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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Lewis Bingley 
 
 Wynne 
 
I Cornell University Library 
 
 BX4659.I7 066 1882 
 
 Lives 
 
 olln 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924029417726 
 
LIVES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BY 
 
 MYLES O'REILLY, B. A.; LL. D. 
 
 AND 
 
 REV. RICH'D BRENNAN A. M.,LL. D. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 A VERY FULL MD COMPLETE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PENAL LAWS, 
 
 BY PARNELL. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 James Sheeiiy, Publisher, 33 Barclay St. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 74 W. Fayette St. WASHINGTON: 613 pn Street. 
 PHILADELPHIA: 30 N. 51a St. BOSTON: 47 Hanover St. 
 
 1882. 
 
jSs Jamiis Shehht. 
 
PREFACE TO THE NEW YORK EDITION. 
 
 It is almost needless to state that, for the various additions made 
 to the New York edition of Myles O'Reilly's "Irish Martyrs and 
 Confessors,'' that talented author and gallant defender of Pius the 
 Ninth is not responsible. Impressed with the importance of 
 making still further known, if possible, the lives of our saintly 
 forefathers in the faith, I have taken the liberty of adding some 
 biographical sketches not to be found in the author's valuable 
 collection. Among those added, will be found the lives, labors and 
 sufferings of several heroic men, who, though they did not shed 
 their blood for the faith, yet, by reason of their lifelong exile in 
 foreign lands, well deserve the title of Confessors. These last have 
 been selected from.vanous sources, chiefly from the "Irish Eccle- 
 siastical Record." 
 
 As a further evidence that the cruelties practised upon Irish 
 Catholics were in accordance with the laws of Great Britain, I have 
 also added a very complete collection of the Penal Laws, compiled 
 from Pamell's impartial History of those legislative enactments 
 against the liberties and rights of our ancestors, dating from the 
 Treaty of Limerick to the Reign of George III. 
 
 Although the Church has not formally canonized these Con- 
 fessors and Martyrs, we have every reasonable hope that they have 
 long ago secured the rest and happiness of heaven. Let us re- 
 member that we are closely related to those elect of heaven, that 
 they are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh ; that we and 
 they are members of the one great Church of God, which reaches 
 from the recesses of purgatory to the surface of the earth, and 
 extends aloft to the highest vaults of heaven. 
 
 R. B. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The practice of preserving the records of the lives of great 
 men, which a pagan historian declared no age, however dull, 
 had ever neglected, comes to the Christian recommended by a 
 deeper interest and a more pregnant use. The pagan could 
 recommend the family and friends of the great departed only to 
 turn from weak regrets to admiring contemplation, and suggest 
 a timid hope that the object of their affection might continue to 
 exist in another sphere.* 
 
 Christians are told to remember that " we have a great cloud 
 of witnesses over our head," and are called on, " laying aside 
 every weight of sin which surrounds us, to run by patience to the 
 fight proposed, strengthened by the example of the saints,'" 
 and are reminded that "the just seem to the eyes of the foolish 
 to die, but indeed are in peace." Hence, from the first ages of 
 Christianity, it was looked upon as a sacred duty to preserve the 
 memory of the lives and deaths of those who had served Christ, 
 and who " had been deemed worthy to suffer for his name " — 
 the memory of their deaths even more than that of their lives, 
 because, while death to the pagan was the final end, (the limit 
 to the labors and successes of great men,) to the Christian if was 
 the very instrument of victory — the moment of triumph : to the 
 former, it was ♦he termination of existence ; to the latter, it was 
 the commencement of the real life : for the former, the cause fell 
 with its defender ; for the latter, the triumph of the truth was 
 secured by the death of its martjT. 
 
 • Tacitufl, AgricoJa. 
 
6 Preface. 
 
 In no country was this practice of preserving the niemoriah 
 of the saints more carefully observed than in Ireland. Our 
 earliest and most authentic records since the days of St. Patrick 
 are the lives of our saints ; and from Jocelyn to Colgan to re- 
 cord their deeds was a labor of love. It was a remarkable fact 
 that, in all these collections, up to the sixteenth century one class 
 of saints found no representatives. The Church of Ireland had 
 produced a " glorious choir of apostles " who bore the good tid- 
 mgs to many a distant land ; the " number of her prophets who 
 uttered praise " was not small ; but she numbered in her calen- 
 dar no representative of "the white-robed army of martyrs." 
 By a singular prerogative her conversion had not cost the life 
 of a single one of her teachers, and it seemed probable that, 
 were she left to herself, no blood of her children, shed for the 
 faith, would ever stain her soil. But the litany of her saints 
 was to be completed, and he who was the "Master of her 
 apostles," the "Teacher of her evangelists," the "Purity of her 
 virgins," was also to be the " Light of her confessors" and the 
 " Strength of her martyrs ;" and the church, whose foundations 
 had been laid in peace, was to see her persecution-shaken walls 
 cemented and rebuilt with the blood of her martyrs. 
 
 The sixteenth century saw in Ireland the commencement of a 
 persecution which, gradually increasing in intensity, culminated 
 in the middle of the seventeenth in what was probably the most 
 exterminating attack ever endured by a Christian church. The 
 fanatical followers of Mohammed, in the seventh century, propa- 
 gated their faith by the sword ; but the hordes of Cromwell aban- 
 doned the attempt to make the Irish converts, and turned all their 
 energies to blotting out Catholicity in Ireland by the destruction 
 of the Irish race : the Irish were recognized as ineradicably 
 Catholic, and were slain or banished to wildernesses where it 
 was believed they must become extinct. While this persecution 
 was one mainly and essentially of Catholicity,* it was embittered 
 and prolonged by every other element which could exacerbate 
 and increase its ferocity ; the differences of race, of conauest of 
 
 • English and Scotch Catholics, settled in the north of Ireland, were as ruthle 1 
 
 in i6w as those of Irish descent. See Curry's ^Wl7;«yzV-j, referred to in notf n« ^^ 
 
 iii»te on next page. 
 
Preface. 7 
 
 government, all added their elements of bitterness to intensify 
 and prolong the strife. 
 
 England had conquered Ireland, but never absorbed its iden- 
 tity in her own ; and although she nominally ruled it, her rule up 
 to 1600 was far from being consolidated. England became 
 Protestant, while Ireland remained Catholic ; and hence' the 
 persecution of Catholicity in Ireland was not only the persecu- 
 tion of the believers in one faith by the adherents of another ; it 
 was also (as was the case in the Netherlands) the persecution of 
 the conquered by the conquering race, of the old government by 
 the new, of the possessors of the land of the country by those 
 who sought to confiscate it for their own advantage. How in- 
 finitely this has tended, for three hundred years, to prevent all 
 impartial and good government in Ireland is patent to all. One 
 incidental good, however, resulted from it: the fire of persecution 
 surely but slowly fused into a common nationality all Irish Catho- 
 lics of the various races which had so long remained separated. 
 Norman and Celt, Palesman and " mere Irish," forgot their dif- 
 ferences in their common Catholicity ; the laws which had sought 
 to exclude men of Irish descent from certain posts in the church 
 became obsolete when the honors of the church were the passport 
 to martyrdom ; and so also the dislike of the Irish outside the 
 pale to seeing bishops of English descent appointed to sees in 
 their country gradually faded away before the heat of a common 
 persecution. Dr. MacMahon, a pure Irishman, became Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin, a see which had been occupied uninterruptedly 
 jy Englishmen since the time of St. Laurence O'Toole ; the see of 
 Tuam was filled by Archbishops Bodkin and Skerritt; and the 
 sainted Oliver Plunket, the "Palesman," was welcomed enthusias- 
 tically by the Irish of Armagh. Out of the furnace of persecution 
 there arose a new nationality for Ireland, composed of Irish Catho- 
 lics ; whether of Irish, of English, or of Scotch descent,* it has 
 continued to our day, and, we may hope, will endure to the end. 
 
 * /f my readers will glance down the list of names of those whose memorials are here given, 
 they win see, mingled with such purely Celtic names as O'Neill, O'Conor, O'Reilly, O'Brien, 
 those of Norman and English race, as De Burgo, Nugent, Bathe, Barry ; as Archer, English, 
 Russell, Slingsby, Stapleton, Prendergast. Curry (Civil IVars, Appendix, p. 623) gives in- 
 ttances of Catholics of English and Scotch birth, resident in Ireland, slain for their r;l gion. 
 
8 Preface. 
 
 And it is a nationality of which we may well be proud, and which 
 may console us for the sad deficiencies of our secular history. 
 
 The natural development of political society in Ireland was 
 arrested at the end of the twelfth century by the English inva- 
 sion, ere the country had been consolidated under one govern- 
 ment,* and for some four hundred years the English did not 
 succeed in reducing the whole island under one rule. Thus, since 
 12 00, Ireland, as a whole, has never had a national government t 
 or national life ; and, since 1 600, even the local Irish governments, 
 or rules of the great chiels, have disappeared. Thus we may 
 say that, since 1200, we have no great consecutive national politi- 
 cal history or national government, to the gradual development 
 of which we can look back with pride and content; but, on 
 the other hand, we can trace with unalloyed satisfaction the his- 
 tory of our church alike in tempest and in calm — her struggles 
 in the dark and stormy ages of persecution, and her renewed 
 youth and vigor in the serener atmosphere of our. own days. 
 Hence it is, I confess, that the history of religion in Ireland 
 has always had peculiar charms for me ; and although I have 
 e\er felt the deepest interest in the gallant but gradually less 
 and less successful struggles for independence of my race, I 
 have dwelt with still deeper interest on the religious history of 
 the same race — a historj' of progress and development alike in 
 prosperity and in adversity ; a history which links the past with 
 the present and the future : a past to which we can revert with 
 well grounded pride ; a present in which we recognize with grati- 
 tude the fruit of the struggles and sufferings of our forefathers, 
 whose example we are called on to imitate ; a future to which we 
 may look forward with humble but well-grounded hope. 
 
 To others appertains the nobler task of writing the general 
 ecclesiastical history of Ireland ; and if we have not yet had a 
 second Lanigan to continue the history of our church from the 
 twelfth century, we are daily receiving valuable additions to oui 
 
 * The political state of Ireland in 117a was analogous to that of England under the Hep- 
 tarchy, and of France before Charlemagne. 
 
 i Unless we except the brief rule of the Confederation of Kilkenny, from 1641 to 1647, ot 
 from 178S to 1800, when Ireland was ruled by an oligarchy, while the Catholics, the gre;n 
 maiority of the people, were outside the pale of the constitution. 
 
Preface. 9 
 
 historical knowledge of separate portions of it from the pens of 
 scholars like Dr. Renehan, and his able editor Dr. McCarthy, Dr. 
 Moran, and others. I have undertaken the lesser work of collect- 
 ing the biographies of those martyrs and confessors the tale of 
 whose sufferings makes up so large a portion of the church history 
 of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It may, 
 indeed, appear strange that there has not hitherto been any 
 compleie collection of this sort Ireland is a country where the 
 habit of preserving local histories and biographies has flourished 
 since before the Christian era, and from the days of St Patrick her 
 hagiographers collected the lives of her saints as carefully as her 
 bards and genealogists collected the descents and the battles of 
 her warriors. But it is a singular proof how nearly the devastation 
 of the Cromwellian persecution annihilated the life of the Irish 
 race that for nearly one hundred years hardly an effort was made 
 to preserve a record of the sufferings of her sons. This is not 
 the case with regard to the earlier and less sweeping persecu- 
 tions under Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and James. Then the 
 custom which had been practised by the early Christians under 
 the pagan emperors of recording the sufferings of the martyrs 
 was imitated by the Irish, and catalogues and biographies were 
 carefully collected by those who escaped in Ireland, or who 
 lived in the Irish colleges abroad. Numbers of these have been 
 lost, but we still have several, such as the Processus Mar- 
 tyrialis of Doctor Roothe, published in 1619 j Mooney's treatise, 
 written in 1620 ; and portions at least of others copied later by 
 Bruodin and O'Heyn. But from 1650 the destruction was so 
 utter, the blow so crushing, the slaughter so immense, that all idea 
 of recording particular incidents seems to have been abandoned 
 in despair for nearly a century f and Bruodin, who published in 
 1669, O'Heyn in 1706, and De Burgo still later, were the first 
 who resumed the interrupted task. Hence there are immense de- 
 ficiencies in the collection of the lives of our Irish martyrs ; and 
 although 1 have collected as far as I could all those recorded, 
 they can be regarded only as specimens, not as forming a com- 
 
 • Wiih llie exception of the small tract Morison's rAr««<>i/ra, published at Imupmck ill 
 <63} 
 
lO Preface. 
 
 plete enumeration, especially as regards the period from 1640 to 
 1680. 
 
 I have undertaken to collect the biographies of those who suf- 
 fered for the Catholic faith, not to write a contribution to the 
 political history of Ireland ; hence the scheme of my work does 
 not embrace the lives of those, however glorious their career, 
 however noble the cause for which they suffered, who did not 
 suffer directly for that faith. The same rule has been observed by 
 those who preceded me. Thus Bruodin says : " Neminem hie no- 
 mino in bello justissimo a Catholicis in Hibernia, pro defensione 
 fidei, regis et patriae incepto occisum, inde eorum hie facio 
 memoriam qui omni jure, nominari merentur inter eos qui pro 
 Christo certando occubuere." (P. 698.)* 
 
 In the case of laymen, I have thus been led to omit many who 
 no doubt were persecuted really on account of their religion, but 
 nominally for political reasons ; in the case of priests there is 
 much less difficulty. Bishop Heber MacMahon indeed, who fell 
 at the head of his troops, although one of the noblest characters 
 of his age, is excluded by Bruodin's rule ; but priests who, al- 
 though non-combatants, were put to death in the discharge of 
 their sacred duties when attending the dying on the battle-field, 
 or exceptionally slain after the surrender of towns because 
 priests, are clearly to be enumerated as martyrs. In the great 
 majority of cases, however, there is no question whatever : the 
 priests and bishops were imprisoned and put to death simply on 
 account of their religion. Although, as in England, they may 
 have been tried for treason, the treason consisted either of " a 
 second refusal to take the oath acknowledging the queen's su- 
 premacy, or having a second time defended the supremacy of 
 the Roman See," (5 Eliz. cap. i.,) or "obtaining any bull, 01 
 persuading any one to be reconciled to the Church of Rome/' 
 (13 Eliz. cap. ii., and 23 Eliz. cap. i., and 3 Jac. cap. iv.,) 01, 
 " having been consecrated priest abroad, entering or remaining 
 ill the kingdom, or receiving, hiding, or assisting a priest " ' 
 (27 Eliz. cap. ii.) And if my readers will turn to the lives of 
 
 • So also Morison : " Non recenseo hie ullum in bello occisum, quamvis fidei cauaa 
 ocdderetur." 
 
Preface. \ \ 
 
 Archbishop O'Hurley, Archbishop Creagh, or Archbishop Plun- 
 ket, tliey will see how little their deaths were due to anything 
 save their religfion. As, however, a good deal of misapprehension 
 exists on this subject, it may be well briefly to trace the position 
 of the Irish bishops and priests in relation to the civil govern- 
 ment from the reign of Henry VIII. The church had never con- 
 demned, nay, she had sanctioned the resistance of the Irish to 
 the English invaders ; but from the time that their pt)wer became 
 firmly established and was the only existing government within 
 the pale, the ecclesiastics subject to their sway preached obe- 
 dience to what was henceforth, in those districts, the only repre- 
 sentative of authority. The case was very different in those 
 parts of the country which preserved their independence for cen- 
 turies later ; but, as I have before mentioned, there was not from 
 the thirteenth century a national government exercising, or even 
 claiming, supreme authority over the whole kingdom. In the 
 sixteenth century the suzerainty of the English king was pretty 
 generally acknowledged ; even the great O'Neill, although pre- 
 serving a virtual independence, did not claim a perfectly inde- 
 pendent sovereignty; and from the reign of Elizabeth, the sov- 
 ereign of England was acknowledged as the only de facto ruler 
 of Ireland. Hence bishops and priests, in pursuance of their 
 duty of obedience to the powers that be, not only submitted them- 
 selves, but preached the duty of submission to others. Thus 
 Dr. Rooth'e under James I. wrote : 
 
 " I know that the inhabitants of Ireland, the subjects of our 
 king, are contented with the present peace, (as the subjects of 
 the Roman empire under Augustus ;) I know how they detest 
 the tumults of war, and desire to devote themselves to the arts 
 of peace and enjoy its sweets ; I know they desire nothing more 
 than the happiness of the king and his offspring, and that under 
 their auspices may be firmly established the much-desired peace 
 and indulgence toward the Irish, both in respect to other mat- 
 ters and especially in those matters which regard religion, the 
 divine worship, and the profession and practices of the ancient 
 faith." 
 
 On the accession of Charles I. the Irish acknowledged him as 
 their legitimate king; and when his English subjects rebelled 
 
12 Preface. 
 
 against him, the Irish defended his cause with arms ; and the 
 Catholic synod of Killtenny in 1641, presided over by Hugh 
 O'Reilly, Archbishop of Armagh, declared : " Whereas, the war 
 which now in Ireland the Catholics do maintain against sectaries, 
 and chiefly against Puritans, is for the defence of the Catholic 
 religion, for the maintenance of the prerogative and royai rights 
 of our gracious King Charles," and ordered the following oath 
 to be taken by all : " I, A. B., do profess, swear, and protest, be- 
 fore God and his angels, that I willj during my life, bear true 
 faith and allegiance to my Sovereign Lord Charles, by the grace 
 of God King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and to his 
 heirs and lawful successors." The Confederates of Kilkenny, 
 indeed, very rightly sought at the same time to secure freedom 
 for their own religion, and the exercise of their own civil rights j 
 but it is essential to remember that the Confederation of Kil- 
 kenny sought to maintain the rights of Ireland under the existing 
 dynasty and government, (which, although alien and wrongful 
 in its introduction, could then claim to be established by 
 time,) not to substitute by revolution a new government for it. 
 The scheme of making the Duke of Lorraine king of Ireland 
 found little favor, even when Charles was wholly unable to afford 
 that protection which is the correlative of obedience. The Irish 
 of the middle of the seventeenth century were, indeed, called 
 rebels, and treated as such, but it was by those who were them- 
 selves really rebels against their legitimate sovereign, the repub- 
 licans of England ; and the Cromwellian persecution smote them 
 alike for their fidelity to their religion and to their king. 
 
 Under Charles II., also, the Irish Catholics were faithful sub- 
 jects ; they were only too faithful to his brother James. But from 
 the time when the dynasty of Orange was established on the throne, 
 it was obeyed by the Catholic priests of Ireland, whose one rule 
 was to mix as little as might be in secular politics, and under 
 those successive and different governments, all alike alien m 
 their origin, to observe the apostle's precept to be subject to the 
 powers that be. This is well stated in the synodal decrees of 
 the province of Armagh given by Dr. Renehan :* " AH priests 
 
 * Renehan's Bishops^ p. 118, 
 
Preface. 13 
 
 are to take care not to mix themselves up, either publicly or pri- 
 vately, with affairs of state or of temporal government, nor to in- 
 cur the enmity of the king's majesty or of the temporal governors, 
 unless only it be by discharging their duty to God and their 
 flocks in the administration of spirituals, leaving to Caesar what 
 is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." 
 
 But if they were ever ready to obey in worldly matters the 
 various temporal rulers who governed Ireland, they were inflexi- 
 ble in preserving their own and their people's higher spiritual 
 allegiance to their Divine Ruler and his vicegerent on earth, and 
 to them we owe the preservation of our noblest and most endur- 
 ing nationality, our Catholicity. Of them it may well be said, 
 " They took care of their nation, and delivered it from destruc- 
 tion." Rightly may we "praise these men of renown and our 
 fathers in their generation," for they preserved for us the faith, 
 through such a persecution as has rarely, if ever, elsewhere been 
 endured : " they had trials of mockeries and stripes, of bands and 
 ' prisons, they were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were 
 tempted, they were put to death by the sword, they wandered' 
 about in sheep-skins, in goat-skins, being in want, distressed, of 
 whom the world was not worthy. But in all these things they 
 overcame, because of him who loved us ;" and by their sufferings 
 has been preserved to Ireland, not only the faith, but also the 
 spirit of fidelity and sacrifice of which they have left such glori- 
 ous examples. The roll of those who suffered open violence for 
 the faith closes with 1745, but not then ended the tale of those 
 who were faithful even unto death. 
 
 For one hundred years more (until 1829) did Irish Catholics 
 submit to the privation of every worldly advantage rather than 
 abandon their faith,* " accounting all things as dross that they 
 might gain Christ." Nay, even at 4 later date, when in 1847 famine 
 and pestilence smote the land ; when " our skin was burnt as in 
 an oven by reason of the violence of the famine ; when the tongue 
 of the suckling child stuck to the roof of his mouth for thirst ; 
 when the little ones asked for bread and there was none to break 
 it to them, and they breathed out their souls on the breasts of 
 
 * **Manum suam misit bostis ad omnia desidenibilia eioa." 
 
14 Preface, 
 
 their mothers ;" when it might truly be said, " It was better with 
 them that were slain by the sword than with thew that died with 
 hunger ;" and when the generous people of England, of France, 
 of Italy, and of every other Christian land sent abundant alms 
 to our famishing people, there were found in some districts of 
 Ireland men base enough to use hunger as an instrument of tor- 
 ure to make the poor forswear their religion, who offered food 
 and clothing as the price of apostasy, and tempted our starving 
 peasants to barter, like Esau, their birthright of faith for a mess 
 of pottage. And there were found hundreds, I might say thou- 
 sands — old men, and weak women, and tender children, whose 
 names, unrecorded here, are registered in heaven — who spurned 
 the temptation, as their ancestors had done before them, turned 
 fainting from the food that was the wages of sin, and purchased 
 an eternal kingdom by a death of hunger, imitating him who 
 " chose rather to be afflicted with the people of God than to have 
 the pleasure of sin for a time," because, like him, " they looked to 
 the reward." And others there were who, when called upon by 
 the representatives of that alien church, which for three centuries 
 had sought in vain to bring them into its fold, either to send 
 their children to schools of error or to abandon the occupation 
 of the land on which they lived, hesitated not, but left home and 
 country and all that made life dear, and became dwellers in a 
 strange land. Truly they remembered " that we have not here 
 a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come ; for they that dp 
 these things signify that they seek a country and that they de- 
 sire a better, that is to say, a heavenly country." 
 
 It cannot, then, be doubtful that the brief records of those who 
 suffered for the Catholic faith in Ireland will be welcome to their 
 descendants ; nor will they be without interest even for strangers 
 and members of another church. The age of strife and relio-ious 
 persecution is paSt : the descendants of the persecutors and the 
 persecuted are now citizens of a common country, and can re- 
 spect the noble deeds of all her former children. The valor and 
 endurance of her martial sons are a subject of pride, whether dis- 
 played in the defence of Londonderry or of Limerick, at Clontarf 
 or Benburb. Far more does the record of undeserved sufferings 
 heroically endured for conscience' sake claim the respect of all • 
 
Preface. i ; 
 
 to none can it be ungrateful, save to those, if any such there be, 
 who would renew the persecutions which caused them. Of 
 course, these memorials have a deeper interest for those who are 
 of the household of the faith j for the sons of those who for the 
 faith 
 
 " Spared neither land nor gold, 
 Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life. 
 In the brave days of old ;" 
 
 for those who now fill the posts in the church once occupied by 
 martyrs. To them, and to their predecessors, may I apply the 
 words addressed after the French Revolution to the glorious 
 clergy of France : 
 
 "Hail, venerable priests of the Roman Catholic Church! 
 You have, indeed, suffered much, but you have not yet come to 
 the city of the living God and the company of the angels, where 
 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has glorified those whom he 
 called in persecution and justified by the shedding of blood for 
 the faith. Let us strew a few flowers on the tombs of our martyrs. 
 Hail, you who were mighty in war, and fought with the Did ser- 
 pent ! O glorious confessors of our God and his Christ ! to 
 whom it was given not only to believe in him, but also to suffer 
 Tor him — ^you who endured so much ignominy, who as exiles trod 
 the narrow way of the cross amidst the applause of heaven and 
 the wonder of the earth, behold me at your feet ! How beauti- 
 ful are the feet of those who were witnesses to God even unto 
 the ends of the earth ! And you who, contemning the tempest 
 and the swelling waves, ceased not intrepidly to cast your nets ; 
 you who, placed, as it were, in the fiery furnace, continued 
 to bless God, to do good to men, to guard your flocks ; you, 
 burning and shining lights, who, when you might no longer be as 
 a light placed on a candlestick to shine to all in the house, 
 sought to gather as many as you might under the bushel where 
 you were hidden, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings 
 — sacred leaven which preserved the whole body from perversion 
 — you blessed priests, to whom the Lord gave the spirit of heroic 
 endurance in the midst of dangers — hail, true soldiers of Christ 1 
 Hail, holy priests, worthy of double honor I Praise be to God 
 
l6 Preface. 
 
 who gave to you this victory, through Christ our Lord I Happy 
 persecution which brought you such a reward ! Happy prisons 
 through which you reached the heavenly palaces I Happy death 
 which gave you eternal life ! Holy fathers, glorious brothers, who 
 now joyfully stand around the throne of the Lamb, look dowii 
 from heaven, and bring help to your brethren, your flocks, youi 
 countrymen. We are still in the strife, while you have atcainec 
 the happy rest. Aid us by your prayers."* 
 
 * AmMoct, ASaittuU. Sacsr* 
 
INDEX OF PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO. 
 
 I HAVE thought that some of my younger readers would like to 
 have a short account of the principal works of old authors here quoted, 
 with a note of where they may be found. I may here point out that the 
 plan I have observed is to give wherever possible the " Memorials" 
 in the exact words of the original writers from whom they are derived. 
 This plan has the advantage not only of enabling the reader to judge 
 for himself, but of presenting a more lively and truthful picture than 
 any modern rhtiini could give : it tells the reader not only the facts, 
 but how those facts affected contemporaries, and how they judged 
 them, and thus furnishes a lively picture of the times — a record not 
 only of the actions, but of the thoughts and feelings of the men of 
 those days. I need hardly point out that the language of those old 
 writers is not always that which we should use : thus, they designate 
 as sectaries and heretics those whom we are accustomed to call " our 
 dissenting brethren ;" but it would be absurd to make those who were 
 fleeing into the wilderness before the exterminating sword of the 
 Cromwellians speak of them as "erring brethren." Time heals 
 wounds and obliterates animosities. I have let the men of old speak 
 their own thoughts in their own language, as we do ours. 
 
 Annales Ordinis Minorutn. Auctore Luca Waddingo. Romx, 1731. Wadding's well- 
 known annals of his own order. This work is to be found iu all our great libraries, as the 
 British Museum, Trinity College, Maynooth College, etc. 
 
 Scriptores Ordinis MinoruTH, quibus accessit syllabus eortitn qui ex eodetn ordifte pro ftiU 
 Cknsii fortiter occubueru?ti. Rom^, 1806. This is the revised and continued edition, by 
 Thisboralea, of the work by Wadding. It is in Trinity College, etc. 
 
 Acta Sanctorum. Colgan. Lovanii, 1645. The preface gives an account of the death of 
 Fathers Fleming and Ward, two of the compilers. It is in the British Museum, Trinity Col- 
 lege, etc. 
 
 Hibernia Dominicana. De Burgo. Col Agrippina, 1762. This well-known work it m 
 all our public and many of our private libraries. 
 
iS Index of Principal Woi'ks referred to. 
 
 Monumenia D^minicana, Fonseca. Romx, 1665, This is not an uncommon work : T hart 
 myself a copy. 
 
 Historia Caikoltca Compendium, Auctore O'Sullevano Bearro. Ulissiponi, 1621. TIm 
 original is in the British Museum, Trinity College, etc The reprint of 1850 is to be had 
 easily. 
 
 Relatio Persecutionia Htbemia. Auctore Dominico a Rosario, (0*Daly.) And HUt. 
 Gerald, Ulissip. 1655. Is in the British Museum, Trinity Library, etc. A translation of it 
 by Father Meehan was published by Duffy in 1847 
 
 PropugTtaculum Catholica VeriiatiSy etc. Auctore R. P. F. Antonio Bruodino. Pragx, 
 1669. Is in Maynooth Library. 
 
 De Regno Hihemut. A Petro Lombardo. Lovanii, 1632. Is in the British Museum, 
 etc 
 
 Lyra sive Anacepkalosis Hihern. Auctore T. Carve. Sulibaci, 1666. Is in the Briti&h 
 Museum, etc 
 
 Relatio Viridica Provincia Hibemice Ordinis Minorum. Auctore R. P. le Marchant, 
 1651. I have seen this very curious account of the Franciscan province of Ireland at that 
 time only in the Bollandists' Library, Brussels. 
 
 A nalecia Sacra Nova et Mira de Rebiis Catholicomm in Hibemia pro Fide et Religi- 
 one gesiis. Auctore N. Phi^adelpho, (Dr. David Roothe, Bishop of Ossory.) Colonic, m 17. 
 And Processus Martyrialist etc., by the same author. The first printed in 161 7, the second 
 n X619. The first is a general account of the history of the time ; the second contains a cata- 
 logue and lives of those who up to that date had suffered for the faith. The first exists 
 in the Bollandists*, Louvain, and Antwerp libraries, and a copy is in the possession of his 
 eminence Cardinal Cullen. Of the second I only know three copies, one in the Bollandists* 
 Library, one in the library of Louvain University, and the third in MS. in my possession, for 
 which I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. T. O'Hea. 
 
 Socieias Jesu usque ad Sanguinentt etc Tanner. Pragze, 1675. This volume of lives 
 of the Jesuits of these countries who suffered for the faith is to be found in the British Mu» 
 seum and some of our other libraries. 
 
 Collections toward !iij4straiing the Biography 0/ lumbers of the Society o/yesus. Exe 
 ler, 1838. By Dr. Oliver. This work is to be found in most libraries. 
 
 Persecuiio Hibemia. By the Irish Seminary of Seville. Printed 1619. I am indebted 
 for my knowledge of this work, which is in the library of St. Isidore's, Rome, to Dr. Moran. 
 
 Sanciorale Cisterciensum. Valladolid, 1613. For references to this, which is to be found 
 in tlie private library of Propaganda, Rome, I am also indebted to Dr. Moran. 
 
 Hi&lorical Review 0/ the Civil JVars in Irclayid. Curry. Dublin, 1775. Is in all out 
 
 libraries. 
 
 Noiicias Historicas de las tres Florentissimas Provincias del Celeste Orden de la Sma, 
 TrirJciad. A Fr. Domingo Lopez, etc Madrid, 1714. This curious but, I fear, apocry- 
 phal work is to be found in the library of Maynooth College, and in the private library of 
 Propaganda. 
 
 Tlieologia Tripartita. Ardsdekin. Antverpis, 1686. At the end is an account of Dr 
 Talbot, Dr. Plunket, and some others. It is a common book, and in all our libraries 
 
 Pii Antistitis Icon, sive de Vita et Morie Reverendi D. Francisci ICirTvan AlLid^ ' 
 Episcopi. Authore loanne Lynchaso, Archidiacono Tuamensi. Maclovii, 1640 Tl 
 m the Grenville Library, in the British Museum, is the only one known to exist. On th tl - 
 lesf is written by R. Heber, to whom the book belonged : '* I believe this to be the 
 
Mamiscripts in the Biirgiin Han lAbrary, 19 
 
 volume in existence connected with the history of Ireland and thff portrait of Bishop Kirwaa 
 prefixed is totally unknown.'* The biographer, John Lynch, titular Archdeacon of Tuam 
 fled out of Ireland into France after the surrender of Gal *ay to Cromwell, and is the author 
 of the scarce and well-known work, Catnbrensis Eversiu A translation by Father Meehan 
 was printed by Duffy in 1848. 
 
 Efiilogiis Chronalogim exponens sitccincie conventus jit fundationes Sacri Ordinis Prt- 
 dicatorum in Regno Hiberttue. Lovanii, 1706. Fr. loanne O'Heyn, O.P. It gives a very 
 ■liort account of each convent, and its most remarkable alumni. The book is scarce ; th« 
 only copy I know of in Ireland is in the library of the Dominican convent, Gal way. 
 
 Tkrenodia Hibemo Catholica^ she Planctus Universalis Totius Cleri et Populi Regn 
 Hibemia. Per F. M. Morisonum, Ord. Min. Strict. Obs. (Eniponti, 1659. Exists in the 
 Grenville Library, British Museum. I do not know of any other copy. 
 
 I need hardly mention here, as they are so well known : 
 
 Dr. Renehaa*s Collections on Church History^ edited by Rev. D. McCarthy. Dublin, 
 1861. 
 
 Dr. lA.Qr^n*& Lives 0/ Archbishops 0/ Duilin ; Life 0/ Dr. Plutiket ; History of Perw 
 cuiions, etc 
 
 Father Meehan's valuable translation oiO* Sullivan Lynch and OtIierSy and his last work. 
 Flight of the Earls. 
 
 Father Cogan's Diocese of Meath, 
 
 The various calendars of State Papers published by the Record 0£5ce. 
 
 MANUSCRIPTS IN THE BURGUNDIAN LIBRARY, BRUSSELS. 
 
 No. 3307. A Catalogue of the Martyrs^ etc., of the Society of Jesus^ quoted as Catalog. 
 Soc. fesu. It is a catalogue of all those of the society who had recently (about 1700) suffered 
 for the faith 
 
 No. 3159. Magna Supplicia a PersectUorihus aliquot Catholicorum in Ihernia Sutn^t^, 
 Written about 1600. A very curious collection of contemporary anecdotes. 
 
 No. 3167. Compendium Martyrii Reverendi Cornelii 0*Dovanii. An account of tha 
 martyrdom of Bishop Dovany in 1612, written by a contemporary. Bound up with tht 
 same is a curious letter, dated 15th April, 1612, from the Rev. Father Fleming, of the Order 
 of St. Dominick, dated from the convent of Dundalk. This is curious as showing that at 
 that date the Dominican convent of Carlingford had been transferred to Dundalk. 
 
 No. 3195. De Provincia Hiberniee Ordinis Sancti Francisci Tractatus a Rev. Do 
 naio Mooney. Anno 1637. This account of the Franciscan proWnce of Ireland has been 
 frequently referred to, and a good part of it pubhshed in Duffy's Magazine by Father 
 Meehan, 
 
 No. 3824. Lettres des Jisuites Anglais^ or Correspondance des Pires yisuites Irlandai*. 
 This is the collection of letters from Irish Jesuits and others, giving the life of Htnry 
 Slingsby, which my readers will find under the year i64i. 
 
MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS. 
 
 Anno 1B30. 
 
 It has frequently been remarked as extraordinary that 
 the early annals of the Irish Church did not record a sin- 
 gle martyr : such was the gentleness and docility of the 
 pagans of Ireland of the time of St. Patrick that their con- 
 version was effected without provoking any violence or 
 the death of a single missionary. But the history of the 
 Irish Church was not to be peaceable to the end. Heresy 
 smote where paganism had spared, and the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries saw the Church of Ireland purpled 
 in the blood of her martyrs. 
 
 King Henry VIII., having plunged England into the 
 guilt of heresy and schism, resolved to make Ireland a 
 sharer in the same fate. 
 
 Accordingly, the death of Archbishop Allen, in 1534, 
 having caused a vacancy in the see of Dublin, Henry ap- 
 pointed, in March, 1535, Doctor George Browne, an Eng- 
 lish Augustinian friar, to the vacant bishopric ; and, without 
 any confirmation from Rome, he was consecrated by Cran- 
 mer, and received from him, in compliance with the schis- 
 
S2 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 matical act lately passed in the English Parliament, the 
 pallium and other insignia of his dignity. 
 
 This schismatical intruder into the see of Dublin found 
 a zealous coadjutor in the then Bishop of Meath, Doctor 
 Edward Staples, an Englishman, who had been appointed 
 to the see of Meath,* in 1530, by Pope Clement VII., at the 
 request of Henry VIII. By their advice, a Parliament was 
 convened in 1536, which, after the spiritual proctors had 
 been illegally deprived of the right of voting, and great 
 menaces on the part of the king had been used, at length 
 passed an act vesting the supremacy of the church in the 
 king. As Henry was thus proclaimed head of the church, 
 it was deemed necessary to secure him a tribute from the 
 ecclesiastical property. Hence an act was passed giving 
 him the first-fruits of every benefice and the twentieth 
 part of the profits of all spiritual benefices. 
 
 The same Parliament, which thus, at the dictation of the 
 king, waged war against our faith, also waged war against 
 our national usages, and even against our existence as a 
 people. Thus we find one act passed for encouraging 
 "the English order, habit, and language," while it pre- 
 scribed that spiritual preferment should be given " only to 
 such as could speak English, unless, after four proclamations 
 in the next market-town, such could not be found." Should 
 any Irishman perchance be promoted to any benefice, there 
 was an oath imposed, " that he would endeavor to learn 
 and teach the English tongue, to all and every being un- 
 der his rule, and to bid the beads in the English tongue, 
 and preach the word of God in English, if he can preach." 
 These legislators evidently believed it impossible to make 
 the Irish embrace heresy unless they could make them 
 
 • Staples really was Bishop of Meath, having been duly appointed and conseaated al- 
 though he afterward apostatized : but Browne never was ArtJibishop of Dublin, never Ii 
 ing been lawfiilly fleeted or consecrated. He «as, as he himself said, *' rnade <aT^I-hU\'^\ 
 kr t/u kinf" See his letter Quoted in Dr. Moran's A rtiMshpfis of Dublin-, p. 4. ' 
 
In the Reign of Henry VIII. 23 
 
 cease to be Irish * But it was one thing to have laws 
 passed by a timorous Parliament, it was anotlier to enforce 
 their observance. In a large part of Ireland, inhabited by 
 the original Irish, the authority of Parliament was little re- 
 spected, and even in the pale the clergy and people ap- 
 pear to have very little regarded the parliamentary decrees 
 which transferred the supremacy from the pope to the 
 king. Except Browne and Staples, no bishops appear to 
 have leaned toward the new opinions, as they were call- 
 ed ; and in 1538 we find Browne writing to Cromwell that 
 not even in the diocese of Dublin " can I persuade or in- 
 duce onye, either religious or secular, sithens my comyng 
 over, ons to preache the word of God, or the just title of 
 our moste illustrious prince." f But the most urgent de- 
 sire of Henry was not the change of the religious opinions 
 of the people, but the plunder of the wealth of the church. 
 In 1536, the first grant of religious houses was made to 
 the king by the authority of the Irish Parliament. This 
 gjant comprised three hundred and seventy monasteries. 
 In the following year, by virtue of a commission under the 
 Great Seal of England, eight abbeys were suppressed, and 
 in 1538 a further order was issued for the suppression of all 
 the monasteries and abbeys. In some cases the superiors 
 of these religious houses surrendered without opposition 
 the charge entrusted unto them, but whenever they could 
 not be induced by threats or promises to resign their mo- 
 nasteries, to the crown, severer m.easures were resorted 
 to ; and one instance is especially recorded of Manus 
 O'Fihily, the last Abbot of St. Mary^s, Thurles, who, on a 
 refusal to comply with the wishes of the crown, was car- 
 ried a prisoner to Dublin, and subjected to a long and 
 painful imprisonment. J 
 
 I cannot better describe the persecution of the Catho- 
 
 • See Dr. Koran, chap. i. t Diocae ef Meath, p. 90. 
 
 + Grose's Irish AniiquUui, ii, 85, quoted by Dr. Moran. 
 
24 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 lies Ihan in the words of the Four Masters (ad an. iS37) = 
 "A heresy and a new error broke out in England, the 
 effects of pride, vainglory, avarice, sensual desire, and the 
 prevalence of a variety of scientific and philosophical 
 speculations, so that the people of England went into op- 
 position to the pope and to Rome. At the same time 
 they followed a variety of opinions, and adopting the old 
 law of Moses, after the manner of the Jewish people, they 
 gave the title of head of the church of God, during his 
 reign, to the king. There were enacted by the king and 
 council new laws and statutes after their own will. They 
 ruined the orders who were permitted to hold worldly pos- 
 sessions, namely, monks, canons regular, nuns, and Breth- 
 ren of the Cross ; and also the four mendicant orders — the 
 Franciscans, the Preachers, the Carmelites, and the Augus- 
 tinians. The possessions and livings of all these were 
 taken up for the king. They broke into the monasteries ; 
 they sold their roofs and bells, so there was not a monas- 
 tery from Arann of the Saints to the Iccian Sea that was 
 not broken and scattered, except only a few in Ireland, 
 which escaped the notice and attention of the English. 
 They further burned and broke the famous images, shrines, 
 and relics of Ireland and England. After that they burn- 
 ed, in like manner, the celebrated image of Mary, which 
 was at Ath-Trium, which used to perform wonders and 
 miracles, and at which were healed, the blind, the deaf, the 
 lame, and the sufferers from all diseases ; and the staff of 
 Jesus, which was in Dublin, performing miracles from the 
 days of St. Patrick down to that time, and which was in 
 the hands of Christ while he was among men. They also 
 made archbishops and bishops for themselves, and al- 
 though great was the persecution of the Roman emperors 
 against the "church, it is not probable that so great a per- 
 secution as this ever came upon the world ; so it is impos- 
 sible to tell or narrate its description, unless it shou d be 
 
In the Reign of Henry VIII. 25 
 
 told by him who saw it." Under the year 1540, we shall 
 meet with a, particular instance, recorded by the same an- 
 nalist, of the martyrdom of some of their own order. 
 
 Anno 1BS9. 
 
 The Spanish writer Lopez gives, under this year and 
 154s, the martyrdom of a large number of Trinitarian fa- 
 thers, but, as there is great doubt as to the accuracy of 
 those accounts in Lopez, I shall not here insert them. 
 
 Anno 1B40. 
 
 FRANCISCAN FATHERS OF THE MONASTERY OF MONAGHAN. 
 
 " The English, in every place throughout Ireland where 
 they established their power, persecuted and banished the 
 nine religious orders, and particularly they destroyed the 
 monastery of Monaghan, and beheaded the guardian and a 
 number of the friars." — Annals of Four Masters, at this 
 
 year, 
 
 — • — 
 
 Anno ISOO. 
 
 WILLIAM WALSH, BISHOP OF MEATH, CONFESSOR. 
 
 During the reign of Henry VIIL, Meath had been dis- 
 graced by an apostate bishop. Dr. Edward Staples, an 
 Englishman, had been appointed in 1 530, at the request of 
 Henry VIIL, Bishop of Meath. As to the early years of 
 his episcopate little is known. In 1534, he fled to England, 
 in order to escape the anger of Silken Thomas, then in 
 rebellion, to whom he had made himself obnoxious. In 
 1535, he returned to the diocese of Meath, deeply infected 
 with the principles of the Reformation • and from that time 
 
26 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 he was a willing assistant of Dr. Browne, the intruder 
 into the see of Dublin, in the work of despoiling the 
 monasteries and endeavoring to force the new heresy on 
 the Irish people. 
 
 Mary asceilded the throne in 1553, and in April, 1554, 
 Dr. Dowdall, Archbishop of Armagh, lately returned from 
 banishment, and Dr. William Walsh, received a com- 
 mission to proceed against immoral ecclesiastics, and to 
 depose such as were married and impenitent. By their 
 authority, Edward Staples was, in June of the same year, 
 removed from the diocese of Meath, deprived of his bene- 
 fice, and suspended from all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and 
 this Dr. William Walsh was afterward duly appointed 
 Bishop of Meath. 
 
 Sir James Ware says that he was a native of Waterford ; 
 but another authority, who certainly had better opportu- 
 nities of information, namely, John alias Malachy Hortrey, 
 a Cistercian monk of the Abbey of Holy Cross, in a manu- 
 script treatise entitled De Cistertiensium Hibemorum 
 Viris Illustribus, states that William Walsh was born at 
 Dunboyne, county Meath, joined the Cistercian order, and 
 lived in the Abbey of Bective, previous to its suppression. 
 Whatever doubt there may be about the place of his birth 
 and his early history, there is none whatever as to his 
 eminent virtues, distinguished abilities, and the heroic 
 fortitude with which he bore numerous and prolonged 
 sufferings for the faith. His unbending orthodoxy and 
 opposition to the innovations of Henry VHI. and Edward 
 VI. marked him out for promotion after the accession of 
 Mary, and accordingly we find him associated with the 
 zealous primate. Dr. Dowdall, in the commission to drive 
 from the sanctuary all such as were faithless to their trust. 
 A cong^ d Vlire was issued to the Archdeacon and clergy 
 of Meath for the election of Dr. Walsh, and, after having 
 received the royal assent and the confirmation of the Holy 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 27 
 
 See, he addressed the following petition to Mary and 
 Philip : 
 
 " Petition of William Walsh, stating that he was elected 
 bishop by the chapter and clergy of the bishopric of Meath, 
 and had for his consecration their graces' letters-patent; 
 but, not having his lawful consecration from the Universal 
 Catholic Church, like other bishops, he could not, with good 
 conscience, be consecrated ; and stating that he was sent 
 into Ireland at his own cost, by commission, to deprive 
 certain married bishops and priests, and was so occupied 
 in execution of this office that he could not attend to hip 
 consecration. He therefore prays a grant of the tem- 
 poralities of the see from the date of the deprivation of the 
 late incumbent, which was the feast of Saints Peter and 
 Paul last past." 
 
 On the receipt of this petition the king and queen 
 wrote to the Lord Deputy, the Chancellor, and the Coun- 
 cil of Ireland, thus : 
 
 " We send you herein enclosed a supplication exhibited 
 to us by our loving subject. Dr. Walsh, Bishop of Meath 
 elect. He desires the temporalities of the bishopric from 
 the time of the deprivation of the late incumbent. Our 
 pleasure is that you shall give order to make forth an 
 7itterlemagne, under our Great Seal, whereby he may enjoy 
 the whole temporalities of the bishopric from the time 
 of the amotion or deprivation of the late incumbent." — 
 Oct. 1 8th, 1st and 2d Mary and Philip. 
 
 Dr. Walsh was consecrated about the close of 1554, and 
 immediately applied himself with zeal and energy to reform 
 abuses, and to heal the wounds which during the last two 
 reigns had been inflicted on faith, morals, and discipline. 
 The period of his usefulness was, however, destined to be 
 brief, and he had time merely to stimulate his priests and 
 to fortify his diocese when the gathering storm burst over 
 the Irish Church, and sacrificed the Bishop of Meath 
 
28 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 among its first and noblest victims. Queen Mary died 
 in 1558, and was succeeded by Elizabeth, who at once 
 publicly embraced the reformed tenets, and proceeded to 
 have them enforced on all. In 1560, an act was passed, 
 under the deputyship of the Earl of Suffolk, which ordered 
 all ecclesiastical persons, judges, officers, justices, mayors, 
 and all the other queen's officers, to take the oath of 
 supremacy under penalty of forfeiture, and also enacted 
 that if any person should, by writing, printing, teaching, 
 preaching, by express words, deed, or act, maintain any 
 foreign spiritual jurisdiction, he should for the first offence ■ 
 forfeit all his goods and suffer one year's imprisonment, 
 for the second offence should incur the penalty of prae- 
 munire, and for the third be deemed guilty of high treason. 
 (2.d Eliz. cap. i.) 
 
 It was now the fidelity of Dr. Walsh was tested to the 
 utmost. Had he, like a few of his contemporaries, sacrific- 
 ed conscience to expediency, worldly comfort and ephe- 
 meral honor were soon to have been his portion. But he 
 felt he had a higher authority to obey than Queen Eliza- 
 beth, and hence he repudiated her pretensions to rule the 
 church, and guarded his flock, even at the peril of his life, 
 against her parliamentary creed. Ware thus narrates the 
 event : 
 
 " After the return of the Earl of Sussex to Ireland, let- 
 ters came from her majesty signifying her pleasure for a 
 general meeting of the clergy of Ireland, and the estab- 
 lishment of the Piotestant religion through the several 
 dioceses of this kingdom. Among the bishops, the Bishop 
 of Meath was very zealous for the Romish Church ; not 
 content with what offers her majesty had proposed, but 
 very much enraged, (after the assembly had dispersed 
 themselves,) he fell to preach against the Common Prayer 
 in his diocese at Trim, which was newly come over and 
 ordered to be observed, for which the lord heutenant 
 
/;/■ the Reign of Elizabeth. 29 
 
 confined him till he acquainted her majesty with it, who 
 sent over her orders to clap him up in prison. Within a 
 few months after, persisting in the same mind, he was 
 deposed, and the bishopric of Meath was about two years 
 vacant, till, by her majesty's provision, Hugh Brady became 
 Walsh's successor."* 
 
 On the i6th of July, 1565, Adam Loftus, Protestant 
 Archbishop of Armagh, writes to Sir William Cecil : 
 
 " The Xlllth of this monthe by vertu of our commission 
 for cawsis ecclesiastycall, we committed to the castell of 
 Dublyn, doctor Welcke, late byssippe of Methe, there to 
 remayne untill the queenes majesties pleasure were 
 knowne. He refused the othe and to answer such articles 
 as we required of him ; and besides that, ever sithens the 
 last parliament, he hath manifestly contemned and openly 
 showed himself to be a mislyker of all the queenes ma- 
 jesties proceedings ; he openly protested before all the 
 people the same day he was before us, that he would never 
 communicate or be present (by his will) where the service 
 should be ministrid, for it was against his conscience and 
 (as he thought) against God's woord. If it shall seeme 
 good to your honour and the rest of her majesties most 
 honourable counseyle, in myne opinion, it wer fit he showld 
 be sent to England, and peradventure by conferringe with 
 the lerned bishoppes there, he might be brought to sum 
 conformitie ; he is one of great creadit amongst his coun- 
 trimen, and uppon whome (as tutchinge cawsis of re- 
 ligion) thay wholy depend."! 
 
 As no pretext could be devised for leading him to the 
 scaifold, he once more received the culprit's chains, (he bore 
 
 • Ware's A nnals^ 1560. 1 need hardly say it was only the temporalities of the see of Meath 
 which were given to Brady. . William Walsh continued lawful Bishop of Meath till his death. 
 
 t All his biographers agree that Dr. Walsh passed between twelve and thirteen years in 
 prison : and he escaped about Christmas, 1572. He would therefore appear to have been im- 
 prisoned a first time in 1560, and more definitely consigned to prison in 1565 See Henri- 
 guex and his EpUaph ap. Moran and Co^an. 
 
30 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 the scars of them to his tomb,) and was reconducted to his 
 former prison ; this was " a subterraneous dungeon, damp 
 and noisome — not a ray of light penetrated thither ; and 
 for thirteen years this was his unvarying abode." During 
 all that time his food was of the coarsest kind, and, with 
 the exception of rare intervals, when the intercession of 
 some influential friends obtained a momentary relaxation, 
 he was allowed no occupation that could cheer the tedium 
 of his imprisonment. In all this lengthened martyrdom, 
 prayer was his resource, and, as he himself subsequently 
 avowed, he oftentimes passed whole days and nights over- 
 whelmed with heavenly consolations, so that his dungeon 
 seemed transformed into a paradise of delights. To pre- 
 clude the possibihty of idleness, he procured a bed made 
 of twisted cords, and whensoever his mind was fatigued 
 with prayer, he applied himself to untie those cords, and 
 often was he well wearied with the exertion before he 
 could reunite them to compose himself to sleep. 
 
 His persecutors, overcome by his constancy, and finding 
 his fervor in spiritual contemplation a continual reproach 
 to their own wickedness, at length, about Christmas, 1572, 
 connived at his escape. Sailing from our shores, his only 
 regret was to abandon the field of his spiritual labors, and 
 to leave his flock defenceless amid the many enemies that 
 now compassed its destruction. He says himself, (letter 
 of July sth, 1573,) " I was snatched from that place by the 
 liberality and care of my friends, and having met with the 
 opportunity of a ship of Brittany, I threw myself into it, 
 not heeding my age, which was above sixty years, or my 
 state of health, deeming it safer to trust my life to the dan- 
 ger of the sea than again to experience the cruelty of the 
 enemies of the Catholic religion." For sixteen days he 
 was tossed on the waves by a violent storm, and was at 
 length driven in shipwreck on the coast of France. 
 Weighed down with the infirmities which he had contract- 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 31 
 
 ed in prison, and with the burden of more than sixty 
 years, he was compelled to remain for six months unknown 
 and abandoned in Nantes. At length, receiving aid from 
 the nuncio, he proceeded to Paris, and thence to Spain; 
 The closing years of his life were spent in Alcald.* A 
 noble Spanish lady received him into her house, and at- 
 tended him as though he were an angel from heaven. 
 The sores which yet remained from his dungeon chains 
 she kissed as the trophies of his martyrdom. She would 
 allow none but herself to wait on him, and on her knees 
 she usually dressed his wounds and ministered to his 
 wants. From this asylum of charity, thus providentially 
 prepared for him, he passed to the convent of the Cisterci- 
 an fathers in the same city, and there, on the 4th of Janu- 
 ary, 1577, he happily closed his earthly life, which, as many 
 attested, he had never sullied by any stain of mortal sin.f 
 His remains were placed in the Collegiate Church of Saint 
 Secundinus, and a monument erected over them by the 
 Bishop of Grenada, with the following inscription : 
 
 " Here lieth William Walsh, a Cistercian monk, and Bi- 
 shop of Meath, who, after thirteen years' imprisonment, 
 and many labors for the Catholic faith, at last died in 
 exile at Alcala, on the day before the nones of January, 
 
 1577." 
 
 He is held in veneration by his Cistercian brothers as a 
 holy martyr in the cause of the Catholic faith, and his 
 memory lives in benediction in the diocese he adorned.^ 
 
 * Alcald, called by the Romans Complutum. It was here Cardinal Ximenes had the Con^- 
 ^^iensiaft Polyglot^ as it was called, printed. 
 
 t " Con grandissima ragione fu questo stimato martire e ricevuto per santo come quello cha 
 ii.tiutoildecorsodi sua vita mai con peccato grave aveva macchiata I'innocenza battes&imale." 
 — A'n-rtyrolog. Cisterc. MS. ap. Moran. 
 
 X The life of Dr. Walsh I have taken entirely from his two learned modern biographers, 
 • Dr. Moran, in his introduction to the History of the Catholic Archbishops 0/ Dublin^ z.nA 
 Rev. A. Cog in, Diflcese 0/ Meatk^ where the reader will find the original authorities re- 
 Cerred tc*. 
 
32 Martyrs attd Confessors 
 
 Anno 1B6S. 
 
 CONOR MACCARTHY, ROGER MACCONGAIL, AND FERGAL 
 WARD, FRANCISCAN FRIARS.* 
 
 The occurrence in which these confessors suffered is 
 undoubted, but there is a slight confusion as to the name 
 of the second. " In this year the heretical soldiers attack- 
 ed the convent of the Franciscans in Armagh, and called 
 upon such of the brethren as had not effected their escape 
 to renounce the Catholic religion, and acknowledge the 
 queen's supremacy. Upon their refusal, they were bound 
 and most cruelly flogged to make them abjure, but in vain, 
 and the soldiers at length left them half-dead." This is 
 the first instance of military floggings for religion's sake ; 
 but from this date they never ceased in Ireland until the 
 present century, many innocent Catholics having been 
 flogged to death in 1 798 : among others, two who died un- 
 der the stripes in the barrack of Dundalk. 
 
 Anno 1568. 
 
 REV. DAVID V\rOLF, S.J. 
 
 The life of this remarkable confessor has been so well 
 and ably written by Dr. Moran that, with the kind permis- 
 sion of the author, we give it in his words. Father 
 Wolf is enumerated in the catalogue of martyrs and con- 
 fessors given by Dr. Roothe in his Analecta. 
 
 One of the most remarkable men who, during the fiist 
 years of Elizabeth's reign, labored in our Irish Church to 
 
 nu 
 
 • The only notices I have found of these confessors is in Luke Wadding's Scriptures Ordi- 
 i Minorum, and hhAmuifes Ordinis Min. ii. 1391. In the first passage their namss are 
 given as Conacius Macuarta, Rogerus MacCongail, and Fergallus Bardeus. In the second 
 passage Macuarta and MacCongail are not mentioned ; but the sufferings of Fergallus Var- 
 dL^us and Henricus Femlamaidh are commemorated. Probably there were four who suffered. 
 Apparently Wadding has confoun-led Fergial Ward, who was hanged in 1577, with the others 
 wh« were thus scourged in 1565. See later, at the year 1577. 
 
In the Reigii of Elizabeth. 3 3 
 
 gather together the scattered stones of the sanctuary, was 
 Father David Wolf, a member of the Order of St. Ignati- 
 us. A native of Limerick, he spent seven years in Rome, 
 imbibing the full spirit of his order, under the immediate 
 guidance of its holy founder and St. Francis Borgia ; and 
 in August, 1560, he was sent by the Holy See, with all 
 the privileges of apostolic commissary, to confirm his 
 countrymen in the faith, amid the impending persecutions 
 of Elizabeth. His chief care was to propose learned and 
 zealous men to fill the vacant sees of our island ; and the 
 names of Richard Creagh, of Armagh, Donald McConghail, 
 of Raphoe, Eugene O'Hart, of Achonry, Maurice McBrian, 
 of Emly, to omit many others, are a sure guarantee of the 
 fidelity with which he fulfilled this charge. 
 
 Father Wolf resided, for the most part, in his native dio- 
 cese ; but his jurisdiction extended to the whole island, 
 and we find him incidentally referred to in contemporary 
 records as visiting the district of Tyrone, and again as 
 travelling through various dioceses of Connaught and Ul- 
 ster. The English agents were filled with alarm at the pre- 
 sence in the country of one who, by public acclamation, 
 received the title of papal nuncio; and when, in 1561, 
 Tope Pius IV. invited Queen Elizabeth to send her repre- 
 sentatives to the Council of Trent, she absolutely refused, 
 assigning as one of the chief reasons for her displeasure 
 that "an Irishman (Father Wolf) had been sent from 
 Rome to Ireland to excite their disaffection against her 
 crown." So watchful were the agents of the English gov- 
 ernment in pursuit of the Jesuit father that he was for sev- 
 eral years unabl6 to enter v/ithin the Hmits of the pale ; 
 and we find him, when delegating his jurisdiction for Dub- 
 lin and its vicinity to Father Newman, in 1563, affirming 
 that, so many were the dangers which beset his journey 
 thither, he feared to visit that district. 
 
 Among the papi-rs of tjic secret archives of the Vati- 
 
34 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 can there is one which was presented in 1560 to the Car- 
 dinal Protector of Ireland, and which sketches the course 
 to be pursued by the agents of the Holy See while pei- 
 forming the visitation of our island. A few extracts will 
 suffice to prove how full of responsibility and peril was the 
 mission entrusted to the disciple of St. Ignatius : " His 
 first care shall be to visit the Catholic leaders, and especi- 
 ally the four chief princes of the kingdom, to commend, in 
 the name of his holiness, their unflinching constancy and 
 zeal, and to encourage them to persevere in the defence of 
 the Catholic faith." ' The bishops also were to be visited, 
 " to see if they resided in their dioceses and instructed their 
 flocks ; if they were attentive to the due decorum of the 
 sacred edifices, and vigilant in selecting zealous and 
 worthy ministers for the altar." As to the clergy, he was 
 to inquire into their manner of administering the sacra- 
 ments, and to afford them every aid, especially in adminis- 
 tering the holy sacraments of confession and communion, 
 in preaching the word of truth, and in exhorting their Cath- 
 olic flocks to lead holy and Christian lives. Should any 
 heretical minister be found, the agent of Rome was to 
 guard the people against the contagion of his errors, and, 
 above all, to seek, in the spirit of charity, to bring him 
 back to the paths of truth. " He must also seek to estab- 
 lish grammar-schools, supplying them with Catholic mas- 
 ters, and thus remedy the great ignorance of the natives •; 
 admonishing the parents to send their children to the 
 schools, that thus they may be instructed in literature and 
 morality, and at the same time acquire a meet knowledge 
 of the saving truths of faith." If possible, some monas- 
 teries were to be established, and exact discipline maintain- 
 ed ; hospitals, too, were to be founded, and other places of 
 refuge and succor for the poor. 
 
 For these things, and for whatsoever else might be done 
 no reward or recompense, even in the name of alms was 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth, 35 
 
 to be received ; the salvation of souls alone was to be the 
 moving spring, and the reward of every fatigue. Should 
 the glory of God and the interest of religion require it, life 
 itself was to be risked ; but in this the laws of Christian 
 prudence were to be observed, and all undue temerity to 
 be shunned. In fine, the Holy See was to be m-ade ac- 
 quainted with the real state of the Irish Church, the losses 
 sustained by the Catholic faith, the perils to which religion 
 was exposed, and the most opportune aid and succors were 
 to be pointed out that could be granted to sustain the 
 faithful in the dangers to which they were exposed. 
 
 The course traced out in these " instructions" was exact- 
 ly pursued liy Father Wolf, and before the close of this 
 chapter we shall have occasion to cite some of his letters, 
 which, while they disclose precious details regarding the 
 condition of our island, clearly demonstrate how indefati- 
 gable he was in his labors, and how unceasingly he strug- 
 gled to restore our suffering church to its primitive 
 comeliness and fervor. 
 
 One of the chief wants of Ireland at this period was a 
 place of untainted instruction for Catholic youth. The 
 monastic schools had been swept away by the persecution 
 of Henry VIII., and now, in such districts as were acces- 
 sible to the English arms, no mere Irishman or Catholic 
 could, without risking liberty or life, seek to instruct his 
 fellow-countrymen in the rudiments of literature and reli- 
 gion. To meet this want, a "brief" was addressed by the 
 holy father, on the 31st of May, 1564, to the newly con- 
 secrated primate, Dr. Richard Creagh, and to Father 
 David Wolf, empowering them to erect schools whereso 
 ever they should deem fit throughout the kingdom of Ire 
 land, and communicating to such schools all the privileges 
 of a university ; while, at the same time, it was declared 
 that these schools were necessary for the establishment 
 of due order, and for the maintenance of the Catholic faith. 
 
36 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Neither Dr. Creagh, however, nor Father Wolf was allow- 
 ed sufficient time to carry into effect the wise designs of 
 Rome. The history of Dr. Creagh's imprisonment is well 
 known. Father Wolf shared his sufferings, being loaded 
 with chains, and thrown into the dungeons of Dubhn Cas- 
 tle. On the 13th of March, 1568, a letter was despatched 
 from Rome to the nuncio in Madrid, instructing him to 
 employ all the papal influence at that court to procure, 
 through the mediation of the Spanish monarch, the libera- 
 tion of these two ecclesiastics, whose labors in the sacred 
 cause of religion had already won for them the applause 
 of the whole Christian world. 
 
 " We have been informed," thus writes the sainted pon- 
 .<ff Pius v., "that our venerable brother the Archbishop of 
 Armagh, who, as you are aware, is Primate of Ireland, has 
 been arrested by the English, and cast into prison in the 
 Tower of London ; and that our beloved son David, of the 
 Society of Jesus, is also closely confined by the same Eng- 
 lish in the city of Dublin, both of them being treated with 
 the greatest severity. Their sufferings overwhelm us with 
 ■\ffliction on account of their singular merits, and of their 
 teal for the Catholic faith. And as it is our desire and 
 Dur duty to succor them as far as is in our power, we 
 know of no other means for doing so than that our dear- 
 est son, his Catholic majesty, should employ his authority 
 with the English queen in their behalf You, therefore, 
 will use every endeavor with his majesty to this effect, and 
 you will urge, and request, and solicit, in our name, his 
 letters to his ambassador and to the queen, to obtain the 
 liberation of these prisoners. Than which favor none 
 other could be at present more acceptable to us. Given 
 in Rome, at St. Peter's, under the seal of the Fisherman 
 this 13th day of March, 1568." 
 
 The mediation of the Spanish court, however was 
 without effect ; and Father David was detained in the 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 37 
 
 closest custody till IS72, when he happily made his es- 
 cape from Dublin Castle, and, accompanied by Sir Rice 
 Corbally and the son of James Fitzmaurice, took refuge in 
 Spain. Sir Peter Carew, writing to the Privy Council in 
 England, on the 6th of February, 1573, characteristically 
 remarks, " James Fitzmaurice hath sent his son with one 
 David Wolf, an arrant traitor, into Spain, to practise his 
 old devices." He soon, however, returned to the former 
 fields of his labors, and in 1575 we find him engaged once 
 more in visiting and consoling the Catholics of Ireland. 
 We shall conclude our notice of this indefatigable and holy 
 man with the words of the author of Cambrensis Eversus : 
 " I saw a dispensation granted by David Wolf, of Limerick, 
 lo Richard Lynch, a citizen of Gal way, grandfather to Nicho- 
 las Lynch, provincial of the Irish Dominicans, who died at 
 Rome about twenty years ago, deeply regretted by his 
 friends. The dispensation was signed David Wolf, Apos- 
 tolic Nuncio."* Orlandini speaks of him in his History of 
 the Society of Jesiis : " I have learned that he was a man 
 of extraordinary piety, who fearlessly denounced crime 
 when ever it was committed. When the whole country 
 was embroiled in war, he took refuge in the castle of Chu- 
 noan,t on the borders of' Thomond, and of the county of 
 Galway ; but, when he heard that its occupants lived by 
 plunder, he scrupled any nourishment from them, and soon 
 after sickened and died." 
 
 We have no precise record of the year in which he died, 
 but it seems to have been in 1578, as no mention is made 
 of him in the detailed correspondence of 1579 and the fol- 
 lowing years, during the eventful period of the second 
 Desmond war. The name David Wolf, sacerdos Hiber 
 
 • Nuncio, Perhaps when returnine; a second time to Tre^nnd he reLeived the title of nuncio ; 
 it is probable, however, that he was only commissary. He wns c< mmonly stj led nuncio, even 
 on his tirst arrival, though he was certainly at that time only commissary apostolic. 
 
 t Now Cluain Dubhain cr Clonoan, an old castle close to the boundary of Ih.e county Gal- 
 way, and not far from Rockvale, in the pariah -.u' JCilkeedy. lian.i.y '4 Imliirtuin, county C-iarrt. 
 
38 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 nus, occurs for the last time in a list transmitted by the 
 Spanish nuncio to Rome, on the 3cl oi June, 1578 ; and from 
 this list we learn that he was then living in Lisbon, sup- 
 ported by the generous contributions of the Holy See. 
 
 Anno 1369. 
 
 DANIEL O'DUILLIAN, FRANCISCAN. 
 
 This martyr's sufferings and triumph are related by 
 Father Mooney, in his Provincice HibernicB Dcscriptio, in 
 the following words : 
 
 "In the year 1569, (if I be rightly informed as to the 
 date,*) a certain brother Daniel O'Duillian, of the convent 
 of Youghal, very bravely overcame the tormentor. For, 
 when one Captain Dudal (probably Dowdall) with his 
 troop were torturing him, by order of Lord Arthur Grey, 
 the viceroy, first they took him to the gate which is called 
 Trinity Gate, and tied his hands behind his back, and, 
 having fastened heavy stones to his feet, thrice pulled him 
 up with ropes from the earth to the top of the tower, and 
 left him hanging there for a space. At length, after many 
 insults and tortures, he was hung with his head down and 
 his feet in the air, at the mill near the monastery ; and, 
 hanging there a long time, while he lived he never utter- 
 ed an impatient word, but, like a good Christian, inces- 
 santly repeated prayers, now aloud, now in a low voice. 
 At length the soldiers were ordered to shoot at him, as 
 though he were a target ; but yet, that his sufferings might 
 be the longer and more cruel, they might not aim at his 
 head or heart, but as much as they pleased at any other 
 
 • In this and many other Instances there was a difficulty in ascertaining the exact date, the 
 witnesses who narrated the events a few years afterward recollecting the circumstances well 
 enough, but in the absence of all almanacs finding it difficult to state with precision the year. 
 Thus, even as to such public and notorious events as the death of Archbishop O'Brien ana 
 the execution of Archbishop O'Hurley the year is differently stated by different writers. 
 
Ill the Reign of Elizabeth. 39 
 
 part of his body. After he had received many balls, one, 
 with a cruel mercy, loaded his gun with two balls and shot 
 him through the heart. Thus did he receive the glorious 
 crown of martyrdom, the 22d of April, in the year afore- 
 said." — Mooney, p. 53. 
 
 As this is the first recorded martyr of the host that the 
 Order of Saint Francis has produced in Ireland, it may 
 not be out of place to give here the well-deserved praise 
 which Father Mooney bestows on his order, writing in the 
 year 1624: 
 
 " When Queen Elizabeth strove to make all in Ireland 
 fall away from the Catholic faith, and a law was passed 
 proscribing all the members of the religious orders, and 
 giving their monasteries and possessions to the treasury, 
 while all the others either took to flight, or at least quitted 
 their monasteries, and, for safety sake, lived privately and 
 singly among their friends, and receiving no novices, the 
 Order of St. Francis alone ever remained, as it were, un- 
 shaken. For, though they were violently driven out of some 
 convents in the great towns, and the convents profanely 
 turned into dwellings for seculars, and some of the fathers 
 suffered violence and even death, yet in the country and 
 other remote places they ever remained in the convents, 
 celebrating the divine office according to the custom of 
 religious, their preachers preaching to the people, and ful- 
 filling their other functions, training up novices, and pre- 
 serving the conventual buildings, holding it sinful to lay 
 aside or even hide their religious habit, though for an hour, 
 through any human fear. And every three years they heln 
 their regular provincial chapters,* and observed the rule as 
 it is kept in provinces that are in peace." — Mooney, p. 2. - 
 
 • These chapters were generally held in woods, as Mooney relates, at the respecliTe years. 
 
40 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Atmo 1570. 
 
 DERMOD MULRONEY AND TWO OTHER FRANCISCANS.* 
 
 Under the heading of "Convent of Gallvaise, Ahar- 
 lagh,"f Mooney says : 
 
 " This convent is situated in a small rural town of the 
 diocese of Emly. I could hear nothing of its foundation 
 or history; but I found, in the year 1570, while Henry 
 Sydney, who was then viceroy, was making excursions in 
 those parts, three brothers suffered martyrdom in that con- 
 vent. The names of two I could not learn ; the third was 
 called Dermod O'Mulroney, a priest. He fled with his 
 comrades from that rural monastery to the town of Clonmel 
 to avoid the persecution, which was then vehement ; but 
 when he had remained there some time he resolved to 
 return to his monastery, God perchance so disposing it, 
 that he might obtain the crown of martyrdom. When, 
 therefore, they thought all was safe, he returned to the 
 monastery and dwelt there ; but on a certain day the 
 English soldiers suddenly came and surrounded the place, 
 so that there was no way for the brethren to escape. The 
 holy man mounted up into the bell-tower of the church 
 with his two companions, that they might hide there, and 
 drew up the portable ladder which was there. The soldiers 
 made a fire to burn the church and lower ; then the holy 
 man, that he might save the church, freely descended, and 
 having let down the ladder, as he put his foot on the first 
 step, signed himself with the sign of the cross, and repeat- 
 ed the psalm, ' Have mercy on me, O Lord.' The soldiers, 
 nothing softened, loaded him with blows and wounds, and 
 at length struck off his head. Then a marvel was seen ; 
 
 * V-rf^m Moottey MS,, p. 54, and Roothe's Analecta Mira et Nova, 2d part See also 
 Waddings Scripiores and Atinaies. 
 
 \ Roothe calls it '* Monastery of Gallbally, in the mountains of Aharlatrh, near Tipperarv " 
 The town of Gallbally is in the county Tipperary, in the glen of Aharlow, at the foot uf the Gal'.te 
 Mountains. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 41 
 
 for when his head was cut off no drop of blood flowed 
 from his body, which the soldiers seeing, cut up his body 
 in pieces, yet did not blood flow. Of the two others the 
 memory of the place retained nothing but the fact of their 
 death. This have I to tell of this convent, which is now 
 wholly destroyed save the walls." — Mooney, p. 54. 
 
 A^nno 1576, 
 
 THADDjEUS DALY, FRANCISCAN.* 
 
 I'he following is the account of his martyrdom given by 
 Father Mooney under the head " Convent of Roscrea :"t 
 
 " The roof of the whole convent has fallen in, (this was 
 in 1625,) yet the walls and windows, with some glass in 
 them, yet remain. There still lives there one of the pro- 
 fessed brothers. There were six conventuals there before 
 the destruction, and some among them fell away ; but one 
 of them, by name Thady Daly, fled to Limerick, and was 
 there taken while he sought to escape beyond the seas ; and, 
 constant in the confession of the faith, he rejected the offer 
 of life and reward if he would join the heretics, choosing 
 rather a glorious death ; and, thus ' perfected in a short 
 time, he filled a long life,' but under whom, or in what 
 year,t I could not learn from that brother. This brother 
 was the companion of this holy martyr both in his flight and 
 
 his captivity, but he was (the word is illegible in the 
 
 MS.) and very simple, and when danger presented itself 
 he abandoned his rule, and, having received some gifts, he 
 deser.;ed his order and obtained his temporal liberty, and, 
 returning to his own part of th€ country, which was not 
 
 * From Mooney, p. 55, and Wadding's Scripiore^ and .4 nnales, vol. xxi. p. 64. 
 t Roolhe's AnaUctt mentions Father Daly under the year 1579, and says he came from the 
 con-'enl of Aaketia : bui Moonev is clearly the better authority. 
 t The Anna^ say on the \st ri January, aduui the year 1576. 
 
42 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 far distant from that convent, he then led a secular life 
 until 1611. At that time I was vicar of the province, and 
 preached the Lent in those parts ; and I frequently went 
 to a place of devout pilgrimage about a mile distant from 
 the convent, called the Island of Viretin, that as far as .n 
 me lay I might exhort to penance the people who flocked 
 there in pilgrimage. On a certain day, this brother, who 
 was then old, came to me, who knew him not even by 
 sight, told me the whole history of his life, and humbly 
 begged that I would again receive him into the bosom of 
 the order. When on inquiry I found the matter to be as 
 he said, being touched with pity for him, I appointed him 
 a day to come to me ; and when he had dwelt with me 
 some days, I sent him to a certain convent of our order, 
 there to lead a penitential life. He yet lives, and I hope 
 better than before." — Moottey, p. 55. 
 
 Anno 1377- 
 
 FATHER FERGAL WARD, FRANCISCAN.* 
 
 Dr. Moran thus relates his martyrdom : 
 
 "While Drury was lord-deputy, about 1577, Fergal 
 Ward, a Franciscan, and a native of Donegal, was put to 
 death in Armagh. He was venerated by the people for 
 the simplicity of his life and his zeal for the salvation of 
 souls. He travelled at intervals throughout the whole 
 province of Armagh, visiting the scattered families who, in 
 the mountainous districts, lived without the comforts of the 
 holy sacrifice or the strengthening grace of the sacraments 
 On one of these excursions he fell into the hands of the 
 
 • ■erom-DT.yLor2.r,'sHistoryqfih^Archl,hhofsa/Dull!„,Uxnina-m,p 14, where ht 
 quotes Synop. Prov. Franciscan, zh Nii., p. 66. The same account is given by En.odin lib 
 in. cap. 20, wherfe be refers to John Good's work, * 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 43 
 
 soldiery, and, being sccwrged with great barbarity, was 
 hanged from the branches of a tree with the cincture of 
 his own religious habit." 
 
 FATHER O'DOWD, FRANCISCAN* 
 
 Father Mooney did not know the name of this martyr, 
 which, however, we learn from other authorities ; but I 
 give his account as the fullest and most authentic, as it 
 was derived from the actors in the tragedy. He also states 
 it to have taken place in the convent of Elphin, in the 
 episcopal city of Elphin, while others lay the scene in the 
 convent of Moyne, in the county of Mayo. Clearly the 
 English soldiers who assisted at the massacre and narrat- 
 ed it to Father Mooney knew little of the name of the 
 place where it occurred or of the priest whom they saw 
 slain ; but they are the very best authorities as to the fact 
 having taken place. 
 
 Father Mooney thus narrates the event : 
 
 " In this same convent, on another time, certain English 
 soldiersf seized a certain priest of our order and some oth- 
 er prisoners. They pressed a certain secular, who was 
 one of their captives, to tell them something of the plots 
 which they said he had made with others against the 
 Queen of England ; but he protested he could tell 
 nothing but the truth, and that there were no plots ; so 
 they determined to -.ang him. When they said this, he 
 begged he might be allowed to make his confession to 
 the brother; this they granted the more readily that 
 they thought the priest, if he were tortured, would reveal 
 what might be told him. As soon as the confession was 
 
 • From Dr. Moran, who quotM Hynop. Prov. Franciscan, in Hii., and Mooney, p. 35 
 The name we learn from the fonuer, and also the date. 
 t They were the soldiers of Filton, then President of Connaught 
 
44 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 over, the secular was hung ; and then they asked the 
 priest, who was also to be hung, if he had learned aught of 
 -the business in confession. He answered in the negative, 
 and, refusing to reveal anything of a confession, they offer- 
 ed him life and freedom if he would reveal, and threatened 
 torture if he refused. He answered he could not, and they 
 immediately knotted a cord* round his forehead, and, 
 thrusting a piece of wood through it, slowly twisted it so 
 tightly that at length, after enduring this torment for a 
 long time, his skull was broken in, and, the brain being 
 crushed, he died.f I have seen and examined ocular wit- 
 nesses of this fact, who were serving in that body of Eng- 
 lish troops, and sought absolution from me ; but they did 
 not remember the name of the brother or the exact year ; 
 but it was about 1577." — Mooney, p. 35. 
 
 A.nn<t 1577' 
 
 RIGHT REV. THOMAS LEVEROUS, OR LEARY, BISHOP OF 
 KILDARE. 
 
 1 GIVE his life, translated from the work of Dr. Roothe, 
 Bishop of Ossory. 
 
 " The memory of those des'erves to be preserved who 
 have left to posterity an example of fidehty to God and 
 man worthy both of honor and of imitation. Such was the 
 Right Rev. Thomas Leverous,:}: who was born in a village 
 of the county Kildare, of a family bound by old ties of 
 clientship to the illustrious family of Kildare in the same 
 county. 
 
 " In the reign of Henry VHI., when schism was already 
 impending over England, Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kil- 
 
 • others say the cord of his hnbit. ' f On the 9th of June 
 
 t Leurusius is the name as given m Latin, which is translated Leverous. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 45 
 
 dare and Viceroy of Ireland, was summoned to England at 
 the instigation of his enemies and by the advice of Cardi- 
 nal Wolsey, who was then all-powerful and not at all favor- 
 able to the Geraldines. The earl was accused of being 
 unfaithful to the king, and of having in his office of vice- 
 roy connived at rebels and disturbers. He was thrown 
 into prison, and the news inflamed the youthful mind of 
 his eldest son, Thomas Geraldine, who had been left by his 
 father to exercise his power in his absence. When he re- 
 ceived the news of his father's arrest, he handed back the 
 sword of state to the chancellor and privy council, and, 
 with courage worthy of a man, but the folly of a child, took 
 up arms against the king, (a.d. 1534.) But this furious 
 outburst was soon quelled with the death of its author and 
 five of his uncles, the only one of the family who was saved 
 being Gerald Geraldine, the youngest son, who was hidden 
 by a faithful nurse from the rage of his enemies.* But as 
 it was said that this escape was favored by Leonard, Lord 
 Gray, he afterward paid the penalty of this connivance 
 with his head. But how could sb young a boy take to 
 flight, or, if he did, how could he effect it successfully, at so 
 young an age and surrounded by so many dangers 1 Nor 
 could any common man give a shelter to a youth of so no- 
 ble a race without it being remarked. But the affection- 
 ate care of his nurse shone forth in this emergency, and 
 she had as a partner in her trouble, and the guide of her 
 flight, the Thomas Leverous of whom I now wnte. 
 
 " He was as a father to the youth while he grew up, and 
 by constant flight eluded the snares of his enemies ; and a 
 guide and counsellor when he grew up and travelled in for- 
 eign lands. When he was named to the bishopric of Kil- 
 
 • Our author is here inaccurate. Gerald and Edward were the two sons of Earl Gerald, by 
 his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Gray. Edward, the youngest, was conveyed to his mother in 
 England ; Gerald, tl e elder, aged about thirteen, found an asylum in Thomond. See Haver* 
 ty's Ireland, p. 361, 
 
46 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 dare, he lost nothing of his humility, gentleness of mind, 
 piety, and Christian charity ; yea, rather, his lowliness of 
 spirit and contempt of worldly honors and riches increased 
 as he was elevated in dignity and wealth. 
 
 " When, after the death of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., 
 Queen Mary, the daughter of the former and sister of the 
 latter, restored the exiled Gerald to his rank and title, his 
 faithful friend and guardian, Thomas Leverous, was estab- 
 lished in the bishopric of Kildare.* 
 
 " That diocese is ample and honorable, the land thereof is 
 rich, the inhabitants numerous, and embrace many noble 
 families ; but of these by far the most numerous and most 
 honorable is that of the Geraldines. His bishopric 
 Thomas enjojred during the reign of Queen Mary, but at 
 her death, when her sister Elizabeth succeeded to the crown 
 by the will of her father, she gave instructions to the vice- 
 roy, the Earl of Sussex, to tender the oath of the queen's 
 ecclesiastical supremacy to the bishops of Ireland, and to 
 drive from their sees whoever should refuse to take it. 
 
 " When Bishop Leverous was summoned by Sussex to 
 take the oath, and he refused to take it, as being against his 
 conscience, the earl asked him for what reason he denied 
 that the queen was the head of the church, since so many 
 illustrious men, and so many doctors and bishops, both in. 
 England and Ireland, had acknowledged her as such. But 
 he gave for answer only such a simple reason as any com- 
 mon man might understand, namely, that all true ecclesi- 
 astical jurisdiction must come from Christ our Lord ; and, 
 since he had not given even the smallest share of ecclesi- 
 astical power to his Mother, so glorious and so dear, so 
 adorned with virtues and honors, how much less could 
 such supreme jurisdiction be given to anyone of the same 
 sex ! St. Paul would not allow any woman even to speak 
 
 • ■' He succeeded by provision of Queen Mary, March ist, 1554, but was not confir:aed by 
 the Jiope's bull till tlie 3d of August, T.m."—l\'are''s Antiquities: Bishofs 0/ Kildart. ' 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 47 
 
 in church : how much more are all excluded from judgino-, 
 ruling, and presiding ! St. John Chrysostom well express- 
 ed the mind of our Lord (lib. ii., De Sacerdotio) when he 
 thus spoke of all persons of that weaker sex : ' When the 
 question is of the headship of the church, and of entrusting 
 to one the care of so many souls, the whole feminine sex 
 must, by its nature, be excluded from a task of such 
 weight' So also Tertullian : ' It is not permitted to a 
 woman to speak in the church, nor to teach, nor to offer, 
 nor to claim a share in such offices reserved to men, 
 much less in that of the priesthood.' 
 
 " And were it not that they are unfitted by nature and 
 the condition of their sex from such exercise of authoritv, 
 he who on earth raised his Mother to a dignity above all 
 others, and above all women, and in heaven has placed 
 her on a throne next to himself, would not have lowered 
 her by refusing her an honor fitted to her sex, and which 
 others of that sex might enjoy. But since by nature it was 
 not fitting that women should share in it, it was no dis- 
 honor to his Mother not to participate in the jurisdiction 
 which her Son conferred. Hence it followed that Eliza- 
 beth could not lawfully take, nor her father Henry give, 
 nor any parliament bestow on women that authority which 
 Christ gave, and which v/as, as the Scripture says, 'a 
 fountain sealed up ' to those men to whom he assigned it 
 who bears on his shoulder the key of the house of David, 
 and who gave to Peter his keys, by which the gate of hea- 
 ven is shut and opened. 
 
 "The answer of the bishop' pleased not the viceroy, who 
 drove him from his bishopric as unworthy of the honor 
 who thus dishonored his queen ; yet he, with a sincere 
 mind, sought not to deprive her of any just honor, but only 
 refused her an unlawful title and a vain figment of honor 
 devised by flatterers, and which became not her head, 
 adorned with an earthly crown. 
 
48 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 "Driven thus from his cathedral see, and deprived of its 
 revenues, humble and poor like Christ, he sought a strange 
 and distant shelter in a distant district, rejoicing to suffer 
 contumely for the name of Christ. As he had answered 
 the viceroy when he threatened him with deprivation of all 
 his goods and expulsion from his see unless he bowed him 
 to the queen's will, ' What,' said he, ' will it avail a man 
 to gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?' Thus he 
 esteemed all things as dirt that he might gain Christ. O 
 generous champion of Christ ! who to prepare for the fight 
 threw away all burdens, great was thy faith, great thy zeal 
 for the faith, and great the reward laid up for thee in 
 heaven ! Thus was this aged man, of venerable appear- 
 ance, unfitted for any business save the care of souls and 
 the upholding of ecclesiastical discipline, compelled to turn 
 his aged limbs to tasks fitted only for the youthful — the 
 labors of a toilsome journey and a distant flight. When 
 he was young, he went into voluntary exile for the sake of 
 another ; now, aged, he was compelled to seek his own liv- 
 ing In exile. But he could console himself with the wise 
 words of the great St. Leo {Serm. g, De Quad.) : ' As it is 
 the occupation of the whole body to live piously, so it is 
 the occupation of all time to bear the cross." No age, no 
 time, no place, no state in this our mortal life, can insure 
 the servants of Christ from bearing the cross ; and there 
 is often more danger from a concealed adversary than from 
 an open enemy. 
 
 " In order, therefore, that he might secure his own safety, 
 and be of service also to others, he went to Gerald, Earl 
 of Desmond, and the Countess Joan, his wife, and the mo- 
 ther of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond, a wise and pru- 
 dent heroine ; and, being hospitably received by them, he 
 kept himself with all prudence and peacefulness, lest he 
 should bring any trouble on those who sheltered him. 
 
 " By his assiduity in his sacred ministry, he abundantly 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 49 
 
 compensated the generosity of his host, and his piety, 
 modesty, sobriety of life, and fervor in promoting the di- 
 vine honor made him acceptable to the neighboring nobles 
 and the inhabitants, among whom he sedulously labored 
 to preserve them from the novelties of heresy. He was 
 constant in admonishing and exhorting in all fitting time 
 and place, and performing the work of a bishop ; and la- 
 bored like a simple priest in administering the sacra- 
 ments, and found such labors sweeter than honey and the 
 honeycomb. 
 
 " When, however, prudence required him to abstain from 
 these exercises in places where he was well known or 
 which were near his ordinary residence, his charity could 
 not endure to be idle, but he cheerfully removed to more 
 remote districts, and, like the busy bee, ever sought new 
 fields of work. 
 
 " He travelled through various districts, instructing all, 
 both old and young, with the same zeal, with teachings 
 adapted to the age and intelligence of each ; and the vene- 
 rable bishop, in these labors, never thought of his rank or 
 age, and even taught boys, like a common pedagogue, not 
 only the elements of rhetoric and grammar, but even to 
 read ; and this not only in country villages, as in the village 
 of Adare, in the territory of Connaught, but in municipal 
 towns and noted places, as in Limerick, where he opened 
 a school, and had for teacher under him Richard Creagh, 
 then young, but who was afterward Archbishop of Armagh 
 and Primate, of whom we have written more at length in 
 the beginning of these notes. 
 
 " How noble a school, in which the teachers were so dis- 
 tinguished ! how well cultivated the field, in which the labor- 
 ers were so skilled ! how fruitful the seminary, planted by 
 such noble founders ! how glorious the lecture-hall, in 
 which such great doctors taught ! Would that I might 
 erter that school to hear you, Leverous and Creagh, teach- 
 
so Martyrs atid Confessors 
 
 ing even the rudiments of philology to the tender minds of 
 youth, as a preparation for the higher mysteries of the 
 faith, and forming their souls at once in learning and vir 
 tue ! I may well address you in the words which St. Au- 
 gustine uses of Saints Peter and Andrew when called by 
 our Lord : ' Leaving their fishing, they adhered to him, or 
 if they left him for a time, to return again they did as is 
 written : " Let thy foot wear the doorstep of his house ; 
 arise and come to him assiduously and learn his precepts." 
 He showed them where he dwelt, and they came and 
 dwelt with him. What a happy day and night did they 
 pass ! Who may tell us what they heard from Christ ? 
 Let us also build up in our hearts a dwelling for him, that 
 he may come and teach us and dwell with us.' 
 
 " Our Lord taught Peter and Andrew, and they taught the 
 world : the same Loi^d taught Richard and Thomas, and 
 they, by their teaching, made wise unto salvation the little 
 world of Ireland. From their school came forth worthy 
 disciples, zealous laborers, who gathered an abundant har- 
 vest into the granary of the Lord : the one labored in the 
 north, the other in the south. Were there no other monu- 
 ment of their piety, their labors in teaching youth were 
 deserving of commemoration. Well hath Plutarch said : 
 ' As the limbs of new-born children should be laid straight, 
 that they may so grow up, so also their minds should be 
 trained to virtue ; for that early age is easily moulded, 
 and discipline is better implanted in their minds, which are 
 yet impressionable, while when age has hardened them 
 they are more difficult to change.' What I before said of 
 his colleague* is yet more appHcable to Leverous, who the 
 more deserves our admiration in that he was a bishop when 
 he thus devoted himself to the labor of teaching youth. 
 Thus did he ever strive to preserve the faith in his country 
 
 • " His colleague," Dr. C'reasl'. wI"o.^e life comes before that of Dr. Leverous jn Rootbe. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 5 1 
 
 and hand it oyer to posterity, and after having thus labor- 
 ed to the end, he went to receive at the hand of his Lord 
 and God the crown he had earned by his labors. He died 
 at the age of eighty, and was buried in the town of Naas,* 
 which, after the cathedral city, is the principal town in the 
 diocese of Kildare. The towns-people unanimously assert 
 that he has been honored by miracles. He died about the 
 year 1577." — Roothe, De Processu Martyriali. 
 
 REV. THOMAS COURCY. 
 
 " He was from Munster, a most zealous priest, and Vi- 
 car-General of Kinsale. When visiting, as was his office, 
 his parish priests, and admonishing them to be diligent in 
 guarding the flocks committed to their care, he fell into 
 the jaws of that cruel tyrant, Sir John Parrot, then Presi- 
 dent of Munster, by whose order he was hung. And thus 
 he obtained of Christ the victory, on the 30th March, 1577." 
 — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 A.nno 1S78, 
 
 RIGHT REV. PATRICK O'HELY, BISHOP OF MAYO, AND HIS 
 COMPANION, REV. CORNELIUS O'RORKE, FRANCISCANS.t 
 
 Again, by the kind permission of Doctor Moran, I :opy 
 his excellent account of this holy martyr. 
 
 " Dr. Patrick O'Hely, the last Bishop of Mayo,$ was a 
 native of Connaught, and from his youth was adorned with 
 every virtue. Having embraced the religious order of 
 
 • In the parish church of St. Timi.— Ware's AnIifuitUs. 
 
 t From Dr. Moran, p. 139 The original authorities are : O'Sullivan, p. 50 ; Roothe's A no- 
 Ucia, p. 63 ; Dom. a Rosario, p. 140 ; Mooney, pp. 9 and 54 ; Theatre o/Prot. p. 5° : Bruo- 
 din, p. 437 ; Arthur a Monasterio in Martyrolog. Francis. See also Renehan, Collec. p. 389. 
 
 X Mooney, p. 9. 
 
