII. whereby any restraint, penalty, mulet, or incapacity, or other restriction whatsoever, is, or may be laid on any of the Roman catholic religion, within this kingdom, and of their several functions; should be repealed, revoked and declared void in the next parliament, by one, or more acts of parliament to be passed therein."-Unkind Deserter, &c. p. 53.

The same author adds, "now if the said committee of treaty for con cluding the peace, swerved from any of the rules and instructions given them (as indeed they have done), what they acted, can no way oblige either the clergy or the people to their own overthrow and destruction. It were a hard case for a commonwealth, if persons by her impowered with trust could bind it to acts prejudicial and destructive to their preser vation, interests, and liberty."-Ib. p. 60.

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