contrived by the advice and counsel of Sir William Parfons, Sir Adam Loftus, Sir John Clothworthy, and fundry others of the malignant party in the city of Dublin, in the province of Ulfter, and feveral other parts of the kingdom, directed to the commons house in England, were at public affizes and other public places made known and read to many persons of quality; which petitions contained matters deftructive to the faid catholics religion, lives and estates." a This dread of an extirpation, as appears from a multitude of depofitions taken before Dr. Henry Jones, and other commiffioners appointed by the lords juftices, prevailed univerfally among the catholics of Ireland, and was infifted upon, as one of the principal reafons for their taking arms. The Earl of Ormond, in his letters of January 27th, and February 26th, 1641, to Sir William St. Leger, imputes the general revolt of the nation, then far advanced, to the publishing of fuch a defign." a CHA P. 4 Cart. Orm. vol. i. fol. 263.. "Some time before the rebellion broke out," fays Mr. Carte," it was confidently reported, that Sir John Clothworthy, who well knew the defigns of the faction that governed the house of commons in England, had declared there in a speech, that the converfion of the papifts in Ireland, was only to be effected by the bible in one hand and the fword in the other; and Mr. Pym gave out, that they would not leave a priest in Ireland. To the like effect Sir William Parfons, out of a ftrange weaknefs, or deteftable policy, pofitively afferted before many witnesses, at a public entertainment, that within a twelvemonth, no catholic should be feen in Ireland; he had sense enough to know the confequences that would naturally arife from fuch a declaration; which however, it might contribute to his own selfish views, he would hardly have ventured to make fo openly, and without difguife, if it had not been agreeable to the politics and meafures of the English faction, whose party he efpoused, and whose directions were the general rule of his conduct." Orm. vol. i. fol. 235 "It is evident," fays Dr. Warner, "from the lord juftices letter to the Earl of Leicefter, then lord lieutenant, that they hoped for an extirpation, not of the meer Irish only, but of all the old English families alfo, that were Roman catholics." Hift. of the Irish Rebel. CHA P. XII. The catholic clergy of Ireland unjustly accused of stirring up the Irish to this infurrection. THE Catholic clergy of Ireland, at this period, are commonly charged with filling the minds of their votaries with fuch pernicious maxims, civil and religious, as could not fail to incite them to the most traitorous and 66 bloody attempts. They had," fays a modern hiftorian," that influence even over the gentry of their communion, with which they were invefted by the tenets of their religion; the ignorant herd of papists they governed at their pleasure. They had received their education and imbibed their principles in the foreign feminaries of France and Spain; hence they returned to Ireland, bound folemnly to the pope in unlimited fubmiffion, without profeffion or bond of allegiance to the king. Full fraught with thofe abfurd and peftilent doctrines, which the moderate of their own communion profess to abominate, of the univerfal monarchy of the pope, as well civil as fpiritual, of his authority to excommunicate and depofe princes, to abfolve subjects from their oaths of allegiance, and to dispense with every law of God and man, to fanctify rebellion and murder, and even to change the very nature and effential difference of vice and virtue. And, with this, and other impious trumpery of schools and councils, thefe ecclefiaftics filled their fuperftitious votaries." Horrible, indeed, is this accufation; but fortunately for the kingdom, wherein fuch a clergy is still suffered to exift, it is as erroneously stated, as it is groundless in itself. Nor is the injustice done to this clergy, by fuch fhocking imputations, greater than that done to Walfh himself, the Irish Francifcan, whofe fole authority is quoted in fupport of them. For there is no mention made by that writer in the place referred to, of these impious tenets having been taught or maintained by any 1 Lel. Hift. Irel. vol. iii. p. 89. of 2 3 of the catholic clergy of Ireland, at or about the year 1641. All that appears there relative to these tenets, is an indirect and angry charge and inference, against fuch of Walsh's brethren, as had oppofed his remonftrance of loyalty, which was not prefented, nor even thought of till more than twenty years after that period. Nay even there too, Walsh confeffes that these tenets "were quite different from what the Roman catholics of England, Scotland, and Ireland, did believe ;” and also affirms, "that many thousands of the most learned, moft zealous