52 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Saint Francis, he proceeded to Spain, and pursued his sa- 
 cred studies with great applause in the University of Alcala. 
 In obedience to the minister-general of his order, he repair- 
 ed to Rome in 1575, and, having resided for some time in 
 the convent of Ara Cceli in that city, he was proposed for 
 the vacant see of Mayo, in the consistory of 4th July, the 
 same year.* Returning to Ireland, he was accompanied by 
 Cornelius O'Rorke, a Franciscan priest, who, though the 
 eldest son of the Prince of BrefTny, had abandoned all the 
 pleasures of the world to embrace a life of prayer and pov- 
 erty. They encountered many difficulties on their journey, 
 but at length safely landed in Dingle, in the county Kerry. 
 The heretical spies whom Drury, the lord-deputy, kept 
 at this time stationed along the southern coast of Ireland, 
 soon recognized the venerable strangers. They were, 
 therefore, almost immediately on landing, arrested and 
 transmitted to Limerick, to be examined by Goulden, the 
 military commander of that district. By his orders the 
 prelate and his chaplain were loaded with chains and cast 
 into the public prison. Here they remained for some 
 months, till the arrival of Sir William Drury in Kilmallock, 
 before whom they were conducted, in the month of Au- 
 gust, 1578. 
 
 " On being examined, Patrick O'Hely confessed that they 
 belonged to the Franciscan order, that he himself was 
 Bishop of Mayo, sent by Gregory XIII. to guide and in- 
 struct his spiritual flock ; this, he added, was the object of 
 his mission, and the only motive of his return to Ireland. 
 'And do you dare,' asked Drury, 'to defend the au- 
 thority of the pope against the laws of the queen and 
 Parliament?' 'I repeat what I have said,' replied the 
 bishop, ' and I am ready, if necessary, to die for that sa- 
 cred truth.' Father O'Rorke replied in the same strain. 
 
 * Ex Acl. Consiit. 
 
In the Reigii of Elizabeth. 53 
 
 Threats aiid promises were unavailing to change their 
 resohition ; and they both joyfully received sentence to be 
 first put to the torture, and then to be hanged in the pre- 
 sence of the garrison. 
 
 " These orders of Drury were executed with an uncommon 
 degree of barbarity. The two prisoners were first placed 
 on the rack, their arms and feet were beaten with hammers, 
 so that their thigh-bones were broken,* and sharp iron 
 points and needles were cruelly thrust under their nails, 
 which caused an extreme agony of suffering. For a con- 
 siderable time they were subjected to these tortures, which 
 the holy confessors bore patiently for the love of Christ, 
 mutually exhorting each other to constancy and perse- 
 verance. 
 
 "At length they were taken from the rack, and hanged 
 from the branches of a neighboring tree. Their bodies 
 were left suspended there for fourteen days, and were Used 
 in the interim as a target by the brutal soldiery. When 
 the martyr-prelate was being hurried to execution, he turn- 
 ed to Drury and warned him that before many days he 
 himself should appear before the tribunal of God to answer 
 for his crimes. On the fourteenth day after, this unhappy 
 man expired in great agony at Waterford, of a distemper 
 that baffled every remedy.f The 22d of August, 1578, 
 was the day rendered illustrious by their martyrdom. By 
 the care of the Earl of Desmond, their bodies were reve- 
 rently laid in the Franciscan convent at Clonmel, whence, 
 seventy years afterward, (in 1647,) they were translated 
 with solemnity, and deposited, together with the imple- 
 ments of their torture, in the convent of Askeaton." 
 
 * Domio. a Rosario. 
 
 t Besides the authorities quoted by Dr. Moran. this fact is mentioned in the ancient MS in 
 the Bui^undian Library, which is entitled Magna Supplicia, etc RfS. No. 2159. 
 
54 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 RIGHT RE/. MAURICE GIBBON OR FITZGIBBON, ARCH- 
 BISHOP OF CASHEL.* 
 
 About this year Dr. Gibbon, Archbishop of Cashel, who 
 had been forcibly driven into exile, died in the city of 
 Oporto. He is enumerated by Dr. Roothe among those 
 who suffered death or imprisonment for the faith. I have 
 not met with any other record of his imprisonment save in 
 Bruodin, who says he died in prison in Cork, 6th May, 
 1578. — See also McCarthy Collections. 
 
 A.nno 157s. 
 
 RIGHT REV. EDMUND TANNER, BISHOP OF CORK. 
 
 " He was a native of Cork, and for many years a mem- 
 ber of the Society of Jesus, and noted for his virtues ; at 
 length he was obliged, by illness, to leave the society, with 
 the good will of the fathers. He was soon after appointed 
 Bishop of Cork.t but had hardly taken on him the burden 
 of the episcopate, when he was arrested for having opposed 
 the queen's supremacy, and carried to Dublin. In prison 
 he was tortured in divers ways, and was more than once 
 hung up for two hours by his hands, tied together behind 
 his back. Broken with these and other sufferings, after an 
 imprisonment of eighteen months, he went to receive his 
 reward, the 4th of June, 1578." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 PHELIM O'HARA, FRANCISCAN.* 
 
 Father Mooney is our authority for this narrative. 
 
 " In the year 1578, the English heretics made an expedi- 
 
 • From Roothe's A natecia Nova et Mtra. ad part. 
 
 t Dr. Tanner was appointed bishop on the nones of November, 1574. He was a naHve of 
 Leinster, and we find faculties granted to him, not only for his own diocese, but also for the 
 provinces of Cashel and Dublin. His successor, Dermitius Graith, was appointed on the nth 
 October, is^o.—Mora7i ex A rcklv. Vatican in A rchbishops of Dublin^ vol. i. p. 187. 
 
 } Mooney, p. z. 
 
In the Reigti of Elizabeth. 55 
 
 tion to this convent, (that of Elphin, in the city of the same 
 name,) and when the brethren learned their approach they 
 fled across the sea in a boat which was there. The father 
 provincial minister was there at the time, and when he 
 asked who, for the merit of holy obedience, would remain 
 alone in the monastery, Brother Phelim O'Hara, a lay 
 brother, was chosen out of many who offered themselves, 
 partly because he was prudent and far advanced in years, 
 and partly because it was hoped he would be less obnoxious 
 than the others.* Wherefore he received the benediction 
 and remained. But the English, coming, despoiled the 
 monastery and slew this brother, even before the high 
 altar ; nor did they dare to remain there long, but departed 
 the same day. The other brethren who had fled, and who 
 remained out at sea waiting, when they returned home 
 found the brother, who had become a martyr through 
 obedience, before the high altar, where it was believed he 
 was praying when, on the approach of the enemies, he 
 gave up his soul a grateful sacrifice to God. He is buried 
 in the chapter house." 
 
 Waddirig adds : " The soldiers returning another time 
 seized a secular priest and another Minorite friar, and having 
 hung the former, tortured the latter, to make him reveal 
 what the priest had said in confession, by tightening a 
 cord round his forehead till the skull cracked and the brain 
 protruded He also, Annals, ad an. 1578, mistakes the 
 convent of Moy for that of Elphin. 
 
 REV. JOHN O'LOCHRAN, EDMUND SIMMONS, AND DONAT 
 O'RORKE, FRANCISCANS.t 
 
 These fathers were members of the Franciscan convent 
 of Down. A military commissioner, named Britton, and 
 
 • Because the others were priests. 
 
 t From Brundin, Passic Martyr. 440 : and L. Wadding, Scr'iptores and /i-^'iiei irai. n. 
 p. J5S, and who |iuts their martyrdom about 1570 , but Uruodin gives the exai 1 J^i- 
 
56 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 his ravaging band, resolved to fix their winter quarters in 
 that ancient town. Their thirst for religious spoils soon* 
 -mpelled them to the convent. But the sacred vessels had 
 been concealed, and none could be found. The three 
 fathers were their only prey. These they first subjected to 
 a variety of tortures, and then, dragging them to the 
 adjoining garden, strangled them from the branches of a 
 large oak that overshadowed the sanctuary. 
 
 AMno 1S79. 
 
 RIGHT REV. THOMAS O'HERLAGHY, BISHOP OF ROSS. 
 
 I GIVE his life in full from Dr. Roothe. 
 
 " After collecting as best I could any information in my 
 power about Archbishop O' Hurley, it now remains for me 
 to relate what befell a suftragan of his see, Thomas O'Her- 
 laghy. The diocese of Ross is situated in the south part 
 of Munster ; the cathedral is in a town neither large nor 
 fortified, in the district of Carbary, and from its name of 
 Ross the bishopric derives its title. Thomas, of whom I 
 write, was a man of most exemplary piety, born of a hum- 
 ble family in a small village of that territory, and when he 
 was raised to the episcopal dignity he was unwearying in 
 the care of his flock, and preserving them in the Catholic 
 faith. Together with two other Irish bishops, Donald 
 Magongial, Bishop of Raphoe, and Eugene O'Hairt, Bishop 
 of Aghadoe, he took a part in the Council of Trent, and he 
 therefore strove with peculiar zeal to have the decrees and 
 discipline of the council observed throughout the whole 
 district under his jurisdiction. This caused him many 
 troubles, and raised a great persecution against him, v/hich 
 compelled him to take refuge in a small island to escape, 
 like a bird from the claws of a hawk ; and, like another 
 Ulysses in Ithaca, he there led a solitary life with one 
 
/» the Reign of Elizabeth 57 
 
 chaplain, intent on prayer and meditation ; yet he was not 
 long safe from the pursuer. They were both taken prison- 
 ers by one from whom they looked not for such treatment, 
 a noble of their own nation, one O'Sullivan, the eldest son 
 of the great O'Sullivan,* a spoiler the more unfortunate the 
 greater his spoil ; for, like the Tolosan gold or the horse 
 of Sejan, it prospered him not, but from that day he fell 
 into many misfortunes, hated by the strangers, and detest- 
 ed by the natives and his former friends. He took his cap- 
 tives to Sir John Perrot, an English Protestant, who was 
 then President of Munster ; by him the bishop was cast 
 into chains, a chain being fastened round his neck, and fet- 
 ters on his legs, and after he had suffered much torment 
 and misery in Ireland he was sent to England. 
 
 " The night previous to his being taken before the pre- 
 sident he took care to have his efiiscopal tonsure shaved, 
 in token of Catholic union and the faith which he profess- 
 ed, for he did not blush to confess Him before men from 
 whom he hoped to receive the reward of his confession, the 
 prize of victory, and the crown of immortality ; but this 
 tonsure, detested by them, drew upon him the scorn and 
 insolent scoffs of the soldiers, his jailers. When taken to 
 England, he was thrf wn into the Tower of London, where 
 he was kept for three years and about seven months with 
 the primate. Archbishop Creagh.. At first he was shut up 
 in a dark cell, without bed, fire, or light, having only one 
 small window, which was open to the northern blasts, 
 which froze his aged limbs. 
 
 " Freedom and honors were offered to him if he would 
 yield to the queen's will ; but he would not. Many per- 
 s^.ns v/ere sent to persuade him, by threats and fair words, 
 to apostatize, bat he adhered fiimly to the rocic on which 
 he had taken his stand. They brought him in writing a 
 
 * Filio majore majoris O'Sullivan. 
 
58 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 form of abjuration to sign, in which were contained many 
 errors against the faith ; but he firmly refused to admit, 
 either by word or writing, anything contrary to the ortho- 
 dox faith, and declared he would rather his hand were cut 
 off than that it should sign such a paper ; that he valued 
 the deposit of the faith more than to renounce it for any 
 human threats. In this he imitated Eusebius, the Bishop 
 of Vercelli, who, when the Arian emperor called upon him 
 to give up the declaration of Catholic faith which the or- 
 thodox bishops had entrusted to him for safe-keeping, and 
 threatened that his right hand should be cut off, boldly an- 
 swered, ' Behold both my hands ; rather shall they both be 
 struck off than I will basely resign that which has been 
 entrusted to me.' 
 
 " At length the innocent bishop was freed from prison, 
 at the solicitation of certain English nobles, and on Cor- 
 raac Dermicia,* of the house of Carter, Lord of Muskerry, 
 in Ireland, becoming bail for his innocence and purity of 
 life. On leaving prison, he determined to cross over into 
 Belgium, but, being seized with an illness, the seeds of 
 which he had contracted in prison, he changed his mind, 
 and betook himself to Ireland. On landing at the port of 
 Dublin, he was seized and brought before the viceroy, who 
 was about again to cast him into prison, and did detain 
 him until he learned by letter from the Governor of the 
 Tower of London that it was by the command of the queen 
 and council he was set free. 
 
 " He was now advanced in years, of grave manners, of 
 frugal and temperate habits, contented with the simplest 
 food, much given to meditation and prayer. He generally 
 recited the canonical office of matins in the middle of the 
 night, and that with bare head, and mostly on bended 
 knees. He practised frequent fasts, and frequently, remov- 
 
 * So ^vritten in the original : it is probably a translation of Dermody, as Denniciada, lata, 
 is a classic form of the same patronymic. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. jg 
 
 ing the bed, he lay undressed on the hard floor ; and every 
 year, at the close of the Lenten fast, he remained without 
 eating from his sober midday meal on Holy Thursday un- 
 til afternoon of Holy Saturday. 
 
 " Although he suffered from dropsy, and was of so weak 
 health that he seemed to need all possible quiet and repose 
 to restore his strength, yet in his whole life he seemed 
 hardly ever to rest from his labors ; for he was ever en- 
 gaged either in the administration of the sacraments or of 
 his episcopal jurisdiction and preaching, or in private pray- 
 er and chastising his flesh. He heard the confessions of 
 the people, and even of the poorest, in wretched hovels 
 often covered with mud ; he often administered confirma- 
 tion to the crowds who pressed to receive it until he was 
 exhausted ; he conferred holy orders on those who were 
 chosen ; he blessed the sacred vessels and the holy oils, 
 and labored in every way possible for a prudent and zeal- 
 ous bishop devoted to the salvation of souls. 
 
 " He loved not high-sounding discourses, but rejoiced in 
 the humble ; nor did he prefer his own opinion to that of 
 others. He was gentle in discourse, and liberal in giving 
 to the poor of the little he received from friends and bene- 
 factors, for he never received one farthing of the revenues 
 of his see, which an intruder held. He avoided all famili- 
 arity with women, nor would he ever speak with them save 
 before witnesses. He was a lover of soHtude and silence, 
 and even when sitting at the table of seculars he frequent- 
 ly led the conversation to spiritual subjects, taking occa- 
 sion from passing events to rise to spiritual thoughts, and 
 tJ excite the minds of his hearers to heavenly desires. 
 
 " When he left the Tower of London, and proceeded, in 
 company with his bailsman, Cormac Dermiciada, to Ire- 
 land, he resided at first in Muskerry, the territory of that 
 lord ; but because he was there, on account of his host, 
 obliged to assist at feasts and banquetings, which Httle 
 
6o Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 suited his taste, he determined to seek another abode, 
 where he might more freely indulge his pious tastes. He 
 therefore hired a little farm, near a dense wood, in the 
 same territory ; there he constructed a dwelling of boughs 
 and twigs, with a roof of sods and straw, and the walls 
 plastered with mud. against the cold. The house was the 
 dwelling of a husbandman, and so were the furniture and 
 cooking utensils ; no hangings or table napery, no silken 
 coverlets or sumptuous couches ; a single sheet on straw, 
 and a thick frieze coverlet, sufficed him ; wooden cups, and 
 a plank on wooden props for his table. His drink was wa-' 
 ter from the spring, or a little weak beer, or whey ; hun- 
 ger was his only sauce, labor the softener of his couch, a 
 contented mind the solace of all his trials. 
 
 " In this position of rural poverty he yet found means to 
 relieve the poverty and wants of others. The war in the 
 south was over, and the country was overrun with crowds 
 of famishing wretches ; for the violence of war and the 
 passage of plundering bands of soldiers had destroyed all 
 cultivation, and the wretched farmers, not able to bear the 
 incessant plundering, had abandoned their fields and their 
 cottages, and wandered about, seeking a precarious life by 
 begging. Many of these came to the bishop, to whom he 
 gave freely of his little means. 
 
 " This his humble dwelling he preferred to more splendid 
 mansions ; there did he 'place steps in his heart in the vale 
 of tears, in the place he had chosen.' From thence he pro- 
 ceeded on his annual visitation of his diocese ; there he re- 
 turned when he had completed the circuit of his jurisdic- 
 tion ; there he meditated day and night on the law of the 
 Lord. Thus, while the usurper, who had been placed by 
 the favor of Elizabeth in the see of Ross, occupied his 
 cathedral, the legitimate pastor was not only driven from 
 his country, but made captive, and fettered and sent out 
 of the kingdom by Perrot, the president, and returned at 
 
In the Reign, of Elizabeth. 6 1 
 
 length with difficulty to take care of his flock, who were 
 dispersed ; for, like Moses, ' he denied himself to be the son 
 of the daughter of Pharaoh, choosing rather to be afflicted 
 with the people of God than to have the pleasure of sin for 
 a time, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches 
 than the treasure of the Egyptians.' He crossed the sea 
 and fled into the desert from the Egypt of England, and 
 dwelt in solitude and in desert places ; there he held his 
 synods and administered the sacraments, and, far from the 
 noise of the world, gave himself wholly to God. On the 
 more solemn feasts he went to the neighboring chuich, 
 celebrated there the holy mysteries, and preached to the 
 people. To this his dwelling may be applied what is said 
 in Deuteronomy of the land of promise, ' The land to which 
 you shall come is not as the land of Egypt that you came 
 out of, where when the seed is sown it is watered as in a 
 garden ; but it is a land hilly and wooded, expecting rain 
 from heaven, which the Lord thy God will send, and his 
 eyes are upon it from the beginning of the year to the 
 end.' From this land of the dying he sighed after the land 
 of the living, where the sun burneth not nor the cold freez- 
 es. In the midst of his labors and his sufferings from 
 dropsy, his soul panted for the courts of the Lord, and, 
 seated by the waters of Babylon, he was refreshed with the 
 thoughts of Sion, and, though her harps hung silent on the 
 willows because of the violence of the Babylonians, his 
 voice did not cease from her canticles ; the beads of the 
 rosary were ever passing through his fingers, or he was re- 
 peating the Psalter. 
 
 " Such was his conversation, pious and edifying, whether 
 at home or abroad ; and, whether at home or abroad, he 
 was ever employed in his Lord's service, for the venerable 
 bishop labored much to bring back many who had wander- 
 ed from the faith, to confirm those who were wavering, to 
 inflame the tepid and strengthen the weak ; and it was 
 
62 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 granted to him to drive out Satan, not only from the mind, 
 but also from the body. There was a certain damsel who 
 was possessed by a dumb devil, and she was grievously 
 tormented ; her voice trembled, her teeth chattered, her 
 heart palpitated, and the shivering of all her limbs showed 
 the power of the malignant spirit. The holy bishop, being 
 taken to see her, exorcised the evil spirit, made the damsel 
 repeat the Apostles' Creed, (which she did with great 
 difficulty,) and, having heard her confession and prepared 
 her by careful instruction, administered to her the holy 
 communion ; and from that time she recovered not only 
 her spiritual health, but gradually also the health of the 
 body. 
 
 "The holy Bishop O'Herlaghy continued unwearied in 
 his apostolic labors up to his sixtieth year, and died in the 
 territory of Muskerry, and was buried in the monastery of 
 the Franciscan order, in Kilchree, (de Cellacrea,) in the 
 year 1579." — De Processu Martyriali, etc., T. N. Phila- 
 delpho, 16 19. 
 
 A.n,ru> 1580. . 
 
 This year was peculiarly fruitful in martyrs. 
 
 RIGHT REV. HUGH LUKE OR LACY, BISHOP OF LIMERICK. 
 
 " Hugh de Lacy, of a noble Munster family, was a man 
 well versed in sacred and profane learning, and a priest 
 of most exemplary life, for which reason he was created 
 Bishop of Limerick while Henry VIII. was yet a Catho- 
 lic. When the king apostatized, he never could induce 
 Hugh to join in his spiritual revolt, or to stain himself by 
 subscribing to the king's supremacy ; for which reason he 
 was deprived not only of the king's favor, but of all the 
 revenues and of the possession of his see. As nothing 
 was gained by this, the king had Lacy thrown into prison 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 63 
 
 in Cork, where he nearly perished from the filth of the 
 dungeon. He was freed by the dexterity of his friends, 
 and returned to Limerick to collect his flock, which he 
 found scattered by the Anglican wolf But the persecu- 
 tion increased in the latter years of Henry, and still more 
 under the Calvinistic Edward VI., and Hugh was again 
 threatened ; wherefore, imitating the example of the 
 apostle, he sought safety in Catholic France. On the 
 accession of Mary he was recalled by Cardinal Pole, and 
 returned to Limerick amid the rejoicings of his flock, and 
 for many years fed his flock in peace, with zeal and vigilance 
 walking in the footsteps of the great Pastor. When he 
 was more than sixty years of age, and Elizabeth was laying 
 waste the Lord's vineyard, the venerable bishop was 
 deprived of his episcopal see, and of all means of living, 
 and thrown into prison for refusing the oath of the queen's 
 supremadry, where, worn out with suffering, the noble- 
 hearted bishop died, the 26th March, anno 1571."* — 
 Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 REV. LAURENCE MOORE, PRIEST. 
 
 "Father Moore, together with Oliver Plunket, an 
 Irishman of gentle birth, and William Walsh, an English 
 soldier, were seized by a troop of heretical soldiers, tied to 
 stakes, and shot, and thus obtained the palm of martyrdom, 
 on the eleventh of November, the feast of St. Martin, 
 1580." — Philadelphus. 
 
 A letter, written on the 9th January, 1581, in the 
 
 • Here, as in many oth ir instances, Braodin, although right in the substance of his narra- 
 tive, is wrong in his dates. Dr. Roothe puts his imprisonment and death at 1580, and he is con- 
 firmed by the Vatican list given by Dr. IMoran, which describes the see of Limerick as vacant 
 in 1580 " per obitum D, Ugonis Lacy, in sua ecclesia defuncti :'* and his successor. Dr. Corne- 
 lius Nachten, was appointed in 1581. Dr. Lacy was deprived of the temporalities in 1571, and 
 William Casey intrtided by Edward V[. But he remained at liberty at least until 1575. — Set 
 Moran, A rchbh hops of Dubl'm, vol. i. p. t86, and IVare^s Bishofis. See also Casey* s Recartta- 
 Hon,/roni the State J'a/erO^e, in Bra.iji, I'a/iers concerning tht Irish Church, p. 119. 
 
64 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Vatican archives, published by Dr. Moran, gives a fuller 
 account of their death. They were in the Golden Fort, 
 held by a Spanish force under San Jos6. When this 
 traitor surrendered the fort to the English commander, 
 Lord Gray, the letter continues : 
 
 " At the request of the viceroy, the priest Laurence, 
 Oliver Plunket, and William Willick, an Englishman, were 
 delivered into his hands. To them the offer was made to 
 be restored to liberty should they consent to take the oath 
 of allegiance to the queen ;* but when they replied, with 
 one accord, that they were Catholics, and that, by the grace 
 of God, they would persevere in the faith, they were led 
 off to a forge of an ironsmith, and then their arms and 
 legs were broken in three different parts. During all that 
 night and the following day they endured that torment 
 with invincible patience. At length they were hanged, 
 and their bodies cut into fragments." Sir R. Bingham 
 (letter to Walsingham) says that an Englishman who had 
 waited on Dr. Sanders, Plunket, who acted as interpreter, 
 and an Irish priest were reserved for special punishment ; 
 "their legs and arms were first broken, and they were 
 hanged on a gibbet on the walls of the fort." — See Moran, 
 History of the Archbishops of Dublin, vol. i. p. 202 ; and 
 Haverty, History of Ireland, p. 243. 
 
 REV. GELASIUS O'QUILLENAN, EUGENE CRONE, AND HUGH 
 O'MELKERAN. 
 
 " Father Gelasius O'Quillenan, of the Cistercian 
 order. Abbot of the monastery of Boyle, was martyred, 
 together with the priest Eugene Cronius, (probably Cronin,) 
 1 5 80." — Philadelphus. 
 
 The following account of the life of this holy martyr is 
 
 • In which was embodied the oath of supremacy. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 65 
 
 taken from Dr. Moran, who drew it from Henriquez and 
 O'SuUivan : 
 
 " Gelasius O'CuUenan was born of a noble family in 
 Connaught, and in his early years joined the Cistercian 
 order. Having completed his novitiate and sacred studies 
 in Pans, the monastery of Boyle was destined as the field 
 of his labors. On his arrival in Ireland, he found that the 
 monastery, with its property, had been seized on by one of 
 the neighboring gentry, who was sheltered in his usurpa- 
 tion by the edict of Elizabeth. The abbot, nothing deterred 
 by the penal enactment which he knew impended over 
 him, went boldly to the usurping nobleman, and admonish- 
 ed him of the guilt which he incurred, and the malediction 
 of Heaven which he would assuredly draw down upon his 
 whole family. Moved by his exhortations, the nobleman 
 restored to him the full possession of the monastery and 
 lands ; and some time after, contemplating the holy life of 
 its inmates and the happy fruits of their zeal, and desirous 
 to share in their apostolate, he too renounced the world 
 and joined their religious institute. In 1580, Gelasius, 
 being in DubHn, was arrested by order of the government, 
 and, together with Hugh O'Melkeran, another Cistercian 
 father, was thrown into the public jail. John O'Garvin,* 
 then Protestant dean of Christ church, was among those 
 who assisted at his first interrogatory, and, having propos- 
 ed many inducements to the abbot ' to abandon the popish 
 creed,' Gelasius, in reply, reproved him for preferring the 
 deceitful vanities of this world to the lasting joys of eternity, 
 and exhorted him 'to renounce the errors and iniquity of 
 heresy by which he had hitherto warred against God, and 
 to make amends for the past by joining with him in pro- 
 fessing the name of Christ, that he might thus become 
 worthy to receive a heavenly crown.' The holy abbot and 
 
 • He is styled Ganrw by Ware and Mant. He was soon after appointed Protestant Biahop 
 of Kilmore. 
 
66 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 his companion were then subjected to torture, and, among 
 their other sufferings, we find it commemorated that their 
 arms and legs were broken by repeated blows, and fire was 
 applied to their feet. The only words of Gelasius during 
 all this torture were, 'Though you should offer me the 
 princedom of England, I will not forfeit my eternal reward." 
 Sentence of death being passed against them, they were led 
 out with all possible ignominy to execution. They, how- 
 ever, were filled with consolation ; the sight of the joyous 
 sufferers excited the admiration of the assembled mul- 
 titude, and many even of the heretics declared that they 
 were more like angels than men. It was on the 2ist 
 November, 15 So, that they were happily crowned with 
 martyrdom. The garments which they wore, and the im- 
 plements of their torture, were eagerly purchased by the 
 Catholics, and cherished by them with religious veneration. 
 Gelasius O'Cullenan is justly styled by the annalist of his 
 order, ' Ordinis CistC'f ciensis decor, sseculi nostri splendor, et 
 totius Hiberniae gloria."* — Henriquez, Fasciculus, part i. 
 distinct 27, cap. i. ; G Sullivan, Hist. Cath. p. 126. 
 
 REV. THADDEUS DONALD AND JOHN HANLY. 
 
 These two martyrs received their crown on the lOth 
 August, 1580. They had long labored among the suffer- 
 ing faithful along the south-western coast of our island. 
 When the convent of Bantry was seized by the English 
 troops, these holy men received the wished-for crown of 
 
 • Curry, in his CivU IVars, says : " Among many other Roman Catholic bishops and prieit* 
 Uiere were put to death for the exercise of thoir function in Ireland Glaby 0' Boyle, Abbot of 
 Boyle, of the diocese of Elphin, and Owen O'Mulkeren, Abbot of the monastery of the Holy 
 Trinity, in that diocese, hanged and quartered by Lord Gray in 15S0." I'hese two are pro- 
 bably the subjects of our memoir, Glaby is Gelasius ; and the practice, common even now in 
 Ireland, of calling a priest, especially a regular, only by his Christian name, as " Father John," 
 would easily lead to the confusion as to the surname. O'Boyle, in Irish wou'd be "from 
 Bnyle." 
 
YOUGHAL ABBEY. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 67 
 
 martyrdom. Being conducted to a high rock impending 
 over the sea, they were tied back to back and precipitated 
 into the waves beneath.* 
 
 REV. DANIEL O'NIELAN 
 
 Was a priest of the diocese of Cloyne, and endured a most 
 peculiar martyrdom, on the 28th March, 1580. He was a 
 most apostolic man, full of attention to the wants of the 
 poor and of solicitude for all his flock. He was no sooner 
 arrested and conducted under a military guard to Youghal, 
 than two wicked men, named Norris and Morgan, un- 
 dertook the task of his execution. They conducted him 
 to the summit of Trinity Tower, and, having fastened a 
 rope around his waist and arms, precipitated him from the 
 battlements. The rope not being sufficiently strong to 
 resist the shock, the holy man fell, mangled and almost 
 lifeless, to the ground. 
 
 The fury of his executioners, however, was not allayed. 
 Observing that life was not yet extinct, they caused him 
 to be dragged to a mill not far distant, when they tied him 
 to the water-wheel. His lacerated body in a few minutes 
 was wholly disfigured, and scarcely retained the semblance 
 of human remains.f 
 
 Philadelphus adds that John Norris was commander 
 (what he calls prefect) and William Morgan captain of the 
 troop that arrested him. He says he was an Observantine 
 Franciscan. Dr. Moran, on the authority of Bruodin, calls 
 him a secular priest. Wadding also claims him as a Fran 
 ciscan.^ 
 
 • Bruodin, Passio Mart. p. 440, and Wadding, AmtaUs Ord, S. F. p. 351. 
 
 t Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. ix, 
 
 t Philadelph., and Wadding, Scriptans O. S. f., slao A arui/s, vol. m. p. 258. 
 
68 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 PeV. MAURICE SCANLAN, PHILIP O'SHEA, AND DANIEL 
 O'HANRICHAN 
 
 Were three secular priests, and natives of Kerry. For 
 more than thirty years they had been indefatigable in 
 their labors in their native county and the surrounding 
 territory. It was in the town of Lislaghton that they 
 received the crown of martyrdom. While the country 
 around was laid waste by the agents of persecution, they 
 hastened to the sanctuary to offer themselves as victims 
 for their suffering flock. They were soon discovered there 
 by the enemy, and immediately beheaded. The 6th of 
 April, 1580, was the day of their happy triumph. — Bruodin. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 REV. MAURICE KINREHAN 
 
 Was parish priest of Mullinahone, in Tipperary, in a speci- 
 al manner attracted the rage of the heretics, and was com- 
 pelled to take shelter, together with numbers of his flock, 
 on the wild summits of Slievenamon. Rewards were more 
 than once offered for his arrest, and his parish was frequent- 
 ly scoured by military parties anxious to seize on their 
 picy 
 
 At length, while engaged in administering the last 
 sacraments to a dying man, he was overtaken by his pur- 
 suers, who at once hurried him toward Clonmel. Before 
 arriving in that town the officer of the guard, named 
 Furrows, fearing lest the inhabitants might rescue the 
 venerable captive, gave orders to have him despatched, 
 The soldiers treated him with great brutality, and, hewing 
 his body into fragments, scattered his mangled members 
 along the highway, and brought his head as a trophy to the 
 commander in Clonmel.* — Bruodtn. 
 
 • This ifi quite a diflFerent person from the Maurice Kjnrechtfn who stiffered in icSs whotie 
 Kfe, as given by Roothe, see at that year. Hanrichan or O'Hannchan, and Kjnrechin or Kin- 
 rechtin. and O'Kinrechtin were very common names in Tipperary at this period. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 69 
 
 REV. EDMUND DONNELLY, S.J. 
 
 His life is thus narrated by Tanner :* 
 
 " At this same time, Ireland being involved in the same 
 calamity by the queen, (Elizabeth,) the holy pontiff (Pius 
 V.) sent spiritual assistance also to that country from the 
 same society, among whom was Father Edmund Donatus, 
 or, as he was called by many, Donnelly, who came to a 
 glorious end in the very commencement of his course, and 
 was the first to declare in Ireland the truth of the Catholic 
 religion by the shedding of his blood.f He was born at 
 Limerick, and, by the desire of the holy father, returned 
 to his native country to console and encourage the Catho- 
 lics, then grievously tormented. But he was quickly 
 seized by the enemies of the faith, who were watching 
 everywhere most carefully, and kept for a long time in 
 close custody in Limerick. There his constancy was 
 tried in many ways, the ministers of error promising all 
 sorts of rewards if he would abandon the Roman faith and 
 embrace the errors of the Reformation. As the confessor 
 of God remained unshaken, he was sent to Cork, distant 
 some forty miles, to be further subjected to the cruelty of 
 the question. He was dragged along the whole road with 
 his hands tied behind his back like a robber, and made to 
 endure all that is inflicted on murderers and traitors, and 
 finally thrown into the common jail at Cork, where he 
 was tortured in divers ways. As his constancy was still 
 unshaken, he was tried for high treason and publicly con- 
 demned, such grounds being assigned for the sentence as 
 put the enviable fate of the martyr in its true light, for he 
 was charged that he had been banished from the realm b> 
 Queen Elizabeth, under the penalty of treason if he return- 
 ed, yet had returned to lead and strengthen his fellow- 
 
 * Tanner, Societas yesu usque ad Sanguinis et Vita Pro/usionem pro Deo et Christtank 
 Seiiffione militans. 
 t That is. the first of the fesuit*. 
 
70 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 citizens by his word and example ; and that he had denied 
 to the queen the title of head of the English Church. This 
 sentence, so unjust in itself, yet bearing such a glorious 
 triumph to him, he received with the greatest alacrity and 
 joy, and, bowing his head in token of thanks to his judges, 
 he was led to the common place of execution as a traitor. 
 There the rope was put round his neck, and he was hung 
 some time from the gallows ; but while he was yet alive 
 and breathing, the rope was cut and he fell to the ground, 
 •and his heart, cut out and held up by the executioner to 
 be seen by the people, then thrown into the fire, with the 
 rest of his entrails. The rest of his body was cut in four 
 parts and affixed to poles, there to remain to be seen by 
 all, as though his torn limbs would teach more fidelity to 
 the queen. The holy man suffered at Cork, in 1580." — 
 Tanner, p. 8, PJiiladelph., and Bruodin, (lib. iii. cap. xx.,) 
 who puts his death at 1575. 
 
 TWENTY-TWO OLD MEN, WHOSE NAMES ARE NOT 
 KNOWN. 
 
 Philadelphus mentions these as follows : 
 " I have also seen a catalogue in which are written the 
 names of many lay Catholics who perished in consequence 
 either of the fraud or calumnies of their enemies or the 
 hatred of the orthodox faith which they professed. ... To 
 these must be added from the same catalogue twenty-two 
 old men, (Catholics,) whom, being unable to fly, the fury of 
 the soldiers burnt to death in the village of Mohoriack, in 
 Munster, the 26th day of June, 1580."* — Philadelph., De 
 Processu. 
 
 • Bruodin (lib. iii. cap. ix.) gives the name of the village as Ballymohun, in the diocese al 
 Limerick. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 71 
 
 FORTY CISTERCIAN MONKS OF ST. MARY'S, NENAGH. 
 
 Their martyrdom is thus narrated by Dr. Moran, from 
 Henriquez : 
 
 " About the same time the monastery of St. Mary of 
 Maggio* became illustrious by the martyrdom of its holy 
 inmates. A heretical band having entered the adjoining 
 country, spreading on every side devastation and ruin, the 
 monks of Maggio, forty in number, were in hourly expecta- 
 tion of death. They resolved, however, not to fly from the 
 monastery, choosing rather to consummate their course in 
 the asylum which had been so long their happy abode. 
 They therefore assembled in choir, and, having recited the 
 morning office in silence and prayer, awaited their execu- 
 tioners. The heretical soldiers did not long delay. On 
 coming to the monastery, they first imagined that it 
 had been abandoned, so universal was the silence that 
 reigned around it, and they plundered it in every part. 
 On arriving, however, at the church, they found the forty 
 religious kneeling around the altar, unmoved, as if uncon- 
 scious of the scenes of sacrilegious plunder that were 
 perpetrated around them, and wholly absorbed in prayer. 
 ' Like hungry wolves, the heretics at once precipitated 
 tfiemselves upon the defenceless religious. The cruelty 
 and ferocity of the soldiers was surpassed only by the 
 meekness and heavenly joy of the victims,' and in a few 
 minutes forty names were added to the long roll of our 
 Irish saints. The vigil of the Assumption was the day con- 
 secrated by their death. One lay brother of the monastery, 
 who had been absent for some time, returned that evening, 
 and found his former happy abode reduced to a heap of 
 smoking ruins, and, entering the church, he found the altar 
 and choir streaming with blood. Throwmg himself pros- 
 trate before the mutilated statue of -Our Lady, he poured 
 
 • " St. Mary, Abbey of Nenay, or De Maggio." — Wart's AiUiquitut 
 
73 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 forth his lamentations that her monastery was no more, 
 and that her glorious festival, which should be then com- 
 menced, would pass in sadness and silence. He had 
 scarcel) breathed his prayer, when he heard the bells 
 of the monastery toll, and, lifting his head, he saw his 
 martyred brethren each taking his accustomed seat ; the 
 abbot intoned the solemn vespers, and the psalms were 
 sung as was usual on their festive days. The angels and 
 the Queen of Heaven joined their voices with those of 
 their now sainted companions. The enraptured lay brother 
 knew not whether he had been assumed to heaven or was 
 still on earth, till, the office being completed, the vision 
 ceased, and he once more contemplated around him the 
 mangled and bleeding remains of the martyred religious." 
 Manriquez concludes his narrative of their triumph with the 
 impressive words, "O happy Ireland, that is enriched 
 with the treasure of so many martyrs ! O happy community, 
 that sent forth so many intercessors to the heavenly 
 throne !" — Moran, who refers to Henriquez, Manriquez, 
 Sanctoral. Cisterc, and the Persecut. Hibernic. of the 
 Irish Seminary of Seville. 
 
 Anno 1581. 
 
 ROBERT MEYLER, PATRICK CANAVAN, AND EDWARD 
 CHEEVERS. 
 
 " These, together with some other Catholic sailors, had 
 secretly carried over into France a certain father of the 
 Society of Jesus, and some other priests and laymen who 
 were flying for the faith, and, being seized, were tortured 
 and hung, cut down while only half-dead, and then dismem- 
 bered, on the 5th day of July, 1^?>\:'—Philadelph. Bruo- 
 diri gives a slightly different account, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 
 
 PATRICK HAYES, 
 
 " A MERCHANT and ship-owner of Wexford, because that 
 he had oftentimes aided the Catholics in their distress, 
 both bishops, priests, and others, suffered a long impri- 
 sonment, and, worn out by confinement and suffering at 
 Dublin, he slept in the Lord in the year 1581." — Philor 
 delph. 
 
 REV. RICHARD FRENCH, 
 
 " A PRIEST of the diocese of Ferns, worn put with labori- 
 ous journeys, was cast into prison, because that he had 
 ingenuously confessed and strenuously defended the faith, 
 and sank under the filth and horrors of the prison, going 
 to his Lord in the year of salvation 1581." — Philadelph. 
 
 REV. MATTHEW LAMPORT 
 
 " Was a priest and rector of a parish near Dublin, where 
 he was made prisoner by the heretics and sent to Dublin, 
 where he was put to death, rather from hatred to the 
 Catholic religion, which he zealously maintained, than for 
 the reason which was alleged, namely, that he had frequent- 
 ly given hospitality to Father Rochford, the Jesuit. He 
 was hung and cut in four parts, and so gloriously died, i st 
 July, 1 58 1."* — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 • This is a curious instance where the law making it treason to "entertain a Jesuit" WM 
 literally put in execution. Roothe, however, says that it was for Laving given slielter to th* 
 Catholic Baron of Baltinglas when in extreme want 
 
74 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Anno 1582. 
 
 REV. DONATUS HEINRECHAN, PHILIP FEUS, AND 
 MAURICE O'SCALLAN, O.S.F. 
 
 " These Franciscan monks and priests were seized by 
 the heretics in their monastery of Lisacten * not being 
 able to fly, on account of their age and loss of sight, and 
 violently dragged before the high altar of the church and 
 there slain, a precious holocaust of sweet savor in the 
 sight of the Lord, the 20th July, in the year 1582." — Phila- 
 delph., and Wadding, Annals, vol. xxi. p. 366. 
 
 REV. THADD.ffiUS O'MERAN, FELIX O'HARA, AND HENRY 
 LAYHODE, O.S.F. 
 
 " In the convent of Enniscorthy, Thaddaeus O'Meran, 
 father guardian of the convent, Felix O'Hara, and Henry 
 Layhode, under the government of Henry Wallop, Viceroy 
 of Ireland, were taken prisoners in their convent by the 
 soldiers, and for five days tortured in various ways, and then 
 slain." — An7tals, voL xxi. p. 366. 
 
 ROGER DONNELLAN, CHARLES GORAN, PATRICK KENNAN 
 ROGER O'HANLON, AND JOHN PILAN, O.S.F., 
 
 " Having been long kept most strictly confined in prison 
 in Dublin, worn out with misery and squalor of the prison, 
 there died, the 13th February, 1582." — Annals, ut sup. 
 
 REV. iENEAS PENNY, 
 " A PRIEST of Connaught, was slain by the heretical sol- 
 diers, in the act of celebrating the holy sacrifice of the 
 
 • Kriary of Lislaghtin (county of Kerry.) The place has its name from St. Lactin, who died 
 IB the year 632. — Ware^ p. \m-j. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 75 
 
 Mass, in his parish church of Killatra, the 4th May, 1532." 
 — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 — ♦ — ■ 
 
 REV. DONATUS O'RIEDY, 
 
 " Also a priest of Connaught and parish priest of 
 Coolrah, when the soldiers of Elizabeth rushed into the 
 village, sought refuge in the church ; but in vain, for he 
 was there hung near the high altar and afterward pierced 
 with swords, and so nobly finished his life, 12th June, 
 1582." — Bruoditt, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 REV. JOHN WALLIS, 
 
 "A PRIEST of Leinster, honorable by birth, Dut still 
 more by piety, was seized by the heretics and endured 
 many torments. Being sent prisoner to England, he there 
 died, in the prison of Worcester, and so triumphed for 
 Christ, 20th January, 1582." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 Anno 1SS3. 
 
 MOST REV. NICHOLAS SKERRETT, 
 
 "Archbishop of Tuam, after a long imprisonment, es- 
 caped to Portugal, and died, much regretted, in the city 
 of Lisbon, in 1583. He is buried in the church of St. 
 Roch."* — De Processu Martyriali. 
 
 DAME MARGERY BARNEWALL. 
 I GIVE her hfe from Dr. Roothe : 
 " This virgin was born of noble parents, and when she 
 
 • Brennan says " he was flogged and incarcerated," but does not refer to his authority.— 
 EccL Mist. vol. ii. p. 123. 
 
^6 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 attained a marriageable age determined to dedicate her vir- 
 ginity to God, and in her thirtieth year received the holj 
 veil from the Catholic bishop. The name of virgin, says 
 St. Ambrose, is a title of modesty, and the one of whom I 
 write did not disappoint the omen of the name ; for she ever 
 delighted in purity and the conversation of other devout and 
 modest virgins. She dwelt, for the most part, in the city, 
 or at least diocese, of Dublin ; nor could her profession and 
 mode of Ufe be long concealed from the pretended bishop 
 of the place, for information of it was given to him by a 
 spy, not for misliking of the life of the holy virgin, but for 
 hope of lucre from the archbishop. On receiving the in- 
 formation, he sent an apparitor to arrest the lady and bring 
 her before him. She was first thrown into prison, and then 
 brought out for a public examination. Many questions 
 were put to her regarding her name, parentage, age, resi- 
 dence, and profession, to all of which she answered pru- 
 dently and categorically. Her age was then thirty-three, 
 her condition that of a virgin. ' How,' said the pseudo- 
 bishop, 'can I believe that one so noble born, so well 
 brought up, and so fair, could remain in this wicked world 
 to that age a virgin .'' This he took from the ideas of Lu- 
 ther, who, himself given up to concupiscence, remembered 
 not those classes of eunuchs of whom our Lord speaks, of 
 whom those who voluntarily renounce carnal pleasures for 
 the kingdom of heaven obtain the reward ; and though 
 this work is difficult and beyond the ordinary strength of 
 man, yet it is not impossible to Him whom all things obey 
 and whose power is equal to his will. But our Sunami- 
 tess, who by the grace of God had observed that which 
 she had promised, modestly blushing, answered that she 
 marvelled her questioner should think it strano-e that God 
 should give strength to observe the vow he had himself 
 inspired, and which so many men and women in all ao-es had 
 observed. Thus repulsed with regard to her vow of virgini- 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 77 
 
 ty, the bishop attacked her faith, using many artifices to in- 
 duce her to swerve from the orthodox faith ; but she bold- 
 ly and plainly answered that she had hitherto lived in the 
 bosom of the mother church Catholic and Roman, and 
 was resolved in the same to die, nor was there aught in 
 life which could shake this her resolution. Irritated by 
 this answer, the bishop at once ordered her to be taken 
 back into prison. After she had been there detained for 
 some time, she escaped by the aid of her noble relatives, 
 who bribed the jailer, and, having found a British ship in 
 the port of Dublin, agreed with the master to take her to 
 St. Malo.* This is a city in the lesser Britain, called also 
 Armorica, surrounded with walls and towers, yet for great- 
 er safety, when the gates are shut at night, large, fierce 
 dogs are loosed to strengthen the guard. They roam out- 
 ride the walls and ferociously attack any man or beast 
 whom they may meet. The sailors spoke much among 
 themselves before they arrived at the port ; this inspired 
 Dame Margery and her handmaiden with some fear, and 
 she determined not rashly to expose herself to them. 
 
 " When the ship reached the port and had dropped her 
 anchor, the captain and his men landed, leaving only two 
 sailors to guard the women till morning, for it was late 
 when they arrived in the bay, and they had to go some 
 distance in a boat to land. The women feared the dogs 
 on land, but the dogs on sea proved even more dangerous ; 
 for the two unprincipled sailors, finding themselves left 
 alone with the two women, broke into the place where they 
 were sleeping, and tried, first by offers and promises, and 
 then by violence, to make them consent to their impure 
 desires ; but the holy virgins, calling God and our Blessed 
 Lady to their aid, resisted alike their solicitations and 
 their violence, and, strengthened by him who is the 
 strength of those that call upon him, were enabled to de- 
 
 • Sancti Maclovis Portus. 
 
78 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 feat their unholy violence. At length, wearied with their 
 obstinate resistance, the sailors left them, and, retiring to 
 their own berths, slept heavily. 
 
 " All thought of sleep had fled from the terrified wo- 
 men, and, trembhng lest they should again be attacked by 
 these vile men, they thought of flying from that den of wild 
 beasts. Tying their clothes tightly around them, they 
 threw themselves into the sea, and, supported by their 
 clothes, which floated on the water, were borne to the 
 shore. But as they reached the land, having thus escaped 
 two successive dangers, a third awaited them — the dread - 
 of the ferocious dogs who roamed round the walls at night 
 and spared neither man nor beast. The maid was par- 
 ticularly terrified, but her mistress encouraged her, re- 
 minding her of the divine providence and goodness, and 
 saying that it were better for them that their bodies should 
 be devoured by dogs than their souls destroyed by vicious 
 men. Thus they mutually encouraged each other, arming 
 themselves with the sign of the cross, and imploring the 
 divine assistance and the protection of the Blessed Virgin 
 as they approached the shore. On their landing, the fero- 
 cious watch-dogs rushed at them, and the largest and 
 fiercest placed his paws on the shoulders of the virgin, as 
 if about to tear her ; her maid, following behind, trembled, 
 but the mistress, repeating the verse of the psalm, ' Many 
 dogs surrounded me,' and speaking some words of her na- 
 tive Irish to the dog, gently stroked his head, and the dog, 
 suddenly becoming gentle, with all his fellows, led them to 
 the gate of the city, and guarded thern there safely until 
 the gates were opened, which, according to custom, was 
 not until the sun had arisen. 
 
 " When those who had the charge of the keys of the 
 gates, and of the dogs, opened them in the morning, they 
 were astonished to see two women alive and unhurt in the 
 midst of the savage dogs, and, after a few questions, they 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 79 
 
 led them to the bishop of the place, who was then cele- 
 brating the divine mysteries in the church. The news of 
 the strange event spread through the city, and a crowd as- 
 sembled at the church to see the two women who, contra- 
 ry to all example, had escaped safe from the dogs. 
 
 "The bishop, when he had finished Mass, examined 
 them by means of an interpreter, for he did not understand 
 Irish, nor they French or English. But by good fortune 
 there was present a noble of Maclon,* who had been 
 brought up in Ireland, and who knew the parents of our 
 Margery, perhaps even herself, having resided in the 
 neighborhood, as there is a constant intercourse between 
 the inhabitants of Maclon and Ireland, the young people 
 of each country being entertained in the other to learn the 
 language and custom of the people, as is still the custom 
 in some parts of Ireland. 
 
 " In order more certainly to learn all the affair, the bi- 
 shop sent for the captain, and asked him what he knew of 
 the women. He frankly told the whole tale, how they had 
 been recommended to him in Dublin, and had come in his 
 ship, and how he had left them in it the preceding even- 
 ing to await for day in order to, land. Finally, the two sail- 
 ors who had assaulted them were brought up, and, on their 
 confessing their guilt, the two women whom they had 
 sought to injure begged that they might be forgiven. 
 
 " All having thus come to light, the bishop, lest 
 the recollection of these events should perish, ordered the 
 whole examination and the result to be enrolled in the 
 public registers of the town, and most hospitably enter- 
 tained, during their stay, the two women thus preserved 
 by the divine providence ; nor when they departed did he 
 allow them to leave empty-handed. They had made a 
 vow to God, who had freed them from such great danger^ 
 to visit the shrine of St. James of Compostella. On their 
 
 • Dr. Roothe wiites it Maclon. 
 
8o Martyrs aitd Confessors 
 
 arrival there, the servant fell ill, and departed to the Lord. 
 The stronger constitution of the mistress enabled her to 
 continue her pilgrimage to Rome, and to visit the tombs of 
 the apostles. There she related to her confessor the whole 
 of this narrative — of her imprisonment in Ireland and her 
 escape, her voyage to Brittany, the assaults of the two sail 
 ors and her escape from their power, the unusual gentle 
 ness of the watch-dogs, and how the waves and the wild 
 beasts had spared their innocence. 
 
 " Afterward, by her counsel and example, many pious 
 women and religious maidens in Ireland dedicated their 
 chastity to God, and, to use the words of St. Jerome, {Epist. 
 8, Ad Demetr.,) ' by the solemn words of the priest cover- 
 ed their consecrated heads with the virginal veil ;' and 
 many more would have done so had those who ruled the 
 country allowed them to lead a cenobitical life. But since, 
 according to the proverb, women require the protection 
 either of a man or a wall, to guard them ' from the attacks 
 of the noonday devil, from the arrow that flieth by day, and 
 the thing that walketh in the night,' prudent men were 
 cautious in exhorting the weaker sex to take on them the 
 veil and vow of celibacy, lest the purity of that virginal 
 garment shoulji become tarnished in the heat of the world- 
 ly sun, since it is more easily guarded in the shade of the 
 cloister than in the throng of the world. Yet there still 
 remain in that land scattered shoots of that virginal tree, 
 whose light shines the brighter for the surrounding dark- 
 ness, and by whom the world, the flesh, and the devil are 
 overcome. 
 
 " Our Margery was taken prisoner by the Protestant 
 in Dublin, in the year 1580, and in the third following 
 year, that is, 1583, in the month of October, reached 
 Rome, and there gave an account of all these her wander- 
 ings to her confessor, from whom we learned them and 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 8i 
 
 for the edification of our readers have here written them." 
 — De Processu Martyriali. 
 
 Dr. Roothe does not mention, nor have I been able to 
 find, the date or place of Dame Margery Barnewall's 
 death. As he says himself, he collected, from time to 
 time, what authentic accounts he could of the sufferings 
 of those persecuted for the faith ; and thus probably her 
 confessor, who was his informant, could only tell him the 
 events of her life up to her arrival in Rome and departure 
 
 thence. 
 
 — * — 
 
 Ajnno 1584, 
 
 MOST REV. DERMOD O'HURLEY, ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL. 
 
 I GIVE his life from Dr. Roothe, and in the notes any 
 additional facts from O' Sullivan and others. 
 
 " The birthplace of this glorious martyr was a little vil- 
 lage in the diocese of Limerick, less than three miles from 
 that city, called Lycodoon,* where his parents lived re- 
 spectably by farming, both of tillage and cattle ; they 
 were held in good estimation by their neighbors, both 
 rich and poor, especially James Geraldine, Earl of Des- 
 mond. His father's name was William Hurley, owner of 
 the farm of Lycodoon, and also steward or bailiff for 
 many years to the said earl, whose power and fame was 
 in those days great in all that region, and, indeed, through- 
 out Ireland, although by change of fortune all that power 
 has fallen. His mother was Honor McBrien, who was de- 
 scended from the celebrated family of Briens, Earls of Tho- 
 mond, and, before the conquest of Ireland, Kings of Mun- 
 ster. But in treating of the man of whom we write it 
 
 • Lycodunum : Lycodoon still retained in the town land — no longer a village — of Lyco- 
 doon, parish of Knockea, now the property of William Smith O'Brien, Esq. — Renehan^ p. 
 251. Vicus, or village, seems, in wTiters of this period, often to mean only what is still called 
 in Ireland, among the peasantry, " the town," namely, the dwelling-house of a gentleman of 
 fiu-mer, with its sitrrounding offices and laborers* cottages. 
 
82 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 boots but little to speak of his descent or the position of 
 his ancestors, since he himself placed little or none of his 
 glory in such things. 
 
 ' Nam genus et proavos et quas non fecimus ipsi 
 Vix ea nostra voco.' 
 
 " By the care and liberality of his parents, he received 
 a liberal education, and, having passed through all branches 
 of study, received the doctor's degree in civil and canon 
 law ;* and, having made equal progress in piety and reli- 
 gion, he was chosen by the Holy See as a fitting man to 
 be made the shepherd of his Catholic countrymen in Ire- 
 land, then suffering under the storm of schism. t 
 
 " Having then been raised to the episcopacy by Gre 
 gory XHL, and named Archbishop of Cashel, he took his 
 route toward Ireland. But there was great difficulty in 
 proceeding, from the dangers to which, in those turbulent 
 times. Catholic merchants and sailors were exposed from 
 the heretics. 
 
 " However, after some time, having found an opportu- 
 nity of a Waterford ship in the port of Grosvico,^ in Ar- 
 morican Britain, he treated with the ship's factor for a 
 passage to Ireland. There were in the same town, at that 
 time, some other ecclesiastics of the same nation, who 
 were also desirous to cross to Ireland, among whom was 
 Niel, Abbot of the Cistercian Order of the Abbey of 
 Newry,§ in the diocese of Armagh. 
 
 "And that all may understand the greatness of the 
 danger which is daily encountered by the laborers in our 
 vineyard, when they seek to return to their country to 
 
 • He gave public lectures in philosophy for four years in Louvain, and subsequently held, 
 with great applause, the chair of canon law in Rheims. — Elo^mm Elegiac, ap. Moran, Hist, 
 Arcftbis/ujps,\, 132. . 
 
 t He was appointed by Gregory XIII. in 1580. — Ex Act. Consist, ap. Moran. 
 
 X Probably Cherbourg, 
 
 § Abbas de Urio, Ni:wry. One of the old and most commonly used Irish names of Newry 
 was Uar, whence the Latin " de Urio." See an account of it in Ware. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 83 
 
 spend their labor, and even their lives, for Christ and his 
 church, it must be considered that it is most difficult to 
 find sure and faithful men to whom the poor travellers can 
 safely trust themselves. For, if the merchant himself be 
 imbued with the new errors, (which is, however, very rare 
 in a real Irishman,) or the captain of the ship, or even any 
 of the common sailors, (who are often of other nations, as 
 Britons, English, or Scotch,) the wretched priest is in dan- 
 ger of being denounced, especially if there is any suspi- 
 cion of his being of any dignity, or even if the sailors 
 have a bare suspicion that he be of an ecclesiastical voca- 
 tion, as lately befell two Capuchin monks, whose innocence 
 and uprightness was known to all, anno 161 8. But as 
 these two unexpectedly escaped from the hands of their 
 pursuers, so may their example make others hope confi- 
 dently in the divine bounty, which never deserts those 
 who trust in him, but upholds with his almighty arm those 
 who are under trial lest they fall, or withdraws them from 
 danger lest they perish, and even strengthens them, when 
 necessary, to confess his name before the kings and princes 
 of the earth. The greatest and most frequent danger to 
 which those are exposed who seek to save their neighbors' 
 souls in Ireland, and that when they least expect it, is that 
 of being betrayed on their landing by the sailors, either 
 through treachery or fear of themselves incurring danger.* 
 " There is another danger on the shores of Catholic 
 lands, lest they be denounced beforehand by spies, of 
 whom there are many in all the ports from which they 
 may sail, even in Catholic lands. There is danger also 
 
 * There were heavy penalties enacted against aU those who should " aid in introducing Je 
 luits or priests." How strictly these were enforced another passage from our author will 
 show : " As a certain father of the Society of Jesus, and with the illustrious Baron of In- 
 chiquiri, who had received him as a guest, was thrown mto prison ; the latter was at length 
 dismissed with a heavy fine, for having extended to a man, bound to him both by religion and 
 blood, that hospitality which, in our country, is ever extended to all. The merchant who 
 brought the priest was deprived of all his p'rorsrty by the president."— .,4 ;ja/«rfa Sacra 
 
84 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 awaiting them on the shores of their own land, that of 
 being arrested by the guards of the port and the authori- 
 ties of the town ; dangers by sea, lest they fall into the 
 hands of heretical pirates, who would slay them for hatred 
 of the Catholic faith ; danger every day they live in Ire- 
 land of falling into the hands of her present rulers, as 
 iately happened to the Reverend Father Abbot Paul Ra- 
 getus, after a stay of many years in his native land, and a 
 little before, the same fate befell the Reverend Father 
 Guin,* of whom the one was arrested as he was just about 
 to step into the ship to embark in order to leave the king- 
 dom, and the other as he was going to the seaport town 
 to embark for France ; both were thrown into prison in 
 the Castle of Dublin, thus proving how every step in Ire- 
 land is beset with danger. However, he who was last ar- 
 rested, having greased the hands of his guards, (to use the 
 common expression,) managed to escape ; but the other, 
 who, as it seems, had less of that ointment and ' oil of sin- 
 ners,' still lies in prison, with many other regular and se- 
 cular priests. But we have one ground of hope for them, . 
 and all our countrymen, arising from the marriage of our 
 prince, which we pray God may be prosperous.! 
 
 " Since what we are every day witnessing has led me 
 into this digression, I hope that pity for our daily misery 
 will obtain me the reader's pardon. My only reason for 
 this mention was to show to what dangers our Archbishop 
 of Cashel exposed himself when he set his face to return 
 into his own land, as a sheep prepared for the slaughter. 
 He entrusted to a certain merchant of Wexford the re- 
 script of his appointment and his other papers conferring 
 on him the care of the flock, for he would not seem to 
 thrust himself into the episcopacy without being duly 
 
 • Probably Quin. 
 
 t The proposed marriage between the heir of the crown, Charles, (afterward Cliarles I ,J 
 and the daughter of the Span'sh queen. 
 
Ill the Reign of Elizabeth. 85 
 
 called and appointed, as do our modern innovators, like 
 those of old. But being duly ordained and consecrated 
 by the Apostolic See, he could truly say, ' Of the Lord is 
 our calling, and of the Holy One of Israel our King.' 
 But these sacred writings he preferred to send by others 
 and by another road, that he might be exposed to less 
 danger on entering the kingdom, as well as the merchants 
 who took him with them. For merchants who bring in 
 such persons are exposed to no little danger, as this very 
 merchant, R. H.,* had experienced, as well as many others ; 
 as, for example, G. D., who, because he was cognizant of 
 the bringing of the primate into Ireland, was punished 
 with three years' imprisonment and heavy loss of fortune. 
 Thus is it seen that neither their incoming nor their out- 
 going nor their abiding is safe. 
 
 " The Wexford merchant who carried the bulls fell into 
 the hands of pirates, by whom he was spoiled and so pil- 
 laged that he deemed it a mercy his life was spared. But 
 the archbishop, taking advantage, as I have said, of a 
 Waterford ship, committed himself to the divine providence; 
 and, after a prosperous voyage, reached the island of 
 Skerries,t and from thence proceeded to Waterford. 
 While he was hospitably entertained there,^ it chanced 
 that one day there was some conversation on religion ; 
 on these occasions his zeal and learning could not be re- 
 strained or concealed, and so offended a certain heretic 
 who was present, whose name was Walter Baal, (a fitting 
 name, since of old it designated the devil and a son of 
 Belial ;) he broke out into violent language, and soon after 
 
 * He gives only the initials of his name. 
 
 t Sciretio insula ; in Irish, Seine. He landed at Drogheda — See State Papers. 
 
 X O'Sullivan says : " For two whole years English spies sought every opportunity to seize 
 on his person ; but their plans were frustrated by the fidelity of the Irish Catholics. In 
 order to escape notice, he wore generally a secular dress, as indeed all bi.shops and priests 
 are obliged to do in England, Ireland, and Scotland ever since tins persecution first broke 
 out"— P. 124. 
 
86 Mm-tyrs and Confessors 
 
 starting ofF to Dublin, denounced Dermod to the govern- 
 ors on suspicion. The departure of this man suggested to 
 the archbishop the thought that it boded him no good, and 
 his fears were confirmed by an honest citizen, who warned 
 him and the companion, or rather guide, of his journey, 
 Father John Dillon, of their danger, and advised them to 
 leave that city immediately * The same father Dillon 
 afterward paid the penalty of this companionship by a 
 long imprisonment, and with difficulty escaped death by 
 the favor of his elder brother, who was at that time one of 
 the King's Council, and filled the office of First President 
 of the King's Exchequer or Treasury. 
 
 " They immediately departed with their little baggage, 
 and betook themselves to Slane, to the castle of the noble 
 Lord Thomas Fleming, Baron of Slane.f Here, by desire 
 of that pious heroine, Catherine Preston, wife of the afore- 
 said baron, they were concealed in a secret chamber. 
 They remained here for some time, removed from society, 
 and avoided being seen by any but friends, until the at- 
 tempt of Baal to have them arrested should have wholly 
 failed, and the rumor spread by him should have died 
 away. When they thought that the whole matter was 
 forgotten, they began to act a little more freely, to sit at 
 table with the family and join in their conversation, and no 
 longer to avoid meeting any guests that might chance to 
 come to the house. Now, it so chanced that one day there 
 came to that house, whether by accident or design, Robert 
 Dillon, one of the King's Council, and Chief-Justice of the 
 Court of Common Pleas. At table the conversation turned 
 
 • O'Sullivan gives the date of this 1583. 
 
 ■t Ismay Dillon, daughter of Sir Bartholomew Dillon, of Riverstown, county Meath, and 
 *Qr.t to Sir Robert, was married to John Fleming, of Stephenstown, second son of James, 
 Lord Slane, by whom she had Thomas, Lord Slane. Dillon and Lord Slane were therefore 
 cousins. Dillon was then Chief- Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. The wife of Lord 
 Slane, Catherine Preston, was daughter ofjenico, the third Viscount Gormanston. She died 
 in IS97, and was buried in the hermitage of St. Erk Slane.— i>^ Archdairi Lodge, vol. iii. 
 p. 78 ; iv. pp. 143, 14+. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 8; 
 
 on serious subjects, and the archbishop betrayed so mucl 
 learning that it gave occasion to the sagacious chief- 
 justice (who bodily was blind of one eye, and mentall)i 
 wholly blinded by ambition) to mark the man, to inquire 
 who he was, whence he came, and to put many other 
 questions, the answers to all of which he kept to himself 
 until he had the opportunity to lay them before the govern- 
 ors and the council. He laid all his suspicions before 
 the council, and proposed that he should be brought from 
 his hiding-place to answer for himself to the council, and 
 that if he fled he would confirm their suspicions ; and that 
 the Baron of Slane should be summoned before the coun- 
 cil, and held either to produce his guest or answer for him. 
 The bishop fled, and the baron, having appeared before 
 the council, was severely reprimanded for sheltering such 
 a man, and threatened with heavy fine and imprisonment 
 unless he found and produced his late guest. Terrified by 
 these threats, the baron at once set out to pursue him ; 
 for, being tepid in faith, and bound up with the world, he 
 shrank from what seemed to threaten certain destruction, 
 especially as the persecutors were so bitter in their rage 
 against the archbishop, and their threats against himself 
 for having sheltered him. Loftus,* who was the colleague 
 of Wallop, did not so thirst for the blood of the innocent, 
 for he was more inclined to gentleness by nature and 
 equity, as beseemed a chancellor ; but his partner in the 
 government was a son of Mars, and, skilled rather in the 
 arts of Bellona than of Pallas, was a man of blood, and not 
 to be satisfied without shedding it. His mind, too, was 
 exasperated against Archbishop Dermod by an unfound- 
 ed suspicion which he had conceived that that prelate 
 had been a party to a process which had been some time 
 before instituted at Madrid or Rome against a grandson of 
 
 • " Anno JSS2-3.— Lords- Justices of Irelan* Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin and 
 1 ord-Chancdior, with Sir Henry Wallop, Tieasurer of Ireland."— «aj-<r'j Aniutli. 
 
88 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 his, who had been denounced to the Inquisition by his 
 own countrymen for offences against religion.* This 
 prosecution is said to have so inflamed the mind of the 
 lord-justice against our prelate that he could not be 
 satisfied with less than his death ; as this was well known 
 to the council, they admonished the Baron of Slane that, 
 U he would save his own life, he must produce the bishop. 
 
 " Looking more to his own safety than to the duty of 
 friendship, he pursued hotly after the . archbishop, and, 
 overtaking him at Carrick-on-Suir, just as lie had returned 
 from visiting the blessed cross,! a visit which, when in 
 danger, he had vowed to make, he prayed him very civilly 
 to accompany him to Dublin, there to appear before the 
 council, and prove his innocence, and show that he had 
 come to Ireland with a true ecclesiastical spirit, and to 
 preach the faith. What was the pious bishop to do ? He 
 recked not of his own danger, but looked to the safety of 
 the baron. At that time there was at Cork the great Earl 
 of Ormond, Thomas Butler, of devout memory, who loved 
 Dermod, and respected his virtue and the dignity of his 
 office, and ordered him to be supplied with food and all 
 necessaries from his own house; and many say that he had 
 his recently born son, James; who afterward died young in 
 England, privately baptized by him. 
 
 "At that time the unfortunate rising of the southern 
 nobles had been suppressed, and the Earl of Desmond 
 himself, having lost nearly all his forces, was about to seek 
 safety in concealment. I express no opinion on the 
 matter, nor do I attribute to any one the blame of the 
 crime that was committed ;$ nor shall I speak of the Lord 
 
 • Nota Authoris. — " Others relate that Wallop tortured the archbishop out of haired and 
 envy to the Earl of Ormond, by whom the prelate had been received." 
 
 t This would be the Abbey of Holy Cross, in Tipperarj-, a celebrated pilRnniage in thos« 
 days. — See Haverty^s History of Ireland, p. 413. 
 
 t Our author refers here to the treachery by which the Desmonds were pursued, and to 
 the slauRhter, after quarter given, of the unarmed Spanisli garrison of the fort at Smer\\ick 
 Harbor, by 01 der of Arthur, Lord Gray, in 1580, 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 89 
 
 Arthur Gray having violated the pledge he had given to 
 the auxiliary troops ; but it is believed by many that 
 Archbishop Dermod, either of his own idea or at the 
 suggestion of others, wished to see the Earl of Desmond 
 ere he retired to his fastnesses, to console him, and if it 
 might be to bring him back to courses more consistent 
 with his honor and safety ; and if the earl had turned ^ 
 wilhiig ear to the advice the archbishop sought to give 
 him, and if this prudent design had not been cut short by 
 the imprisonment of Dermod, Munster would not have 
 had to deplore the wretch-'^d death of the earl, which hap- 
 pened a little later, at the hands of two wretched cut-throats. 
 " As the bishop travelled back to Dublin with the baron, 
 each night when the latter put up either in the public inn 
 or the house of a friend, the former was thrust into the 
 public prison, for greater security, as if he wore the wings 
 of Mercury on his feet to enable him to fly. One night he 
 spent in Kilkenny in prison, and there a certain Catholic 
 came to him to obtain the benefit of his ministry ; their 
 conversation turned upon the unhappy Bishop of Ferns,* 
 whom human weakness and the fear of men had led to de- 
 sert the Catholic faith. ' Many,' said our holy martyr, ' who 
 are lions before the battle, are timid stags when the hour 
 of trial comes. Lest this prove true of me, I daily pray to 
 our good Lord for strength ; for " let him that thinketh to 
 stand look lest he fall." ' Thus did he work out his salva- 
 tion with fear and trembling, neither puffed up with self- 
 confidence nor cast down by fear, and kept himself with 
 
 • O.ls circun'stance connected with the hero'c constancy of Dr. O'Hurlej deserves to b» 
 •pecMy com.~nemora:ed. The Bishcp of Ferns had wave'ed in hi" allegiance to th'; Holy 
 See, and hence, at this period, stood high in court favor. Witnessing the triumph of Dr. 
 O'Hurley, he was struck with remorse for his own imbecility and criminal denial of his faith, 
 and, hastening to the lords-justices, declared that he was sorry for his past guilt, and now re- 
 jected with disdain the temporal supremacy of Elizabeth. " He too," writes the Bishop of 
 Killaloe in October that same year, " is now confined in a most loathsome dungeon, from 
 which every ray of light is excluded."— j«»r<i«, p. 135, EpUt. cit. See a furthtr oi-.rur.t 0/ 
 this bisliopt Dr. Power^ at p. 156. 
 
QO Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 the sheep of Christ in the sheepfold who hear the voice of 
 Christ in that of his vicegerent. When the archbishop 
 arrived in Dublin, he was brought before the Privy Council 
 for examination * falsely accused of many crimes, and he 
 meekly showed his innocence. The chancellor, Adam 
 Loftus, treated him more gently, and sought by many ca- 
 jolements to induce him to conform, as they call it. Sir 
 Henry Wallop was more savage, and repeatedly broke out 
 into violent and abusive threats, and showed that his invet- 
 erate hatred to the orthodox faith would never be satisfied 
 with anything -less than the slaughter of this innocent 
 lamb. 
 
 " As, after many examinations, no shadow even of crime 
 could be discovered against him, and he could not be con- 
 demned by the tribunals, according to the common law of 
 this kingdom, without either proof of some crime or the 
 confession of the criminal, the judges were consulted whe- 
 ther he could not, at least, be sent into England, there to 
 be tried under the statutes recently passed there against 
 the Catholic subjects of that kingdom, especially those 
 suspected of any foreign intrigues. But the judges an- 
 swered that, as Ireland, although part of the possessions 
 of the English crown, is governed by its own laws, cus- 
 toms, and statutes, and is a different kingdom from Eng- 
 land, with a different parliament, different privileges, and 
 different tribunals, no one not born in England could be 
 sent there to be tried by the laws of that kingdom. 
 
 " Since, then, he was not subject to the law of England, 
 and could aot be proved guilty of any crime in his own 
 country, that no means might be left him of escaping the 
 hands of the executioner, a new and strange mode of trial 
 
 * O'Sullivan says at his first examimation he was asked if he were a priest to which he an- 
 swered in the affirmative, and added, nioreovei, that he was an archbishop. He Vvas then 
 thrown into a dark and loathsome prison, and kept there, bound in chains, till the Holy Thurs- 
 day of the following year. 
 
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In the Reign of Elizabeth. 91 
 
 was devised against him. And as by the laws of war some 
 military. cripies are punishable by death by the authority 
 of the general, and sudden risings or breaches of military 
 discipline may be checked by sudden punishments, this 
 bloody soldier determined to have the peaceful bishop 
 slain by military law, as he could not attain his end by the 
 laws of his country. But he determined first to subject 
 him to the torture, that, if he could not extort by pain any 
 confession of guilt, he might perchance be induced by the 
 intensity of his sufferings to abjure the Catholic faith. But 
 the cruel tyrant was disappointed in Dermod ; his flames 
 could not overcome the flames of the love of Christ ; the 
 fire that burnt without was less powerful than that which 
 burned within his breast. 
 
 " Fortunately we have a description of his suflferings, 
 written by a noble and learned man, a citizen of Dublin, 
 who learned the circumstance from eye-witnesses, if in- 
 deed he were not himself in the city when our martyr suf- 
 fered ; wherefore I will give his words, as given in the 
 introduction to his discussion with James Usher. (Stani- 
 hurst, pp. 29, 30.) After having said a few words of the 
 martyrdom of Richard Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh and 
 Primate of All Ireland, words which I will give in writing 
 of the death of that prelate, he adds, regarding Dermod 
 O'Hurley : 
 
 " ' The Archbishop of Cashel met a harder fate, and the 
 barbarous cruelty of Calvinism- cannot be bettef shown 
 than by it. The executioners, placed the archbishop's feet 
 and calves in tin boots filled with oil ; they then fastened 
 his feet in wooden shackles or stocks, and placed fire un- 
 der them. The boiling oil so penetrated the feet and legs 
 that morsels of the skin and even flesh fell off and left the 
 bone bare.* The officer whose duty it was to preside over 
 the torture, unused to such unheard-of suffering, and un- 
 
 * O Sullivan says he was subjected to this torture for an hour. 
 
g2 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 able to look on such an inhuman spectacle or to bear the 
 piteous cries of the innocent prelate, suddenly left his seat 
 and quitted the place. The cruel minds of the Calvinistic 
 executioners were gratified, but not appeased, by these ex- 
 traordinary torments ; and a few days afterward, wholly 
 unexpectedly, they took out the archbishop, who from his 
 sufferings was indeed suffering a daily death, yet had no 
 reason to expect execution, to a place a little distance from 
 the Castle of Dublin. This was done at early dawn, lest 
 the spectacle should excite a tumult among the people. 
 There they hung him with a halter roughly woven of twigs, 
 to increase his torture. This barbarous and inhuman cru- 
 elty satiated indeed their thirst for his blood, but opened 
 for the holy prelate the fountain of eternal hfe ; so that, 
 drinking of its eternal source, though cast down, he is 
 raised up ; though conquered, he hath conquered ; slain, 
 he lives, and by the cruelty of the Calvinists triumphs 
 everlastingly. 
 
 " ' The cries of the holy archbishop, of which I have 
 spoken, were no murmurs of an impatient mind — not a cry 
 as the cry of Esau, or as those that mourn the dead, but 
 the sighs of a Christian breast feeling the bitterness of its 
 torments ; for he was a man of sorrows and acquainted 
 with infirmity, and from the sole of his foot to the crown 
 of his head all was tormented. Not only his legs and feet 
 were tortured with the boiling oil and salt, but his whole 
 body was burnt with the heat, and bathed in the chill per- 
 spiration of exhaustion. With a loud voice he cried out, 
 " Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me !" raising up 
 his voice with his soul to him. who alone is mighty to save. 
 No torture could wring from him aught but a profession 
 of the orthodox faith ; he was stronger than his tortures, 
 for neither boiling oil nor piercing salt nor blazing fire 
 could shake his faith or extinguish his love of God. 
 
 " ' Exhausted and, as it were, suffocated by his suffer- 
 
In the Reigtt of Elizabeth. 93 
 
 ings while fastened in the stocks, the archbishop lost all 
 voice and sense, and when taken out lay on the ground 
 like dead, unable to move hand or foot, or even eye or 
 tongue. The head executioner began to fear lest he had 
 exceeded his orders, which were only to torture and not to 
 kill, and might be punished for having put him to death 
 without orders. He therefore directed him to be wrapped 
 in linen and laid on a feather bed, and poured a few drops 
 into his-mouth to see if any life yet remained in the tor 
 tured body, and if he could be recalled to his senses. Th 
 next morning, as he had a httle revived, aromatic drink 
 were administered to him, to give him strength to endur 
 new torments, the executioners rejoicing as they saw him 
 slowly swallow it from a spoon, for they feared to receive 
 from Wallop the same punishment as Perillus from Phala- 
 ris : 
 
 "Et necis artifices arte perire sua." 
 
 " ' Our martyr was gradually so far recovered as to be 
 able to sit up* and to limp a little, when his enemies 
 Bought to make him waver in the faith, offering him dig- 
 nity and office if he would resign his position as bishop, 
 and acknowledge the queen to have a double sovereignty, 
 ecclesiastical as well as secular. There was sent to him 
 for this purpose, among others, Thomas Johns, who is now 
 chancellor of this kingdom. But he remained unshaken 
 as the Marpesian rock. His only sister, too. Honor Hur- 
 ley, was induced to go and tempt him to apostatize, and 
 she urgently besought him to yield ; but he, frowning on 
 her, ordered her to fall at his knees and humbly beg pardon 
 of God and absolution for so grave a crime against God, 
 so hurtful to her own soul, and so abhorred by her brother. 
 
 * O'SuUivan says : " A worthy priest named Charles MacMorris, of the Society, skilled in 
 medicine, found access to the archbishop, and treated his wounds with such skill that in a few 
 days his strength began to return, and in less than a fortnight he was enabled to sit up in bed. 
 This priest had himself befln confined in prison by the English, but released on account ol 
 the skill with which he treated some nrblemen when suffering fiom dangerous illness." 
 
94 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 " ' These governors were about to quit their office, to be 
 succeeded by Sir John Perrot, who at this time arrived in 
 Dublin ; but, before he entered on office, as it was rumored 
 that the Earl of Ormond was hastening to Dublin to con- 
 gratulate the new viceroy, and intercede with him for Der- 
 mod, Wallop was determined first to slake his hatred in 
 the blood of the archbishop. 
 
 " ' As Perrot was to receive the sword of office on Sun 
 day, the feast of the Holy Trinity, and his power would 
 then cease, lest his successor might prove more merciful, 
 on the preceding Friday,* and at early dawn, as we have 
 mentioned, the archbishop was drawn on a hurdle through 
 the garden gate to the place where he was hanged. Wal- 
 lop himself (as it is said) going before with three or four 
 guards ; and there he was hanged in a withey, calling on 
 God and forgiving his torturers with all his heart. 
 
 " ' He was taken out of the castle without any noise, 
 lest there should be a tumult ; but the Catholics who were 
 prisoners there, seeing him going, called out that he was 
 innocent ; and, among others, a certain bishop, then a pri- 
 soner there, called out aloud that he rather deserved that 
 fate for the scandal he feared he had formerly given, but 
 that Hurley was an innocent and holy man. Upon which 
 the jailer severely flogged him and the others, and so re- 
 duced them to silence.' 
 
 " The holy martyr was hanged in a wood near the city, 
 and at evening was buried in the half-ruined church of St. 
 Kevin ; and it is stated that many miracles have been 
 
 * According to O'Sullivan, he was executed on the 7th June, 15S4. William Simon, a 
 citizen of London, removed the martyr's body in a wooden um, and buried it secretly in cun- 
 secrated ground. Richard, a distinguished musician, celebrated his sufferings and death in a 
 plaintive elegy, called " The Fall of the Baron of Slane." Moran says he was in his sixty- 
 fifth year, and was executed on the 6th May, and gives as his authority the Littera di Geo- 
 ghegan^ 4th June, 1584, and letter of Cornelius Laonensis, from Lisbon, 29th October, 15B4. 
 {^History of the Archbishops of Dublin^ i. 135.) O'Sullivan is probably inexact, as he often 
 is. Mooney also says he suffered " mense Mari ," but the recently published State Papen 
 say he was executed on the 19th June, 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 95 
 
 wrought there ; and, in consequence, the old church has 
 been restored, and a road opened to it, which is much fre- 
 quented by the people, who go to recommend themselves 
 to the prayers of the holy martyr."* 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON.! 
 
 Ireland, vol. cv. No. 10. 
 1583, Oct. 8. 
 Indorsed, Sir H. Wallop, and Archbishop of Dublin. 
 Dr. Hurley apprehended. 
 
 Addressed — To the Worshipful Robert Beale, supplying 
 the place of Her Majesty's Chief Secretary. 
 
 Sir : By our last letters we gave you some inkling of 
 the arrival here of one Dr. Hurley, upon intelligence 
 whereof we caused so narrow search to be made after 
 him, as we found he had been entertained in the house of 
 the Baron of Slane, and some others of good account 
 within the pale, and from thence was departed (in com- 
 pany with Mr. Perse Butler, base son to the Earl of Or- 
 mond) into Munster. Whereupon, sending for the Baron 
 of Slane, we so dealt with him as he travailed presently to 
 the earl for the apprehension of the said Hurley, and, re- 
 turning again yesterday, brought him unto us, but as yet 
 
 • Dr. O'Hurley's own suffragan bishop thus speaks of him : " The Archbishop of Cashel 
 endured martyrdom in Dublin with most glorious firmness and heroism, and although sub- 
 jected to the most dreadful torture, yet could never be induced to subscribe to the iniquitous 
 innovations of Elizabeth. He died, fearlessly and gloriously, confessing his faith ; but what 
 afflicts me is, that our martyrs are no longer led publicly to execution, but are put to death in 
 private, without the presence of the people. It was thus the archbishop was executed, by 
 only three soldiers, fearing lest he should exhort and inflame the people to constancy in their 
 Christian bSsh."— Letter of Dr. Conulaa O'Mulrian, ex Archiv. Secret. Vatican, ap. 
 Moran. 
 
 tThe original correspondence on the subject of the archbishop's trial between the lords-jus- 
 tices in Ireland and the council in England, lately discovered in the State Paper Office, Lon- 
 don, throw much light on the whole matter, and so strikingly prove the accuracy of the nar- 
 rative of Dr. Roothe that I give them here in extensa. 
 
96 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 our leisure hath not served to examine him. What shall 
 fall out upon his examination we will by the next advertise 
 the Lords at large. In the mean time, it is mjst certain 
 that he had been a leidger2X Rome for a long time, solicit- 
 ing all matters that had been there attempted to the pre- 
 judice of H. Majesty's proceedings here in this realm, 
 and the perturbing of this state. He is nominated by the 
 Pope to be Archbishop of Cashel. Thus for the present, 
 all things else being in reasonable good quiet, and having 
 not further to enlarge, we betake you to the tuition of 
 Almighty God. From Dublin, this 8th day of October, 
 1583. Your assured loving friends, 
 
 Ad. Dublin, 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 Ireland, vol. cv. No. 29. 
 Indorsed, 20th Oct., 1583. 
 
 Reed. 29. 
 
 Lords Justices of Ireland, 
 
 Michael Fitzsimons. 
 
 Barnewell's Second Confession. 
 
 Dr. Hurley. 
 
 Addressed — To the Right Honorable Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham. Knight, principal Secretary to her Majesty, give 
 these at court. 
 
 NnSadFitz- Since your Honor's departure into Scotland 
 •jnoM' pardon, ^g rcceivcd a letter from the Lords concerning 
 one Michael Fitzsimons, the copy whereof we 
 send your Honor, here enclosed. Whereby it 
 seemeth that besides his flying into France 
 without hcense which he maketh the ground of 
 
In the Reign of Elisabeth. 97 
 
 his suit for a pardon, their Lordships would 
 have him pardoned for any one fault that he 
 hath committed against the law here in hope 
 of his conformity and dutiful life hereafter. Ac- 
 cording to which letter we have called him be- 
 fore us, and declared their Lordships' pleasure 
 in his behalf, willing him to show any one fault 
 wherein he had offended her Majesty's laws, 
 and he should have pardon for it according 
 their Lordships' direction. But he will not 
 enter into any particular with us, but urgeth the 
 pardon in general terms. This Fitzsimons is 
 well known unto us to be not only an arrogant 
 Papist, impossible to be reformed, and a conti- 
 nual practiser against the state. So if it please 
 your Honor to read the examination of Christo- 
 pher Barnewell against Sedgrave and William 
 Fitzsimons of this city, your Honor shall find 
 that this Michael Fitzsimons was made ac- 
 quainted with the whole practice, and that, if 
 he could have furnished himself with money, 
 he should have been the carrier of the letters 
 both to the Pope and the King of Spain, to 
 have solicited for more aid ; and, therefore, 
 since his offence is to be justified by Barnewell, 
 and that he will not enter into the voluntary 
 confession of it, it is like he find a guilty con- 
 science in divers treasons, and therefore will 
 depend upon- this letter of the Lords for a re- 
 fuge against the first fault wherewith he shall 
 be charged. Wherefore, we wish (the quality 
 of his offence considered) that we might have a 
 revocation of their Lordships' said letter, where- 
 by we might be at liberty to deal with him in a 
 more severe sort. 
 
98 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 IV^^oS Bam'e- Sccondly, your Honor is to understand that 
 """• about the time of the beginning of your journey 
 
 into Scotland, we sent to the Lord Treasurer 
 and your Honor jointly a second voluntary con- 
 fession of the aforesaid Christopher Barnewell 
 touching 1 20. In which confession there is one 
 Dr. Hurley (by creation of the Pope, Archbishop 
 of Cashel) named to have been a practiser at 
 Rome about the rebels here, and to have had 
 access to Cardinal Comensis, the Pope's secre- 
 tary, as in the confession at large appeareth. 
 This Hurley, having received letters from Rome 
 to divers persons in Ireland, landed at Droyg- 
 hadore about six weeks past, and immediately 
 grew familiar with the Baron of Slane, and re- 
 sorted to his house under pretense of acquaint- 
 ance with a base son of the Earl of Ormond's, 
 who married the Baron's daughter, and, passing 
 some time there, from thence went into Orey- 
 lies country to seek some priests of his foreign 
 acquaintance, and so into Munster to the Lord 
 General, (being a born man under his Lordship,) 
 and craving protection at his hands. Which 
 being revealed unto us, we so dealt with the 
 Baron of Slane that he travailed to the Earl and 
 brought the said Hurley hither unto us, where 
 we have committed him close prisoner to the 
 Castle. At his first apprehension he uttered 
 some words to the Baron of Slane as though 
 120 and .... were to be charged with these 
 late stirs and foreign practices and so the Baron 
 gave it forth in secret ; but before his coming to 
 us, he had been so well schooled as now he pre- 
 tendeth ignorance in all things saving that he 
 confesseth that the Viscount of Bathinglas, his 
 
In the Reigti of Elizabeth. 99 
 
 brother Richard Eustace, Barnewell, and he, 
 were together with Cardinal Comensis, but 
 denieth that he saw any such letters, as Barne- 
 well in his confession allegeth, nor heard any 
 matter of such importance. The other justi- 
 fieth his former confession, and addeth that the 
 doctor was one of the House of Inquisitions, 
 which he denieth not. And further the doctor 
 confesseth that he had letters from Cardinal 
 Sans [Sens] (who is called Protector of Ireland) 
 to the Earl of Desmond and others, which letters 
 (he saith) he left in France and would not med- 
 dle with them. We heartily, therefore, pray 
 your Honor that conferring with the Lord 
 Treasurer you will procure us resolution upon 
 our former joint letter to his Lordship and you 
 touching the confession of the said Barnewell, 
 how we shall either proceed in it or suppress it, 
 and also what course we are to hold with the 
 Popish Archbishop and Michael Fitzsimons, and 
 so, most glad of your Honor's safe return, we 
 commit you to the Lord. 
 
 From Dublin this 20th of October, 1583. 
 Your Honor's alwa}'-s at commandment, 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 State papers, Ireland No. 7. 
 
 1583, Dec. 10. 
 
 Among other letters directed to us and brought by this 
 
 last passage, we received one from your Honor decl^iring 
 
 her Majesty's pleasure for the proceeding with Dr. Hurley 
 
lOO Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 by torture or any other severe manner of proceeding to 
 gain his knowledge of all foreign practices against her 
 Majesty's state, wherein we partly forbore to deal till now, 
 because that Mr. Waterhouse (whom we used only in the 
 former examinations) was employed in Connaught with 
 Sir Nicholas Malbie in searching out the manner of the 
 death of the Baron of Leitrim, and being now returned, we 
 will enter into the matter again by examination of all such 
 as transported Hurley, and such as hosted and entertained 
 him after his landing, and will also deal with himself by 
 the best means we may. But for that we want here either 
 rack or other engine of torture to terrify him, and doubt 
 not, but at the time of his apprehension, he was schooled 
 to be silent in all causes of weight, we thought that in a 
 matter of so great importance and to a person so inward 
 with the Pope and his Cardinals, and preferred by them 
 to the dignity of an Archbishop, the Tower of London 
 should be a better school than the Castle of Dublin, where 
 being out of hope of his Irish patrons and favorers he 
 might be made more apt to tell the truth, and therefore 
 do wish that we had directions to send him thither, which 
 we think may be secretly done, as his departure hence 
 should not be known, neither be discovered till he came 
 thither ; and in the mean season we would not only inform 
 ourselves of all that may be gained here out of the exam- 
 ination of him and others, but also prepare that Barnewell, 
 his accuser, may repair to the court to justify his former 
 deposition and other matters against Hurley, wherein we 
 pray your Honor to be speedily informed if her Majesty 
 please, and so do commit ye to the Lord. 
 
 At Dublin, the loth of Dec, 1583. 
 
 Yr. Honor's assured at commandment. 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 To the Right Hon. Sir Francis Walsingham, Knt, prin- 
 cipal secretary to her Majesty, give these. 
 
In the Reign of EllsabcUi.. loi 
 
 Indorsed, loth Dec, 1583. 
 From the Lords Justices of Ireland. 
 Why they have not proceeded further as yet against 
 Hurley, they want instruments of torture. 
 
 They desire the said Hurley may be sent ovei to the 
 Tower, and herein crave answer with speed. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 Ireland, vol. civ. No. 381. 
 1583, Aug. 1 2th. 
 
 The examination of Christopher Barnewell, of Dundalk, 
 the 1 2th August, 1583. (N.B. The first half of this 
 examination is regarding James Fitzmaurice and Roch- 
 fort the 'priest.) Also when he went to Rome, as 
 in his other confession is expressed, he saith that, miss- 
 ing Richard Eustace at Paris, he went to Rome and there 
 found him, at which time there was one Hiirley, now 
 created Archbishop of Cashel. Richard Eustace carried 
 this examinate to the Archbishop, who examined him of 
 all matters of Ireland, especially what Lords were in arrest ; 
 this examinate told him of all that were in the action. 
 Then the Bishop asked of the Earl of Kildare. He 
 answered he was in the Castle of Dublin prisoner, and the 
 Baron of Delvin with him. Then he asked whether the 
 Earl were taken as a companion of the Rebellion or ni.\ 
 He answered no ; he served against the Viscount and be- 
 fore that against James Fitzmaurice. Then the Bishop 
 took him with him to the Pope's Secretary, called Cardinal 
 Comensis, to whom he told the same tale. Then the 
 Cardinal saith, "Who would trust an Irishman.' The 
 Earl promised to take our part, and shrunk his shoulders 
 
I02 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 into his ears." The Archbishop said that he thought the 
 Earl never promised that he would take arms. Then the 
 Cardinal chaffed, and said, " Wilt thou tell me T Ami 
 then he went into his study and fetched out two writings, 
 the one a great writing whereunto the Bishop said the 
 most part of the lords and gentlemen of Ulster, Munster, 
 and Connaught had subscribed ; the other was a letter 
 from the Earl of Kildare alone, which the Cardinal showed 
 to the Archbishop as rebuking him for not believing him. 
 All this the examinate saith was expounded to him both 
 by the said Bishop and Richard Eustace, and he saith 
 further that the Cardinal, in the end of that conference, 
 said, " Do you think that we would have trusted to James 
 Fitzmaurice, or to Stewkely, or to all these lords, (which 
 subscribed the great letter,) unless we had received the 
 letter from the Earl of Kildare ?" And then the Cardinal 
 turned away and told the Archbishop that the Pope had no 
 money for none of their nation. He saith further that all 
 the Irishmen in Rome cursed the Earl of Kildare for breach 
 of his promise, and prayed for the Viscount and the Earl 
 of Desmond and all other confederates. 
 
 (Signed) Christopher Barnewell. 
 
 The said Christopher Barnewell was examined before us. 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 Ed. Wate-rhouse. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON, 
 
 Ireland, Eliz. vol. cviii. 
 1584, March 8th. 
 Extract of the last letters touching Hurley. 
 
 7th March, 1584. With an extract of Hurley's exam- 
 ination, as also of other examinations that touch Hurley. 
 
In the Reig7t of Elizabeth. 103 
 
 The best lawyers there doubt whether he can be found 
 guilty, his treasons having been committed in foreign 
 parts, and the law not stretching in this behalf so far there 
 as it doth in England. They think it better. Hurley hav- 
 ing neither lands nor goods, that he be executed by mar- 
 tial law rather than by any ordinary trial. 
 
 To have resolutions herein from hence. 
 
 Sth March, 1584. With the letters of Hurley to the 
 Pope, intercepted since his torture. 
 
 Hurley and such-like, favored by great Potentates, 
 they desire to know the acceptation of their travail in this 
 and in the like. 
 
 Never heard answer to their letters to my Lord Trea- 
 surer and me with the examination of Barnewell. 
 
 They will desist if their travail be not acceptable, know- 
 ing how dangerous it is. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 1584, March 7th. 
 From ye Lords Justices of Ireland, touching Dr. Hurley. 
 
 Addressed— To the Right Hon*>'^ Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham, K'. Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, and of 
 Her Highness's Most Hon'''=- Privy Council. 
 
 May it please your Honor. Since the last term, which 
 the other general affairs here would give us leave, we have 
 at several times examined Dr. Hurley, with whom albeit 
 we dealt by all the good means we could to draw him to con- 
 fess his knowledge, not only of any practice of disturbance 
 pretended against the land in particular, but also of any 
 
I04 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 other foreign conspiracy whatsoever against her Majesty 
 for England, or any other parts of her dominions ; and in 
 that point we omitted not to give him a taste that so far 
 forth as he would sincerely and liberally discover all that 
 he knew of others, her Majesty's mercy might be extended 
 to repair such faults as himself had committed. Yet, he 
 retaining his former obstinacy and evasions, we found 
 himself far off from that truth which we expected, and are 
 not ignorant that he can declare if he list ; yea, he wculd 
 not confess that he brought from Rome the Pope's letters 
 of comfort, addressed to the Earl of Desmond, Viscount 
 of Baltinglas, and other rebels, till he knew by us that we 
 had intercepted the said letters, with other testimonials 
 of his consecration, and were already possessed of them. 
 So as not finding that easy manner of examination to do 
 any good, we made commission to Mr. Waterhouse and 
 Mr. Secretary Fenton to put him to the torture, such as 
 your Honor advised us, which was to toast his feet against 
 the fire with hot boots. His confessions, as well upon the 
 torture as at sundry times before, we have extracted and 
 sent herewith to your Honor, together with all other de- 
 clarations, both of the Lord of Slane and others, which 
 have any community with Hurley's cases, and which we 
 have at several times drawn from the parties themselves 
 by way of examination ; by which we doubt not but your 
 Honor will discern how many ways Hurley is to be over- 
 taken with treason in his own person, and with what br^d 
 mind he came into Ireland, instructed from Rome to poi- 
 son the hearts of the people with disobedience to her Ma- 
 jesty's Government, which was not ui>hke to put the realm 
 in danger of a new revolt if he had not been intercepted 
 in time. Even so we desire your Honor to consider how 
 he may speedily receive his deserts, so as not only his own 
 evil may die with himself, and thereby the realm delivered 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth, 105 
 
 of a perilous member, but also his punishment to serve for 
 an example ad terrorem to many others, who we find by 
 his own confessions are prepared at Rome to run the 
 same course both here and for England. And herein we 
 thought good to remember your Honor by way of our 
 opinion that, considering how obstinate ^d wilful we finJ 
 him every way, if he should be referred to a public trial, 
 his impudent and clamorous denial might do great harm 
 to the ill-affected here, who in troth have no small admira- 
 tion of him. And yet, having had conference with some 
 of the best lawyers in the land, we find that they make a 
 scruple to arraign him here, for that his treasons were 
 committed in foreign parts, the statute in that behalf be- 
 ing not here, as it is in England. And therefore we 
 think it not amiss (if it be allowed cf there) to have him 
 executed by mtj-rtial laiv, against v/hirh he can have no 
 just challenge, for that he hath neither lands nor goods, 
 and as by that way may be avoided many harms, which 
 by his presence standing at ordinary trial, and retaining 
 still his former impudence and negative protestations, he 
 may do to the people. So also it may be a mean to pre- 
 vent danger to us, and the said Waterhouse and Mr. Se- 
 cretary, that have from the beginning interposed our- 
 selves, not only in his apprehension, but also in all his ex- 
 aminations, if (as it is most likely) he should break ou 
 and exclaim to the people that he was troubled for. som 
 ndblemen of his country, whom your Honor may find by 
 the extracts now sent chargeable with more than suspi- 
 cion of confederacy in the late rebellion, whereof wo 
 humbly pray you.- Hor.or to be careful in our behalf, con- 
 sidering in how little safety we live here for the like ser- 
 vices We have already done to her Majesty ; and so eft- 
 soons desiring your Honor's speedy resolution whether he 
 shall be passed to martial law or not, for what purpose 
 we have sent this bearer, Mr. Randall, and to return with 
 
lo6 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 your answer with all the diligence he may, we hurnbly 
 take our leave of your Honor. 
 
 At Dublin, the 7th day of March, 1584. 
 
 Your Honor's at commandment, 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 Ireland, vol. cviii. 1584, March 8. 
 
 Indorsed, 8th March, 1584. 
 
 The Lords Justices of Ireland. 
 
 Dr. Hurley. 
 
 Addressed — To ye Right Honorable Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham, Knt., Principal Secretary to Hex Majesty, give 
 these. 
 
 It may please your Honor, as in our other letter to your 
 Honor, of the 7th of this present, we have declared our pro- 
 ceedings by torture with Dr. Hurley, having sent you the 
 abstract of his examinations, together with the Baron of 
 Slane's, John Dillon's, and others, to be considered of by 
 your Honor, and used in such sort as shall seem good unto 
 you, so also have we herewith sent the copies of such let- 
 ters as since the writing of our former letters we have 
 intercepted, being written since his torture — the one to the 
 Earl of Ormond, and the other to a kinsman of his own in 
 this town, serving Dr. Forth, who should have practised 
 for him ; which letters were brought to our hands by the 
 fidelily of Sylvester Cooley, the constable, and the good 
 handling of one of the warders, who hath the keeping of 
 Hurley. By those letters your Honor may discover what 
 favor these Romish runagates have with our great Potentate 
 here. They that will not see let them be blind still ; and 
 it shall sufBce us to have discharged our duties herein as 
 
Ih the Reign of Elizabeth. 107 
 
 before, in Barnewell's examination, formerly sent unto the 
 Lord Treasurer, and your Honor, concerning the Earl of 
 Kildare and the Baron of Delvin, confirmed now by 
 Hurley's own speech to the Baron of Slane, as in the 
 Baron's confession appeareth, whereof, nevertheless, we 
 ne\ er had any answer, which maketh us somewhat doubt- 
 ful how to proceed in these causes, not knowing how our 
 doings in that behalf are there thought of Beseeching 
 your Honor to let us understand how both these, and the 
 former also, are there taken, and be directed which course 
 we shall hold therein, or otherwise, if your Honor find but 
 small accompaniment to be made thereof, that it will 
 please you to yield us your good advice for the staying of 
 our hands, and not further to stir those coals to scorch 
 ourselves, knowing how dangerous it is for us to busy 
 ourselves in this sort, with setting these matters abroad 
 here, if, when we have, according to our duties, presented 
 the same unto your Honor's there, in lieu of backing and 
 good countenance from thence, our doings shall be dis- 
 covered ; and so, craving by the next despatch to be satis- 
 fied from your Honor herein, we humbly take our leave. 
 From Dublin, this 8th of March, 1583. 
 
 Your Honor's always at commandment. 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 Sir Franc. Walsingham. H. Wallop. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 State Papers, Ireland, No. 12, vol. iii. 1584, July 9. 
 
 It may please your Honor, having by your letter unto 
 us of the 29th of April, received her Majesty's resolution 
 for the course to be holden with Hurley, namely, that we 
 should proceed to his execution (if it might be) by ordinary 
 trial by law, or otherwise by martial law, and having there- 
 
io8 Martyrs and Confessors, 
 
 upon caused the lawyers and judges here' to set down their 
 resolute opinion in that matter, which was, that he could 
 not be tried by course of her Majesty's common laws, 
 as may appear by the copy enclosed, we thought meet ac- 
 cording to your direction to proceed with him by the other 
 way, and for our farewell, two days before we delivered 
 over the sword, being the 19th of the last, (with the 
 consent of the Lord-Deputy,) we gave warrant to the 
 knight-marshal in her Majesty's name to do execution 
 upon him, which accordingly was performed, and thereby 
 the realm well rid of a most pestilent member, who, 
 notwithstanding the appearing of his treasons, even until 
 he was given to understand her Majesty's resolute pleasure, 
 and our determination in that behalf, was continually in 
 hope and (in a manner) in an assured expectation of some 
 means to be wrought for his enlargement, if he might have 
 found that favor, to have had his time prolonged but to the 
 end of our government. Thus much we thought good to 
 signify unto your Honor of our proceedings in that behalf, 
 to be imparted unto her Majesty and the Lords, as your 
 Honor shall see cause, and in the meantime do receive no 
 small comfort by your Honor's signification of her Majesty's 
 good reception and allowance of our careful and zealous 
 ;ravail in that matter. 
 
 Wherein we have done but our duties, so we will not, 
 God willing, at any time omit to perform the same ir like 
 sort as occasion shall be offered, especially in such mat- 
 ters as so highly concern the glory of God, and her Majes- 
 ty's crown and dignity, to whom we accompt we owe, net 
 only all omx cnderivors',, bu>'. also our lives ai)d ourselves, 
 and so, for the piesent, we betake your Honor to the tui- 
 tion of the Almighty. 
 
 Dublin, this gth of July, 1584. 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop, 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 109 
 
 Directed — To the Right Honorable Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham, Knt., Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, give 
 these at Court. 
 
 Indorsed, 1584, 19th July, from the Lord Chancellor and 
 Sir H. Wallop. 
 
 Enclosing No. 121. 
 
 Our humble duties recommended unto your Honors'. 
 Having, according to your Lordships' direction, conferred 
 whether treasons committed in the parts beyond the seas 
 may by her Majesty's laws be tried within this realm, it 
 appeareth unto us that before the statute made in the 3Sth 
 year of our late Sovereign Lord King Henry VHI. it was 
 doubtful in England whether such foreign treasons might 
 be tried within that realm, for remedy whereof the said 
 statute was made and provided, and in the preamble there- 
 of is set down, which statute is not confirmed nor establish- 
 ed in this realm, wherefore, and for that we find no prece- 
 dent for any such trial, and that the rules of common law 
 appoint no ordinary trials for things beyond the seas, our 
 opinion is that things committed without this realm may 
 not be tried here by order of her Majesty's laws, and so we 
 humbly take our leave. 
 
 Dublin, the ist of June, 1584. 
 
 Your Honor's humble, to command, 
 
 Robert Dillon. 
 
 Lucas Dillon. 
 
 Edmond Butler. 
 
 Wilton Bathe. 
 
 Edward Fitzsimons. 
 
 George Dormer. 
 
 Richard Barlinge. 
 
 Richard Sedgrave. 
 
no " Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 Ireland, Eliz. vol. cix. 1584, April 14th. 
 
 {Extract of Indorsement) Do expect answer of that 
 formerly they have written hither of Hurley, and the E. 
 Kildare. 
 
 Addressed— To the Right Honorable Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham, Knt., Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, give 
 these. 
 
 {Extract.) 
 
 In our late letters touching Hurley, we earnestly press- 
 ed her Majesty and their Lordships' resolution for our pro- 
 ceedings with him, which eftsoons we humbly beseech your 
 Honor to hasten as much as you may. In like sort we 
 have long expected their Lordships' pleasure touching 
 that which formerly we wrote concerning the Earl of Kil- 
 dare, etc. 
 
 From Dublin, this 14th of April, 1584. 
 
 Your Honor's always at commandment, 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 State Papers, vol. cix. No. 66. 
 1584, April 28. 
 
 After my hearty commendations to your Lordships, 
 your late letters of the 7th and 8th of last month by Mr. 
 Alverie Randolph, together with the extract of the exami- 
 nations off-hand of others, being of some length, and the 
 time otherwise here full of great causes, I could not before 
 now so impart to her Majesty as I might withal know her 
 mind touching the same for your Lordships' further direc- 
 tion. Wherefore she having at length resolved, I have, 
 
hi the Reign of Elizabeth. \ \ \ 
 
 accordingly by her commandment, to signify her Majes- 
 ty's pleasure unto you touching Hurley, which is this : 
 that the man being so notorious and ill a subject, as ap- 
 peareth by all the circumstances of his course he is, do 
 proceed if it may be to his execution by ordinary trial of 
 him for it ; howbeit, in case you shall find the effect of his 
 causes doubtful by reason of the affections of such as 
 shall be his jury, and for the supposal conceived by the 
 lawyers of that country that he can hardly be found 
 guilty for his treason committed in foreign parts against 
 her Majesty, then her pleasure is you take a shorter way 
 with him by martial law. So as you may see it is referred 
 to your discretion whether of these two ways your Lord- 
 ships will take with him ; and the man being so resolute to 
 reveal no more matter, it is thought meet to have no fur- 
 ther tortures used against him, but that you proceed 
 forthwith to his execution in manner aforesaid. As for 
 her Majesty's good acceptation of your careful travail in 
 this matter of Hurley, you need nothing to doubt, and, 
 for your better assurance thereof, she has commanded me 
 to let your Lordships understand that, as well in all other 
 the like as in this case of Hurley, she cannot but greatly 
 allow and commend your doings. And touching the mat- 
 ters of Sedgrave and Fitzsimons, whose trial for treason 
 the city of Dublin claimeth by their privileges whereof 
 you writ in October last, so it is that the best lawyers 
 here have delivered their opinion against the claim of that 
 city, and therefore Sir John (Perrot) before his departure 
 shall have directions to proceed accordingly with these 
 persons after his arrival with you. 
 
 Indorsed, 28th April, 1584. 
 
 To the Lords Justices. 
 
 How to proceed against Dr. Hurley 
 
 By Mr. Randolph. 
 
112 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 DAME ELEANOR BIRMINGHAM. 
 
 I GIVE her life from Dr. Roothe : 
 
 "There Hved in iDublin a widow of a generous soul, 
 named Eleanor Birmingham, relict of Bartholomew Baal.* 
 She was worthy of honor, according to the saying of St. 
 Paul, ' Honor widows who are truly widows,' and have 
 learnt to govern their own house, and to make a return of 
 duty to their parents ; who, being widows indeed and 
 desolate, trust in God, and continue in supplications and 
 prayer night and day. And such was this widow of whom 
 I write, ' for she that liveth in pleasures is dead while she is 
 living ;' but she was not such, but blameless, having care 
 of her own, especially those of her house. That she had 
 testimony of her good works, and brought up children, 
 and ministered to them that suffered tribulation, and dih- 
 gently followed every good work, all who knew her testify. 
 How earnestly and sedulously she did so I will briefly 
 relate. 
 
 " How diligently, during all her widowhood, she turned 
 to the Lord in prayer may be known from this, that be- 
 sides her daily prayers, morning and evening, no day pass- 
 ed in which she did not devote some hours, spared from 
 the care of her household and the other labors of Martha, 
 to the reciting of the rosary and penitential psalms. She 
 never missed hearing Mass on the feasts, and also on all 
 days of devotion when possible ; and that she might be 
 more certain of being able to do so, and even to have a 
 daily Mass, although the times were evil and the rulers 
 persecuted the Catholics, she entertained in her house a 
 Catholic priest, to whom she supplied food, clothing, lodg 
 ing, and an annual honorarium, in order that there might 
 always be there a priest to say Mass, administer the sacra- 
 
 • Or Ball. The habit of calling wives by their maiden name, as Dr. Roothe does herr and 
 llsewbere, still remains among the peasantry in many districts of Ireland. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 1 1 3 
 
 ments, and pray for her and her family. She was several 
 times accused of this before the Privy Council ; and at 
 last pursuivants were sent who arrested her as she was 
 hearing Mass, together with the priest who was at the 
 altar. They were both hurried, guarded by an armed 
 party, before the viceroy and the chancellor and a few of 
 the council ; and this was done so hurriedly that the priest 
 was not given time to lay aside his sacred vestments ; and 
 he, clothed in the sacrificial ornaments, and she, borne 
 down with the weight of years, were carried off in a cart 
 to prison ; and that this might be the more insulting, the 
 priest, clad in the sacred vestments, was paraded through 
 the streets and held up to ridicule. But though this sight 
 moved the laughter of the Protestants, yet it the more 
 confirmed the Catholics in their faith : as in the time of 
 the Emperor Claudius, when the holy martyrs, Marius, 
 Martha, and Audifax, were paraded through Rome with 
 their hands cut off, and hung round their necks, the sight 
 roused the Catholics of Rome to piety and constancy in 
 the faith. The pious matron was despoiled of the sacred 
 ornaments, the chalice, paten, and all other things, on 
 which these fanatical spoilers greedily seized and turned 
 them to profane uses. She lay in prison for a considera- 
 ble time, until, having smoothed the way by bribes, and 
 the minds of the king's ministers being mollified by the 
 intercession of some nobles, she was set free, and allowed 
 to return to her house. 
 
 "After her deliverance she resumed her accustomed 
 way of life, spending her time in prayer and other pious 
 exercises, wherein she tasted and saw how sweet is the 
 Lord. And she ever generously relieved the wants of the 
 poor, and this the more freely out of gratitude to God for 
 her deliverance. In her house she was a pattern to all of 
 integrity and chastity, of piety and innocence, of modesty 
 and virtue to her servants, of purity to virgins, of conti- 
 
1 1 4 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 nence to widows, to all a light of religion, of faith, and of 
 holiness. 
 
 " For this reason noble ladies from both far and near, 
 who cared for the bringing up of their daughters in solid 
 piety, sent them to her to be educated, and she so brought 
 up those children entrusted to her as to make them hand- 
 maids of virtue, so that they might say of her what St. 
 Basil writes of his grandmother, St. Macrina, where he 
 says that, when a child, he was taught the Christian doc- 
 trine by her, wherefore he calls her his nurse in the faith, 
 and rejoices that he retained the faith which he nad re- 
 ceived like pure milk from her. Many now in Ireland 
 may truly say of this holy matron that the dew of piety 
 was instilled by her in their earliest- education ; and many, 
 also, that at a more advanced age she renewed its fresh- 
 ness in their souls. 
 
 " But her heart was grievously afflicted by the hardness 
 of heart of her eldest son, Walter Baal, who from commu- 
 nication with the innovators, had imbibed their pernicious 
 errors. She sought by all means to purge from him that 
 leaven of malice ; she prayed day and night, and besought 
 the divine goodness to cure the malady of his soul, and 
 besought the prayers of others for the same end. There 
 was no priest, secular or regular, or bishop or other per- 
 son, renowned for sanctity, whom, when she had the oppor- 
 tunity, she did not beseech to pray for his conversion. It 
 seemed as if St. Monica were again alive, and renewing her 
 prayers for the conversion of St. Augustine to the Catholic 
 faith from which he had wandered. But Monica was hap- 
 pier, since she at length obtained her request and recov- 
 ered a son, not only a Catholic, but a most intrepid de- 
 fender of the faith. But the unworthy son of this worthy 
 Eleanor was a son of Belial, without price he served Baal 
 and adored him, and became a ' Nabal ; according to his 
 name, he is a fool,' (i Kings xxv. 25,) and his folly he carried 
 
In the Reigit of Elizabeth. 115 
 
 down with him into the grave ; and while many others 
 by means of this matron were led back from their errors, 
 he hardened his heart, and obstinately died in his bhnd- 
 ness. 
 
 " But the crowning stroke of his wickedness was that, 
 not content with himself wallowing in the mud of error, he 
 bitterly persecuted his mother to make her share in the 
 same. Being made mayor of the city of Dublin,* he was 
 so inhuman toward the mother that bore him, that al- 
 though she was decrepit with age and no longer able to 
 walk from weakness, when all his attempts to draw her 
 into conformity with the established religion had failed, he 
 had her carried to prison in a chair. This trial she pa- 
 tiently bore, and leaving behind her a sweet odor of con- 
 stancy, longanim.ity, and unspotted faith, happily slept in 
 the Lord, in prison, about the year 1584."! — Rooihey De 
 Processu Mm'tyrialu 
 
 * Walter Ball was Mayor of Dublin in 1580, having been sheriff in 1572, — IVare^s Antmh^ 
 p. 168, If, therefore, she died in prison in 1584, this, her second imprisonment must liave 
 lasted between three and four years. 
 
 + As an introduction to the notices of Eleanor Birmingham and Margery Bamewall, t)r. 
 Roothe says : 
 
 "As I have thus given a few examples of constancy, taken from every rank of the male s'tx, 
 both ecclesiastical and secular, primates, archbishops, bishops, abbots, deans, archdeacons, 
 and other priests of different orders, of whom I spoke in my catalogue ; and, as I there made 
 mention of illustrious women, if now I give two examples, one of a married woman and tht 
 other of a virgin. I shall not seem wholly to have omitted the sex. I shall, therefore, here, 
 briefly gives a few particulars, first of a married woman, that is a widow, and then of a virgin." 
 
 We must therefore take these two lives (see Anno 1583) as only two examples out of many, 
 and instances of what daily befell Catholic women in Ireland in those days 
 
 The end of Dame Margery's unworthy son, Walter Baal, is thus related in a MS. in ths 
 Burgundian library : 
 
 " In the same year (1599,) Walter Baal, truly a man of Belial, a senator of Dublin, so im- 
 pious a son that he dragged his aged mother by force into the congregation of the impious and 
 sacrilegious, a hunter after the anointed priests of the Lord, one daj', with a crowd of fol 
 lowers, went to seek for a certahi Franciscan father, and a father of the Society of Jesus, 
 whom he just missed. On his return home, disappointed, he was seized with sudden 
 madness, and breathing blasphemies, he departed to join the other persecutors of priests.*' 
 ^MS, 2159, entitled Magna Supplicia a PersectUoribus aliquot Catholkorum in Hibemin 
 Strmpta. 
 
Ii6 Martyrs and Confesscrs 
 
 ^nno lo85. 
 
 RIGHT REV. MURTAGH O'BRIEN, 
 
 Bishop of Emiy, was appointed to the see of Emly, on 
 24th January, 1567.* In a letter of Dr. Cornelius O'Mul- 
 rian, preserved in the Vatican archives,"!" immediately after 
 the eulogy of the heroic martyr of Cashel, (Dr. O'Hurley,) 
 IS added : " The Bishop of Emly, who is equally constant 
 in the faith, is at present confined in the Dublin dun- 
 geons ; they are now preparing for him, too, the tin boots, 
 and intend to apply the fiery ordeal, as they did with the 
 archbishop, that thus, if -possible, they may compel him 
 to. renounce his religion." This was on the 29th October, 
 1584. Of his subsequent sufferings no record has been 
 preserved : but Mooney chronicles his death in prison in 
 the following year.f Philadelphus also mentions his death 
 in prison at Dublin, but puts it at 1586. 
 
 MOST REV. RICHARD CREAGH, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH. 
 
 I GIVE first his life, as written by Dr. Roothe, and then 
 such additional particulars as can be drawn from other 
 sources. 
 
 " NOTES ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF RICHARD CREAGH, 
 ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH. 
 
 " This great ruler of the Church of Ireland was a noble 
 champion of the Catholic faith, and foremost among its 
 defenders and restorers in his native land. He was born 
 at Limerick, the son of respectable but not distinguished 
 
 • Dr Moran, Archbishops of Dublin, p. 136, 
 
 t Ibia. 
 
 X Mooney, p. 95. In another passage (p. 69) he also mentions his death in this year, (al- 
 though the name, probably through a mistake of Mooney's copyist, looks ike Moriartiu 
 O'KeniBT.; 
 
In the Reign of Elisabeth. 117 
 
 citizens of that city, Nicholas Creagh and Joanna White. 
 That city is situated in the province of Munster, remarka- 
 ble for its site and its cultivation : it is surrounded by 
 walls and washed by the river Shannon, the greatest of 
 the, rivers of Ireland ; the goodness of its port invites the 
 citizens to commerce, and, in consequence, the most 
 honorable of its citizens for the greater part bring up their 
 sons to trade. Thus it happened that the young Richard 
 was by his parents placed in a commercial house to learn 
 business, as was St. Francis by his father ; and to acquire 
 a knowledge of such articles as were most in demand. 
 Among such was saffron, which at that time was much 
 used by the Irish for dyeing, cooking, and medicine. 
 One day young Creagh perceived that the bags in which 
 the saffron was kept were damp, (as ofttimes happens with 
 that oily flower,) and fearing lest there should be any fraud 
 in that dampness — for he had learned in the divine law 
 that adulterating goods and unjust weights are an abomina- 
 tion to the Lord — he placed the bags in the sun to dry. 
 His mind was troubled by the thought of the dangers to 
 which his soul would be exposed in trading in the goods 
 of this world, for the Lord had destined him for another 
 business, that of saving souls, that he should make fine 
 linen and sell it, and deliver a girdle to the Chananite ; 
 and should be as a merchant's ship, bringing his bread 
 from afar. Nor was he of those who, being brought up in 
 garments of saffron, embraced the dunghill, but rather of 
 those who deemed saffron and cinnamon and all other 
 precious spices as dirt that he might gain Christ. He de- 
 termined, therefore, to abandon the balance that he might 
 embrace the cross ;* and, having with some difficulty ob- 
 tained the consent of his parents, he got his discharge 
 from his master, and, bidding adieu to the business of this 
 
 • " Relicto igitur croco ut se ad crucen Christi pararet melius." 
 
Xi8 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 world, devoted himself to study and piety in the hope of 
 an abundant return, as he remembered the treasure hid- 
 den in a field, and the pearl of great price spoken of in the 
 gospel ; wherefore he sold all he had to buy it. 
 
 " Freed from dealing in spices, he yet gave a sweet odor 
 of piety, like cinnamon and balsam, and to him might be 
 ai:>plied what St. Basil said : ' As sweet ointments diffuse 
 through the air a sweet odor, which refreshes those 
 who breathe it, so a good man is useful and agreeable to all 
 that dwell with him,' as was proved in him. But I must 
 now relate more at length the stages by which he was led 
 by divine Providence. 
 
 "As soon as he had learned in Ireland the rudiments of 
 the Latin language, he went to Belgium, where in the 
 great University of Louvain he studied letters, and having 
 completed his course of philosophy, and taken the degree 
 of master of arts, he studied sacred theology with all care, 
 and after several years' study attained the degree of 
 bachelor in theology.* 
 
 " Having taken this degree, he determined to return to 
 his native land, then, alas ! overrun with weeds and 
 briers caused by the schism and heresy under Elizabeth, 
 (for her Catholic sister was then dead ;) error was sown 
 broadcast all through the kingdom, more especially in his 
 native city, where he desired to root out the bad and sow 
 the good seed. Being now a priest, he labored zealously, 
 
 * Note A. — The following reference to our archbishop occ^trs in the Records of Lowaiit, 
 published by De Ram in 1861. (^Renim Lovaniensium, libri 14, auctore Jac. Molano, 1583,) 
 
 " Richard Crews, a native of Limerick, in Ireland, having obtained a free bourse from tha 
 almoner of Charles V., studied arts as a convictor in domo Standonica, and afterward theology 
 in the Pontifical College, and in the year 1555 took his degree of bachelor. He was subse- 
 quently made Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland ; and, being taken prisoner in th» 
 persecution of Elizabeth, miraculously escaped from prison in the year 1565, and came to Lou- 
 vain, where he was received with great kindness by Michael Banis, President of the Fontiiical 
 College," founded by Adrian VI., now called College du Pape. 
 
 Dr. Creagh, in his examination, says he was educated " at the Emperor Charles's and othir 
 good men's costs." 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 1 1 g 
 
 exhorting in prirate and preaching in public, and adminis- 
 tering the sacraments ; and warning all against the oath 
 of the queen's usurped ecclesiastical supremacy, and 
 against unlawfully communicating in divine things with 
 the schismatics, and he withdrew many from these two 
 snares of the soul. 
 
 "And as nothing remains so firmly fixed in the mind as 
 what is learned in youth, {Quint, lib. i. cap. i.,) he gave 
 whatever time he could spare from the duties of his sacred 
 office to teaching youth and bringing them up in virtue, 
 not unmindful of what St. Irenasus wisely observed, the 
 knowledge of ' what we have learned in youth strengthens 
 with our growth, and is firmly fixed in our mind.' ' A 
 young man according to his way, even when he is old, he 
 will not depart from it' (Prov. xxii. 6.) He opened a 
 school and taught at once letters and religion to children 
 and youth and all who came. For, as the father of Roman 
 eloquence says, ' What better service can we do the state 
 than to teach youth .'' For as the ruin of cities and states 
 follows the neglect of this duty, so does their prosperity 
 from its fulfilment. For how shall the state flourish, 
 unless its governors be good ; and how can magistrates 
 be good, unless the citizens from whom they are chosen 
 be good .■■ Nor can they be such, unless in their youth 
 they b'e well brought up. Grievously did our forefathers 
 offend in this respect, by neglecting the education of 
 their children. But far more grievously do our modern 
 rulers offend, who devote all their care to poisoning the 
 mind of youth, both by infusing the poison of error into 
 Ihe teaching of youth, and by prohibiting Catholic schools, 
 In which youth would be taught both literature and virtue. 
 
 " Richard therefore labored with solicitude and zeal to 
 teach youth, to form their plastic minds to the orthodox 
 faith, and to endure sufferings for Christ. After some 
 time, however, he determined to leave Ireland, urged by 
 
I20 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which makes men deem 
 all that they have done nothing while yet anything re- 
 mains to do ; and which made him, although wholly 
 devoted to promoting the Catholic faith, consider he was 
 not yet a perfect follower of Christ, and desire a more 
 perfect way ; and partly because he was worn out with 
 labor, partly because he desired to advance more in sacred 
 studies, and to follow a stricter rule of life, he proceeded 
 to Catholic countries, and finally to Rome * Here he w'as 
 known arid esteemed by Pope Pius V., who forbade him to 
 enter a regular order, as he purposed, until he should learn 
 more of the will of his hohness ; but the pontiff, although 
 unknown to him, had already determined to send him back 
 to Ireland, to strengthen and console its inhabitants, so 
 
 * Note B. — The account which we gather, chiefly from the archbishop's examination in 
 London, is fuller. I take it from an excellent sketch of his life, given in \^^ Rambler o{ 
 April, 1853^ (by Rev. D. McCarthy,) from which I shall also make several other extracts ; the 
 writer does not appear to have seen the life by Roothe. The details in the life by Roothe are 
 fuller and more authentic than any others, but he has fallen into some not unnatural errors ag 
 to the chronology of the archbishop's life, and has transposed his trials and escapes ; placing 
 his trial in Ireland before his escape from the Tower of London, whereas it occurred subse- 
 quently. 
 
 It will make the narrative clearer if I here give a summary of the dates of his life : 
 1525. — The archbishop was born probably in this year 
 
 1 548. — About this year went to Louvain ; he was there seven or eight years. 
 1555. — Took his degree of bachelor of divinity at Louvain, and soon after relumed to 
 
 Limerick. 
 1557. — This year Hugh Lacy, the Catholic bishop, was restored to the see of Limerick, and 
 
 as Dr. Creagh came to Limerick under him, it must have been about this year. 
 11558. — Elizabeth succeeded, and the persecution began. 
 
 1560. — The Nuncio Wolfe arrived in Limerick, charged with providing for the vacant sees. 
 1562. — In August, Dr. Creagh left Limerick for Rome by direction of the Nuncio. 
 1563. — January, he arrived in Rome. 
 1564.— He was consecrated archbishop in April, and set out on his journey to Ireland on 
 
 horseback; in October, he reached London, and some time later landed in Ireland, 
 
 and was soon after arrested and sent to London. 
 J565. — January iSth, committed to the Tower. He was interrogated on the 22d February 
 
 and 23d March, and escaped from prison on the octave of Easter Sunday, as related 
 
 by the letter of Dr, Southwell and Father Navarchus. He retuined to IrelpnJ 
 
 either the end of this year or the beginning uf 
 1566. — In August of this year he had an interview with Shane O'Neill. 
 1567-— 8th May, he was taken prisoner in Connaught ; in August, he was tried in Dublin, and 
 
 acquitted, but kept in custody, and escaped soon after ; was retaken before the enl 
 
 of the year, and sent to London, and lodged in the Tower, where — 
 1585. — He died on the 14th October. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 
 
 121 
 
 sorely tried for their faith ; and, to give more scope to his 
 ^eal, to consecrate him Archbishop of Armagh and Primate 
 of all Ireland ; for that see was then vacant by the death 
 of his illustrious and most reverend predecessor, James 
 Dowdell, who died, about the same time as Queen Mary 
 and Cardinal Pole, in England, whither he had gone about 
 some affairs of his church. In vain he alleged, in order to 
 escape the burden to be laid upon him, the dangers of 
 the journey and the difficulty of entering Ireland ; but as 
 soon as he was consecrated, animated by the Holy Ghost, 
 he crossed the sea, and, leaving behind the storms of ocean, 
 encountered fiercer storms on land.* He had hardly 
 landed and proceeded a few days on his journey, when he 
 was seized by the enemies of the faith and carried to 
 Dublin and thrown into prison. After he had lain there 
 some time, he fled, together with his jailer.f What 
 further troubles he passed through I will relate as far as I 
 have learned. 
 
 " Escaped from chains, he fled across the sea, to breathe 
 in freedom among Catholics for a short time, and prepare 
 for fresh combats. After he had a little restored his 
 strength, having received an intimation from the holy 
 father, the primate returned a second time to Ireland, 
 and, while watching over his flock, he was again seized 
 and brought before the viceroy and council in Dublin, 
 where he was accused of high treason, as a vagabond and 
 transgressor of the laws, a contemner of the statutes of 
 the kingdom, an escaped criminal, and worthy of the se- 
 verest punishment. Jurors were called, who, according to 
 ancient custom, were to decide on his guilt. The jurors 
 were sworn before the royal tribunal, and, having heard 
 from the judge the heads of the accusation and the evi- 
 dence, were to pronounce on the fact. The archbishop, 
 
 • See Note B, p. lac. 
 
 ^ This is a mistake. His escape with his jailer was from his lafer imprisonment in 1567. 
 
122 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 confiding in the goodness of his cause, boldly pleaded be- 
 fore the jurors, proved his innocence, and explained the 
 causes of his arrest and his escape. He acknowledged 
 that he was a Catholic, and a Catholic bishop, but guilty 
 of no crime ; that he had not broken forcibly out of prison, 
 but had fled with his jailer to save his life. He prayed 
 them to remember that with them rested the life or death 
 of an innocent man : if they condemned the innocent, they 
 would have to answer to the divine judgment ; that his 
 mortal life, but their immortal life, was in the balance. 
 And as the law allows the accused a certain number of 
 peremptory challenges to the jurors, but, if he exceed the 
 number, condemns him to what is called the peijie forte et 
 dure, that is, to be crushed to death beneath a weight, he 
 challenged some peremptorily and some for cause, and in 
 all things acted with wisdom and prudence, neither omit- 
 Ing any just means of defence nor in aught transgressing 
 the law — no easy matter in so intricate a business. The 
 judge, in charging the jurors, enlarged at great length on 
 what he called the atrocity of the crime,- that they might 
 have the less hesitation in finding him guilty. After they 
 had heard his address and the evidence, they retired to dis- 
 cuss the facts and decide on their interlocutory sentence, 
 which is called the verdict. There ensued a long discus- 
 sion among them ; and, as the law directs that the jurors 
 may not return to their homes until they have agreed on 
 their sentence and it has been announced by their leader, 
 they were so long without coming to a decision, some being 
 for the accused and some against him, that they remained 
 for several days shut up on a small allowance of bread and 
 water, until they should agree. The foreman of the jurors, 
 who was for an acquittal, had for some time suffered nmch 
 from dysentery ; and all physicians are agreed that nothing 
 is worse for such a complaint than cold and uncooked 
 food, yet, supported by a sen.':e of justice, his spirit upheld 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 123 
 
 (he weakness of his body, and, far from suffering, he was 
 better and freer from the disease after than before his se- 
 clusion. At length the jurors returned a verdict of not 
 guilty, but were in consequence themselves thrown into 
 prison and fined. The archbishop was sent to London, 
 and th'rust into an obscure cell in the Tower of London, ■ 
 which was called ' the whale's room.' The place was very 
 dark and shut out from the light of the sun, and the only 
 light allowed to the prisoner was as much of a tallow can- 
 dle as his jailers thought would enable him to eat his 
 food.* But he, thinking more of the food of the soul than 
 of the body, in order to have light to read his prayers out 
 of a book which he had concealed, made a species of rude 
 candles out of strips of his shirt steeped in the fat of the 
 meat given him for food. After some time, however, he 
 was removed from this den into a larger and more light- 
 some room in the same tower, in which, he could breathe 
 freer and purer air and enjoy the light, not as in his for- 
 mer cell, whither not even a ray of light ever penetrated. 
 Here he remained for some time ; and though afflicted in 
 many ways, and deprived of all human consolation, he was 
 not abandoned by God nor weakened in mind, for he 
 placed his confidence not in the arm of the flesh, nor in 
 the vanity of this world, but in the light and source of all 
 consolation, whose streams do not fail ; his hope was not 
 in riches nor in power, but in the aid of God, v/hose aid 
 never fails those who rest in the testimony of a good con- 
 science — those who love not the world, but God. In so 
 great a cause he was neither slack nor timid ; and as pov- 
 erty and suffering are said to be as sisters to a pure mind, 
 so they strengthened him in constancy, fortitude, and lib- 
 
 • The , archbishop himself stated : " Besides divers my poor bodies sickness, I can neitliei 
 day nor night change apparel, having neither of myself, nor of any other body, one penny, to 
 cause the broken shirt that is on my back to be once washed ; whose incommodity decency 
 will not have it to be declared, besides the misery of cold, such others without even a conve- 
 nient hose." He had been nearly three months in prison when he thus wrote. 
 
124 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 erty of spirit. He daily grew in the contempt ot the 
 things of this world, and the generous determination of 
 suffering all things for Christ. For he is not to be called 
 courageous whose courage does not rise under difficulties, 
 as St. Bernard says, ' The faithful man is more faithful when 
 afflicted.' {Epist. 256.) 
 
 " But our good Lord, whose goodness exceeds our desires, 
 did not abandon his servant in his distress, but by the aid 
 and observation of a bird, he enabled him to fly from pri- 
 son. {Atkan., Oratio contra Gentes.) Small instruments 
 e'lffice in his hand for great results. What is smaller than 
 a damp head of saffron ? yet it called our prelate from the 
 business of this world to that of saving souls ; so by watch- 
 mg the flight hither and thither of a bird, he learned how 
 to escape from that labyrinth of Daedalus, surrounded by 
 so many walls, fastened with so many locks. Thus the fu- 
 gitive Malchus, with the partner of his home and faith, 
 learned by watching the ants a path of flight. 
 
 " The archbishop escaped from the Tower, and that in a 
 manner so unexpected as to excite the surprise of all who 
 knew the place and the care taken in guarding prisoners. 
 Many illustrious men who had formerly been connected by 
 friendship with the prisoner were anxious to learn from 
 himself how he had escaped out of the lion's den. Among 
 others, the illustrious Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of Asaph,* 
 who was at that time living at Milan, on hearing that, after 
 his escape from London, he was at Louvain, wrote to him 
 the following letter, partly to congratulate him, partly to 
 inquire the particulars of his escape : 
 
 " Copy of a letter from the Bishop of Asaph to the Primate, 
 translated from the English original. 
 " ' Illustrious and very Reverend Lord, I was deeplv 
 grieved to learn that youi grace, on your arrival in Ireland, 
 
 • Dr. Creagh meiitioiied in his examination (h.it he had known him at Rome. 
 
In the Reigti of Elizabeth. 125 
 
 had been treacherously captured and taken to the Tower 
 of London. But equally great was my joy when I learned 
 that you had escaped almost miraculously, and had reached 
 Louvain, where you were hospitably entertained by our 
 mutual friend, Master Michael,* who, I doubt not, rejoiced 
 \\. your arrival as I did at your escape. When you have 
 leisure, you would sensibly oblige me by writing me a full 
 account of your escape ; for, when I was first told of it, it 
 appeared to me so strange as to resemble the dream seen 
 by St. Peter, when the angel led him forth from prison 
 However it be, praise be to God, who deigned to protect 
 his servant. To his divine guardianship I commend your 
 grace, praying you to remember me in your prayers ; and 
 as it is reported here that a certain English father of the 
 Society of Jesus was your grace's companion in Ireland, 
 there are many here who are anxious to know his fate. 
 There lives in this city a very pious Irish Jesuit, named 
 Maurice, who greatly rejoiced at hearing of your escape. 
 I pray you to salute for me our reverend friend Master 
 Michael.f Wishing your grace health and peace, 
 
 " ' Your grace's unworthy brother and servant, 
 " ' Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of St. Asaph. 
 
 "•MiLA^, 20th June, 1565.' 
 
 " The answer which the primate wrote to the Bishop of 
 St. Asaph has not come into my hands, but the account 
 which he so earnestly asked for of his escape is to be 
 found in a letter written by Father James Navarchus,^ of 
 the Society of Jesus, to Father Florence Bonchortius, of 
 the same society, and which is to be found among the 
 Japanese § letters printed at Louvain by Uvelphius, 
 (p. 290,) and it may be considered fully trustworthy, as the 
 
 * Michael Banis, President of the Pontifical College, Louvain. 
 
 t Evidently Master Michael Banis, President of the Papal College, Louvain. See Note A, 
 p. iia. 
 X Perhaps his name was Captain, and he an Englisl man. 
 I Leittn/rom the Jesuit MtssiomrUs in fapan. 
 
126 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 particulars were all gathered from the mouth of the primate 
 himself. I have, therefore, thought it worth inserting 
 here for such of my readers as may not have an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing it : 
 
 " ' To the Rev. Father in Christ Florence Bonchort, of the 
 Society of Jesus, the Peace of Christ, etc. 
 
 " ' It will not be ungrateful to you, dear Florence, if I 
 briefly narrate for you what was lately told me by the 
 Most Reverend Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of 
 Ireland, touching his marvellous escape from prison in 
 the Tower of London. As I judged the event to be not 
 unlike what we read in the Acts of the Apostles of the 
 delivery of St. Peter, I prayed him to give me the par- 
 ticulars in writing, for I feared lest if I trusted to others 
 I might omit something, and he, being a most courteous 
 man, and anxious for the glory of God, granted my request. 
 I deem this narrative will bring no little consolation to the 
 Catholics, who now suffer so much, especially to those 
 who are engaged in the defence of the faith, and will ex- 
 cite the faith and confidence in God of our fellow-soldiers 
 of the faith, and encourage them to labor still more zeal- 
 ously in the vineyard of the Lord in its present distracted 
 and almost desperate state, for who could have thought 
 that our Archbishop of Armagh would escape ? I know 
 that prayer without ceasing for him was made, not only in 
 the colleges of our society, but also by many others, not so 
 much that he might escape as that he might with con- 
 stancy endure death, like the Bishop of Ross and Sir 
 Thomas More, (some members of whose family entered the 
 Society of Jesus,) and by his example animate others, and 
 inspire them with constancy. But God had determined to 
 make him useful to the persecuted Christians in a different 
 way, as will appear from th's narrative. To beo-in, then, 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 127 
 
 at the beginning, he was sent from Rome, having received 
 much from the bounty of Pope Pius, that he might snatch 
 his sheep in Ireland from the jaws of the wolf and rule 
 them in all piety. On his arrival he said Mass in a certain 
 monastery of his province. The soldiers of a certain 
 governor, who had charge. of the coast not far from where 
 the bishop landed, found him there and carried him a 
 prisoner to the garrison, where he was interrogated by the 
 governor as to the primacy of the church. He freely and 
 ingenuously confessed the Catholic doctrine, and declared 
 himself a Christian. Among those who were present at 
 this interrogatory was the brother of the governor, a 
 violent man and quick of hand, who was furious at the 
 bishop's opposition to heresy, and sought by all means to 
 have the matter referred to the Queen of England, hoping 
 for such a spoil to win at court not only favor, but ample 
 rewards, for he made no great secret of the fact that he 
 acted rather from self-interest than from any great zeal for 
 religion. These are the motives which influence men 
 devoid of the love of God, and who are now gradually re- 
 turning to the old idolatry. For as Catholics by study and 
 mquiry make progress in the knowledge of truth, so those, 
 by adding error to error and falsehood to falsehood, fall 
 deeper and deeper, as may easily be perceived by any one 
 who compares the earlier with the later works of Luther 
 and Melanchthon, or by one who, meeting with these men, 
 examines into their mode of life • and faith. For they can 
 never put any limit to doubts, and are obliged to confess 
 ihat they rely, not upon the foundations of faith, but 
 upon their own opinions. , On the contrary, the orthodox 
 faith is one certain and free from change, for it comes 
 from God, with whom there is no change or shadow of 
 alteration. 
 
 " ' To return to the primate. Being taken on that night, 
 he was, as I have said, sent to the queen, and underwent 
 
128 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 several interrogatories at Westminster. After having an- 
 swered all that was alleged against him, and modestly and 
 fittingly defended our faith, he was, without further trial, 
 marched between two guards through almost the entire 
 city of London, as a spectacle of derision and contempt to 
 all for the faith of Christ, and thrown into the lowest and 
 darkest prison of the Tower. This was on the feast of St. 
 Peter's Chair, (i8th January.) After a time, however, he 
 was removed to a larger and more lightsome room ; for 
 some, mindful of justice and the laws, said it was unjust 
 that one who had not been tried should be so inhumanly 
 treated, While the bishop was thus straitened, God, 
 the Consoler of the afflicted, did not abandon him, but on 
 the very day of the feast of St. Peter's Chair* gave to him 
 both great consolation of mind and a sure hope of deliver- 
 ance. He persevered continually in prayer, and on the 
 third day following, which was Sunday, recited with all de- 
 votion the prayers of the Mass, as well as he could from 
 memory, in prison. The peace and consolation which he 
 then felt had been preceded by a dreadful fear, so hard to 
 endure that his soul seemed at the point of death, and he 
 recited the office of the dead for himself believing that he 
 would soon be put to death for the faith of Christ. He 
 waited for those who were to examine into his faith and 
 life, and who, he knew, were to come on the feast of St. 
 Patrick, (17th March,) the patron of Ireland, and his first 
 predecessor in the cathedral church of Armagh, and, as he 
 had often experienced his aid, he daily by prayer besought 
 his help. He was examined on this day, and again on the 
 fourth following, and was told by the Governor of the Tower 
 that the great point was that with regard to the cure of 
 souls, as he (the governor) held obedience was not due to 
 the Roman pontiff, but to the Queen of England, to whom 
 
 • St. Peter's Chair at Antloch, Feb. 2x 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 129 
 
 all the Irish churches are subject, and that all would be well 
 with him if, renouncing his perfidy, (for so he called the 
 Catholic faith,) he would acknowledge her supremacy, and 
 pray institution from the queen. To all these representa- 
 tions, which were again and again repeated by others, he 
 constantly answered, as became a Catholic bishop, that he 
 would not vary by one hair's breadth from the ancient laws 
 of Christ's religion. Five weeks had now passed since his 
 imprisonment, which brought it to the octave of Easter, 
 when, I know not why, unless by the divine inspiration, he 
 began to think of escape. It seems that the thought was 
 suggested to him by a little bird, which, flying from under 
 the eaves, plumed her feathers, and, spreading her wings, 
 and flying before him in his chamber, seemed to invite him 
 to follow her example. Although he had no certain hope 
 of escape, he began to prepare his little bundle and secretly 
 prepare for flight. Nor was his hope vain, as the result 
 proved, for God, unknown to his servant, had prepared help 
 for him. 
 
 " ' On the following night a great noise was heard in his 
 room and the neighboring one, and the guardian of the pri- 
 son came to ask what was the cause of so much noise. The 
 bishop answered, as was the truth, (for he had slept soundly,) 
 that he had heard nothing and had not caused the noise, but 
 there were signs in his room of the prison having been dis- 
 turbed. On the following night he had strange dreams, 
 and seemed to himself to have escaped from prison. On 
 the third night he seemed to be surrounded by the forms 
 of the dead, especially those to whom, on the festival of 
 Easter and the following day, he had applied the indul- 
 gences granted to him by the pontiff. The dream returned 
 several times, and at length the figures of the dead seemed 
 to lead him out of prison. At dawn he began to recite the 
 Divine Office, having entirely forgotten his dreams ; but he 
 could not free himself from an inclination or inspiration to, 
 
130 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 try to leave the prison and pass the gates. This idea so con- 
 stantly returned to his mind that he could not drive it away. 
 He did, however, drive it away once and again, because he 
 deemed it only a distraction of prayer. At last he could 
 no longer resist the impulse, and left his chamber hastily. 
 He examined the neighboring passages, and perceived 
 that all the doors, which were ordinarily securely barred, 
 were open, and was astonished at so strange a case. Re- 
 turning to his chamber, he yet dared not attempt to fly, 
 fearing to bring on himself still greater danger if retaken, 
 and tried to compose himself again to prayer ; but he 
 could not drive away the idea of flight, to which he felt 
 himself strongly prompted, and, having again examined the 
 door, he knelt down in his chamber and earnestly besought 
 God to give him courage and inspire him to do whatever 
 was most for his divine honor. Having made this short 
 prayer, he took under his arm the little bundle which 
 through some presentiment he had before made up, and 
 invoking God, the Author of his flight, and laying aside 
 all fear, proceeded through six doors, guided he knew not 
 how along that winding path, for he had been brought in 
 by another door. At length he came to the guards, who 
 asked whether he had a butt. This word had been given 
 to them as the sign or password, and had no other mean- 
 ing but to detect strangers. As he understood not their 
 question, he was silent, but one of them (and in this may 
 be noted the power of God, to whom it is easy to use any 
 instrument for his own glory) answered jestingly that he 
 carried his coat for a butt under his arm. They then asked 
 him who he was. He had prepared an answer to this ques- 
 tion ; reflecting that he was the servant of the servants 
 of Christ, he answered truly enough that he was the ser- 
 vant of a certain great Lord, who was in a more open part 
 of the prison. As the guards, fearing blame, pressed him 
 closely, 'and said he should be taken before a judge, he re- 
 
In the Reign jf Elizabeth. 1 3,1 
 
 mained unmoved, and said he was ready to go anywhere. 
 At length, God so disposing, they let him pass. Wander 
 ing for three days about London, amid strangers, he 
 heard several speak of the escape of the archbishop, whom 
 they described as having a white beard, as indeed he had, 
 but they (deceived by the double meaning of the word 
 which in their language signifies either naturally fair oi 
 white from age, instead of a naturally fair beard, such as 
 his) understood it to be white from age. While wander- 
 ing these three days through the streets of London, he 
 several times met the pursuivants, and some of them spoke 
 to him and asked him who he was, but, as he answered 
 them in French, they took him for a Frenchman, and left 
 him. I have also been told by persons of repute that he 
 was met and recognized by the guardian of the prison, but 
 that he felt himself hindered from molesting him. At 
 length he found a ship, and was taken on board as a stran- 
 ger by the captain, who was a decided enemy of Catholics. 
 Soon afterward the pursuivants came on board, and thrice 
 interrogated the sailors on oath if they knew anything of 
 the bishop, whom they described as gray-haired and not 
 as an Irishman, (as they thought that name would be 
 denied.) The sailors were asked about every one in the 
 ship, but, God so disposing, they did not ask any questions 
 of the bishop ; for they never suspected him to be the arch- 
 bishop; who, they believed, was gray-headed, but, when they 
 saw him young and speaking French, they took him for a 
 Frenchman. Thus did God set astray those who were in 
 the ship, and who were bitter enemies of the faith ; but he 
 escaped from out of their hands, and arrived safe in Brabant, 
 although three hundred ducats were promised to any one 
 who should apprehend him. In that country he gave him- 
 self not to idleness or pleasure, but to sacred meditation 
 and returning thanks to God for his great mercies. From 
 this wonderful instance of divine providence we clearly sec 
 
132 'Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 that there is no surer or firmer trust than in God. By no 
 other means than the help of God did he escape, and he 
 solemnly asseverated that all happened as I have related 
 it, nor did he wish it concealed, lest any one should suffer 
 for his escape ; and in this he imitated St. Stephen, nay, 
 our Divine Lord himself. I will here add, what is worthy 
 of note, that it was about the feast of St. Patrick he was 
 examined in Rome previous to his consecration, and that a 
 year later he was called on to confess the faith of Christ in 
 London on the same feast, and he escaped from prison on 
 the same day on which he was consecrated bishop. I have 
 related these matters as he gave them to me, written with 
 his own hand, to you, Bonchort, and our brethren in the 
 warfare of Christ, that you may understand God's provi- 
 dence in regard to his own, since he restored the bishop to 
 the Cathohcs from out of the hands of his enemies. The 
 first time I saw him after his return (for I had before met 
 him when on the road to Ireland, and perceived him to be 
 a man of good and pious manner) I found him very differ- 
 ent in appearance. He had something preeminently holy 
 about him, and was of such peculiar piety that many said 
 God had worked wonders in his soul, and given him extra- 
 ordinary virtue, that he might bring back his nation to 
 their pristine piety. Nor can it be doubted but that the 
 queen must have been much struck by his escape, and 
 felt it a lesson to return to the Catholic faith, especially as 
 she is said not to be very averse to it if she were not led 
 by the advice and persuasion of certain evil men. May 
 she, then, be led by this warning of God to a better frame 
 of mind. Farewell, Florence, my dear brother in Christ, 
 and forget me not in your pra3'ers. 
 
 " ' Your servant in the Lord, 
 
 "'James Navarchus Undischothanus. 
 " 'LouvAiN, on the Calends of October, 1565.' 
 "After some time (how long I know not) he returned a 
 
In the RcigH of Elizabilh. 133 
 
 third time to Ireland, through solicitude for his flock, the 
 holy pontiff also having so advised. At that time war was 
 raging in Ulster, (in which is the church of Armagh.) It 
 had been begun by John O'Neill, the most powerful dynast 
 of all in that province, against Queen Elizabeth. Whether 
 his motive was the lust of power or the desire of restoring 
 the orthodox religion, I leave to others to decide. How- 
 ever that be, it is certain the primate and the dynast did not 
 agree well about many things. The origin, or at least the 
 great cause, of these dissensions was the discontent of the 
 primate at the many injuries the dynast inflicted on eccle- 
 siastics,* and his offences against the rights and privileges 
 of the churches, many of whose possessions he occupied, 
 and, together with his followers, used much violence to- 
 ward them. These injuries reached such a height that, 
 when the primate found he could not, by advice or gentle- 
 ness or threats, bend him from his violence and insolence, 
 he deemed it necessary to use his pastoral authority and 
 proceed to public censure. He therefore proclaimed 
 against him the sentence of excommunication. O'Neill 
 resisted the judgment of his bishop and contemned the 
 precept of his pastor; but he felt the punishment of his 
 contumacy, for his enterprises from that time to his death 
 failed and ended ill, and thus the divine judgment made 
 itself manifest.f 
 
 "In the meantime, the primate zealously fulfilled the du- 
 ties of his episcopate, both in that province and throughout 
 such parts of Ireland as he visited either from necessity or 
 as opportunity offered. He was, however, a third time 
 treacherously taken prisoner, and sent to Dublin, from 
 
 • The chief one was that O'Neill, in an expedition af ainst O'Donnell, in the winter ol 
 1566 or spring of 1567, hung a priest. On his return to Armagh he applied for absolution, 
 which the primate could not give, as the case was reserved to the pope. 
 
 t Shane O'Neill was treacherously murdered by the Scots, whom he had invited over to hii 
 assistance, June, 1567, his army having been defeated, and nearly annihilated, in a great bat- 
 tie a few miles from Letterkenny, on the 8th May, 1567. 
 
134 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 whence he was' sent over to England and consigned to 
 close custody in the Tower of London, where he long led 
 a life of suffering, or rather a prolonged martyrdom. He 
 escaped from the Tower a.d. 1565, and after several years 
 was again consigned to the same prison, where he died the 
 14th October, a.d. 1585. 
 
 " Besides his daily difficulties and vexations for so many 
 years, he had to encounter many troubles and vexations in 
 the administration of his diocese during the short time he 
 lived in his province and primatial see ; grievous labors 
 and much weariness in governing his flock in that trou- 
 bled and afflicted kingdom ; and, the more to try his con- 
 stancy and enhance his merit, to bear also the calumnies of 
 strangers and the accusations of some of his own subjects. 
 
 "The Bishop of Clogher,*having a knowledge of the dis- 
 putes between the primate and the dynast, whom the form- 
 er reproved for many excesses and offences against the 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction and rights, accused the primate 
 to the court of Rome of having violated the divine laws 
 and those of the church, and produced to his holiness and 
 the College of Cardinals forged letters, purporting to be 
 written by the primate, containing horrible things and evil 
 counsels most foreign to his nature. But the wiles of his 
 accuser and the forgery were discovered by both the sig- 
 nature and the known handwriting of the forger. The ac- 
 cuser, being therefore called upon to answer for his calum- 
 ny, fled privately, and, proceeding to England, abandoned 
 the faith and became an apostate. And while the pri- 
 mate was a prisoner in the Tower he was daring enough 
 to visit him, and to offer him, on the part of the queen and 
 her council, wealth and honors, if he would take his advice 
 and, renouncing his obedience to and union with the 
 Apostolic See, swear to the ecclesiastical supremacy of 
 Elizabeth ; but he answered the unblushing apostate with 
 indignation, and ordered him to quit his presence. 
 
 * The infamo;;3 Myler McGrath, 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 135 
 
 " In the Tower of London he had to encounter still more 
 wicked machinations, which were more painful to his soul, 
 and would have imprinted a fouler stain on his memory 
 had not the outstretched arm of God reduced his accuser 
 to silence, and his mighty hand strengthened his servant in 
 his troubles. One of the prison guards, named Vanright, 
 accused him of having attempted to offer violence to his 
 daughter. (Some describe her as a washerwoman, others as 
 a girl of tender age.) He was put on his trial on this accu- 
 sation before twelve jurors at Westminster. His accusers 
 poured forth all their malice against him. Alone and un- 
 defended, he so clearly proved the falsehood of their state- 
 ments and his innocence, that the jurors pironounced him 
 innocent, and all who were present openly declared him 
 spotless. The girl herself, who had been schooled by her 
 father to calumniate the primate, openly confessed the 
 falsehood and the subornation. Thus, like another Atha- 
 nasius, did he confound his enemies. 
 
 " His treatment in prison varied at diiferent times, being 
 at times less rigorous, at times more severe. When he 
 was allowed a little more freedom, his delight was to as- 
 semble the priests who were his fellow-captives, and were 
 scattered in various chambers, and with them to discourse 
 of sacred things, as did the primitive fathers in the crypts 
 and caves and sand-pits of Rome. In these meetings 
 under his presidency were discussed the controversies of 
 faith, the duties of a Christian, and the steps to perfecti»n 
 for a Catholic. At times, too, he gave answers in writing 
 to those who sought his decision on matters of faith and 
 morals, on avoiding heretical churches and ceremonies, 
 and all intercourse with heretics. For such duties he had 
 his commissaries, to whom while in Ireland, and especial- 
 ly while a prisoner in Dublin, he delegated full powers, 
 and by whose means he, while a prisoner, freely, as it 
 were, fulfilled the duties of his office. It is also related by 
 
136 Martyrs and Co7ifessors' 
 
 a trustworthy witness, that at one time, in the Tower of 
 London, he was kept so strictly that he was loaded both 
 with gyves on his feet and chains on his hands, and was at 
 the same time suffering from the stone, so that his only 
 solace was to open the window for fresh air, and at the same 
 time pluck the herbs which were growing out of the wall, 
 and make out of their juice a drink which seemed to alle- 
 viate his sufifering. Rightly has it been said by the great 
 African, ' He feels not the pain in his foot whose mind is 
 in heaven,' (Tertullian ;) so he felt not the chains on his 
 hands whose soul was wrapt in heaven. 
 
 " There came an order from the council to Eugene Hop- 
 ton, Knight, the head guardian of the Tower, who is called 
 lieutenant, that Richard and the other priests who were 
 prisoners were to be taken to the chapel of the Tower to 
 hear the heretical preaching. The lieutenant spoke to him 
 on the subject, to learn his mind. Much moved by so un- 
 lawful a proposal, he answered that he would never go, but 
 would rather, if it were the queen's pleasure, go to the 
 scaffold. The knight, angered by this answer, ordered his 
 servants to drag hira to the oratory. This they did willing- 
 ly, and forcibly held him down in the midst of the audi- 
 ence ; but when he heard the preacher thundering against 
 the pontiff, and all who professed the faith of the pontiff, 
 blaspheming against the saints and the Queen of Saints, 
 and disseminating pestilential errors and lies in the ears 
 of his hearers, he abruptly interrupted the sermon, and on 
 the spot answered the preacher. He was ordered to be si- 
 lent, but, boiling with zeal for the honor of God, he contin- 
 ued till the sectaries, crowding around him, violently com- 
 pelled him to silence. But with one word he adjured his 
 hearers not to believe the false preacher, for that he who 
 should hold by his errors without doubt would perish ever- 
 lastingly. 
 
 " He was taken back to his prison ; and as there seemed 
 
In the Reign of Eliza^Qth. ,137 
 
 no hope of shaking his constancy in the faith — wliether it 
 was that his jailers were weary of the charge of guarding 
 and the cost of keeping him, or ashamed of the failure of 
 their repeated attempts to bring him over, or merely out 
 of malice and hatred to the Catholic religion — one CuUigius, 
 an underwarder of the Tower, poisoned some cheese, a food 
 which he knew the primate took freely for supper, and 
 placed it before him. He, suspecting no evil, ate it, and 
 presently felt grievous pains in his entrails, and his throat 
 swelled. The day after he had eaten it he sent a servant 
 to a Catholic physician in the city, named Arclous ; when 
 he learned the symptoms, he exclaimed that the bishop 
 was poisoned, that the poison had penetrated to the vitals, 
 and that no human aid could avail. The primate, feeling 
 himself getting worse, called in a confessor from a neigh- 
 boring chamber, Father Critonius, of the Society of Jesus, 
 who Was there confined on. account of the faith. He heard 
 ■ his confession, gave him absolution, and did all that the 
 difficulty of their position would allow, watching with fra- 
 ternal affection over the pious dying bishop, who yielded 
 up his soul to his Creator, the 14th of October, 1585. 
 
 " A certain modern writer, speaking of the happy end of 
 this martyr, says : ' Richard Creagh, Archbishop of Ar- 
 magh and Primate of all Ireland, who spent the greater 
 part of his life in the Castle of Dublin and the Tower of 
 London, was slain by poison, by a certain villain, and, leav- 
 ing his earthly prison of stone, rejoined the happy inhabi- 
 - tants of heaven.' — Stanihurst, Proemium ad Usserium, pp. 
 28, 29. 
 
 " When he was in Rome, he obtained from Gregory XHI. 
 an annual sum for the support of some Irish students to 
 form the commencement of a college. Its first foundations 
 were laid in the University of Pont-a-Mousson,* whence 
 
 • University cf Pont-i-Mousson, on the Moselle, founded iS7a. 
 
138 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 several pious and learned men have already come to us. 
 He exerted himself much to forward the mission of the So- 
 ciety of Jesus in Ireland. On this subject there is extant 
 a very friendly letter of his to the Reverend Father Oliver 
 Manarens, who was then visitor of that society. Mention 
 is made in Britannomachia of his refusal to consecrate 
 the iimovating bishops in England. 
 
 " He wrote several little works, among which the follow- 
 ing are said to be the principal : Of the Origin of the Irish 
 Language, Controversies of Faith against the Heretics, 
 (these two in Latin,) A Catechism in Irish. Some of 
 these are extant ; others, I fear, have perished, unless per- 
 chance they exist in the Tower of London, where also he 
 is buried." 
 
 So far Dr. Roothe. 
 
 I will now proceed to fill some omissions in the life 
 given by Dr. Roothe, availing myself of the labors 'of the 
 learned writer in the Rambler. Dr. Creagh's zeal and high 
 repute for learning attracted the attention of the nuncio 
 David Wolfe, who arrived in Limerick in August, 1560, 
 charged expressly with providing for the vacant sees. He 
 was at once destined either for the see of Armagh or that 
 of Cashel, both then vacant, and was commanded, in virtue 
 of the oath taken by the bachelors of divinity, to proceed 
 to Rome. He expressed a decided repugnance to this 
 promotion, but in obedience to his oath, and not without 
 a hope that he might be permitted to enter the order of 
 Theatines at Rome, he left Ireland for that city in August, 
 1562. His whole resources for travelling on his departure 
 were twenty crowns of his own, forty from the nuncio, 
 and twelve marks from De Lacy, Bishop of Limerick, 
 Arriving in Rome, in January, 1563, he delivered to the 
 general of the Jesuits the letter written to Cardinal Moroni 
 by the Irish nuncio, and was ordered, in the month of 
 February, by Cardinal Gonzaga, who then held the place 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 139 
 
 of Moroni, absent at the Council of Trent, not to think of 
 entering any religious order until the pope's pleasure was 
 known. The order was soon given ; he was commanded to 
 prepare for consecration as Archbishop of Armagh, was 
 examined on St. Patrick's day, 1564, and consecrated by 
 Lomelino and other bishops in the pope's chapel the follow- 
 ing Easter. Under the eye of Pope Pius IV., to whom 
 our archbishop was specially dear, there were collected at 
 that time in Rome several distinguished Irish priests, who 
 had also been sent over by David Wolfe. Three of them 
 had already taken their places in the Council of Trent as 
 Irish bishops, and several others were supported in Rorae 
 with their retinue at the pope's special charge. Richard 
 was placed on this list as soon as he was ordered to 
 prepare for consecration : " He had daily meat, drink, and 
 wine for himself and his servants at the pope s cost, paying 
 for his house-room, six crowns, by the month ; he had 
 apparel of three sorts, of blue and unwatered camlet, and 
 wore the same in Rome, having four or five servants 
 waiting there on him ; in his household also, and support- 
 ed at his own expense, were two or three poor scholars." 
 These particulars, and many others too numerous to 
 mention, were elicited from him by the inquisitorial inter- 
 rogatories in the Tower of London. In the month of 
 July, 1564, he received the pope's blessing, and set out on 
 horse-back from Rome, accompanied part of the way by a 
 priest and the entire journey by an Ulster student. The 
 fatigues of this summer's journey reduced a constitution 
 not naturally strong, and by the time of his arrival at 
 Ausburg he was attacked by an ague which compelled 
 him to accept for a week the kind hospitality of the Car- 
 dinal Bishop of Ausburg. Starting with restored health, 
 he proceeded to Antwerp, where he met John Clement, 
 tutor of the children of Sir Thomas More, and then an ex- 
 ile for the faith. Prevented from sailing immediately, he 
 
140 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 turned his steps to his beloved Louvain, where his heart 
 was cheered by meeting some Irish students, and where for 
 the first time since his departure from Rome he appeared 
 l)ublicly as Archbishop of Armagh. In memory of old 
 times he gave a grand banquet to the doctors of the uni- 
 versity, " sitting with them in his archbishop's apparel of 
 blue camlet, which he did not wear in any other place 
 since he came from Rome." Embarking in an Irish ship 
 bound for England, he was driven ashore at Dover, and, 
 in his own words, " being arrived in England, he was 
 unknown ; and at Rochester he found an Irish boy beg- 
 ging, whom he took with him to London, and then lodged 
 at the 'Three Cups,' in Broad street, in October, 1564, 
 where he tarried past three days ; and at his being in 
 London he went to Paul's church and there walked, but 
 had no talk with any man ; and also to Westminster 
 Abbey to see the monuments there ; and from thence he 
 went to Westminster Hall at the time that he heard Bon- 
 ner was to be arraigned there." Within less than one 
 short year, our fearless primate was himself to be arraigned 
 there. The dangers of the Irish mission had greatly 
 increased since his departure, and there were, especially 
 for him, difficulties which would be trying at any time in 
 the circumstances of the diocese to which he had been 
 appointed. Nearly the whole diocese of Armagh was at 
 this period under the absoliite control of John O'Neill, a 
 prince of great energy and not a few noble quaHties, but 
 who, though never faithless to the Catholic Church, re- 
 garded it, as it has been too often regarded, as an acolyte 
 of the civil power. He wished to have the vacant see of 
 Down for his brother, a young man without learning, 
 only twenty-three years of age, and he had sent to Rome for 
 the purpose. But the primate, it was known, would not con- 
 sent to that nomination. Moreover, Terence Daniel, foster- 
 brother of O'Neill, and Dean of Armagh, a court favorite 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 141 
 
 during the reign of Edward VI., and one of these pliant 
 ecclesiastics with whom some of the high places in the 
 church were cursed at that period, was strongly recom- 
 mended to the pope by O'Neill for the archbishopric. 
 Here was what may be called the Catholic party opposed 
 to the new primate. Moreover, Elizabeth had appointed 
 Adam Loftus, an English Protestant, to the see. The 
 canons had no part in this nomination ; for, though to 
 conciliate them she violated a statute just passed by the 
 Irish Parliament, and had issued a cong^ d'dlire, the dean 
 either could not or would not assemble them, so indignant 
 were they at the intrusion of a heretic into the chair of 
 St. Patrick. Loftus, however, after a considerable delay, 
 was consecrated in March, 1563, and by the aid of English 
 troops held his position for some time in the Louth or 
 English portion of the diocese. To the difficulties arising 
 from these two parties must be added the primate's utter 
 ignorance of the arch-diocese. To use his own words, " he 
 did not wish to be sent to Armagh among barbarous, wild, 
 and uncivil folks, where he had no acquaintance among 
 the clergy :" he had merely seen some of the Ulster pre- 
 lates in the English pale in Queen Mary's time. The 
 ■pope had given him a letter to Shane O'Neill, and a pen- 
 sion on the see of Down for O'Neill's brother, which the 
 Ulster priest had applied for ; but, though he intended to 
 go direct to Armagh, he did not know if Shane would re- 
 ceive him. Not deterred, however, by these difficulties, 
 he resolved, if he were received by the chapter, to incul- 
 cate peace and loyalty in Ulster, to induce O'Neill and 
 the other chieftains to found colleges and schools, and he 
 even dreamed of the possibility of founding an Irish 
 university with the cooperation of the crown. If he 
 were rejected by the chapter, his course was also resolved 
 upon. When commanded by the pope to accept the arch- 
 bishopric, he had extorted from his holiness a promise to 
 
142 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 be allowed to resign it when " it was good" and he would 
 at once return to Louvain, and, according to his first and 
 still cherished intention, enter a rehgious order. Provi- 
 dence had, however, marked out a different fate for him. 
 
 Immediately after his arrival in Ireland, in the winter of 
 1 564, when in the act of celebrating Mass in a monastery 
 in his own province not far from the place where he had 
 landed, he was betrayed and arrested by the garrison of a 
 neighboring castle and brought before the warden. He 
 told his rank and his object in coming over, and at the in- 
 stigation of the warden's brother, a man infected with the 
 heresy of the times and fully aware of the political prize 
 which had fallen into his hands, he was kept a close pri- 
 soner, and, in pursuance of orders subsequently received 
 from England, was sent in chains to London, where, as I 
 have mentioned, he was committed to the Tower on the 
 1 8th January, 1565. On the 22d February, the feast of 
 St. Peter's Chair at Antioch, he was interrogated at great 
 length by Sir W. Cecil in Westminster Hall. He was 
 again examined before the Recorder of London on the 17th 
 of March, and a third time on the 23d March. Soon after, 
 that is, on the octave of Easter, he escaped, as has been de- 
 scribed by Roothe, and proceeded to Louvain, where he was 
 welcomed by his old friend Michael Banis, President of the 
 Papal College in that university. After a short stay there, 
 he proceeded to Spain, whence, expecting to return to Ire- 
 land, he wrote to Lord Robert Leicester through the 
 Spanish ambassador, offering, should the pope order him 
 to return to Ireland, to give to Caesar his own and to God 
 his own. The good archbishop seems for a long time to 
 have imagined that, if the queen could be convinced of his 
 loyalty, and he was truly loyal, she would forgive his Catho- 
 licity. He was, however, bitterly undeceived. It does not 
 appear whether any answer was given to his letter, but he 
 returned to Ireland and made his way to his diocese, where, 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 143 
 
 in the monlh of August, 1566, he had an interview at Irish- 
 Darell, near Clondarell, in the county of Armagh, with 
 Shane O'Neill, and he was accompanied by Myler McGrath, 
 lately appointed by the pope Bishop of Down. There at- 
 tended also at this interview another powerful chieftain of 
 the O'Neills, Turlough Leynagh, to whom a letter had been 
 sent by the pope. Pie was meditating an attack on Car- 
 rickfergus, and requested the archbishop to warn the friars 
 of that place. On the following Sunday he preached in the 
 cathedral of Armagh before Shane, Turlough Leynagh, and 
 Hugh O'Donnell, of Tyrconnell, and had other interviews 
 with Shane, who in the confidence of his power promised, 
 when burying his brother at Armagh, that " he should hold 
 his church as honorably as any archbishop ever had." His 
 promise, however, he did not fulfil, for a few months later 
 he ruined that cathedral to prevent the English converting 
 it into a fortress. On Christmas-day, 1566, hoping to pro- 
 mote peace, the primate wrote the following letter to the 
 lord deputy. Sir Henry Sidney : 
 
 " Right Honorable Lord : 
 
 " At our being in Spain, doubting whether the pope's 
 holiness would command us to come back again to Ireland, 
 we have written letters to my Lord Robert, showing that, if 
 we should by the said holiness be commanded to come 
 thither, v/e should have none other thing to do but what 
 our Lord and Master Christ has commanded, ' Give to 
 Caesar his own and to God his own.' The aforesaid, our 
 simple letters, as we think the King of Spain (because we 
 were his father's scholar at Louvain the space of seven or 
 eight years) has directed unto his ambassador in England, 
 willing him to know whether the queen's majesty should 
 be contented that we should fulfil the office that we should 
 be bound to, concerning the Archbishopric of Armagh. 
 Soon after we have received without our own procurement 
 
1^4 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 from Rome such letters as were necessary for the aforesaid 
 archbishopric, whereby we were bound by our Catholic re- 
 hgion to come to Ireland ; wherein, being before the Lord 
 O'Neill's going to Tyrconnell, we desired him (according 
 to the above-mentioned letter to Lord Robert) to provide 
 for all possible means whereby he might be at accord with 
 the queen's majesty and your lordship. But he was then 
 so busy about his affairs that he took not heed thereto ; and 
 now, before we should earnestly speak thereof unto him, we 
 thought but to know of your lordship's will, and what you 
 shall will us to do therein we shall, by God's leave, do the 
 best we can. The said Lord O'Neill, for safeguard of his 
 country, hath burned the cathedral church and the whole 
 town of Armagh, although we have earnestly rhided him 
 before and after he did the same ; but he alleged such hurts 
 as were before done to his country by means of that place. 
 If it be your lordship's pleasure, you will not disdain to write 
 to us, first, whether you will have us speak concerning any 
 peace with the said Lord O'Neill, and how ; secondly, if that 
 peace should be or not, whether it should please your lord- 
 ship that we should have our old service in our churches 
 and suffer our said churches to be up for that use, so that 
 the said Lord O'Neill should destroy no more churches, and 
 perhaps should help to restore such as by his procurement 
 were destroyed ;* finally, whether your lordship has heard 
 anything concerning our letters sent by the King of Spain 
 to his ambassador and to my Lord Robert, so we commend 
 your lordship unto Almighty God. From Dunavally, 
 (near Charlemont,) this instant Christmas. By your 
 lordship's to command in what we can lawfully execute, 
 " Richard, Archiep. Armagh." 
 No written answer was given to this letter. " We have 
 
 • The reader must remember that at this date Loftus, the titular Protestant Archbishop of 
 Armagh, was living in a lodgiiiR in London, and that there was not even the pretence of a Pro- 
 testant congregation in the diocese of Armagh. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 145 
 
 given forth speech of his extirpation by war," was the only 
 reply. The Irish race and the Catholic religion were to be 
 alike exterminated, and O'Neill, the Irish chieftain, and 
 Dr. Creagh, the loyal palesman but the Catholic bishop, 
 were doomed alike. Yet even Thomas More in his his- 
 tory has written that there was no persecution for religion 
 until the close of Elizabeth's reign ; for what but his reli- 
 gion did the queen's devoted subject. Dr. Creagh, suffer .' 
 
 To add to the primate's troubles, Myler McGrath, Bishop 
 of Down, (who afterward apostatized at Drogheda, on the 
 31st May, 1567,) fomented trouble between him and 
 O'Neill, (we have already mentioned the outrages against 
 priests committed by O'Neill,) and forged a letter to dis- 
 grace him with the pope. The forgery was, however, dis- 
 covered. The primate, in consequence, it appears, of these 
 troubles, and probably to escape the imputation of being 
 implicated in O'Neill's resistance to the queen's authority, 
 retired to Connaught. Here, however, he was pursued by 
 the malice of his English enemies, and treacherously 
 taken prisoner, on the 30th April, (a week before O'Neill's 
 defeat at Letterkenny,) by O'Shaugnessy, who received a 
 special letter of thanks from Elizabeth for his services. 
 By order of the queen, dated 22d July, 1567, he was tried 
 in Dublin, but acquitted. This is the trial narrated in de- 
 tail by Roothe, who, however, puts it before his escape 
 from the Tower instead of after. He was not, however, 
 set free, but escaped soon after with the aid of and in 
 company with his jailer. A proclamation was issued 
 with a reward of £,0,0 for his apprehension. He was 
 taken by the retainers of Gerald, Earl of Kildare, under 
 the command of Myler Hussey, who, however, could not 
 discover him until he had sworn and pledged the earl's 
 bonor that bis life should be spared. On the 22d De- 
 cember, 1567, Hussey petitioned the lord§ of the Privy 
 Council to that eifcct, urging that, if faith were not kept, 
 
146 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 there was an end to all confidence in " petitioner's oath 
 and credit." Before the end of the year, the primate was 
 once more in the hands of Cecil, (Shirley, pp. 324, 326 ;) 
 but, whether to save the honor of his captors or for some 
 other reason, he was never brought to trial, but was kept 
 a close prisoner in the Tower until he was carried olT by 
 poison, as Dr. Roothe relates, in 1585. 
 
 The original authorities for Dr. Creagh's life are 
 Roothe, O'Sullivan, O'Daly, and the documents printed in 
 the Shirley papers : Sanders's History Eng. Reform ; Life 
 of Sir yohn Perrot, etc. See Renehan's Bishops ; and 
 the Rambler, April, 1854. 
 
 Anno 1585. 
 
 REV. PATRICK O'CONOR AND MALACHY O'KELLY. 
 
 " He was descended from the royal race of O'Conor, in 
 Connaught, but, renouncing the false joys of the world in 
 the flower of his age, he embraced the monastic life in the 
 celebrated Cistercian monastery of ... in the diocese of 
 Elphin, in the year 1562. During all the twenty-three 
 years he lived in the monastery he was as a shining light 
 to his brethren. He was assiduous in prayer, during 
 which he shed floods of tears, and unwearied in all works 
 of charity, especially toward the sick, and rigorous in 
 chastising his body. During the last fifteen years of his 
 life he never touched beer or wine ; he never ate meat 
 duiing all the years of his profession. Almighty God, to 
 reward the merits of Father O'Conor, suffered him, together 
 with Father Malachy O'Kelly, a monk of the same monas- 
 tery, remarkable alike for noble birth and virtues, to fall 
 into the hands of the cruel satellites of Elizabeth, by 
 whom, with barbarous torture, he was first partially hung, 
 and then cut into four parts, near the same monastery, the 
 
/// the Reign of Elizabeth. 147 
 
 19th May, 1585. See a manuscript of the Irish Coflege 
 of Prague, and Henriquez's in Menologia Ciitet." — Brua- 
 din, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 REV. MAURICE KINRECHTIN. 
 
 I GIVE his life from Dr. Roothe : 
 
 " It is almost incredible what disturbances and tumults 
 have been caused in Ireland by the new opinions and the 
 differences in religion. Even the heterodox writers admit 
 that all, or nearly all, the insurrections which have taken 
 place in this island, from the beginning of the English 
 schism, have been begun on account of the faith and the 
 orthodox profession ; if not begun for that reason, 3'et 
 religion entered into their motives ; or, finally, if that 
 were not the real motive of their authors in taking up 
 arms, yet they held it out as a pretext, and by that means 
 drew many into their combinations. Nor has this been 
 said only by strangers, but among natives, by all those 
 well acquainted with affairs and intimately conversant 
 with the secret councils of those who have staked all in 
 the chance of battle. 
 
 "It would not be well here to repeat what has been 
 often said, or by imprudent words to stir up a trouble not 
 j'et laid, therefore I will omit all mention of persons whose 
 defence I have not undertaken, and on whom the judgment 
 of this world has varied according to the opinions and 
 prejudices of various men. I know that the inhabitants 
 of Ireland, the subjects of our king, are contented with the 
 present peace, (as the subjects of the Roman empire under 
 Augustus, when, the civil war being ended, the Augustan 
 age of peace returned.) I know how they detest the 
 tumult of war, and desire to devote themselves to the arts 
 
148 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 of peace, and enjoy its sweets. I know how read)' they 
 are to receive with warm affection and reverence the pre- 
 sence of their prince. I know that they desire nothing 
 more than the happiness of the king and his offspring, 
 and that under their auspices may be firmly estabUshed 
 I he much-desired peace and indulgence toward the Irish, 
 both in respect to other matters of political administration, 
 and especially in those matters of ■nolirda which regard 
 religion, the divine worship and ecclesiastical discipline, 
 and the profession and practice of the ancient faith.* And 
 since I know the present position and disposition of our 
 countrymen, and that respect for justice which is natural 
 to all mankind, and has, moreover, been divinely infused 
 into their minds, and divinely preserved,! I will not linger 
 over the sad events of the days that are gone, or past 
 events and manners ; I will not again recite the odious 
 tale of ancient quarrels and injuries, of vengeance sought 
 or inflicted ; for me these things shall be buried in oblivion, 
 and covered with eternal shadows. 
 
 " What I have now to do is to give an account of th2 
 holy death of Maurice Kinrechtin, priest of the holy faith 
 in which he lived and in which he died. He was born in 
 the town of Kilmallock, and departed this life in that of 
 Clonmel ; the former is in the diocese of Limerick, the 
 latter in that of Lismore I will pass over his childhood 
 and youth, and pass to the account of his maturer years^ 
 Having embraced the ecclesiastical profession, and obtain- 
 ed the rank of bachelor in theology, he was made chaplain 
 and confessor to Gerald, Earl of Desmond ; and when the 
 
 * Although Dr. Roothe's book was printed in 1619, it would appear probable that this pa>- 
 •age was written much earlier, in the reign of James I., when the Catholics had hopK>of 
 toleration from him — hopes soon so treacherously and bitterly disappointed. 
 
 t Sir John Davis, James I. *s Attorney-General for Ireland, says: "The truth is, that in 
 time of peace the Irish are more fearful to offend the law than the English, or any other nation 
 whatsoever. There is no nation of people under the sun that doth love equal and inditferent 
 justice belter than the Irish." How little they got of it from his master I 
 
In the Reign of Elisabeth. 149 
 
 latter joined the united chiefs his chaplain did not desert 
 him. 
 
 "With a good intention and firm faith, and pure in- 
 tention of pleasing God, did Father Maurice go with Earl 
 Gerald ; not from party spirit or intention of rebelling, but 
 to preserve the peace of Christ — to unite in the union of 
 the Catholic faith those who were divided into parties and 
 sects, and ' to overcome Satan in their hearts.' (Eph. v. 13 ; 
 Coloss. iv. 5.) Whether he acted wisely as regards this 
 world, I ask not, for I am sure he acted honestly ; and the 
 purity of his intention and the liveliness of his faith will 
 have freed him from all criminality before the supreme 
 tribunal of the Judge of the world ; for ' to the pure all 
 things are pure ;' and 'blessed is he that condemneth not 
 himself in that which he alloweth.' (Rom. xiv. 22.) But if 
 any man be straitened between the duty of obedience and 
 the dictates of his conscience, because he cannot satisfy both, 
 there can be no doubt the lesser must yield to the greater 
 obligation, the human to the divine, that of the natural law 
 to that of the positive, temporal to spiritual, profane to 
 sacred, earth to heaven, 'for all that is not of faith is sin." 
 (Rom. xiv. 23.) Such was the hard condition of the times, 
 such the necessity of the day, and such the disturbance of 
 men's minds ; from which, indeed, we might have been 
 wholly delivered and truly made free, if King James had 
 persevered in his original intention and granted the wishes 
 of the native inhabitants for the free exercise of their reli- 
 gion and worship. But let us pass over these sad questions, 
 and speak of the piety and constancy in the orthodox faith 
 of Maurice. His attention to prayers, his sobriety and 
 continency of life, his gentleness of speech, proved his love 
 of God and his neighbor. Although these qualities were 
 recognized by all, and he was loved and respected by all 
 the good, he had the misfortune to fall into the hands of 
 
150 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 one Maurice Sweeny,* a faithless and bloody captain of 
 hireling soldiers, a deserter from his lord, in whose forces 
 he had been leader of the axe-bearers — those who fight 
 with battle-axes, a weapon much used by the Irish. It was 
 no wonder that Father Maurice was by this perfidious man 
 given up a prisoner to a troop of English soldiers, and thus 
 to Sir John Norris, President of Munster ; since, notwith- 
 standing his allegiance to him, he sold, for a wretched 
 price, the Earl of Desmond, when unarmed and defenceless. 
 It was then not to be expected that he would treat his 
 chaplain better. But the fate which befell the captor 
 showed the wickedness of the capture. 
 
 " Maurice, being thrown into the prison of Clonmel, re- 
 mained for rather more than a year in chains ; here he bore 
 the filth and stench of the prison, and all the other suffer- 
 ings of prison, with great patience. He edified all who 
 approached him by word and example, exhorting them to 
 penance, to constancy in the faith, to restitution of goods 
 unjustly obtained, to charity to the poor. He, indeed, be- 
 ing bound in the Lord, was as one not bound, for his cha- 
 rity and prayers reached all known and dear to him ; nor 
 did his generous spirit forget even his enemies. To all he 
 zealously preached the unity of the Catholic faith, out of 
 which there is no salvation. He could preach this with, 
 the more effect to the Irish, that obedience to Rome seems 
 inborn in them ; wherefore he might duly address them 
 in the words of Moses to the Israelites : ' Behold, heaven 
 is the Lord's thy God, and the heaven of heavens, the 
 earth and all things that are therein. And yet the Lord 
 hath been closely joined to thy fathers, and loved them, 
 and chose their seed after them, that is to say, you, out of 
 all nations, as this day it is proved.' (Deut. x. 14, 15.) 
 
 " The dwellers in this island seem to be chosen out of 
 
 • " Suvinium." which I translate "Sweeny." 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 151 
 
 ^11 nations, that they hold fast on the Lord in all their tribu- 
 lations. And since Maurice seemed by his sufferings to be 
 more closely united to God, he was the more beloved by his 
 friends and the servants of God. About the feast of Easter, 
 in the year 1585, when all the faithful are bound not only 
 by devot'on, but by the ecclesiastical precept, to approach 
 thi hoi) communion, a certain eminent citizen of Clon- 
 mel sought to afford a paschal pleasure to the captive 
 priest, and at the same to satisfy the piety of his neighbors, 
 who desired above all things to make their Easter confes- 
 sion to the prisoner for Christ's sake, and to receive from 
 him the holy communion. Victor White therefore went 
 to the head jailer, and for a considerable sum of money 
 obtained of him that the prisoner should be allowed to 
 spend that one night in his house. The jailer assented to 
 the petition, which was backed by money, and let out the 
 prisoner, for whom the other became security. But the 
 ■wretch was not satisfied with selling this moment of liberty 
 to the captive, but sought also to sell the pious host, the 
 whole neighborhood, and the life of the poor priest, to the 
 wicked President Norris, who arrived at that time. That 
 same evening he privately went to the president, and told 
 him that, at the request of Victor, he had allowed Maurice 
 to leave the prison for that night, and sleep in his house ; 
 that he was there then, and that all the Catholics in the 
 neighborhood were warned of the Mass which would be 
 celebrated the next day ; that he might surround the house 
 early the next morning with soldiers, and seize them all. 
 
 "The president listened to his tale with pleasure, and 
 prepared his soldiers for the work. When the hour for 
 Mass approached, while Maurice was yet hearing confes- 
 sions, and the altar was prepared in a quiet part of the 
 house, the pious dwelling was surrounded, and the soldiers 
 rushed in and seized on all, nor spared the hoary head of 
 the household. Great was the terror of the assembled 
 
152 Alartyrs and Confessors 
 
 Catholics ; the trembHng women and children hid them- 
 selves in dark corners ; others threw themselves down 
 from high windows and into ditches in order to escape. 
 In these efforts some broke their legs, and some their arms, 
 and received other injuries. 
 
 " In the mean time, the priest was hid under a large heap 
 tf straw which lay in the court-yard. The soldiers, in 
 trying this with their swords and javelins, chanced to 
 wound the fugitive whom they were seeking in the thigh, 
 but he, being, as it were, rendered insensible by fear, did 
 not utter a sound, and so escaped. The sacred utensils 
 were carried away, the chalice and the rest despoiled, and 
 the master of the house himself carried to prison, and 
 threatened with the loss of all his goods and his life unless 
 he returned the priest who had escaped. These two 
 worthy friends, Victor and Maurice, strove each to suffer for 
 the other. I will not here speak of David and Jonathan, or 
 Orestes and Pylades : the neighboring Britain produced 
 Saint Alban, who, while yet a Gentile, gave shelter to a 
 Christian cleric, as did Ireland, Victor and Maurice. (Bede, 
 lib. i. cap. vii.) But as the laurel of the r.iartyr is more 
 glorious than the reward of the confessor, so -f'-^s, Alban more 
 happy than his guest as he received fhe crown which 
 seemed prepared for the latter, and f,o Maurice, by his 
 triumph, recovered the crown from V;r./,oi. 
 
 " When he heard, in the place of .vjfety which he had 
 reached, that Victor was in peril, he r','airned to the danger 
 he had escaped to free his friend. K\\ exchange was made 
 of the prisoners ; Victor was set free, and Maurice was 
 fettered and thrown into prison, this time into the lowest 
 prison, dark indeed and horrid in the eyes of man, but 
 glorious in the sight of angels. Sentence of death was 
 passed against him, although not in a legal manner. Its 
 execution, however, he could have avoided, and saved his 
 life, if he would have abjured the orthodox faith and taken 
 
In the Reigii of Elizabeth. 153 
 
 the oath of the queen's supremacy. But he cl.ose the 
 better part, he finished his course, he kept the faith. As 
 to the rest, there was laid up for him a crown of justice, 
 which the Lord, the juSt Judge, gave to him in that day, 
 and will give to them also that love his coming. 
 