and most godly Roman catholic prelates, doctors and priefts, befides laymen, cried down these tenets, as not only falfe, impious, and heretical, but also as abfolutely tyrannical and deftructive of all government." In order to explain this matter a little more fully, I must inform the reader, that in the year 1674, when Walfh's hiftory of the remonftrance was firft publifhed, he had been provoked, by an excommunication newly denounced against him, to draw out this chain of blafphemous propofitions, as the supposed consequences of the doctrine of the pope's depofing power; and in the bitterness of resentment, to charge them on fome of his adverfe catholic brethren, whom he either knew, or fufpected to have been active in bringing that difgrace upon him. But that he was far from intending to charge fuch wicked principles upon the body of the catholic clergy of Ireland, inconteftably appears, from his declaring in the very fame place, (with regard to the doctrine of the pope's depofing power; and its fuppofed pernicious confequences), that he did not at all doubt, but rather was certain, that there were more than five hundred priests, then in Ireland, who, if they were only permitted to live quietly there, would, by a public inftrument figned under all their hands, declare amply, clearly, and heartily against the aforefaid doctrine, notwithstanding any declaration, precept or cenfure of the pope to the contrary.' 4 As * See the dedication to the hiftory of the Irish remonstrance, by 4 Ib. Peter Walfh. 3 Ib As for those feminaries of France and Spain, where this catholic clergy is faid to have imbibed these pestilent doctrines, I could not discover any of them in the place cited; but, on the contrary, I there found the author reckoning up eight feminaries in France alone, viz. "thofe of Paris, Rheims, Caen, Thouloufe, Poitiers, Valance, Bourdeaux, and Bourges; together," adds he, "with the seven remaining univerfities of that kingdom; which had, on different occafions, publicly condemned the pope's depofing power, as falfe, contrary to the word of God, feditious and deteftable." CHA P. XIII. The fame fubject continued. MR. N To this his majefty feems to have alluded, when he faid, " and certainly 'tis thought by many wife men, that the prepofterous rigour and unreasonable severity, which fome men carried before them in England, was not the least incentive that kindled and blew into those horrid flames the sparks of discontent, which wanted not They had caused the laws against recufants to be put in execution all over England; eight Roman catholic priests had been taken up in London, for faying mass: and the proof failing as to one, the other feven were condemned. The king, averfe to the putting any man to death merely for religion, had reprieved them; the commons were offended at it, and made loud complaints on this fubject against his majesty. Nothing would fatisfy them, till the king had left them to their mercy, to order the execution whenever they faw fit. When men," proceeds Mr. Carte," have every thing to dread in peace, and much to hope from a war, 'tis natural for them to chufe the latter, and use their utmost endeavours to make it successful. Nor is it any wonder, that thofe priests, in fuch a fituation of affairs, fhould have recourfe to arms, for the fafety of their lives and defpairing of indulgence in quiet times, fhould feek in troublesome ones for an establishment, never to be obtained but by the prevailing force of an infurrection." Mr. Goodman, one of the above-mentioned condemned priests, and who feems to have been particularly obnoxious to the parliament, made a voluntary offer of his life, as a facrifice to the quiet of the king and kingdom, on that occafion; an inftance of heroic loyalty, which can not pre-difpofed fuel for rebellion in Ireland; where despair being added to their former difcontents, and the fears of utter extirpation to their wonted oppreffions, it was eafy to provoke them to open rebellion.". Icon. Bafilic. b"Besides, Richard Herft, Edmund Arrowsmith and others, put to death in 1628, merely for exercising the functions of Roman catholic priests; Thomas Bullaker, Thomas Holland, Paul Heath, Francis Bell, Rodolphus Colman, (condemned, but reprieved) Henry Morfe, Morgan, Philip Powel, and Martin Woodcock, together with Reading and Whitaker, were executed in England for the fame causes, between the years 1641 and 1646.” "The condition of a miflionary," fays my author, " in the beginning of this reign was different from what it was at the latter end of it; when religious zeal against popery was heightened and inflamed with all the rage of faction. If a Turkish dervife had then preached Mahomet in England, he would have met much better treatment than a popish priest." Grainger's Biograph. Hift. of Engl. vol. ii. p. 206-7-8. |