 " I find a difference of opinion as to the mode of his 
 death. Some relate that, after he was hanged until he was 
 half-dead, his head was cut off, and his body divided into 
 four parts. Thus it is related in a MS. Compendiitm of 
 Irish Martyrs, in these words : ' When he came to the 
 place of execution, turning to the people, he exhorted 
 them, as far as time would permit, and at the end, begging 
 all the Catholics to pray for him, and blessing them, he 
 was hung from the gallows, and, being taken down half- 
 dead, his head was cut off and his body cut into four parts ; 
 and these were watched all that night by the soldiers, lest 
 they should be taken away by the Catholics. The next 
 day the four pieces were fastened on a cross in the middle 
 of the town, and the head on a high place where it could 
 be seen by all, and so he completed his glorious martyr- 
 dom.' 
 
 " Others relate that, after his head was cut off, the Catho- 
 lics, either by prayers or bribes, induced the executioner 
 not to do any more to his body, nor to cut it in pieces : so 
 says the Reverend Father Robert Rochfort, of the Society 
 of Jesus, in his letter to his companion relating the death 
 of Father Maurice. This letter I have given in full, exactly 
 as it came into my hands, at the end of this narrative. 
 This difference in the narrative may have arisen from the 
 fact that some inferred from the terms of the sentence that it 
 had been carried out in the regular and usual way, and 
 speak rather of the sentence as recorded than as executed ; 
 and, therefore, I consider, in the Compendium of Martyr- 
 doms, it is rather the sentence than the execution that is 
 sjioken of. But as sometimes, either through the mercy 
 
154 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 of the judge or the favor of the executioner, some part of 
 the details of the sentence, though not of its essence, was 
 omitted, those who more carefully inquired into every 
 particular narrate the event with more accurate detail. 
 And probably this is done more accurately in the narrative 
 of Father Rochfort than in the Compendium* 
 
 " Somewhat similar to this is the difference between th 
 different accounts given by different writers of the mar- 
 tyrdom of Sir Thomas More ; for some write that he was 
 quartered, (as Paulus Jovius,) others that he was only 
 hanged, and the latter are the more, correct.f But Jovius 
 followed the tenor of the sentence pronounced upou him, 
 the others referred to the mitigation accorded by the king. 
 Whether anything similar occurred in the present case 
 must be inquired into whenever an opportunity may offer. 
 
 " But, whether' his body was quartered or not, there is 
 no doubt he was beheaded, and the following strange cir- 
 cumstance followed ; for, his head being exposed for several 
 days in the sight of many, as they crowded round -the foot 
 of the cross which stood in the middle of the market-place, 
 about the tenth hour each day they perceived a suffusion 
 of ruddy color and perspiration on the forehead and cheeks 
 of the separated head ; and many remarked that that was 
 the hour at which Maurice, when free, used to celebrate 
 Mass, as if even in his ashes glowed the flame of piety and 
 adorned the forehead of the martyr. 
 
 " Some remarked, too, that his hands after death formed 
 of themselves the sign of the cross, the first fingers being 
 crossed and the thumbs on the index ; and when the sol- 
 diers who were on guard, seeing this, sought to remove 
 
 ■ It was a common request to make of the executioner of those who were executed after the 
 manniir of traitors that he would allow them to hang until they were dead before being cut down 
 and embowelled ; but frequently this was not done.— 6><f iTtstaftces in Challanfr^s Mission' 
 ary Priests^ and Lingard-, vol. v. p. 39. 
 
 t Henry commuted the sentence into decapitation, and More was behe.irted. — Lingard, vol. 
 T. p. 45- 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 155 
 
 them and straighten the fingers and separate them, so that 
 they should not make the sign of the cross, they returned 
 of themselves to the same position, and, as the elements 
 return naturally to their centre, so the fingers of the mar- 
 tyr returned to the form of the cross. He departed to his 
 crucified Lord, the 30th April, in the year of our Lord ' 
 1585. 
 
 " Cojiy of a Letter of Father Robert Rochfort, relating the 
 Martyrdom of Father Maurice Kinrechtin. 
 
 "'I send you an account of the glorious martyrdom of a 
 friend of mine, Maurice Kinrechtin, a pious priest, chap- 
 lain to the Earl of Desmond, whom you know. He was 
 for this cause taken prisoner by the English, and taken to 
 your native town of Clonmel, where he lay in prison for 
 more than a year. On the eve of Easter, 1585, Victor 
 White, one of the principal citizens of Clonmel and a pious 
 Catholic, obtained from the head jailer permission for the 
 priest to pass the night in his house ; this the jailer agreed 
 to, but secretly informed the President of Munster, an 
 English heretic, who chanced to be in the town, that, if he 
 wished, he might easily seize all the principal citizens 
 while hearing Mass in the house of Mr. White at day- 
 break ; at the same time he bargained to be paid for his 
 perfidy. At the hour agreed on the soldiers rushed into 
 the house and seized on Victor, but all the others, hearing 
 the noise, tried to escape by the back doors and windows ; 
 a certain matron, trying to escape, fell and broke her arm. 
 The soldiers found the chalice and other things for Mass , 
 they sought everywhere for the priest, (who had not yet 
 begun the Mass,) and came at length to a heap of straw, 
 under which he lay hid, and, thrusting their swords through 
 it, wounded him in the thigh, but he preserved silence, and, 
 through fear of worse, concealed his suffering, and soon 
 
IS6 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 after escaped fiom the town into the countiy. But the in- 
 trepid Victor (who, although he had for this reason suffered 
 much, could never be induced to attend the conventicles 
 of the heretics) was thrown into prison because he would 
 not give up the priest, and would, no doubt, have been put 
 to death had not Maurice, hearing of the danger of his 
 friend, voluntarily surrendered himself to the president, 
 showing a friendship truly Christian. The president up- 
 braided him much, and, having sentenced him to death, 
 offered him his life if he would abjure our Catholic faith 
 and profess the queen to be head of the church. There 
 came to him also a preacher, and strove long, but in vain 
 to seduce the martyr ; nor would he on any account betray 
 any of those who had heard his Mass, or to whom he had 
 at any time administered the sacraments At length he 
 was dragged at the tail of a horse to the place of execution 
 as a traitor. Being come there, he devoutly and learnedly 
 exhorted the people to constancy in the faith. The execu- 
 tioner cut him down from the gallows when yet half-alive, 
 and cut off his sacred head, and the minist-er struck it in 
 the face. Then the Catholics by prayers and bribes ob- 
 tained of the executioners that they should not lacerate his 
 body any further, and they buried it as honorably as they 
 could. Farewell, and peace in the Lord, and be ye imita- 
 tors — if occasion offers — of the courageous Maurice Kin- 
 reel 'in, and till then prepare your souls for the trial. Your 
 devoted servant, dated from the College of St. Anthony, 
 1586, 20th March, Robert Rochfort.'" — Roothe, De Pro- 
 
 cessu Martyriali. 
 
 — * — 
 
 Anno 1588, 
 
 RIGHT REV. PETER POWER, BISHOP OF FERNS. 
 " Peter Power, native of Munster, for his merits was 
 raised to the diocese of Ferns by the Apostolic See.* He 
 
 •Appointed in Consistory of April 27, ^sSi—Maran, Archbishop! of Dublin, vol i. p. 184. 
 
In the Reign of Elisabeth. 157 
 
 fulfilled the duty of a good pastor, but, being taken pri- 
 soner by the heretics, was wounded and bound with cord 
 and carried to Dublin, where, overcome by human weak- 
 ness and the torture of the rack, he abjured the Catholic 
 faith, and subscribed to the new religion of Elizabeth. On 
 the fourth day afterward he so repented of this grievous 
 fault that, having first received absolution in the tribunal 
 of penance, he courageously returned to Dublin, and, like 
 another Pope Marcellinus, he sought the viceroy and judge, 
 and, upbraiding him with having induced him to be guilty 
 of such impiety, retracted all he had said or written against 
 the Catholic faith, and renounced all the errors of Pro- 
 testantism and heresy. Angered by this public revocation 
 of the Bishop of Ferns, the ministers of Elizabeth tried 
 his constancy with the sharpest torments, but in vain ; for, 
 full of the spirit of God, in the midst of the torture of the 
 rack he at one time prayed in the words of the psalm 
 Miserere me Deus, then prayed for the salvation of the 
 executioners, and told them that they punished him not 
 enough for the crime he had committed in denying the 
 faith. At length, wearied and despairing of overcoming 
 the constancy of Peter, the officers left him bound in pri- 
 son. The jailer, a Catholic at heart, was touched with 
 pity for the bishop, and secretly unbound him, and let him 
 retire to a safe place. Thus did Peter expiate his fault, 
 and escape from the hands of the executioners. By the 
 aid of the Catholics he escaped to that refuge of all Irish 
 exiles, Spain, where he died, in repute of holiness, 15th 
 December, 1588." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. x.x. 
 
 Roothe says : 
 
 " Escaping from prison, he made his way to Rome, and, 
 prostrate before the tribunal of the supreme judge, obtain- 
 ed absolution. He then proceeded to Compostella, where 
 he was made suffragan of the Archbishop of Compostella, 
 and there died, (as it was said, of poison given to him by a 
 
158 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 wicked Gallican sacristan,) about 1587." — Roothe, De Prc- 
 cessu Martyi-iali. 
 
 MAURICE EUSTACE. 
 
 " Maurice Eustace, a youth of great promise, entered 
 the Society of Jesus at Bruges, in Flanders, and being 
 called home by his father. Sir John Eustace, a noble and 
 influential man, he returned to Ireland, by the permissior 
 of the father, (as is mentioned by the author of the Thea- 
 tre) before he had taken his vows. He had not long en- 
 joyed his gentle native air when he was seized by the un- 
 gentle heretics in Dublin, and examined on the suspicion 
 of holding correspondence with the Catholic nobles who 
 had been driven by the cruelty of Elizabeth to defend the 
 Catholic faith by arms. Maurice, who was an intrepid 
 j'oung man, boldly answered the accusation and proved 
 his innocence, adding, that he had only lately returned 
 from Belgium, (where he was enrolled among the novices 
 of the Society of Jesus,) in order to satisfy the ardent de- 
 sire of his parents, and that his object was not to excite 
 rebellion, but only to satisfy his parents' request, and re- 
 turn as soon as possible to take his vows. On this the 
 chief-judge answered, ' Out of your own mouth I judge 
 you ; for, as you say you are one of the Jesuits, who are 
 born to excite trouble and sedition, any one must see you 
 are guilty of the crimes you are accused of And on this 
 he sentenced Maurice to die. The youth was then drag- 
 ged from the court to the place of execution, and there 
 hung, and cut in four parts, and so gloriously triumphed 
 for Christ, 9th June, \^^Z"-^Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 Roothe, De Processu Martyriali, mentions his death, 
 and says he was a master of arts. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeih. ijg 
 
 REV. PETER MILLER, 
 
 " Of Wexford, and bachelor of theology, moved by charity 
 for the Catholics, returned to Ireland from Spain, ile 
 had hardly landed, when he was taken in Wexford, tried, 
 and, being constant in the faith, by order of the judge was, 
 after various tortures, hung and cut in four, 4th October, 
 1588." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 Amno 1588. 
 
 PETER MEYLER, 
 
 "A STUDENT in arts, {litteris humanioribus^ was seized 
 by the heretics, and, because he remained constant in the 
 faith, suffered martyrdom, at Galway, in the year of our 
 Lord \^%2,r—Philadelph. 
 
 REV. JOHN O'MOLLOY, CORNELIUS DOGHERTY, AND 
 V^TALFRID FERRALL, O.S.F., 
 
 "Were Franciscans, and, about 1588, fell victims to the 
 malice of the heretics. They spent eight years in admin- 
 istering the consolations of religion throughout the moun ■ 
 tainous districts of Leinster. Many families of Carlow, 
 Wicklow, and Wexford had been compelled to seek a re- 
 fuge there from the fury of the English troops. The good 
 Franciscans shared in all their perils ; travelling about 
 from place to place by night, they visited the sick, consol- 
 ed the dying, and offered up the sacred mysteries. Often- 
 times the hard rock was their only bed ; but they willing- 
 ly embraced nakedness and hunger and cold to console 
 their afHicted brethren. In a remote district of the 
 Queen's county they were overtaken by a party of caval- 
 ry, bound hand and foot, and conducted, with every spe- 
 cies of insult, to the garrison of Abbeyleix. Here they 
 
i6o Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 were flogged, and then put on the rack ; at length, being 
 strangled, embowelled, and quartered, they happily yielded 
 their souls to their Creator." — Moran, Archbishops of Dub 
 lin, p. 143 ; Bruodin, and Mooney. 
 
 A-nno 1BS9. 
 
 REV. FATHER MAURICE, FRANCISCAN. 
 
 He is commemorated by Father Mooney in these 
 words : " In the convent of Clonmel is interred the Rev. 
 Father Maurice, a priest who suffered martyrdom at the 
 hands of the heretics in the same Clonmel, about the year 
 1589, and whose relics were placed behind the high altar." 
 — Mooney, p. 58. 
 
 A.nno 1B90. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER ROCHE. 
 
 " Born of a respectable family, in Wexford, he had near- 
 ly completed his studies at Louvain, when he was compel- 
 led by sickness to return home, but was arrested at Bris- 
 tol, in England, examined, and called upon to take the oath 
 of supremacy. He refused resolutely to stain his soul with 
 such a perjury, and in consequence was sent to London, 
 where he was flogged through the streets. Then, after hav- 
 ing endured the horrors of Newgate prison for four months, 
 he was put to the torture of ' the scavenger s daughter,' and 
 gave up his soul to God, under this torture, the 13th De- 
 cember, 1590-" — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 Anno 1S97. 
 
 REV. JOHN STEPHENS, V\fALTER FERNAN, AND SEVERAL 
 
 OTHERS. 
 
 He is mentioned by Curry, Civii Wars in Ireland, p. 6, 
 who refers to Tlie Theatre of Catholic and Protestant 
 
/« the Reign of Elisabeth. i6l 
 
 Religion, p. 582 ; and, as he also mentions several other 
 martyrs, the exact date of whose triumph I have not been 
 able to ascertain, I shall here give the whole passage : 
 
 " In this reign, among many other Roman Catholic 
 priests and bishops, were put to death, for the exercise of 
 their functions in Ireland : John Stephens, priest, for that 
 he said Mass to Teague McHugh, was hanged and quar- 
 tered by the Lord Burroughs, in 1597; Thady O'Boyle, 
 guardian of the monastery of Donegal, was slain by the 
 English in his own monastery ; six friars v/ere slain in the 
 monastery of Moynihigan ; John O'Calyhor . and Bryan 
 O'Trevor, of the order of St. Bernard, were slain in their 
 own monastery, De Sancta Maria, in Ulster ; as also Feli- 
 ray O'Hara, a lay-brother ; so was .(Eneas Penny, parish 
 priest of Killagh, slain at the altar in his parish church 
 there ; Cahill McGoran ; Rory O'Donnellan ; Peter McQuil- 
 lan ; Patrick O'Kenna ; George Power, Vicar-General of 
 the diocese of Ossory ; Andrew Stritch, of Limerick ; 
 Bryan O'Murihirtagh, Vicar-General of the diocese of Clon- 
 fert ; Doroghow O'Molowny, of Thomond ; John Kelly, of 
 Louth ; Stephen Patrick, of Annaly ; John Pillis, friar ; 
 Rory McHenlea ; Tirilagh Mclnisky, a lay-brother. All 
 those that come after ^neas Penny, together with Walter 
 Fernan, priest, died in the Castle of Dublin, either 
 through hard usage and restraint or the violence of tor- 
 ture." 
 
 Of Andrew Stritch, Philadelphus says : " He was a priest 
 of the diocese of Limerick. Educated for the church in 
 Paris, he went to Ireland to save souls, and labored zeal 
 ously in that vineyard for many years ; at length, being 
 taken by the heretics, he was taken to Dublin, and there 
 thrown into prison, where he happily completed his 
 course, about the year ." 
 
 Bruodin gives us some more particulars about the Rev 
 Walter Fernan. He says: " He was a priest of Leinster, 
 
i62 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 and a zealous preacher. Taken by the heretics, he was 
 sent to Dublin, where he triumphed in Christ. Thrown 
 into prison, he was tied round with an iron chain, and his 
 hands and feet being tied up to the beam of the roof, he 
 was so left hanging for forty hours. He was then flogged, 
 and salt and vinegar rubbed into his lacerated flesh. Be- 
 ing then asked if he would take the oath of the queen's su- 
 premacy, he answered, with constancy, ' that he would ra- 
 ther die than swear that a woman, who, as St. Paul teaches, 
 may not even speak in church, was the head of the church.' 
 The bloody judge, named Walter Rawley, angered by this 
 answer, ordered Fernan to be tortured on the rack. The 
 executioners had not been long pulling his limbs asunder, 
 when Walter, exclaiming, ' Lord, into thy hands I com- 
 mend my spirit,' gave up his soul to his Creator, the I2th 
 March, 1597." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 Anno 1S9S. 
 
 MOST REV. EDWARD MACGAURAN, ARCHBISHOP OF 
 ARMAGH. 
 
 " Edward MacGauran was the immediate successor 
 of Primate Creagh. In the year 1594, Pope Clement 
 VIII. employed the prelate as his envoy to the Irish na- 
 tion, with the view of animating them to persevere stead- 
 fastly in the faith, and, rather than deny their consciences 
 and their God, to shed the last drop of their blood in 
 defence of their religion. The recent edict of Elizabeth 
 against the priests and Catholics was the last of the many 
 causes that alarmed the holy pontiff's zeal, and rendered 
 such an exhortation necessary. Not content with eject- 
 ing the bishops and priests from their dwellings, and 
 hunting them into the woods, nor by punishing by fines 
 and confiscations both priests and people for not attend- 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 163 
 
 ing the Protestant worship, nor with punishing as high 
 treason every acknowledgment of the pope's spiritual 
 authority, this unrelenting persecutrix published a new 
 edict, on the i8th October, 1591, in which she commands 
 all heads of families to seek out and discover the priests, 
 whom she calls Jesuits and Seminarists, and deliver 
 them over, under a strong guard, to her officers. The 
 Irish princes had frequently implored, during the last fifty 
 years, the advice of the Roman Pontiff, and his interposi- 
 tion, either personally or through the French arid Spanish 
 monarchs, with the court of England in their behalf; 
 when their remonstrances failed of effect, the Irish then 
 asked for military assistance. In these circumstances, 
 Philip II., of Spain, incensed against England for some 
 depredations committed on his European and American 
 dominions, and waging against her an unsuccessful war 
 for the last five years, promised at length to send an 
 effectual military aid to the Irish, and commissioned Pri- 
 mate MacGauran to give the Irish princes the most posi- 
 tive assurances of its speedy arrival. Dr. MacGauran, 
 setting sail from Spain in the vessel of James Fleming, 
 a merchant of Drogheda, arrived in Ireland in the begin- 
 ning of 1594 with these two commissions. He lost no 
 time in visiting the different princes of Ulster ; he com- 
 municated to them his commissions, and then took up his 
 residence with Maguire, Prince of Fermanagh, on the con- 
 fines of his diocese. 
 
 " Maguire, before his arrival, had been in arms against 
 England, and when the Lord-Deputy Sussex called on 
 him to delivei up the primate he peremptorily refused. 
 Shortly after he directed his forces against the English 
 possessions in Connaught, and brought the bishop with 
 him. Sir H. Bingham, the governor of that province, des- 
 patched Sir William Guelfort, with a body of troops, to 
 oppose him. The two armies, on the 23d June, met at a 
 
164 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 place called Sciath-na-Feart, (The Shield of Wonders ;) 
 the cavalry of both were before the fort, and, there being 
 a very thick mist, they saw not each other till they met. 
 The signal was given, and a brisk and determined action 
 having been commenced by the cavalry, Maguire, after 
 much fighting, fixed his eye on the opposite general, and, 
 setting spurs to his horse, and cutting a passage for him- 
 self through the surrounding officers with his sword, he 
 pierced Guelfort through with his lance. The English, 
 astonished at this daring bravery, and seeing their com- 
 mander slain, fled from the field. The primate was at a 
 short distance from the engagement, administering the 
 last sacraments, and hearing the confessions of some of 
 the mortally wounded soldiers. (Dr. Roothe says, reconcil- 
 ing a dying heretic.) A party of the fugitive cavalry hap- 
 pened to come upon him while thus engaged, and trans- 
 pierced with their lances the unarmed and inoffensive 
 archbishop, being roused to rage by seeing him engaged 
 in the vocation of a Catholic clergyman."* 
 
 Thus the martyr Archbishop Creagh (anno 1585) was 
 succeeded by the martyr Dr. MacGauran, (anno 1598,) and 
 at his death the headship of the Irish Church, with the 
 title of Vice-Primate,f devolved on Dr. Redmond, Bishop 
 of Derry, who also laid down his life for the faith, (1604,) 
 when the office devolved on Dr. Richard Brady, Bishop of 
 Kilmore, *ho was a confessor, and almost a martyr. It 
 then passed to Dr. Cornelius O'Doveney, who also laid 
 down his life for Christ, (anno 161 2.) Thus in thirty 
 
 * Renehan, Collec. p. 18, from O'SuIlivan, Pet. Lombard, and Philadelph , who put* hii 
 death at 1598 ; but Di. Renehan gives strong reasons to think this arises from a confusion be- 
 tween two battles of Maguire, and that the true date is 1593. Sir Richard Bingham, writing 
 to the Privy Council, on the 28th June, 1593, describes his death — See Aloran, HisL Arch- 
 bishops 0/ Dublin^ vol. i. p. 290. 
 
 t Mooney thus explains the title of Vice-Primate : "According to the custom of the pro- 
 vince of Armagh, which is that, when the primate is absent or the see of Armagh vacant, the 
 oldest bishop of the province has the title of ' Vice-Primate,' . . . which I thought it right to 
 hand down to remembrance, lest the custom might become obsolete by oblivion." P. 75. 
 
Tn the Reign of Elizahith. 1G5 
 
 years four martyrs and a confessor succeeded each other 
 in the primacy of the Irish Church. 
 
 " Primo avulso non deficit alter 
 Aureus ; et simili frondescit virga metallo." 
 
 REV. GEORGE POWER, 
 
 " A PRIEST of Kilkenny, and Vicar-General of the diocese 
 of Ossory, in a very advanced age was dragged to Dublin 
 to answer for the Catholic, faith. He made a good confes- 
 sion before the public tribunal, and, being thrown into 
 prison, and worn out with misery, he passed from life to 
 death in chains, about the year 1599." — Philadelph. See 
 
 also Curry. 
 
 — • — 
 
 Anno 1600. 
 
 REV. JOHN WALSH, 
 
 " A PRIEST, and Vicar-General of the diocese of Dublin, 
 was thrown by chance on the coast of England, question- 
 ed of his faith, and for his constancy thrown into prison in 
 Chester, where he ended his life and confession of the 
 faith in chains, about 1600." — Philadelph. 
 
 Anno 1601. 
 
 RIGHT REV. DR. RICHARD BRADY, BISHOP OF KILMORE, 
 AND REV. BERNARD MORIARTY, AND COMPANIONS. 
 
 The account which Father Mooney, who was one of thv. 
 part}', gives of all the circumstances connected with the 
 sufferings of these holy men, is so interesting, and gives so 
 lively an idea of the state of the country, that I shall tran- 
 scribe it entire. 
 
1 66 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Of Father Bernard Moriarty he says : " He was a priest 
 of the diocese of Ardagh, who had graduated in canon law 
 in Spain, and was Dean of Ardagh and Archdeacon of 
 Clane, (Cluonensis,) and was afterward made Vicar-Gene- 
 ral of Dublin by Dr. Matthew de Oviedo, Archbishop of 
 Dublin, and lived in the Franciscan convent of Multifarn- 
 ham, on account of his great affection for the brethren 
 
 " The convent of Multifarnham, situated in a little vil- 
 lage of the diocese of Meath, in the county of Westmeath, 
 was founded by a Delmer, who in Irish is called Macher- 
 bert, and is believed to have been fpunded during the life 
 of St. Francis. But the family of Nugent, which is the fa- 
 mily of the Barons Delvin, are now looked upon as the 
 founders, especially the descendants of Sir James Nugent, 
 of Donore. This convent is the only refuge of such bre- 
 thren as are sick, weak, or aged, in the whole province, 
 who, coming there from all parts, live as it were without 
 fear, wearing their habit and serving God in all simplicity. 
 
 " In the year 1601, on the ist day of October, Sir Fran- 
 cis Shean, a heretical soldier, invaded this convent with 
 his troop of soldiers, and apprehended the Right Rev. 
 Brother Richard Braden, Bishop of Kilmore ; the Rev. 
 Brother John Gragan, the provincial minister ; Brother 
 James Hayn, a priest ; and the Very Rev. Bernard Moriar- 
 ty, Dean of Ardagh, whom I have mentioned before. Af- 
 ter he came to the convent, he also arrested the father- 
 guardian, who was there. Brother Neemias Gragan, a very 
 leligious man and much given to prayer, gentle in conver- 
 sation, prudent in counsel, and whose whole life was wor- 
 thy of praise. He arrested Brother Hugh Mc , [the 
 
 word is illegible,] a priest ; Brother Lewis Ogy , [also 
 
 illegible,] a lay-brother ; Torchaeus Gragan and John 
 Cahill, both lay-brothers ; and Brother Donatus Mooney, 
 a novice, who was to make his profession in two days ; all 
 the rest had escaped, for it was night, and, after the night 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 167 
 
 prayers, at the usual signal, they had retired from the 
 church to their cells. Now, our captor sent off a party 
 with some of his prisoners in the night to his castle, call- 
 ed Balmore, and kept us two days in the monastery prison 
 ers, he staying there with his soldiers to look after plundc, 
 of which there was not much, save a tolerably large store 
 of provisions, which was the greater on account of the ap- 
 proaching festival of St. Francis, to the celebration of 
 which many nobles generally flock there, who send before- 
 hand their provisions to the monastery, because there are 
 no fitting inns there in which they could eat on that day. 
 While we were kept prisoners in the monastery, I so ar- 
 ranged that the father-guardian and all the other brethren, 
 except myself and one lay-brother, deceived the watchful- 
 ness of their guards and escaped. And I myself remain- 
 ed in captivity, partly because I was more closely watched 
 by the guards, as being young and active, being then 
 about twenty-four, and practised beforetime in war, and 
 partly from a scruple that I thought my profession, which 
 I was to make in two days, would not be valid unless I 
 made it in the hands of the father-minister, who was a cap- 
 tive in another place, and into whose company I calculated 
 I would soon be brought. Influenced, then, chiefly by 
 these scruples, I would not escape, although the father- 
 guardian wished me to escape rather than himself. 
 
 " After two days the tyrant Francis Shean placed me 
 and the lay-brother on horses and brought us to his castle 
 aforesaid, and set fire to and destroyed the whole monastery, 
 to the great grief of all who saw or heard of the destruc- 
 tion of that holy house, of which the very memory seemed 
 thus given to oblivion. He did not dare to do me any 
 personal injury, because he feared my relations and others 
 bound to me in blood or friendship who lived near him. 
 Nay, he often said he would let me go, but that he could 
 not do so, unless, putting off my habit, I would return to 
 
1 63 Martyn mid Confessors 
 
 the world ; adding that I might do so without denying 
 the Catholic faith, (which he called papistical,) since I 
 was not yet bound by vows ; adding that my doing so 
 would be very pleasing to my father, (who was a great friend 
 of his, and without whose consent I had embraced this 
 mode of life,) because he had much possessions, which, 
 without a strenuous protector, as he said I would be, 
 would most likely be plundered and spoiled. And he 
 urged me, saying, ' If you will, give up, not indeed the 
 papistical religion, but this hypocritical vanity, and return 
 to those warlike pursuits in which you gave such good pro- 
 mise, I will cause you to be taken into the queen's pay, and 
 you will become a great man :' so much did he desire my 
 soul's destruction. But he who had called me from the dark- 
 ness of misery into his admirable light and the society of his 
 beloved Son, so strengthened my soul that not for a king- 
 dom would I have put off my profession. He therefore 
 strove in vain, and I was brought into the prison in which 
 were the bishop and the father-minister and the aforesaid 
 Brother James and the priest, and I was left with them, with 
 my companion the lay-brother ; and as the year of my 
 noviceship was now fully completed, I spoke to the reverend 
 father-provincial, humbly beseeching him that, as God Jiad 
 granted me to come to that day and place, he would allow 
 and receive my vows, by which I was determined to devote 
 myself and my whole life to God and Saint Francis. The 
 bishop, surprised, or rather wishing to try me, said : ' Hear 
 me, my son, who art now in prison for the habit of Saint 
 Francis, and mayest depart if you will put off this habit : 
 if thou art minded to be for ever bound by this. rule, weigh 
 well what thou dost.' I answered : ' Right reverend father, 
 T am firmly resolved ; and when first I was made prisoner, 
 the first thought that came into my mind was that Satan 
 had caused this violence to be done to us that I might be 
 driven from my resolution. But I might have escaped 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 169 
 
 from th^ monastery, but preferred to come here, that I 
 might make my profession in the hands of the father- 
 minister. And I hope that, if such be the will of God, I 
 shall escape also from here, so that I be first bound to God 
 by this triple knot ; and if it be not his will, I am ready 
 to be a captive in the hands of God, and a captive in the 
 hands of my superiors for God, and a captive in the hands 
 of God's enemies as loiig as he wills. I prefer the freedom 
 of his sons to that of his enemies.' At length, while my 
 fellow-prisoners stood around, I made my regular profession 
 in the hands of the father-minister, and the bishop and the 
 others wept and embraced me with affection. God knows 
 what joy my heart felt in that hour. I cannot describe it, 
 nor can I now think of the joy of that hour without tears, 
 so greatly does God temper for beginners in his service the 
 bitterness of afflictions with the sweetness of his consolations, 
 so that we may truly say that the sufferings of this time 
 are not worthy to be compared either to the grace which is 
 given, or the consolation which is communicated, or to the 
 future eternal glory which shall be revealed in us. I have 
 been, perhaps, too prolix in describing this joy, because 
 ■ through life there has been given to me the grace to re- 
 member with joy and satisfaction the vows which my lips 
 then uttered. 
 
 " After this, our merciful Lord, seeing that I was young 
 and not sufficiently prudent or wise, so that, were I long 
 in prison, I might perchance relax of my fervor, and, by 
 my ingratitude losing grace, say or do something unbefit- 
 ting the holy profession I had made, put it into my mind 
 to devise some means to escape from that prison ; and I, 
 turning my whole mind to it, often thought of seizing, 
 with the assistance of Father Bernard, the castle in which 
 we were kept in chains, and expelling our guards, keeping 
 it in our possession until we should be freed by the Irish 
 Catholics, the defenders of our faith, who would come to our 
 
170 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 assistance. And we would have done so if there had been 
 in it any gunpowder, or provisions for four or five days ; but 
 because there was no such thing there, and the enterprise 
 could not be effected without shedding blood, we again and 
 again devised other means ; but none succeeded. Ever} 
 night I and Father Bernard were bound with an iron chain 
 on our feet, for they feared us both much ; but occasional!) 
 it was omitted to be put on. At length, after we had de- 
 vised many plans in vain, I succeeded in making a rope 
 out of the tow with which the soldiers fired their guns, 
 and, aided by God alone, I let myself down from the top 
 of the tower, and so escaped, to the great surprise of all 
 who knew the height of the tower. I had only got half- 
 way down when the rope broke, and I fell, and, striking 
 against an old wall, was greatly shaken and somewhat 
 wounded, yet I walked that night ten miles, till I came to 
 a place of safety, for I was unacquainted with the country. 
 Thei'e were guards on the walls, but they did not perceive 
 me ; but I saw them plain enough. There was a troop of 
 soldiers encamped on the ground around in their huts and 
 tents and sleeping places. It was about seven o'clock in 
 the evening, and no one saw me ; but when I had crossed 
 the ditch of the camp, in which the water was up to my 
 middle, I saw all over the place the soldiers running about 
 with candles and lanterns seeking me. Thus I escaped 
 by his might who decreed that my colleague. Father Ber- 
 nard, to whom I had first communicated my intention of 
 entering into religion, and who had piously and prudently 
 aided and strengthened me, should remain in chains as a 
 more mature victim, and obtain the palm of martyrdom 
 Ly his providence I was preserved for further ills, when, if 
 it had pleased the divine goodness, I might have also re- 
 ceived the crown of martyrdom. . . . After this, Francis 
 Shean determined to send to Dublin the priest and bro- 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 171 
 
 ther ; but the bishop, because he was of a noble* family, 
 he gave to a neighboring Catholic nobleman to keep, he 
 giving security to send him to Dublin when the winter 
 was past, which was done, and he remained there until he 
 was redeemed with money the following summer, in the 
 J ear 1602. 
 
 " The father-minister, with Brother James Hayn and the 
 aforesaid Father Bernard, were sent to Dublin ; and while 
 they were on the road Sir Walter Nugent, standard-bearer 
 of the Baron of Delvin, with thirty Catholic soldiers, who 
 were in the queen's service, met them, and the- soldiers 
 who were escorting the prisoners, being terrified, took to 
 flight, and Nugent's party took the brother and the priest 
 with them. But it chanced that two troops of heretic sol- 
 diers were near, who, hearing of it, immediately pursued 
 them and forced them to fight, although only thirty 
 against two troops. There was a sharp fight for three or 
 four miles, the heretics attacking, and the Catholics, with 
 unbrok'en ranks, retiring toward a place of safety. At 
 length the brothers were not able to endure the fatigue, 
 for they were old, and voluntarily gave themselves up. 
 Six of the Catholic soldiers were slain. Both Father 
 Bernard's thighs were broken by the heretical musketeers, 
 and thus they were led captives to Dublin. The rest at 
 length got away ; but Father Bernard, on account of his 
 wound, and that he had no surgical care, nor bed to lie 
 on, died on earth to live for ever in heaven. The father- 
 minister and Father James were detained there until I 
 obtained from the chieftains O'Neill and MacMahon two 
 prisoners of war, whom I gave for the fathers. Yet before 
 the feast of the Nativity of our Lord we built up a little 
 house on the site of the monastery, and there we dwelt 
 who were left after the flight. I was the first, and then 
 
 • There is a word wanting here, which I have supplied at a guess. The text runs, " Epis- 
 copus qui genere erat, cuidam nobili vicino tradidvt." 
 
172 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 others returned, and from that day there were never want- 
 ing brethren there.* They had no church save a very 
 inconvenient sort of cabin in the garden ; and the offices 
 of the monastery, in which they prefer to live, however 
 straitened, rather than elsewhere in comfort. Afterward 
 ]''ather Neemias Gragan, the father-guardian, began to 
 build a church, and to repair the monastery, and for this 
 purpose caused much wood to be cut in the territory of 
 Deabhna McLochlain ; and when they had roofed a cha- 
 pel, and some outer buildings, there came down the 
 soldiers of another Sir Francis Ringtia, and they burnt 
 down the monastery again, and carried off some of the 
 brethren captive to Dublin. The bishop, whom I mention- 
 ed before, who was then very decrepit, and had long dwelt 
 in the monastery, because they could not lead him away 
 captive, as from extreme age he could neither stand 'nor 
 walk, they stripped of his clothes, and left him lying in 
 the open air. He only prayed that their crime might be 
 forgiven them. 
 
 " This Bishop Richard was of a noble family in Brehne- 
 Graille. He studied civil and canon law ; afterward, al- 
 though he had great expectations in the world, despising, 
 its allurements, he entered the order of St. Francis in 
 the county of Cavan, and made such progress in religion 
 and piety that he passed through different offices in the 
 order, and was made father-minister of the province, 
 which post he filled with the highest praise ; so that, from 
 no seeking of his own, but the solicitations of others, he 
 was made Bishop of Ardagh, the 23d of January, 1576. 
 Afterward he resigned that bishopric, and was made 
 Bishop of Kilmore. Afterward, according to the custom 
 of the province of Armagh, by which, when the primate is 
 
 • The Fianciscans have never abandoned Multifamham, and still own the old church (re- 
 stored) an/" tha site of the monastery, with some remains of the cloisters, a modem house, 
 which is now the monastery, and a field. 
 
In the Reigii of Elizabeth. 173 
 
 absent or the see of Armagh vacant, the senior bishop of 
 the province has the title of Vice-Primate, on the martyr- 
 dom of Dr. Edmund Gauran, who was primate, Dr. Red- 
 mond, Bishop of Derry, held the office of vice-primate ; 
 and at his martyrdom it passed to Dr. Richard, of whom I 
 am now speaking, as the senior bishop of the province ; and 
 after his death, passed to the holy martyr Cornelius, 
 Bishop of Down and Connor. These things I thought it 
 well to mention, lest this custom, by oblivion, might be- 
 come obsolete. 
 
 " Dr. Richard was old when he was made bishop ; 
 throughout his life he was most religious, and never, ex- 
 cept when the duties of his episcopal administration re- 
 quired it, lived anywhere saye in some convent of his or- 
 der, and generally in the convent of Multifarnham. He 
 never had any garments but such as the brethren com- 
 monly wore, and always took his meals at the table of the 
 community, unless when the coming of strangers required 
 him to remain in the guest-house. He was with difficulty 
 persuaded to give up the practice of attending chapter and 
 publicly confessing his faults ; he attended Matins and the 
 other offices as though he were a simple monk. He had 
 no attendants but his father-confessor, one secular priest, 
 and two monks. I saw him when very old, and he was 
 such a lover of austerities that, though many prudent men, 
 even monks, sought to persuade him, for his health's sake, 
 to wear linen shirts, until his death he never would wear 
 aught but the rough habit. He was much given to prayer, 
 and strenuous and watchful in administering the episcopal 
 office, as far as the time would allow. Thrice was he 
 taken prisoner by the heretics ; the first and second times 
 he was ransomed, and gave great edification in his im- 
 prisonment ; the last time, as I have already told, being 
 old and infirm, he was despised, stripped of his clothes, 
 thrown among nettles, and left there. He lived for many 
 
174 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 years after he had resigned his episcopal charge, helpless 
 and childish, but gracious and amiable. He slept in the 
 Lord, in the year 1607, in the month of September, in the 
 convent of Multifarnham, and his body is interred, where 
 he himself had long before directed, in the cloister, where 
 all the brethren are buried, at the entrance of the door 
 which leads into the church." — Mooney, p. 75. 
 
 Philadelphus narrates the martyrdom of Father Moriarty 
 and the imprisonment of the bishop, but did not know the 
 date: he says only "about 1596." 
 
 REV. DONATUS O'MOLLONY 
 
 " Was of a noble family, a theologian and priest, and vicar 
 of the diocese of Killaloe. He was a truly apostolic pastor, 
 and when the wild boars ravaged the vineyard of the Lord 
 in the diocese of Killaloe, (of which Malachy O'Mollony was 
 bishop,) he feared not to risk his life for his flock. He was 
 taken in the district of Ormond, where he was visiting the 
 parish priest, and, with his hands tied behind his back like 
 a robber, was dragged to Dublin in the midst of the soldiers. 
 The reader may imagine what he suffered in this long 
 journey. (I have heard much of it from my mother, 
 Margaret O'Mollony, a near relative of the martyr, and 
 from other friends in my country, but for the sake of 
 brevity I omit much.)- Hardly was Donatus shut up in 
 the Tower of Dublin, when the iron boots, the rack, the 
 iron gauntlets, and the other instruments with which the 
 executioners tortured the confessors of Christ were paraded 
 before his eyes, and he was asked by the chief-judge whether 
 he would subscribe to the queen's laws and decrees in 
 matters of religion. MoUony, filled with the spirit of God, 
 answered courageously he was ready to obey the queen's com- 
 mands in all things not contrary to the laws of yestts Christ, 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. 175 
 
 ihe King of kings, and his vicar on earth. The judge, like 
 Pilate, answered : ' The queen in her kingdom is the only 
 vicar of Christ and head of the church ; therefore you must 
 either take the oath of supremacy or die.' Mollony 
 answered, ' Either Paul, the doctor of the Gentiles, and 
 Christ himself in his gospels, err, or the queen is not the 
 vicar of Christ! ' Then you will not acknowledge the 
 supreme authority, after Christ, of the queen in spirituals ?' 
 Bj no means! said Mollony ; ' a woman, who may not speak 
 in the church, I cajtnot acknowledge as its head ; nay, for the 
 truth of the opposite I am ready, by God's help, to endure all 
 torments, and death itself. ' Very good,' said the judge ; ' we 
 shall see to-morrow if your deeds correspond with your 
 words.' 
 
 " Next day, about nine o'clock, the executioners, by 
 order of the judge, so squeezed Donatus's feet in iron boots, 
 and his hands in like gauntlets, that blood came from all 
 his ten fingers. 
 
 " But the torture failed to move him, and during it 
 Donatus more than once returned thanks to God that by 
 his grace he was able to bear the torture for his Son's name. 
 He was then for two hours extended on the rack, so that 
 he was stretched out a span in length. During the cruel 
 torture Donatus continually either prayed or exhorted the 
 Catholics who were near to constancy in the faith, which is 
 the only road to salvation, and for which he was ready to 
 shed his blood. The executioners were moved to tears by 
 the patience and constancy of the sufferer, and, by order of 
 the judge, carried him, half-dead, back to prison, where a 
 few hours afterward he slept piously in the Lord, on the 
 24th April, anno 1601." — Bruodin, lih. iii. cap. xx. 
 
176 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 REV. JOHN O'KELLY, 
 
 " A PRIEST of Connaiight, of an illustrious race, endured 
 many torments for the Catholic rehgion, and, worn out by 
 sufferings and the squalor of prison, he yielded his soul to 
 God, in prison, in Dublin, isth May, 1601." — Brnodin 
 
 lib. iii. cap, xx. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 RIGHT REV. MALACHY O'MOLLONY, BISHOP OF KILLALOE. 
 
 " Malachy O'Mollony, of Thomond, Bishop of Killa- 
 loe, a pastor unwearied in labor, full of learning and apos- 
 tolic zeal, did not escape the satellites of Elizabeth, who 
 were roaming through all parts of Ireland. He was taken 
 in the castle of the illustrious hero Gelasius O'Saghnashy, 
 dynast of the Island of Guor and of Knaleo, and was led on 
 foot through all Thomond to prison in Limerick. In that 
 long journey he suffered unheard-of insults and injuries 
 from the brutal soldiers. He spent eighteen months in a 
 squalid prison, amidst thieves and robbers, and his con- 
 stancy in the faith was firm as gold tried in the fire. As 
 his constancy remained unshaken by his sufferings, he 
 was brought before the tribunal and asked whether, as be- 
 came a subject, he would subscribe to the queen's decrees in 
 matters of faith. Malachy answered that it was not com- 
 petent for Elizabeth to rule the church, and that therefore 
 he recognized her authority in temporals, but not in spiri- 
 tuals. Then the chief-judge, without any further examina- 
 tion, sentenced him to be first tortured and then put to 
 death. After sentence the good shepherd was taken back 
 to prison, whence he escaped that very night by the care 
 of his uncle, Gelasius O'Mollony, my grandfather, and, re- 
 turning to his own people in Thomond, he changed his 
 dress, and, disguised as a laborer, and hiding from the 
 heretics for the most part in woods and morasses, he dis- 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth, 177 
 
 charged the duties of a bishop for some years. At length, 
 in great holiness, worn out with age and hardships, he 
 slept in the Lord, in the house of an honorable man, Cor- 
 nelius Bruodin, Lord of Moyne, (commonly called Mac- 
 IJruodin,) the 20th July, 1603.',' — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 Anno 1602. 
 
 FORTY-TWO PRIESTS. 
 
 " It was intimated in many districts of the southern pro- 
 vince, in 1602, that such of the clergy as pi;sented them- 
 selves to the magistrates would be allowed to take their 
 departure from the kingdom. Two Dominican fathers^ 
 and forty others,* for the most part Cistercians and secu- 
 lar priests, availed themselves of the government proposal. 
 They were ordered to assemble at the Island of Inniscat- 
 tery, in the vicinity of Limerick, and on the appointed day 
 they were taken on board a vessel-of-war to sail for France. 
 No sooner, however, had they put to sea than all were 
 tnrown overboard. When the ship returned to port, the 
 captain and all the soldiers and sailors in her were cast 
 into prison, and all the officers were cashiered by the 
 queen's order, that she might seem to the world innocent 
 of that atrocity ; but at the same time they were privately 
 admonished not to regard this, and after their pretended 
 imprisonment were rewarded with a part of the goods of 
 the abbey abandoned by those so sacrilegiously slain by 
 them ; and some of the descendants of these men yet 
 live in Ireland."! — Hib. Dom. p. 595, who quotes O'Heyn, 
 Efilogus Chronol. p. 18. 
 
 * De Burgo says : " Forty-two monks, under the name of Bemardins, two fathers of oura, 
 seven clerics of ours also, came then from the convents of Limerick and K-illmallock." 
 
 t Incredible as this atrocity might appear, the reader who will look in this work to the yeal 
 It 44 will "see that in that year another captain received the thankj ot Parliament for a siinilai 
 acL 
 
178 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 REV. EUGENE MACEGAN. 
 
 " The convent of Timoleague is near the sea, at a small 
 port in the diocese of Ross, eighteen miles from Cork. In 
 this convent repose the remains of the holy martyr Dr. 
 Eugene MacEgan, a priest,* who, while he was officiating 
 with the army of the Catholics, in 1602, was mortally wound- 
 ed by the heretics and left for dead, but was carried off yet 
 breathing by his friends, and expired in great sentiments 
 of zeal and charity in the hands of a priest and a physician, 
 who both declared on oath that they perceived in the place, 
 while he was expiring, so extraordinary and bright a light 
 that it obscured the light of the candle which was there. 
 He is buried in the cloister near the northern and western 
 angle, and there is a small cross above in the wall." — 
 Mooney, p. 49. See also Philadelphtis. 
 
 REV. DOMINICK COLLINS, S.J. 
 
 The following account of this holy martyr is given by 
 Tanner : 
 
 "Dominick Collins, a man who showed equal courage 
 when serving in France and Spain under the banners of 
 an earthly prince, and in the Society of Jesus under the 
 banner of the Cross, was born. of noble and illustrious pa- 
 rents in Ireland, lords of a town called Labranche.f His 
 name while living in the world was O'Calanus, (it is the 
 custom in Ireland to prefix the letter to a name as a sign 
 of nobility,) but when he entered religion he changed it 
 through humility to Collins.:]: When he had attained to 
 manhood under the training of his pious parents, he cross- 
 
 * " Doctor in theology, and vicar-apostolic of the diocese of Ross." — Pkiladelph. 
 
 t Philadelphus calls him " Yoghelensis," an inhabitant of Youghal, as does O'SuUivan, p. 
 239. 
 
 X Philadelphus gives his name as Cullcn ; it would seem, therefore, doubtful whether hii 
 &mily name was O'Cullen or O'Callaghan : probably the latter. 
 
In the Reign of Elizabeth. \ 79 
 
 ed into France ; and, inspired by the generous ardor of 
 youth, he determined to embrace the military profession, 
 induced to it by the thought that in the army of the most 
 Christian king he would be fighting rather for Christ than 
 for the king, for France was at that time torn by civil strife, 
 heresy having excited sedition ; and Dominick served for 
 five years against the sectaries who had taken up arms 
 against their religion and their king, and obtained the com- 
 mand of a company when only twenty-two years of age. 
 When that war was ended, he went to Spain, where he was 
 taken into the army by King Philip, and given a rank suita- 
 ble to his birth and services. He served here eight years, 
 mostly in peace, but turned his attention from external to in- 
 ternal enemies, and sought by the constant use of the sacra- 
 ments, by meditation and prayer, to overcome the interior 
 enemies of his soul, and to overcome his body by mortifi- 
 cation. His piety thus daily increasing, he began by de- 
 grees to conceive a desire for a more perfect life, and to 
 view in another light the goods of this world. Having de- 
 termined to enlist under the standard of Christ, he only 
 hesitated as to which of the various orders of his soldiers 
 he would join. He was at first inclined to join the Dis- 
 calced Franciscans, from love of the strictness of their 
 rule ; or the Friars Preachers, whose order was celebrated 
 in Spain ; and the heads of both these orders, knowing his 
 spirit of piety, would readily have advanced him to the 
 priesthood. But, after having long and earnestly recom- 
 mended the matter to God, he determined to enter the 
 humble Society of Jesus, and to continue in it in the hum- 
 b'.e rank of a lay-brother, as though unworthy or unfitting 
 the rank of priest. When he arrived at Compostella, 
 where he went to enter on his noviceship, in a handsome 
 dress, and accompanied by a large number of friends and 
 servants, as was fitting for his birth and rank, all the fa- 
 thers judged him unable to undergo the labors and duties 
 
l8o Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 of such a state, because, although more than thirty years 
 of age, he had always been accustomed to be waited on, 
 and had ever lived in affluence. 
 
 "As he perceived the common opinion in their counte- 
 nance, he sought to change it by his acts, and a violent in- 
 fectious disorder having just then broken out in the college, 
 although he had not yet entered on his noviceship or chang- 
 ed his secular dress, for three whole months he most 
 sedulously attended on the sick, and sought to be em- 
 ployed in the lowest and most painful services with as 
 much eagerness as he had formerly courted rank and digni- 
 ties. After he had gone through his noviceship and taken 
 his religious vows, he was given as a companion to Father 
 John Archer, who was to accompany the fleet which the 
 most Catholic king was about to send to the assistance of 
 the Irish Catholics. Here his zeal had full scope, serving 
 both the bodies and souls of the sailors, attending on the 
 sick day and night like a physician, and exhorting them to 
 patience, persuading those who were well to the practice 
 of virtue and the use of the sacraments. Yet outward 
 occupations did not so engross him as to prevent him from 
 meditation and prayer as if he were in a college, and practis- 
 ing continual mortifications both at sea and after his land- 
 ing in Ireland, as if he had no labors to undergo. 
 
 " These voluntary sufferings prepared him to endure with 
 courage the tortures he was soon to suffer at the hands of 
 the enemies of the faith ; for, a short time after his landins. 
 he was taken prisoner in the fort of Beerhaven by the 
 heretics,* and, contrary to the law of nations and in viola- 
 tion of their pledges, he alone was put in chains ; for the 
 besiegers had guaranteed the safety of all the besieged on 
 condition of the castle being surrendered to them, and had 
 given the most solemn pledges to this effect to Dominick 
 
 « <f 
 
 ' Beerhaven" is given by Philadelphus. Tanner has " vi9 arce Dombugensi ;" but h( 
 constantly makes mis' ikes in the orthography of Irish names. 
 
In the Reign of Elicabcth. /8i 
 
 himself, who had been the pacificator and the messenger of 
 the besieged. But they seemed to consider that to have 
 seized a Jesuit was a vindication of every breach of faith 
 and perjury.* His hands were tied behind his back, and 
 he was brought to Cork by a troop of soldiers, where he 
 was thrown into the common prison. He lay here for 
 three months, till the time of the assizes for the trial of all 
 criminals, when he was to be tried. 
 
 " Dominick would not appear in court in any other dress- 
 than the usual habit of his order, so that, if any other cause 
 than his religion were sought to be assigned, his very dress 
 might prove the contrary. 
 
 " Mountjoy, Viceroy of Ireland, who presided, made great 
 offers to him if he would join the queen's army, threatening 
 him, on the other hand, with torments and death if he per- 
 sisted in his determination not to deny his religion. His 
 friends and relations also sought to persuade him for tfieir 
 sakes to yield to the circumstances of the times, and not to 
 bring destruction on himself and a stigma on an illustrious 
 family, saying he might remain in secret a Catholic and 
 only conform outwardly to please the queen. But Dominick 
 was unmoved alike by threats and promises, and declared 
 he could not in such a matter listen to them, and was ready 
 to endure every torment rather than deny God. Nor did 
 his acts belie his words, for, being sentenced to death, as 
 guilty of treason, he returned joyfully to his prison to await 
 the time of his delivery. The cruel Mountjoy was anger- 
 ed at this calmness of the man of God, and, that the dajj 
 which were to precede his execution might be full of 
 suffering, he ordered him to De tortured, which was 
 contrary to law. The most severe torments he bore as if 
 they were pleasures and favors of Heaven, and the heretics, 
 provoked at his patience, hastened the day of his death. 
 
 • Philadelphm siys Beerhaven was taken by Sir George Carew, then commanding ia 
 Uunster. 
 
x82 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 On the last day of October, 1602, at dawn, having no 
 respect for the day, which was Sunday, they led him out 
 to execution, with his hands tied behind his back and a 
 halter round his neck. He walked calmly along, with his 
 eyes raised to heaven and his mind fixed on God, reflect- 
 ing on Christ bearing his cross. When he arrived at the 
 foot of the gallows, he fell on his knees and kissed it, com- 
 mending his passage to God ; then, following the example 
 of the martyrs, he prayed for his enemies, for the queen, 
 and for his country, and with alacrity and a cheerful coun- 
 tenance ascended the ladder. Turning round on the 
 topmost step, from thence, as from a pulpit, (for he was 
 dressed in the ordinary habit of the order,) he began more 
 ardently than ever to exhort the Catholics to preserve the 
 faith undaunted unto death, and disregard alike the threats 
 and promises of the heretics. ' Look up,' he continued, 'to 
 Hesrven, and, worthy descendants of your ancestors, who 
 ever constantly professed it, hold fast to that faith for 
 which I am this day to die.' These words, which 
 derived additional force from his high birth and the con- 
 tempt he had shown for the goods of fortune, and the 
 position in which he stood, were most powerful in encou- 
 raging the Catholics, and affected even those who were 
 not Catholics. The officers, perceiving this, to prevent 
 any further effect on the crowd, ordered him to be thrown 
 off the ladder. Nor was he allowed to hang long on the 
 gallows ; for, while yet breathing and palpitating, the 
 executioner, in punishment of his constant profession of 
 his religion, cut open his breast, and, taking out his heart, 
 held it up to the people, uttering the usual ' God sav^ 
 the queen.' Thus this last victim to God in Ireland in her 
 reign preceded the queen, guilty of so much innocent 
 blood, to the judgment-seat of God.* On the following 
 
 • Queen Elizabeth died on the 24th March, 1603 ; but her death brought no relaxauon of tba 
 persecution. 
 
LlJ 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 (/3 
 
In the Reign of yames I. 183 
 
 night, the Catholics collected his mangled limbs with great 
 pity, and consigned them to the earth in a chapel not far 
 from where he suffered." — Tanner, p. 55. See also Phila- 
 delphus, and Burgundian MS. Martyrol. Sac. jFesu, and 
 O' Sullivan, Hist. Cath. p. 239, edition of 1850. 
 
 A.ivnn 160i. 
 
 RIGHT REV. REDMOND O'GALLAGHER, BISHOP OF DERRY, 
 
 " And at that time Vice-Primate of Ireland, when in his 
 seventieth year, was overtaken by a troop of heretical horse 
 who wCTe wandering about the country, and by them pierc 
 ed with many wounds, whereof he died, in the year of oui 
 Lord 1604." — Philadelph. and Mooney, sub init.* 
 
 WALTER ARCHER, 
 
 " A GENTLEMAN of One of the first families of Kilkenny, 
 proved his constancy in the faith by enduring a long and 
 painful imprisonment for having of)posed the desecration 
 of the Dominican abbey f in that city, and died in exile 
 the 24th August, 1604. The convent was restored to its 
 sacred use by the piety of the citizens after the death of 
 Elizabeth." — Philadelph. 
 
 Anno leOB. 
 
 REV. BERNARD KEROLAN. 
 
 " This Bernard, or, as some have it, Barnabas Kerolan, 
 appears to be the same whom the holy martyr Cornelius, 
 
 • See Renehan's CoUec. p. 274. 
 
 t The celebrated Black Abbey of Kilkenny. It was again restored to the Dominicans, and 
 the church repaired, 1864. 
 
1 84 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Bishop of Down, mentions in his list of martyrs (which I 
 have) as having been hung from a tree at Trim, by the 
 heretics, in the year 1605."* — Philadelph. 
 
 Anno 1606. 
 
 REV. EUGENE O'GALLEHER AND BERNARD O'TRUORY. 
 
 " Eugene O'Galleher, a Cistercian abbot, and an 
 alumnus of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin of Asse- 
 roe, diocese of Raphoe, together with Bernard O'Truory, 
 his companion, a monk of the same order, were slain by 
 some soldiers, in hatred of their religion, in the year 
 1 606." — Philadelph. 
 
 Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx., gives date 14th November. 
 
 REV. BERNARD O'CHARNEL, 
 
 " A PRIEST of Leinster, of a noble family, was accused by 
 the heretics of having administered the sacraments accord- 
 ing to the Roman rite, and, without any more trial, was 
 hung and quartered at Dublin, on the 25th January, 1606." 
 — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 Anno 1607. 
 
 REV. NIGEL O'BOYLE, O.S.F. 
 
 " Nigel O'Boyle, of the Order of St. Francis, was be- 
 headed by the heretics and buried in a monastery of his. 
 
 • Mooney says he perished in 1601, on the 8th March, "at a very advanced age, being, as 
 was supposed, the oldest priest from his oidination in Europe." (Mooney, w;^ t?.it.) The 
 difference between old and new style frequently gives rise to apparent discrepancies in dates. 
 as is noticed by Mooney himself in this place, where he adds o-d style was observed io soma 
 parts of Ireland, the Gregorian calendar in others. 
 
In the Reign of James I. 185 
 
 order. It is to be inquired whether this is the same whom 
 the Bishop of Down, in his list of martyrs, calls Thady 
 O'Boyle, guardian of the Convent of Donegall, a preacher 
 and confessor slain by the heretics 1607." — Philadelph. 
 
 REV. ROBERT LALOR. 
 
 He was Vicar-General of the dioceses of Dublin, 
 Kildare, and Ferns. He had been cast into prison, and on 
 the 22d December, 1606, a formula of retractation was 
 proposed to him, in which King James was declared to be 
 " lawful chief and supreme governor in all causes, as well 
 ecclesiastical as civil ;" the bishops " ordained and made 
 by the King's authority" were acknowledged to be " lawful 
 bishops ;" and, in fine, a promise was exacted that he 
 would be " willing and ready to obey the king, as a good 
 and obedient subject ought to do, in all his lawful com- 
 mandments." To this latter promise Lalor readily assent- 
 ed ; and interpreting the preceding declaration as merely 
 regarding the legal ordinances of the realm, he subscribed 
 to them also. The government, however, was not as yet 
 satisfied, and, though his confinement was somewhat 
 relaxed, he was still detained in custody. His friends, on 
 learning that he was indebted for this leniency to his 
 having acknowledged the king's supremacy, were filled 
 with indignation : they were appeased, however, when he 
 protested " that his acknowledgment of the king's authority 
 did not extend to spiritual, but was confined to temporal 
 causes only." This declaration of the vicar-general soon 
 reached the ears of the lord-deputy, and hence he was, 
 without delay, indicted upon the statute of Prcemunire* 
 tried, and found guilty. During the trial, the judge 
 
 • Whicl. made the introduction of bulls, or holding communication with Rome, a capital 
 felony. 
 
1 86 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 reproached him with having denied the doctrine which he 
 had by his signature acknowledged to be true. The 
 prisoner, however, by his courage, made ample atonement 
 for any weakness he might have heretofore been guilty of. 
 He declared that there was no contradiction between the 
 document he had signed and the declaration which he had 
 made to his friends : he had acknowledged the king's 
 authority in questions of social order, but he had told his 
 friends that " he had not acknowledged the king's su- 
 premacy in the spiritual order ; and this he still affirmed 
 to be true." This explanation was, of course, declared by 
 the government officials to be mere " knavery and silliness ;" 
 the sentence of the law was pronounced upon the prisoner, 
 and in a few days another name was added to the martyrs 
 of Dublin. — Moratt, Hist. Archbishops of Dublin, vol. i. p. 
 29. 
 
 Dalton, Archbishops of Dublin, p. 332, says the sentence 
 was not executed, but does not give his authority. It was 
 certainly passed. 
 
 Anno 1608. 
 
 REV. DONATUS OLUIN, O.P.P., AND COMPANIONS. 
 " He was Prior of Derry, and in his ninetieth year was, 
 together with several secular priests, hung and quartered 
 by the English in the market-place of the town of Derry. 
 His brother, William Oluin, another religious of the Friars 
 Preachers, was also hung for the faith a short time before 
 the martyrdom of the prior, as is mentioned by Peter Mal- 
 phaeus. Prior of Brussels." — Hib. Dom. p. 559, and Dom. a 
 Rcsario, cap. ix. 
 
 Anno 1610. 
 
 SIR JOHN BURKE, OR DE BURGO. 
 
 I GIVE his life from Roothe, De Processu Martyriali. 
 "Sir John Burke was of noble birth, and had inherited. 
 
In the Reign of yames I. 187 
 
 together with the lordship of Brittas, (De Bretasio,)* seve- 
 ral other estates in the same neighborhood. His wealth 
 and position induced Sir George Thornton, an Englishman, 
 to give him in marriage his daughter, a young lady of ex- 
 cellent education, named Grace Thornton. After some 
 children had been born to him, he conceived a desire to 
 travel, more especially in Spain — whether that he consi- 
 dered the journey thither easier than elsewhere, or that he 
 thought he would find there more facilities either for fur- 
 ther travel or for dwelling there, as he proposed, for the 
 comfort of his soul and peace of conscience, and security 
 in professing the Catholic faith ; for he had already seen 
 and partly felt the sufferings which weighed on Catholics 
 in his own land, and had heard from trustworthy persons 
 of the splendor of the divine worship and the liberty and 
 perpetual peace which the Catholics enjoyed in Spain ; 
 and how that nation favored his own, not only on account 
 of the similarity (as is alleged) of their origin, but much 
 more on account of the affection created by their profes- 
 sion of the same common faith. 
 
 " While John was thus moved by these reasons, and was 
 privately preparing money and getting letters of introduc- 
 tion, his servants, guessing his intention, desired to impede 
 his plan ; and his father-in-law, having heard from others 
 some hints of his intended journey, made use of all his au- 
 thority, and that of his colleague. Sir Charles Wilmot, to 
 put a stop to it ; and was it not that he treated him more 
 gently because he was his son-in-law, he would have pun- 
 ished severely what he called his daring attempt. He and 
 Sir Charles Wilmot were joined in the government of the 
 province of Munster. Being thus frustrated of his intent, 
 he turned himself with more zeal than ever to a course of 
 piety in his own country and amidst his own kindred. He 
 
 * Bruodin (lib. Hi. cap. xx.) says he was the second son of the Baron of Castle Connell, in 
 the county Limerick. 
 
1 88 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 attended Mass openly, and assisted at sermons in com- 
 pany with his neighbors, either at his own house, when 
 there was an opportunity of having a priest there, or in 
 the neighboring town, which was five miles from his house. 
 And neither the length of the journey nor the heat of 
 summer or the rains of winter could prevent him from 
 taking this journey at least on all Sundays and feasts ; nor 
 could the severity of the persecution keep him from the 
 participation in the rites of religion. By degrees his piety 
 and zeal for the Catholic religion so increased that he in- 
 trusted most of his domestic affairs to his wife, and gave 
 his whole time to works of charity, and especially to es- 
 corting on their road and forwarding priests, more particu- 
 larly those of the Order of St. Dominick, and by this means 
 he became much hated by the Protestants. 
 
 " Thus he passed his time until the arrival in Munster 
 of the viceroy. Sir Charles Mountjoy, (Lord Mountjoy.) 
 At that time, on the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Catho- 
 lics throughout Ireland tried to restore in the various 
 towns the public exercise of the Catholic worship, which 
 before they had only practised in hidden places in fear and 
 danger. 
 
 " On the viceroy's arrival in Limerick, charges were 
 laid before him against Sir John Burke, the sum of all 
 which was, that he had been a leader in those tumults in 
 the city ; so they called the zeal for religion which the 
 citizens and municipalities had shown in the interregnum 
 which occurred on the death of Elizabeth, when it was not 
 certain what would be the course of her legitimate suc- 
 cessor. King James — whether he would imitate the exam- 
 ple of his pious mother and ancestors, or would embrace, 
 the new sect instituted by his predecessor. And as there 
 was this doubt as to what the king would do — for he was 
 despotic enough in power to do as he pleased — they deem- 
 ed themselves free to come out of their hiding-places, and 
 
In the Reign of yames I. i8g 
 
 openly show their affection for the . Catholic faith, and, 
 without injury to any one, show their devotion by its 
 public exercise ; and if in this they be held to have 
 acted too hastily in occupying some churches without 
 waiting for the consent of the authorities, it was due to 
 the fervor of their piety, not to any malignity or spirit 
 of revolt. 
 
 " But all was turned into crime, and the viceroy listened 
 with willing ears to all that was told to him by informers 
 of the zeal and vehemence of Sir John in this work ; and 
 he caused him at once to be thrown into prison, and taken 
 to Dublin, where he could be guarded more safely in the 
 castle. Many interceded for his release, and offered to be- 
 come bound in any bail for him ; but all their entreaties 
 were rejected, until that plague was raging in Dublin which 
 afterward spread over almost all Ireland. At that time 
 the chief-magistrate and the council of the kingdom, and 
 the judges and all the officials, fled in all directions, each 
 seeking his own safety, and waiting till the plague should 
 abate. In that terror and flight, after several of the pri- 
 soners had been carried off by the pestilence, almost all 
 the rest, and among these Sir John, were set free. 
 
 " While he was detained in prison he gave himself wholly 
 to exercises of devotion, reciting the canonical hours and 
 the rosary of the Blessed Virgin, pious reading and medi- 
 tation, in which he seemed so absorbed and forgetful of 
 himself that he heeded not the mice which gnawed his bed 
 and pillow, and even the skin of his neck. Whenever in 
 the night, after having composed himself to sleep, having, 
 as he thought, said all his prayers, he recollected that he 
 had omitted through forgetfulness any of his accustom- 
 ed prayers, he at once got out of bed and threw himself on 
 his knees to say them. 
 
 " When he was delivered from prison, his desire for per 
 fection continually increased ; he became a great friend of 
 
I go Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 a certain father of the Friars Preachers (Dominicans) 
 named Edmund Halaghan, by whom he was enrolled in 
 the Sodality of the Holy Rosary, which had been recently 
 erected, and most regularly observed the rules of that con- 
 fraternity, both as to reciting the rosary, frequenting the 
 sacraments of confession and communion monthly, and 
 other duties ; and his fervor so grew that his whole 
 pleasure was in the society of ecclesiastics and pious con- 
 versation. 
 
 " The fame of his piety spread through all the neigh- 
 borhood, and came to the ears of Henry Bronkard, Presi- 
 dent of Munster. During the whole time of his presidency 
 he bitterly persecuted the Catholics ; and certain men who 
 were envious of Sir John stirred him up, who was of him- 
 self indeed willing enough, to have him arrested. Theo- 
 bald Burke, Baron, and Edmund Walsh, Knight, who was 
 then vice-lieutenant* of that district of Limerick, by letter 
 accused Sir John of being a harborer of popish priests and 
 regulars throughout that county ; they added that he had 
 erected an altar in his house, as in an oratory, to which 
 crowds of people of both sexes came from all parts to say 
 their prayers. It would be invidious and distasteful to me 
 to relate what befell one of the informers ; nor is it for us 
 to guess what will be the fate of the other, or indeed of 
 both, unless they repent by times, for the future is uncer- 
 tain ; but 'the Most High is a patient rewarder.' (Ecclus. 
 V. 4.) 
 
 " It is true that Sir John had erected an altar in the larg- 
 est banqueting-room in his castle at Brittas, and, to leave 
 it freer, he moved all his household to another smaller room 
 This he did that, on the next Sunday, which was the first 
 in October, there might be space enough for the crowd of 
 members of the sodality who would come to receive the 
 
 • " Vicecomes," which generally means viscount, is here apparently used for vice-lieutenant 
 of the county, he who is second in authority to the lieutenanL 
 
In the Reign of James I. 191 
 
 holy communion ; for, according to the rule of their in- 
 stitute, they approach the holy communion on the first 
 Sunday of every month. 
 
 " The president, having learned all this from a trustworthy 
 messenger, sent a certain Captain Miller with his troop to 
 apprehend Sir John Burke and his chaplain, or head of the 
 sodality, Father John Clancy, (Clansaeus,) and carry off' all 
 the sacred ornaments. On the Sunday, at dawn, Captain 
 Miller with his troop of horse proceeded to the land of 
 Brittas, and surrounded the house at the moment when the 
 priest was saying Mass before a great multitude. At the 
 first noise of their approach the terrified crowd fled in all 
 directions ; but Sir John, with the chaplain and the sacred 
 utensils, fled into a strong tower built in the house, ac- 
 companied by two servants, one retainer, and two women, 
 who had joined them in the tumult. The captain with 
 his guards surrounded the tower and demanded entrance, 
 promising that, if it were yielded, no harm should be done 
 CO him.* Sir John gave him no answer but that, if he 
 desired to enter there, he should go to confession and 
 become a Catholic ; if not, there could be no communica- 
 tion between Christ and Belial ; for ' without are dogs and 
 sorcerers, unchaste and murderers, and servers of idols, 
 
 • Evidently the captain ofifered safety to Burke, but said nothing as to what would be done 
 with the priest ; and tt e former, well knowing what would be his chaplain's fate, refused the 
 proffered terms. This is also shown bv O'Sullivan's account of the transaction. He says ■ 
 '■ Sir John held the castle until the Mass was finished. When that was over, the priest, dressed 
 in secular habit, went out in the crowd of people, but was recognized by the Protestants and 
 seized. Sir John, mounting his horse, with his armed retainers, rescued the priest fi-om the 
 Piotestants. For this he was soon after besieged in the same castle by five troops. He held 
 the castle against them for fifteen days with only five companions, and then, being pressed by 
 hunger, he broke through his enemies by night, and having lost one of his companions, John 
 O'Holloghan, he escaped with the other four. He was, however, taken prisoner by the Pro- 
 testants a few days later in the town of Carrig-na-Suir, which is in the county of Ormond, and 
 sent to the city of Limerick. Here he suffered much, for many days, fi-om the darkness and 
 hith of his dungeon, and, as he constantly refused to hear the Protestant preacher, even stop- 
 ping his ears with his fingers, and preferred the Catholic religion to the title of baron and othei 
 rewards, and even to his life, he finally suffered death. Jt is said that two women, who were accus- 
 ed, the one at Carrick, the other at Waterford, of having concealed him, were burnt alive. Il 
 is also related that two other women were burnt at Limerick, the one for havirp said that th« 
 king's laws were unjust, the other for having concealed a priest." 
 
192 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 and every one that loveth and maketh a lie.' (Apocal. 
 xxii. 15.) 
 
 " Sir John, having given this answer, desired the captain 
 and his troop to depart, for that neither he nor the priest 
 should ever fall into their hands. His wife and mother 
 implored him to surrender, and admit the king's troops. 
 But their words fell on deaf ears, for he would neither 
 let them in nor come out. The vice-heutenant, hearing 
 of the disturbance, came to the spot with his forces. He 
 stormed and threatened, and set fire to the houses of the 
 retainers round the castle, and tried to set fire to the roof 
 of the castle itself, but could not make them come out. 
 After a few days of siege, Sir John armed the two servants 
 I have spoken of, together with the one follower, and, 
 taking the ornaments of the altar under his arm lest 
 they should be exposed to profanation, with his casque on 
 his head, his shield on his left arm, and his sword in the 
 right hand, he ordered those three to follow him, and, 
 throwing open the door of the tower, suddenly dashed off to 
 the bank of the neighboring stream, having first sent oif 
 the chaplain to a safe place, and agreed with his followers on 
 a trysting-place if they should escape. Having crossed 
 over a murmuring weir-head, he reached the land ; but the 
 noise was heard by the guards, who seized their arms and 
 pursued him. In order to run quicker, he hid the sacred 
 load which he had under his arm in the brambles and long 
 grass. 
 
 " He succeeded in evading his pursuers, having lost two of 
 his companions, and reached a distant seaport in safety, 
 probably with the hope of sailing from that port before the 
 news would spread or the place of his hiding become known. 
 But finding no opportunity of so doing, he retired to an 
 inland town, and, public orders regarding him having been 
 published throughout several counties, he was betrayed by 
 a woman at Carrick-on-Suir, and taken and thrown into 
 
In the Reign of James I. 193 
 
 prison by the governor of that town. When his wife, who 
 was with child, was allowed to visit him in prison, there was 
 nothing he more earnestly urged upon her than to hold to 
 the true faith, to serve God and to honor his blessed 
 Mother, and to avoid all intercourse with heretics. Sir 
 John so fled from all communication with heretics, that he 
 would remind us of Polycarp against Marcion, whom he 
 called the eldest born of Satan, and St. John fleeing from 
 the bath when Cerinthus entered. In order the better to 
 strengthen his wife and instruct her in her duty, he gave her 
 a letter to Father Edmund Halaghan, the director of the so- 
 dality, (in which he had himself been some time enrolled.) 
 beseeching him to instruct her and watch over her. She 
 was so eager to please her husband that, although little fit 
 for such a journey, not being far from her time, she travelled 
 from Carrick to Waterford, and, not finding him there, on to 
 Kilkenny, and that at the most inclement season of the 
 year. A troop of horse was sent to escort him from Carrick 
 by the president, who was then at Cork, and they were 
 ordered to bring him to Limerick, where the president 
 was a few days later to hold a general jail delivery. 
 
 "Sir John so abhorred holding any intercourse with the 
 Protestant soldiers that he would neither speak .to them nor 
 salute them ; nor when he entered an inn on the road, or 
 left the prison, or was tied on a car, would he utter one 
 word. So also, when he was put on his trial, and accused 
 of many things, and especially of having slain a soldier by a 
 gunshot when he was besieged in his castle, he answered 
 not a word, and imitated him who, as a lamb before his 
 shearers, opened not his mouth. The president, like Pilate, 
 sought to extract an answer from him, and declared he 
 sought not his life or goods, and would treat him with 
 great kindness if only he would yield to the king's will in 
 matters of religion and faith. On his refusal to obey the 
 king in matters of faith, or to abandon the path of duty 
 
194 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 in which he had been brought up, he was condemned to 
 death 
 
 " What was very remarkable about this matter was, thai 
 the two judges whose duty it was to pronounce sentence — 
 namely, the justices of the province — touched with compunc- 
 tion, evaded doing so ; and in consequence, by the despotic 
 order of the president, the judge who by virtue of an extra- 
 ordinary commission sat to try him was Dominick Sarceville, 
 (Sarcevilius,) who was then king's procurator or fiscal advo- 
 cate of the province of Munster, and a judge in the Court 
 of Common Pleas.* 
 
 " He, indeed, appeared to the spectators to be unwilling 
 about this matter, and, looking up toward heaven, to be 
 touched by remorse of conscience ; but, fearing to resist the 
 authority of the president, he went through his duty as 
 judge, and interrogated the accused whether he would obey 
 the will of the king and conform. He unfearingly and un- 
 hesitatingly answered that he could acknowledge no king 
 or queen against Christ, the King of heaven, and the Queen 
 of heaven, his Mother ; and that whoever sought to turn 
 him away from the true worship and honor due to both, 
 far from deserving to be obeyed, deserved neither honoi 
 nor assent ; and that whoever would act otherwise was not a 
 servant of God, but a slave of the devil. Here I may 
 remind my hearers of the bold speech of the martyr 
 Genesius, who, when he was urged by the persecutors to 
 renounce Christ and obey the emperor, answered his 
 tormentor in these words : ' There is no king but Christ ; 
 and were you to slay me for this a thousand times, you 
 cannot tear him from my heart or mouth.' With 
 similar confidence did John seek to deliver himself from 
 the importunity of the judge ; and in language not dis- 
 similar does the apostle speak of God alone, immortal and 
 
 • " Antecessor in CuriS Communium Placitorum TCgni." I do not know if I h.tve rifilitlT 
 translated "antecessor." 
 
In the Reign of y antes T. 195 
 
 invisible, the King of ages ; and of Christ himself, that no 
 one is good but God alone ; and forbids us to call any on 
 earth our father, as there is one Father of all, who is in 
 heaven. And St. Francis, when his father, in the presence 
 of the Bishop of Assisi, would compel him to take his 
 inheritance, cast off even his garment, saying that for the 
 future he could more freely say, ' Our Father who art in 
 heaven.' So John, when solicited to deny Christ and his 
 blessed Mother, and his spouse the Catholic Church, 
 hesitated not to say that to do so was not the part of a 
 just judge or king, and he preferred rather to disobey one 
 than the other, and preferred heaven to earth. 
 
 " Sarcevilius then declared he was guilty of high treason, 
 and pronounced on him sentence of death in this form : to 
 be hanged and then beheaded, and his body divided into 
 four parts. This sentence he received with a cheerful 
 countenance, and made no answer, save that he rejoiced 
 that those who could so torture and insult the body had 
 no power over the soul; and he further expressed his 
 aversion to heresy, and faithfulness in obedience to the 
 Apostolic See, in whose holy communion he wished to 
 die. 
 
 " He was carried in a cart to the place of execution, out- 
 side the city, and then he asked to be let down and per- 
 mitted to approach on his knees for the space of about a 
 furlong* to the gallows. 
 
 " When his request was granted, he commended himself 
 to the saints with the greatest fervor, and showed as much 
 consolation and alacrity as if he were going to a feast. Truly 
 rnay we say he was bidden to a feast, at which Christ himself 
 was to minister, and girding himself to make those sit down 
 in the kingdom of his Father who in an earthly kingdom 
 would not bend the knee to Baal, but chose rather to offend 
 
 • He uses the Persum word parasang, an uncertain measure. 
 
196 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 the presidents and princes and judges of this world than 
 to disobey the Judge of the world to come, by whom judges 
 themselves shall be judged, and kings, if they err, be cor- 
 rected, either here or hereafter. 
 
 " One day judges another, but the last judges all. When 
 Sir John was hung, some noblemen, among others Sir 
 iThomas Broune, entreated the president that, when taken 
 down from the gallows, he might not be cut in pieces, and 
 their request was granted, and his friends and relatives 
 carried him into the city, and buried him in the church of 
 St. John, at Limerick, about the 20th October, a.d. 1607." 
 
 He is mentioned also by Dominick a Rosario ; Carve, 
 p. 315 ; and Hib. Dom., p. 565 ; but they add nothing to the 
 facts given by Roothe and O'Sullivan. Bruodin (lib. iii. 
 cap. XX.) gives a long life of him, substantially agreeing 
 with that of Roothe, wkich he says he took from a manu- 
 script life of Sir John, in his possession, written by Father 
 Matthew Crahy, his confessor, afterward vicar-general of 
 the diocese of Killaloe. 
 
 REV. JOHN GRAVES, DOCTOR IN THEOLOGY. 
 
 Of him Dominick a Rosario writes : 
 
 " Have we not also the history of the martyrdom of John 
 Graves, doctor in theology, who, being accused of having 
 written a defence of the pope's supremacy, was arraigned 
 before an iniquitous tribunal .' Will not the blood of this 
 man cry aloud to Heaven till this world has grown hoary ? 
 When arraigned before his judges, and interrogated by 
 them, here was his answer : ' See you,' said he, ' this 
 thumb, fore-finger, and middle finger .' With them I 
 wrote this writing. I do not repent of having done so, nor 
 does it grieve me to be charged with it, nor do I blush to 
 acknowledge it.' He was then sentenced to die, and his 
 
In the Reign of y antes I. 1^7 
 
 right hand to be burned ; but, wonderful to relate, the 
 hand was burnt, but those three fingers remained unin- 
 jured." — Dom. a Rosario, p. 163. 
 
 REV. FATHER FRANCIS HELAN, O.S.F., 
 
 " A VERY aged Franciscan priest, was seized in Drogheda, 
 at the foot of the altar, after saying Mass. When he was 
 conducted a prisoner through the streets, the women rose, 
 rushed in crowds from all quarters of the town, and by 
 repeated volleys of stones and other missiles rescued him 
 from the soldiery. Father Francis, however, being con- 
 scious of no crime, and fearing lest the vengeance of the 
 government might fall on the Catholics of Drogheda, 
 surrendered himself voluntarily, and, being conducted to 
 Dublin, was arraigned in his habit before the lord-chan- 
 cellor, the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. The captain 
 of the escort interposed in behalf of Father Helan ; and 
 stated, moreover, that he himself had never been in such 
 danger of his life as from the women of Drogheda. Not- 
 withstanding this interposition, and although no crime 
 was imputed to him, the aged priest was thrown into prison, 
 where he had to suffer for six weary months." — Mooney, ap. 
 Moran, Hist. Archbishops of Dublin, vol. i. p. 246 ; also 
 Wadding, Annals. 
 
 REV. JOHN LUNE, 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 " Of Wexford, a pious priest, persevered courageously in 
 instructing the Catholics entrusted to his care, at the risk 
 of his life ; and, being taken by the heretics, he was hung 
 and quartered at Dublin, the 12th November, 1610."— 
 Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
198 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Anno 161S. 
 
 RIGHT REV. CORNELIUS O'DOVANY BISHOP OF DOWN 
 
 AND CONNOR, AND REV. PATRICK LOCHERAN, 
 
 PRIEST, HIS COMPANION, S.F. 
 
 I eiVE first his life from Roothe, as it is not to be hid 
 in Ireland : 
 
 " ' How shall I worthily praise, O holy martyrs ! your 
 courage and perseverance in the faith ? You endured to 
 the end the sharpest tortures, and yielded not to t>>e 
 torments, but rather the torments yielded to you.' (St. 
 Cyprian, lib. ii. epist. 2.) I speak here of Cornelius 
 Dovany, Bishop of Down and Connor, and his com- 
 panion, Patrick Locheran, a priest of Ulster ; joined i.*". 
 affection, and even in death, their history shall not be 
 divided. Great as is the distance on earth between a 
 bishop and a simple priest, it is just that we should com- 
 memorate on one day the birth to a heavenly life of those 
 on whom Christ our Lord bestowed in one day, and un- 
 der the same persecutor, the martyr s palm. They were 
 sentenced to death by an unjust judgment, under Arthur 
 Chichester, Viceroy. They suffered death in the city of 
 Dublin, anno 161 1, on the ist day of February. 
 
 " In thinking of them I am reminded of the holy Pope 
 Sixtus, and Laurence the Levite. The more advanced in 
 age and in rank met death first ; the other obediently and 
 courageously followed his father and his bishop. Sixtus 
 consoled Laurence in a strange manner by telling him there 
 remained for him yet greater sufferings for Christ, and that 
 he would follow him after three days. Cornelius consoled 
 Patrick by telling him that he would follow him, not in three 
 days, but in three minutes, by the same ladder and the 
 same death, he would ascend to the same palm of martyr- 
 dom. Sixtus forewarned Laurence of his more "-rievous 
 sufferings. Patrick was pressed to apostatize by Secretary 
 
In tht Reign of James L 199 
 
 Challoner and his satellites, being shown the headless and 
 bleeding body of his bishop, to strike him with the fear of 
 death ; but, firmly fixed on the rock of faith, he looked 
 unmoved on the blood of his beloved bishop, and drew 
 strength for his own passion from the sight. 
 
 " Cornehus, having embraced the rule of St. Francis 
 from his youth, almost before he had attained liis twentieth 
 year, was a pattern of piety and patience, and having been 
 raised to the episcopal dignity,* labored strenuously to 
 fulfil its duties. At length he was taken prisoner and 
 thrown into prison, in Dublin Castle,! and was there kept 
 
 ♦Appointed to the united sees of Down and Connor, z6th April, 1582. — Acta Cojisisto- 
 riaiia. 
 
 t Two unpublished manuscripts in the Burgundian Library, Brussels, contain much valuable 
 information relating to the martyrdom of Bishop Cornelius. The one is entitled Com- 
 pendmTn of the Martyrdom of the Right Rev, Father Cornelius O^Doveany, of the Order of 
 Friars Mifwrs, Bishop of Down and Connor^ and of his Chaplain^ extracted from the letters 
 sent from Ireland to- i/te Irish Friars Minors in Louvain. It is numbered 2167, pp. 421. 
 The second is a letter from Father Thomas Fleming, Dominican, dated Dundalk, 15th April, 
 (old style,) 1612, and evidently addressed to a Dominican father in Louvain. It is numbered 
 2167, pp. 415. These two contemporary accounts fully confirm the statements of Roothe and 
 O'Sullivan ; indeed, it is probable they were consulted by the former. As, however, they give 
 some new and striking facts, I will here give some extracts from each. 
 
 From the Compendium.: "During the whole time the bishop was in prison, he almost daily 
 said Mass, making use of ornaments secretly conveyed into the prison by some Catholics.' 
 He was often seen by some of ours bathed in tears in mental prayer, and was heard by his 
 fellow-captives in his prayer to break out into these words: 'O Lord God I through thy great 
 mercy, grant me, thy servant, to lay down my life for thee, as thou didst lay down thy life 
 on the cross for me, thy wretched creature ; and grant me to end my days for the confessioti ol 
 *hi' name either by the sword of the heretic or in this prison.' He often said to noble Catho- 
 Jics who visited him that he would prefer life in prison to freedom, were in not for the good of 
 his flock. . . . The bishop and priest were placed in two separate carts, and, as they went, the 
 bishop frequently called out, ' Hasten, my friend, to receive your crown ;' and the priest 
 answered, ' Behold me ; I will not hesitate or delay.' The people thought themselves happy 
 if they could get near the cart to receive the bishop's blessing, which he lovingly gave. For 
 many years his face had not been so fresh-colored nor his countenance so cheerful and amiable 
 as it was from the door of the prison to the moment of his death. When they came to the 
 place of execution, there were between five and six thousand people there. The place of 
 execution was on a hill, and the two, gettmg down from the cart at the foot of the hill, knelt 
 down and prayed fervently. Then, to the admiration of all, the old mac, '\ilh strong and 
 eaj^er steps, walked up to the gallows and embraced and kissed its beams, as did the i)rie!;t. 
 All were astonished to see such strength in so old a man, (he was about eighty years old,) and 
 one worn out with prison. Then he asked that the priest might go first, (for he had a 
 
 ' I have seen such sacred vessels, etc., myself in Ireland: small chalices, which unscrewed 
 mto two parts, and could be carried in the pockets, and thin vestments, which roljed up in a 
 smaD space, — M. CR. 
 
200 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 for about three years. What he suffered there can hardly 
 be told, being almost without clothing, and in danger of 
 perishing of hunger and thirst, had not necessity taught him 
 a mode of obtaining relief There were confined in the 
 castle prison at that time other prisoners for civil offences, 
 
 iJiRtoral care for his companion,) but it was refused ; and the priest said, ' Go, then, before Die, 
 leverend father, and truly without delay will I follow you.' He mounted the ladder without 
 assistance, the executioner going before him. When he had mounted four or five steps, he 
 blessed all the Catholics, praying that liberty might be granted to them, and then prayed 
 to God that he would forgive the injustice that was done to him, and that for his part he freely 
 imd willingly forgave it. So also did the priest. Then the bishop, taking for his text the 
 words of St. Paul, 'Though an angel from heaven should preach to you another gospel than 
 ynu have heard trom us, believe it not,' began to address some words of exhortation to the 
 people, but the councillors who stood around ordered him to be stopped and immediately 
 thrown off. Then gently smiling, he kissed the ccrd, and himself fitted it to his neck, and 
 covered his face with a cloth, and held out his hands to the executioner to be bound." 
 
 Father Fleming, in his letter, says : " About the same time that my Lord Carew came here, 
 an edict was promulgated against all Jesuits, seminarists, and other priests, and a short time 
 before was taken prisoner the Right Rev. Cornelius O'Dovany, who afterward received the 
 crown of martyrdom : he had reached his eighty-sixth year. The evils of these days will not 
 admit of my telling you all that befell him, but I will mention a few incidents. As he was 
 passing in the cart to the place of execution, one of the first citizens of Dublin threw himself on 
 his knees in the midst of the street to ask his blessing. A noble matron also rushed through 
 the solders to the cart in which the holy old man lay to ask for a bit of his girdle,^ to whom 
 he willingly gave the whole. The insoleqt soldiers reproved her, saying she should be put in 
 the cart herself. (Thus are carried about those who are taken in adultery and fornication.) 
 She answered them that she would deem it a great honor to be put in the cart with so holy a 
 man. ... A number of minls'ers accompanied the procession, among whom was one ChnI' 
 loner, who is well known to your friend Michael. He was very troublesome to the bishop, and 
 as he was just mounting the ladder said to him, ' Confess that it is not for your religion, but for 
 treason, that you are doomed to death.* 'Nay,' said the bishop; 'the contrary is clearly 
 seen ; for there stands the messenger from the viceroy to me, who offered that, if 1 would only 
 once enter that temple, (pointing to it,) not only life, but ample ecclesiastical revenues should be 
 given me.* . . . There was one of the soldiers, named Robin Divel, who bought the bishop's 
 tunic from the executioner for ten shillings, but he had hardly got it in his hands when tlie 
 Catholics with their knives cut it in divers pieces and plucked it from him, and though he 
 drew his sword to protect himself, it was no use in such a crowd, and he lost the tunic and his 
 money." 
 
 The following extracts, although not refernng to the death of the bishop, are interesting: 
 *' It was expected that there would be a great persecution of the Catholics, but it is gone off in 
 smoke : it is not known why. Our domestic affairs go on well and quietly, and we are very 
 well received by the people, as are the other orders. Your friend Robert is an earnest worker, 
 and never rests from his labors. Where I am stationed there is an abundant harvest, for 1 have 
 to travel through all Ulster. However, by special order, I have preached here the wh .tie 
 Lent, all Sundays and holydays, in a house prepared for the purpose, and which is capabk of 
 holding six hundred persons, and it is wonderful how niady the people are to receive ilie 
 8t^. During the week I have frequently made excursions to the neighboring villages, of 
 
 * " Althwdgh forbidden to wear it openly, he always wore the habit and girdle of St. Francii 
 under his other clothes." — CoinJ>endmtn 
 
In the Reign of James L 20 1 
 
 who were fed, if not better, at least more abundantly, at 
 their own expense. They were in the story under him, 
 so that he could hear their voices, but not see them. 
 Searching about carefully, he found a broken bit of the 
 flooring, which could be lifted up, and through this hole he 
 spoke to them. They were willing enough to succor him 
 in his hunger, but had not much to give ; however, they 
 offered him a bit of bread and a drink of beer. As the floor 
 intervened, Cornelius made a cord with his braces, and, 
 letting it down through the hole, drew up first a dry crust 
 of bread, and then a cup of insipid beer ; and many a time 
 during these three years such aid prolonged his life.* We 
 are thus reminded of the prophet Jeremias, who was let 
 
 which you may judge the fruit by one example. After one sermon on the right way of con- 
 fessing, and after I had published the indulgences granted for that time, I and another priest, 
 the parish priest of the place, were occupied all that afternoon till midnight and the next day 
 until twelve hearing the confessions of the people, many of whom made a general confession 
 of their whole life. These are the things of most moment which occur to me to tell you, and 
 if I shall learn any other pleasing news I will communicate it to you. I desire to hear some 
 news of my Louvain friends. I wish them all health in Christ, and pray thepi to remember 
 me in their prayers. My best salutation to Master Lossius, the royal prefect, to Peter, to 
 Vising, and Smith of the Cross. 
 
 "The Convent of Dundalk, 15th April, (old style ; new style, 25th,) 1612. — Your devoted 
 servant, Thomas FtifMiNG." 
 
 * The following letter in the State Paper Office throws much light on the bishop's arrest, 
 and shows clearly that his only crime was his re^'gion : 
 
 " Fytzwylliam to Burghley, October 26, 1588. Dublin. 
 
 "Tt may please your Lordship : there is a prisoner in the castle, ooe Cornelius, Bishop of 
 Down and Connor, who, having lately escaped, had upon his apprehension found about him 
 a commission — the copy whereof your Lordship shaU receive enclosed — sent from the Bishop 
 of Derry, authorizing him, as his vice-primate, to grant pardons and indulgences, who albeit 
 a most pestilent and dangerous member, and fit to be cut-off, yet, being informed that we 
 cannot here otherwise proceed agains. him than in the course of Praemunire, I humbly beseech 
 y^ur Lordship's directions and assistance for some other means whereby we may be rid of 
 such an obstinate enemy to God, and so rank a traitor to her Majesty, as he no doubt is. 
 
 (Enclosure.) 
 " Nos Redmundus, Dei et Apostolicse Sedis gratia Deren. Episcopus ac totius Hibernis 
 Vice-Primas, Revido Dnn confratri N^" Comelio, Dunen. et Coneren. Episc, — Quonlam prop- 
 ter imminentia pericula ac discrimina intentus vits, personaliter terras illas visitare nequimus, 
 aJ dispensandum cum omnibus cum quibus si presentes essemus Brevis ApostoHci auctoritate 
 ac primitialis dignitatis vices nostras ad annum integrum a tempore et {sic) presentium tenore 
 hujus scrlptur^e, committimus ac potestatem absolvendi omnes ad singulos ad se concurrentes a 
 casibus tarn episcopalibus quam papalibus in foro saltern conscientix, injuncta eisdem pro modo 
 culpas salutari penitentia, ad predictum tempus concedimus et indulgemus.— Dat. in ecclesia 
 parochial] de Tamlar, 2 Julii, 1 ?88. Redmundus Deren. Episcopus ac Vice-Primaa." 
 
202 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 down by a cord into a dungeon wherein there was no 
 water, but mire, that he might die of hunger ; and had not 
 an Ethiopian of the king's household taken of the old rags 
 there were in the king's storehouse, and let them down by 
 cords to Jeremias into the dungeon, and said, 'Put these 
 old rags and these rent and rotten things under thy arms 
 and upon the cords,' he had not been drawn up and brought 
 forth out of the dungeon. And, in like manner, had not 
 the holy bishop received these crusts of bread and furtive 
 drops of beer, he had surely perished of famine. 
 
 " At length, by divine Providence, he was released, God 
 so disposing that his freedom of body should bring freedom 
 to the souls of many. But a very short time passed, 
 however, when the royal councillors repented them that 
 they had let him go, and they sought by every art to get 
 him again into their power. But as the bird which has 
 escaped from the net of the fowler suspects everything, 
 and flies every dangerous spot, lest some snare be there 
 hidden, so he walked cautiously and guardedly, lest he 
 should again fall into the same pit. But a care for his own 
 safety often came into collision with the due discharge of 
 his sacred ministry : he always preferred the salvation 
 of others to his own safety ; and at length, after several 
 years' labors, he fell into the hands of those who deem- 
 ed they would do the king a great service by apprehend- 
 ing him. 
 
 " He was seized in the month of June,* while he was 
 occupied putting an end to quarrels and confirming the 
 servants of Christ. The priest Patrick was taken prisoner 
 the same month in the port of Cork, whither he had lately 
 
 * O'Sullivan says he was arrested June, i6i i, and executed April, 1612 ; and this '11 prob£.bly 
 correct, although Dr. Roothe, in this work, puts his death in 161 1, because he himself ad- 
 dressed a letter to him, as in prison, on the 17th December, 161 1, and had he been executed 
 eight months before, he would have heard of it. (Epistola Parsnetica ad Episcopnm Dunen- 
 sem, in AnaUcia Sacra et N'ova.) Carve puts his death at 1614, but he is often inaccurate. 
 Father Fleming writes of it as recent, (on 2Sth April, 1612.) Mooney also, wlio is very accvi 
 rate, puts his death at 1613. 
 
In the Reign of yames I. 203 
 
 returned from Belgium, and he confessed to the provincial 
 council that he had been a companion in their travels, and 
 had administered the rites of the church to those lords 
 whom fear for their own safety or love of religion had 
 made exiles from their wide domains. 
 
 " They were both taken to Dublin ; the priest was thrown 
 into the vilest dungeon, the bishop was kept in custody in 
 the castle.* Both were sentenced to death, but I will re- 
 late more at length the manner of their sentence. 
 
 " The bishop was accused that, in the last warlike rising 
 caused by the Earl of Tyrone,! he had followed the earl, 
 contrary to the obedience he owed to his prince, and was, 
 therefore, guilty of high treason ; the more so that he had 
 aided by his counsel and help the earl when he fled with 
 his adherents. 
 
 "The bishop endeavored with valid reasons to answer 
 the principal heads of accusation ; and to the first he an- 
 swered that he was consecrated a bishop to labor for the 
 salvation of the flock entrusted to him, and, as his bishop- 
 ric of Down and Connor lay in that part of Ulster which 
 Earl Hugh held by force of arms, it was his duty to labor 
 as best he could to direct the inhabitants in the way of 
 salvation ; that as to warlike matters he neither desired to 
 know nor knew anything ; and had he advised the earl 
 against his will, he would not have heeded him or held his 
 hand for any remonstrance of his, (the bishop.) As far as 
 he could by word and example, he had led men from vice 
 and to follow virtue, and had labored and watched to this 
 end ; but was not ashamed of it, nor should it be brought 
 as a crime against him. And even were these things, 
 however unjustly, to be accounted crimes, he could defend 
 
 • He was less rigorously confined, and was even able to say Mass by stealth. — See p. 199. 
 
 t Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. To the bishop's plea that the Act of Oblivion covered all 
 offences, the judge answered that it could not avail him, as he had not submitted and taken the 
 oath of allegiance and supremacy. This was, of course, to exclude all Catholics from its benefit, 
 as they could not take the oath of supremacy. — O* Sullivan. 
 
204 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 himself by reminding them that, when King James as- 
 cended the throne, he had proclaimed by the voice of 
 a herald, and publicly posted up in writing, a pardon for 
 all offences and crimes before committed. He could, 
 therefore, allege a double defence : first, that what was al- 
 leged against him was no crime ; secondly, that even were 
 it one, it was forgiven by the king's pardon. That such 
 was the intention of the king and his council in publishing 
 the Act of Oblivion is clear, as otherwise, instead of an act 
 of clemency, it would be a snare.* Thus the bishop clear- 
 ly answered the first head of the accusation ; the second 
 he replied to not less felicitously. 
 
 " As I have heard, a false witness, a son of Belial, ac- 
 cused the bishop before the tribunal of having been with 
 Earl Hugh shortly before his flight, and having consulted 
 with him as to the road and manner of his flight and the 
 preparation for it. The holy bishop could have proved 
 by the testimony of many witnesses that he was not in 
 that province at that time, nor within many days' journey 
 of where Earl Hugh was, so that he could not have been 
 the adviser of that unfortunate expedition, from which, had 
 he been consulted, he would rather have dissuaded them, 
 or had they been bent on being rather exiles than pri- 
 soners, he would probably have accompanied them in theii 
 exile. 
 
 " Had he, however, even known of their departure, and 
 given them food and assistance, how should this be con- 
 sidered a crime, since these great lords of the kingdom, 
 leaders of the nation and subjects of the king, were not 
 criminals or rebels, were not even accused, as far as he 
 could know, of any plots against the crown, much less 
 convicted of crime, but, on the contrary, had just returned 
 
 • I h^ve omitted here a long parap-aph, in which, in the style of the pericd, and with 
 classic illustrations, Dr Roothe enlarges on this; and later, also, cne or two other lengthy 
 illustrations. 
 
In the Reign of James I. 205 
 
 from the English court with the favor of the king ? But 
 whatever matters were thus alleged against him were the 
 pretext for, not the cause of, the death of the bishop ; the 
 real cause was in the mind of the judge and his assessor ; 
 another was outwardly put forward. His real crime was 
 that he was a Catholic, a religious, and a bishop ; that he 
 had administered the sacraments, preached the word of 
 God, and bore the habit of St. Francis, which they hated. 
 
 " But not even the guilty should be condemned, except 
 in accordance with the laws. I do not speak here of the 
 difference between civil and ecclesiastical tribunals, or 
 of those ecclesiastical immunities sanctioned alike by im- 
 perial decrees and the canons of the church, and which 
 the holy martyr of Canterbury defended even with his life, 
 against the so-called English customs and the Statutes of 
 Clarendon. But in this trial the provisions of English 
 law were not observed. The accused was not allowed his 
 lawful challenges to the jurors. The questions of fact are 
 to be determined by the jurors ;* but only strangers to this 
 country, English and Scotch,f to whom the accused was 
 unknown, and by whom the circumstances of the case 
 could not be understood, were allowed to be on the jury. 
 One Irishman there was on the jury, who is said to have 
 openly declared his dissent from the verdict, but he was 
 not listened to. An Irish false witness against the bishop 
 was heard and believed ; an Irish juryman, who \vas for 
 acquitting the innocent, was not Hstened to, and might 
 deem himself happy not to be punished for upholding the 
 truth. 
 
 "As soon as the jury, with one exception, had pro- 
 
 • Accorfing to the old English law, the jurors were to decide irom their own knowledge, 
 •ided by the evidence, and the writ directed the sheriff " to summon a jury of twelve men from 
 the neighborhood who best may know the facts." The bishop also challenged the jurors ai 
 being aliens, and not freeholders, as required by law, but the cliallenges were all disallowed.— 
 (y S-ulUvan. 
 
 t And men no* one of whom was worth twenty pence of revenae. 
 
206 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 nounced their unjust verdict, the judge pronounced the sen- 
 tence that 'Cornelius Dovany, Bishop of Down and Con- 
 nor, should be taken back to prison, and then drawn in a 
 cart to the place of execution, there hanged on the gallows, 
 and cut down while alive, embowelled, and his heart and 
 bowels burnt, his head cut off. and his body divided into 
 four parts.'* 
 
 " The like sentence was passed on the priest Patrick, 
 If you ask the cause, a different one was alleged in each 
 case, but in reality there was but one — the Catholic faith ; 
 and although his enemies suppressed this in his sentence, 
 in his death all-powerful truth drew, however unwilling, an 
 acknowledgment ; for as the heretics loudly upbraided him 
 with having been condemned, not for the faith, but for 
 treason, he by an ingenious artifice preserved not his life, 
 but his honor. 
 
 "A petition was written in his name, stating that he 
 lived in the province of Ulster at the time when the Earl 
 of Tyrone involved that province and others in wars and 
 forays, and neither on account of that sedition nor for any 
 other cause had he avoided speaking with or meeting the 
 earl or his followers, much less so after peace had been 
 made. If in this he had erred, and if the Act of Oblivion 
 published by the king, and pleaded by him, did not cover 
 his offence, he thus craved pardon from the viceroy. This 
 petition was sent in, and his life was promised to him in 
 the name of the viceroy if he would write his name to the 
 petition. 
 
 • A certain pious woman, who used to carry food to the bishop and the priest, which was sup 
 plied by the Catholics, after his sentence asked the bishop how be was in health. " I have 
 rot been better," said he, " these ten years, either in mind or body. My only wish now is th.^t 
 Cod will vouchsafe to take me to his heavenly kingdom by martyrdom, rather than per- 
 mit me to be worn out ia prison of old age. You, daughter, have done me many services, for 
 which I thank you, as 1 may, and which God will reward. Do me this further service, I pray : 
 When I am slain (as God grant I may be) have me buried in this, (showing her the Franascan 
 habit.) I value this frock, which I put on when I was young, more than the insignia ot a 
 bishop." — O^ Sullivan. 
 
In the Reign of jFames I. 207 
 
 "When Saul pursued the royal prophet with deadly 
 hatred, (i Kings xxii.,) and he, flying from the wrath of the 
 king, turned aside to the priest Achimelech, and was re- 
 freshed by him, and, being seen by an Edomite servant of 
 Saul, fled elsewhere ; and when the priest was sent for by 
 Saul and accused, saying, ' Why hast thou conspired 
 against me, thou, and the son of Isai, and thou hast given 
 him bread and a sword, and hast consulted the Lord for 
 him, that he should rise up against me, continuing a trai- 
 tor to this day ? And Achimelech, answering the king, 
 said : And who amongst all thy servants is so faithful as 
 David, who is the king's son-in-law, and goeth forth at thy 
 bidding, and is honorable in thy house ? Did I begin to- 
 day to consult the Lord for him ? far be this from me : 
 let not the king suspect such a thing against his servant ;' 
 so Cornelius the bishop did not deny that he had been 
 with Earl Hugh, but confidently denied it was any crime ; 
 but if his adversaries, as they had the power, wrested it 
 into a crime, he begged pardon of them and appealed to 
 their clem.ency ; but if they desired his death, he besought 
 them at least to spare his honor, and assign the true cause 
 of his death. They were not adroit enough to avoid the 
 snare, and, seeking to avoid the charge of cruelty, they 
 made his life depend on the royal will, and then openly 
 offered him life if, abandoning the Roman Catholic 
 religion, he would embrace their sect. When the bishop 
 heard this, he raised his voice, and called upon all present to 
 witness that he died for the Catholic faith ; that he would 
 betray himself and deny God if he were, for such an earthly 
 offer, to abandon the faith.* Having thus obtained his 
 
 * " T he viceroy sent several times councillors and others to offer the condemned life and 
 reward, and especially to thb bishop his bishopric, and to the priest a good living, if they would 
 •■enounce the Catholic Church and the authority of the Roman pontiff, and acknowledge the 
 king's supremacy. The bishop answered that it was far greater folly to try to persuade him, 
 a man near eighty years of age, for the sake of a short term of happiness in this fleeting life, 
 to mcur eternal punishment, than to have advised the aged Eleazer, in order to avoid death, to 
 tat swine's flesh. So also spoke the priest." — 0* Sullivan. 
 
2o8 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 wish, and made his innocence clear, he despised this 
 temporal life, and, eager for the death which awaited him, 
 he expected with the lofty spirit of a Christian the triumph 
 of the cross. 
 
 " As is the case with martyrs, his piety increased with 
 his worldly t^'oubles, and in watching and prayer he await 
 ed the day when he should be called to die. That happy 
 and wished-for day at length came. The 1st of February 
 at four o'clock in the afternoon, he was called to mount 
 the cart which, surrounded by guards, stood at the prison 
 door. When the holy bishop came in sight of that 
 triumphal chariot, he sighed and said, ' My Lord Jesus, 
 for my sake, went on foot, bearing his cross, to the moun- 
 tain where he suffered ; and must I be borne in a cart, as 
 though unwilling to die for him, when I would hasten with 
 willing feet to that glory .' Would that I might bear my 
 cross and hasten on my feet to meet my Lord !' Turning 
 to his fellow-sufferer, Patrick,^ he said, ' Come, my brave 
 comrade and worthy soldier of Christ, let us imitate his 
 death as best we may who was led to the slaughter as a 
 sheep before the shearer.' Then bending down and kiss- 
 ing the cart, he mounted up into it, and sat down with his 
 back to the horses, and was thus drawn through the paved 
 streets to the field where the gallows was erected.* 
 
 " Doeg the Idumean may come with his emissaries, and 
 slay the priest of the Lord ; the priesthood they cannot 
 slay ; our religion they ca«not take away, our faith they 
 cannot uproot, our constancy they cannot weary : the moni 
 of us are slain, the more numerous we are. As Tertullian 
 says {Apolog. c. 50) : ' The battle to which we are challeng- 
 ed is before the tribunals ; and there, at the peril of our 
 life, we fight for the truth. Victory is what is sought. 
 That victory brings with it the glory of pleasing God, and 
 
 • " Having crossed the nver which washes the city, they cime to the foot of the hillock on 
 wtiicli stood tne gallows." — O^ Sullivan. 
 
In the Reign of James I, 209 
 
 the- spo'l of eternal life. Your cruelty profits nothing, but 
 is lather an incentive ; we become the more numerous the 
 more we are decimated ; our seed is the blood of Chris- 
 tians.' This was well proved in the martyrdom of the bish- 
 op ; for those Catholics who before his imprisonment and 
 condemnation trembled at the sound of a falling leaf, who 
 feared to meet a Catholic priest, much less a bishop, and 
 were slow to harbor one, lest they might thereby incur 
 danger or the enmity of the rulers, now, when he was led 
 to execution, poured out in a dense crowd from every door 
 into the streets, and in the sight of the councillors, and to 
 the indignation of the viceroy, fell on their knees. Men 
 of the first rank, and the inhabitants of all the neighboring 
 villages and castles, crowded as to a solemn sight ; they 
 saluted with reverence the bishop as he passed in the cart, 
 and begged his pontifical benediction. As they lamented 
 his death, he gently consoled them, and with forcible words 
 exhorted them to fortitude and constancy in the faith and 
 all Christian piety. Many noble matrons came and la- 
 mented the death of the bishop ; and as they perceived sev- 
 eral of the king's council accompanying the procession and 
 showing their hostility, they boldly exclaimed in their hear- 
 ing that it ill became the king's councillors to turn execu- 
 tioners. 
 
 " May it be well with that citizen of Dublin who, as the 
 bishop passed his house, fasting indeed from morning, but 
 not fainting, brought him out a cup of wine, and prayed 
 him to bless him and his household. We may believe he 
 remembered the vision in which his mother taught King 
 Lamuel : ' Give strong drink to them that are sad, and wine 
 to them that are grieved in mind : let them drink, and 
 forget their want, and remember their sorrow no more.' 
 (Proverbs xxxi. 6, 7.) 
 
 " But Cornelius, because he grieved not, but rather ex- 
 
210 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 ulted as a giant to run his course, only tasted of the wine, 
 and with his bound hands blessed the house of his friend, 
 and the whole city of Dublin, whose citizens he praised for 
 the fervor of their faith and their charity. 
 
 " Cornelius, when he was come to the place of sacrifice, 
 being solicitous for the constancy of his colleague, begged 
 that Patrick might be put to death first ; for he feared lest, 
 by the sight of his death and the wiles of the Calvinists, 
 Patrick might be induced to yield to human weakness. But 
 as his wish would not be granted. Father Patrick assured 
 the bishop he might lay aside all fear for him. ' Though, 
 said he, ' I would desire to die first, and be strengthened in 
 my agony by your paternal charity, since we are given up to 
 the will of others, go, happy father, and fear not for my con- 
 stancy ; aid me by your prayers with God, by whose help I 
 am sure that neither death nor life, nor principalities nor 
 powers, nor things present northings to come, nor any other 
 creature, shall separate me from the love of Christ, or from 
 my companionship with you.' Rejoiced at these words, 
 Cornelius threw himself on his knees, but had only breathed 
 a hasty prayer (which yet reached God in heaven) when the 
 councillors, the captain and guard called out to make an 
 end quickly. The field, situated to the north of the city, 
 which would easily hold 3000 persons, was crowded. 
 The executioner was an Englishman and a Protestant, (for 
 no Irishman could be found who would stain himself with 
 the blood of the bishop,*) who was condemned to death for 
 robbery, and was promised his life for acting as executioner 
 on this occasion. Yet, though he had thus purchased his 
 life, he was touched with reverence and compassion for the 
 gray hairs of the bishop, and prayed his pardon, and with 
 trembling hands adjusted the noose. The moment the 
 bishop mounted the first step of the ladder, and his head 
 
 * " The regulrr executioner, who wns an Trishman, had fled." — O'Sullivatu 
 
In the Reign of y antes I. 211 
 
 was seen aboye the crowd, a great shout and groans burst 
 from all the spectators. 
 
 " Then the minister Challoner, furious at the cries of 
 pity raised by the people, said to the bishop : ' Why delude 
 ye the ignorant people ? Why end ye your life with a lie, 
 and a vain boast of martyrdom ? Tell the multitude that 
 ye are traitors, and that it is for treason and not for reli 
 gion ye suffer.' To these unjust words the bishop answer- 
 ed : ' Far be it from us, who are about to appear before the 
 tribunal of Christ, to impose upon the people. But also 
 far be it from us to confess ourselves guilty of crimes of 
 which our conscience tells us we are innocent. Nor yet 
 do we vainly ambition the title of martyrs, though for us to 
 die for Christ is gain. You know that you are yourself guilty 
 of that prevarication of which you accuse us, for but a few 
 hours ago, sent as you said by the viceroy, you offered us 
 life and freedom if we would subscribe to your heresy. 
 Leave us, then, son of darkness, and calumniate not our 
 innocence.' 
 
 "Then the minister departed and left the martyrs in 
 peace. As they mounted the middle of the ladder, again 
 there rose the cry of the people ; and a third time, when 
 he was about to be thrown off, the groans of those who 
 beat their breasts rose louder than before. Thrice he 
 prayed, as he stood there : once for all the bystanders ; 
 secondly, for the city of Dublin, and all the Catholics of 
 this kingdom, that they may serve God piously, faithfully, 
 and perseveringly ; a third time he prayed for all heretics, 
 and for his persecutors, that they might be converted from 
 the evil of their ways. 
 
 " May that prayer of thy martyr, O God ! ascend to the 
 throne of thy power, and obtain for us fruits of justice 
 and peace, that, errors and fears being removed, we may 
 serve faithfully first our God and next our king. The 
 skies gave back an answer (if I am not mistaken) that soon 
 
212 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 these tribulations should come to an end :* the blood of 
 our Abel cries from the earth not for vengeance, but mer- 
 cy. O thou sword of the Lord ! how long wilt thou not 
 rest ? Be sheathed ; rest and be silent. 
 
 " It is related that all the field was crowded with men, 
 women, and children, and when the martyr was dead ail 
 struggled to carry away some relic, either a scrap of liis 
 clothes, or a drop of his blood, or a fragment of bone or 
 skin ; yet, though all crowded and struggled, no one was 
 hurt ; but he was deemed most happy who was able to 
 carry off the head of the bishop, deemed more precious 
 than gold or precious stones.f Let us, with the doctors 
 of Catholicity, venerate in the flesh of the martyrs the 
 wounds they have received for the name of Christ ; let us 
 venerate that virtue which conquers the world ; let us 
 venerate their ashes, the seed of life to rise again ; let us 
 venerate "-.he bodies which have taught us to despise death 
 for the faith. St. Gregory teaches us (lib. vi. indie. 15, 
 epist. 23) that the Christians of old held as a great and sacred 
 gift not only a cloth stained with the martyrs' blood, but 
 even one that had been laid on their tomb ; and the same 
 Gregory sent to King Richard a little key in which was 
 
 * Alas t the good Bishop Roothe's anticipations were fallacious. The sword of the Lord 
 was not dieathed for one hundred years more, and Bishop Dovany and his companion were 
 followed by hundreds of other martyrs ; but as the seed was abundant, so has been the har- 
 vest The blood-rain of martyrs' blood has made the spiritual harvest in Ireland abundant 
 
 t " The bishop's head was hardly cut off when an Irishman seized it, and, rushing into the 
 centre of the crowd, was never found, although the viceroy offered a reward of forty pounds of m1- 
 ver. The Catholics gathered up his blood, and contended for his garments, despite the re- 
 sistance of the soldiery. The priest Patrck followed the same road, singing, as he mounted 
 the ladder, the canticle of Simeon, ' Now, O Lord ! dismiss thy sei;vant in peace,' and, alter 
 the example of the bishop, he prayed for the bystanders, blessed them, and forgave all his 
 enemies. The rope being put round his neck, he hung for a short time, was then cut down 
 half-alive, mutilated, and cut in piece,"*- The soldiers, warned by the loss of the bishop's head, 
 resisted the unarmed crowd, who strove to catch the martyr's blood and other relics, and 
 wounded many. The day after, the bodies were buried at the gallows' foot, but in the stillness 
 of the night were removed by the Catholics to a chapel not defiled by heretical worship." — 
 O'Sullivan. 
 
 Mooneysays: " Their remains are deposited in the cemetery of St. James, together with 
 those of many ntha rs whom I shall mention later, because all the churches of the city are de 
 aied." 
 
In the Reign of yamcs I. 213 
 
 a small portion of the iron of St. Peter's chains which had 
 touched his sacred body, that, as he said, ' that what bound 
 his neck for martyrdom may free you from sin.' (Lib. x. 
 indie. S, epist. 7.) And the same Gregory sent to the 
 noble lady Savinella a similar key, ' in which,' said he, ' is 
 contained the blessing of his chains, that, being hung on 
 your neck, by his intercession, what brought him martyr- 
 dom may bring you the grace of forgiveness.' Far differ- 
 ent from the sectaries of this age, who, that they only may 
 be honored by men, do away with all veneration of the 
 saints and their relics. 
 
 " One circumstance is here worthy to be noted, that our 
 Cornelius, who, many years before, was consecrated bishop 
 on the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, was called by 
 death to the rewards of the other life on the vigil of the 
 same feast and the day dedicated to St. Brigid, who has 
 always been invoked as patron by our whole nation, and 
 for whom he had a peculiar devotion. It is also worthy of 
 remark that the bishop was condemned to death on the day 
 (the 28th January) on which died Charlemagne, the great 
 defender of ecclesiastical freedom. 
 
 " Lest their names, inscribed in heaven, be forgotten on 
 earth, let their epitaph be here recorded, that the reader, 
 meeting with the record of the saints, may remember that 
 the 1st of February, in the year of our salvation 161 1, was 
 the day on which was born to a better life the blessed mar- 
 tyr Dovany, Bishop of Down and Connor, of the Order of 
 Saint Francis, who for many years watched with pastoral 
 care over the Catholic flock in Ireland, and, after many 
 sufferings, was sentenced to death in the Chichestrian per- 
 secution by D. Sibthorpe,* and by martyrdom passed to 
 his rest. 
 
 • 0*Sullivan says, Dominick SarsBeld was the judge, " one most cruel to priests and -Catho- 
 lics," and that his colleague, though a Protestant, feigned illness, not to take part in the con- 
 demnation of the bishop, who was innocent. 
 
214 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 "The same day and year, the blessed martyr Patrick 
 Locheran, priest, under the same viceroy, Arthur Chi- 
 chester, and D. SarceviHus, judge, suffered death. Each 
 might have secured his life if he would abandon the Catho- 
 lic religion and the obedience of the holy Roman Church 
 and embrace Calvinism.* 
 
 " Some relate that Sarcevil was the judge who sentenced 
 the bishop ; Sibthorpe, the priest. It differs little, for they 
 both sat in judgment and concurred in the sentence. It is 
 related that, when the bishop protested against being tried 
 by a lay-tribunal, Sarcevil alleged to him the example of 
 Christ, who submitted to the judgment of Pilate ; to whom 
 the bishop answered : ' If you blush not to imitate Pilate, 
 it irks not me to imitate Christ, for he is the way, the 
 truth, and the hfe.' " 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 Annia 1613, 1614, and 1617. 
 
 REV. BERNARD GRAGAN AND OTHERS, O.S.F. 
 
 Father Mooney, continuing his account of the monas- 
 tery of Multifarnham, part of which is given under the 
 year 1601, gives the following account of others who there 
 suffered for religion, and although it refers to various years 
 I will here give it in extenso : 
 
 "In the year 1607, Brother John Gragan, father pro- 
 vincial, was arrested, and in 1608 accused of high treason, 
 as knowing of the flight of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyr- 
 
 * Father Patrick Locheran was accused of having " traitorously gone to Belgium in the same 
 ship with the fugitives, Earls O'Neill and O'Donnell." He answered that he had crossed to 
 Belgium to study, in the same ship, but be ore O'Neill and O'Donnell did, and therefore was 
 ignorant of their flight. On being asked whether he would be tried by a jury of twelve men, 
 he answered, " If the twelve men were to be Irish, they would themselves be in danger ; if 
 th.'v were Protestants, ihey might be induced by fear or reward to commit sin, and condemn 
 him. That he did not desire that worthy Catholics should be brought into danger, or heretics 
 induced to sin. In a judge should be found equity and justice." Then Sarsfield said, " As 
 you decline the trial appointed by law, the decision of the cause rests with me," and prccbsd 
 w3 to pronounce sentence. — O^Sullivan, torn. iv. cap. xviii, ' 
 
/« the Reign of yames I. 215 
 
 coiinell, and condemned. His life, and liberty were then 
 offered to him if he would join the heretical church, but 
 in vain ; his constancy, prudence, and religious modesty 
 much edified the Catholics, and gained the affection even 
 of his adversaries. At length, at the intercession of the 
 Baron of Delvin, who had been accused of the same crime, 
 but had obtained the king's favor, through fear of those 
 who had escaped. Brother John obtained his life, and 
 was set at liberty, having given security to appear if called 
 upon. 
 
 "At another time. Sir Dudley Loftus, son of the chan- 
 cellor, and Sir Richard Graves, invaded the monastery and 
 carried away prisoners — Brother Cormac O'Gabhun, prior 
 of the province, who, being blind, had lived for six years in 
 that monastery ; Brother Philip Cluaine, who is now (1621) 
 living, an old man, in Kilconnell ; Brother Terence Ma- 
 canaspie, who died in prison in Dublin ; Brother Manus 
 Oge O'Fidy ; and Brother Coghlin Oge MacAliadha. 
 These two last they left by the way in the town of Ba- 
 leathbeg ; the others they took to Dublin and threw into 
 prison, where, after a year and a half, two of them, who 
 survived, were set at liberty on giving security to appear 
 if called on. 
 
 " In the year 1613, Patrick Fox, Viscount of Westmeath, 
 invaded the monastery and carried off the vicar of the con- 
 vent. Brother Bernard Gragan, a priest, who lay in prison 
 in Dublin for a whole year, and at length was sent an exile 
 into France, and died at Rheims, in Brittany, partly from 
 the fatigue of the journey and the sea, partly from i'-.firmi- 
 ties contracted m prison. 
 
 "In the year 1614, Sir Oliver Lambert took prisoner 
 Brother James MacGrollen, a holy priest of the same con- 
 vent, who was seeking alms through the country, and he 
 was long detained in prison in Mullingar ; being then sent 
 to Dublin Castle, he remained there a long time ; but as, 
 
2i6 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 notwithstanding many, threats and promises, he remained 
 constant, he was sent into exile, and remained some time in 
 Rouen, whence, returning into Ireland, he was by pirates 
 at sea wounded in the face, but, his wounds being cured, 
 he still lives in Ireland. 
 
 "In 1617, there was taken prisoner, while he was col- 
 lecting alms for the convent, by a certain local tyrant 
 whose name was Daniel,* another brother of the same con- 
 vent, whose name was Charles Crossan, a priest. So also 
 in like manner was taken in this year Brother Didacus 
 Conor, a priest, while, through obedience, he was collect- 
 ing alms. These two are yet in prison. f So much for 
 this theatre of persecution and unarmed and innocent 
 endurance." — Mooney, p. J"]. 
 
 WILLIAM MEDE 
 
 " Was a citizen of Cork, distinguished for his learning 
 and wealth, and was patron and protector of the rights and 
 immunities of that city.J He persuaded his fellow-citi- 
 zens, during the time between the death of Queen Eliza- 
 beth and the proclamation of King James, to resume the 
 public practice of the Catholic religion, which had been 
 long omitted, and thereby drew upon himself a most bitter 
 persecution on the part of the heretics. He was put upon 
 his trial for treason, but the twelve jurors acquitted him ; 
 and, to pi'n'sh them for thus refusing to condemn the in- 
 nocent, they were toimented in all sorts of ways, publicly 
 paraded through the city with an inscription on their fore- 
 heads calling them perjurers, and being finally thrown into 
 prison, were there kept till they paid a heavy fine. Even 
 so the hatred of his enemies was not appeased, and William 
 
 • There is a word before Daniel which is illegible. f Mooney wrote m 1624. 
 
 X Our author probabl> means he was mayor. 
 
In the Reigtt of Mantes I. 217 
 
 was compelled, through regard for his life, to go into a vol- 
 untary exile, where, after several years, he piously slept in 
 the Lord, at Naples, in 1614." — Philadelph. 
 
 Anno IGIS. 
 
 SIRS BERNARD AND ARTHUR O'NEILL, RODERICK AND GOD- 
 FREY O'KAHAN, ALEXANDER MACSORLEY, KNIGHTS, 
 AND REV. LEWIS OLABERTAG. 
 
 " Sir Arthur Chichester devised this plan to entrap 
 some of the inhabitants of Ulster who were most remarka- 
 ble for their courage and talent ; but he the more thirsted 
 for the blood of the men of Ulster because he had himself 
 been granted large possessions in Ulster by the king. 
 He seized upon an idle, dissipated man, who had often 
 stopped at Bernard O'Neill's, and had him condemned to 
 death. He then promised him a pardon and large reward 
 if he would accuse Bernard and the others whom I am 
 about to name. The desperate gambler, unmindful of the 
 many benefits he had received from Bernard, consented. 
 Then the viceroy ordered Bernard and Arthur O'Neill, 
 Roderick O'Kahan, Godfrey O'Kahan, Alexander MacSor- 
 ley, knights of high lineage, and Lewis Olabertag, a priest^ 
 to be seized and thrown into prison, as accused of high 
 treason. The witness, to make this out, swore that they 
 had conspired to take some forts in Ulster, garrisoned by 
 English and Scotch, and to slay the guards. The knights 
 answered that the testimony of one man of infamous cha- 
 racter was not enough to convict them. They were tor- 
 tured, but confessed nothing. But as they were tried by 
 twelve English and Scotch Protestants, who had also re- 
 ceived land in Ulster, and did not wish to have Catholic 
 neighbors, they were at once found guilty. The viceroy 
 
2i8 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 referred the sentence to the king, who sent back for an- 
 swer that a free pardon should be granted to the knights 
 and the priest if they would renounce the Catholic religion. 
 But they boldly made answer they never would accept that 
 condition. That night they mutually exhorted each other 
 to endure death for Christ. The priest gave sacramental 
 absolution to the others. The next day, having hung a 
 short time, they were cut down, embowelled, their entrails 
 burnt, their bodies cut in four parts and exposed in public 
 places. This happened in the year of our Lord 1615. 
 About the same time Sir Patrick O'Murry,* Knight, and 
 Connor O'Kieran, priest, were put to death in like manner 
 on the same charge." — 0' Stillivan, p. 260. 
 
 Anno 1617. 
 
 REV. THOMAS GERALDINE, O.S.F. 
 
 Father Mooney, speaking of the Castle of Dublin, says : 
 " So also Brother Thomas Geraldine, of our order, a 
 preacher, and some time commissary of our province, suffer- 
 ed much during a long imprisonment,! and at length died 
 in the Castle of Dublin, worn out with the hardships of the 
 prison, in the month of June,$ in the year 1617 ; and the 
 citizens, having begged his body, celebrated his obsequies 
 for three or four days with great devotion, to the great sur- 
 prise and indignation of the heretics, who yet could not 
 prevent the devotion of the people ; and at length his re- 
 mains were laid in the same cemetery, (that of St. James,) 
 near those of the bishop, (Dr. O'Dovany.)" — Mooney, p 
 68, and Philadelph and Briiodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 • "Omiirius.*' 
 
 t Philadelphus says he was several times imprisoned. 
 
 t Philadelphus says the 12th of July. 
 
In the Reign of yames I. 219 
 
 REV. WILLIAM DONATUS, (OR DONAGH.) 
 
 He is mentioned in a letter, preserved in Stoneyliurst 
 College : 
 
 " ' A large reward had been offered for the head of Dr. 
 Matthews, Archbishop of Dublin, or that of Dr. Kearney, 
 Archbishop of Cashel, dead or alive. The chancellor, 
 Adam Loftus, personally conducted a most rigorous search 
 in Dubhn, as Archbishop Matthews was supposed to be 
 there.' The letter continues : ' But the archbishop, by 
 God's will, was out of their way ; but in the search many 
 others were apprehended and cast into prison, both eccle- 
 siastics and others. One regular, and another secular 
 priest, by name William Donatus, who, though lying ill in 
 bed, because he was thought to be the chaplain of the 
 archbishop, was compelled to get up and accompany the 
 others to prison, where he yet lies.' " — Renehan, Collections, 
 vol. i. p. 266. 
 
 REV. DERMITIUS BRUODIN, O.S.F. 
 
 " Dermid Bruodin was born in Thomond, in Ireland, of 
 a family noted for many generations for piety, learning, 
 and hospitality, and became a member of the Franciscan 
 Order. His father was Miles Bruodin, owner of Mount 
 Calary, a man much esteemed by Cornelius O'Brien, Earl 
 of Thomond, (Clare ;) his mother was Joanna Mahony, or 
 Matthews. He was no longer a boy when, having learned 
 the rudiments of learning, he lost his parents, and, having 
 always intended to devote himself to God, entered the 
 cloister among the strict observers of evangelical poverty 
 — the Franciscans — as a novice in the convent of Inisheen, 
 in Clare. He was a model of virtue, assiduous in prayer, 
 ready for every exercise of humility, constant in fasting, 
 and daily afRicting his body with the discipline. 
 
220 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 •' Having made his profession, by order of his superiors 
 he proceeded to Spain, and there, among the sons of the 
 province of St. James, progressed alike in learning and 
 piety. When his studies were completed, he was advanced 
 to the priesthood, and desired at once to devote himself to 
 the saving of souls in his country, afflicted by heresy. 
 His superiors agreed to his request, and Dermid, trusting 
 in the Cross of Christ, embarked in his Franciscan habit, 
 (for neither danger nor the entreaties of his friends could 
 ever induce him, as the other missionaries, to exchange his 
 habit for a secular dress,*) and, by the providence of God, 
 he landed at a port near the place of his birth, near the Is- 
 land of St. Sinnanus, called Inniscatha, in the middle of 
 the river Shannon, in the year 1575. 
 
 " The moment Bruodin touched his native soil he gave 
 thanks to God, and began his apostolic labors among his 
 friends and relatives, (and then, as now, there were as 
 many Catholics as Bruodins,) and labored with such zeal, 
 where before they had been suffering from a dearth of pas- 
 tors, that the Catholics in all the baronies of Clare were 
 provided with spiritual food. Dermid had thus labored 
 for many years in the vineyard of the Lord, when the 
 enemy of human salvation sought, by means of the satel- 
 lites of Elizabeth, to put a stop to his zealous efforts. Di- 
 vers man-hunters were therefore employed throughout 
 Clare to catch in their nets the zealous preacher, whose 
 zeal, indeed, for martyrdom would long before have 
 brought him into their hands had he not been prevented 
 by his superiors. 
 
 " While the search was most eager Dermid was employ- 
 ed preaching and catechising not far from Limerick, in a 
 place, however, which was mountainous, and generally safe 
 from the excursions of the heretics. However, his pre- 
 
 • It is to be remembored that he dwelt in Clare, a remote district, inhabited exclusively bt 
 Catholics, and whither the queen's soldiers rj^rely penetrated. 
 

Tn the Reign of yames T. 221 
 
 sence ^here came to the knowledge of the commander of 
 the garrison in Limerick, who sent some musketeers to 
 arrest him, and they seized him in the act of preaching 
 from the top of a mound. He received many blows from 
 the fists and sticks of the soldiers, and, with his hands tied 
 behind him, was driven to Limerick, in the year 1603. 
 Bruodin, who had been weakened by his voluntary fasts, 
 was thrown into prison, where for four months he endured 
 much, for it was forbidden under a heavy penalty for any 
 Catholic to speak to him or give him any assistance. 
 
 " At the end of this time he was brought before the 
 king's judges, and being asked many idle questions, Der- 
 mid boldly answered that his dress showed he was a 
 Catholic and a Franciscan ; that as to his name, profession, 
 labors, and friends, they were abundantly known to those 
 who had taken him when preaching ; that therefore there 
 was nothing to be done but either to set him free, or by 
 torture to try his constancy in the profession of the Cath- 
 olic faith. ' Well,' said the judge, ' you shall have your 
 wish.' By his order the Franciscan habit was torn off him, 
 and he was severely flogged by two executioners ; then his 
 hands were tied behind him, and he was lifted up by them off 
 the ground. While he was thus tortured he was asked by 
 a certain petulant preacher whether he felt pain ? He an- 
 swered, ' I feel pain indeed, but far less than my Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, for whose cause I suffer, endured for 
 me.' Then, let down from the rack, he was taken back to 
 prison. 
 
 " At the time when Father Bruodin was being tortured 
 there arrived in Limerick Donatus O'Brien, the powerful 
 chieftain of his own race, and Earl of Thomond. He was 
 a man of great influence both in England and Ireland. 
 Touched by the affection which the O'Briens always bore 
 to the Bruodins, he sought to devise some way of freeing 
 Father Dermid from further tortures and the death which 
 
222 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 threatened him. With this view, the earl persuaded the 
 judges that Dermid was a fool, with whom he often amus- 
 ed himself, and, to prove this, he adduced as an argument 
 that no one but a fool would go about in public with his 
 head shaved, and a long beard and a long habit, contrary 
 to the usual practice of all the other popish priests in Eng- 
 land and Ireland. The judges, either persuaded, or, as I 
 think, not wishing to offend the powerful earl, (whose fidel- 
 ity and services to the crown were well known,) set Der- 
 mid at liberty, who was indeed nearly worn out with tor- 
 tures and suffering. Dermid, thus set free as a fool for 
 Christ, returned to his native district and prudently re- 
 sumed his labors in Clare. Protected everywhere by be- 
 ing known as the mad monk, and favored by Earl O'Brien, 
 (a man nominally a heretic, but a Catholic in his heart,) he 
 passed safely through the persecuting English at Inish* 
 and elsewhere in the province, and gained many to Christ, 
 ever wearing the Franciscan habit, and often rejoicing to 
 bear insults and derision for the honor of Christ. At 
 length, weighed down with years, and worn out with la- 
 bors, Bruodin, fortified with the sacraments of the church, 
 slept in the Lord, in his Franciscan convent of Inish, the 
 9th August, 161 7. The other friars had been expelled in 
 1575, and he had lived there alone with his servant for the 
 three last years of his life." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 As this is the last date given in Philadelphus, I shall 
 here insert all those martyrs to whose triumph, being un- 
 certain of the year, he does not give any date. 
 
 REV. NICHOLAS YOUNG, 
 
 '•A PRIEST from the village of Newton, near Trim, a 
 venerable old man, for hatred of his religion was cast a 
 
 • The Franciscan convent of Inish, or Inis-auan-ruada, founded, according to Ware by 
 Donagh Carbrac O'Brian in the year 1240 for Minorites, by the river Forgy. 
 
In the Reign of yames I. 223 
 
 prisoner into the Tower of Dublin, where he ended his 
 days, worn out with suffering and misery, about the 
 
 year ." 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 JAMES DOWDALL. 
 
 " One of the leading men of the municipality of Athboy 
 was frequently summoned to Dublin by the chancellor to 
 answer for his profession of the Catholic faith, and chiefly 
 b'ecause he harbored priests. He was several times thrown 
 into prison, where he patiently spent many years. At 
 length, as the noble-minded man could neither be induced 
 to bend to the times nor abandon his determination of pa- 
 tient endurance, the enemies of the faith let him go for a 
 time, when he returned home, and peaceably died there 
 about the year ." 
 
 JAMES DOWDALL (ANOTHER) 
 
 "Was a merchant of Drogheda, who, being in England 
 on business, was arrested, and being called upon to swear 
 to the queen's supremacy, he ingenuously confessed his 
 faith, and declared he was a Catholic, for which cause he 
 was put to death in the city of Exchester,* and his tomb is 
 said to be celebrated even to this day for favors obtained 
 
 there." 
 
 ♦ 
 
 PATRICK BROWNE, 
 
 " A DISTINGUISHED citizcn of Dublin, had been reared 
 up from his youth in heresy, but by a special grace of God 
 was received into the church ; and for the profession of 
 the faith he suffered in Dublin, for nearly twenty years, a 
 
 * So printed in the original, in the margin. It is Exeter, as given in the text " Exoniensl." 
 Bruodin gives the date of his death as zoth September, 1600. 
 
224 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 most cruel imprisonment, which he bore with unshaken 
 mind, but from which he contracted a fatal disease ; and, 
 although he was at length, on giving security, allowed 
 home for a time to recover from his disease, he was only 
 delivered from it by a happy death." 
 
 Here I may also insert an account given by Father 
 Mooney, of which the exact date is uncertain, but which 
 equally must have occurred about the close of Elizabeth's 
 reign : 
 
 REV. CORNELIUS. 
 
 " The convent of Athskelin (Askeaton) is said to have 
 been founded by the Earl of Desmond, and for a long time 
 there have not been any monks there, because, during the 
 war which the aforesaid earl waged against the English, 
 many cruelties were practised on the brethren of that con- 
 vent, and several of them suffered martyrdom at the hands 
 of the English soldiers under Nicholas Mally ; but I could 
 not learn their names with accuracy, except of one priest, 
 whose name was Brother Cornelius, whose relics are inter- 
 red in the chapter-house of the convent." — Mooney, p. 46. 
 
 Anno 1618. 
 
 REV. JOHN O'HONAN, O.S.F. 
 
 " The Rev. John O'Honan was a native of Connaught, a 
 priest, and a member of the Franciscan order. After he 
 had spent many years in religion, and in the charge of the 
 pastoral office among the afflicted Catholics of Leinster, he 
 was taken by the English heretics in Dublin. 
 
 " After seven weeks' imprisonment, despising the honors 
 and rewards which were offered to him in the name of the 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 225 
 
 king if he would renounce his faith, he was first cruelly 
 tortured, and then hung and cut in four parts, and so glo- 
 riously triumphed on the 14th October, 1618." — Bruodin, 
 lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 REV. PATRICK O'DYRY. 
 
 " He was a native of Ulster, and a priest, and received 
 the crown of martyrdom at Derry, of St. Columbanus, for 
 having disobeyed the iniquitous law of Elizabeth and 
 James.* He preferred to suffer tortures, the ignominy of 
 the scaffold, and the cutting of his body in four parts, 
 rather than deny the truth. He died, venerable for age 
 and virtues, the 6th January, 161 8, and, as we may piously 
 trust, enjoys a crown of glory with the saints." — Bruodin, 
 
 ut supra. 
 
 — ♦ — ■ 
 
 A.nno 1632. 
 
 FATHER EDMUND DE BURGO, O.P.P. 
 
 " Father Edmund de Burgo departed to Christ in the 
 year 1632."!" He was an Irishman, of noble family, son of 
 the brother of the Dynast of Mayo, a man of great humility, 
 and rich in a spirit of holy poverty. He was a great op- 
 ponent of the heretics, many of whom he converted to the 
 unity of the church, wherefore the heretics turned his 
 convent into a den of thieves, but Father Edmund, partly 
 from reverence for his person and partly fear of the influ- 
 ence of his family, they after a time set at liberty." — Mott. 
 Dom. 
 
 " He had received the habit in the convent of Burishool, 
 in the county of Mayo, and was a model of penance. He 
 wore a chain of iron round his waist, and slept on the ground 
 
 * That making it treason for monks and priests to reenter the kingdom, 
 f Hill. Dom. gives the date as 1633 ; but in tlie Mimumenta Dominicana it is printed 
 163a. He was a monk, but not a priest 
 
226 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 or on a little straw, with a stone for a pillow, and, allowing 
 himself only a few hours of sleep, spent the rest of the day 
 and night in prayer. He frequently fasted on bread and 
 water, and in the depth of winter attended the chapel with 
 bare feet. By a singular grace of God, although noble and 
 brought up in the midst of the pleasures of this world, he 
 preserved his virginal chastity to his dying day. He had 
 a singular devotion for the rosary of the Blessed Virgin, and 
 at the striking of every hour knelt down in prayer." — Acta 
 Capitidi Generalis Roma, 1656, ap. Hib. Dom. 
 
 Anno 1633. 
 
 REV. ARTHUR MACGEOGHEGAN, O.P.P. 
 
 " The venerable Father Arthur MacGeoghegan, after' he 
 had completed his studies in Spain,* and transacted with 
 much prudence the business of the order entrusted to him, 
 sailed (from Lisbon, where he had remained for some time 
 in the Dominican convent of our Blessed Lady of the Ro- 
 saryf) to return to his own country, but, being taken on 
 the road by the heretics and thrown into prison in London, 
 was tried, as was usual, for high treason, J and also for 
 having said in Spain that ' it would be lawful to kill the 
 King of England ;' but he proved that he had not said so, 
 but, arguing against the heretical doctrine denying man's 
 free-will, ' that if it were true it would be an excuse for the 
 greatest crimes, even killing a king.' Nevertheless, he was 
 condemned and taken to the place of execution, where, 
 h'vving publicly proclaimed his faith, and that he was a 
 Dominican, he was hung, and cut down while yet alive, 
 his heart and entrails cut out and cast into the fire, and 
 his body quartered, and thus gloriously completed his con- 
 
 * He was an alumnus of the convent of Mullingar. -f Dont. a Rosario. 
 
 t " For retumng, haviiifi been ordained beyond the seaa," 
 
In the Reign of Cliarles I. 227 
 
 fession of Christ." — Ex Act. Cap. Gen. 1644, ap. Mon. Dom., 
 and Dom. a Ros. ap. Hib. Dom. 
 
 De Burgo adds that Father MacGeoghegan had been 
 sent to Ireland to obtain students for the Dominican Col- 
 lege of Lisbon, which had been founded a few years before, 
 namely, in 1615, for the purpose of educating priests for 
 the Irish mission. His death as he was passing through 
 England of course hindered the execution of his design, 
 but the fame of his martyrdom attracted many young Irish- 
 men to the college from whence he came, so that it began 
 from that date to flourish, and became a celebrated semi- 
 nary of martyrs ; for within a very few years seven priests 
 left it, who all received the crown of martyrdom, namely, 
 Arthur MacGeoghegan, Gerald Dillon, Miler Magrath, 
 .(Eneas Ambrose O'Cahill, Michael O'Clery, Gerald Bagot 
 and Thaddasus Moriarty. — Hib. Dom. p. 419. 
 
 J.nno 1634. 
 
 FRANCIS SLINGSBY. 
 
 I WILL here insert an interesting account of a young 
 convert who suffered imprisonment for the faith in 1634. 
 I do so the more willingly as this contemporary account 
 gives us a lively idea of the nature of those times. This 
 account is taken from a MS. collection of letters in the 
 Burgundian Library, which was taken from the library of 
 the suppressed Jesuits. 
 
 Francis Slingsby was the eldest son of Sir Francis 
 Slingsby, Knight, an Englishman settled in Ireland, and 
 Elizabeth Cuff. The family was a noble one settled in 
 Yorkshire, and his fkther was a privy councillor in Ire- 
 land.* The family were all Protestants. He was born to- 
 
 * See the statement he gave when entering the English College in Rome, (Appendix.) Sir 
 Francis Slingsby of Scrivin and Redhouse, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, who died in 1600. 
 married Mary, daughter of Sii Thomas Percy, brother of the Earl of Iiorlhumberland. By 
 h'^' he had many children. His eldest son, Sir Henry Slingsby, succeeded him in his English 
 estate*. The father of the subject of our memoir would appear to have been a younger son of 
 
228 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 ward the end of the year 1611 or the beginning of 1612, 
 and was brought up in Ireland under the care of his pa- 
 rents until his thirteenth year, when he was sent to Oxford, 
 where he studied for five years, and distinguished himself 
 in mathematics. In 1630, he left Oxford, and there is no 
 information as to how he passed the three next years, fur- 
 ther than that he spent a part of them in travel. Up to 
 this time he had been an unshaken Protestant, but in his 
 twenty-second year he began to conceive doubts of the 
 truth of that religion, and determined to seek the truth, and 
 by the grace of God to embrace it. His conversion was 
 certainly completed in Rome, as we gather from several 
 passages, and that when he was in his tv/enty-second year, 
 but whether it was commenced in that city is not stated. 
 
 His intimate friend. Father Spreul, whom he had him- 
 self converted, thus describes his conversion : 
 
 " It is worthy of remark that in his conversion to the 
 Catholic faith he not only gave his whole time and atten- 
 tion to the prudent and sincere investigation of the truth, 
 carefully examining the testimonies of the fathers on the 
 controversies of our day, but sought to learn the will of 
 God by continual and fervent prayer, frequent fasts, and 
 abundant alms ; so that he was strengthened to overcome 
 all the allurements of the world, the hope of honors and 
 dignity, and the indignation and loss of friendship of his 
 friends. He was no sooner received into the church in 
 Rome than he went through a course of the spiritual exer- 
 cises of St. Ignatius, and at their conclusion, in obedience 
 to the divine inspiration, he determined to renounce the 
 inheritance of his father, and embrace the institute of the 
 society, in which to live ; and this resolution he adhered to 
 unshaken, notwithstanding the greatest difficulties, during 
 
 this Sir Frands. He says in the statement his maternal grandmother was " soror "of the 
 Earl of Northumberland. He must either have made a mistake, or used " soror" iu the senM 
 af first cousin. — Stl Lift of Sir H. Slingsiy, printed, Edinlnireh. 1806. 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 229 
 
 eight years that he remained in the world, and by a re- 
 markable force of mind he strove after religious perfection 
 by a most exact observance of our rules while living with 
 laics and heretics at court and at home." — Letter of Father 
 Spreul. 
 
 His friends were naturally much annoyed at his conver- 
 sion, which he did not conceal ; indeed, he ever most 
 openly professed his faith and returned thanks to God for 
 the grace he had received, as Father Spreul mentions : 
 " Our generous athlete so boldly overcame all these diffi- 
 culties that he not only openly professed the Catholic re- 
 ligion, but gloried in the signal grace divinely granted to 
 him, and ever gave thanks to God for it. And this is the 
 more worthy of notice, as many after their conversion are 
 allowed to profess the Catholic religion, not openly, but 
 in private." — Ibid. 
 
 His father, thinking that his influence and that of his 
 friends, and the prospect of the ruin which an adherence 
 to the Catholic faith would cause to the young man's pros- 
 pects, might induce him to return to the religion of the 
 state, urged his return to Ireland ; and Francis, although 
 firmly resolved to enter the Society of Jesus, and apparent- 
 ly considering himself from this date as under obedience to 
 the general of the order,* prepared to return to Ireland in 
 obedience to his earthly father, and with the hope of con- 
 verting his relations to the true faith. The following two 
 letters, one from his father and one from his mother, 
 written at this date, explain the reasons they urged : 
 
 " My Son : If ever you thought I loved you, you may 
 well think I took always more care for your soul than youf 
 body ; and if you do not think I have given you sufficient 
 
 • "How promptl ' and with wliat resignation of his own will he left his country, his relations, 
 and his possessions, notwithstanding the good he was doing, when he was called to Rome by 
 the letter of the general ! And what a heroic act of obedience he then made, in fulfilment of 
 the vow he had made in Rome, at the tomb of the blessed Aloysius, after his conversion J' *— 
 Lttter 0/ Father Spreul. 
 
230 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 motives for your return, wherein you may do your parents 
 so good service ; in your first you judge uncharitably of ine, 
 in your second you deal uncharitably with me. I must 
 needs acknowledge I have much offended God, in trusting 
 too much to an arm of flesh and blood, as though by mine 
 own endeavors I could attain my desire. But now I find 
 my fault and feel my punishment. Our hearts are in the 
 hands of God, to dispose of as he pleaseth ; you are now 
 allowed and commanded to use all lawful means, and then 
 refer the issue to him. These arguments might bring forth 
 many good, feeling motives, and you know my education 
 hath not been such as to give my tongue effectual persua- 
 sions ; yet those might be sufficient to give you a sensible 
 reason not to disregard my loving advice. If the defects I 
 found in myself made me seek to redeem them in you, it 
 may be a sufficient motive unto you to think how dearly I 
 loved you, and that I be thus requited for all my care, tra- 
 vail, and cost. My time by course of nature cannot con- 
 tinue long, and will you shorten it by an unkind requital .' 
 Take but this for your theme, and then comment upon it 
 with such moving reasons as yourself can give and your 
 own thought dictate to you, if your case were mine ; and 
 be not partial, and let not this undue style make it with 
 you disesteemed or derided. I have said enough if it pre- 
 vail ; if not, too much ; and till I shall either see you or 
 hear a good answer to this my letter you shall neither hear 
 from me nor of me. 
 
 " Sincerity is your best policy, and deal as plainly with 
 me as I with you, and if you give me not great cause to 
 the contrary, I shall ever remain 
 
 "Your unfeigned loving Father." 
 The following is the letter from his mother : 
 " My dear Son : I have seen, read, and considered all 
 your letters with the best of my poor judgment, written 
 to your father and myself, both before and since your sick- 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 231 
 
 ness, especially your long one of two sheets of paper, sign- 
 ed with your own hand, but written by another ; whereby 
 I perceive the great pains you took to be resolved, which 
 zeal I trust the Lord will favor, howsoever you may be mis- 
 led. But although I cannot judge of controversy, yet I 
 think you ought not to forsake your old father and me to 
 enjoy the liberty of conscience which (if there be no remedy) 
 you may enjoy here at home, as many other good subjects 
 do. But you fear your father will be offended : much bet- 
 ter may you bear that than we your longer absence, which 
 I assure myself would bring us both with sorrow to oui 
 graves. My dear son, consider that our laws do not enforce 
 men's consciences ; and therefore what cause can there be 
 to absent yourself.'' If ever you took pity on my sorrows, 
 add not unto them, but return to comfort me, whose eyes 
 have ever fasted with expectation of it. Ah my son ! you, 
 that ought not to turn away your ears from the prayers of 
 the poor, are much more bound to regard the tears and 
 supplications of your mother. I do beseech you with up- 
 lifted hands to return by your nearest way, and not to think 
 of passing through Spain. The infinite testimony I have 
 had of your piety and obedience to both of us assures me 
 you will be grieved that I cannot know the haste you will 
 make home ; but, my dear child, let not that trouble you, 
 for I am comforted in the confidence of it, and so are all 
 your sisters. Your sister Willoughby is the mother of 
 three children, and your sister Betty married ; but in all 
 this I can take no true contentment till I see you. And 
 if it please the Lord of mercy to permit that, then shall I 
 say I have had one joyful day before my death. Fare- 
 well, and all the good a mother's blessing can add unto you 
 be heaped upon your head, my dearest child. 
 
 " Yours, as you know." 
 
 Various letters of his to Jesuit fathers give an account 
 if his journey. 
 
232 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 To Father John Thompson, at Piacenza, he writes from 
 Milan, the 25th May, 1634 : " We are now, God be praised, 
 safely arrived at Milan, and have already taken places in a 
 coach for Thurin." From St. Omer he writes, on the 14th 
 July : " I arrived in Paris on Corpus Christi day, being the 
 14th June, and remayned there until the 27th. I received 
 from Father Talbot a pass which he had lying by him, 
 which is yet of a fresh date, and I make use of it for my 
 passage into England." 
 
 He must have arrived in Ireland about the end of July. 
 On arriving in Dublin he waited on the Lord-Deputy 
 Wentworth; as we learn from Father Spreul : 
 
 " He called on the Lord-Deputy, Viscount Wentworth, 
 (to pay his respects on his return,) who was nearly related 
 to him, but a most bitter persecutor of Catholics ; and in 
 presence of a crowd of heretical noblemen declared himself 
 a Catholic, and when the lord-deputy attacked some arti- 
 cles of the Catholic religion he boldly answered him. All 
 this I was told by one of the royal chamberlains, who was 
 present. 
 
 " As his father, who had great influence in that kingdon? 
 had founded great hopes of advancing his family on the pru ■ 
 dence and talents of his son, which had been praised by all, 
 he left no stone unturned to withdraw him from the Catholic 
 religion. He pointed out to him the shame and injury he 
 would bring on an illustrious family ; that he would render 
 himself incapable of holding any office or honor or dignity 
 But he found that he produced no impression, although he 
 lieid out good hopes of his being made a privy councillor, 
 (which is the highest honor ;) for Father Francis, with sin- 
 gular modesty and moderation, made answer only in these 
 words of Christ, ' What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
 whole world and lose his own soul ? so that his father per- 
 ceived that, like the apostle, he held all but as dirt that he 
 might gain Christ, and that the only way to influence him 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 233 
 
 would be to persuade him that the Catholic religion was 
 false. And, having perceived in their daily discussions that 
 he was far inferior to Father Francis in disputing on points 
 of faith, he determined to take him to Dr. Usher, who was 
 called Archbishop and Primate of all the kingdom, who 
 was considered and really was by far the most learned man 
 among the sectaries, and who had acquired great authority 
 by writing books against the Catholics. While he was 
 disputing with the archbishop, it pleased God by a singular 
 trial to test or rather to manifest his constancy in the 
 Catholic faith ; for when the archbishop had objected many 
 things against the faith, Francis's wonted promptitude and 
 readiness in defending the orthodox faith suddenly deserted 
 him, and the motives and reasons which had influenced 
 him seemed suddenly blotted out from his mind, and he 
 seemed to himself plunged in sudden mental darkness. 
 In this anguish he raised his whole mind to God, begging 
 his assistance and direction, when suddenly his mental 
 darkness vanished and he felt most clearly the truth of the 
 Catholic faith, and, falling on his knees, he prayed aloud to 
 God that the earth might open and swallow him up if ever 
 he failed to profess the orthodox faith taught by Christ and 
 his apostles. Rising, he turned to the archbishop and 
 asked if he would do as much for his faith ; but he hastily 
 drew back, declaring Father Francis was not in his right 
 mind, and rashly proclaimed his confidence in his faith. 
 As many, even Catholics, blamed him for his act, I asked 
 him why he had done so. He answered that he had done 
 it intentionally and calmly, especially to convince his father 
 of his firm resolution not to abandon the Catholic faith, and 
 so to free himself from the continual importunities and 
 vexations which hindered him from his spiritual exercises 
 and private meditations. He gained, indeed, his object by 
 this heroic act, but it produced at the moment very dif- 
 ferent effects, for the lord-deputy and the archbishop 
 
234 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 were so irritated that he was that very day thrown into 
 prison." 
 
 Father Francis himself alludes to these events in a letter, 
 dated Dublin Castle, January 21st, 1635, to Father Thomas 
 Roberts,* SJ., English College, Rome, in the following 
 words : 
 
 " Reverend dear Father : This is the thirdf letter I 
 have written to you since my coming into these parts. In 
 my former I gave you an accompt of the conference which 
 passed betwixt my lord-deputy and myself at my landing. 
 After, I went into the country to my father, who received 
 me with joy and much love. But since the conversion of 
 my dear and hopeful brother he hath almost quite with- 
 drawn his affection, and procured my imprisonment in the 
 Castle of Dublin. My mother and one of my sisters are 
 not far from the kingdom of heaven, and there is little pro- 
 bability of gaining my father. I am prest with longing 
 desire to know how you will dispose of me ; for if you say 
 but ' Veni,' by the grace of God nothing but violence shall 
 hold me. Dear father, pray for me, as I do continually for 
 you, as the greatest benefactor I have in the world. I 
 pray my humble respects to Mr. Scaevola,J and my dearest 
 love and respect to Mr. Fitzherbert, Mr. Southwell, Mr. 
 Trandis, Mr. Milford, and Mr. Harvey." 
 
 The following letter describes his imprisonment : 
 
 " After he had been some days in prison, he was brought 
 up to be examined before two privy councillors, and a 
 double charge was made against him : i. That he had 
 spoken contumeliously of the Protestant religion ; namely, 
 
 » Father Thomas Roberts's real name was Joseph Gerard. Father F. Siingsby signs thi3 
 letter, and also several others, Leiuh Newman. In otherplaces he uses the name oi Francii 
 PeriEus, or Perry. Priests and Catholics at this time constantly wrote under feigned names, 
 to elude their enemies. 
 
 f The other two are lost. 
 
 t I may here mention that ScEvola is the name always used for Father Muzio Vitelleschi, 
 General of the Je uits. The name after Southwell is difficult to decipher 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 235 
 
 thai it came out of the teachers of Henry VIII. 2. That 
 he Lad endeavored to bring others to the Catholic faitli, 
 which by law was made treason. To the first he answer- 
 ed that he had used those words but in jest, and privately 
 to the husband of his sister, who had jestingly spoken 
 words of contumely against the pope, to whom he had 
 answered by a jest common in England. To the second 
 he confessed that he had done his best to bring others to 
 that only way of salvation which he had himself embraced. 
 And when one of the councillors observed that by the law 
 that was the crime of high treason, he answered, ' If that 
 be so, I cannot deny I have done it, nor undo what I have 
 done.' He was then taken back to prison. 
 
 " Such was his calmness of mind, his modesty, and his 
 gentleness while in prison that he won the affection even 
 of the heretics, and greatly consoled the Catholics who 
 visited him — and great numbers of Catholics flocked to 
 visit him while in prison. 
 
 " These latter he edified, not only by his constancy in 
 professing the Catholic religion, and readiness to endure 
 all things for its sake, but also by his pious discourses, and 
 he thus moved many to a change of manner and a more 
 holy life. One person in particular I know who was 
 moved by his words and example to a total change of life. 
 While he remained in prison he was challenged to a dispute 
 on faith by another heretical bishop, P. Bromwell, who was 
 considered to excel in talents and learning. The bishop 
 chose for the subject of the dispute the receiving of the 
 Holy Eucharist under one species, for there is no con- 
 troversy in which they think so easily to obtain the victory 
 as in this. One of the leading men about the deputy's court 
 told me of the subject chosen for the dispute, and invited 
 me to be present, (for I was not at that time a Catholic ;) but 
 when we both came to hear the argument the bishop 
 would not let us be present, on which the nobleman (who was 
 
236 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 also a heretic) by whom T was invited openly said that it 
 would seem as if the bishop were but little sure of the faith 
 he undertook to defend, when he would not allow his co- 
 religionists to be present. But in this dispute it happened 
 very differently from the former one with the Primate, for 
 so clear a perception of Catholic truth was divinely vouch- 
 safed to him that he most easily answered every objection 
 of the bishop. How well he vindicated the Catholic reli- 
 gion on this occasion may be gathered from this, that when 
 i inquired from the only person who was present (who was 
 a most bitter opponent of the Catholic faith) what had 
 been said, and lamented that I had not been present, he 
 said not a word of anything which the bishop had urged, 
 but endeavored to slur over the whole matter, which he 
 surely would not have done had he had the least chance of 
 boasting. 
 
 " Father Francis, too, afterward frankly told me that all 
 had turned out as he could wish, for that he not only per- 
 ceived most clearly interiorly that the bishop's arguments 
 were unfounded, but there occurred to his mind abundance 
 of weighty arguments to demonstrate their falseness. 
 When they perceived that there was no chance of Francis 
 returning to their religion, they determined at least to pun- 
 ish him by a lengthened imprisonment." — Letter of Father 
 Spreul. 
 
 "As soon as it was- known in Rome that he was in pri- 
 son, Cardinal Barberini exerted himself to the utmost to 
 obtain his liberty, and at last succeeded. He immediately 
 wrote to the Queen of England,* and to her sister, the 
 Duchess of Savoy, requesting the latter to use her influ- 
 ence with her sister the queen to obtain Francis's liberty. 
 At length he obtained, by his entreaties, that the Queen 
 of England caused her confessor to write to Francis to say 
 
 * Henrietta Maria of France. 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 237 
 
 she would try to obtain what was sought. Thus, as it is 
 thought, it came to pass that, instead of being sentenced to 
 exile, he was first transferred to the house of the Earl of 
 Castlehaven, a Catholic, who had done much to obtain his 
 freedom, there to be detained in custody, and at length set 
 free." — Letter of another Jesuit, name lost. 
 
 On the I2th of May, 1635, he was admitted to bail, to 
 remain in Lord Castlehaven's house. On that day he 
 wrote to Father Roberts (Gerard) : 
 
 " Hoping every day to get my liberty, I deferred from 
 time to time to write to you, being desirous to make the 
 news the subject of my letter. 
 
 "The superior* here laboreth to procure my stay in 
 these parts, but, if you would know mine own affection or 
 inclination of flesh and blood in this point, I will confess 
 that I esteem Rome a paradise and this my purgatory ; but 
 yet, as well in this as in all other things, obedience shall 
 be the rule of my actions. My mother is well disposed to 
 be reconciled to my father, but he remains obstinate." 
 
 The last sentence probably refers to his father's indig- 
 nation at the conversion of his brother, and his mother's 
 tendencies toward Catholicity, (see letter of 21st Janu- 
 ary, 1635,) but she was not finally converted till later, as on 
 the 8th May, 1636, he writes to Father Roberts, (Gerard,) 
 " My two kinswomen are not as yet entirely persuaded in 
 judgment." 
 
 After he had passed several months in the house of Lord 
 Castlehaven, being at length fully restored to freedom, he 
 proceeded to the castle of the dowager Countess of Kil- 
 dare. His confessor. Father William Malone, mentions 
 that " in a short time after his return to Ireland he had 
 converted his mother, his younger brother, his sister, and 
 several others ;" and adds : 
 
 * The superior of the Jesuits in Ireland was Father Robert Nugent. See the MS. RiUr 
 tio Brevist etc, by Father Maurice Ward. Written 1643. 
 
238 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 ■' His father was now advanced in years, and usually 
 dwelt in Dublin. Although he avoided as much as possi- 
 ble showing peculiar favor to his son, and would not allow 
 him to dwell in the same house with him, fearing lest he 
 should be supposed to be a papist, he yet freely conversed 
 with him in private, and supplied him liberally with the 
 means of satisfying his common wants. His love for his 
 son sometimes went so far that Francis had great hopes 
 his father would renounce his heresy ; wherefore he most 
 freely rendered him every possible service. 
 
 " By his father's desire he attended the courts, and acted 
 for him in divers causes. These and other secular affairs, 
 although contrary to his natural inclinations, he undertook 
 cheerfully, always in the hope of ultimately gaining his 
 father's soul ; and no doubt he would have succeeded had 
 he remained longer in the kingdom, but, on account of 
 fresh complaints which were made against him, and being 
 again threatened with imprisonment, he was compelled to 
 suddenly embark on board a ship for England, whence he 
 wrote to his father most humbly, and fully explaining the 
 reasons of his departure." 
 
 Father Spreul further describes his mode of life in the 
 interval between his liberation from constraint and his de- 
 parture from Ireland : 
 
 " He made a very different use of his liberty from that 
 commonly made by youth ; for, having been prevented 
 from practising many of his spiritual exercises in prison, 
 when set free, like a flame which lay for a time compressed, 
 bursts forth, he edified the whole city by his fervor and his 
 truly angelic life. He took a lodging in Dublin, where he 
 dwelt very privately, having much intercourse with the 
 Jesuit fathers who then dwelt in that city.* He kept only 
 one sei-vant, and led a life which might shame many in the 
 
 • They were all violently exiled in 1642. See that year. 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 239 
 
 cloister, for no novice in the noviceship could be more ex- 
 act in observing the distribution of his time. For this 
 purpose he obtained from his father-confessor, according 
 to the custom of the society (of Jesus,) a plan of fixed times 
 for rising, praying, etc., which, through obedience, he ob- 
 sei'ved exactly. Every morning he devoted an hour to 
 mental prayer, on his bare knees ; then studied. During 
 meals he listened to some pious book read by the servant ; 
 he examined his conscience before dinner : he had a fixed 
 hour for recreation, during which he entered into conver- 
 sation with those of the family, speaking of God, of the 
 lives of the saints, and other pious subjects ; and they all 
 declared to me that they never were so edified as by his 
 conversation. When his hour for recreation was over, he 
 betook himself to his room, where he gave some time to 
 an examination of himself distinct from the two others, and 
 there pursued the studies he was ordered. His body he 
 afl^icted with disciplines and frequent fasts. He rarely 
 left the house except on some business, and so eager was 
 he to employ his time well that he could not bear to be a 
 moment idle. According to the custom of the society, he 
 approached the sacraments of penance and the Blessed 
 Eucharist on every festival day, and so exactly conformed 
 the whole tenor of his life to the institutes of the society 
 that I venture to say that no one in any of our colleges 
 was more exact in observing the rule than he, although liv- 
 ing as his own master in the world. And he was so assidu- 
 ous in reading the rules over and over again, that, like 
 another Berchmans, he always carried them about with 
 him, and that so secretly that, although continually among 
 heretics, no one ever saw them, for he carried the rule 
 sewed up in black silk in the top of his hat, which was 
 made of beaver. Although Father Francis sought, by 
 every means, to hide his admirable mode of life, for he 
 wore a dress of silk and fur as became his rank and the 
 
240 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 station of his parents, yet lie could not prevent the odor 
 of his virtues being diffused abroad ; the more so as there 
 was none, not only among the heretics, but even among 
 the Catholics, who led such a life, and the praise of his 
 virtues became a common subject of conversation. As it 
 is the custom in our country for the sons of nobles, and 
 especially their heirs, to live in great splendor, keeping 
 many horses, devoting themselves to hunting and such 
 other sports, when they saw a youth of noble birth, in the 
 flower of his age, and brought up while a heretic in the 
 midst of luxury, laying aside all these pleasures, although 
 in themselves lawful, and cheerfully embracing a life alto- 
 gether contrary to the ideas of the world, and that in the 
 metropolis of the kingdom, where many of his relations 
 and friends dwelt in the lord-deputy's court, not only 
 the Catholics, who were very numerous in that city, but 
 also the heretics, gave the greatest praise to Father Fran- 
 cis, and called him a saint ; and of this I am an eye-wit- 
 ness. It was by a singular providence of God that so pub- 
 lic a theatre was assigned to him ; for many Catholics, by 
 the example of his life, were confirmed in the Catholic 
 faith, and others recalled to virtue. Many heretics, too, 
 were converted by his means, among whom was myself, 
 who write this, although unworthy of such a blessing. 
 For I can sincerely declare that, though I labored much in 
 examining into the truth, I found no motive so efficacious 
 in inducing me to embrace the Catholic faith as the sanc- 
 tity of life I perceived in Father Francis. And among 
 many others converted by him to the faith, his younger 
 brother, a youth of much promise, ingenuously confessed 
 to mc that his chiefest motive for abjuring his heresy was 
 the religious regularity in prayer, sacred reading, and ex- 
 amination of conscience which he saw in Father Francis. 
 Nor did he make converts only by this holiness of life, for 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 241 
 
 he confuted the heretics by most weighty reasons, and 
 showed great talent in all controversies of faith. 
 
 " Although he desired to go into public as little as pos- 
 sible, and only to serve God in the aforementioned exer- 
 cises, yet when there was the least chance of saving souls 
 he most readily deferred or abandoned any of his own 
 business, nor did he ever show any labor or trouble in this 
 work, serving equally freely the rich and the poor. He 
 converted in Dublin a whole family to the faith — husband, 
 wife, and children ; he also converted his own mother, bro- 
 ther, sister,* and many others, to the number of not less 
 than twenty, while he remained in Ireland, which is no 
 small number if we consider the time and the difficulty of 
 converting heretics." 
 
 It appears that it was in November, 1635, that he was 
 entirely set at liberty, for in a letter dated November 24th 
 of that year he says, " Lately released from prison, after a 
 full year." His sisters were not converted until 1636, for 
 on the 8th of May he writes to Father Roberts, " My two 
 kinswomen are not as yet entirely persuaded in judgment." 
 
 The immediate cause of Francis's hasty departure from 
 Ireland in 1636 was, as we have seen, the imminent danger 
 of being again thrown into prison for having caused the 
 conversion of his sister ;f but he had long meditated pro- 
 ceeding to Rome to fulfil his original intention of becoming 
 a Jesuit. He thought, however, that it might be desirable 
 for him to remain some time longer in Ireland in order 
 to conciliate his father, and so escape being totally disin- 
 herited ; and Father Robert Nugent, the superior of the 
 Jesuits in Ireland, was anxious to detain him on account 
 of the good he was doing. The latter wrote from Ireland 
 to Father Thompson in Rome on the ist of March, 1636, 
 
 • It appears by a letter from Father Malone that one died in 1635. 
 
 t " He fled from the persecution raised against him by his relations on account of the con- 
 version of his sister.'* — Father Spreia. 
 
242 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 offering to allow Mr. Slingsby to return to Rome, but re- 
 commending that he should be left to settle his father's 
 affairs. The general, however, Father Mutius Vitelleschi, 
 anxious only for the spiritual advance of his intended 
 future son in religion, wrote him to neglect all worldly 
 considerations, and come at once to Rome. While, how- 
 ever, this correspondence was going on, Francis was 
 obliged to fly to England, and thence to France. This is 
 narrated as follows by Father Spreul : " I should here men- 
 tion a heroic act of Father Francis, when, leaving his 
 country, his friends, and all that was dear to him in this 
 world, he went to England. He had left Ireland without 
 the knowledge of his father, who would have had recourse 
 to the authority of the viceroy, and was therefore destitute 
 of means for so long and arduous a journey. This he re- 
 joiced at, from the great desire he had to abandon the 
 world. He bought for himself in London a poor and sim- 
 ple dress, with the intention of proceeding to Rome on foot, 
 and, if all other means failed, begging his way ; and this, 
 no doubt, he would have done with as great fervor as the 
 blessed Stanislaus, had it not been otherwise decided by a 
 particular providence of God. Just as he was about to start, 
 there arrived from Ireland a young nobleman whose virtue 
 was well known to him. Lord Castlehaven, who proposed 
 visiting foreign parts, as is the custom. Meeting Father 
 Francis, whom he had known in Dublin, he never ceased 
 importuning him until he agreed to accompany him, to his 
 great profit, for the pious conversation and virtuous ex- 
 ample of Francis produced a great impression on him 
 Nothing more clearly shows how gently but efficaciously 
 he inclined the minds of others to virtue than the conduct 
 of this 3'oung nobleman while travelling with Francis ; for 
 it is commonly said those who travel rarely advance in vir- 
 tue, and most gentlemen while travelling attend to any- 
 thing rather than virtue. After they had examined such 
 
In the Reign of Charles I, 243 
 
 objects of interest as were to be seen, they gave the rest 
 of their time to the study of mathematics, in which he 
 acted as teacher to the young count. Every week they 
 approached the sacrament of penance, and never omitted 
 to receive the Blessed Eucharist on Sundays and feast- 
 days, and daily to devote some time to pious reading. 
 This conduct was the more admirable, as the earl had at- 
 tained to man's estate. He remained in France with the 
 earl a considerable time,* when, on receiving a letter from 
 the father-general, Mutius Vitelleschi, he prepared to pro- 
 ceed to Rome, although the earl sought by all means to 
 detain him, so that, not ,to offend one who had so obliged 
 him, Father Francis explained to him his resolution of 
 embracing a religious life. The earl was grieved at this 
 beyond expression, not only because he lost his friend's 
 society, but because he had intended him to marry his 
 sister, a young lady of rare beauty and virtue, and who had 
 a large dowry." 
 
 The letter from the general above alluded to is probably 
 the following, from Father Thomas R.oberts, {ver^ Joseph 
 Gerard,) from Rome, dated i6th of May, 1637, written by 
 order of the general to Slingsby : 
 
 '' He (' Scasvola,' that is, the general) read both yours 
 and Mr. Nugent's with great attention ; and having well 
 considered both the parts of your cause, and pondered also 
 the weight of all the reasons alleged by Mr. Nugent for 
 that part which he desired might take place, yet Scasvola 
 persevered in his former opinion, and made choice of your 
 speedy coming hither as the certain means of your much 
 greater good, which (as he saith and ever hath said when 
 we have talked of that matter) is most to be respected and 
 much to be preferred before the temporal means which by 
 your stay there and loss unto yourself (which would cer- 
 
 • " Fere biennlum.*' But this is a mistake, as the reader will see. 
 
244 Martyrs and Coiifessors 
 
 tainly follow of it) you might gain. But Scaevola is and 
 will be much better pleased with my friend alone, and with 
 the internal riches which he will bring with him, and which 
 cannot be taken from him, and which will be much the 
 greater by this act of renunciation, than if with his mea- 
 sure of interior goods he brought with him a much greater 
 proportion of exterior riches. Therefore, it is his absolute 
 desire that his Joseph do break away from the world, 
 though he leave his cloak behind him." 
 
 This was followed by a letter from the, general himself, 
 dated Rome, 23d of May, 1637, as follows : 
 
 " Although I doubt not you have gathered, both from 
 what I wrote to you in the month of October last year and 
 from what I wrote to Father Nugent in March last, what 
 I think of further delay and putting off of your journey, and 
 that I desire nothing more than that you should proceed to 
 Rome as soon as possible, nevertheless, because, perchance, 
 you may think that I have been moved by the reasons you 
 and Father Nugent have written to me and Father Thomp- 
 son, and changed my opinions, I write these few lines (for 
 Father Thompson will write more at length by my wish 
 and desire) to say that I by no means approve what you 
 have written as to deferring, and, as I understand it, alto- 
 gether abandoning your journey ; and that I do not con- 
 sider those reasons to be of sufficient weight, but that 
 rather, casting aside all those impediments, you should fl> 
 hither to take up the cross of Christ, and, leaving your 
 father's house, and all human relations, give yourself whol- 
 ly to your Creator. 
 
 " Having weighed the whole matter in God, I am alto- 
 gether confident this course will redound to the greater 
 glory of God, and your own salvation. 
 
 " Our sweet Jesus, who hath cast on you the chains of 
 his love, yet draws you on, and will benignly perfect the 
 work which his infinite mercy hath commenced in you." 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. ■ 245 
 
 After Father Spreul's conversion in Ireland, by the 
 advice of Francis, he had gone through a course of the 
 spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, under the direction of 
 Father Malone ; and he then determined to enter into 
 religion, and become a Jesuit. They then agreed to meet 
 in France, and proceed to Rome together ; but Spreul fell 
 very ill, and his friend Francis returned to Ireland, and 
 tended him in his illness. 
 
 The general Vitelleschi alludes to thfs in a letter dated 
 Rome, I2th December, 1637, in which he says he (Francis) 
 had been recalled to Ireland from the midst of his journey, 
 and hopes he would soon come to Rome. As soon as 
 Spreul was sufficiently recovered to bear the fatigue of the 
 lourney, they started for Rome, setting out on the 20th 
 November, 1638. They made the journey chiefly on 
 horseback, and Slingsby carried a great number of books 
 with him on a sumpter-horse. His companion mentions 
 that Francis always took the worst horse and dinner and 
 bed, saying that the other's recent illness required the 
 most care. It would appear that his brother Henry 
 accompanied him this time to France, from the following 
 passage in one of Father Spreul's letters : 
 
 " When his brother Henry, whom he had converted to 
 the CathoHc faith, and who by his example attained to a 
 high degree of Christian perfection, while being in the 
 world, was about to return to Ireland from France, a few 
 days before his departure the brothers began to discuss, in 
 a friendly way, the subject of the surrender of his inheri- 
 tance by Francis to his younger brother. The younger, 
 having no vocation to a religious life,,, pointed out that it 
 would be well for one of them to remain in the world, and 
 continue the family name, (for they were the only two sons,) 
 and aflford some protection to the poor and oppressed 
 Catholics, and he urged for this purpose he would need the 
 paternal inheritance. Francis would rather that they both 
 
246 Maiiyrs and Confessors. 
 
 devoted themselves to God in religion and gave all their 
 means, after their father's death, to found a college in 
 Belgium for the education of youth in the Catholic relig- 
 ion, who, returning to their own country, would there 
 preserve the faith, and be the noblest posterity of the 
 founders. He agreed, however, to surrender all his 
 inheritance to his' brother on condition that the latter 
 should pay four hundred gold .crowns annually for a 
 seminary in Belgium for educating Irish youth."* 
 
 His companion relates the following instance of his 
 extreme love of truth : 
 
 " On our journey to Rome, as we passed Savona, some 
 soldiers and other citizens of that place embarked in the 
 ship in which we were proceeding to Genoa. When 
 we arrived at the latter place, we were forbidden to dis- 
 embark until it should be ascertained whether we had 
 passed through Nice, where it was said (although untruly) 
 that the plague was making great ravages. Those who 
 had come from Savona, fearing lest if the truth were told 
 we should all be kept in the ship, as it were in prison, for a 
 fortnight in the port, came to Slingsby, who spoke Italian^ 
 and all urged that it was necessary to dissemble, and by 
 no means to admit that we had put in there. When he 
 answered that he would not lie, they abused and threatened 
 him, hmting broadly that w^ should suffer if by us they 
 were so inconvenienced. But he answered unmoved that 
 he would rather endure everything than offend his God in 
 the least thing ; then, turning to me, he said that we should 
 commit the whole affair to God, through the intercession 
 of St Catharine of Genoa, whose body we intended to 
 visit. We had hardly ended our prayer, when leave arriv- 
 ed from the magistrate for us all to land without any such 
 previous examination as was at first pretended. 
 
 • See letter of Francis, and his brother later. 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 247 
 
 " When we were about to sail from Genoa to Leghorn, a 
 certain religious of the Order of St. Francis wished to 
 come, but had not money to pay the captain ; but Francis 
 charitably paid for him." 
 
 The two friends arrived in Rome apparently on the first 
 day of 1639. Ori his arrival in Rome, his friend and pro- 
 tector, Cardinal Barberini, offered Francis a place in his 
 house, but he requested to be allowed to enter a college, 
 " proposing to the father-general that he should enter the 
 Irish College, but in this, as in all things, submitting him- 
 self to the will of the general." (Letter of his confessor, 
 Father Malone, who also accompanied him to Rome.) It 
 was decided, however, that he was to enter the English 
 College, of which the cardinal was the protector. The car- 
 dinal proposed that he should have a separate room and a 
 servant, and that he, as protector of the college, would 
 give him a dispensation to have' them. But the modest 
 youth refused, and begged the father-rector not to give 
 him any indulgence above the others in food or dress. In 
 college he was a most diligent observer of the rules, and 
 never omitted to ask leave of the prefect or vice-prefect 
 when he left his room, (although others did not do so,) be- 
 cause such was the ancient rule. It would appear from 
 the document already referred to that he entered the Eng- 
 lish College about the middle of February, 1639, ^"^^ there 
 studied philosophy (and, we may presume, theology also) 
 for two years. 
 
 He was no sooner settled in Rome than he reverted ta 
 his intention of resigning his inheritance to his younger 
 brother, and obtaining funds for a college in Belgium. 
 How this was arranged the two following letters will ex- 
 plain : the first is from Father Francis to his brother, and 
 is dated Rome, 24th April, 1639 • 
 
 " My most deare Brother : I doe hereby renounce 
 myne inheritance, and doe yield unto you, my most deare 
 
248 Martyrs atid Confessors 
 
 brother, all ye rights that God hath given me unto my 
 father and mother's estate, and doe utterly disenable my- 
 self of pretending anything thereunto, that those condi- 
 tions be observed." 
 
 He retained a portion of land, value ;£i00 a year, to en- 
 (bw a college. 
 
 His brother answered from " Kilkenny, this St. Joseph's, 
 (19th March,) 1640. When I become master of my father*s 
 estate, I will bestow .3^100 a year of it in erecting an Irish 
 seminary ; nay, more, if God shall call you away before it 
 shall come to my hands, I bind myself to make it good to 
 the society for that intent. I now, with like willingness, 
 binde myself to give you £,2i, per annum for yourself, to 
 be paid to you wherever you shall demande it. — H. Slings- 
 
 BY." 
 
 About this same date he wrote the following letter to his 
 father ; it is a copy in his own hand, but not dated : 
 
 " Most honored and dear Father : Being now, by 
 the assistance of my good God, arrived at the place where 
 he showed so great mercy unto me as to make me a mem- 
 ber of the Holy Catholic Church, which of all places ought 
 to be most dear unto me, and best deserves the name of 
 my country, wherein I was born unto Christ, I am resolved 
 here to spend some years in the service of God, and pro- 
 secution of my studies. And since, the considering your 
 age, my intended stay in these parts, and the dangers in so 
 long a voyage when I return, it is most possible I shall 
 never see you more, the love and duty I owe you induce 
 me now to bid you farewell. And first of all I most hum- 
 bly crave your pardon, if at any time, in the heat of dis- 
 course about matters of religion, I have forgot the dutj I 
 owe unto a father by being more earnest and vehement 
 than modesty allows. Yet have I this consolation, that my 
 intentions were pure, and that I sought you and not yours, 
 for he that shall be my Judge is also my witness that if I 
 
In the Reigii of Charles I. 349 
 
 had in my possession all your estate, wherein God and na- 
 ture give me a right, I would most willingly leave both it 
 and my own life too, so that your soul, so dear unto me, 
 might enjoy the happiness for which it was created. My 
 dear father, it is not in your power to hinder my love ; all 
 the persecutions you can raise against me, all the afflic- 
 tions and wants you can make me suffer, nay, your refus- 
 ing to love me, (which to me is more than all the rest,) are 
 not able to blot out my love toward you. For when I con- 
 sider how good a father you ever have been, how careful of 
 my education, how tender in your affection, how liberal 
 toward me for my expenses, these former benefits do pre- 
 vail ; and if I put them in the balance with your latter un- 
 kindnesses, yet in my own judgment they weigh down to 
 the ground, especially since the troubles you make me un- 
 dergo proceed not originally from any evil will, but from a 
 deceived judgment. Now that you may see how good a 
 Master I serve, I will declare unto you how the prudence 
 of God hath so disposed things that I was never brought 
 to extreme necessity, though I was indeed constrained to 
 sell some clothes and books ; for, first, I had when I was 
 first in Rome lent unto an English gentleman eighty 
 pounds sterling, which I could never get paid till my last 
 being in England, so that it seemed God had laid it up in 
 store till I should stand in need thereof ; for our diet, w 
 had it for the most part gratis at my Lord Falkland's 
 When I came into France, my Lord of Castlehaven main- 
 tained me in all things gratis for the space of a year, where- 
 in he made no difference betwixt himself and me, desiring 
 me to use his purse as my own ; and when I came away 
 into Italy, leaving him in France, he lent me fifty pounds 
 for my expenses by the way, which only I desire you to 
 repay. When I came into Italy, Cardinal Barberini, hear- 
 ing thereof, had given orders, before my arrival at Rome, 
 that lodgings should be provided for me in his palace, but 
 
250 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 when I came to kiss his hands I told his eminence that, 
 if it pleased him, I would rather follow my studies in the 
 English College, which he willingly assented unto, giving 
 present order for my maintenance, and offered me the pri- 
 vilege of keeping a servant, which I refused. Thus I may 
 truly say, ' Pater mens et amici mei dereliquerunt me, sed 
 Dominus suscepit me.' His goodness hath a care of me, 
 and suffers nothing to be wanting unto me ; one thing 
 alone I except, that we two are not one. Yet while I 
 have a tongue to speak I will never cease to beg and say, 
 ' Lord, if thou wilt thou canst grant me what my soul so 
 much thirsteth after.' O my father ! give me a blessing ; 
 you know what my heart would say. Sapieiiti pauca. My 
 brother hath refused certain maintenance here that hath 
 been offered him by the cardinal, out of the desire he hath 
 to return to you, and chooseth rather to hazard the suffer- 
 ing of want in your presence than to want nothing being 
 absent from you. Receive him, therefore, I most humbly 
 beseech you ; despise not your own bowels, since in all 
 things, (yourself being judge,) except in matters of religion, 
 he hath been a dutiful and loving son unto you. And as 
 you tender the favor of him of whose favor we shalj one 
 ilay stand so much in need, reject not my mother, since 
 lie commands you to receive her, and assures you by his 
 (iwn mouth that unless you forgive you cannot be for- 
 given." 
 
 The rest of his brief career may be given in the words 
 of another Jesuit father : 
 
 " During the space of nearly two years that he studied 
 philosophy in the English College, he was an example of all 
 virtues to the other alumni. He was ordered for his health's 
 sake during the summer of the year 1640 and 1641 to Tibur, 
 and stopped in a certain villa at Tusculum, among our 
 students, where he always conducted himself as one of 
 them, and showed an example of humility by always wash- 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 251 
 
 ing and cleaning the plates in the kitchen. At the end of 
 winter he was desired to prepare himself to receive holy 
 orders, and thus fit himself for entering into religion, which 
 he had sighed after as another promised land for more than 
 seven years. This he did with great fervor, and in the 
 month of July, 1641, he was made priest, and ever re- 
 cited the divine office and said Mass with the greatest 
 attention and reverence. He chose the feast of the bless- 
 ed Francis Borgia for his entrance into the novitiate ; 
 and on the eve — that is, on the 30th September, 1641 — he 
 was accompanied, as is the custom, by the alumni of his 
 college to the novitiate of St. Andrea on the Quirinal, and 
 there took on his body the religious habit which he had 
 long worn in his heart." 
 
 He died at Naples, but when, I have not been able to 
 discover ; probably before he had completed his novice- 
 ship. Father Spreul says : " It chanced that I was the 
 first to bring the bitter tidings of his death, struck by an 
 unforeseen chance, to the master of novices, Father Oliva. 
 He was struck with grief, and said that there was one dead 
 from whom he had learned more of virtue than he had ever 
 taught. He called together all his fellow-novices into the 
 school, and, having spoken of the shortness and uncertain- 
 ty of life, he told them of the death of Father Francis, and 
 uesired them to say the rosaries said in the society for a de- 
 ceased brother, not that he might be freed from the flames 
 of purgatory, for he did not think he needed these suffrages, 
 but to return thanks to God that he had vouchsafed them 
 so excellent an example of holiness and exact observance 
 of the rule. He exhorted them all to keep such an exam- 
 ple of virtue ever before their eyes ; that they could all 
 bear witness, as he could, that Father Francis had been so 
 perfect in religious observance that he ventured to say he 
 had never broken even the least of the rules." 
 
252 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Anno 1637. 
 
 MOST REV. HUGH O'REILLY, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH. 
 
 " This venerable prelate, who in 1628 was transferred 
 from the see of Kilmore to that of Armagh, was in 1637, 
 for having dared to assemble the clergy of his province in 
 synod, thrown into prison in Dublin Castle, where for six 
 weeks he was detained in a painful captivity. We learn 
 these particulars from a letter by the archbishop himself, 
 addressed to Dr. Dwyer, in Rome, on 24th October, 1637, 
 in which he further states that as yet his health had hard- 
 ly recovered from the severe shock it received in the damp 
 dungeon of the castle." — Moran, Archbishops of Dublin, 
 vol. i. p. 402. 
 
 For a full account of the great deeds of this noble bish- 
 op, and how he died a fugitive on Trinity Island in Lough 
 Erne, and was buried in the Abbey of Cavan, founded by 
 Gelasius O'Reilly, I must refer my readers to Dr. Rene- 
 han's Collections. 
 
 REV. JOHN O'MANNIN, O.P.P. 
 
 " The venerable John O'Mannin, of the convent of Derry, 
 a most strict observer of the rule, always wore the habit of 
 his order, and being recognized on a time by the heretics, 
 he was by them taken prisoner and dragged before the tri- 
 bunal Here he despised alike the rewards which were 
 offered to him and the torments with which he was threat- 
 ened, and ever loudly professed the Catholic faith. He 
 was ordered for several weeks to be tortured two or three 
 times a week on the rack, and once when he was hanging 
 in that torture he was let fall and his back broken, so that 
 to his dying day he remained hump-backed, showing 
 clearly he lacked not the will but the chance to be a mar- 
 tyr." — Ex Act Cap. Gen. Roma;, 1656, ap. Mon. Dom, 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 253 
 
 Anno 1640. 
 
 REV. RAYMOND KEOGH, O.P.P. 
 
 "This year the Rev. Father Raymond Keogh, being 
 taken prisoner by the heretics, through hatred of the Ca- 
 tholic faith and the authority of the Roman pontiff, which 
 he preached, was by them beheaded." — Ex Relat. ad Sac. 
 Cong. dat. ap. Mon. Dam. 
 
 Anno 1G41. 
 
 Although it is foreign to the purpose of this book to 
 enter into the general history of Ireland, or even of the 
 persecutions, my intention being only to give a brief ac- 
 count of the separate sufferings of those martyrs and con- 
 fessors whose names have been preserved, yet it appears 
 desirable, before entering on a new and different era of per- 
 secution, briefly to call attention to its features. From the 
 change of religion under Elizabeth to the commencement 
 of the wars of the Long Parliament the persecution had 
 been more or less intermittent, and a distinction might, 
 with some show of reason, be drawn between the wars in 
 which the Irish were engaged in defence of their indepen- 
 dence against Elizabeth and purely religious wars, although 
 in truth all through these wars hatred and love of the Ca- 
 tholic religion were the mainsprings of action. But with 
 1648 began a new era. The Parliament of England de- 
 clared war against the king, and Ireland was pressed by 
 the two belHgerents. The Catholics took up arms in their 
 own defence, and declared for the king. At one time they 
 were encouraged by him ; at another, when pressed by the 
 Parliament and the Scotch, he disavowed them. One party 
 was always, and under all circumstances, inimical to the 
 Catholic Irish — the party of the Parliamentarian Puritans, 
 For eight years these bloody wars went on, accompanied 
 
254 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 by most sanguinary persecutions of the Catholics, till 
 Charles I.'s execution, on the 30th January, 1649. I" 
 August of that same year Cromwell landed in Ireland. 
 For a sketch of the bloody persecution, or rather universal 
 massacre, which followed, I must refer my readers to the 
 work of Dr. Moran, Persecution of the Irish Catholics ; but 
 it will be necessary for them to remember these dates, in 
 order to understand the lives of the few victims whose 
 names have been preserved. It will give my readers some 
 idea of the way in which the persecution was carried on, 
 to mention that Lord Clarendon says : " The Parliament 
 party had grounded their own authority and strength upon 
 such foundations as were inconsistent with any toleration 
 of the Roman Catholic religion, and even with any hu- 
 manity to the Irish nation — and more especially to those 
 of the old native extraction, the whole race whereof they 
 had upon the matter sworn to extirpate." (Hist. i. 215.) 
 The Parliament of England, under their guidance, resolved, 
 on the 24th of October, 1644, "that no quarter shall be 
 given to any Irishman, or to any papist born in Ireland ;" 
 and their historian, Borlase, adds : " The orders of Parlia- 
 ment were excellently well executed." {Hist, of Rebellion, 
 p. 62.) Leland and Warner refer to the letters of the lords- 
 justices for the fact that the soldiers "slew all persons 
 promiscuously, not sparing even the women." Cromwell 
 declared on landing in Dublin that no mercy should be 
 shown to the Irish, and that they should be dealt with as 
 the Canaanites in Joshua's time. It is impossible to esti- 
 mate the number of Catholics slain in the ten years from 
 1642 to 1652. Three bishops and more than 300 priests 
 were put to death for the faith. Thousands of men, women, 
 and children were sold as slaves for tne West Indies ; Sir 
 W. Petty mentions that six thousand boys and women 
 were thus sold. (Political Anatomy of Ireland, p. 187.) 
 A letter written in 1656, quoted by Lingard, puts the 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 255 
 
 number at 60,000 ; as late as 1666 there were 12,000 Irish 
 slaves scattered among the West Indian Islands. (Let- 
 ter of Rev. J. Grace, written in 1669, ap. Moran, p. 147.) 
 40,000 Irish Catholics fled to the Continent, and 20,000 
 took refuge in the Hebrides and other Scottish islands. 
 (Moran, p. 99.) In a word, as Sir W. Petty writes, the 
 population of Ireland in 1641 was 1,466,000, of whom Ca 
 tholicswere about 1,240,000; in 1659, the whole population 
 was only 500,091, of whom Irish were only 420,000, so that 
 very nearly or quite one million must have perished. (Sir 
 W. Petty, Polit. Anat. p. 13, ap. Moran, and Hardinge's 
 Census of i6t,()) 
 
 One other remark is necessary before entering on the 
 separate lives : Up to 1640, the Irish had days and even 
 years of comparative safety, during which they could col- 
 lect and communicate information, and several writers col- 
 lected and published accounts of the lives and deaths of 
 those who suffered for the faith ; but so universal was the 
 desolation, so almost entire the extinction of the Irish Ca- 
 tholics, in the Cromwellian persecution, that no such col- 
 lections could be made, and hence we have only scatter- 
 ed notices of a comparatively few cases, and no such col- 
 lected accounts as Dr. Roothe's De Frocessn Martyriali, 
 published in 1619, and similar works. The few records 
 that remain have almost all been collected by Dr. Moran 
 in his work, and to him I am indebted for a great part of 
 the following pages. 
 
 TWENTY CAPUCHIN FATHERS. 
 
 "Before the close of 1641, a proclamation was pub- 
 lished interdicting the exercise of the Catholic religion ; a 
 rigorous search was made to discover the priests and reli- 
 gious, and no fewer than forty of them being arrested, they 
 were for some time treated with great rigor in prison, and 
 
256 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 then transported to the Continent. An extract from a let 
 ter addressed to his superior in Rome, on the 12th July, 
 1642, by a Capuchin father who was sent into exile, will 
 convey some idea of the storm thus let loose against the 
 Catholics. 
 
 " ' Whithersoever the enemy penetrates, everything is 
 destroyed by fire and sword ; none are spared, not even 
 the infant at its mother's breast, for their desire is to 
 wholly extirpate the Irish race. In Dublin our order, as 
 also the other religious bodies, had a residence, and a beauti- 
 fully ornamented chapel, in which we publicly, and in our 
 habit, performed the sacred ceremonies ; but no sooner 
 had the soldiers arrived from England than they furiously 
 rushed everywhere, profaned our chapels, overturned our 
 altars, broke to pieces the sacred images, trampling' them 
 underfoot and destroying them by fire ; our residences 
 were plundered, the priests were everywhere sought for, 
 and many, among whom myself and companion, were 
 captured and cast into prison. 
 
 " ' We were twenty in number, and the lords-justices at 
 first resolved on our execution, but through the influence 
 of some members of the council we were transported to 
 France. The masters of the two vessels into which we 
 were cast received private instructions to throw us into 
 the sea, but they refused to commit this horrid crime. 
 Oh ! would to God that we had been worthy to be led to 
 the scaffold or thus drowned for the faith.' " — Moran, 
 Persec. p. 11, and letter of Father Nicholas, Superior of 
 the Capuchins of Dublin, from Poitiers I2th July, 1642; 
 
 quoted by him. 
 
 — ♦■ — 
 
 REV. PETER HIGGINS, O.P.P., 
 " An alumnus of the Dublin convent, at the commence- 
 ment of the war was taken prisoner by the heretics, and 
 although not accused of any crime, but, on the contrary, 
 
In the Reigii of Charles I. 257 
 
 many of the heretics proclaimed his innocence, )'et was he 
 condemned to death ; and having thrice confessed to his 
 prior and received absolution from him. — for he made his 
 way into the prison in disguise — publicly professing his in- 
 nocence and his firm adherence to the Catholic faith and 
 our holy order, he was hung in the public place of Dublin, 
 on the 23d of March, 1641. His constancy under torment, 
 and the joy expressed in his countenance, moved many of 
 the heretics to tears ; but, on the other hand, rather excited 
 the fury of others, who vented their rage on his body by all 
 sorts of insults, and refusing to allow it to be buried in 
 the city ; and as it was carried out of the gate, one broke 
 the skull with a bullet from a gun, and inflicted divers 
 other like injuries." — :Hib. Dom. p. 561, ex Actis Capituli 
 Generalis Romce, 1644. 
 
 VERY REV. PETER O'HIGGINS, O.P.P. 
 
 "This same year- the Rev. Father Peter O'Higgins, 
 Prior of Naas, obtained the palm of constancy in Dublin. 
 {Hib. Dom) This pious and eloquent man was arrested 
 and brought before the lords-justices, (Parsons and Bor- 
 lase,) charged with dogmatizing, or, in other words, seduc- 
 ing the Protestants from their religion. Now, when they 
 failed to sustain any capital charge against him, they sent 
 to inform him that, if he abandoned his faith, he might ex- 
 pect many and great privileges, but all depended on his 
 embracing the English faith. That they were resolved to 
 sacrifice him he knew right well ; so that on the very 
 morning of his execution the messenger came to his prison 
 with the terms proposed by the justices. O'Higgins, in 
 reply, said : ' Alas ! I am not so weary of life as to wish 
 for speedy dissolution ; but if your masters are so anxious 
 to preserve me, return and ask them to forward in their 
 
258 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 own handwriting an instruraen': leaving life and death to 
 my own option ; so that if I shall have renounced the Ro- 
 man Catholic religion in presence of the gibiet, the terri- 
 ble circumstance in which I have been placed may extenu- 
 ate the guilt attaching to what is deemed apostasy.' The 
 justices, thinking he was shaken in his mind, ordered the 
 conditional pardon to be handed to him on the first step 
 of the ladder, and it was so handed to him by the execu- 
 tioner. He bowed courteously on receiving it, and loud 
 was the exultation of the heretic mob, who thought they 
 were about to catch ' a convert.' Now, when he stood ex- 
 posed to the view of God and man, he exhibited to all 
 around the instrument which he held, and, commenting on 
 it with warmth, convicted his impious judges of their own 
 avowed iniquity. Knowing well that there were Catholics 
 in the crowd, he addressed them in such words as these : 
 " ' Dear brethren, children of the Holy Roman Church, 
 since the day I fell into the cruel hands of the heretics who 
 stand around me, I have endured much hunger, great insults, 
 dark and foetid dungeons ; and the doubt as to what was the 
 cause seemed to me to render the palm of martyrdom doubt- 
 ful ; for it is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr. 
 But the omnipotent God, the protector of my innocence, 
 and who ordereth all things sweetly, has so arranged that 
 although I have been accused as a seducer and a criminal 
 by the laws of the land, yet to-day in me it is the Catholic 
 religion only that is condemned to death. Behold here an 
 undoubted witness of my innocence — a pardon signed by the 
 king's representatives, ofiering me not only life, but large 
 gifts, if even now I renounce the Catholic religion. But I 
 call God and men to witness how freely I reject this — how 
 gladly I now embrace my doom in and for the profession of 
 that faith.' Having thus spoken and thrown the pardon to 
 a friend in the crowd, he desired the executioner to do his 
 office. When his body was hanging, and the executiouer 
 
In the Reign of Charles L 259 
 
 pulled at it several times, yet heaving a loud sigh, he uttered 
 ' Deo gratias,* and so, having disappointed the expectation of 
 the heretics, he went to his God." — Dom. a Ros.^ Father 
 Meeharis translation, p. 199.* 
 
 For an account of the wholesale massacres of Irish and 
 even English and Scotch Catholics in Ireland, on account 
 of their religion, I must refer my readers to Curry's Civil 
 
 • Borlase, tlie Protestant historian, gives the following account of his arrest; *'In this 
 expedition to the county of Kildare the soldiers found a pnest, one Mr. Higgins, at Naas, who 
 might, if he pleased, havti easily fled if he apprehended any danger in the stay. When he 
 was brought before the Earl of Ormond, he voluntarily confessed that he was a papist, and ihathis 
 residence was in the tovm, from whence he refused to fly away with those that were guilty,' 
 because he not only knew himself very inirocent, but believed that he could not be without 
 ample testimony of it, having, by his sole charity and power, preserved many of the English 
 from the rage and fury of the Irish ; and, therefore, he only besought his lordship to preserve 
 him irom the fury and violence of the soldiers, and put him securely into Dublin ; though 
 with so much hazard that, when it was spread abroad among the soldiers that he was a papist, 
 the officer in whose custody he was entrusted was assaulted by them, and it was as mucb as 
 the earl could do to compose the meeting. When his lordship came to Dublin, he informed 
 he lords-justices of the prisoner he had brought with him, and of the good testimony he 
 had received of his peaceable carriage, and of the pains he had taken to restrain those with 
 whom he had credif from entering into rebellion, and of many charitable oflBces he had per- 
 formed, of all which there wanted not evidence enough, there being many then in Dublin 
 who owed their lives, and whatever of their fortunes was left, purely to him. Within a few 
 days after, when the earl did not suspect the poor man being in danger, he heard that Sir 
 Charles Coote, whowas provost-marshal -general, had taken him out of prison, and caused him 
 to be put to death in the morning, before or as soon as it was light ; of which barbarity the earl 
 complained to the lords-justices, but was so far from bringing the other to be questioned 
 that he found himself upon some disadvantage for thinking the proceeding to be other than it 
 ought to have been." — Borlase, ap. Curry, p. 211. 
 
 " That this Father Peter O'Higgins is another person from the Father Peter Higgins 
 mentioned before is quite clear. First, because his martyrdom is mentioned in the Acts of the 
 General Chapter of 1656, under the title * Appendix of some remarkable men of this province, 
 (Ireland,) whose memory was omitted to be recorded in the acts of former chapters ;' but the 
 memory of the former was not forgotten to be recorded in the acts of former chapters, but is 
 recorded in the acts of the preceding chapter, that of 1644. Also because the latter is called 
 in the Acts of the Chapter of 1656 Prior of Naas, and is therefore called reverend father ; the 
 former is called in the Acts of 1644 simply father, for he was not prior, (not in office,) and it 
 said tc have confessed to his prior, and indeed all the details are different. Nor is the 
 identity both of name and surname, and the place of their suffering, any objection. For only 
 to cite, for brevity's sake, a few instances : I knew at Rome, in the convent of St. Sixtus, 
 two of our fathers whose names were Michael MacDonogh, one a professor of theology, and 
 raised at that very time to the bishopric of Kllmore, the other a student of theology. Lately 
 there were two Thomas de Burgos, both alumni of the convent of Athenry, both of whom 
 were presented for thsir degree in theology, and one of whom lately perished in the earthqua^te 
 at Lisbon, not to speak of the third Thomas de Burgq who writes this. At this moment theie 
 are in this metropelSs of Dublin four priests of the name of Peter Talbot, two secular and twj . 
 
 > Guilty, that is, of the rising of 1641. 
 
26o Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Wars, Appendix, p. 623, where he gives an abridgment 
 of the Collection of some of the Massacres and Murders 
 committed on the Irish in Ireland since the 22,d of October, 
 1641, printed at London, 1662. 
 
 Anno 1642. 
 
 ■ REV. FATHER HENRY CAGHWELL, S.J., AND OTHERS. 
 
 The reader has seen, under date of the preceding year, 
 an account of the sufferings of the Capuchin fathers in 
 Dublin. Very similar was the fate of the Jesuits in the 
 same place. A narrative preserved in the Irish College, 
 Rome, and given by Dr. Moran, thus briefly narrates 
 them : " We were persecuted and dispersed, and despoiled 
 of all our goods ; some, too, were cast into prison, and 
 others were sent into exile. Among the fathers of the 
 society was Father Henry Caghwell, renowned for his zeal 
 and learning. Being confined to his bed by sickness, he 
 was apprehended by the soldiers, and hurried to the pub- 
 lic square. As he was unable to walk, or even to stand, 
 he was placed on a chair, more for mockery than ease, and 
 subjected to the cruel insults of the soldiery ; he was then 
 beaten with cudgels and thrown into the ship with the 
 others for France." — Missio Soc. Jesu usque ad an. 1655, 
 in Archiv. Colleg. Nib. Romce, ap. Moran. 
 
 A manuscript in the Burgundian Library at Brussels 
 fixes the date of this event in 1643. It says: "To omit 
 many others, his master, (Slingsby's,) Father Henry Cagh- 
 
 rcgular, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine. It is also to be remarked that the latter 
 Peter is called O'Higgins; the first, Higgins, without the letter O, because in Dublin, an 
 almost English city, many Irish names lose tlie prefix O, or Mac, which is commonly added 
 in the country." — Hib. Dom. p. 562. 
 
 I have given the whole of this note because my readers will constantly meet with this iden- 
 tity of names, and, as little is known of many martyrs save the date of their death, might 
 think that some were idiatical. 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 261 
 
 well, ander whom he learned a part of his philosophy, in 
 the course of last year (1642) gave to the citizens of Dub- 
 lin a noble example of patience for the faith, for, being drag- 
 ged from the house where he lay a paralytic, he was scourg- 
 ed in the public square, and left lying there in the sight of 
 his friends, who dearly loved him, but did not dare to raise 
 him up ; then he was cast into prison, and at length 
 thrown, with twenty other priests, into a ship, which landed 
 him just alive in France." — MS. No. 3824, Correspondance 
 des Pires J^^suites Irlandais. 
 
 We learn from Oliver that he was landed at Rochelle, 
 where the Rector of the Jesuits' College paid him every 
 charitable attention, and by great care and the best medi- 
 cal advice gradually succeeded in restoring him to a state 
 of convalescence. As soon as he could, the reverend fa- 
 ther hastened back to the scene of his former labors, but 
 within a few days after his return, early in 1643, fell a vic- 
 tim to his zeal and charity. F. G. Dillon says, in a letter 
 of Aug. 3, 1643, that he had encountered a storm on his 
 passage back which lasted twenty-one days.. Sic verus 
 Chris ti confessor obiit. — Oliver. 
 
 REV. FATHER FERGAL WARD, O.S.F., AND CORNELIUS 
 
 O'BRIEN. 
 
 " Father Fergal Ward was a native of Ulster, and a 
 member of the order of the strict observance of St. Francis. 
 He was renowned for his eloquence, and for his zeal in the 
 exercise of the sacred ministry. In 1642, he was seized on 
 by a cruel and barbarous pirate, a Scotchman, named 
 Forbes, who kept six vessels in the service of the Puritans, 
 and chiefly infested the banks of the Shannon. In the 
 third month after his arrest he was hanged from the mast- 
 head, in odium fidci, in the very centre of the Shannon, 
 
264 Martyrs and Coftfessors 
 
 afterward he was brought up for examination, when he con- 
 fessed he was a Franciscan, but denied that he had sought, 
 as was alleged, to betray the city to the Catholics. His 
 constancy in the faith was tried by many torments, especi- 
 ally the following : the executioners wrapped the old 
 priest's ten fingers in tow and pitch, and then tied them 
 together with candles of pitch, and then set fire to them, 
 so that all his ten fingers burnt together. (I was at this 
 time in the country.) While his fingers were thus burning, 
 Father Francis exhorted the Catholics who stood around 
 to constancy in the faith, and the heretics to be converted. 
 A certain preacher, wondering at the patience of the bless- 
 ed martyr, asked him whether he felt pain. 'Touch my 
 fingers with one of yours,' answered Father Francis, ' and 
 you may judge.' When all his fingers were burnt down to 
 the last joints, he was ordered to be executed. The man 
 of God gave thanks to God, and went to the place of exe- 
 cution as to a feast ; and, having exhorted the people, joy- 
 fully mounted the ladder, and, fitting the rope round his 
 neck, having made all necessary dispositions for dying well, 
 he desired the executioner to do his office. He was then 
 pushed off the ladder, and so hung from eleven in the fore- 
 noon until five in the afternoon. 
 
 " Father Francis had in the city, besides one sister, two 
 nephews and four grand-nephews, and as many friends as 
 there were Catholics. Some of them, who were men of in- 
 fluence, went to the governor and asked that they might 
 take down the body of the father, and bury it after the 
 manner of the Catholics. The governor granted their re- 
 quest, and they carried the body to the house of his sister, 
 and, having there laid it on a table, dressed in his habit, 
 and placed lighted candles round it, devoutly venerated the 
 deceased martyr of Christ 
 
 " About the second hour of the night, while the Catho- 
 lics who crowded the house were devoutly praying, Father 
 
In the Reigii of Charles I. 265 
 
 Francis began to move, and, looking on his sister and the 
 persons who stood around, desired them not to be afraid, 
 but to lift him off the table. His friends soon crowded 
 around him, and, removing the candles, perceived that 
 leather Francis was really alive and well, and began to 
 congraulate themselves and him that he had escaped the 
 executioner. ' Not so, my dear friends,' said Father Fran- 
 cis ; ' my soul, which had left my body, returns by the will 
 of God, who desires the salvation of all in error ; call there- 
 fore to me the governor of the city, that once more I may 
 preach to him the words of salvation.' All the Catholics 
 who were present besought him with tears to abstain, from 
 useless preaching, and, as the heretics held him for dead, 
 to hide himself in some safe place for their spiritual good. 
 It is the will of God,' he answered, 'which Christians 
 must nof oppose, that I should announce the words of life 
 to the heretics ; call, therefore, the governor and the leaders 
 of the soldiers, or I will myself go to them.' 
 
 " The Catholics, compelled by his commands, sent to the 
 governor to inform him that Father Francis was alive 
 and well. Astonished at the news, the governor hastened 
 with his principal officers and a strong guard of soldiers to 
 the house where Father Francis lay. The moment the 
 father saw the Puritans — who were rebels alike to their 
 God and their king — he rose to his feet, and with his usual 
 zeal told how their merciful God desired their salvation, 
 and earnestly besought them to abandon heresy and return 
 to the bosom of their mother the church. The governor, 
 hardened in evil, the more raged at this exhortation, and 
 ordered the papist — who, as he said, must have preserved 
 his life by magic — to be immediately hung with his own 
 girdle Some of the soldiers immediately turned execu- 
 tioners, for even the Puritan officers, not to speak of the 
 soldiers, considered it no disgrace to hang a papist with 
 their own hands, especially if he were a priest. They im* 
 
262 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 where tlie pirate then lay in wait for some prey, about the 
 end of October, 1642." — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. xiv. 
 
 This is quite a different Father Ward from the one slain 
 in Armagh in 1577, the only similarity being that of the 
 name, and that they were both Ulster men. 
 
 " Cornelius O'Brien, the Lord of Carrigh, in the county 
 Kerry, a man of great hope to his family and his country, 
 was arrested by the piratical band of the same Forbes, in 
 the castle of Glanens, which was situated on the banks of 
 the Shannon, and was the property of John Geraldine. 
 Being conducted to their vessels, threats and promises 
 were alike employed in vain to induce him to abandon the 
 Catholic faith. He was therefore led out to execution, and 
 on the same day with Father Ward, and by a similar death, 
 attained the martyr's crown. Both were hanged at the 
 same time, one at each extremity of the yard, and subse- 
 quently, at full tide, the ropes being cut, their bodies were 
 cast into the river." — Ibid. 
 
 REV. FATHER JAMES LATIN, S.J. 
 
 Dr. Oliver says : 
 
 " All that I can gather concerning this zealous father is 
 from two letters, one dated Waterford, October 10, 1642 ; 
 the other from Galway, August 3, 1643. The first informs 
 me that though many priests and religious had been seized 
 and executed by the Puritans, yet Father James Latin and 
 two of his brethren braved every danger, and were indefa- 
 tigable in assisting and consoling the Catholics groaning 
 under Puritanical despotism. In the postscript the writer 
 says he had just received intelligence of Father Latin's ap- 
 prehension and commitment to jail. The second letter 
 states that he was still a prisoner, and that he had been 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 263 
 
 appi chended in the street in the act of proceeding to ad- 
 mini.^ter the sacraments to the sick." 
 
 As there is no notice of his having ever reached France, 
 it is easy to conjecture his fate. 
 
 REV. EDMUND HORE AND JOHN CLANCY. 
 
 In the Barberini archives in Rome is preserved a letter, 
 •written, on the 9th March, 1642, by the venerable Bishop 
 of Waterford to an Irish gentleman resident in Paris. In 
 it he says : 
 
 " Last week the President of Ulster, having received re- 
 enforcements, once more took the field, together with the 
 Earl of Cork, the Earl of Barrymore, Lord Broghill, and 
 Sir John Browne. Marching to Dungarvan, and seizing on 
 the castle, they set fire to the town, and put to death 
 Father Edmund Hore and Father John Clancy, both 
 priests, together with others of the principal citizens ; 
 they then sacked the place, and retired, leaving a strong 
 garrison in the castle." — MS. ap. Moran, Persecut. p. 55. 
 
 REV. FRANCIS O'MAHONY, O.S.F. 
 
 "Francis O'Mahony, or Matthews, was a native of 
 Cork, and a shining light in the Order of Saint Francis. 
 Having completed his studies in Spain and Belgium, he 
 returned to his country in the reign of King James, and did 
 much for the glory of God and the increase of the Francis- 
 can order. In more advanced age he was provincial minis- 
 ter of Ireland, and twice general visitor, and finally guardi- 
 an of the college of St. Antony at Louvain, of which he 
 was an alumnus. In the year 1642, he was guardian of the 
 convent of Cork, and was taken prisoner by the heretical 
 governor of the city, and thrown into prison. A few days 
 
264 Martyrs and Co?ifessors 
 
 afterward he was brought up for examination, when he con- 
 fessed he was a Franciscan, but denied that he had sought, 
 as was alleged, to betray the city to the Catholics. His 
 constancy in the faith was tried by many torments, especi- 
 ally the following : the executioners wrapped the old 
 priest's ten fingers in tow and pitch, and then tied them 
 together with candles of pitch, and then set fire to them, 
 so that all his ten fingers burnt together. (I was at this 
 time in the country.) While his fingers were thus burning, 
 Father Francis exhorted the Catholics who stood around 
 to constancy in the faith, and the heretics to be converted. 
 A certain preacher, wondering at the patience of the bless- 
 ed martyr, asked him whether he felt pain. 'Touch my 
 fingers with one of yours,' answered Father Francis, ' and 
 you may judge.' When all his fingers were burnt down to 
 the last joints, he was ordered to be executed. The man 
 of God gave thanks to God, and went to the place of exe- 
 cution as to a feast ; and, having exhorted the people, joy- 
 fully mounted the ladder, and, fitting the rope round his 
 neck, having made all necessary dispositions for dying well, 
 he desired the executioner to do his office. He was then 
 pushed off the ladder, and so hung from eleven in the fore- 
 noon until five in the afternoon. 
 
 " Father Francis had in the city, besides one sister, two 
 nephews and four grand-nephews, and as many friends as 
 there were Catholics. Some of them, who were men of in- 
 fluence, went to the governor and asked that they might 
 take down the body of the father, and bury it after the 
 manner of the Catholics. The governor granted their re- 
 quest, and they carried the body to the house of his sister, 
 and, having there laid it on a table, dressed in Iiis habit, 
 and placed lighted candles round it, devoutly venerated the 
 deceased martyr of Christ 
 
 " About the second hour of the night, while the Catho- 
 lics who crowded the house were devoutly pra3dng. Father 
 
In the Rei^i of Charles I. 265 
 
 Francis began to move, and, looking on his sister and the 
 persons who stood around, desired them not to be afraid, 
 but to lift him off the table. His friends soon crowded 
 around him, and, removing the candles, perceived that 
 leather Francis was really alive and well, and began to 
 congratulate themselves and him that he had escaped the 
 executioner. ' Not so, my dear friends,' said Father Fran- 
 cis ; ' my soul, which had left my body, returns by the will 
 of God, who desires the salvation of all in error ; call there- 
 fore to me the governor of the city, that once more I may 
 preach to him the words of salvation.' All the Catholics 
 who were present besought him with tears to abstain, from 
 useless preaching, and, as the heretics held him for dead, 
 to hide himself in some safe place for their spiritual good. 
 It is the will of God,' he answered, " which Christians 
 must not oppose, that I should announce the words of life 
 to the heretics ; call, therefore, the governor and the leaders 
 of the soldiers, or I will myself go to them.' 
 
 " The Catholics, compelled by his commands, sent to the 
 governor to inform him that Father Francis was alive 
 and well. Astonished at the news, the governor hastened 
 with his principal officers and a strong guard of soldiers to 
 the house where Father Francis lay. The moment the 
 father saw the Puritans — who were rebels alike to their 
 God and their king — he rose to his feet, and with his usual 
 zeal told how their merciful God desired their salvation, 
 and earnestly besought them to abandon heresy and return 
 to the bosom of their mother the church. The governor, 
 hardened in evil, the more raged at this exhortation, and 
 ordered the papist — who, as he said, must have preserved 
 his life by magic — to be immediately hung with his own 
 girdle Some of the soldiers immediately turned execu- 
 tioners, for even the Puritan officers, not to speak of the 
 soldiers, considered it no disgrace to hang a papist with 
 their own hands, especially if he were a priest. They im- 
 
266 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 mediately fastened his Franciscan girdle round his neck 
 and tied him up to the beam which supported the ceiling 
 of the room, and, having broken his neck, left him 
 banging there all night under a guard of Puritan sol- 
 diers. 
 
 " There are still living a hundred men who were then at 
 Cork, and are witnesses of what I write. The name of the 
 governor has escaped me, or I would record it for his last- 
 ing ignominy. On the next day the body of the deceased 
 was reverently taken down by the Catholics and buried in 
 the church of the Friars Minors, anno 1642."* — Bruodin, 
 lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
 REV. FATHER RAYMOND KEOGH, BROTHER RAYMOND 
 
 KEOGH, REVEREND FATHER STEPHEN PETTIT, AND 
 
 BROTHER CORMAC EGAN, O.P.P. 
 
 " In the following year, (1642,) Father Raymund Keogh, 
 of the convent of Roscommon, was seized by the heretics, 
 and, being slain for the faith, found in death eternal life." 
 — Capit. Gen. Ronice, 1656. 
 
 " In the year 1642, Father Stephen Pettit, sub-prior of the 
 convent of Mullingar, while hearing the confession of a 
 sJdier in a fight near Ballynacurry, was recognized to be a 
 priest by a neighboring advanced post of heretical soldiers, 
 
 • Bruodin evidently considered the revival of Father Francis miraculous, but it was not ne- 
 c"s«arily so. Many extraordinary cases of suspended animation from hanging, when, as in 
 thoiic times, from the execution not being carried out with a violent fall, the neck was not 
 broV.-.n. are recorded. Among the papers left by a distinguished surgeon who lived in Dublin 
 « th-5 close of the last century was an account of the case of a young man who, in 1798, was 
 hanged for several hours, and whose apparently lifeless body was brought by his friends, after 
 dark, to the surgeon's house. The latter succeeded in restoring animation : the young man re- 
 mained concealed in the surgeon's house for some days, and lived long aftei-ward. An illustra- 
 tion nf another part of Bruodin's account maybe drawn from the same period of 1798. A well- 
 known major of yeomanry, of very tall stature, was known by the sobriquet of Hit ■walking 
 gallows, because rebels had been hung over his shoulder. The more ordinary mode was 
 to tie the condemned to the end of the shaft of a cart and then tilt the cart, so lifting him up 
 ftom the ground. In this mode of execution the neck was not broken, and so life might lingel 
 a long time. 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 267 
 
 who iiimed at him, and, being hit by a bullet, he received the 
 sacraments of the church, and died the next day." — Capit. 
 Gen. Roma, 1644, and Dom. a Rosario, p. 360, (216.) 
 
 " Brother Raymund Keogh was slain by the heretics in 
 hatred of the faith." — Capit. Gen. Romce, 1644. 
 
 " Brother Cormac Egan was hung by the heretics abou*. 
 the year 1642." — Ap. Gen. Romce, 1644. 
 
 All these aie from Hibemica Dominicana, p. 562, where 
 De Burgo gives reasons to show the two Keoghs are dif- 
 ferent, one being a priest, the other a simple monk. 
 
 MRS. ALISON READ. 
 
 " The soldiery, rushing into the defenceless town of Dun- 
 shaughlin, seized on fifty old men, women, and little boys, 
 and mercilessly slew them with their swords and spears. 
 Mrs. Read, then in her eightieth year, encouraged these 
 sufferers to endure every torment with constancy for the 
 faith. Fired with rage at her exhortations, the Puritan 
 soldiers, after inflicting many wounds, set her up as a target 
 for their guns ; and thus she happily expired. The son of 
 this venerable martyr has preserved to us her memory, and 
 in his commentary on the Book of Maccabees mentions her 
 heroic death to illustrate the fortitude and holy sentiments 
 of the mother of the seven Maccabees, the true model of 
 female heroism." — Moran, Persecut. p. 198, 
 
 Anno 1643. 
 
 REV. CORNELIUS O'CONOR AND EUGENE DALY, 
 TRINITARIANS. 
 
 These two fathers studied in Spain, and were sent into 
 Ireland by their superiors. They made their way there in 
 an English vessel, and spent there some time ; and Lopez 
 
268 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 mentions that Father Cornelius had some disputes with 
 heretics about recovering the convent of Adare.* They 
 returned to Spain to make arrangements for a college of 
 their order in Seville or elsewhere, and, having arranged for 
 the reception of Irish youths in the convents and colleges 
 of Aragon, Cdstile, and Andalusia, embarked for Ireland, 
 b\it their ship fell into the hands of a cruel heretical pirate 
 named John Plunket, by whom they were thrown into the 
 sea, either in 1643 or 1644. — (Lopez, p. 62, who gives as 
 his authority an original letter of Father Christopher 
 Burgatt, of the convent of Kilmallock, written in Spain in 
 1648, and some other contemporary authorities.) 
 
 A.nno 1644.i 
 
 REV. CHRISTOPHER ULTAN, (OR DONLEVINS,) O.S.F. 
 
 " This father, of the Order of St. Francis, after complet- 
 ing his studies in Spain, for many years preached with 
 great fervor the sacred truths of the Gospel in the pro- 
 vince of Ulster. He was concealed with Father Ward (see 
 
 * It is curious, as illustrating the way in which the Catholics from time to time restored, at 
 least partially, the possession of the convents to the religious, that although the Trinitarian 
 convent of Adare was suppressed in the reign of Henry VIII., in a survey of the manor of 
 Adare, dated 6th November, 1559, (2d Elizabeth,) it is said: "There standeth an abbey of 
 Friars of the Trinity, which hath a Crosse of redd and blewe upon their brests, of the founda- 
 tion of the earl's ancestors, as the minister (that is, the father-minister) did shew, which hath, ate. 
 And the said minister hath in Adare a small acre with certen gardens," etc. N.B. — The lands 
 here enumerated as belonging to the abbey and minister are only a small part of the original 
 possessions of the abbey. In 1366, Elizabeth demised .ne Trinitarian Abbey to Sir Warham 
 St. l.eger, yet, about 1640, " Father Cornelius had a lawsuit with some heretics about the 
 recovery nf the convent of Adare," as is stated in the letter of Father Burgatt, in Lopez. SeB 
 Jtfaf"^- 0/ Adare^ by Lord Dunraven, 1S66. 
 
 + Fnnlana, Mon. Dojn.^ mentions that in this year, " in the general chapter of the Domini- 
 can ordei held at Rome, the Irish provincial. Father Terence Albert O'Brien (afterward the 
 mauyr"il Bishop of Emly) stated that there were in the Irish province about six hundred 
 breth en of the order, of whom the greater part perished in the Cromwelliar. persecution, 
 either by the sword or by deportation to Barbadoes, or exile ; so that in the following chapter 
 held in 1656, not one quarter survived, many having been slam in their own convents, many 
 enduring a lengthened death in the new hemisphere, and all these, being approved by tha 
 tesumonv of faith, were fonnd in our Lord Jesus ChrisL" 
 
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 CD 
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In the Reign of Cha*les I. 269 
 
 Anno 1642) at the time of his arrest, and shared his captivi- 
 ty. The Puritan pirate Forbes, anxious- to supply a bloody 
 feast to the London mob, sent Father Ultan prisoner to 
 England. For three years he was detained a captive in 
 Newgate, (London,) and there subjected to many cruelties. 
 His constitution yielded to the severity of the prison, 
 and he expired, before being led to the scaffold, in the year 
 1644." — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. x\'. 
 
 REV. FATHER FRANCIS MATTHEWS, O.S.F. 
 
 " Francis Matthews, of Cork, a theologian, and learn- 
 ed in canon law, guardian of the (Franciscan) College of 
 Louvain, and father-minister of the Irish province, who 
 had composed several works, and suffered much labor in 
 the persecution, was cruelly slain, with many torments, by 
 the heretical Puritans, in the year 1644." — Wadding, 
 Scriptores, p. 123. 
 
 — • — 
 
 Anmo 164B. 
 
 REV. FATHERS PETER COSTELLO AND GERALD DILLON, O.P.P. 
 
 " In this year, (1645,) Dominican blood strll flowed freely, 
 for our fathers strenuously upheld the Catholic faith in 
 Ireland, preaching the authority of the holy Roman See, 
 and publicly wearing the habit of the order, and suffered 
 many torments and death at the hands of the sectaries. 
 One of them was the Rev. Father Peter Costello, who, 
 while denouncing the usurped authority of head of the 
 church assumed by the English king, pierced with a 
 sword, expired on the spot, and his soul by martyrdom 
 ascended to heaven. 
 
 " He was followed to glory by Father Gerald Dillon, 
 who had devoted himself to bringing heretics to the know- 
 
270 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 ledge of their true mother the Roman Church. Being 
 taken prisoner, he was thrown into a wretched dungeon ; 
 and there, worn out with the squalor of the prison and 
 various sufferings, he breathed out his soul to God." — Man. 
 Doin., sub anno. Hib. Dom. says they were both from the 
 convent of Orlar, in county Mayo, but says they suffered 
 about the year 1648. I have preferred the authority of 
 Fontana, who refers to the acts of the general chapter 
 held in Rome in 1656. 
 
 MOST REV. ARCHBISHOP MALACHY O'QUEELY AND 
 THADDyEUS O'CONNEL. 
 
 " Malachy Queely, or Keely, was a native of the diocese 
 of Killaloe, and made his collegiate studies with signal 
 success in the University of Paris. He returned to his 
 native diocese, where he proved a zealous missionary ; he 
 governed the see of Killaloe as vicar-apostolic, and was 
 consecrated Archbishop of Tuam in a private chapel at 
 Galway, by Dr. Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel 
 All contemporary writers extol his virtues. He was the 
 father, protector, and advocate of the poor. He was one 
 of the first members of the Supreme Council of Kilkenny. 
 He accompanied the Connaught army when it achieved 
 many brilliant victories in 1645 ; but after the coming of 
 Sir Charles Coote from the North, with reenforcements of 
 Scotch, the Irish were defeated ; their horse fled from a 
 party of the enemy on the 25th October, 1645, '^'^^ Doctor 
 Queely was left on the road mortally wounded, at a place 
 called Clare, near Sligo. The Puritans first cut off his 
 right arm, and then cruelly mangled his body, cutting it 
 into small pieces." — Renehan, Collect, p. 402 ; and Moran, 
 Persecut. p. 206, from Bruodin. Hardiman s Galway, and 
 Archives of St. Isidore, Rome. 
 
 " Father Thaddasus O'Connel, of the Canons of St 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 271 
 
 Augustine, was for six years the companion of Dr. O'Queely. 
 Taken with the archbishop, he was carried off to execution. 
 He besought the archbishop to give him absolution, and as 
 the archbishop raised his riglit hand to do so the soldiers 
 cut it off, and at the same moment struck down Father 
 
 O'Connel." — Bruodin. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 REV. HENRY WHITE. 
 
 " He was a Leinster priest, a most zealous and pious 
 pastor, and was in the eightieth year of his age when he was 
 taken prisoner by the garrison of Dublin, while hearing 
 confessions in the village of Ballynacargy ; and, out of 
 hatred to his faith and sacerdotal character, without respect 
 for his innocence or old age, was hung, by order of Sir 
 Charles Coote, Governor of Dublin, in the town of Rath- 
 connell, in the year 1645."* — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
 Anrun, 1640. 
 
 REV. FATHER DOMINICK NEAGREN, O.P.P. 
 
 "As Fatherf Dominick A. Neagren, (or Neaghten,) of the 
 convent of Roscommon, a most religious man and strict 
 observer of the rule, continued to wear his habit during the 
 bitter persecution, and exhorted the faithful to publicly 
 recite the rosary of the Blessed Virgin, he was more than 
 once flogged and wounded almost unto death. Yet did he 
 persevere in his holy work, and by the order of a chief of 
 the soldiers he was slain by the sword. A true Israelite, 
 in whom there was no guile." — Mon. Dom. ex Actis Capit. 
 Ge7t. 1650. Hib. Dom. puts hira "about 1648." 
 
 • I have put the death of Father White at 1645, as that is the date given by Bruodin ; but 
 the tnie date is, I think, .1641, or early in 1642, when Sir Charles Cootc was ravaging the coun- 
 try, He, Coote, was killed at Trim on the 7th May in the latter year, and Bruodin puts the 
 death of Father Peter Higgins, who was certainly put to death by Coote in 1641, at 1645, as 
 well as that of Father White. Ballynacargy and Rathconnell are two villages in the county 
 Westmeath. 
 
 \ " Conversus," a monk, but tiot a priest 
 
272 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 REV. FATHER JOHN OLUIN, (OR O'LAIGHIN,) O.P.P. 
 
 " Rev. Father John Oluin, Prior of Derry, who waj 
 sedulous in administering the sacraments to the Catholics 
 in Ireland, and confirming them in their fidelity to the 
 holy Roman Church, was taken prisoner by the heretics and 
 put in chains. After daily suiferings in prison, rejecting 
 great offers from the heretics if he would abandon the 
 Roman faith, he preferred death to dishonor. His fellow- 
 captives narrated that they saw him in prayer raised up off" 
 the ground. Finally, being hung and then beheaded, he 
 gave up his happy soul to his Creator." — Mon. Dom. ex 
 Actis Capit. Gen. 1650. Hib. Dofn.,^i\.&r O'Heyn, puts his 
 death about 1657 ; but this is impossible, as Fontana 
 refers to the general chapter of 1650. 
 
 Anno 1S47, 
 
 REV. FATHER RICHARD BARRY, O.P.P. ; V?ILL1AM BOYTON. 
 S.J.; THEOBALD STAPLETON, AND MANY OTHERS. 
 
 In 1647, the Earl of Inchiquin, having administered the 
 covenant to his apostate followers, led them on to the assault 
 of Cashel. Along his march he everywhere burned the 
 crops and massacred the peasantry, and to the present day 
 his name is familiar in the household traditions of our 
 country as " Murrough of the Burning."* 
 
 " Cashel became not only a prey to the enemy, but a 
 very slaughter-house. The city being but badly fortified, 
 it accepted the off"er of conditions from Inchiquin, and 
 opened its gates. The garrison, about 300 in number, to- 
 gether with the priests and religious, as also very many 
 of the citizens, retired to the cathedral church, which holds 
 a strong position, and is styled the Rock of St. Patrick. 
 
 • His name was Morrough O'Brien. 
 
o 
 a: 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 273 
 
 Th^ inetny having taken possession of the city, and in part 
 des»K>yed it by fire, assailed the cathedral with all their 
 forcec, but were heroically repulsed by our troops. After 
 a loHf:; combat the general of the enemy suspended the 
 fight, and, demanding a surrender, offered permission to 
 the ga ,Tison to depart with their arms and ammunition, and 
 all th« honors of war, requiring, however, that the citizens 
 and cl ;rgy should be abandoned to his mercy. It was then 
 that tl e true heroism of the Catholic soldiers was seen. 
 They I .fifused to listen to any conditions unless the citizens 
 and cl :rgy, whom they had undertaken to defend, should 
 be sh: rers in them ; and they added that they chose ra- 
 ther tc consecrate their lives to God on that Rock of St. 
 Patrick than to allow that sanctuary to be profaned by 
 dogs. The assault was then renewed with extreme feroci- 
 ty ; the enemy, being 7000 in number, assailed the church 
 on every side, entering by the windows and the shattered 
 doors. Nevertheless, for some time the struggle was 
 bravely maintained within the church, till our few troops 
 were rather overwhelmed by the multitude of the enemy 
 than vanquished by them. 
 
 " When all resistance ceased, then was the cruelty of the 
 heretics displayed against the priests and religious, one of 
 whom was one of our society, by name F. William Boyton.' 
 Many old men of eighty years of age, aged females, some 
 of them in their hundredth year, besides innumerable other 
 citizens who had grown old, not only in years but in piety, 
 and whose only arms were their prayers, prostrate around , 
 the steps of the altar, now empurpled them with their 
 blcod ; while the infirm, who had been borne to the church 
 as to a place of sacred refuge, and the innocent children, 
 were slain on the very altar. Within the cathedral nine 
 hundred and twelve was the number of the slain, of whom 
 more than five hundred were of the heretical troops, and 
 about four hundred of the Catholics. Everywhere dead 
 
274 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 bodies were to be seen, which for some days rernahied un- 
 interred. The altars and chapels, the sacristy and seats, 
 were covered with them, and in no place could the foot 
 rest on anything save on the corpses of the slain." — MS. 
 Relatio Rerum quarumdam, etc., written by the Irish Su- 
 perior of the Jesuits, ap. Moran, Persec. p. 27. 
 
 One of the priests who had taken refuge in the cathe- 
 dral, Father Theobald Stapleton, was remarkable for his 
 piety ; clothed with a surplice and stole, and holding a cru- 
 cifix in his left hand, he sprinkled with holy water the 
 enemy's troops as they rushed into the sacred edifice. 
 The heretics, mad with rage, strove with each other who 
 should pierce him with their swords, and thus he was hewn 
 to pieces. At each wound the holy man exclaimed, 
 "Strike this miserable sinner!" till he yielded his soul into 
 the hands of his Creator. 
 
 Of Father Boy ton, the Jesuit, we read : 
 
 " As the enemy forced their way in, he exhorted all, with 
 great fervor, to endure death with constancy for the Catho- 
 lic religion, and was wholly occupied in administering to 
 them the sacrament of penance. The enemy, finding him 
 at this work, slew the father with his children. But God 
 revenged the unworthy death of his servants, and by a 
 manifest sign showed the cruelty of this massacre. A gar- 
 rison of heretical soldiers was stationed on the rock ; on a 
 certain night an old man of venerable aspect appeared to 
 its commander, and, taking him by the hand, led him 
 forcibly to the top of the church tower, and then asked him 
 how he madly dared so impiously to profane that holy 
 place. And as he trembled and did not answer, he flung 
 him down into the cemetery below, where he lay half-dead, 
 and with many bones broken, until the following day, when, 
 having fully declared the divine vengeance which had over- 
 taken him, he expired." — Tanner, Soc. J^esu. 
 
In the Reign of Charles I. 275 
 
 Dominick a Rosario gives the following account of the 
 death of Father Richard Barry, the Dominican :* 
 
 " The colonel who led the assault, struck with his ap- 
 pearance, (for he was a grave and noble-looking man, and 
 held a sword in his hand,) said to him, ' I see you are a 
 brave man, and I promise you safety if you will cast off 
 that dresS; which we hate, (he was in the habit of his order ;) 
 for the terms of this war allow of no mercy to those colors, 
 which excite not our favor, but our rage.'f The father 
 answered : ' My dress is the emblem of Christ and his pas- 
 sion, and the banner of my warfare. I have borne it from 
 my youth, and will not put it off in death. Let my safety 
 or doom be that of the emblem of my spiritual warfare.' 
 The colonel answered : ' Be more careful of yourself If 
 you fear not to die, you shall soon have your way ; but if 
 you desire to live, cast away that traitor's dress ; if you 
 look for the foolish vanity of martyrdom, we will take 
 care that you shall well earn it' ' Since so excellent an 
 occasion is offered me,' answered the father, ' to suffer is 
 my joy, and to die my gain.' Provoked at this answer, the 
 colonel gave the father over to the soldiers, who struck him 
 and spat on him ; then, tying him on a chair,^ they applied 
 a slow fire from the soles of his feet to his thighs for about 
 two hours, until, while he looked up to heaven and the 
 blood bubbled from his pores, the oflficer ordered his death 
 to be hastened by driving a sword through him. The sol- 
 diers remained there three days plundering, for they did 
 not think the place strong enough for a permanent garri- 
 son. During this time a certain pious woman, who was 
 of the Third Order of St. Dominick,§ sought out his body 
 
 • He was a native of Cork, and Prior of Cashel, and had desired all his brethren to aoek 
 their safety by flight, but hi-nself refused to leave his flock. 
 
 t It must be observed that putting ofl'the religious habit was oflen looked upon as a sort of 
 tacit apostasy. 
 
 t The Acts o/tke General Chapter say, " to a column." 
 
 § Third Order of St. Dominick those who lived in the world. 
 
276 Martyrs and Cotifessors 
 
 among all the corpses, and when she had found it informed 
 the vicar-general. The vicar-general, after the departure 
 of the enemy on the fourth day, having called together any 
 clergy and people who survived, together with the notary 
 apostolic, Henry O'CuUenan, who yet lives, (anno 1655,) 
 and has borne witness to this, examined the body. He 
 found all the marks of his sufferings, his burnt feet and 
 legs, the wound going from side to side, and two as it were 
 fresh streams of blood. They formed a procession, and 
 carried his body to the convent of his order, where, having 
 sung the TV Detim, they laid it. The day of his death was 
 the isth* of September, 1647!" — Dom. a Ros. p. 339. 
 
 Lord Castlehaven, in his Memoirs, says : 
 
 " It (the rock) was carried by storm, so that within and 
 without the church there was a great massacre, and, among 
 others, more than twenty priests and religious mep 
 killed."! 
 
 The nuncio Rinuccini adds : " They slew in it (the 
 church of St. Patrick) the priests, and the women who clung 
 to the statue of the saint." J 
 
 The rest of the conduct of Inchiquin's soldiers is thus 
 described in the Relatio referred td before : 
 
 "The heretics set to work at once to destroy all the 
 sacred things which had been stored in the cathedral of St. 
 Patrick. The altars were overturned, the images that were 
 painted on wood were consigned to the flames, those on 
 
 * Tanner says the 13th. Probably the town was taken the 13th, the rock the 15th Fon- 
 tana, Mon. Dom., gives rather a different account of the first part of Father Barry's death. 
 He says: " Standing in his full habit, with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other, ha 
 exhorted the faithful to meet death Jravely for their noly religion. Afterward, being takei, 
 while praying in a chapel of the church, with incredible cruelty his feet and legs were burnt 
 with a slow fire, and, at length, he was pierced through with a sword." Fontana refers to the 
 acts of the general chapter held at Rome, 165a, and I am inclined to consider his account the 
 more accurate, and that O'Daly, who was himself of a warlike turn, adopted a popular story 
 about the sword. I have met with hardly any authentic accounts of priests taking part 'n ac- 
 tual warfare. 
 
 \ Memoirs of Earl 0/ CasiIehaveMt\iyh\Ta5(i\{. London, 1681. 
 
 t Rinuccinit N^miaiura^ Florence, 1844, p. 416. 
 
In the Reign of C/iailes T. 277 
 
 canvas were used as bedding for the horses, or were cut into 
 sacks for burdens. The great crucifix which stood at the 
 entrance of the choir, as if it had been guilty of treason, was 
 beheaded, and soon after its hands and feet were amputated. 
 With a like fury did they rage against all the other chapels 
 of the city. Gathering together the sacred vases and all the 
 most precious vestments, they, through ridicule of our cere- 
 monies, formed a procession. They advanced through the 
 public squares, wearing the sacred vestments and having the 
 priests' caps on their heads, and inviting to Mass those 
 whom they met on the way. A beautiful statue of the 
 Immaculate Virgin, taken from our church, was borne 
 along (the head being broken off) in mock state, with 
 laughter and ridicule. The leader of the Puritan army 
 had, moreover, the^ temerity to assume the archiepiscopal 
 nStre, and boast that he was now not only governor and 
 lieutenant of Munster, but also Archbishop of Cashel." 
 
 I will conclude this account with the following extract 
 from Fontana : 
 
 " At the same time Sister Margaret, of our Third Order, 
 a woman of more than seventy years of age, while flying 
 from the city (Cashel) was intercepted by the heretics, and, 
 being constant in the profession of the Catholic faith, was 
 slain by the sword." — From the same Acts. 
 
 REV. FATHERS PATRICK HEGERTY, EDMUND CANA, AND 
 JOHN STEWART, O.S.F. 
 
 " Father Patrick Hegerty, formerly definitor of the 
 province (Ireland) and commissary visitor, who was a con- 
 fessor of Christ in many prisons, being at length delivered 
 after a five years' imprisonment among the Scotch, wrote 
 to me from the Convent of the Desert, a little before his 
 death, a letter dated the i8th June, 1467." — Le Marchant, 
 Relatio Viridica. 
 
278 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Here it may not be amiss to give a short account of the 
 mission in the Hebrides among the Scotch, where Father 
 Hegerty so long labored ; and for this purpose I shall have 
 recourse to the pages of Doctor Moran. 
 
 In the month of December, 161 8, Pope Paul V. selected 
 three Franciscan fathers from the Irish College of Louvain 
 to cultivate the vineyard of Scotland, which for many years 
 had been overrun with heresy, and had become a prey to 
 the enemies of God. Other Irish priests had been from 
 time to time called to the same mission in the early 
 part of the century, through the care of Peter Lombard, 
 Archbishop of Armagh, who with the title of Primate of all 
 Ireland, by authority of the Holy See, united also that 
 of Primate of Scotland. To secure, however, an uninter- 
 rupted supply of fervent missioners, the religious of St. 
 Francis now received it in special charge' ; and on the 4lh 
 January, 1619, Fathers Edmund Cana* and Patrick Brady, 
 with the lay-brother John Stewart,! set out from the con- 
 vent of Louvain to brave the perils of persecution in that 
 necessitous mission. After two years' incessant labor 
 Father Edmund was seized by the Scotch heretics, and 
 thrown into a filthy prison, whence, after a long confine- 
 ment, he was sent into banishment. The other two escaped 
 the pursuit of the heretics, and continued their labor of 
 love till, in 1623, a new dawn arose for that mission ; and 
 while Dr. Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, was appointed 
 its immediate superior, three new missionaries, selected by 
 him — namely, Cornelius Ward, James O'Neill, and Patrick 
 Hegerty — were sent thither with most ample authority and 
 privileges from the Holy See ; and at the same time the 
 
 • Cana is, I think, the same name as McCann. 
 
 t John Stewart was a native of Scotland, but for many years had lived as a lay-V rother with 
 Uie Franciscans in Ireland. About 1614 he was arrested near Dublin, and after suffering 
 many hardships in Dublin prison, was transferred to the Tower of London, where many at- 
 tempts were made to seduce 'lim from the Catholic faith. He was released about 1617, aad 
 cent into Belgium. 
 
In tke Reign of Charles I. 279 
 
 old veteran Father Edmund Cana resolved to brave once 
 more the fury of the heretics and the penalties of the law. 
 The barren wilderness was soon clothed with gladness, and 
 Father Hugh de Burgo writes from Dubhn on the 17th 
 November, 1624: " God has already performed great things 
 in Scotland, through the labors of our Franciscan fathers. 
 They could even have effected more were it not for the great 
 poverty and wretchedness of the country ; for their district 
 of Scotland is so impoverished that scarcely can they find 
 sufficient means for the most frugal support." 
 
 It appears their .labors were chiefly in the Hebrides and 
 northern parts. Many interesting particulars are contain- 
 ed in a narrative which was drawn up for the Sacred Con- 
 gregation of Propaganda in 1637 by Father Ward. He 
 had in the interim visited the Eternal City, and on his re- 
 turn, having received the benediction of the Bishop of 
 Down and Connor, hastened, in November, 1635, to re- 
 sume his missionary labor in the Hebrides. Before two 
 months had elapsed he had restored fifty heretics to the 
 saving fold in the Island of Sgiahanach. During the fol- 
 lowing year, (1636,) in twenty-two villages of the islands 
 of Eustia and Benimhaola, two hundred and three heretics 
 were converted, while in the islands of Barra, Feray, and 
 Barnaray no fewer than fifty others were led captive to 
 truth. In the last-named island the zealous priest was 
 pursued by a Protestant minister, who had procured a 
 warrant for his arrest, and in consequence he was obliged 
 to fly to the mainland of Scotland. There, on the moun- 
 tains of Muidheart and Arasoig, during two months, the 
 conversion of two hundred and six heretics was his reward. 
 He adds: "The missionary labor in those barbarous and 
 remote districts is indescribable, and incredible to those 
 who have not witnessed it. Oftentimes the missionary 
 father has passed six months there without being able to 
 procure any other drink than milk and water; indeed, 
 
28o Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 their whole food consists of milk, and in summer they sel- 
 dom have bread. In the Hebrides, and in the mountain- 
 ous districts of Scotland, there is no city, nor town, nor 
 school, neither is there anything like education ; and none 
 can be found to read, except a few who received education 
 in distant parts." Father Ward continued on those moun- 
 tains until his store of altar-breads and wine for the Holy 
 Sacrifice was exhausted ; he then set out on foot for Edin- 
 burgh, and, after many risks and dangers, returned with a 
 renewed supply to his mountain flock, where, though he was 
 at the same time weighed down by a grievous illness, he, be- 
 tween the 8th September and Christmas, through the dis- 
 tricts of Locheabar, Muiduirt, Sliebhte, and Gleansilge, re- 
 ceived back one hundred and thirty-nine heretics into the 
 bosom of the Catholic Church. Overcome by his labors, 
 Father Ward was soon obliged to return to the compara- 
 tive repose of his Irish convent, and Father Patrick He- 
 gerty, who had been for eight years guardian of the con- 
 vent of Bunargy, in the north of Ireland, opposite Scot- 
 land, was chosen prefect of that mission. About 1641 he 
 was thrown into prison by the Scots, and detained in close 
 confinement for five years. On the 29th August, 1646, he 
 wrote from Waterford, expressing his gratitude to God for 
 having been freed from prison, and requesting at the same 
 time sufficient means to resume his labors in the vineyard 
 of Scotland. He died at Multifarnham in 1647. 
 
 For further particulars of these Scotch missions the 
 reader is referred to Dr. Moran's work. 
 
 A.nno las. 
 
 REV. FATHER GERALD GERALDINE AND FATHER DAVID 
 FOX, O.P.P. 
 
 - " On a certain stormy night the heretical troops sudden- 
 ly burst into the monastery of our order at Kilmalloc, 
 
During ike Commonwealth. 281 
 
 which lies beyond the bridge outside the walls, hoping, no 
 doubt, to slay many of the brethren ; but the others es- 
 caped, and they found only these two kneeling before the 
 high altar, in prayer, with their rosaries round their necks 
 They pierced them with swords, and, finally, as they lay in 
 their blood, blew out their brains with a musket-shot, and 
 so left them, and carried away the spoils of the monaste- 
 ry." — Mon. Dam., Hib. Dam. p. 565, atid A Rosario. 
 
 Father Geraldine was a priest. Father Fox a simple 
 monk. 
 
 Auno 1G49. 
 
 REV. FATHERS JOHN BATHE AND ROBERT NETTER- 
 VILLE, S.J. ; DOMINICK DILLON, RICHARD OVETON, 
 
 ATHY, AND PETER COSTELLO, O.P.P.; AND MANY 
 
 OTHERS. 
 
 Cromwell landed on our shores in July, 1649, firmly 
 resolved to acquire popularity among his fellow-Puritans 
 by the extermination of the Irish papists. On his arrival 
 in Dubhn he addressed his soldiers, and declared that no 
 mercy should be shown to the Irish, and that they should 
 " be dealt with as the Canaanites in Joshua's time." 
 
 Drogheda was first attacked. It was defended by 3000 
 good troops, commanded by Sir Arthur Ashton, a Catho- 
 lic. Three times did they repel the assaults of their io,ooc 
 besiegers. At length, seeing further resistance useless, 
 they surrendered on terms. Cromwell, writing to the Par- 
 liament, makes it a boast that, despite the promised quarter 
 he himself gave orders that all should be put to the sword ;* 
 and, in his Puritanical cant, he styles that brutal massacre 
 a righteous judgment of God upon the barbarous wretches ; 
 
 • " Our men were ordered hy me to put them all to the sword." — CromwelVs L^i^e^ i» 
 Lenikal, ap. Lin^ard, voL iv. p. 63V 
 
282 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 a great mercy vouchsafed to us ; a great thing, done, not by 
 power or might, but by the spirit of God. The slaughter 
 of the inhabitants continued for five days, and the Puritan 
 troops spared neither age nor sex, so much so that the 
 Earl of Ormond, writing to the secretary of Charles II., to 
 convey the intelligence of the loss of Drogheda, declares 
 that " Cromwell had exceeded himself, and anything he had 
 e\'er heard of, in breach of faith and bloody inhumanity ;" 
 and the Parliamentarian General Ludlow speaks of it as an 
 extraordinary severity. The church of St. Peter, within 
 the city, had been for centuries a place of popular devo- 
 tion ; a Httle while before the siege the Catholics had re- 
 obtained possession of it, and dedicated it anew to the ser- 
 vice of God, and the Holy Sacrifice was once more celebra- 
 ted there v/ith special pomp and solemnity. Thither many 
 of the citizens now fled as to a secure asylum, and, with 
 the clergy, prayed around the altar ; but the Puritans re- 
 spected no sanctuary of religion. " In this very place" 
 writes Cromwell, " near 07ie thousand of them were put to 
 the sword. I believe all the friars* were killed but two, 
 the one of which was Father Peter Taaffe, brother to Lord 
 Taaffe, whom the soldiers took the next day, and made an 
 end of; the other was taken in the round tower ; he confess- 
 ed he was a friar, but that did not save him'' We read in 
 Johnston's History of Drogheda : 
 
 " Quarter had been promised to all those who should lay 
 down their arms, but it was observed only until all resist- 
 ance was at an end. Many, confiding in this promise, at 
 once yielded themselves prisoners ; and the rest, unwilling 
 to trust to the mercy of Cromwell, took shelter in the stee- 
 ple of St. Peter's ; at the same time the most respectable 
 of the inhabitants sheltered themselves within the church. 
 Here Cromwell advanced, and, after some deliberation, con- 
 
 * Tbev were Carmelites. 
 
'^iTfTimil'I'IIIIirf'rf'Tr'lT I' "'"lip 1 
 
 MASSACRE AT DROGHEDA. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 283 
 
 eluded on blowing up the building. For this purpose he 
 laid a quantity of powder in an old subterraneous passage, 
 which was open, and went under the church ; but, chang- 
 ing his resolution, he set fire to the steeple, and as the 
 garrison rushed out to avoid the flames they were slaughter- 
 ed. After this he ordered the inhabitants in the church to 
 be put to the sword, among whom many of the Carmelites 
 fell a sacrifice. He then plundered the building and de- 
 faced its principal ornaments." 
 
 Thomas Wood, one of the Puritan officers engaged in 
 the massacre, relates that a multitude of the most defence- 
 less inhabitants, comprising all the principal ladies of the 
 city, were concealed in the crypts or vaults of the church ; 
 thither the bloodhounds tracked them, and not even to one 
 was mercy shown. Lord Clarendon also records that dur- 
 ing the five days, while the streets of Drogheda ran with 
 blood,* " the whole army executed all manner of cruelty, 
 and put every man that related to the garrison, and all the 
 citizens who were Irish — man, woman, and child — to the 
 sword ;" and Cromwell himself reckoned that " less than 
 thirty of the defenders were not massacred, and these,'' he 
 adds, " are in safe custody for the Barbadoes." 
 
 The manuscript written in 165 i,f quoted by Dr. Moran, 
 gives the following account of the martyrdom of Fathers 
 Bathe and Netterville : " On the following day, when the 
 soldiers were searching through the ruins of the city, they 
 discovered one of our fathers, named John Bathe, with his 
 brother, a secular priest. Suspecting that they were reli- 
 gious, they examined them, and finding that they were 
 priests, and, moreover, one of them a Jesuit, they led them 
 off in triumph, and, accompanied by a tumultuous crowd. 
 
 ' Down to the present century the street leading to St. Peter's Street retained the name of 
 Bloody Stre.;t. It is the tradition oi the place that the blood of those slain ia the church 
 formed a regular torrent c'own the street 
 
 \ Relaiio Rcrum, etc 
 
284 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 conducted them to the market-place, and there, as if they 
 were at length extinguishing the Catholic religion and our 
 society, they tied them both to stakes fixed in the ground, 
 and pierced their bodies with shot until they expired." 
 
 Father Robert Netterville was another victim to their furjr. 
 He was aged and confined to bed by his infirmities ; never- 
 theless, " he was forced away by the soldiers, and dragged 
 along the ground, being violently knocked against each 
 obstacle that presented itself on the way ; then they beat 
 him with clubs, and when many of his bones were broken 
 they cast him on the highway. On the fourth day, having 
 fought a good fight, he departed this life, to receive, as we 
 hope, the martyr's crown." — Ibid. 
 
 Three Dominican fathers also received the martyr's crown 
 in Drogheda on this occasion, as is recorded by Fontana : 
 " Father Dominick Dillon, Prior of Urlar, together with 
 Fathers Athy* (the sub-prior) and Richard Oveton, being 
 taken prisoners in Drogheda, and led out for execution in 
 presence of the whole heretical enemy, poured forth their 
 soul in prayer, and so bravely met death." — Ex Act. Cap. 
 Gen. 1650 ; Mon. Doin. ad an. 
 
 " This same year and day. Father Peter Costello, sub- 
 prior of the convent of Strade, was slain there for the 
 faith." — Mon. Bom.-f 
 
 REV. FATHER JAMES O'REILLY, O.P.P. 
 
 " The Rev. James O'Reilly, a learned theologian, a cele- 
 brated preacher, and an excellent teacher, was sent from 
 Waterford to Clonmel, where he instructed youth in leai n- 
 
 • O'Heyii, " with Father Richard Ovetoif, the Snb-Priorof Athy." It is hard to determine 
 which is correct, as Athy is not only the name of a town where there was formerly a Dominican 
 priory, but also a common surname. 
 
 t Straid, or Stracie, as De Burgo tells us, (./fri. Vom. p. 249,) is a little \-ilIage in the county 
 Mayo, two miles from Athlethan or Ballylehan. Straid, he lells us, was in 1760 celebrated fot 
 its £iirs. which are still held. 
 
During the Covtmonwealth. 285 
 
 ing and the Christian religion. At the approach of the 
 enemy the garrison and citizens fled, and he also left the 
 city to seek a place of safety ; but, mistaking the road, he fell 
 in with a troop of Cromwellian horse, as he carried his 
 rosary in his hands. Being asked what he was, he courage- 
 ously answered, ' I am a priest, and, though unworthy, a 
 Dominican monk. I have lost my way, and, flying from you, 
 I have fallen into your hands. I am a Christian, Roman, 
 Catholic, and Apostolic ; as I have lived, so will I die. May 
 the will of Heaven be done.' They immediately rushed upon 
 him, and for nearly an hour he endured, with wonderful 
 fortitude and patience, blows and wounds, covered with 
 blood, and invoking the name of Jesus, of his Blessed 
 Mother, "and of our holy father St. Dominick. At length, 
 having received more wounds than he had limbs, he fell a 
 happy victim." — Hib. Dom. p. 566, ex Act. Cap. Gen. 
 1656, and Mon. Dom. 
 
 REV. FATHER RAYMOND STAFFORD, AND SIX OTHERS, O.S.F. 
 
 It was on the nth of October that Cromwell's soldiers 
 entered the town of Wexford, which had been surrendered 
 by the treachery of one of Ormond's officers. Cromwell, 
 as he expressed it, " thought it not good or just to restrain 
 the soldiers from their right of pillage, nor from doing exe- 
 cution on the enemy ;" he estimates in this letter the num- 
 ber of the garrison butchered at 2000. Father Francis 
 Stafford, in a letter written at the time, says : " On the nth 
 of October, 1649, seven friars of our order, (Franciscans,) all 
 men of extraordinary merit, and natives of the town, perish- 
 ed by the sword of the heretics. Some of them were killed 
 kneeling before the altar, and others while hearing confes- 
 sions. Father Raymond Stafford, holding a crucifix in his 
 hand, came out of the church to encourage the citizens, and 
 even preached with great zeal to the infuriated enemies 
 
286 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 themselves, till he was killed by them in the market- 
 place."* 
 
 Dr. French, the venerable Bishop of Ferns, who himself 
 escaped with difficulty, gives the following account of the 
 massacre, in a letter to the internuncio, 1673 : "On one 
 day I lost, for the cause of God and the faith, all that I 
 possessed ; it was the nth of October, 1649 ! on that most 
 lamentable day my native city of Wexford, abounding in 
 wealth, ships, and merchandise, was destroyed by the 
 sword, and given a prey to the infuriated soldiery by Crom- 
 well, that English pest of hell. There, before God's altar, 
 fell many sacred victims, holy priests of the Lord ; others, 
 who were seized outside the precincts of the church, were 
 scourged with whips ; thers were hanged ; some'were ar- 
 rested and bound with chains ; and others were put to 
 death by various most cruel tortures. The best blood of 
 the citizens was shed ; the very squares were inundated 
 with it, and there was scarcely a house that was not defiled 
 with carnage, and full of wailing. In my own palace a 
 youth hardly sixteen years of age, an amiable boy, as also 
 my gardener and sacristan, were cruelly butchered ; and 
 the chaplain, whom I caused to remain behind me at home, 
 was pierced with six mortal wounds. 
 
 "These things were perpetrated in open day by the im- 
 pious assassins. From that moment (and this it is that 
 renders me a most unhappy man) I have never seen my 
 city, or my flock, or my native land, or my kindred. After 
 the destruction of the city I lived for five months in the 
 woods, with death ever impending over me. There my 
 drink was milk and water, a small quantity of bread was 
 my food, and on one occasion I did not taste bread during 
 five days ; there was no need of cookery for my scanty 
 meals, and I slept in the open air without either bed 01 
 
 • See the letter in Dtiffy's Mngazine, May, 1847. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 287 
 
 bed-clothes. At length the wood ih which I lay conceal- 
 ed was surrounded by numerous bodies of the enemy, who 
 anxiously sought to capture me, and send me loaded with 
 chains to England. My angel guardian being my guide, I 
 burst through their lines and escaped, owing to the swift- 
 ness of rny able steed." — Letter of Dr. French, ap. Moran. 
 
 "Cromwell's 'ministers of the divine will' performed 
 their part at Wexford, as they had done at Drogheda, do- 
 ing execution, not on the armed combatants only, but on 
 the women and children also. Of these helpless victims 
 many had congregated round the great cross. It was a 
 natural consequence in such an emergency. Hitherto they 
 had been accustomed to kneel at the foot of that cross in 
 prayer ; now, with life itself at stake, they would instinc- 
 tively press toward it to escape from the swords of the 
 enemy. But as far as regards the atrocity of the thing, it 
 makes little difference on what particular spot they were 
 murdered."* — Lingard, vol. ix. note D. 
 
 REVS. JAMES LYNCH AND RICHARD NUGENT. 
 
 Rev. James Lynch was parish priest of Kells, and Rich- 
 ard Nugent of Ratoath, both in the county Meath, and 
 were both put to the torture and suffered on the same day 
 in defence of the Catholic faith. Father Lynch was a ven- 
 erable old man, nearly eighty years of age, and was massa- 
 cred in his bed, to which,, through infirmity, he had been a 
 long time confined. Father Nugent was sent under an es- 
 cort to Drogheda, and, a gibbet having been erected within 
 
 * Captain Wood, at the storming of Drogheda, a subaltern in Ingoldsby's regiment, descHb- 
 - ing the massacre in St. Peter's church, Drogheda, at which he was himself present, says; 
 "When they (the soldiers) were *o make their way up to the lofts and galleries, and up to the 
 tower of the chnrch, each of the aasailants would take up a child and use it as a buck! cr of de 
 fence, when they ascended the steps, to save themselves from being brained or shot." And 
 he describes his own unavailing attempt to save one young woman out of the general massa- 
 «re of all the womeu there. — Linffard. vol ix. note L>. 
 
288 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 sight of the walls, he ended his course with such serenity 
 and firmness as confounded his enemies, and drew forth 
 the tears and benedictions of the faithful inhabitants 
 of that ancient city. — Moran, Persec. p. 193, from Bruo- 
 din. 
 
 Anno 16B0. 
 
 RIGHT REV. DAVID ROOTH, BISHOP OF OSSORY. 
 
 From Wexford, Cromwell advanced in a dreary season 
 to Kilkenny, not prepared for a regular siege, but relying 
 on the promises of an officer named Tickle that he would 
 betray the city of Kilkenny into his hands. The plot was 
 discovered and the agent executed, and the custody of the 
 city and adjacent country was entrusted to Lord Castleha- 
 ven, with a body of twelve hundred men. But the plague 
 which had broken out obliged Castlehaven to retire, and 
 reduced the garrison to about four hundred and fifty. 
 Nevertheless, Sir Walter Butler made a brave defence, and 
 repelled the assaults of the besiegers with such spirit and 
 success that Cromwell, despairing of taking it by force, 
 granted favorable conditions ; but no sooner had the ene- 
 my possession of the city than these were violated. The 
 Puritans profaned the churches, overturned the altars, de- 
 stroyed the paintings and crosses, and profaned all things 
 sacred. The vestments, which had been for the most part 
 concealed, were discovered and plundered by the soldiery ; 
 the books and paintings were cast into the street, and ei- 
 ther destroyed by fire or brought away as booty. The holy 
 bishop, Dr. David Rooth, venerable for his years, his piety, 
 his learning, and his zeal, had just entered a carriage to 
 seek for safety by flight when the enemy arrived. They 
 inhumanly dragged him from his seat, despoiled him of his 
 garments, and then, clothing him with a tattered cloak, 
 which was covered with vermin, they cast him into a loath- 
 
During the Comtnonwealtk. 289 
 
 some dungeon, where, after a prolonged martyrdom, he ex- 
 pired, in the month of April, 1650. 
 
 While the pestilence raged within the city, one good 
 priest. Father Patrick Lea, was especially distinguished by 
 his charity and zeal. Not only was he untiring in adminis- 
 tering to the spiritual wants of the sick and dying, but he 
 also assisted them in their corporal wants. He adminis- 
 tered to the poor even in the most loathsome duties, and 
 sometimes too he was seen digging graves and bearing on 
 his shoulders to interment the bodies of those who were 
 abandoned. It was while exercising this last-mentioned 
 excess of Christian heroism that he himself was infected 
 with the disease, and expired, a martyr of charity, a few 
 days before the arrival of Cromwell at the gates of Kilken- 
 ny. — Moran, Persec. p. 50, who quotes a MS. in his pos- 
 session, written in 1667, and entitled Brevis Relatio de 
 Prcesenti in Hibernid Fidei et Ecdesics Statu. See also 
 Leland, Hist, of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 361. 
 
 RIGHT REV. BOETIUS EGAN, BISHOP' OF ROSS. 
 
 He was a holy Franciscan friar, appointed to the see of 
 Ross, in 1647, by the pope, on the recommendation of the 
 Nuncio Rinuccini. In 1650, when the savage bands of 
 Cromwellian soldiers under Ludlow were laying waste the 
 country, he left the retreat in which he had lair hidden for 
 months, in order to visit some distant and abam loned parts 
 of his diocese, when, on his return to his lonely hiding- 
 place, he was overtaken by a troop of horse under the com- 
 mand of Lord Broghill, who was hastening to assist Crom- 
 well in the siege of Clonmel. " Lord Broghill promised to 
 spare his life if he would use his spiritual authority with 
 the garrison of a fort adjacent to prevail on them to sur- 
 render. For this purpose he was conducted to the fort, 
 
ago Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 but the gallant captive, unshaken by the fear of death, ex- 
 horted the garrison to maintain their post resolutely 
 against the enemies of the king, their country, and their 
 religion, and instantly resigned himself to execution."* 
 Bruodin adds that he was offered pardon and rewards if 
 he would deny his faith and join the Parliamentarians, but 
 he rejected the temptation with disdain. He was then 
 abandoned to the soldiers' fury, and, his arms being first 
 severed from his body, he was dragged along the ground 
 to a neighboring tree, and, being hanged from one of its 
 branches by the reins of his own horse, happily consum- 
 mated his earthly course in November, 1650.! — Bruodin, 
 Passio Martyr, p. 530; Hib. Dom. p. 490 ; Mooney, (con- 
 tinuation.) 
 
 REV. STEPHEN GELOSSE, S.J. 
 
 " He was born in 1617 ; he was teaching poetry in Kil 
 kenny College in 1649, and was then reported by the 
 visitor. Father Verdier, as a truly good and religious man. 
 I believe he made his d^but as a minister of religion at 
 Waterford, whence he was sent to Ross to attend Father 
 Gregory Dowdal in his last illness, and who died in his 
 arms in 1650. For the next nineteen years he continued 
 to exercise his pastoral functions in that town and neio^h- 
 borhood. No dangers that threatened him from the Crom- 
 wellian party, who filled every place with blood and terror, 
 could deter this genuine hero from doing his duty; no 
 weather, no pestilential fever, no difficulties, could hold him 
 
 • Leland, vol. iii. p. 362. He refers to Cox. 
 
 t The compiler of the Supplement to Wadding's Scriftores says Dr. Egan was a member 
 of the Third Order of St. Francis, and that thirteen other members of the same institute suffej- 
 sd with him, (I presume he means about the same time,) and he refers to a contemporary writer 
 F. Bordonus, as his authority. ' 
 
During the Commonwealth. 291 
 
 back from visiting the sick and the dying in their meanest 
 hovels. His purse, his time, his services, were always at 
 the command of the distressed Catholics ; it was his food 
 and delight to exercise the works of mercy, corporal and 
 spiritual. Though the tyrant Cromwell had issued a pro- 
 clamation to his troops (and they were in the habit of 
 searching the houses of respectable Catholics) that should 
 they apprehend a priest in any house, the owner of such 
 house should be hung up before his own door, and all his 
 property be confiscated, and that the captors of the priest 
 should be rewarded at the rate destroyers of the wolf for- 
 merly received, (so little value' was attached to a priest's 
 life,) nevertheless Father Gelosse managed every day tc 
 offer up the unbloody Sacrifice of the altar. His extraor- 
 dinary escapes from the clutches of his pursuers bordered 
 on the miraculous. He assumed every shape and charac- 
 ter : he personated a dealer in fagots, a servant, a thatch- 
 er, a porter, a beggar, a gardener, a miller, a carpenter^ 
 a tailor with his sleeve stuck with needles, a milkman, a 
 pedlar, a seller of rabbit-skins, etc., thus becoming all to all 
 in order to gain all to Christ. However, he was foui 
 times apprehended, as he told Father Stephen Rice, but 
 his presence of mind never forsook him, and he ingenious- 
 ly contrived to extricate himself without much difficulty. 
 After the restoration of Charles II. he set up a school 
 at Ross, which took precedence of all others in the country, 
 whether rank, numbers, proficiency, discipline, or piety 
 be taken into consideration ; but this was broken up by 
 the persecution of 1670. He then removed to the vicinity 
 of Dublin, where he taught about forty scholars, and in 
 August, 1673, he returned to Ross to reopen his school, 
 but at the end of three months was obliged by the fanatical 
 spirit abroad to abandon this favorite pursuit. He was 
 still living in the summer of 1675, when I regret to part 
 company with him." — Oliver. 
 
292 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 REV. NICHOLAS MULCAHY 
 
 Was parish priest of Ardfinnan, in the county Tipperary, 
 and was famed for his zeal and apostolic labors. He had 
 been frequently advised to fly from the storm, out his 
 affectionate solicitude for his flock rose superior to every 
 counsel. During the siege of Clonmel he was seized upon 
 by a reconnoitring party of Cromwell's cavalry. Immedi- 
 ately on his arrest he was bound in irons, conducted to the 
 camp of the besiegers, and offered his pardon .should he 
 only consent to use his influence with the inhabitants of 
 Clonmel, and induce them to give up the town ; but he 
 steadfastly refused, and was consequently led out in sight 
 of the besieged walls, and there beheaded while he knelt in 
 prayer for his faithful people and asked forgiveness for his 
 enemies. — Moran, from Brtiodin. 
 
 FATHERS JAMES MORAN, DOMINICK OR DONATUS BLACK, 
 AND RICHARD OVEDON, O.P.P., 
 
 " Of the convent of Athenry, were slain through hatred 
 of the faith, and thus offered as sacred victims to Christ." 
 — Mon. Dom. and Hib. Dom., ex. Act. Cap. Gen. 1656. 
 
 REV. FATHER MILER MAGRATH, O.P.P., 
 
 •• A .SON of the convent of St. Dominick, of Benfica, (near 
 Lisbon,) and an alumnus during some years of the Irish Do- 
 minican College of the Blessed Virgin of Lisbon, then pro- 
 curator and vicar, was led by his zeal for souls to venture 
 into Clonmel, then held by a strong garrison of the here- 
 
 • Of Father Moran il is said he was a lay monk ; of the other two it is not said whether 
 they were priests or not, but they are not styled reverend, from which . I gather thej were not 
 in holy orders. Fontana puts their martyrdom in 1650 ; De Burgo, m i6si. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 293 
 
 tics. He was seized just after he had finished Mass, while 
 administering the Blessed Eucharist to a dying man, and 
 with the sacred pix in his hands was instantly led off to 
 execution. He prayed fervently with the people, and 
 amidst their tears and admiration he was hung." — A Rosa- 
 rio, p. 354, (21 1 ;) also Hib. Dom. p. 566, and Man. Dam. 
 
 REV. FATHER ARTHUR O'CUIFFE, O.P.P. 
 
 " Father Arthur O'Cuiffe, of the convent of Tralee, 
 suffered much for the faith under Cromwell, and lay for a 
 whole year in a noisome' dungeon. During that time the 
 Rev. Father Edmund MacMorice, a pious, sincere, and 
 humble man, was of great service to religion, for he was 
 able to travel about the district round his convent in 
 tolerable freedom, because, being a near relative of the 
 Lord of Kerry, no one dared to molest him." — O'Heyn, 
 
 Epilogus, p. 21. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 jLtvno 1651. 
 
 RIGHT REV. TERENCE ALBERT O'BRIEN, O.P., BISHOP OF 
 EMLY; REVS. JOHN COLLINS, JAMES WOLF, AND 
 DAVID ROCHE, O.P.P. ; ALSO REVS. BRIEN, BARRY, AND 
 LEE, OF THE CONGREGATION OF ST. VINCENT. 
 
 The life of Bishop O'Brien has been well traced by 
 Father Meehan, in the Hibernian Magazine for 1864, and 
 the greater part of the following account is taken from his 
 pages.* 
 
 Terence Albert O'Brien was born in the city of Lim- 
 erick, in the year 1600, of parents descended from the 
 ancient house of O'Brien. While yet a child he received 
 the earliest rudiments of education from his pious mother, 
 
 * DuSy's Hihernian Magaiiru, April, 1864. 
 
294 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 and an aged priest, who found constant welcome and 
 protection in his father's house, and who, in all probability, 
 was the first to inspire him with the idea of devoting 
 himself to the ministry. As he grew to boyhood the 
 desire struck deeper root in his heart, and he lost no time 
 in placing himself in communication with his uncle, Mau- 
 rice O'Brien, who was then prior of the Dominican convent 
 of his native city. The uncle was not slow in seconding 
 the lad's wishes, and he accordingly had him received into 
 the novitiate of the Friars Preachers ; for we need hardly 
 add that the monastery of St. Saviour, founded in the 
 thirteenth century by Donat O'Brien, had long since 
 shared the fate of other religious houses in Ireland. Hav- 
 ing been received into the order, young O'Brien was sent 
 to the convent of St. Peter Martyr at Toledo, where there 
 was then a vacancy for an Irish student, and arrived there 
 just as he had entered on his twentieth year. The Domi- 
 nican school of Toledo was then one of the most renown- 
 ed in Spain ; here O'Brien spent eight years, when he was 
 ordained priest, and, as the wants of the Irish mission 
 were then pressing, his superiors commanded him to lose 
 no time in preparing for the journey home. 
 
 On arriving in Ireland, the scene of his first mission was 
 Limerick, where he took up his residence with the other 
 Dominicans in a hired house, where they lived in commu- 
 nity as well as the circumstances of the time would allow. 
 It was a time of peril to all priests, but especially to those 
 of the religious orders, for Lord-Deputy Falkland was then 
 enforcing the penal enactments. The Dominicans were 
 not, however, objects of so much jealousy to the govern- 
 ment as the Franciscans, who took more part in politics. 
 
 Availing himself, therefore, of the opportunities which 
 were thus afforded him of doing good. Father O'Brien 
 settled down in the little convent at Limerick, where, with 
 the rest of the brethren, he toiled through many dreary 
 
During the Commonwealth 295 
 
 years in the quiet performance of the duties which belong- 
 ed to his calUng. Fifteen years did he labor in Ireland, dur- 
 ing which time he was twice elected prior of his native 
 convent of Limerick, and once of that of Lorragh.* 
 
 In 1G43, the Dominican chapter, assembled in the Abbey 
 of the Holy Trinity at Kilkenny, unanimously elected 
 -him provincial of the order. A short time previously he 
 had seen his native city identify itself with the confede- 
 rates, and we may readily imagine with what feelings of 
 devoted gratitude he and the other members of his order 
 must have regarded the men who restored to them that 
 splendid temple which William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, 
 erected for the honor of God, and as a last resting-place 
 for himself, some few years before he closed his mortal 
 warfare.! Toward the end of 1643, Father O'Brien was 
 called to Rome to assist at a general chapter of the Do- 
 minicans, which was held in the following year, when many 
 ordinances were made for the better government of the 
 Irish province, and the revival of the order in Ireland, 
 where it had suffered so terribly during the persecutions of 
 Elizabeth and James I. The acts of this chapter,J indeed, 
 throw much light on the state of the Irish Church at the 
 period, and it is only reasonable to suppose that we are 
 indebted to O'Brien for the valuable information they 
 contain. This chapter, "in order that proper provision 
 should be made in that province (Ireland) for literary 
 studies," ordered that " five universities, or houses of gene- 
 ral study, should be established, for the five parts of the 
 kingdom, in the convents of Dublin, Limerick, Cashel, 
 Athenry, and Culraha ; and if from the hardness of the 
 times such studies cannot, at any time, be carried on in 
 one of these convents, then the provincial shall appoint an- 
 
 * situated in the barony of Lower Ormond, and founc'^d by Walter de Burgo in 126^ 
 1 The Black Abbey of Kilkenny. t Hib Dom. p. 115. 
 
296 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 other convent for such time."* At this chapter Father 
 O'Brien was raised to the rank of master in theology, and 
 appointed one of the two persons to decide all disputes as 
 to the boundaries of the Dominican convents in Mun- 
 ster.f 
 
 As soon as the council terminated its sessions, O'Brien 
 set out for Lisbon, to visit the Dominican house which had 
 been founded in that city by O'Daly who was then en. 
 gaged on his History of the Geraldines.X About the mid- 
 dle of July, 1644, while O'Brien was still at Lisbon, intelli- 
 gence from Rome led his friends to suppose that it was 
 the intention of Urban VIII. to advance him to the coad- 
 jutorship of Emly, and indeed the announcement seemed 
 so reliable that he at once set out for Ireland to take part 
 in the election of his successor in the provincialate. There 
 can be little doubt that Urban did mean to have him con- 
 secrated bishop, but as his holiness died in the very 
 month in which the nomination is said to have been made, 
 the bulls were not despatched, and O'Brien's promotion 
 was consequently postponed, and did not take place before 
 the third year of the pontificate of Innocent X. On his 
 return to Ireland, O'Brien fixed his residence in the con- 
 vent of Limerick, where, as provincial and prior, he exert- 
 ed himself indefagitably for the interests of his order, 
 which had lately received a large accession to its mem- 
 bers from Rome, Louvain, and other places on the Conti' 
 nent. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that O'Brien was not con- 
 secrated in 1644, as De Burgo thought, as is shown by a 
 letter of the Nuncio Rinuccini, dated Kilkenny, January 
 
 * There were in 1646 in Ireland forty-three Dominican convents, with about 600 monks. 
 
 t A convent, once founded, was always held to exist, and to preserve its ecclesiastical privi- 
 leges, as long as any brethren remained, although the original building might lie confiscated. 
 Thus the Dominican fathers residing in a lodging in Limerick were " the Convent of 
 Limerick." 
 
 t A Rosario, Ptrsec, p. 204. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 297 
 
 1st, 1646, in which he says: "Father Terence, provincial 
 of the Dominicans, is a man of prudence and sagacity. 
 He has been in Italy, has had considerable experience, 
 and the bishop who wishes to have him for his coadjutor 
 is, I am told, in very feeble health."* Eight months after 
 the date of that letter — that is, in August, 1646 — when 
 the Bishop of Emly was on the point of death, the nuncio 
 wrote again to Rome, recommending various candidates 
 for dioceses that were then either vacant or about to be 
 so ; and, among others, he named O'Brien as " one who 
 deserved the highest advancement Rome could bestow, 
 and whose claims and qualifications were duly set forth in 
 a memorial which the clergy had forwarded in his favor." 
 The answer, however, did not reach Ireland till October, 
 1647, when Rinuccini had the satisfaction of learning that 
 the Holy See sanctioned O'Brien's promotion, and that of 
 the other candidates for whom he was interested ; and 
 Father O'Brien was consecrated in November, 1 647. 
 
 Dr. O'Brien lost no time in taking possession of his, see, 
 but he found it in a deplorable state. The victory of Co- 
 noe-na-Noss (13th November, 1647) had made Inchiquin, 
 the bitter enemy of the Catholics, master of nearly all 
 Munster, and his soldiers ravaged all the country. At 
 Kilkenny Dr. O'Brien had zealously supported the policy 
 of the Nuncio Rinuccini, and joined in the ill-advised ex- 
 communication ; and when the nuncio was at Galway, be- 
 fore his departure, he hastened thither to see him. When, 
 however, he had reached a village within three miles of 
 Galway, (probably Oranmore,) word was brought him that 
 the nuncio had sailed, and he then returned to his diocese, 
 where he remained until May, 1650, when the progress of 
 the Cromwellians compelled him to return to Galway. 
 
 In August, 1650, Dr. O'Brien acted with those prelates 
 
 • JViinzuttu*-a, pp. 84, 15a. 
 
298 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 who, after discarding Lord Ormond, and insisting on the 
 appointment of Clanricarde as Viceroy, offered the Protec- 
 torate of Ireland to the Duke of Lorraine. He then re- 
 turned to his diocese, and, after a brief sojourn there, fixed 
 his final abode in Limerick, just as Ireton was marching 
 on that devoted city. Ireton commenced the siege of 
 Limerick early in 165 1, but it was not till July that the 
 investment of the place was complete. I need not recapi- 
 tulate here the well-known incidents of that heroic siege, 
 in which the besieged suffered more by pestilence than 
 from the efforts of the enemy. Eight thousand citizens 
 perished by the pestilence, and the heroic missioners of 
 St. Vincent of Paul, who were in the city, made the mem- 
 ory of their order dear to Catholic Ireland by their zeal in 
 attending the sick, a task in which they were aided. by 
 Drs. Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel, and O'Dwyer, Bishop 
 of Limerick,* who were also in the city. 
 
 At length, on the 27th of October, the t/eachery of Co- 
 lonel Fennell enabled Ireton to compel the surrender of 
 the city.f Twenty-four persons were excepted from quar- 
 ter by the articles of capitulation. Knowing the fate that 
 was reserved for him. Dr. O'Brien retired to the pest-house, 
 in order to devote the last hours of his life to the benefit 
 of his suffering fellow-citizens, and to preparing himself for 
 death. Here he was found by the officers sent to arrest 
 him, and brought before Ireton, who told him he was to be 
 tried by a court-martial, and imprisoned till the sentence 
 was pronounced. The bishop heard this unmoved, and 
 when asked did he want counsel, calmly replied that all he 
 equired was his confessor. This boon was granted, and 
 Father Hanrahan, a member of his own order, was suffer- 
 
 • He was the on.y one of the twenty-four to whom quarter was denied by Ireton who es 
 caped. — Borlase and Ludlow^ afi, Leland, vol. iii. p. 387. 
 
 1 Moran, Pirsecutions, p. 61 ; Haverty's History 0/ Ireland, p. 591 ; UOtmian 'Mag itiHg 
 p. 'JSS. 
 
IRETON CONDEMNING THE BISHOP OF LIMERICK 
 
Duri7ig the Connnonxvealtii. 299 
 
 ed to pass the whole day and night of the 30th October in 
 his prison. On the following evening he was led out to 
 execution, and, as Father Hanrahan related, walked as joy- 
 fully to the place as to a feast. His contemporary, De 
 Marinis, relates his execution thus : " He went with joy to 
 the place of execution, and then, with a serene counte- 
 nance, turning to his Catholic friends, who stood in the 
 crowd inconsolable and weeping, he said to them, ' Plold 
 firmly by your faith, and observe its precepts ; murmur 
 not against the arrangements of God's providence, and 
 thus you will save your souls. Weep not at all for me, but 
 rather pray that in this last trial of death I may, by firm- 
 ness and constancy, attain my heavenly reward.' The 
 head of the martyr was struck off and placed on a spike on 
 the tower," ("which is on the middle of the bridge." — A 
 Rosario,) " and long after seemed to drop fresh blood, and 
 uncorrupted and unchanged in aspect, flesh, or hair — a tri- 
 bute, as may be thought, to that virginal purity which it is 
 universally believed he preserved to the end."* Thus he 
 went to his reward, on the vigil of All Saints', 165 1. De 
 Marinis and A Rosariof relate that the holy bishop sum- 
 moned Ireton to the judgment-seat of God to answer for 
 his crimes; and on the i8th day afterward that bloody 
 persecutor was seized with the plague, and, after sixteen 
 days, expired in great torments. Dr. Moran mentions that 
 the spot where this holy bishop was martyred is yet point- 
 ed out and venerated by the Catholics of Limerick.^ 
 
 With Bishop O'Brien perished another Dominican, Fa- 
 ther John Collins. He had made himself peculiarly ob- 
 noxious to the Parliamentarians by the active part he had 
 taken in the war against them ; he had, in the habit of his 
 order, and with a crucifix in his hand, led a storming party 
 at Bunratty, and had made himself remarkable during the 
 
 * Hi'i. Vom. p. 489. 
 
 t In HiZ. Dom. toe. cii. ; and A Rosario, Persec. p. 207. } Moran, Ptrsec. p. 18a 
 
300 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 siege for his courage, and was in consequence excepted by 
 Ireton from the capitulation. He was sought out after the 
 surrender, and, being found, was at once put to death * 
 
 Father James Wolf, another Dominican, received the 
 crown of martyrdom at the same time. I give the account 
 of his martyrdom from the Acts of the General Chapter, 
 held in Rome in 1656, p. i5o:t 
 
 " He was an old man, and preacher-general, who had 
 before been a long time in prison for the faith, and in this 
 last persecution was as a wall against the enemies of the 
 faith. He was taken in Limerick while offering the Mass, 
 and in a few hours afterward was sentenced to be hung, and 
 brought out into the market square, where he made a pub- 
 lic profession of his faith, and exhorted the Catholics to 
 constancy in the religion of their ancestors, and that with 
 so much ardor that it moved his very enemies. Standing 
 on the top step of the ladder, and about to be swung off, 
 he joyously exclaimed, ' We are made a spectacle to God 
 and angels and men — of glory to God, of joy to angels, of 
 contempt to men' Having said this, he was hung, and so 
 went to his crown." 
 
 O'Daly adds that he had been absent from the city dur- 
 ing the siege, but that, when it was taken and all the 
 priests there either slain or driven away, zealous for the 
 souls of the citizens, he secretly returned to administer the 
 sacraments to them, but had hardly been there eight days 
 when he was taken and hung ;% and this agrees with what 
 is said in the Acts of the General Chapter, that he was taken 
 while saying Mass. 
 
 It is probable that Father David Roche, O.P.P., whom 
 De Burgo mentions to have been sent as a slave to the 
 West Indian tobacco plantations in this year, was taken at 
 Limerick.§ 
 
 • A Rosario, Persec. p. 17. t ffii. Dom. p. s68. 
 
 X A Rosario, Persec. p. 217. 5 mi,, _D„„,_ p j^,_ 
 
During the Commonwealth. 301 
 
 Here also we may commemorate the virtues and suffer- 
 ings of the fathers of St. Vincent in Limerick. St. Vincent 
 of Paul, that angel of charity, cherished a special affection 
 for the persecuted Church of Ireland. " The sole detail of 
 all he did and procured to be done in favor of the ecclesi- 
 astics banished from Ireland by Cromwell would exceed 
 my limits, and wear out the patience of my readers." And 
 the archives of Paris yet preserve many records of the un- 
 tiring efforts of the saint to provide a home and a refuge 
 for the multitude of our countrymen who, despoiled of all 
 they possessed, and exiles from the land of their birth, 
 were cast upon the shores of France. The Bishop of 
 Waterford, who had been an eye-witness, gave an account 
 to Clement XI. of the assistance in money, ornaments, and 
 clothing sent by the saint to the suffering Catholics in 
 Ireland, declaring at the same time that as St. Patrick and 
 St. Malachy in earlier ages, so Father Vincent was raised 
 up by God, in this period of persecution, to be the salva- 
 tion of our country. 
 
 It was in ' 1646 that the first missionary fathers 
 landed in Ireland ; and, during the five years that they 
 remained. Limerick was the chief scene of their labors. 
 The happy fruits of their zeal were soon visible to all ; and 
 it is recorded, as a striking fact, that none of the clergy ol 
 any mission which they visited were found to abandon 
 their spiritual charges. " All remained with the flocks 
 entrusted to them, assisting and defending them until they 
 were banished, or suffered death for the Catholic faith ; 
 and, in effect, it was granted to all to endure one or the 
 other."* 
 
 As early as 1648, the Archbishop of Cash el wrote to St. 
 Vincent that, through the zeal of his good fathers, "the 
 people had been excited to piety, which was increasing every 
 
 • Abelly's Vie de Saint VincenU lib, iv. chap, viii., in Dr. Moran, Persee, p. 7, to whom I 
 am indebted for all this account of the Vincentians. 
 
302 Martyrs and Confesson 
 
 day; and although these admirable priests ha\E suffered 
 inconveniences of every sort since their arrival in this 
 country, they, nevertheless, have not ceased for an instant 
 to apply themselves to their spiritual mission, and, blessed 
 by heavenly grace, they have gloriously propagated and 
 increased the worship and glory of God." And at the 
 same time the Bishop of Limerick wrote that, "by the 
 example and edifying deportment of these fathers, the 
 greater part of the nobility of both sexes had become 
 models of piety and virtue. It is true that the troubles 
 and the wars of this kingdom have been a great obstacle 
 to their functions ; nevertheless, the truths of faith have 
 been so engraven by their means upon the minds of the 
 inhabitants of both the cities and the country parts that the}- 
 bless God in their adversities equally as in prosperity." 
 
 When the storm raged with all its fury in 1657, only 
 three priests of the order remained in Ireland, but their 
 labors were incessant, and an abundant spiritual harvest 
 was their reward. At that time there were 20,000 com. 
 municants within the walls of Limerick. " The whole city 
 assumed the garb of penance, to draw down the blessings 
 and the grace of Heaven." 
 
 In April, 1650, St. Vincent wrote to the superior of the 
 order, encouraging the members to meet courageously the 
 dangers which then threatened them. In his letter he 
 says : 
 
 " You have given yourselves to God, to remain im- 
 movably in the country where you now are, in the midst 
 of perils, choosing rather to expose yourself to death than 
 to be found wanting in charity to your neighbors. You 
 have acted as true children of our most admirable Father, 
 to whom I return infinite thanks for having produced in 
 you that sovereign charity which is the perfection of all 
 virtues. I pray him to fill you with it to the end, that, 
 exercising it ir all cases and everywhere, you may pour it 
 
During the Commonwealth. 303 
 
 forth into the hearts of those who want it. Seeing that your 
 companions are in the same disposition of remaining, 
 whatever may be the danger from war and pestilence, we 
 are of opinion that they should be allowed to stay. How 
 do we know what God intends in their regard ? Certainly 
 he does not bestow on them so holy a resolution in vain. 
 My God, how inscrutable are thy judgments ! Behold, at 
 the close of one of the most fruitful missions we have ever 
 as yet witnessed, and perhaps, top, the most necessary, 
 thou dost stop, as it were, the course of thy mercies upon 
 this penitent city, and dost lay thy hand still more heavily 
 upon her, adding to the misfortune of war the scourge of 
 pestilence ; but all this is done in order to gather in the 
 harvest of the elect, and to collect the good grain, into thy 
 eternal granary. We adore thy ways, O Lord !" 
 
 " Although the three fathers who had labored in Lime- 
 rick during the siege escaped the fury of Ireton on its 
 surrender, one of them resolved to remain in the city to 
 assist with his sacred ministry the remnant of its Catholic 
 citizens, and after awhile consummated there his holocaust 
 of charity. The two others, Brien and Barry, escaped 
 with about 120 other priests and religious, in various 
 disguises, mixed up with the garrison of the place, who by 
 the terms of the capitulation obtained their lives and 
 permission to retire from the city. As there was no 
 quarter allowed for any ecclesiastics, these holy men, sure 
 that death awaited them, passed the night preceding their 
 escape in prayer and preparation for their martyrdom. 
 They were not, however, recognized ; and after escaping 
 from the city they separated. Father Brien taking the road 
 toward his native district in company with the Vicar- 
 General of Cashel, while Father Barry went toward the 
 mountiins, where a charitable lady received him, and con- 
 cealed him for two months, A bark freighted for 
 France appearing on the coast, he availed himself of the 
 
304 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 opportunity thus presented, embarked in the vessel, and 
 happily landed in Nantes. This caused indescribable joy 
 to St. Vincent, who had already given up these two 
 fathers as lost, believing them to have been involved in the 
 general massacre of Limerick. Although these good 
 priests escaped from that general massacre, the congrega 
 tion paid its tribute to the persecution, and a lay-brothei 
 of the order, named Lee, being discovered by the heretics, 
 was brutally put to death by them before the eyes of his 
 own mother ; his hands and feet were first amputated, and 
 his head was then bruised to atoms."* 
 
 Father Abelly, the author of the Life of St. Vincent, 
 mentions another martyr, whose name, however, is not 
 given. He writes as follows : 
 
 " It happened that one of these heroic pastors, having 
 gone to a missionary father (who lived in a cabin at the 
 foot of a mountain) to make his annual retreat, was on the 
 following night discovered in the act of administering the 
 sacrament to some sick persons, and cut to pieces on the 
 spot by the heretical soldiery. His glorious death crowned 
 his innocent life, and fulfilled the great desire he had to 
 suffer for our Lord, as he himself had declared in the 
 preceding year at a mission given by the Vincentian 
 fathers in Limerick.'' 
 
 Here also we may hand down the names of those 
 martyrs of charity who are known to have perished of the 
 plague while attending the sick in this disastrous year. 
 
 Of these there are enumerated by De Burgo, of the Do- 
 minican order alone, in the year 165 1 : Fathers Michael 
 O'Clery, Prior of Waterford, at Waterford, and Gerald 
 Kagot ; Thaddaeus 0'Caholy,t William Geraldine, and 
 John Geraldine, of Limerick ; and Donald O'Brien, in 
 county Clare ; and of the Jesuits, Father Francis White, 
 at Waterford. 
 
 • Act of the order, and a letter of St. Vincent, ap. Moran. f Or O'Cahasl 
 
During the Commonwealth. 305 
 
 My readers will, I am sure, be glad here to read the 
 account of their noble devotion given by O'Daly :* 
 
 "The first who earned this crown was the Reverend 
 Father Michael O'Clery, an alumnus of our college of 
 Lisbon, and prior of our convent of Waterford. When the 
 plague raged in the town of Waterford, the bishop of the 
 place called together all the priests and monks of the place, 
 and laid before them how great a work of charity and how 
 acceptable to God it would be to devote themselves to 
 administer the sacraments to those of their Catholic 
 brethren who were perishing of the plague. All the 
 others held their peace ; but our prior, and a worthy priest, 
 Patrick White, a canon of Waterford, of a very good 
 Waterford family, and his brother. Father Francis White, 
 of the Society of Jesus, and minister'of the college of St. 
 Patrick of Lisbon, offered themselves for this duty. They 
 prepared themselves for three days by a general confession 
 of their sins and the reception of the Blessed Sacrament, 
 and then entered on their labors in the pest-house, where 
 they diligently discharged the duty of physicians of souls. 
 After having heard the confessions of almost all, they 
 were themsel\es seized with the disease and perished 
 together. 
 
 " The second was Father Gerald Bagot, also of our col- 
 lege of Lisbon, a man of good family and talents. Having 
 come into Limerick from the country, he was asked to 
 step out of his way to hear the confession of a man who 
 was at the point of death from the plague. The pious fa- 
 ther immediately consented, and purchased the man's sal- 
 vation with his life, for no sooner had he completed that 
 work of charity than he felt himself attacked, and, not dar- 
 ing to enter the city, in three days after, having made his 
 confession and communion, he died outside the walls. 
 
 * A Rosario, Persec, p. 222, in Father Meehan's translation ; but he has abridged it. Seo 
 p 367 of ori^al^ and ap. Hib. Dom, p. 570. 
 
3o6 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 " The third was Father Donald O'Brien, who died in the 
 same way in Thomond, (county Clare,) having taken the 
 plague by hearing confessions. 
 
 " The fourth was Father Thaddseus O'Cahasi, who, in 
 the siege of Limerick, when the sword destroyed without 
 and the pestilence within, was assigned the post of attend- 
 ing to the hospital of the soldiers, which was near our con- 
 vent, and was made a refuge for all the sick except those 
 stricken with the plague. But the plague made its way in 
 there and seized our father, and, having received the sacra- 
 ments, he died on the fifth day. Father John William 
 Geraldine, having gone to hear his confession, took the 
 disease and died on the third day. He was a very religi- 
 ous and learned man, a preacher-general,* and had been 
 prior of several conv'ents. 
 
 " When this John was dying, his brother, Gerald Geral- 
 dine, also a Dominican father, came to hear his confession, 
 and took the disease, of which he died on the third day, 
 having piously received the sacraments. 
 
 "The Reverend Father Thomas Philbin, (MacPhilbin,) 
 formerly Prior of Burishoole, and Father Charles MacCuil, 
 lost their lives in this work of charity, in 1652." 
 
 REV. FATHERS LAURENCE OTERRALL AND BERNARD 
 OTERRALL, O.P.P. 
 
 These two appear to have been brothers of the ancient 
 family of O'Ferrall. Of Father Laurence, Dominick a Ro- 
 sario says he studied in the college of Lisbon, and was for 
 some time guardian of it. Of Father Bernard, De Burgo 
 says that he was predicator generalis of the order ; and 
 from the Acts of the General Chapter, held at Rome in 1656, 
 
 • Prsedicator generalii ord. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 307 
 
 he and Fontana give the following account of their mar- 
 tyrdom : 
 
 " They were seized at early dawn, while praying in the • 
 church of their native convent of Longford, which had 
 been abandoned by the brethren on account of the violence 
 of the persecution. Father Bernard was at once over- 
 whelmed by the persecutors with more than four-and-twen- 
 ty deadly wounds, whereof he expired, yet lingered long 
 enough to receive the last sacraments from another of our 
 fathers before he expired ; and this he had himself 
 foretold. Brother Laurence they dragged, wounded, be- 
 fore the governor, and on discovering that for the faith, and 
 in obedience to the authority of the nuncio,* he had joined 
 the Catholic army, he was condemned to death. He was 
 to have been executed on the following day, and joyfully 
 awaited his fate, but by the intercession of some friends it 
 was deferred for three days. This was most grievous to 
 Laurence, who blamed his intercessors, and spent the 
 whole three days in pra3'ers and tears, beseeching God 
 not to suffer him to lose the palm of martyrdom. At 
 length he obtained his desire, and from the top of the lad- 
 der he addressed an eloquent exhortation to the Catholics ; 
 then, placing the rosary round his neck, and holding a 
 crucifix in his right hand, and bidding the people farewell, 
 he blessed them, and, meekly folding his hands under his 
 scapular, submitted himself to the executioner. When the 
 executioner, after placing the cord round his throat, pushed 
 him off the ladder, while hanging he drew both his hands 
 from under his scapular and raised the cross on high in 
 both, as the emblem of his triumph. The heretical gov- 
 ernor was so much struck that he allowed his body to be 
 given to the Catholics, and solemnly interred by them, and 
 gave a safe conduct for the clergy to attend, fearing lest 
 
 * A Rosario says his captors discovered some lettere from the apostolic nuncio sewed up in 
 bis inner gannents. — A Rosario^ p. aia. 
 
3o8 Martyrs' and Confessors 
 
 otherwise there might be tumults." — Hib. Dom. p. 569, and 
 Mon. Dom. 
 
 REV. FATHER iENEAS AMBROSE O'CAHILL, O.P.P. 
 
 " Father Ambrose O'Cahill, of the convent of Cork, 
 after a glorious trial, earned the crown of heaven by the 
 effusion of his blood ; for, while proceeding from one place 
 to another, to administer the sacraments to the faithful, by 
 chance he fell in with a troop of the heretic horse, and, 
 having been recognized by them to be a priest, was by 
 them cut in pieces on the spot." — Mon. Dom., ex Act. Cap. 
 Gen. 
 
 See also Hib. Dom. p. 567, and A Rosario, p. 358, (215,) 
 who calls him an alumnus and sacristan of the college of 
 Lisbon, and says his body was cut in small pieces, and 
 scattered for food for ravens. O'Heyn, p. 13, says he was 
 taken near Cork. 
 
 REV. FATHERS WILLIAM O'CONOR, THOMAS O'HIGGINS, 
 AND WILLIAM LYNCH, O.P.P. 
 
 " The same year the venerable Father William O'Conor, 
 of the convent of Clonmel, a most pious man, and intent 
 on the salvation of souls, was taken by the heretics while 
 administering the sacraments to the faithful, and, being 
 stripped of all his clothes, was beheaded." — Mon. Dom., ex 
 Actis eisdem. 
 
 He was Prior of Clonmel, and definitor of the provincial 
 chapter. — See Hib. Dom. p. 329. 
 
 "Also at Clonmel, Father Thomas O'Higgins was 
 thrown into prison by the heretics, and, being condemned 
 to death by hanging for having confessed the faith, re- 
 ceived his crown" — Hib. Dom. and A Rosario. 
 
 A Rosario adds in a note to this work : 
 
During the Commonwealth. 309 
 
 " Since I wrote the above, certain religious and learned 
 men have testified to me (and they are above suspicion) 
 that three others of our religion suffered death — Father 
 William Lynch, who was hung ;" and he adds Fathers 
 O'Conor and Costello, whose deaths we have given from 
 the Acts of the General Chapter, but which O'Daly had not 
 
 heard of before. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 REV. FATHER VINCENT GERALD DILLON, O.P.P. 
 
 " Father .Dillon, of the convent of Athenry, who was 
 of a noble family, and remarkable for his piety, formerly 
 vicar of the Irish Dominican convent of Lisbon, proceed- 
 ed to England with the Irish who served under the king's 
 standard to hear the confessions of the Catholics in that 
 army, and, being taken prisoner by the rebels after the 
 battle of York, was thrown into prison, and there kept un- 
 til he died of hardship and hunger, in 165 1." — A Rosario, p. 
 359, (216,) and Mon. Dam. 
 
 REV. FATHER STEPHEN PETIT, O.P.P. 
 
 " Father Stephen Petit, of the convent of Athenry, 
 while hearing the confessions of Catholic soldiers, was 
 struck by a bullet, and so completed his course, in the 
 year 1651." — Hib. Dom. p. 570, ex Act. Cap. Gen. RomcB, 
 1656. 
 
 De Burgo points out that this is clearly another from 
 the father who fell in 1642, being from different convents, 
 and their fate narrated at different chapters of the order. 
 
 DONATUS O'BRIEN, 
 
 " As we learn from an eye-witness of Cromwellian cruelty, 
 was descended of the royal race of the O'Briens, a most 
 
310 Martyrs ajtd Confessors 
 
 generous man, and of surpassing hospitality. After the 
 Protestants had plighted to him their faith, and given him 
 a safe conduct, he was advancing one day to meet them, 
 when a certain Protestant knight shot him through the 
 body. Dissatisfied with this cruelty, when the venerable 
 old man (then aged about sixty-four years) had entered a 
 hut, half-dead, that he might in penitence commend his 
 soul to God, a soldier followed, set fire to the hut, and- 
 burned this courageous martyr, in Thorn ond, a.d. 165 1." 
 Morison's Threnodia, op. Moran, Persec. p. 196. 
 
 REV. BERNARD FITZPATRICK 
 
 "Was a holy and illustrious priest, descended from the 
 noble lineage of the Barons of Ossory. Flying for refuge 
 from the fury of the Protestants to a cave, he was pursued 
 by them ; entering the cave, they cut off the head of this 
 most holy man, who was equally renowned throughout the 
 whole kingdom for his life, his doctrine, and his lineage. 
 They affixed his head to a spike over the town gate, to be 
 meat for the fowls of the air, and left his flesh to be de- 
 voured by the beasts of the field." — Ibid. 
 
 RIGHT REV. ARTHUR MAGENNIS, BISHOP OF DOWN AND 
 CONNOR. 
 
 " Few dioceses in Ireland contributed more martyrs from 
 its hierarchy than the ancient see of Down and Connor. 
 Under James I., and again under Charles I., we find its 
 bishop laying down his life for his flock. During the per- 
 secution of Cromwell, it not only shared with Clogher the 
 glory won for the Irish Church by the heroism and forti- 
 tude of Heber McMahon, but merited, moreover, to have 
 its own chief pastor put to death for his unflinching attach- 
 
During the Commonwealth. 311 
 
 ment to the Catholic faith. This was Dr. Arthur Magen- 
 nis, a member of the Order of St. Bernard, or Cistercians.* 
 Dr. French, indeed, in his catalogue of the Irish bishops, 
 merely states that he died at sea ; and Bruodin only adds 
 that he was advanced in years, that he was at the time 
 suffering from a violent fever, and that he was subjected 
 by the heretics to much hardship and persecution. From 
 the Bishop of Clonfert, however, we learn by what pecu- 
 liar art the persecutors effected his death. Even the most 
 ruthless savage would desist from torturing a venerable 
 aged man, thus a victim of disease and anguish ; but the 
 Puritan sailors, with brutal ferocity, delighted in adding to 
 his sufferings. A cannon was fired off at his bedside, and 
 though it was charged with powder only, such was the ter- 
 ror that it excited in the aged bishop that he instantly ex- 
 pired." — Moran, Persec. p. 209. 
 
 REV. DENIS NELAN, O.S.F. 
 
 "He was a priest of the Order of St. Francis, and de- 
 scended from noble parents in the county Limerick. Be- 
 fore entering the Franciscan order, he was for many years 
 parish priest of Kilragty, and his labors produced an abun- 
 dant spiritual harvest. From 1642 to 165 1, these labors 
 were happily continued by him as a Franciscan father, till 
 at length Limerick became a prey to the Puritan strangers. 
 With many others. Father Denis fell into their hands, 
 being arrested at the house of his relative Mr. Laurence 
 Neherenny. With his hands tied behind his back, he was 
 led along, like a convicted robber, to the Island of St. 
 Cunan, or Cronan, where was then the heretical camp. 
 The whole way along he fervently exhorted the heretical 
 soldiery to attend to their eternal salvation ; and when in- 
 
 • Hib. Dom. p. 490, where he gives Dr. French's catalogue. 
 
312 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 terrogated by the commander whether, renouncing the 
 doctrines of Rome, he would subscribe to the Puritan 
 tenets, he courageously replied that he had long anxiously 
 sighed for an occasion when he might lay down his life for 
 the Catholic faith, and he would not only never renounce 
 its saving doctrines, but was ready, moreover, to endure a 
 thousand torments in its defence. These words were 
 scarcely uttered when the surrounding soldiers, erecting a 
 temporary gallows, hanged him on the spot." 
 
 REV. FATHER THADD^US CARIGHY, O.S.F. 
 
 " He made his solemn profession among the religious 
 of the Franciscan convent of Inish, and filled the whole 
 district of Thomond with the odor of his virtues. In 165 1, 
 he was arrested by the Cromwellians in the neighborhood 
 of his convent, and was tempted with the promise of riches 
 and dignities should he renounce the Catholic faith ; but 
 neither allurements nor tortures could turn him aside from 
 the path of virtue, and by order of his captors he was 
 immediately hanged and his body barbarously mangled." 
 — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
 REV. HUGH MACKEON, O.S.F. 
 
 " Ulster, among other flowers of the Franciscan order, 
 produced that most pious man Father Hugh Mackeon, the 
 son of respectable parents in the county Armagh. He 
 made his profession in the convent of Armagh, and was so 
 esteemed by his superiors that he was ordained priest 
 and appointed a confessor. When the Cromwellian rebels 
 prevailed in Ulster, Father Hugh, by order of his superiors, 
 betook himself to Connaught, where he was taken prisoner, 
 and, in hatred of the faith, thrown into prison in Athlone, 
 
Durhig the Commonwealth. 313 
 
 (Allonia,) where, overcome by the squalor of the place, he 
 died, in the year 1651."* — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
 REV. ROGER MACNAMARA, O.S.F. 
 
 " The family of Macnamara is an ancient and illustrious 
 one in Clare, and of it was Father Roger, son of Donald 
 Macnamara and Marina Mahony. He made his profession 
 in the convent of Quenhy.f (built magnificently of black 
 marble by his ancestors,) and was ever a model of a 
 simple and pious religious. From the time he was ordain- 
 ed priest he daily offered the divine sacrifice of our 
 redemption with great devotion. When the heretics 
 were ravaging the province, and Father Roger bearing 
 consolation to the dispersed Catholics, God determined to 
 reward his piety. Therefore, by the divine permission, he 
 was taken near the town of Clare, and, when neither 
 threats nor promises could shake his constancy in the 
 faith, he was pierced with bullets and then beheaded, anno 
 165 1." — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
 DANIEL CLANCHY AND JEREMIAS NERIHING, O.S.F. 
 
 " Daniel Clanchy was born of a respectable family a 
 Iradria, in Thomond, and became a lay-brother in the Fran 
 cisran convent of Quenhy in 1640, where he lived as be- 
 came a worthy disciple of St. Francis until 165 1, when he 
 was taken by the heretics and hung in hatred of the faith. 
 
 " Jeremias Nerihing was the son of wealthy parents, (who 
 
 • In 1658, twenty-five pounds were paid to Lieutenant Edward Wood, on the certificate of 
 William St. George, Esq., of the county Cavan, for the arrest of five priests, among others the 
 Rev. Hugh MacGeown. (See under that year.) Either this one was different from Father 
 Hugh Mackeon, or Lieutenant Wood had to wait seven years for his blood-money ; probably 
 they were different. 
 
 t Convent of Quenhy, or Quinchy, see page sax. 
 
314 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 were well known to me.) Despising the vanities of this 
 world, he, in 1640, became a lay-brother in the same con- 
 vent of which Father Bonaventure Gorman was at that 
 time guardian. Taken by the heretics, he was beaten with 
 sticks, and, with a rope round his neck, was threatened 
 with death unless he would renounce what they called the 
 errors of popery. Bi other Jeremias answered that out of 
 the holy Roman Church there is no salvation, and was 
 immediately hung, the same year." — Bruodin. 
 
 REV. EUGENE O'TEMAN, O.S.F. 
 
 " He was born in the county of Donegal, and, seeking 
 to follow in the steps of Christ in evangelical poverty, be- 
 came an alumnus of the Franciscan convent of Donegal, 
 where for some years he led an exemplary life. When the 
 regicides tyrannized over Ulster, Father Eugene was 
 taken by the garrison of Balasaun. He was scorned, his 
 religious habit torn off him, he was flogged, and so cut to 
 pieces by the soldiers' swords that eighteen wounds were 
 counted on his body. Eugene was left for dead on the 
 road, but was found by some of his brethren still breathing, 
 and was carried to their residence, where, to their great 
 grief, he expired four days afterward." — Bruodin. 
 
 REVS. DONATUS O'KENEDY, DONATUS SCRENAN, FULGEN- 
 TIUS JORDAN, ROMANDUS O'MALY, THOMAS TULLY, 
 AND THOMAS DEIR, OF THE ORDER OF HERMITS OF 
 ST. AUGUSTINE. 
 
 Bruodin says he found no record of them except in a 
 book published in Belgium by an anonymous writer, and 
 dedicated to the Archduke Leopold, entitled Sanguinea 
 Erenio Martyrwn Hihcrnia Ord. Eremit. S. P. Aw-usiini 
 
* k 
 
During the Covtvtomvealth. 315 
 
 The writer did not give the exact dates of their martyr- 
 dom. 
 
 " Father Donatus O'Kenedy was of a noble family in Or- 
 mond, a monk of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augus- 
 tine, and was hanged in hatred of the faith. Of the same 
 order were Fathers Donald Screnan and Fulgentius Joi- 
 dan, slain in like manner ; also Father Romand O'Maly, 
 of a Galway family, and Father Thomas Tally, and Bro- 
 ther Thomas Deir." — Bruodin. 
 
 REV. FRANCIS SULIVAN, O.S.F. 
 
 " He was of the race of the chiefs of Baer and Bantry, 
 in Munster, and lector jubilatus in theology. He was ap- 
 pointed over the Irish province in 1650, and governed the 
 flock entrusted to him as well as he could till the year 165 1, 
 when the rebels prevailed in Munster. Father Francis, the 
 provincial, remained in Kerry while the heretics ravaged 
 all the country. However, to escape the tempest, and 
 after the example of the apostles, to preserve himself for 
 the care of the flock committed to him, he hid himself with 
 many others in a cavern, but did not thereby escape the 
 lynx eyes of those who sought out papists to slay them. 
 The holy father was found out and shot to death in the 
 cavern, which thus served as his tomb, about the beginning 
 of December, 165 1." — Bruodin. 
 
 BROTHER ANTONY BRODER, OR O'BRODER. O.S.F. 
 
 "The family of O'Broder is a respectable Catholic one 
 in the county of Galway, possessing land not far from a 
 celebrated lake called Lough Derighert.* Brother An- 
 tony Broder was a member of this family and an ornament 
 
 * I cannot identify this lake. 
 
3i6 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 to the Franciscan order. When the persecution of the 
 rebels laid waste the country, Antony, who was then only 
 a deacon, had, Hke other ecclesiastics, to seek a hiding- 
 place. He sought and, as he thought, found one in the 
 ".astle of Turlevachan, in the county of Galway. It proved, 
 however, an unsafe retreat, for Charles Coote, alike a bar- 
 barous tyrant and a cunning hunter-out of priests, found 
 him out and immediately hanged him, in the year 1652. 
 
 " On the fourth week after the martyr had been hurriedly 
 buried, on the place of execution, his friends came and dug 
 up his body, in order to bury it in consecrated ground. 
 Strange to say, when he was dug up in his Franciscan 
 habit, blood flowed freely from the nostrils. I leave the 
 explanation of this fact to others." — Bruodin 
 
 REV. HILARY CONRY, O.S.F. 
 
 " He was born of noble parents, in the county of Ros- 
 common. Having completed his studies, he embraced a 
 life of evangelical poverty in the Franciscan convent of 
 Elphin, which was then a noviceship of that order. The 
 piety and learning of Conry so pleased the fathers that he 
 was ordained priest. One day, by order of the father- 
 guardian, he went out to beg through the district, as is the 
 custom of the mendicant orders, and was taken prisoner 
 on the road by that cruel tyrant Charles Coote, carried to 
 Castle Coote, and there hanged."* — Bruodin. 
 
 • Bruodin puts his death at 1642, but I think that must be a mistake for 1652. In 1642, Sif 
 Charles Coote was in Dublin and its neighborhood, at Naas and Trim, and was killed at t!ie 
 latter place on the 7th May in that year. His son was appointed Provost-Marshal of Coil- 
 naught, and persecuted there in 1652, when he might well have taken Father Conry near El- 
 phin The mention of Castle Coote (which is in Cavan) is strange. It should be added that 
 the life of Father Conry in Bruodin comes in the midst of sei'eral others who suffered in 165^ 
 ■o that 1642 would seem to be a clerical error. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 317 
 
 Anno less. 
 
 RIGHT REV. FRANCIS KIRWAN, BISHOP OF KILLALA ; DR 
 JAMES FALLON, VICAR-APOSTOLIC OF ACHONRY ; AND 
 MANY OTHERS. 
 
 The town of Galway, the last fortress of the Irish, sur- 
 rendered to Ludlow on the 20th March, 1652, on articles 
 securing the inhabitants their residence within the walls 
 of the town and the enjoyment of their houses and estates. 
 The taxation was soon so great that many of the towns- 
 people quitted their habitations and removed their cattle, 
 unable to endure it. The tax for the support of the sol- 
 diery was collected from the inhabitants every Saturday by 
 sound of trumpet, and if not instantly paid the soldiery 
 rushed into the house and seized what they could lay 
 hands on. The sound of the trumpet every returning 
 Saturday shook their souls with terror, like the trumpet of 
 the day of judgment. On the 23d July, 1655, all the 
 Irish were directed to quit the town by the ist Novem- 
 ber following, the owners of houses, however, to receive 
 compensation at eight years' purchase ; in default, the sol- 
 diers were to drive them out. On the 30th October this 
 order was executed. All the inhabitants, except the sick 
 and bedrid, were at once banished.* But to return to 
 the date of the surrender of the town. Colonel Stubbers, 
 who was appointed military governor of the town upon its 
 surrender, upder the pretence of taking up vagrants and 
 idle persons, made frequent nightly excursions with armed 
 troops into the country, and seized upward of a thousand 
 people, often without discrimination of rank or condition, 
 whom he transported to the West Indies, and there sold 
 as slaves. Upward of fifty of the Catholic clergy were 
 shipped to the islands of Arran and Boffin, until they 
 could be transported to the West Indies, and, being allow- 
 
 • Prendergast, Cromwellian Stitlemtnt, p. 146. 
 
31 8 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 ed only twopence a day each for their support, they v/ere 
 nearly famished.* 
 
 Dr. Francis Kirwan, the Bishop of Killala, was at this 
 time lying hid in a country-house at a short distance from 
 the city. For eight months he continued there, in a small, 
 narrow room, which, besides two beds for himself and his 
 chaplain, was barely able to contain a chest. This served 
 for an altar, and while the holy sacrifice was offered up 
 each day one bed had to be removed to afford standing- 
 room for the celebrant. The intense cold of winter was 
 endured without a fire, and during the whole eight months 
 only thrice did the bishop go for an instant from this hid- 
 ing-place. On one occasion he was carried out wrapped 
 in a sheet, while the enemy were engaged in searching 
 every corner of the house for arms, and when met by the 
 soldiers he was recognized only as a feeble and worn-down 
 old man, and well does his biographer compare his many 
 sufferings at this period to those of the early pastors of the 
 Catholic Church. When the bishop deemed it more se- 
 cure to enter the town, he was obliged to take refuge in 
 the topmost story of the house, underneath the tiles, and 
 this, too, at mid-winter, without one spark of fire. Some- 
 times, too, he was forced to go out on the roof, and, when 
 the pursuers approached, to descend into a neighboring 
 house by the dormer window. When at length the good 
 bishop, finding it impossible to remain concealed any long- 
 er, surrendered, he and several other ecclesiastics were 
 treated as galley-slaves ; they were marched along in bodies, 
 surrounded by soldiers, drums beating and bugles sound- 
 ing ; and when, by the diligence of priest-catchers, many 
 other ecclesiastics were cast into prison, they were locked 
 up in houses hired for the occasion, and for which the 
 prisoners themselves had to pay. During his imprison- 
 
 * See Anno 1657, 
 
Dtu'ing the Commonwealth. 319 
 
 ment the holy man found occasion frequently to celebrate 
 the sacred mysteries, and at a window administered to the 
 children the sacrament of confirmation. No sooner was it 
 discovered by the government that the bishop and his com- 
 panions were thus engaged in conferring spiritual blessings 
 on the Catholics, than their banishment was resolved on. 
 Tiie confessors of Christ were suddenly carried off to a 
 ship, and on their way were surrounded by a terrible es- 
 cort, nor had they any previous notice of the decree ol 
 banishment, lest their friends might succor them with 
 some viaticum. 
 
 For further particulars see under 1655, notice of Dr. 
 Burke. 
 
 Throughout the whole province of Connaught the 
 persecution raged with the same fury. Thus, when Dr. 
 James Fallon, who governed the diocese of Achonry as 
 vicar-apostolic, was arrested in lar Connaught, the heretics 
 so plundered him of his copious collection of books that not 
 even a breviary was left with him. Before he was made a 
 prisoner be for a long time was exposed day and night to 
 the inclemency of the winter, till he at length erected a 
 small hut at the base of a rock : here he remained till the 
 goats, browsing on the foliage, stripped the branches, and 
 then he was obHged to seek elsewhere a place of refuge. — 
 Moran, Persec. p. 72, and Life of Dr. Kirwan, by Lynch, 
 
 REV. BONAVENTURE DE BURGO, O.S.F. 
 
 " He was a son of the noble knight Oliver de Burgo. 
 Lord of Ropy, in the county of Mayo, and Anabella Conor, 
 his wife. At an early age he embraced the rule of St. 
 Francis, in 1635, and carefully observed it until 1652, 
 when, with Thaddaeus Conor, Lord of Bealnamilly, he was 
 hung, .in hatred of the faith." — Briwdin, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
320 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 REV. ANTONY O'FERRALL, O.S.F., 
 
 " Was taken while preaching, by the Cromwellians, at 
 Tulsk, in Roscommon, in the castle of Sir Ulysses de 
 Burgo, ^nd immediately hung, anno 1652." — Bruodin. 
 
 REV. JOHN CAROLAN, S.J. 
 
 "In 1649, l^e was living at Galway, aged sixty-four, of 
 which period he had passed twenty-four years in the 
 society, but was in priest's orders before his admission. 
 The good old man was literally hunted to death by the 
 Cromwellian myrmidons, between the years 1652 and 1656- 
 Though not actually taken by his inveterate and savage 
 pursuers, he died of exhaustion and hunger." — Oliver, 
 Collections. 
 
 REV. EUGENE O'CAHAN, O.S.F. 
 
 " He was of a noble family in Thomond, (Clare,) and enter- 
 ed the Order of St. Francis of the Strict .Observance, in 
 the convent of Inish, in the sixteenth year of his age, and 
 there made great progress in religion. He made his pro- 
 fession about the year 1628, and by order of the heads of 
 the Irish province proceeded to Rome, and there, in the 
 Celebrated college of St. Isidore, under the great men who 
 then presided over it. Fathers Luke Wadding, Antony 
 Hickey, James Bridges, and Thaddseus Daly, (whose me- 
 mory is in benediction,) made such progress in learning 
 and religion as might be expected from a generous youth 
 under such masters. When he had finished the study of 
 theology, he proceeded to Naples, by direction of the very 
 Rev. Father Benignus a Genna, then minister-general, and 
 there taught philosophy among the Fathers Minorites. 
 Anxious to serve his country, he obtained leave of the 
 
During the Commonwealth. 321 
 
 father-general to proceed to Ireland, and sailed for that 
 country in the year 1641, and devoted himself to mission- 
 ary labors. When the Catholics obtained power in 1643, 
 Father Eugene, by direction of his superiors, opened a 
 school in the town of Quenhi,* in 'Thomond, which he 
 taught together with the Rev. Father Thaddseus O'Brien, 
 of the same order. So great a number of youths from all 
 parts of Ireland flocked to this school that in 1644 there 
 were more than eight hundred students, (among whom 
 were I and eighteen other Bruodins.) When, through the 
 evil chance of war, and, alas ! the dissensions of the 
 Catholics, this school was dispersed. Father Eugene was 
 made guardian of the convent of Inish, which had been 
 founded by the liberality of the chief of the O'Briens. He 
 proved himself diligent and blameless in this office for 
 three years. At length he was taken prisoner by the 
 heretics, then overrunning the country, in the year 165 1, 
 and grievously scourged. Father Eugene, more solicitous 
 of saving souls than of preserving his life, besought them 
 not to cease their cruelty to himself, but to abjure their 
 errors. On the other hand, they threatened him with 
 death unless he would embrace their creed, and when they 
 saw that they prevailed nothing they hanged the good 
 father, on Mount Luochren, in Thomond, anno 165 1." — 
 Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
 REVS. ROGER ORMILY AND HUGH CARIGHY. 
 
 " The Rev. Roger Ormily was a native of Clare, and a 
 secular priest, who for thirty years was parish priest of 
 Brentire. When he was upward of sixty years of age, he 
 
 • Or Qiiinchy, according lo Ware, where was a convent of Friars Minors, founded m i^^j 
 by Maon Macneman'a. 
 
322 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 fell into the hands of the Cromwellians, then ravaging 
 Clare, and, without any form of trial, v/hen he confessed 
 himself a priest, was hung, and so gained everlasting life, 
 on the I2th October, 1652. In the sameyear, day, and place, 
 and by the same death. Father Hugh Carighy obtained the 
 crown of martyrdom. He was a parish priest of Clare, and 
 in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and the forty-fourth 
 of his priesthood." — Bniodin, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
 REV. NIELAN LOCHERAN, O.S.F. 
 
 " He was a native of Ulster, and a Franciscan of the 
 convent of Armagh, where he made his profession about 
 his twentieth year, and made good progress in virtue, and 
 would have made more had not his days been shortened by 
 the fury of the heretics. The good father was taken pri- 
 soner (I know not by what chance) by the soldiers of Lon- 
 donderry, and dragged to that town, with his hands tied 
 behind his back, like a robber. After he had endured tor- 
 tures the governor ordered him to be brought before him, 
 and offered him a wife and a good benefice if he would apos- 
 tatize. Nielan, with an angelic courage, replied that he had, 
 following the example of St. Peter the Apostle, voluntarily 
 relinquished all, that he might gain Christ, and that he 
 would not, by looking back, deprive himself of the reward 
 promised in heaven ; nay, he exhorted the governor to save 
 his soul, redeemed with the blood of Christ, by abjuring 
 heresy and embracing the Catholic faith. Furious at this 
 audacity, the governor at once ordered him to be hanged. 
 Joyfully did Father Locheran go to the place of execution, 
 and was then hung, from enmity to the Catholic faith, anno 
 1652." — Binwdin, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 323 
 
 LADY ROCHE AND LADY BRIDGET FITZPATRICK. 
 
 The latter of these two noble and pious ladies was exe- 
 cuted in this year, the former in 1654, but as the account 
 of their deaths is given by the same author, I have placed 
 them here together. 
 
 Morison thus narrates their fate : 
 
 " The inhuman fury of the Protestants was not satisfied 
 with the slaughter of men, but they also drew their swords 
 against women. Thus, the noble Lady Roche, wife of 
 Maurice, Viscount of Fermoy and Roche, a chaste and 
 holy matron, whose mind was solely occupied with prayer 
 and piety, being falsely accused of murder by a certain un- 
 grateful English maid-servant, (whom she had compassion- 
 ately taken when a desolate orphan, and supported and 
 educated,) was hanged in Cork, in 1654, although stricken 
 in years, .and destined in the course of nature soon to die. 
 The noble Lady Bridget, of the house of Darcy, wife of 
 Florence Fitzpatrick, one of the Barons of Ossory, was 
 also hanged by the Protestants, at Dublin, in 1652, with- 
 out the form of law or justice. 
 
 "What shall I yet say .■' Time would fail me to narrate 
 the martyrdom of chiefs, nobles, prelates, priests, friars, 
 citizens, and others of the Irish Catholics, whose purple 
 gore has stained the scaffolds almost without end ; who by 
 faith conquered kingdoms and wrought justice ; of whom 
 some had trials in mockeries and stripes, moreover, also, of 
 chains, and prisons ; others were overwhelmed with stones, 
 cut asunder, racked, or put to death with the sword ; 
 others have wandered over the world in hunger, thirst, 
 cold, and nakedness, being in want, distress, and afflicted, 
 wandering in deserts, in mountains, and in dens, and in 
 caves of the earth. And all these, being approved by the 
 testimony of the faith, without doubt received the pro- 
 mise." — Morison, Threnodia, p. 72, ap. Moran, Persec. p. 
 197, and Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
324 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 DANIEL CONNERY AND DANIEL MOLLONY. 
 
 MoRisoN gives two other striking examples of the practi- 
 cal working of the laws against Catholics. He says : 
 
 " I myself saw this iniquitous law (against harboring a 
 priest, 27 Eliz. cap. ii.) put in execution in the city of Lim- 
 erick by Henry Ingoldsby, the governor of that city. A 
 gentleman of Thomond, named Daniel Connery, was ac- 
 cused of harboring in his house n priest, and, being con- 
 victed on his own confession, (although the priest had a 
 safe-conduct from the same governor,) he was sentenced to 
 death, and, the sentence being (mercifully, as was said) 
 commuted into confiscation of all his goods and imprison- 
 ment, afterward commuted for perpetual exile. He had a 
 wife of a noble family of Thomond, and twelve children : 
 his wife fell ill, and died from the want of necessaries ; and 
 of his children, three handsome and virtuous girls were 
 shipped as slaves to Barbadoes, where, if yet alive, they 
 live in miserable slavery ; the rest of his children, who 
 were too young to work, either died of hunger, or live 
 miserably under the yoke of their enemies. 
 
 " I also saw the second part of this law (as to denounc- 
 ing a priest) put in force in the same Limerick, under the 
 same governor, in the year 1652, against a noble and hon- 
 est Catholic of the name of Daniel Mollony, of Thomond, 
 who, coming to Limerick on account of some business, 
 chanced to meet in a heretic inn a priest, a relative of 
 his, named David Mollony. The priest was afterward be- 
 trayed and taken prisoner, and Daniel was summoned to 
 answer why he had not informed the magistrates that 
 there was a priest there. He answered that he was a 
 Catholic, and that there was no law obliging one to de- 
 nounce a priest, although there was one not to harbor or 
 feed one, (and this was the truth, for the law was not passed 
 till three years later.) But, notwithstanding this prudent 
 
During the Connnowub^alti'i. 325 
 
 answer, the governor ordered his ears to be cut off by the 
 executioner, which was done. I could give a thousand 
 such examoles." — Morisotts Threnodia. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 REV. FATHERS JOHN O'CUILLIN AND EDMUND O'BERN. O.P.P. 
 
 " Father O'Cuillin, of the convent of Athenry, was a 
 living example of religion and observance of the rule, most 
 given to prayer, and (though of delicate health) to fasting, 
 ever content with a poor habit, yet of so excellent a genius 
 that without masters he had acquired great knowledge of 
 science. He learnedly confuted the heretics and animated 
 the Catholics, shunning no danger in the defence of the 
 authority of the Holy See. Being at length taken by the 
 '/leretics at Limerick, and pierced with many wounds, he 
 joyfully laid down his life for Christ. His head was cut 
 off and borne about on a spear as a trophy. 
 
 " The same year Father Edmund O'Bern, who was twice 
 sub-prior of the convent of Roscommon, after enduring 
 much for faith, country, and the respect due to the Holy 
 See, and therefore sought for execution by the sectaries, at 
 length fell into their hands, and was instantly pierced with 
 bullets, axes, and swords, and so purpled his purity with 
 his blood." He was taken by the garrison of Johnstown. 
 — Mon. Dom. and Hib. Dom. ex Act. Cap. Gen. ; and Bruo- 
 din, lib. iv. cap. xv. 
 
 Anno 1653. 
 
 REV. FATHER THADD>EUS MORIARTY, O.P.P. 
 
 He was prior of the convent of Tralee, and a model to 
 those under him in defending the orthodox religion and the 
 authority of the Roman pontiff; neither labors, nor suffer- 
 ings, nor imprisonment, nor death itself could break' his 
 courage. 
 
326 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 When the Cromwellian persecution was raging, an op- 
 portunity offered itself for his escape to a safer place, but 
 he courageously refused, being moved with compassion for 
 the Catholics, to whom he knew his presence was most 
 necessary, on account of the death of priests, to administer 
 the sacraments. He was taken prisoner and carried to 
 Killarney, and condemned to death. From the top of the 
 ladder he exhorted the faithful with great earnestness to 
 have patience and preserve the faith, and, having recited 
 the verse, " Into Thy hands I commend my spirit," he met 
 a glorious death, the very sectaries being struck with admi- 
 ration, and saying, " If ever a papist were a martyr, he was 
 one." — Mon. Dom. ex Act. Cap. Gen. 1656 
 
 He suffered on the isth October, 1653. 
 
 " He had studied in the convent of Toledo, where he 
 made much progress in learning, having first entered the 
 college of Lisbon. His brother. Father Thomas Moriarty, 
 of the same convent, was also a most pious and zealous 
 priest, and labored much in the same district, where he 
 died." — Hib. Dom. p. 573 ; Dom. a Rosario, p. 355. 
 
 FATHER BERNARD O'KELLY, O.P.P., 
 
 " A Dominican of the convent of Roscommon, lay long m 
 prison, where he suffered much from the filth of the prison, 
 the weight of the chains with which he was bound, and 
 hunger, being compelled to sell his only coat for bread. At 
 Gal way he was condemned to death for having exhorted 
 some Catholic women to constancy in the faith, and, meet- 
 ing a glorious death by the gallows, departed to heaven." 
 — Mon. Dom. ut supra. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 327 
 
 SEVERAL JESUIT FATHERS. 
 
 On the 6th January, 1653, a proclamation was published 
 against the Catholic clergy. By it all ecclesiastics, secu- 
 lar and regular, were commanded, under penalty of being 
 judged guilty of treason, to depart from the kingdom with- 
 in twenty days, and should they return, of the penalties 
 and confiscations specified in the 27th of Queen Elizabeth 
 — that is, those of treason. A manuscript in the Irish 
 College, Rome, quoted by Dr. Moran, continues : 
 
 "When this edict was published, the superior of the 
 Jesuits was lying sick of fever in fhe house of a respectable 
 citizen, unable to move in bed, not to say to journey on 
 foot or on horseback ; a petition was therefore presented 
 to the governor of the city that he might be allowed to re- 
 main some few days, till his strength should return. But 
 the governor replied that, though the whole body of the 
 Jesuit was dead, and life remained only in one hand or foot, 
 he must at once quit every inch of Ireland. The sick man 
 was forthwith seized in bed, hurried along for about seven- 
 ty Irish miles, in the midst of a severe winter, to a seaport, 
 and then, with two other Jesuits and forty secular priests, 
 was cast into a vessel bound for Spain." — Status Rei Cath. 
 in Hibernid hoc anno 1654, in Archiv. Colleg. Hib. Romce, 
 ap. Moran, Persec. p. 99. 
 
 Borlase, the Protestant historian, estimates the number 
 of Irish transported in the year 1654 at 27,000. A con- 
 temporary document states that no less than 20,000 Irish 
 took refuge in the Hebrides and other Scottish islands. 
 Dr. Burgatt, agent of the Irish clergy in Rome, afterward 
 Archbishop of Cashel, in a relation presented to the Sacred 
 Congregation in 1667, says : " In the year 1649, there were 
 in Ireland twenty-seven bishops, four of whom were met- 
 ropolitans. In each cathedral there were dignitaries and 
 canons ; each parish had its pastors ; there were, moreover, 
 
328 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 a large number of other priests, and innumerable convents 
 of the regular clergy. But when Cromwell, with exceeding 
 great cruelty, persecuted the clergy, all were scattered. 
 More than three hundred were put to death by the sword 
 or on the scaffold, among whom were three bishops ; more 
 than a thousand were sent into exile, and among these nl] 
 the surviving bishops, with one only exception, the Bishop 
 of Kilmore, who, weighed down by age and infirmities, as 
 he was unfit to discharge the episcopal functions, so too 
 was he unable to seek safety by flight. And thus for some 
 years our island remained deprived of its bishops, a thing 
 never known during the many centuries since we first re- 
 ceived the light of Catholic faith." — Moran, loc. cit. 
 
 REV. M. MORISON, 0. MIN. 
 
 Probably to about this year may be referred the impri- 
 sonment of Father Morison. Writing in 1659, he says : 
 
 " I myself, the least and most unworthy of all, {absit glo- 
 riari nisi in cruce^ passed, thirty months in a dark dungeon, 
 thirty feet below the earth, with irons of 47 lb. weight on 
 my feet and hands, sometimes alone, sometimes in company 
 of robbers, often beaten and wounded, and at last sent into 
 exile. Now there are so few priests left, that there are 
 many Catholics, especially in Munster, who have not been 
 able to receive the sacraments for one, two, three, and even 
 six years, and some have journeyed 120 miles to confess 
 and receive the Blessed Eucharist once." — Morisons Thre- 
 
 nodia. 
 
 — • — 
 
 THE LADY HONORIA DE BURGO AND HONORIA MAGAEK. 
 
 "The same year Sister Honoria de Burgo proved her 
 devotion to her heavenly Spouse by uniting to the lilies of 
 virginity the purple of martyrdom. She was the daughter 
 
During the Commonwealth. 329 
 
 of Richard, dynast, of the De Burgos in Connaught, and in 
 her fourteenth year received the habit of the Third Order of 
 St. Dominick, at the hands of Father Thady Dunne, the 
 then provincial of Ireland, and lived piously in a house 
 which she caused to be erected near our convent and 
 church of Burishool.* Here she continued in worlis of 
 piety through the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles, 
 up to a great age ; a very mother to the needy and poor 
 and never, as is believed, having committed a mortal sin. 
 In a time of great dearth she, with another sister of the 
 Third Order, was near perishing of hunger, but in their sore 
 need the spouses of Jesus Christ implored his aid who 
 alone could save them, and then came presently to the 
 door a fair young man, (it may be thought an angel,) who 
 provided the handmaidens of Christ abundantly with all 
 they needed, and departed. At length, in the last Crom- 
 wellian persecution, when the religious were everywhere 
 dispersed, the pious virgin, taking with her a little food, 
 fled, with the companion already mentioned and one hand- 
 maiden, to a certain island, (called Holy Island ;) here, 
 however, she was followed by the enemies and taken pri- 
 soner, spoiled of everything, and, though it was the depth 
 of winter, stripped almost naked and led away, and the bar- 
 barians flung her violently, although only skin and bone, 
 and half-frozen, into a boat, like a log of wood, whereby 
 three of her ribs were broken, and she died. Before, how 
 ever, she expired, the servant carried her to our church of 
 Burishool, and laid her before the altar of the Blessed Vir- 
 gin. Having left her there, the servant went to seek the 
 other sister, whom she found in the wood, and when she 
 returned to the church she found the body of Sister Hono- 
 ria on her knees as if praying, she calmly sleeping in the 
 Lord. 
 " Sister Honoria Magaen, also a professed sister of our 
 
 • Buiishool, (in Irish, BuresuaU— that is, the place of apples,) in the county Mayo. 
 
330 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Third Older, and inseparable from Sister Honoria de Burgo, 
 whose labors and troubles she shared, joined to her in^life, 
 in death too she was not divided, but shared her tomb and 
 followed her to glory ; for she was taken prisoner by the 
 same soldiers, in the same island of saints, and, in derision, 
 all her clothes stripped off, and many torments inflicted on 
 her. As she was younger, and, being fair, feared more for 
 her chastity than her life, by the inspiration of the Holy 
 Spirit she snatched herself from the hands of her furious 
 persecutors, and escaped into the neighboring wood, where 
 she hid herself in the trunk of a hollow tree, where the 
 next day she was found by the servant of her friend Hono- 
 ria, dead of cold, with her hands raised to heaven. She 
 was buried with her friend in one tomb, and, as in life they 
 had loved each other, in death they were not divided." 
 — Mon. Dow. ex Act. Cap. Gen. 1656. 
 
 Anno 1G54. 
 
 REV. FATHER HUGH MACGOILLY, O.P.P. 
 
 In the year 1654, the shedding of Dominican blood con- 
 tinued in Ireland. The Rev. Hugh MacGoilly, of the con- 
 vent of Rathbran,* who for his piety and learning had been 
 appointed master of the novices in that convent, urged by 
 his zeal, proceeded to Waterford, to confirm the Catholics 
 there in their veneration and reverence toward the Holy 
 Roman Church, and its visible head the Pope. He was 
 taken by the heretics, and, having freely confessed that he 
 was a priest and a Dominican, was condemned to be hung. 
 Standing under the gallows, he so movingly addressed the 
 bystanders that his very enemies were moved to tears. 
 
 • Rathbran ia the barony of Tyrawly, county of Mayo. 
 
During the Ccmmonwcalth. 331 
 
 The Catholics buried his venerable body with what honor 
 they might. — Mon. Dotn. ex Act. Cap. Gen. 1656. 
 
 REV. JOHN CAROLAN AND CHRISTOPHER NETTERVILLE. 
 
 Their fate is told in the manuscript given by Dr. Moran : 
 " We lived for the most part in the mountains and for- 
 ests, and often too in the midst of bogs, to escape the cav- 
 alry of the heretics. One priest, advanced in years, Father 
 John Carolan, was so diligently sought for, and so closely 
 watched, being surrounded on all sides, and yet not dis- 
 covered, that he died of starvation. Another, Father 
 Christopher Netterville, like St. Athanasius, for an entire 
 year and more, lay hid in his father's sepulchre, and even 
 then, with difficulty escaping the pursuit of the enemy, he 
 had to fly to a still more incommodious retreat. One was 
 concealed in a deep pit, from which he at intervals went 
 forth on some mission of charity. The heretics having re- 
 ceived information as to his hiding-place, rushed to it, and, 
 throwing down immense blocks of rock, exulted in his de- 
 struction ; but Providence watched over the good father, 
 and he was absent, engaged in some pious work of his min- 
 istry, when his retreat was thus assailed. As the Holy 
 Sacrifice cannot be offered up in these receptacles of beasts 
 rather than of men, all the clergy carry with them a suffi- 
 cient number of consecrated hosts, that thus they may 
 themselves be comforted by this holy sacrament, and may 
 be able to administer it to the sick and to others." — Status 
 Rei Cath. in Hib. hoc anno 1654, ap. Moran, Persec. p. 120 
 
 REVS. ROGER BEGS, WILLIAM SHIEL, AND TOBIN. 
 
 Of the first all we know is that on the 4th of August, 
 1654, he was dismissed from prison, "on account of his 
 
333 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 miserable condition," after nine months' imprisonment ; 
 but two conditions were added, namely, that within four 
 months he should transport himself out of the country, and 
 during that interval " should not exercise any part of his 
 priestly functions," Another priest, named William Shiel, 
 was also dismissed from prison, on account of his " being 
 old, lame, and weak, and not able to travel without crutch- 
 es ;" but two conditions were also added to his release — 
 that he should never exercise his priestly function, and 
 should not move beyond one mile from the spot in Con- 
 naught which would be assigned to him for residence by 
 the governor of Athlone. Some idea of the condition of 
 the priests in prison may be formed from the fact recorded 
 of Father Tobin, of Kilkenny, that, though in a violent 
 fever, he was obliged to sleep on the floor, and his only 
 food was a small quantity of half-boiled beans. It was 
 made a privilege to allow them to transport themselves to 
 foreign parts, as appears from an order of 29th May, 1664 ; 
 and then the clause was added that each should provide 
 the five pounds which had been paid for his arrest. — Moran, 
 Persec. p. 105 ; Prendcrgast, Cromwellian Settlement, p. 
 159 ; Letter in S. C. de Prop. Fid. \i,th March, 1656 
 
 REV. BRYAN KILKENNY, O.S.F. 
 
 I FIND the following notice of him in Curry : 
 "A barbarous murder was committed by one Edward 
 Alta, an irreligious, profane fellow, of the county of Mayo, 
 and his accomplices, on some Protestants at Shruel, a place 
 meeting Galway, on about thirty persons ; and the pam- 
 phleteer might well remember that the neighboring gentry 
 came with all expedition to rescue the said Protestants, and 
 that they did rescue the Bishop of Killala, (who by the 
 pamphlet would seem to have been murdered,) and his 
 
During the Commonwealth. 333 
 
 wife and children, with most part of the said Protestants ; 
 and Bryan Kilkenny, a friar, then guardian of the abbey of 
 Ross, near Shruel, was of the first that made haste to that 
 rescue, and brought the said bishop's wife and children, 
 with several other of the distressed Protestants, to his 
 monastery, where they found as much civility as was in 
 the said friar's power tQ give them for several nights, until 
 Mr. Burke, of Castle-Hacket, brought the said bishop, his 
 wife and family, to his own house, where they wanted noth- 
 ing he could afford them for several weeks ; the like being 
 done by several other neighboring gentlemen to the rest 
 of the said Protestants, until they were sent to places of 
 security by the Lord Marquis of Clanricarde's order ; yet 
 the said friar hath been these eight years past (written in 
 1662) kept a prisoner for his function or calling, without 
 any crime laid to his charge, being now above eighty years 
 old. And it is observable that in this county of Galway, 
 all the war-time, several Protestant ministers had their 
 Protestant flocks and meetings without interruption, living 
 among the Irish." — Extract of a collection of some of the 
 massacres and murders committed on the Irish in Ireland 
 since the 22,d October, 1642. {London, 1662,) ap. Curry's 
 Civil Wars, Appendix, p. 623. 
 
 REV. BERNARD CONNOR, O.S.F. 
 
 " He was a distinguished Franciscan, and several times 
 held the offices of guardian, definitor, and once that of pro- 
 vincial minister, of visitor-general, and guardian of the col- 
 lege of St. Anthony at Louvain. Exemplary for piety, 
 zeal, and eloquence, he was known to all the Catholics 
 throughout the island. This innocent' and exemplary 
 man, when in his seventieth year, was seized by the rebels, 
 alike against thei- God and their king, and was sent to the 
 
334 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 island of Inisbofin, some miles from the coast of Connaught, 
 in the year 1651. It is impossible to tell all he suffered in 
 the wretched dungeon there, from the Calvinists, during 
 two years. At length he was taken to Galway for execu- 
 tion, but before the sentence was carried out he gave his 
 soul to God in prison, in the year 1654." — Bruodin, lib. iv. 
 
 cap. XV. 
 
 — « — 
 
 A-nvvy 1€55, 
 
 MOST REV. JOHN DE BURGO, ARCHBISHOP OF TUAM, 
 
 Was consecrated Bishop of Clonfert in 1639, ^"^^ transfer- 
 red to Tuam in 1647. I* is not necessary here to enter at 
 any length on the part he took in the politics of the period ; 
 he opposed the nuncio, and advocated the peace of 1646 ; 
 but after the triumph of Cromwell all Catholics suffered 
 alike. It appears from the Libellus Snpplex, presented by 
 Dr. French to Clement IX. in 1667, that Dr. Burke was 
 arrested after the surrender of Galway in 1652, detained in 
 prison for some time, and then sent into exile. He was 
 arrested on the nth March, 1654, and detained in prison 
 for fourteen months, having suffered so much in the mean 
 time from a violent disease in the legs that he could 
 scarcely move. In August, 1665, the convict ship sailed 
 from Galway for the port of Nantes, with the Archbishop 
 of Tuam, the Bishop of Killala, Dr. Kirwan, and many 
 priests among the prisoners. 
 
 In 1662, after the restoration of Charles, when hopes of 
 toleration (how delusive, time soon proved) were entertained 
 by the Catholics who had suffered so much for his family, 
 Dr. Burke sailed directly from St. Malo, and landed in 
 Dublin about October or November. To the reproaches of 
 the emissaries of Ormond he answered that he had returned 
 to die at home — " to He down at rest in his grave and native 
 soil." He had hoped to pass through Dublin unnoticed. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 335 
 
 when the lord-lieutenant was absent, that his past loyalty 
 had been proved ; for the future no pledge was necessary, 
 and he asked permission to remain in Ireland "for so 
 short a time as he had to drag on a miserable existence, 
 and end it by a death more welcome, which he daily ex- 
 pected," 
 
 The next day the archbishop was removed in a litter on 
 his way to Connaught, accompanied by two priests, both 
 Jesuits, one his nephew, and the other Father Thomas Quin. 
 
 He died in 1666, being above eighty years of age. — Rene- 
 haiis Bishops. For life of Kirwan, LyjtcJis Alethinologia ; 
 Walsh's Remonstrance, etc. 
 
 REV. FATHER THOMAS BIRMINGHAM, O.P.P. 
 
 " In this year the venerable servant of God, Father 
 Thomas Birmingham, died in exile for the faith, in great 
 reputation for sanctity. After the example of our early 
 fathers, he was most assiduous in prayer, and a great 
 mortifier of his body, which he often beat, even to blood. 
 He watched and fasted much, and slept on a hard board. 
 He, by prayer, obtained aid for the Catholics who were 
 besieged in Naas. At length he was taken prisoner 
 by the heretics, who thirsted for his blood. They stripped 
 him of the habit of his order, and in derision clothed him 
 in that of the Friars Minors, and among the insults and 
 blows of the soldiers he was dragged to Dublin, where he 
 long lay in prison, and was at length sentenced to be 
 transported to Barbadoes. But a ranson* having been 
 paid for him by the Lords Constantine and Felix O'Neill, 
 and Hugh O'Rorke, he was sent to Spain, whence he pro- 
 ceeded to Rome, and, having visited the most celebrated 
 shrines in Italy, he ended his course, and departed to 
 eternal life. — Mou. Dom. ex Act. Cap. Gen. 1656. 
 
 • Those sejit to Barbadoes were publicly sold. 
 
336 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 REV. FATHER DANIEL CREIDEGAIN, O.P.P. 
 
 The same year died in his native country the venerable 
 old man, Father Daniel Cnegan,* who with extraordinary 
 zeal revived our order in Connaught when it was nearly 
 extinct. He restored and built anew several convents, 
 and gave the habit to many youths, whom he sent to be 
 educated in other provinces of the order. Under King 
 James this intrepid champion of the faith animated to 
 constancy many noble men who were thrown into prison 
 for their ancestral faith, and collected funds for their 
 sustenance. He persuaded the illustrious Earl of West- 
 meath to go to the king in England, to seek to mollify his 
 anger against the Catholics, and assuage the rage of the 
 heretics. He suffered much persecution, and once, having 
 publicly exposed himself to preserve the honor of a noble 
 Catholic matron assaulted by heretics, he received a fear- 
 ful wound on the head, from which he nearly died, and 
 lost his sight ; whereupon the heretical governor, on 
 account of his well-known innocency'of life, exempted him 
 from the common sentence of exile, and allowed him to 
 spend the remnant of his life amidst his friends. Here he 
 labored assiduously in consoling the Catholics ; and, worn 
 out with age and labors, he calmly slept in the Lord. — 
 
 Mon. Dom. ut supra. 
 
 — • — 
 
 REV. FATHER DAVID ROCHE, O.P.P., AND OTHER 
 PRIESTS. 
 
 Of the many thousands of Irish men, women, and chil- 
 dren who were sold into slavery in the West Indies, the 
 names of very few have been preserved. Among these 
 was Father David Roche,! Dominican. Full details of 
 this infamous traffic are given by Prendergast, Cromwel- 
 
 * Moil. Dam. gives his name as Cnegan ; Hit. Dom. as Creidegain. t Hih. Dom. p. 571. 
 
During the Commonwealth. 337 
 
 lian Settlement. Thus, a government order, published 
 on March 4th, 1655, states that in the four preceding years 
 6400 Irish, men and women, boys and maidens, had been 
 disposed of to the English slave-dealers. On the 14th 
 September, 1653, two English merchants named Selleck 
 and Leader, signed a contract with the government com- 
 missioners, by which a supply was granted to them of 250 
 women and 300 men of the Irish nation, to be found with- 
 in twenty miles of Cork, Youghal, Kinsale, Waterford, and 
 Wexford. Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, (afterward Earl of 
 Orrery,) deemed it unnecessary to take such trouble in 
 visiting different parts of the kingdom, and undertook to 
 supply the whole number from the county of Cork alone ; 
 hence he received an order empowering him to search for 
 and seize; upon that number, " and no person, being once 
 apprehended, was to be released but by special order in 
 writing under the hand of Lord Broghill. In the month 
 of November, 1655, all the Irish of the townland of Lac- 
 kagh, county of Kildare, were seized on by the agents of the 
 government. They were only forty-one in number, and 
 of these four were hanged by sentence of court-martial ; 
 the remaining thirty-seven, including two priests, were 
 handed over to Mr. Norton, a Bristol merchant, to be sold 
 as bond-slaves to the sugar-planters at the Barbadoes." 
 Again, on the 8th December, 1655, we find a letter from 
 the commissioners to the Governor of Barbadoes, " advis- 
 ing him of the approach of a ship with a cargo of proprie- 
 tors, deprived of their lands, and seized for not transplant- 
 ing." They add that among them were three priests, and 
 the commissioners particularly desire that these may be 
 so employed that they may not return again where that sort 
 of people are able to do so much mischief, having so great 
 an influence over the popish Irish. On the 4th January, 
 1655, the sum of five pounds was paid for the arrest, on the 
 27th November preceding, of "a priest, with his appurte- 
 
338 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 nances, in the house of one Owen Byrne, of Cool-ne-Kish- 
 in, near old Leighlin, in the county Carlow, which said 
 priest, together with Byrne, the man of the house, were 
 brought prisoners to Dublin." On the 8th January, Rich- 
 ard and Thomas Tinte, Edmund and George Barnewall, 
 and William Fitzsimons, held the castle of Baltrasna, ir 
 the county Meath, in defence and rescue of a priest who 
 had repaired thither to say Mass. For this they were 
 arrested and their goods seized, and the soldiers claimed 
 the booty, on the ground that the castle was defended 
 against them, "with arms and ammunition, by those who 
 maintained a priest in his idolatrous worship, in opposition 
 to the declaration of the state in that behalf "^//'z'^. Doni. ; 
 Moran, Persec. pp. io6, 151 ; Prendergast, Cromwellian Set- 
 tlement, p. 159, etc. 
 
 Anno 1G56. 
 
 REV. FATHER JOHN FLAVERTY, O.P.P. 
 
 " He was prior of the convent of Coleraine, ana was 
 stoned to death by the soldiers, and thrown into the river, 
 and so gave his hfe for the faith in the Cromwellian perse- 
 cution, about the year 1656." — Hib. Dom. p. 574 ; OHeyn, 
 p. 4. 
 
 REV. FATHER JAMES O'REILLY, O.P.P. 
 
 " He belonged to the convent of Coleraine, and expired 
 under the blows of the soldiers, about the year 1656. 
 Another James O'Reilly, who belonged to the convent of 
 Clonmel, suffered martyrdom in the year 1649, ^s I have 
 mentioned before."- Hib. Dom. p. 1574; OHeyn, p. 4. 
 
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During the Commonwealth. 339 
 
 REV. FATHER NICHOLAS NUGENT, S.J. ; REV. PAUL CUSHIN ; 
 AND OTHERS. 
 
 The only record of the first that 1 find is in Dr. Oliver, 
 Collections, etc. He says, after an imprisonment in 
 Dublin of four years, he died on the 2d of November in 
 this year. Dr. Oliver refers to Synopsis Annalitim Soc. 
 jFesu in Lusitania, auctore P. Ant. Franco, Aug. Vindelic, 
 1726, pp. 466, but I have not been able to see this work. 
 
 In this year the transporting of innocent Catholics to 
 Barbadoes continued. In Scobell's Acts and Ordinan- 
 ces there is an Act of Parliament, passed in 1656, which, 
 after stating that " the children, grandchildren, brothers, 
 nephews, uncles, and next pretended heirs of the persons 
 attainted do remain in the provinces of Leinster, Ulster, 
 and Munster, having little or no visible estates or subsist- 
 ence," commands all such persons " to transplant or be 
 transported to the English plantations in America." 
 
 On the 3d of May, 1656, the governors of the various 
 prisons received orders to convey their prisoners to Car- 
 rickfergus, " to be there put on board such ship as should 
 sail with the first opportunity for the Barbadoes." One 
 aged priest, named Paul Cushin, was arrested at his mis- 
 sion in Maryborough, and was among those then hurried 
 off toward Carrickfergus. On the way he fell dangerously 
 ill, at Philipstown, and a petition being sent in his name 
 to the commissioners to be allowed to remain, they replied 
 by an order of the 27th August, 1656, allowing him six- 
 pence per day during his sickness, which munificent sum 
 " was to be continued to him thence to Carrickfergus, in 
 order to his transportation to the Barbadoes." 
 
340 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 A.nno 1687. 
 
 REV. FATHER JOHN O'LAIGHLIN, O.P.P. 
 
 " He was Prior of Derry, and suffered a long imprison- 
 ment and sore want. The heretics made him great offers 
 if he would abandon the Catholic faith, but he chose rather 
 death. His fellow-captives related that they had seen him 
 in prayer raised up a cubit's height from the ground, and 
 that he said that a glimpse of the glory to come had been 
 granted to him, lest he should yield to the bitterness of 
 torments. He was strangled in prison, and his head cut 
 off, and thus received the crown of martyrdom, about the 
 year 1657."* 
 
 REV. JAMES FINAGHTY, REV. DONALD HAGERTY, REV. 
 EDMUND DUIN, DANIEL CONNERY, GERALD DAVOCK 
 O.P.P., AND REV. BERNARD MACGHIOLLA CLUINNE 
 O.M., AND MANY OTHER PRIESTS AND LAYMEN. 
 
 Of the Rev. James Finaghty, vicar-general of the diocese 
 of Elphin, the following account is given in a visitation of ' 
 the diocese made in 1668 : 
 
 " Father James Finaghty suffered many tortures and 
 cruel afflictions from the common enemy for the faith of 
 Christ : five times he was arrested, and once he was tied to 
 a horse's tail and dragged naked through the streets, and 
 then cast into a horrid dungeon ; nevertheless, being again 
 ransomed by a sum of money, he continues to labor un- 
 tiringly and fearlessly in the vineyard of the Lord."f 
 
 This year Mr. Prendergast gives us the following as in- 
 stances of similar orders : " loth August, £<„ on the certi- 
 ficate of Major Stanley, to Thomas Gregson, Evan Powel, 
 
 • This evidently refers to the sentence for treason. 
 
 t MS. Relatio Visitationis Dioc Elphin., facta anno 1668, ab Edmundo Tiege, ap. Moran, 
 Fersec. p. 125, 
 
During the Commonwealth. 341 
 
 and Samuel Ally, being three soldiersof Colonel Abbott's 
 regiment of dragoons, for the arrest of Donogh Hagerty, 
 a popish priest, by them taken, and now secured in the 
 county jail of Clonmel. To Arthur Spunner, Robert 
 Pierce, and John Brucn, five pounds, for the good service 
 by them performed in apprehending and bringing before 
 the Chief-Justice Papys, on the 21st January, 1657, one 
 Edmund Duin, a popish priest. On the 13th April, 1657, 
 to Sergeant Humphrey Gibbs and Corporal Thomas 
 Hill, ten pounds, for apprehending two popish priests, 
 namel}-, Maurice Prendergast and Edmund Fahy, 
 who were secured in the jail of Waterford, and, being 
 afterward arraigned, were both of them adjudged to be 
 and were accordingly transported into foreign parts." * 
 
 The Archbishop of Tuam informs us that about this 
 year the priests arrested ceased to be put to death, as 
 formerly, in consequence of the remonstrances of the 
 Catholic princes on the Continent ; but " they were trans- 
 ported to the island of Inisbofin, in the diocese of Tuam, 
 where they were compelled to subsist on herbs and 
 water." Mr. Prendergast has published some further 
 details connected with this new place of imprisonment. 
 On the 27th February, 1657, the commissioners referred 
 to his excellency to consider where the priests then in 
 prison in Dublin should be most safely disposed of, and, in 
 reply, an order was received to transport them "to the 
 isles of Arran, lying out thirty miles in the Atlantic, 
 opposite the entrance ot the bay of Galway, and the isle 
 of Inisbofin, off the coast of Connemara." 
 
 In these storm-beaten islands they lived during the 
 remaining years of the Commonwealth ; and from a 
 Treasury warrant dated the 3d July, 1657, we learn 
 that cabins were ordered to be built for them on these 
 
 • Prendergast, Cromwtllian Settlement, pp. 135-185. 
 
342 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 islands, and that the Governor of Galway, Colonel Thomas 
 Sadleir, was commissioned to allow them sixpence per 
 diem for their support.* A letter from a priest in Nantes, 
 dated 19th October, 1659, also states that for some time 
 past the Puritans had " resolved to put none of the clergy 
 to death, and, instead of sending them into exile, to 
 sentence them to perpetual imprisonment. This was 
 partly because they envied us that incredible joy with 
 which the priests went out to death, and partly because 
 they thus hoped to cut off all chance of return to their 
 flocks, and all possibility of administering spiritual assist- 
 ance to the Catholics. Hence, out of fifty-two priests 
 who were in custody, thirty-six were lately sent to the 
 islands of Inisbofin and Arran, where lately there are 
 heretical garrisons, and where they can neither offer up the 
 Holy Sacrifice nor see the face of a single Catholic, and 
 not even are they allowed to administer to each other the 
 last rites of religion."f 
 
 Among the priests sent to the island of Inisbofin about 
 this time were two Dominican fathers, as we learn from 
 the Hib. Dam. p. 577: "The Very Rev. Father Gerald 
 Davock, an alumnus of the convent of Athenry and master 
 in theology, returned to Ireland after having studied in 
 Spain. He was made reader in philosophy, and afterward 
 master of studies. These offices he filled well, and preach- 
 ed eloquently. When the religious were dispersed, he 
 was taken by the heretics and, with many other priests, 
 both secular and regular, sent to the island of Bofin, where 
 he passed seven years in hunger and want with much 
 patience. When King Charles II. was restored, (1660,) 
 they were freed, except that great and venerable man 
 P'ather Bernard MacGhiclla Cluinne, provincial of the 
 Franciscans, who there died happily for the glory of God 
 
 • PrenderKast, p. iSt t Ex Archiv. Soc Jesu in Pome. 
 
Durijig the Con:monwealth. 343 
 
 Rcund the loins of this heroic man was found when he 
 died a leather girdle set with sharp iron points. Father 
 Davock lived very religiously for many years after his 
 liberation from that island, and labored by woid and 
 example in the vineyard of the Lord, until, in advanced age, 
 borne down by the weight of the persecution which had 
 then again sprung up, he died, fortified with the sacraments, 
 in the year of our Lord 1675." 
 
 Brennan, Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 197, gives a 
 list of the priests who in 1653, or rather 1657, were con- 
 fined as prisoners in the island of Bofin or shut up in the 
 jails of Cork and Galway : 
 
 "Rev. James Fallen, V.G. ; Rev. Roger Commin, secular 
 priest ; Rev. Gerald Davock, Dominican ; Rev. Brien 
 Corny, Franciscan ; Rev. Thomas Bourke, Franciscan ; 
 Rev. Philip Walsh, secular priest ; Rev. Thomas Grady, 
 secular priest ; Rev. Timothy Mannin, secular priest ; 
 Rev. Miles Tully, secular priest ; Rev. Patrick Trevor, 
 secular priest ; Rev. John Kelly, secular priest ; Rev. 
 McLeighhn Conry, secular priest ; Rev. Anthony Geoghe- 
 gan, abbot ; Rev. John Dillon, Dominican ; Rev. Thomas 
 McKernan, Franciscan ; Rev. Edward Delamar, secular 
 priest ; Rev. Terlagh Gavan, secular priest ; Rev. John 
 Russell, V.G. ; Rev. W. Henessy, secular priest ; Rev. 
 William Farrell, secular priest ; Rev. Redmond Roche, 
 secular priest ; Rev. Conner Keilly, secular priest ; Rev. 
 Denis Horgan, secular priest ; Rev. Henry Burgat, Domi- 
 nican ; Rev. Timothy Donovan, Franciscan ; Rev. Connor 
 Hurly, Franciscan ; Rev. James Slevin, Rev. Thomas 
 Roony, Rev. Connor Scanlan, Franciscans ; Rev. Bernard 
 Comins, Dominican ; Rev. Bonaventure Dant, Rev. Tho- 
 mas Burke, Rev. Francis Horan, Rev. Thomas McKernan, 
 Rev. Terence Gavan, Rev. Hugh McKeon, secular priests. 
 — Ex Libra Arckivii Provincialis Collegii Lovamensis 
 Sancti Antonii de Padua Fr. Min. Hibernorum. 
 
^44 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Anno 1658. 
 
 REVS. THOMAS MCKERNAN, TURLOGH O'GOWAN, HUGH MC- 
 GEOWN, AND TURLOGH FITZSYMONS, AND OTHERS. 
 
 That the persecution still continued we find from the 
 entries of money paid for the arrest of priests. Thus, in 
 November, 1658, "To Lieutenant Edward Wood, on the 
 certificate of William St. George, Esq., J.P. of the county 
 Cavan, twenty-five pounds for five priests and friars by 
 him apprehended : namely, Thomas McKernan, Turlogh' 
 O'Gowan, Hugh McGeown, and Turlogh Fitzsymons, who, 
 upon examination, confessed themselves to be both priests 
 and friars." 
 
 Father Richard Shelton, superior of the Jesuits in 
 Ireland! writing to the Sacred Congregation on the 29th 
 April, 1658, conveyed the sad intelligence that the persecu- 
 tion of Cromwell against the Irish Catholics was carried 
 on with ever-increasing fury. Two of the Jesuit fathers 
 had been lately arrested, and were treated with great 
 cruelty ; especially, he adds, " every effort is now made to 
 compel the Catholics, by exile, imprisonment, confiscation 
 of goods, and other penalties, to take the sacrilegious oath 
 of abjuration ; but all in vain, for as yet there has not 
 been even one to take it, with the exception of a stranger 
 residing in our island, who had acquired large possessions, 
 and, being afraid of losing them, and at the sam,e time 
 being ashamed of the other Catholics, undertook a journey 
 of more than two hundred miles to present himself to one 
 of Cromwell's emissaries." 
 
 Yet some idea may be formed of the zeal of the clergy in 
 filling the gaps created in their ranks by imprisonment and 
 transportation from the fact, mentioned by the Archbishop 
 of Tuam in a letter written from Nantes in September, 
 165 8, that even then, while the persecution raged with its 
 greatest violence, there were one hundred and fifty priests 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 345 
 
 in his province and a like number in the other provinces, 
 "attending to the care of souls, seeking refuge in the 
 forests and in the caverns of the earth."* — See Moran, 
 Persec. pp. 104, 125, 157. 
 
 Anno 1604, 
 
 REV. FATHERS CHRISTOPHER O'FERRALL, JOHN CHART. 
 AND ARTHUR PANTI, O.P.P. 
 
 The reader has seen how in the years from 1641 to 1660 
 the persecution had nearly exterminated the Catholics, till 
 the persecutors slackened rather from want of victims than 
 from diminution of animosity. In 1641, according to Sir 
 William Petty, the Catholics in Ireland were about 1,240,- 
 000 ; in 1659, there were only 413,984 persons of Irish de- 
 scent in Ireland, which therefore must have been the maxi- 
 mum number of Catholics left, or, in other words, in these 
 eight years 826,000 Irish Catholics had perished or been 
 exiled or sold as slaves to the West Indies. 
 
 In 1660, Charles II. was restored to the throne, and the 
 persecution of Catholics was no longer so violent ; nor 
 shall we, from this date, any longer meet with hecatombs 
 of victims. But Ireland was still to furnish a few, and not 
 the least illustrious, of her confessors and martyrs. Of 
 these was Father Christopher O'Ferrall, the Dominican 
 of whom we find the following record : 
 
 " He was a friar of the convent of Dublin, and studied at 
 i/>uvain, whence he returned to Dublin, where he became 
 prior, and was remarkable as a pious, diligent, and prudent 
 
 • In 1659, there were in Connaugh; no Scotch, 7673 English, and79, 68a Irish, (the last may 
 De taken as Catholics,) and 150 priests : or Catholics to Protestants 10 to i, and i priest to 
 every 534 Catholics. In 1861, there were 46,326 Protestants, 866,023 Catholics, anA 408 
 priests ; or Catholics to Protestants nearly 18 to i, and i priest to every 2165 Catholics. In 
 1864, the total number of priests in Ireland was 3097. The Catholic population of Ireland in 
 1861 was 4,505,365. This would give a proportion of i priest to 1454 Catholics. — Ctnsm ef 
 '6J9, by H<trelinee ; Cimus of 1861 i and Cathtlk Dirtctory, 1864. 
 
346 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 confessor. Together with the provincial, Father John 
 O'Kart, he was thrown into prison in Dublin* for the de- 
 fence of the authority of the pontiff, and lay there for full 
 three years ; nor was he allowed any bed, but made to lie 
 on the bare earth. He himself told me (O'Heyn) that his 
 feet were often bitten by mice. He was most devoted to 
 the Blessed Virgin. He died some years later than 1664. 
 Father Arthur Panti, of the same convent of DubHn, was 
 confined in Dublin for the same cause. Afterward he was 
 procurator for Ireland, and died at Seville after 1664." — 
 Hib. Dom. p. 575, and O'Heyn, p. 7. 
 
 Anno 166S. 
 
 REV. FATHER RAYMUND MOORE, O.P.P. 
 
 " The Very Rev. Father Raymund Moore, (O'Morradh,) 
 of the convent of Dublin, was a distinguished theologian. 
 He studied with distinction in Spain, and in the college at 
 Lisbon, and returning thence to, Dublin, immediately on 
 his landing was thrown into prison, with the two priests 
 mentioned under last year, and spent there three years, en- 
 during the same sufferings ; but at the close of the third 
 year this glorious, learned, and courageous man died for 
 the honor and unity of the church under its visible, 
 supreme, and infallible head. He was called in English 
 Moore, but his name is purely Irish, for he was descended 
 of the noble family of O'Morradh, who were formerly lords 
 or dynasts of the whole of the county which is now called 
 the Queen's County, (except the barony of Upper Ossory.) 
 He died in prison in 1665." — 1/15. Dom. p. 575, atid O'Heyti, 
 p. 7. 
 
 • It would appear from another entry that Father O'Hart was thrown into prison in i66a— 
 Hib. Dom. p. 523- 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 347 
 
 Anno 1666. 
 
 MOST REV. EDMUND O'REILLY, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH. 
 
 I GIVE his life from Dr. Renehan's Collections. 
 
 After the death of Dr. Hugh O'Reilly, the primatial 
 chair remained vacant for more than one year, and was 
 tlien filled by another clergyman of the same name, but of 
 a different family. He had the misfortune to find in a 
 personal, political, and religious enemy the only historian 
 that has left any considerably detailed narrative of his life. 
 He concurred in the excommunication of Father Peter 
 Walsh, the Franciscan ; he manfully opposed the cringing 
 sycophancy of that friar's politics, and set himself up as a 
 wall of brass against his schismatical innovations, even at 
 the peril of his life. It would be unreasonable to expect 
 from so vindictive a writer as Walsh an impartial biography 
 of so decided an opponent. But in following his authori- 
 ty,* if many of the primate's qualities are suppressed, yet 
 those which appear in the facts he relates, or shine through 
 the ill-wrought veil of his clumsy slander, receive addition- 
 al lustre and certainty. Indeed, it is no small eulogy of 
 our primate that the tooth of even Walsh's revenge could 
 find no point in his moral or religious character on which 
 to fasten. 
 
 The most Rev. Edmund O'Reilly was born in the diocese 
 of Dublin, about the year 1606, and after having complet- 
 ed a course of studies in philosophy, and a limited portion 
 of theology, he was ordained priest, and after some little 
 time appointed to the government of a parish in his native 
 diocese.t It appears not improbable that he received his 
 ecclesiastical education in the college established in Dame 
 Street by the Catholics, and that the suppression of that 
 
 • The vfork of Walsh from which the facts here recorded are principally taken is his HhUry 
 oftk^ Irish Refno7isira?tce. 
 
 + Walsh's Hist, of RemomtraHCt, p. 608. The yiar of his nativity is deduced only by 
 mference from Columbanus. 
 
348 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 seminary by the government in 1629 was the cause of the 
 abridgment of his theological studies. Whatever was the 
 cause, he, at least, deeply regretted the effect, and anxious- 
 ly awaited an opportunity of resigning his parish, and pro- 
 ceeding to some foreign university, in order to extend his 
 information, and qualify himself more perfectly for the dis- 
 charge of his arduous duties. His archbishop. Dr. Flem- 
 ing, saw that his strong natural talents deserved cultiva- 
 tion ; for he was at this time, to use the words of Dr. O. 
 Plunkett, " a man of a good mother-wit, but no extraordi- 
 nary learning."* 
 
 Obtaining at length his superior's permission, he repair- 
 ed to the University of Louvain, about the year 1633 \\ 
 and, residing in the Irish secular college, he devoted him- 
 self for seven years with great assiduity to the study of the 
 Sacred Scriptures and moral divinity under the Jesuits, 
 and of canon law under the Franciscans. Here his piety 
 and ecclesiastical decorum soon attracted the esteem of his 
 superiors, who, after some time, convinced also of his pru- 
 dence and zeal for collegiate discipline, appointed him pre- 
 fect of the college of Irish secular ecclesiastics, wherein he 
 resided. But he was honored in an especial manner by the 
 affectionate friendship and confidential intimacy of the 
 Hon. and Rev. Thomas Fleming, (the eldest son and heir 
 of Lord Slane,) who, renouncing the pleasures of earth, 
 had exchanged the titles and estates of this world for the 
 cloister here, and the " hundredfold hereafter,'' and was 
 now professor of divinity in the Franciscan college of St. 
 Anthony of Padua, at Louvain. It was here also, and 
 through this saintly professor, that Mr. O'Reilly became 
 first acquainted with Peter Walsh, the Franciscan. But 
 they were men of opposite dispositions, not likely to coa- 
 
 * y-us Pritnatiale, p. 30. 
 
 t Columbanus's Hist. Address, p. .. Walsh's Hist. 0/ Rem. p. 608, says he was is i«36 
 
 " soinewliat eJckrly." 
 
In the Reigii of Charles II. 345 
 
 lesce — the one, prefect of a college, and the confidant of the 
 professors, but particularly of the pious Fleming ; the 
 other, his refractory pupil — the one, a disciple of the Jesuits 
 in those doctrines of grace and free-will which have since 
 gained such support among all classes of Christians ; the 
 other, a professed Jansenist, the confidant of Jansenius, to 
 whom Walsh dedicated his philosophical theses, and whose 
 famous AtigustimisWa^sh boasts of being the first to have 
 read in albis as it came from the press.* In these circum- 
 stances, an acquaintance between two such men would 
 more naturally produce hostility than friendship. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. O'Reilly returned to Ireland in 1641, 
 bringing with him testimonial letters of the strongest de- 
 scription from the university. But the Hon. and Rev. F. 
 Fleming thought it his duty to write, moreover, privately to 
 his uncle, the Archbishop of Dublin, and zealously recom- 
 mended to his grace's esteem and protection the piety and 
 abilities of his subject O'Reilly. He again zealously ap- 
 plied himself to the laborious functions of a parish priest 
 in the salvation of souls, and was in a few months appoint- 
 ed by Dr. Fleming vicar-general of the diocese. f The la- 
 bor and responsibility of his new dignity were increased 
 the fol' owing year, 1642, when the Archbishop of Dublin, 
 being appointed a member of the supreme council, and fix- 
 ing his residence on that account at Kilkenny, the admin- 
 istration of the diocese, in spirituals and temporals, was 
 confided entirely to the vicar-general O'Reilly from the 
 year 1642 to 1648. 
 
 In this latter year, he was deprived of his oflfice of vicar- 
 general, if we may credit Peter Walsh, who boasts of hav- 
 ing been the principal instrument thereof himself The 
 matter appears to have happened thus : when Rinuccini 
 and a portion of the clergy had complained that the coun- 
 
 * Walsh's Hist, of Rem. treatise iv. p. 75. 
 
 t Walsh, etc Columbanus's ^w/. AddreiSt p. 14. 
 
350 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 cil of Kilkenny had grossly neglected the interests of reli- 
 gion in the articles of cessation of arras with Inchiquin, 
 and the nuncio had thereupon fulminated sentence of ex- 
 communication for perjury against the council and their 
 adherent, the Catholics became divided into two opposite 
 parties, the majority of the clergy, the people, the province 
 of Ulster, and the Milesian Irish generally, being on the 
 one side ; the aristocracy, the dependents and expectants 
 of the court, and the Anglo-Irish, on the other. The fa- 
 mous Owen O'Neal espoused the nuncio's cause ; Dr 
 O'Reilly adhered to it also, and was believed to assist 
 O'Neal by his counsel. The opposite party labored to di- 
 minish the influence which O'Neal's military bravery and 
 repeated victories had procured him with the people, feel- 
 ing that their existence depended on their success in this 
 point, and that while O'Neal continued unsuspected he 
 would continue irresistible. In these circumstances, a let- 
 ter was produced in the council, purporting to be written 
 by O'Neal to Colonel Jones, the parliamentary general, 
 and intercepted in its passage to him.. Dr. O'Reilly's name 
 was neither mentioned in nor signed to the letter. But 
 P. Walsh contended it was in his handwriting. The Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin was then lodging in the Franciscan con- 
 vent of Kilkenny, "which, as well as the Dominican, ob- 
 served the censures." Walsh resided in the Duke of Or- 
 mond's castle, and from thence he sent the letter to the 
 archbishop, with, of course, his own conclusions thereon, 
 and an appropriate commentary. The consequence was 
 that Dr. Fleming, either believing, as Walsh says, " it to be 
 Edmund's handwriting," or, what his subsequent conduct 
 proves more probable, deeming it prudent to yield for a 
 moment to the storm, in order to avoid odious imputations 
 himself, and appease his vicar's enemies, withdrew his com- 
 missions from Dr. O'Reilly, and appointed Dr. Laurence 
 Archibald, P.P., of Maynooth, vicar-general in his place. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 351 
 
 The malignity of his enemies was not, however, yet sat- 
 isfied. The following year he was waylaid in the neigh- 
 borhood of Dublin, on his return to his own house, by an 
 armed party, " with one Scurtog at their head, and narrow- 
 ly escaped assassination."* 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1650, Archbishop Fleming 
 restored him to the office of vicar-general, thereby declar- 
 ing solemnly his utter disbelief of the imputations which 
 pensioned calumniators had fastened on his character. 
 These slanders did not assail his moral, but his political 
 conduct ; they were even then put forth only as the " whis- 
 perings" of Ormond, or mere "hearsay reports," without 
 pretending to a particle of evidence, and doubted by their 
 very publishers. If O'Reilly had acted disloyally in the 
 affairs of Wicklow Castle, the camp at Baggotsrath, etc., 
 Ormond and his other enemies wanted neither the power 
 nor the will to punish him on the scaffold on which they 
 had murdered many other clergymen of acknowledged in- 
 nocence. And it is clear that if such serious charges were 
 but partially believed, or even reported, beyond the pur- 
 lieus of courtly corruption, Dr. O'Reilly would not, in such 
 times, have been subsequently appointed Vicar-General of 
 Dublin or Primate of Armagh. 
 
 After his reestablishment as vicar-general he persevered 
 in the undisguised profession of the principles for which 
 he had been persecuted. While assisting at the synod of 
 Leinster, held in the woods of Glenmalure, in the county 
 Wicklow, he gave a noble specimen of the apostolic virtue 
 of overcoming evil with good. Peter Walsh had been ex- 
 communicated by the synod, and denounced for errors in 
 doctrine, schisni, and other crimes. Colonel Luke O'Toole, 
 understanding that he was lurking in these very woods, 
 prepared a party of horse and foot, to pursue a man whom 
 he considered a spy upon the Catholics, and the fomenter 
 
 • Walsh's Hist. p. 609. 
 
352 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 of their dissensions, a rebel to the church, and a traitor to 
 his country. Dr. O'Reilly, having learned his design, gen- 
 erously forgot past injuries, exerted every means of chang- 
 ing his purpose, and ceased not to reason, to importune, 
 and entreat till he obtained a promise. " He it was," says 
 the ungrateful Walsh,* "who alone dissuaded Colond 
 Luke O'Toole from his design, and thus saved my life." 
 The following year, (1653,) Dr. O'Reilly was himself appre- 
 hended as a popish priest ; for, having been summoned as 
 a witness to one of the courts in Dublin, one of the par- 
 ties, feeling that his cause would be injured by his testi- 
 mony, cried out to the judge, as soon as he ascended the 
 table, to seize him, for that he was Edmund O'Reilly, the 
 popish vicar-general. Immediately he was seized and 
 dragged to prison, where he was loaded with chains, and 
 suffered with great fortitude the most shocking privations. 
 After several months' incarceration, the intrepid confessor 
 — " no other cause of guilt being found in him " except his 
 religion — was driven into banishment, by virtue of a pro- 
 clamation of the Cromwellian government, dated the pre- 
 ceding feast of the Epiphany, which commanded all priests, 
 bishops, etc., to quit the kingdom within twenty days, un- 
 der pain of high treason.f Dr. O'Reilly fled to the Irish 
 College of Lisle, in Flanders, and it was there he received 
 notice that the pope, in approbation of his virtues and con- 
 stancy, had appointed him to the primatial see of Armagh. 
 I have not met with the precise date of this promotion, 
 but think it must have been toward the end of 1654, for he 
 did not leave Ireland till near the end of 1653, J and Pope 
 Innocent X., by whom, Primates McMahon § and Talbot || 
 inform us, the appointment was made, died on the 7th 
 
 • Hist, of Rem. p. 609. t Hih. Daminicava, pp. 704, 705. 
 
 t Walsh says he was seized in 1653, (the beginning of which he counts from the 25th March,) 
 hurrieci to prison, suffered much, and was at length either banished or licensed to depart to 
 F'-"r;ers. 
 
 Alorison, TItren. p. 12 ; Jm Prim. Armacanum, p. 190. Prim. Dublin^ p. 59. 
 
In the Reign of Charles IT. 333 
 
 Januarj', 1655. Knowing that the Irish colleges in Flan- 
 ders were beset with English spies, and feeling how much 
 his future safety would be endangered by there being any 
 legal proof of his consecration. Dr. O'Reilly departed pri- 
 vately for Brussels, and was there consecrated, in the ves- 
 try of the Jesuit chapel, with the utmost secrecy. 
 
 At this time the Catholic Church of Ireland was reduced 
 to a most deplorable condition. "Neither the Israelites," 
 says Morison, " were more cruelly persecuted by Pharaoh 
 nor the infants by Herod, nor the Christians by Nero, 
 Diocletian, or any other pagan tyrant, than were the 
 Roman Catholics of Ireland at that juncture." Never did 
 the host of hell put forth half such violence, even in Ire- 
 land ; never did any religion, in any country, survive so 
 bloody a persecution, or withstand such infernal machine- 
 ry, as were then levelled against the Irish Church. The 
 clergy of every grade and order were driven by the law 
 into perpetual banishment ; and if they dared to remain in 
 the kingdom, or return to it again, after the ist February, 
 1653, they were condemned to be hanged till half-dead, 
 then cut down alive and beheaded, their heads put upon 
 poles on the highways, and their hearts and entrails pub- 
 hcly burned. A price was set upon their heads, (it was 
 the price of a wolf's,) and the money was paid when the 
 bloody evidence of the murder was delivered. It was then 
 high treason for a Catholic, priest to breathe within the 
 realms, as Lord Mansfield expressed himself when ex- 
 pounding the boasted English law a century afterward.* 
 To harbor a priest, to speak to him, not to betray him, nay, 
 to exercise, no matter how privately, the Catholic religion, 
 were each a capital crime, for which the laity were to be 
 punished with death and total confiscation of property.f 
 
 ♦ See his speech on the trial of Mr. Webb, June, 1768, in the / ift of Right Rm. Dr. 
 i.'haltoner^ p. 145. 
 1 Hii. Dom. p. 607 : Carte, vol. iL ; Leland. vol. ii. : McGeceheean. 
 
354 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 By these, and many other such hellish laws, and the still 
 more diabolical machinery that was invented to enforce 
 them, the churches were widowed of their bishops, 
 the people deprived of comfort, instruction, and sacra- 
 ments, and religion so nearly extirpated from the island 
 that the despairing tongue faltered while it said, " If God 
 be with us, who can prevail against us?" "There is no 
 counsel against the Lord." 
 
 In 1649, and for some years before, the Irish hierarchy 
 was in a much more flourishing condition than at any pe- 
 riod since the English schism. The sees were all filled 
 up, except Derry and Kildare ; the parishes were supplied 
 with zealous and learned pastors ; the convents were re- 
 established, and their crowded choirs poured forth in un- 
 ceasing peals the canticle of praise and benediction to the 
 Lord. The prelacy consisted of four archbishops and 
 twenty-three suffragans, namely, eight in the province of 
 Armagh, and as many more in Cashel, three in Dublin, and 
 four in Connaught.* All of these resided in their dioceses 
 with undisturbed security, and publicly performed the 
 rites of religion ; many enjoyed the cathedrals, and lands 
 with which their Catholic ancestors endowed the sees, for 
 the support of Catholic bishops. The parochial churches 
 and glebes were restored to the Catholic clergy ; the male 
 and female religious recovered their convents, and a rem- 
 nant of their ancient inheritance ; and the peace of 1648 
 with Ormond and the king stiplilated that the Catholic 
 Church should permanently enjoy at least what it then 
 possessed.! Such was th-e state of the church in 1649. 
 The Catholic religion was not only what it always con- 
 tinued, the religion of the nation, but also what it, on that 
 account, ought ever to have been, the national, the estab- 
 
 • MS. Memoii of the State of the Irish Church, written in i66j,/r>ui me, Dr. French, in 
 HiB. Dom. p. 499, 
 t Philopat<r. lib. i. p. i6s ; H ib. Dom. p. 68tiw 
 
In the Reign of Charles IT. 355 
 
 lished religion. But how reversed was the scene in 1654, 
 when Dr. O'Reilly was consecrated ! Three of the bish- 
 ops, and more than three hundred of the clergy, had al- 
 ready been put to death for the faith. All the surviving 
 bishops but one, and upward of one thousand priests, 
 were banished for ever from their country ; some were al- 
 lowed to seek exile in the kingdoms of Europe, but many 
 hundreds were stowed in crazy shipS) treated with igno- 
 minious cruelty, and transported to Barbadoes and other 
 isles of the West Indies.* The friars were expelled from 
 their convents and obliged to fly ; of six hundred Domini- 
 cans scarcely one remained ;t the more numerous Fran- 
 ciscans, the Augustinians, etc., were also gone ; nay, even 
 •the nuns were turned out into the woods or banished to 
 some distant land. But one bishop remained,^ and he 
 was old, decrepit, and bedridden, and to his inability alone 
 to discharge any episcopal functions he owed the privilege 
 of dying in the land of his fathers. There remained also 
 a portion of the parochial clergy, who, whenever their 
 functions were to be exercised, nobly braved the axe and 
 gibbet, and who, when the sinner was reconciled to God, 
 or the departing soul prepared for heaven, sought a hiding- 
 place in the forest, and sheltered themselves in caverns 
 and morasses from the blood-scent of spies and priest- 
 catchers. They did not, however, always escape. Even 
 after the restoration of Charles II., when persecution 
 relaxed its fury, not less than one hundred and twenty of 
 these heroic confessors were sometimes crowded into the 
 same loathsome jail, to pine away and starve together.§ 
 In this state did things continue till 1661, and with very 
 little variation till 1669. The old Bishop of Kilmore still 
 continued to struggle in the arms of death ; the Archbish- 
 
 • MS. Memoir of the Irish Church, ffih. Dom. t Hib. Dom. pp. 5^5. "*. «<«■ 
 
 I MS. Mem. ; Walsh's Hist, of Rem., fassim. 
 
 5 Fasti Dul'i-'cnses, in Whitelaw and Walsh's f!ist. Dub. vol. i. 
 
3S6 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 op of Tuam returned in 1662, to die along with him, be- 
 ing then eighty years of age, and disabled by repeated at- 
 tacks of paralysis. The provinces of Leinster and Munster 
 were totally bereft of their bishops for sixteen years, and, 
 Munster like Connaught, had each, for the latter half of 
 the time, but one prelate surviving, even in banishment. 
 From 1652 to the year 1655 neither the sacrament of con- 
 firmation nor of holy orders was conferred in Ireland, yet 
 there were in the latter year about 11 00 secular priests on 
 the Irish mission ;* but, the Bishop of Ardagh having re- 
 turned in 1665, the number of priests was doubled in the 
 course of six or seven years, although until the year 1669, 
 the period of Dr. O'Reilly's death, the Irish prelacy could 
 only count three bishops in Ireland, and three in involun- 
 tary exile. 
 
 Violent as was the fury of the Cromwellian persecution, 
 its terrors did not frighten the new primate from visiting 
 his desolated flock. But the difficulty was, how to make 
 good his journey to Ireland without being discovered. 
 A favorable opportunity was for some time waited for ; 
 but none occurring, he set out from Brussels for Lisle, 
 and, making there no long delay, came from Lisle to 
 Calais. Here he was introduced by the exiled Bishop of 
 Dromore to Cardinal Mazarin, the French minister, who 
 gave him some pecuniaryaid, and procured him a safe voyage 
 to London, where he arrived in 1658. But although the 
 cardinal strongly recommended him to several noblemen 
 of the highest influence, and entreated for him the pro- 
 tection of the English ministers, yet he was obliged to 
 conceal himself in cells and garrets ; -and it was in one of 
 these retreats that he said Mass and administered con- 
 firmation and the other sacraments to a multitude of Irish- 
 men then in London, having previously obtained the 
 necessary permission of the English archpriest. Dr. Knight- 
 
 • Walsh'2 Hiit. Stm. pp. 574, S7S. etc. ; also the MS. Memoir cited before. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 357 
 
 ley.* After about six weeks' stay in London, he met the 
 schisniatical friar P. Walsh. The primate, supposing that 
 he had no longer any motive for persevering in his 
 obstinacy, exerted all his zeal to effect his conversion, and 
 promised to absolve him from the excommunications he had 
 incurred as soon as he should repent. His exhortations 
 on this subject were frequently repeated, and always with 
 great unction, condescension, and mildness. The result 
 was, that, besides whatever occurred in the sacred tribunal, 
 the primate publicly restored him to the communion of 
 the church, Walsh " kneeling before the altar in his own 
 house'' while the primate pronounced the solemn words 
 of absolution over him. Such is the account given of this 
 transaction by Walsh himself.f But after the return of 
 his master Ormond to power, on the exile of Dr. O'Reilly, 
 he relapsed again, and even boasted that he had never 
 repented, and that the absolution, given as above, was in 
 spite of him. This clumsy and slanderous fabrication 
 was, however, believed by no person, and was indignantly 
 denied by the primate himself Walsh's general reputation 
 for intrigue and fabrication left but little credibility to his 
 story. The interest that he had in convincing Ormond 
 and his party that he had not in their absence changed 
 his principles, on the other hand Dr. O'Reilly's character 
 for veracity and straightforwardness, the extreme impro- 
 bability that he would, without any possible inducement, 
 so grossly profane his spiritual powers or select Walsh's 
 own house for forcibly absolving him, while Walsh remain- 
 ed patiently and piously "on his knees before the altar" — 
 in a word, every circumstance of intrinsic or extrinsic 
 evidence convicted the fabricated tale of absurdity and 
 falsehood. 
 
 At all events, Dr. O'Reilly soon felt to his cost that Walsh 
 had not more influence formerly with the ministers of 
 
 • Walsh, etc. pi' 609, 610. t Ibid. 
 
358 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 the king in Ireland than he had now with his murderers 
 in England, and that the only return he had to receive for 
 his trouble was the exertion of that influence in depriving 
 him of his friends and procuring his banishment. He had 
 been accompanied to London by two priests, whom Walsh 
 calls Father T. T. and Father N. B., initials which I am 
 unable at present to decipher. These worthy men " were 
 told," and, not knowing their informant's character, were 
 made to believe, that the Primate had slighted both, and 
 deceived one of them in a matter of grave importance. 
 The consequence was a silent dissatisfaction and an almost 
 total separation. Soon after, however, the bishop having 
 learned, by some accident, the cause of discontent, and an 
 explanation having been obtained, he at once fully con- 
 vinced them that the supposed recommendations to the 
 Holy See had never been made, and that the story was, 
 as Walsh confesses and the event proved, totally with- 
 out foundation. Finding that they had been malicious- 
 ly imposed upon, the primate and his companions became 
 grievously dissatisfied, and " quarrelled with Walsh" — no 
 obscure indication that he was the incendiary between 
 them. But he soon took ample revenge. While the pri- 
 mate and his friends were preparing to continue their journey 
 to Ireland, and their minds filled with dreams of success, 
 Walsh was whispering in the court of Cromwell, and at 
 length obtained an order from the minister of state for their 
 banishment. " They were all three," he says, " ordered on 
 a sudden, when they least expected it, to quit the country 
 for France instanter." Who could expect that he who 
 confesses himself the sole author* of this persecution by 
 his Macchiavellian intrigue with the minister, should in the 
 same page charge O'Reilly with being the friend of Crom- 
 well and the enemy of Cromwell's rival.-' While the 
 tyrant reigned, Walsh represented O'Reilly as the friend, 
 
 • Walsh's Hist, (ifRemons. p. 6ia 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 359 
 
 the spy, or emissary of the king ; when the king was 
 restored to power, he, to cover his own treason and gratify 
 personal enmity, represented him as the ardent, inveterate 
 advocate of the deceased tyrant. 
 
 Dr. O'Reilly was obliged to fly to France, but soon after- 
 ward his increasing zeal made out an opportunity of 
 effecting his long wished for visit to Ireland. He sailed 
 directly from France, and, notwithstanding the penal laws 
 and his personal proscription, arrived safely in his province 
 of Armagh in the year 1659. Here he labored with great 
 zeal and effect for a year and a half, and, travelling in 
 disguise under a fictitious name and character, he visited 
 every part of the province, and almost of the kingdom, 
 instructing, reforming, and consoling his afflicted flock, 
 and administering the sacraments which required episcopal 
 power. About the beginning of 1660 " some person," 
 says Walsh,* (who, most probably, was himself that 
 person,) wrote secretly to the English court of Charles H., 
 then in the Low Countries, representing Dr. O'Reilly as 
 advocating the interests of Crornvvell, and animating the 
 Protestants of Ireland to oppose the restoration of Charles 
 II., promising them the full cooperation of the Irish 
 Catholics to that effect. Impudently false as this absurd 
 fabrication would have appeared if known in Ireland, it 
 was believed in Holland by a prince accustomed to be 
 duped ; and on this occasion, having no means of detecting 
 the imposture, Don Stephano de Gamarro, the Spanish 
 ambassador to the Dutch court, was solicited to complain 
 to the pope on the subject, and to request his holiness, in 
 the king's name, to order the primate to withdraw from 
 Ireland. The appHcation was made immediately before 
 the king left Holland for England ; the requested order 
 was received in England the following autumn.f 
 
 * Walsh's Hist. Remans, p. r>io. 
 
 t Walsh's /^ii/. Remans, p. 6ii ; Dr. Plunket's J'xi PrimaliaU, p. 31 ; MS, ut tutra. 
 
360 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 In the meantime, Dr. O'Reilly, who knew nothing of the 
 storm excited, and now ready to burst upon him, was 
 laboring in the ministry, exulting with joy, as were all his 
 people, at the restoration of the king, for whose cause 
 they had suffered, and expecting every day that the ex- 
 cessive loyalty which made them fight for Charles, even 
 for four years after every other part of the empire had 
 submitted to Cromwell, as it had provoked the usurper's 
 greater severity, so would now be rewarded with propor- 
 tionate favor. An address of loyalty and congratulation 
 was prepared, and, Walsh being selected, as a clever, 
 insinuating politician, and a man who had friends at 
 court, to present the address and manage other matters for 
 the Catholic body, the unsuspecting primate signed the 
 document appointing him the Catholic proxy or proctor. 
 The imperative command of Pope Alexander VII. to the 
 primate had been, some time before this, sent over to 
 Walsh from the English court, a fact which, connected 
 with several other circumstances, leaves no doubt that it 
 was he who originally suggested it. No sooner, there- 
 fore, did he receive Dr. O'Reilly's signature to the deed 
 of procuration than he sent back to him, with characteristic 
 gratitude, the decree for his expatriation. In vain did the 
 archbishop solemnly deny the charge, in vain did he 
 appeal to the testimon,y of all who knew him, and to pnblic 
 notoriety. He was compelled a third time to quil his 
 country. After arriving in France he again wrote from 
 Rouen to Walsh, beseeching him to efface the. slanderous 
 imj)ression made on the minds of the ministers, and 
 multiplying the protestations of his innocence, which 
 were as unnecessary as they were fruitless.* He then 
 went to Rome, and remained there till 1665, when he 
 returned back to France, again wrote to Walsh, and on 
 
 • " Wait there for three years," was the answer his grace received from the impudent, 
 loxurious friar. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 361 
 
 August 31st to the Lord-Lieutenant Ormond, soliciting 
 permission to return to his diocese. Walsh was at this 
 time moving heaven and earth to induce the clergy to 
 adopt his famous " Remonstrance." Ormond also pressed 
 its subscription, not, it was believed, because he attached 
 any importance to it, but because he considered it a 
 suitable wedge for splitting the compact Catholic body 
 into parties and fragments.* Since, however, it had been 
 condemned by some foreign universities, and was generally 
 rejected as heretical, or at least schismatical, by the Irish 
 clergy — since also it had been subscribed from 1661 only 
 by one bishop, now no more, and sixty-nine priests, fifty- 
 lour of whom were friars — it was deemed a matter of the 
 utmost importance to the views both of Ormond and his 
 pensioner to enlist the support and influence of the 
 primate in its favor. A national synod of the clergy was 
 summoned to meet in Dublin, June nth, 1666, and letters 
 were despatched to Dr. O'Reilly, about the March or April 
 preceding, inviting him to attend. England was at this 
 time at war with France and Holland ; but the perils of 
 the journey could not shake the fortitude of the archbishop. 
 The safest route appeared to be through Flanders. But 
 the Internuncio Rospigliosi, learning his determination, 
 and knowing the temptations that would beset him in 
 Dublin, wrote to dissuade him from continuing his journey, 
 lest he should countenance the " Valesian formulary," 
 So important indeed did the nuncio deem this point that 
 he wrote also to Martin, Bishop of Ypres, enclosing a 
 copy of the letter, and requesting him to make out 
 O'Reilly and deliver the enclosure to him. The primate 
 received these letters, but yet delayed not a moment. He 
 passed from Flanders to London, and thence through 
 
 • Ormond himself explains his motive and object in a letter to his son, Lord Arran, dated 
 December a9th, i6So. "My aim," says he, "was to work a division among the Romish 
 clergy, and 1 believe I had compassed it, to the great security of the Eovernment and tho 
 Protestants "Stt Curtt, vol. iii. ; Plowden, vol i. p. 54. 
 
362 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Chester to Dublin, where he arrived on the 12th June, 
 1666, being the second day of the national congregation. 
 The English lord-chancellor had already learned his 
 arrival in England, and immediately despatched an express 
 to Ormond, informing him that O'Reilly was travelling 
 incognito to Ireland, and directing his excellency to secure 
 his apprehension. It is worthy of remark, as illustrative 
 of the vigilant espionage then practised over the Catholic 
 clergy, that this despatch was brought to Ireland by the 
 very same packet in which O'Reilly travelled.* The 
 situation in which the primate now stood was of a 
 peculiarly trying' character. On perusing the declaration 
 of principles and allegiance called the " Remonstrance," 
 proposed for their own purposes by Ormond, through his 
 creature Walsh, he found it so captious and ambiguous in 
 expression, and in sentiment so temerarious and so nearly 
 resembling heresy, that he could not conscientiously support 
 it. It pledged its subscribers to swear to speculative 
 opinions which were uncertain if not false, and if not 
 erroneous, at least not commonly adopted ; it encroached 
 on the prerogatives of the Universal Church in defining 
 articles of faith ; and its object, he thought, was dissension, 
 and its tendency schism. On the other hand, he knew 
 very well his temporal happiness, his liberty, nay, perhaps 
 his life, depended on its adoption. 
 
 But Dr. O'Reilly was not " a reed shaken by the wind," 
 he was not a " man clothed in soft garments," nor versed 
 in that finesse and pliancy which prevail in the " palaces 
 of kings ;" he knew not how to temporize, but he knew how 
 to contend and "suffer for justice' sake." At once, there- 
 fore, he boldly opposed in the congregation the " Valesian 
 Remonstrance," but at the same time supported warmly 
 another declaration which fully expressed the strongest 
 allegiance, emphatically renounced the objectionable doc- 
 
 ♦ Walsh's Hist. elc. p. 613. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 363 
 
 trines imputed to Catholics, but abstained from pronounc- 
 ing on dubious and disputed opinions which had no con- 
 nection with their political relation to the king, or their 
 civil relation to their Protestant fellow-subjects, such as 
 the superiority of councils over the pope, etc. 
 
 His support of the latter, however, gave as much offence 
 to the court as his rejection of the former formulary. 
 Walsh fled to the castle and complained to Ormond that 
 very night, as he tells us himself O'Reilly was summoned 
 to the castle before the lord-lieutenant. Here all the 
 artifices of that crafty and intriguing statesman were ex- 
 hausted in endeavoring to seduce O'Reilly, or at least si- 
 lence his opposition. In an address of considerable inge- 
 nuity he at first sharply rebuked the primate, then threw 
 before his imagination vague insinuations about secret ac- 
 cusations, grievous offences against the state privately in- 
 formed of, and terrific innuendoes about their punishment ; 
 bid him, however, to speculate upon the favor, and to merit 
 by loyal compliance the gracious bounty, of the crown, but 
 again reminded him of the power of the government, and 
 the rigorous severity of the laws, in case he should persist 
 in undutiful opposition. But the primate's conscience re- 
 proached him with no offence that merited punishment ; 
 and as to the sham plots and unjust persecution then so 
 prevalent, he dreaded them as little a^ he courted the cor- 
 rupting bounty of the crown. He therefore returned the 
 day after to the national congregation, and firmly resisted 
 every attempt to corrupt the faith or discipline of the Irish 
 Church. 
 
 The national congregatioh, after having unanimously re- 
 jected the Valesian Remonstrance, was dissolved on Mon- 
 day, the 25th of June, 1666; and on that very day the 
 Duke of Ormond gave an order from the castle for arrest- 
 ing all the bishops that had attended its sessions. The 
 prelates had all been invited and pressed to this assembly 
 
364 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 by Oimond himself; they had refused to come to Dublin, 
 on account of the penal laws and the consequent danger to 
 their liberty and lives, and they persisted in this determi- 
 nation until Ormond, as lord-lieutenant, gave them a 
 passport, and pledged himself in writing that they should 
 enjoy perfect security and liberty in coming to Dublin, in 
 their deliberations there, and in returning therefrom. The 
 Bishop of Kilfenora, placing no great reliance on the vera- 
 city or justice of Ormond, privately fled from the city the 
 very moment the synod was dissolved, and thus escaped 
 the execution of the order. The other prelates, who had 
 formed a higher estimate of his honor or had less know- 
 ledge of his character, remained in town, and were laid 
 under arrest that very evening.* 
 
 It was, however, deemed advisable to find sdme pretext 
 for this nefarious violation of public faith. Ormond at first 
 pretended that it was done only with the view of detaining 
 them in town till he should be at leisure to rebuke them 
 for their undutiful proceedings ; yet the primate remained 
 three monthsf a prisoner, and Ormond never once spoke 
 to him. This pretext being published, every effort was 
 made to find some ground of accusation against O'Reilly. 
 Being allowed to live at his own lodgings, and walk within 
 the confines of the city, several attempts were made by, it 
 would appear, hireliijg spies to cajole him outside the limits 
 into the adjacent fields ; but the primate, knowing that his 
 doing so would be construed into a breach of imprison- 
 ment, always avoided the snare. This scheme having 
 failed, a plot that would disgrace Macchiavelli was hatched, 
 with the view of forcing him to fly, from the terror of an 
 ignominious death, into voluntary banishment. 
 
 The story throws too much light on the character ol 
 
 • Walsh's Hist. etc. p. 744. 
 
 t From 2sth Jure to 27lh September. Walsh says it was but a few weeks, and insinuatM 
 inat it W.1S not more than f<ur or five ; but the date of his arrest is attested by Walsh himseH 
 and the date of his banishment by Ware, Whitelaw, and Walsh's Fiuti Dub., Carte, etc. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 365 
 
 Ormond and his creatures to be omitted, besides that 
 it amply refutes the calumnious imputations charged on 
 O'Reilly's character after his death. Peter Walsh, the 
 chief of these calumniators, relying on the credulity of 
 his readers, gravely relates the transaction substantially as 
 follows : 
 
 When Dr. O'Reilly had been about a fortnight under 
 arrest, and, confident of his own innocence, did not avail 
 himself of the opportunities offered him of effecting his 
 escape, the Duke of Ormond called Walsh aside one day, 
 and told him that he had a charge against O'Reilly, of 
 which Walsh had as yet heard nothing. His grace then 
 directed the secretary. Sir George Lane, to read for Walsh 
 a part of a certain letter. Accordingly, Sir George pulled 
 out the letter, and " read for me how Lord Sandwich, the 
 British ambassador in Spain, informed thence that, as he 
 ]iassed through Gallicia to Madrid, Nicholas French, of 
 Ferns, told him that Edmund O'Reilly had started privately 
 from France for Ireland, with the design and set purpose 
 of raising a rebellion in Ireland. The words I remember 
 not, neither do I know, nor did I inquire, from whom the 
 said letter was, or whether it was Sandwich's own letter or 
 the secretary's at London, or any other's." Strange as 
 Walsh's ignorance and incurious indifference may appear, 
 considering the importance of the charge and the part he 
 was to act, stranger still is the conduct pursued toward the 
 detected traitor and rebel. Ormond commanded Walsh to 
 inform O'Reilly that his rebellious conspiracy was dis- 
 covered, and the channel through which the information 
 came, and that, in consequence, he must be immediately 
 put under a guard of soldiers. Still the primate was allow- 
 ed to go where he wished, but yet he did not fly ; and it 
 was not till the second or third day after he had received 
 this secret intelligence from his pretended friend at the 
 castle that the soldiers appeared. Their vigilance, how- 
 
366 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 ever, was not very excessive. He was permitted to go 
 from room to room, and to the garden ; his friends were 
 allowed to visit him at all times, and in any numbers ; and 
 crowds frequented his chambers to hear Mass daily and 
 receive the sacraments ; every facility was afforded, yet he 
 made no attempt to escape. The public guard of soldiers 
 was continued for several weeks, till it was supposed that 
 the city must be sufficiently convinced that O'Reilly must 
 be charged with some grievous offence. In the meantime 
 Ormond went off to Kilkenny, leaving his orders to the 
 privy council ; his absence might tend to relieve him from 
 the odium of the iniquitous persecution which would appear 
 to emanate only from the council, and at all events would 
 secure him from any inconvenient inquiry about the accu- 
 sation, or the authority on which it rested. At length the 
 privy council ordered the prisoner O'Reilly to be brought 
 before them. Who would not suppose that this unfortu- 
 nate man, to whom so many crimes and treasons had been 
 imputed by the pensioners of government, would now be 
 satisfactorily convicted and punished for some of them .' 
 But no, the council instituted no trial ; nay, says Walsh, 
 they charged him with no offence whatever ; but, in the 
 true spirit of persecution and despotic tyranny, they told 
 him simply they had orders to banish him from Ireland, 
 and he might select the place of his exile. On the 27th 
 September, 1666,* he was sent off to London under the 
 custody of the City-Major Stanley, and thence was sent, 
 without trial or accusation, to Dover, where he took ship- 
 ping for Calais. 
 
 Thus banished for ever from his diocese and his country, 
 he studied how he might best provide for the interests of 
 religion and the spiritual instruction of his people. His 
 first care was to revisit the Irish colleges in Belgium. He 
 
 • FaHi Duhlimmes, in Whitelaw's Hist, of nMin ; Ware's Gcsta Hibernorum, etc., «/ 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 367 
 
 passed, therefore, from Calais to Louvain,* and thence to 
 the other seminaries, and in the beginning of 1667 reached 
 Brussels, where he ordained several priests for the Irish 
 mission.! 
 
 He then directed his attention to the Irish colleges in 
 France. He came to Paris in the summer of 1667,! and, 
 making that city his principal place of residence, he 
 occasionally journeyed, at a very advanced age, to the 
 different Irish seminaries throughout the country. In 
 these he exhorted and instructed the young candidates 
 for the ministry, and held several ordinations, the last of 
 which I find any mention took place at Paris, in January, 
 1669. It was probably the excessive fatigue of one of 
 these visits of pastoral zeal that abridged the term of 
 his pilgrimage here, and hastened the reward of his 
 manifold virtues. The . expatriated confessor was seized 
 with his last sickness at Saumur, in France, on the Loire, 
 and there, with great sentiments of piety, he resigned his 
 heroic soul into the hands of his Creator, about the spring 
 of the year i669.§ 
 
 A-nno 1671. 
 
 MOST REV. DR. JAMES LYNCH, ARCHBISHOP OF TUAM. 
 
 This pious bishop, who succeeded that confessor of the 
 faith Dr. Burke in 1669, experienced in the year 1671 how 
 
 • Walsh's //ist. of Rem. part ii. p. 744, etc. Walsh knew nothing of his grace's history 
 after his arrival in Louvain. 
 
 t See the Registry of ike Priests 0/ Ireland, taken by government in 1704, passim. 
 
 X " Perpetuo damnatus exilio, in Belgium venit, inde Lutetiam ante aliquot menses," says 
 tl'.e MS. memoir to which I have so often referred, and which was copied by the present Lord 
 Arundel from the original MS. paper, written in 1667, and preserved in the convent of St. Isi- 
 dore at Rome, 
 
 § So I learn from a MS. note in Plunket's y»» Prim. p. 31, and from date of Plunket's 
 cimsecration. (He wrote in 1669 from Paris to P. Walsh. See R. 612.) 
 
 With Dr. O'Reilly vras confined the venerable Dr. Patrick Plunket, Bishop of Meath. He 
 was the second son of Christopher, ninth Lord Killeen. joined the Cistercians, became 
 abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin, and, on the recommendation of the nuncio, was promoted, in 1647. 
 
368 Martyrs and Cofifessors 
 
 little the sufferings of the Catholics had been diminished 
 by the restoration of Charles II. A certain wicked apos- 
 tate Augustinian monk, named Martin French, who had 
 been reprimanded by the archbishop, denounced him to 
 the authorities, and had him accused, under the statute of 
 praemunire, of exercising foreign jurisdiction in the British 
 dominions. In consequence of these accusations, the arch 
 bishop was detained for many months in prison, and for 
 some time was in great danger of being led to the scaffold. 
 Archbishop Plunket, on the 24th April, 1 671, thus refers 
 to his sufferings : 
 
 " The good Archbishop of Tuam was imprisoned anew, 
 during the past Lent, on the accusation of Martin French, 
 and was found guilty of prsemunire — that is, of exercising 
 foreign jurisdiction ; but now, having given security, he is 
 allowed to be at liberty till the next sessions of August ; 
 but Nicholas Plunket, who is the best lawyer in the king- 
 dom, and the only defender that the poor ecclesiastics have 
 in such circumstances, writes that he should appeal from 
 the courts of Gal way to the supreme jurisdiction of Dublin, 
 in which there is greater equity." 
 
 On the trial being sent to Dublin, French did not ap- 
 pear to prosecute, and soon afterward, touched with re- 
 pentance, he petitioned the primate to pardon him his 
 guilt and readmit him to the bosom of the holy church. 
 The good prelate, moved by his prayers, and still more by 
 the tears which testified his horror for the course of crime 
 he had pursued, absolved him, in the name of the Holy 
 See, from the censures he had incurred, and wrote most 
 
 to the see of Ardagh. During the bloody days of Cromwell he fled to the Continent, aiid 
 about 1665 was permitted to return to his flock. In 1666, he was imprisoned in Dublin alons 
 with Dr.O'Reilly, and kept in dose confinement for several months. Apparently he escaped 
 from prison ; for, in November, 1667, Dr. French, Bishop of Ferns, in his EUnchus, presented 
 to Pope Clement IX., says that Dr. Plunket then lay hid in the woods, on the mountains, and 
 in the cabins of the poor. He died on the 18th November, 1679, in the seventy-sixth year of 
 his age, and was buried in the chancel oCYJi\\cm.—Cagan's Diocest 0/ Meatli, p. 358. 
 
■W 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^Ji. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 k9 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 ..,.,at-awi ,^ftrf.^.,M 
 
 
In the Reign of Cluirles II. 369 
 
 pressing letters to the Archbishop of Tuam, praying him 
 to receive back the prodigal son and reinstate him in the 
 household of God. 
 
 It was thus Dr. Lynch himself wrote on the 17th Sep- 
 tember, 167 1, to the internuncio at Brussels. After 
 stating that French had repented of his crimes, he adds : 
 
 " He had recourse to the most illustrious lord-primate, 
 who freed him from censures, and more than once notified 
 the same to us by letters, praying also and beseeching us 
 that we would admit to our communion this man, no 
 longer subject to censures or irregularities, and that we 
 would cast every fault, if there were any, upon his own 
 i shoulders, and to this testimony we have given every 
 credence." — Moran's Life of Archbishop Plunket, p. 89. 
 
 jlnno 1074, 
 
 RIGHT REV. DR. JOHN DE BURGO, VICAR-APOSTOLIC OF 
 
 KILLALA. 
 
 Few, even among the Irish prelates, suffered more at the 
 hands of the persecutors than Dr. De Burgo ; of him might 
 be said that he was a " minister of Christ in labors more 
 abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more fre- 
 quent, in deaths often ; in perils of waters, in perils of 
 robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by 
 the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilder- 
 ness, in perils in the sea." 
 
 In his youth he had served for some years as an officer 
 in the Austrian army of Northern Italy ; but, renouncing 
 the world, he dedicated himself to the service of the altar, 
 and was appointed Abbot of Clare, in the west of Ireland. 
 From 1647 till the bishop's death, in 1650, he acted as 
 Vicar-General of Killaloe, and v/e find him three years later 
 arrested by Cromwell, and sent, in company with eighteen 
 
370 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 other priests, into banishment. For some years he dedi- 
 cated himself to the sacred ministry in France and Italy, 
 till 1671, when he received a brief from Rome appointing 
 nim Vicar-Apostolic of the ancient see of Killala. Toward 
 the close of 1672 he reached Ireland ; but in the mean- 
 time the Archbishop of Tuam, as metropolitan, had ap- 
 pointed a vicar-general for the diocese, and, the matter 
 having been referred to Rome, the appointment of Dr. 
 Burke appears to have been cancelled. 
 
 Before the close of 1674 he was arrested by order of the 
 crown, accused of "bringing Protestants to the Catholic faith, 
 contrary to the statutes of the kingdom, exercising foreign 
 jurisdiction, preaching perverse doctrine, and remaining in 
 the kingdom despite the Act of Parliament of 28th March, 
 1674," etc. For two years he was detained in prison with 
 irons on his hands and feet. At the assizes he publicly 
 declared that the Pope, as Vicar of Christ, was head of the 
 Catholic Church. He rejected with scorn a private offer 
 that was made to him of behig promoted to a Protestant 
 bishopric, should he conform to the Established Church. 
 Conducted from Ballinrobe to Dublin, he there displayed 
 the same firmness, and was at length sentenced to the 
 confiscation of his goods and perpetual imprisonment. 
 The Earl of Clanricarde, who was his relative, soon after 
 obtained his release, which was accorded on condition that 
 he should pay the sum of £,?>o sterling (an enormous sum 
 for those days) within one month, and retire to the Con- 
 tinent. 
 
 During his imprisonment De Burgo had made a vow to 
 visit the holy places, should he regain his liberty. In 
 1679, he fulfilled this vow, but on his return from Jerusalem 
 was captured by pirates in the Mediterranean, stripped of 
 all he possessed, and sold as a slave. He, however, found 
 means to escape to Constantinople, where he took refuge 
 with the Austrian ambassador. He thence proceeded to 
 
In the Reign of Char us II. 371 
 
 Venice and Rome, and, receiving frequent aid from the 
 Sacred Congregation, seems to have passed in peace the 
 closing years of his eventful life. 
 
 Most of these particulars are taken from his own narrative 
 in 1683, in the archives of the Propaganda, — See Moratis 
 Life of Archbishop Pltinket, p. 200. 
 
 Anno 1678. * 
 
 . MOST REV. PETER TALBOT, ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. 
 
 His life is given at considerable length by Dr. Renehan, 
 and will no doubt be fully illustrated in the future second 
 volume of Dr. Moran's Archbishops of Dublin. As this 
 present work treats only of the sufferings endured for the 
 faith, I shall give only an abridgment of Dr. Renehan's 
 excellent account of the first part of his life : 
 
 " Peter Talbot was a member of that ancient and very 
 illustrious family that bore the titles of Earls of Wexford 
 and Waterford in Ireland, Earl (at one time Duke) of 
 Shrewsbury in England, etc. His father, Sir William 
 Talbot, lived it Malahide, and was the ancestor of the 
 present Lord falbot of Malahide. Colonel Richard Tal- 
 bot, Earl and Duke of Tyrconnell, and Lord-Lieutenant 
 of Ireland, was a younger brother of our prelate.* Peter 
 was born at Malahide, in the county of Dublin, in the year 
 1620, and, after having been educated as suitably to his 
 rank as a Catholic could in these days of uncivilizing 
 persecution, he felt a heavenly impulse strongly urging 
 him to renounce the wealth and honors of the world at the 
 foot of the cross, and to embrace the poverty, the persecu- 
 tions, and the sacred ministry of Jesus. He was according- 
 ly sent over to Portugal, to be trained up in the spirit and 
 
 • Carte's Omiofid, vol. ii. p. 384. 
 
372 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 to acquire the learning necessary for the ecclesiastical 
 state, and was there received, in the year 1635, into the 
 society of the Jesuits. Having finished his course of 
 philosophy under the Jesuits in Portugal, he was sent to 
 their college in Rome, to acquire in the capital of the 
 Christian world greater knowledge of Scripture, theology, 
 and law. After a long course of probation, he received the 
 holy order of priesthood at Rome, returned soon after to 
 Portugal, and was sent by his superior to teach moral 
 theology at Antwerp.* 
 
 " While Talbot was here enjoying the peaceful pursuits 
 of a collegiate life, his native country was agonizing under 
 the bloody ferocities of Cromwell's army, and England was 
 being disgraced by the murder of one king and the ban- 
 ishment of another. Charles II. fled to Paris, whence he 
 removed to Cologne in July, 1655, after the conclusion of 
 the treaty between the French court and Cromwell. His 
 majesty now turned his thoughts on engaging the Spanish 
 court to assist in his restoration. Talbot possessed a 
 great deal of influence with many of the Spanish ministers 
 in Flanders, and particularly with the Count de Fonsal- 
 dagna, who at that time was the actual governor of the 
 country, though the Archduke Leopold enjoyed the title. 
 His old and special intimacy with Father Daniel Daly, 
 alias Dominick a Rosario, a native of Kerry, and the am- 
 bassador of the King of Portugal at the court of France, 
 besides the vast power and influence of the society to 
 which he belonged, enabled Talbot to be of incalculable 
 service to Charles in the days of his distress. He fie- 
 quently visited his majesty at Cologne, and was always 
 honored with the most gracious and friendly reception. 
 Conversation, after some acquaintance, often turned on 
 the respective merits of the Catholic and Protestant reli- 
 gions. If the king was willing to learn, Talbot was able 
 
 • Life in BiblMluca Patrum S. f. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 373 
 
 and willing to teach ; and so deep was the impression 
 made on the conscience of his majesty that, after a secret 
 conference of some days, he at length shut himself up with 
 our professor in h.s closet for several days, till his convic- 
 tion was fully completed, and every doubt removed from 
 his mind. Charles, however, was not a man who would 
 forfeit a crown to follow his convictions. He knew how 
 much the English mind was maddened by the spirit of bi- 
 gotry against the Catholic Church ; he knew the charac- 
 ter of Ormond and the others that surrounded his person ; 
 he probably saw that those calculating royalists might be- 
 lieve that his conversion would mar their projects for the 
 settlement and partition of Ireland ; and he therefore de- 
 termined to be received into the bosom of the Catholic 
 Church as secretly as possible, and afterward, and then 
 only, to absent himself from Protestant communion, but 
 to make no declaration of his religious opinions. Talbot 
 had thus the pleasure to witness his solemn renunciation 
 of the errors of Protestantism, and to receive him, after a 
 formal profession of faith, into the Catholic Church, and 
 no doubt to administer to him the holy sacraments. 
 
 " The royal convert persevered for a few years ; but af- 
 terward his absence from Protestant service had been 
 jealously remarked by his ministers, and the secret of his 
 conversion was not only whispered on the Continent, but 
 reported in England, when the boasted and amply reward- 
 ed loyalty of his Protestant supporters chuckled at the 
 fact, and called for its denial or an open profession of 
 Protestantism. Charles, with characteristic inconstancy 
 dissembled, denied, renounced the convictions of his hearty 
 with the same readiness as he pledged his honor or his 
 oath, at different times, to support and to repudiate the 
 Irish peace, the Scotch Covenant, and the English Church. 
 Talbot's labor, however, was not lost either to the country 
 or to the unhappy king. His majesty, though a weak and 
 
374 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 ambitious rnan, was a sincere convert, and, if he dared, would 
 have proved that sincerity through life which he evinced 
 at his death. When the earthly crown could no longer be 
 held, Charles made an anxious effort to seize on a crown 
 in heaven. He sent for Father Huddlestone to receive 
 iiim again into the church, and to prepare him for eterni- 
 ty. He needed but Httle instruction ; Talbot had supplied 
 tliat want. His repentance had every appearance of being 
 intense and fervent ; he received the last sacraments with 
 piety, and died a Catholic. 
 
 "Various causes combined, about the year 1668, to in- 
 duce the government to connive at the appointment of a 
 few bishops to some of the many vacant sees ; and thus 
 the episcopal hierarchy, reduced for some years before to 
 three individuals, (as was noticed in the history of the 
 Primates of Armagh,) was saved from utter extinction. 
 Dr. Talbot was the first person, or among the first, chosen 
 by his holiness, and was nominated to the archiepiscopal 
 see of Dublin. How little he ambitioned this arduous but 
 important station may be inferred from the fact that no 
 sooner did he learn that his promotion was intended than 
 he went to Father Joseph Simons, the then provincial of 
 the Jesuits in England, and offered him, and through him 
 the Most Rev. Father Oliver, the general of the order, to 
 reenter the society, if they deemed that course more con- 
 ducive to the interests of religion. But these fathers, con- 
 sidering the invaluable services a person of his talents, in- 
 formation, and family influence was likely to render the 
 Catholic cause in Ireland, not only renounced their claim 
 upon him, but used all their mfluence to forward his pro- 
 motion to a see, and in particular to that of Dublin. 
 When the bull of his appointment arrived, Talbot, in 
 order to avoid publicity, went over privately to Flanders, 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 375 
 
 a [id was consecrated at Ghent, near Louvain, on the 2d 
 of May, 1669. 
 
 " Dr. Talbot lost no time, after his consecration, in visit- 
 ing his diocese. It had been now thirteen years deprived 
 of a bishop, and from extreme old age Dr. Fleming must 
 have been able to afford it little succor during the last 
 sevei years of his life, spent in concealment. A people 
 whose religion and morals were just after being exposed 
 to the dangers of a ten years' civil war, to the horrors of 
 Cromwell's devastation, the fanatical persecution of his 
 followers, the irritating ingratitude of the restored king, 
 and the legalized spoliation of the Act of Settlement, pre- 
 sented a large field for the exercise of episcopal zeal, and 
 required all his attention and activity. Our archbishop 
 wanted neither the energy nor zeal nor abilities fitted to 
 the occasion. On visiting the diocese he found that the 
 Very Rev. James S. Dempsey, the vicar-apostolic, who had 
 provided for its administration during the vacancy, had 
 been necessitated to admit persons of inferior literary quali- 
 fications to the pastoral charge. To remedy this evil and 
 promote learning among the clergy, Talbot held a diocesan 
 synod in August, 1670, wherein it was enacted that all the 
 parishes or benefices should be disposed of in future by 
 concursus to the most successful answerer, and that all the 
 parochial clergy should be examined within a month, and 
 prove their competency for the cure of souls, or be instant- 
 ly deprived thereof. He also commanded that each clergy- 
 man should give catechetical instruction on every Sunday 
 and holyday, not only to the children, but to the people at 
 large. The following March he convoked a second synod, 
 in which other regulations were enacted for reforming the 
 manners of the laity, (specially that no Catholic should at- 
 tempt to marry a Jew or infidel, under pain of excommuni- 
 cation,) that the bans should be solemnly published before 
 
376 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 marriage, and that any of the faithful who dies without re- 
 ceiving the last sacraments through his own fault should 
 be deprived of Christian burial.* 
 
 " From the time of Dr. Talbot's appointment to the see 
 of Dublin, his supposed influence in the English court, his 
 uncompromising opposition to the intrigues of the remon- 
 strants, and his zealous discharge of his sacred duties, ex- 
 posed him to the calumnies and bitter hostility of a large 
 party in Ireland. He was charged particularly with the 
 design of introducing, contrary to law, 'popish aldermen' 
 into the corporation of Dublin, and of reversing the Act of 
 Settlement. Of course the Protestants were excited be- 
 yond measure at the thought of losing their ill-got posses- 
 sions, and they appealed to the English parliament for pro. 
 tection. 
 
 " An address was accordingly presented to the king, re- 
 quiring, among other things, that ' Peter Talbot, pretended 
 Archbishop of Dublin, for his notorious disloyalty aud dis- 
 obedience and contempt of the laws, be commanded by 
 proclamation to depart forthwith out of Ireland and all 
 his majesty's dominions, or otherwise to be prosecuted ac- 
 cording to law,' etc. In consequence of this edict. Dr. 
 Talbot was banished the kingdom, about the beginning of 
 1673. 
 
 " Di. Talbot returned to England in 1675, where he 
 resided for the next two years in Poole Hall, Chesbire.+ 
 His health had been failing so rapidly that he sought and 
 obtained, through the interest of his brother with the 
 Duke of York, Ormond's permission to come to Ireland, 
 ' to die,' as he said, ' in his own country.' Before obtaining 
 this leave, he had to promise to live quietly with his owr 
 
 * Siatuia Dubiinettsia^ (1770,) pp. 80, 8x. 
 
 ♦ Carte, ii. p. 477 ; Harris's Writers, p. 193. 
 
In ifie Reign of Charles II. 377 
 
 family, and to interfere no further in political questions, 
 not because the helpless archbishop, who was borne in a 
 chair to his brother's house, could be suspected of a 
 serious design to subvert the government, but as a plea to 
 justify the severity of the measures already taken against 
 him. 
 
 " Shortly after Dr. Talbot's arrival in Ireland, the Duke 
 of Ormond received a letter from the secretary of state, 
 informing hi'm of the discovery of the 'popish plot,' and of 
 the means adopted to extend it to Ireland ; that Peter 
 Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, was one of the accomplices, 
 and that assassins were hired to murder the duke himself. 
 The duke had no apprehension of that nature at that 
 time, the Irish being in no condition to raise an insurrec- 
 tion, and Peter Talbot in a dying way. He signed,' 
 however, a warrant on the 8th, (October, 1678,) and de- 
 spatched an officer to secure his person.* 
 
 " Dr. Talbot was arrested in his father's house at Car- 
 town, near Maynooth ; his papers, containing nothing but 
 dissertations on controversy, were all seized and carefully 
 examined. He was immediately removed to Dublin ' in a 
 chair, and committed close prisoner to the castle, with a 
 person to attend him in his miserable and helpless condi- 
 tion, the violence of his distemper being scarcely supporta- 
 ble, and threatening his death at every moment.'f Harris 
 adds 'that nothing appeared against him from his examina- 
 tion, nor from those of others. J Yet he was continued in 
 the castle about two years, and died in confinement in the 
 
 * Carte, ii. p. 478. t Carte, ibid. 
 
 X P. Walsh, far the most unscrupulous of his accusers, charges him with reducing to 
 practice the worst maxims of what was unjustly called Jesuitical casuistry. According to that 
 libeller, Dr. Talbot maintained the lawfulness of equivocation, calumny, assassination, murder, 
 treason, etc, provided only the act were useful to yourself, to your family, to your society or 
 order. Walsh asserts that Dr. Talbot was justly expelled by the Jesuits for some grievous 
 crime, which he knows, but will not mention : and on the same page, and with this admi.ssioo 
 before him, he asserts also they were mainly instrumental in procuring his promotion to thg 
 we of Dublin to serve their own interests. — Hist. Remans, pp. 258-260. 
 
378 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 year 1680.'* The reader will no doubt be surprised to 
 find such admissions in the pages of Carte and Harris, 
 and more so still to find their calumnies repeated by 
 authors without number who never notice the statements 
 favorable to the archbishop. 
 
 "To add to the sufferings of this amiable prelate, he 
 saw his own brother, Colonel Talbot, and Father Ryan, 
 superior of the Jesuits, first cast into the same prison, and 
 then, when the horrors of the jail became insupportable, 
 ordered out of the country. And he knew well, if he 
 was deprived of the happiness of sharing in their exile, it was 
 only because the attempt to remove him in his present 
 exhausted state would instantly cause death. 
 
 " It would be unjust to the memory of Dr. Talbot not to 
 give the vivid description of the circumstances connected 
 with his imprisonment and death, left us by a contemporary 
 and countryman, Richard Arsdekin, S.J. This I translate 
 literally from the dedication of the Theologia Tripartita. 
 Its fidelity may be relied on the more because the author had 
 reason to complain of some expressions applied to himself 
 by Dr. Talbot during the discussion on the primacy, and 
 cannot therefore be suspected of partiality. ' After a short 
 time, when the storm of persecution had abated somewhat 
 rather than subsided. Dr. Talbot returned to Ireland, 
 where he labored to restore church discipline, to encourage 
 the Catholics, and to elude the machinations of heretics. 
 But his enemies could not long bear the light. They 
 were incensed at his zeal, and jealous of his influence with 
 the people ; and, as is usually the case, they resolved to 
 lestroy what they feared. Secret accusations were made 
 before a heretical tribunal, suspicions created, all the othei 
 means craftily employed to oppress the just man, opposed 
 to their wicked designs, and whose worst crime was to 
 have the name, the office, and authority of a priest. At 
 
 , • Harris's _WV/V,-rj, book L p. 193. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 379 
 
 length the excellent prelate, always supported by the 
 testimony of a good conscience, was seized on suddenly 
 by wicked officials and cast into a public prison without 
 being guilty of the least offence. There this faithful 
 soldier of Christ was shut up in close imprisonment for 
 some time ; but neither keepers nor prison walls nor 
 chains could restrain that freedom of spirit which anima- 
 ted the true pastor, and made him more careful of the 
 salvation of others than of his own life. While he patient- 
 ly awaited the usual inhuman sentence of that heretical 
 tribunal, his feeble body, no longer a fit tenement for 
 the noble spirit, was broken down by heavy sickness. 
 Still the soldier of Christ struggled on against disease and 
 the filth of a loathsome dungeon, destitute of almost all 
 human aid, with nothing to console him but a firm 
 resolution and conscious innocence. At length, after 
 enduring various and repeated tortures, he suffered death, 
 not indeed beneath the axe of the executioner, but immur- 
 ed in a filthy prison, and he passed to that better world 
 where God has promised a crown of justice to those who 
 strive lawfully. But this most illustrious prelate shall ever 
 live in the memory of men ; he shall ever live in the 
 society of holy confessors ; from him the injustice of man, 
 the cunning and envy of heretics, shall never take away 
 the laurels won in a glorious fight. O blind Tyranny ! 
 thou art deceived : whatever thou dost, whatever thou 
 proposest, the blood of martyrs has been, and ever will be, 
 the seed of Christians ! Of this truth Ireland, ever 
 faithful to her God and to her king, has given for ages, and 
 will continue to give, a noble example.'* 
 
 " Some recent writers have, quite erroneously, fixed the 
 dite of Dr. Talbot's death in 1681, against the unanimous 
 
 • Tkeologia TripariHa Richardi Arsdekitif S.J. ; Prosecuiio Ded. torn. i. edit qiiinta, 
 Antverpise, anno 1682. Arsdekin entered the society in 1642, being then twenty-three yean 
 of age. and was consequently only about one year older than Dr. Talbot. — See Hib. Dont. pp. 
 Vli, 81S 
 
380 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 testimony of our best-informed historians. It is quite 
 certain he died in 1680, and probably at the close of that 
 year. The nuncio wrote from Brussels, December 21. 1680, 
 'that my Lord Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, has died 
 of his sufferings in the prisons of Ireland, (e morto 
 d'infermita nelle carcere d'Ibernia ;) that Dr. Plunket was 
 several times examined, without, of course, any crime being 
 discovered against him, and was still most strictly guarded ; 
 and that Lord Stafford was accused by many of the usual 
 witnesses, and could depend only on the fears of the peers, 
 who did not know, if they admitted such proof, when the 
 same would be used against themselves.' "* 
 
 Anno 1679. 
 
 RIGHT REV. DR. FORSTALL, BISHOP OF KILDARE. 
 
 " Dr. Forstall was a prelate of great virtue and learn- 
 ing, and before his appointment to the see of Kildare^hehad 
 held high ecclesiastical offices in Vienna, in which he won 
 for himself the esteem and favor of the imperial court. 
 He was a member of the Order of St. Augustine, all of whose 
 convents throughout the kingdom had been impoverished 
 or destroyed ; and some idea of the poverty of the Irish 
 Church at this period may be formed from the fact that 
 Dr. Plunket, the martyred archbishop, mentions that the 
 diocese of Kildare yielded to its bishop a revenue of only 
 56 scudi a year, or little more than £1 per month.f 
 And he consequently (20th August, 1677) solicited and 
 obtained for him the administration of the diocese of 
 Leighlin, which' had also fifteen or sixteen priests, and a 
 revenue of only fifty or sixty scudi. 
 
 " Toward the close of the year 1679, Dr. Forstall was 
 
 • Eitract from original documents of Padre Theiner, by L F. R. 
 t Dr. Piunkel also says the diocese had only fifteen priests. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 381 
 
 cast into prison ; and even after his liberation the fury of 
 persecution compelled him to seek for safety in the woods 
 and mountains, u'ntil, in 1683, he closed his earthly career, 
 an exile in the diocese of Cashel." — Moran's Life of Dr. 
 
 Plimket, p. 169. 
 
 — « — 
 
 Anno 1680. 
 
 RIGHT REV. DOMINICK DE BURGO, O.P.P., BISHOP OF ELPHIN. 
 
 " He was born in Ireland about the year 1629, of parents 
 conspicuous alike for the nobility of their race and their 
 constancy in the faith. About the year 1648, when the 
 whole kingdom was torn with war, led by the desire of 
 leading a more perfect life, and devoting himself to the 
 warfare of the Gospel, he entered the holy order of St. 
 Dominick.* He then embarked for Spain, but, being taken 
 prisoner at sea by the heretical English, was carried to 
 Kinsale, where he was despoiled of his clothes and the 
 money he had for his journey, and thrown into prison. 
 Hence he escaped by the singular favor of God, having 
 jumped down from the wall of the prison into the mud left 
 by the receding tide. He lay hid in a wood there for two 
 days, covered with mud up to his neck, because he dared 
 not go to the river to wash. During these two days he 
 neither ate nor drank. At ■ length, he made .his way with 
 difficulty to the house of a certain Catholic nobleman of 
 the name of Roche. Here he was kindly received and 
 harbored until he had recovered his strength, when he was 
 furnished with clothes and money, and allowed to depart in 
 peace. Thus aided, he made his way safely to the house 
 of his mother, who was astonished at his appearance, and 
 msisted that he should not again expose himself to the 
 
 • In the times o*" persecution aspirants to the religious life generally were received into the 
 order and clothed in Ireland, and then proceeded abroad to pass their noviceahip in one of th« 
 Irish monasteries on the Continent. 
 
382 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 dangers of the sea. His determination, however, prevail- 
 ed ; and, having obtained from his mother fresh supplies 
 for his journey, he embarked at Galway, and, reaching 
 Spain in safety, proceeded to Segovia, and spent six years 
 in our convent of the Holy Cross there. When his studies 
 were completed, as the Cromwellian persecution made it 
 impossible to reach Ireland, he proceeded to Andalusia, 
 and thence to Italy, where he dwelt for about sixteen 
 years, much esteemed by all for his probity and zeal for 
 religion. He was held in the highest consideration by the 
 illustrious Father Julius Vincent Gentili, who was twice 
 provincial of the province of Lombardy, and afterward 
 an Archbishop. Dr. Burgo held many high offices 
 in his order, and was in 1671 named by Clement X. 
 Bishop of Elphin, a dignity which he had not sought, but 
 to which he was called unexpectedly, even as Aaron was. 
 He was consecrated at Ghent, in the forty-first year of his 
 age, and immediately returned to his native land, where 
 for thirty years he zealously discharged every duty of his 
 s^icred office. 
 
 " It were long to tell all he suffered in the bitter perse- 
 cution which was got up against the Catholics in England 
 and Ireland in 1680. A reward of two hundred pounds 
 was offered for his apprehension by the viceroy and coun- 
 cil, for which reason he always travelled by night while 
 that persecution lasted. For four months he lay hid in a soli- 
 tary house, and never even put his foot outside the door : 
 but when the time came for consecrating the holy oils 
 (Maundy-Thursday) he travelled by night forty miles from 
 that place. 
 
 " I (John O'Heyn) was his companion all that year, until 
 the illustrious Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Oliver Plunket, 
 was taken prisoner. He often, from his prison in Dublin, 
 warned the Bishop of Elphin of the plans of the supreme 
 council for his apprehension, and by this means much aid- 
 
ht the Reign of Charles IT. 383 
 
 ed him to escape their snares. Had he fallen into their 
 hands, no doubt his fate would have been the same as that 
 of the primate, who was hung, beheaded, and quartered on 
 the 1st of July, 1681. In the war of rebellion against our 
 King James II. he was compelled to take refuge in the city 
 of Galway, out of his own diocese. King James and his 
 queen esteemed him much. When he was driven intc 
 exile, King Louis of France offered him an abbey, but he 
 preferred to go to Louvain, and share the poverty of his 
 order in our college of Holy Cross there. 
 
 " When our convent in Louvain was in a ruinous state, 
 anc had to be vacated for repairs, he went to live with the 
 Friars Minors in the same city. There, in his seventy-fifth 
 year, worn out with labors for religion, having made 
 his confession and received the holy communion and ex- 
 treme unction, he calmly yielded up his soul to his Saviour, 
 on the first day of the year 1704, between the ninth and 
 tenth hour of the evening, and is buried in this church, be- 
 side the high altar." — Hib. Dont. p. 496 ; O'Heyn, p. 33 ; 
 De jFongke, p. 423. 
 
 REV. FATHER DOMINICK LYNZE,* O.P.P. 
 
 " He studied in Spain, and returning to Ireland, led 
 there a most exemplary life, although he was the son of a 
 heretical minister. He showed that 1 he works of faith and 
 grace come not to men by their birth or by nature, but 
 from our Lord God, by Jesus Christ ; for he was so averse 
 to all heretics that he ever avoided their company, although 
 many of them, like the Catholics, sought his society, for he 
 was very agreeable in conversation, although ever observ- 
 mg a religious gravity. He suffered much in the persecu- 
 tion which sprang up in 1680. He lay for a whole year in 
 prison, in close confinement, which he bore with such 
 
 • " Lvnze," This name is probably the same as Lynch- 
 
384 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 equanimity and cheerfulness as to astonish the heretics 
 who spoke with him. After his deHverance from prison 
 he lived until the year 1686, when, fortified with the sacra- 
 ments of the church, he calmly departed to our Lord."— 
 OHeyn, p. 24. 
 
 Anno leSl. 
 
 THE MOST REV. OLIVER PLUNKET, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH. 
 
 For a full account of this illustrious prelate, the latest 
 martyr of the Irish Church, I must refer my readers to the 
 valuable work of Dr. Moran,* from which the following 
 brief account is extracted. As the purport of this work is 
 only to give an account of the sufferings of the martyrs 
 and confessors of the faith, I shall give a very short account 
 of the life of Dr. Plunket up to the time of his apprehen- 
 sion. 
 
 Oliver Plunket was born at Loughcrew, in the county 
 of Meath, in the year 1629. He was a near relative of Dr. 
 Patrick Plunket, who successively ruled the dioceses of Ar- 
 dagh and Meath, as also of Dr. Peter Talbot, Archbishop 
 of Dublin. He was also related to the Earls of Fingall 
 and Roscommon, and to the Barons of Dunsany and Louth. 
 From an early age he showed a desire to devote himself 
 to the sacred ministry, and his education was entrusted to 
 his relative, Dr. Patrick Plunket, then titular Abbot of St. 
 Mary's, Dublin, until the age of sixteen, when he proceed- 
 ed to Rome, there to pursue his studies. In 1643, Father 
 Peter Francis Scarampo, an Oratorian, had been sent by 
 the Holy See on a special mission to Ireland ; in 1645, he 
 returned to Rome, and young Plunket accompanied him. 
 
 Plunket lived in the Irish college, and pursued his studies 
 in the Roman college of the Society of Jesus. In 1654, he 
 
 • Lift of Archbishop Plunket, by Rev. P. Moran, D D. Dublir, 1865. 
 
In the Reigr. of Charles II. jsj 
 
 wa». ordained priest, but, it being impossible at thaf. date 
 for him to proceed to Ireland, he took up his residence 
 with the Jesuit fathers of St. Girolamo ddla Cariti. In 
 1657, he was appointed professor in the college of the 
 Propaganda, which office he held for twelve years. 
 
 On the 9th of July, 1669, Dr. Oliver Plunket was nomi- 
 nated by the Sacred Congregation Archbishop of Armagh, 
 in succession to Dr. Edmund O'Reilly. He wished much 
 to be consecrated in Rome, but it was deemed more pru- 
 dent that he .should be consecrated in Brussels, which was 
 done on the 30th November. 1669. He immediately left 
 for London, and, although detained at Holyhead for twelve 
 days by contrary winds, reached Dublin by the middle of 
 March. 
 
 At this time the violence of the Cromwellian persecution 
 was over ; and although new laws were constantly passed 
 against Catholics, they were little put in execution, and the 
 government connived at the existence of priests, and the 
 viceroy. Lord Berkeley, was favorable to a policy of some- 
 thing like toleration. 
 
 Dr. Plunket immediately hastened to his diocese, where 
 he held two synods and two ordinations, and in a month 
 and a half administered confirmation to more than ten 
 thousand people, and in foiir years to forty-eight thousand 
 six hundred and fifty-five. 
 
 Before the end of 1673, however, the storm of persecution 
 again began to rage ; bishops and regulars were especially 
 sought after, and were compelled , to hide. Dr. Plunket, 
 together with Dr. Brennan, Bishop of Waterford, were con- 
 coaled in a wretched thatched cabin, through the holes in 
 the roof of which the rain poured on their beds, and it was 
 with difficulty they could procure even oaten bread for food. 
 All the convents were destroyed, the monks scattered, and 
 the bishops obliged to hide in the mountains. With very 
 Slight intervals of relaxation, this persecution lasted until 
 
386 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 the death of our holy martyr. In 1678, fresh edicts were 
 issued, and bishops and priests sought for more rigorously 
 than ever. The infamous conspiracy against the lives of 
 Catholics known as the story of the popish plot was set on 
 foot this year in England, and the viceroy, the Duke of 
 Ormond, although his private letters show he was well 
 aware of the falseness of the story, fostered the delusion, 
 and issued fresh edicts against the Catholics : all bishops, 
 Jesuits, regulars, and priests were ordered to leave the 
 kingdom ; all chapels, or Mass-houses as they were called, 
 were closed or pulled down. The first victim was the illus- 
 trious Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Peter Talbot. He had 
 only returned to England from his exile on the Continent 
 in 1676, and a few months before the present outbreak 
 against the Catholics, through the intercession of the Duke 
 of York, obtained permission to revisit and console his 
 spiritual flock. 
 
 In the month of November, 1679, Dr. Plunket left his 
 place of concealment in the secluded parts of his own dio- 
 cese, and came to Dublin to assist, in his last moments, 
 his relative, the aged Bishop of Meath. Ten days later he 
 was arrested in his place of concealment, in the city of 
 Dublin, by a body of militia headed by Hetherington, and 
 by order of the viceroy he was committed a close prisoner 
 to Dublin Castle. This was on the 6th'December, 1679. 
 For six weeks no communication with him was allowed ; 
 but after that term, nothing treasonable having been dis- 
 covered in his papers, he was treated with more lenity, and 
 permitted to receive visits from his friends. The only 
 crime of which he was at first accused was that of remain- 
 ing in the kingdom, notwithstanding the proclamation, and 
 of exercising the functions of his sacred ministry. Thus 
 his relative, the Rev. William Plunket, wrote on the 20th 
 March, 1680, to the Propaganda : " I hastened thither, (to 
 the castle,) and having heard and learned for certain that 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 387 
 
 he had been imprisoned only for being a Catholic bishop, 
 and for not having abandoned the flock of our Lord in obe- 
 dience to the edict published by Parliament, I was some- 
 what consoled, it being his and our glory that he should 
 sufier in such a cause." 
 
 So on his trial the primate declared, " I was a prisoner 
 six months, only for my religion, and there was not a word 
 of treason spoken of against me for so many years." And 
 the attorney-general himself avowed that he was arrested 
 " for being an over-zealous papist." 
 
 But a plot to bring him to trial for complicity in the trea- 
 son of the imaginary " popish plot " was being hatched, 
 and the chief actors in it, as in all the false witness borne 
 against him, were wicked and apostate friars, whom it had 
 been his duty to punish for neglect of the duties of their 
 order. 
 
 Chief among these was a friar named MacMoyer, whom 
 Dr. Plunket had suspended for various crimes, and who 
 was noted for his violence, drunkenness, and immoralities. 
 An indictment against the archbishop for conspiracy was 
 presented to the grand jury of the county of Dublin, and 
 supported by the evidence of this MacMoyer and others, 
 but the grand jury would not find the bill. 
 
 The Protestant bishop Burnet gives the following ac- 
 count of this proceeding : 
 
 " Plunket, the popish Primate of Armagh, was at this 
 time brought to his trial. Some lewd Irish priests, and 
 others of that nation, hearing that England was at that 
 time disposed to hearken to good swearers, thought them- 
 selves well ';;ualified for that employment ; so they came 
 over to swear that there was a great plot in Ireland to 
 bring over a French army, and to massacre all the English. 
 The witnesses were brutal and profligate men ; yet ihe 
 Earl of Shaftesbury cherished them much, they were exa- 
 mined by the Parliament at Westminster, and what they 
 
388 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 said was believed. Upon that encouragement it was reck- 
 oned that we should have witnesses come over in whole 
 companies. Lord Essex told me that this Plunket was a 
 wise and sober man, who was always in a different inter 
 est from the two Talbots, the one of these being the titu- 
 lar Archbishop of Dublin, and the other raised after- 
 ward to be Duke of Tyrconnell. Some of these priests 
 had been censured by him for their lewdness, and they 
 drew others to swear as they had directed them. They 
 had appeared the winter before upon a bill offered to 
 the grand jury, but, as the foreman of the jury, who was a 
 zealous Protestant, told me, they contradicted one an- 
 other so evidently that they would not find a bill. But 
 now that they laid their story better together, and swore 
 against Plunket that he had got a great bank of money to 
 be prepared, and that he had an army listed, and was in 
 correspondence with France to bring over a fleet from 
 thence, he had nothing to say in his own defence, but to 
 deny all. So he was condemned, and suffered, very de- 
 cently expressing himself in many particulars as became 
 a bishop. He died denying everything that had been 
 sworn against him." 
 
 It was not till the month of June, 1680, that the wit- 
 nesses had fully arranged their plans. Armed with com- 
 mendatory letters from the English court, they now re- 
 turned to Ireland assured of success. Among the many 
 precautions taken by the apostate friar MacMoyer, one 
 was to have a government order sent from London to the 
 viceroy that no Catholic should be a member of the jury. 
 " Orders had been transmitted to Ireland," says the pri- 
 mate on his trial, " that I should be tried in Ireland, and 
 that no Roman Catholic should be on the jury, and so it 
 was in both the grand jury and the other jury ; yet there, 
 when I came to my trial, after I was arraigned, not one 
 appeared." Dr. Plunket did not object to this arrange- 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 389 
 
 ment, though in itself most unjust, so conscious was he of 
 his own innocence, and of the known character of his ac- 
 cusers ; and after the words which we have just cited, he 
 again avowed upon his trial : " If I had been in Ireland, I 
 would have put myself on my trial to-morrow, without any 
 witnesses, before any Protestant jury that knew them and 
 me." 
 
 The viceroy, however, decreed that the trial should be 
 held in Dundalk, the scene of the reputed treasonable 
 crimes ; and, as we shall just now see, this alone sufficed 
 to derange all the plans of the witnesses, for they were 
 conscious that their character was well known in that 
 quarter, and that evidence could be without difficulty pro- 
 cured there of their malignity and evil designs and per- 
 juries. Dr. Plunket, writing to the internuncio on the 
 2Sth of July, 1680, the day after his return from Dundalk, 
 gives the following detailed account of the proceedings of 
 this trial : 
 
 "Your letter of the 17th July consoled me in my tribu- 
 lations and miseries. The friar MacMoyer, as well in the 
 criminal sessions of Dundalk as after these sessions, pre- 
 sented a memorial that the trial should not be held in 
 Dundalk, where he was too well known, and that it should 
 be deferred till September or March next, but the vice- 
 roy refused. 
 
 " I was brought with a guard to Dundalk on the 21st of 
 July. Dundalk is thirty-six miles from Dublin. I was there 
 consigned to the king's lieutenant in that district, who treat- 
 ed me with great courtesy ; on the 23d and 24th of July I was 
 presented for trial. A long process was read, but on the 
 24th MacMoyer did not appear to confirm his depositions 
 and hear my defence. I had thirty-two witnesses, priests, 
 friars, and seculars, prepared to falsify all that the friar 
 had sworn, forsooth that I had seventy thousand Catholics 
 prepared to murder all the Protestants, and to establish here 
 
390 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 the Romish religion and popish siiperstitiott ; that I had 
 sent mnnerous agents to different kingdoms to obtain aid ; 
 that I had visited and explored all the fortresses and mari- 
 time ports of the kingdom; and that I held a provincial 
 council in 1678, to introduce the French. He also accused 
 in his depositions, Monsignor Tyrrell ; Rev. Luke Plun- 
 ket, the ordinary of Derry ; and Rev. Edward Dromgole, 
 an eminent preacher. Murphy (the second witness) no 
 sooner heard that the sessions and trial would be held in 
 Dundalk than he fled out of the kingdom ; and hence 
 MacMoyer alleged that he himself could not appear, as 
 he awaited the return of Murphy ; and so these sessions ter- 
 minated, and, according to the laws of this country, I must 
 present myself at three criminal sessions before I can be 
 absolved ; and, as there will be no sessions in Dundalk 
 till the end of March, my counsel and friends recommend- 
 ed me to present a memorial to have the cause adjudg- 
 ed in Dublin at the next criminal sessions of All Saints', 
 and that the jury of Dundalk should be brought to Dublin, 
 which perhaps I may obtain. The manner of proceeding 
 here in criminal cases seems very strange to me. The per- 
 son accused knows nothing of the accusation till the day 
 of trial ; he is allowed no counsel to plead his cause ; the 
 oath is not given to his witnesses, and one witness suffices 
 for the crown. They receive, however, the evidence of 
 the witnesses of the accused, although they do not admin- 
 ister the oath to them. The sessions being over, I was re- 
 conducted, by order of the viceroy, to the Royal Castle of 
 Dublin, to my dear and costly apartment. Considering, 
 however, the shortness of the time spent in Dundalk, it 
 was still more expensive, as I had to bring thirty-two wit- 
 nesses from different parts and maintain them for foui 
 days in Dundalk, and among the guards and servants of 
 the lieutenant I distributed forty crowns. Although the 
 two chief-judges are appointed by the crown, the jury is 
 
In the Reign of Charles IT. 391 
 
 cnosen by the lieutenant of the district of Dundalk. As 
 there are more Catholics than Protestants in the county 
 Louth, MacMoyer, foreseeing that some Catholics would 
 surely be on the jury, and knowing that the lieutenant, 
 who, from his office, is called sheriff, was a friend of mine, 
 presented a memorial that no Catholic should be on the 
 jury, and he obtained his petition. I made no opposition, 
 knowing well that all the Protestants of my district looked 
 upon MacMoyer as a confederate of the Tories, and hence, 
 at the criminal sessions of Armagh, in 1678, he was pro- 
 secuted and fined ; and I knew, moreover, that they all 
 deemed fabulous the story sworn by MacMoyer against 
 me ; and, moreover, his dissolute life was notorious, and he 
 was always half-drunk when he appeared- before the tribu- 
 nals. Murphy fled because he well knew that the jury of 
 Dundalk would have hanged him. He had been imprisoned 
 in Dundalk and escaped ; he was found in the company of 
 the Tories, and he concealed the articles which they stole. 
 It is said that he has gone to England to obtain pardon 
 from the king, that he may afterward appear against me ; 
 not to accuse me in crimine Icesce majestatis, (of treason,) 
 but of exercising papal jurisdiction in this kingdom. An- 
 other witness, Callaghan, accuses me in like manner, and 
 it is an accusation which I deem most glorious. It is 
 more than two years since MacMoyer commenced his ac- 
 cusations against me, as is clear from the depositions. 
 
 " I more than once wrote to your excellency to request 
 my masters to send me some aid. I am at this moment 
 500 crowns in debt; I have to pay here J^i a week for 
 my own and my servant's apartments, and having no 
 means to pay for my food, one of my servants brings it to 
 me in a basket from the house of two Catholic noblemen. 
 This is the truth, coram Deo, et nan mentior ; and although 
 you well know I have not now received one halfpenny from 
 my masters, yet Catholics here, as well as Protestants, can 
 
392 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 with difficulty be induced to believe it. Here there is no 
 such thing as revenue ; as you know, we depend on the 
 benevolence of the CathoHcs, who are reduced to such 
 poverty, especially in my districts, that it is difficult for 
 the parish priests to find the means of subsistence. So 
 many, between bandits and soldiery, are continually in pur- 
 suit of them, that in my district the greater part left their 
 holdings ; in fact, all the miUtary are maintained at the 
 expense of the poor Catholics, and many, not being able 
 to pay, are imprisoned." 
 
 But the scene was now to be soon shifted from the 
 shores of Ireland to the banks of the Thames. Mac- 
 Moyer and his associates felt that it would be impossible 
 for them to attain their wicked purpose in a country where 
 their crimes were so public and the primate so revered ; 
 they therefore petitioned the king that the trial should be 
 transferred to London. The suggestion was pleasing to 
 the court, and about the middle of October Dr. Plunket 
 received a summons to appear before Parliament and the 
 king to answer to the charges imputed to him. There 
 are two letters of the archbishop written on this occasion, 
 one on the 2ist of October, announcing this summons to 
 London, and another, written on board the vessel on the 
 24th, the day of his departure from Ireland. In the former 
 he thus writes : 
 
 " I have been cited to appear before the king and Par- 
 liament in London, and I leave to-day to embark. May all 
 be for the greater glory of God and the salvation of my 
 soul. Another friar has made his appearance as informer. 
 His name is George Coddan : he was imprisoned for some 
 crime, and, to obtain his liberty, became informer a{':ainst 
 me and against Dr. Hugo, one of the chapter of Armagh, 
 alleging that he was nuncio of the pope. A third friar, 
 also, a certain Paul Gormley, who was prisoner in Derry, 
 being arrested for robbery, now gives evidence in order to 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 393 
 
 save himself: He studied in Prague. I request you to 
 speak to Mr. Joyce that he may transmit the money to Mr, 
 John Comin without delay. The expenses are and will be 
 intolerable, and already I have sold a part of the few things 
 I had, and pledged the remainder, even to the chalice and 
 cross. From London, if possible, you will receive further 
 intelligence. I have been deprived of pen, ink, and paper. 
 I write sub galli cantu et clam ac furtive. Let Mr. Joyce 
 not mind the exchange, for necessitas*non habet legem. One 
 consolation there is, that the captain of the guard which 
 accompanies me is not my enemy. Dr. Tyrrell, Mr. Luke 
 Plunket, and Dr. Dromgole have been declared guilty of 
 treason by the grand jury. A strange thing that, on the 
 mere deposition of witnesses, sentence should be given 
 against persons who are a.bsent and unheard ! 
 
 "I request you to communicate this intelligence to 
 Monsignor Cybo, or to send him this letter. There are 
 many of the Irish nobility and gentry here accused of this 
 Utopian conspiracy, as my Lord Poer, now Earl of Tuam ; 
 my Lord Brittas, etc. I recommend myself to the sacrifices 
 and prayers of all. 
 
 "2 1st October, 1680." 
 
 I will now give his trial, from the account printed in 
 1681: 
 
 "On the 3d of May, 1681, in Easter term. Dr. Oliver 
 Plunket was arraigned at the king's bench bar for high 
 treason, and for endeavoring and compassing the king's 
 death, and to levy war in Ireland, and to alter the religion 
 there, and to introduce a foreign power. And at his 
 arraignment, before his plea, he urged for himself that he 
 was indicted of the same high treason in Ireland and 
 arraigned, and at the day for his trial the witnesses against 
 him did not appear ; and therefore he desired to know if 
 he could be tried here for the same fact. The court told 
 him that, by a statute made in this kingdom, he might be 
 
394 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 tried in the Court of King's Bench, or by Commission of 
 Oyer and Terminer in any part of England, for facts 
 arising in Ireland, and that this arraignment there (he 
 being never tried on it) was not sufficient to exempt him 
 from being tried here * He then desired time for his 
 witnesses, which they told him he could not do till aftei 
 plea pleaded, whereupon he pleaded not guilty, and put 
 himself upon the country for his trial ; and after some 
 consideration had about time to be allowed him to bring 
 his witnesses from Ireland, the court appointed the day 
 for his trial to be the first Wednesday in next term, which 
 was full five weeks' time. 
 
 " And accordingly, on Wednesday, the 8th of June, in 
 Trinity term, he was brought to his trial, and proclamation, 
 as in such cases is usual, being made, it proceeded thus rf 
 
 " Clerk of Crown. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand. 
 These good men which thou shalt hear called and per- 
 s ^1 ally appear are to pass between, etc. 
 
 " Plunket, May it please your lordship : I have been 
 
 • This was under a most iniquitous and unconstitutional act of the English Parliament, and 
 its application in Dr. Plunket's case was peculiarly outrageous. To send him to be tried by a 
 London jury of that day was to hand over the good prelate lo enemies thirsting for his blood ; 
 it was to procure credence for his perjured accusers, removing them from the country where 
 their crimes and perjuries were known, and where Protestant juries had already refused 
 credence to their sworn testimony. It was also, in the existing circumstances, to deprive the 
 accused of the probability of defence, and to oblige him to answer the highest charge against 
 the crown before a court where there could be no witnesses in his favor, no evidence of his 
 innocence. — Moran, p. 322. 
 
 t The judges on the trial were the Lord Chief-Justice Sir Francis Pemberton and Judges 
 Dolbein and Jones. According to the truly barbarous policy of the law in fhe seventeenth cen- 
 tury, (and indeed the same law was in force till a very late period,) no person accused of treason 
 was al lowed the assistance of counsel, unless in the case that some purely legal question should 
 arise during the trial. Hence Dr. Plunket now stood alone at the bar to plead his causf 
 btfoie judges who seemed to vie with each other in their partiality for the perjured witnesse\ 
 and in their animosity against the accused, while at the same time the jury had naught to 
 guide them in their decision but the long-concocted, and nevertheless occasionally conflicting, 
 evidence of thf^se perjurers. One instance will show the bias of the judges. When, at the 
 tlose of the first witness's er dence, Dr. Plunket asked him why, if all he had said were true, 
 Tje had never during thf rtast seven years given any notice to the government of the plo/ , the 
 chief-justice, seeing this witness somewhat perplexed, suggested to him an answer, saying, 
 ■* Of what religion were you then ?" and the witness replying, " A Roman Catholic," Justice 
 Dolbein at once added, " Therefore it will be no wonder you did not disccver the plot '* - 
 Moran, p. 324, 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 395 
 
 kept close prisoner for a long time — a year and a half — in 
 prison. When I came from Ireland hither, I was told by 
 persons of good repute, and a counsellor-at-law, that I could 
 not be tried here ; and the reasons they gave me were that, 
 first, the statute of Henry VIII. and all other statutes made 
 here were not received in Ireland unless there were an ex- 
 press mention made of Ireland in them : so that none were 
 received there but such as were made before Poyning's Act. 
 So I came with that persuasion that I could not be tried 
 here, till, at my arraignment, your lordships told me it was 
 not so, and that I must be tried here, though there was no 
 express mention made of Ireland. Now, my lord, upon 
 that, whereas my witnesses were in Ireland, and I knew 
 nothing of it, and the records upon which I very much 
 rely were in Ireland, your lordship was pleased to give me 
 time from the 4th of the last month to this day ; and in 
 the meantime, as your lordship had the affidavit here 
 yesterday, and as Captain Richardson can testify, I have 
 not despatched only one, but two, to Ireland, into the 
 counties of Armagh, Dublin, etc., and where there were 
 records very material to my defence ; but the clerk of the 
 crown would not give me any copy of any record at all, 
 unless he had some express order from your lordship ; so 
 that, whether it were that they were mistaken or wilfully 
 refused, I could not get the records, which were very 
 material for me ; for in some of those records some of 
 those that accuse me were convicted of high crimes, and 
 others were outlawed and imprisoned and broke prison ; 
 and there were other records also of excommunication 
 against some of them, and I could not get the records 
 unless your lordship would instruct me some way or other 
 how I can get over them that are most material for my de- 
 fence The servants that I sent hence, and took shipping 
 for Ire'and were two days at sea, and cast back again, 
 and from thence forced to go to Holyhead, and from 
 
396 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Holyhead in going to Dublin they were thirteen or 
 fourteen days, the winds were so contrary ; and then my 
 servant went about to go into the county of Armagh and 
 Derry, that were a hundred miles from Dublin, and Meath, 
 and other places, so that in so short a time, my lord, it 
 was morally impossible for them to have brought the 
 witnesses over ; and those that were ready to have come 
 would not stir at all unless they had a pass from hence, 
 because some of them were Roman Catholics, and they 
 had heard that here some were taken prisoners that were 
 Roman Catholics, and that none ought to come without a 
 pass ; and, they being witnesses against the king, they 
 might be clapped up here, and brought into very ill con- 
 dition ; so they sent one over that made affidavit. 
 
 " Lord Chief-yustice. It was the affidavit was read here 
 yesterday. 
 
 " Plutiket. So that, my .lord, I conceive your lordship 
 will think I did it not out of any intent to put off my trial, 
 for Captain Richardson is here, who knows that I wrote 
 by the post, and desired them to come with the packet- 
 boat, and they wrote over to the captain after they were 
 landed ; so that I depended upon the wind and weather 
 for my witnesses, and wanted your lordship's order for the 
 records to be brought over, and that their examination 
 might be brought into court, and their own original exami- 
 nation here might be compared with it. So I humbly beg 
 your lordship's favor ; the case is rare, and scarce happens 
 in five hundred years, that one should be in my circum- 
 stances. I am come here, where no jury knows me nor 
 the quality of my adversaries. If I had been in Ireland, I 
 would have put myself upon my trial to-morrow, without 
 witnesses, before any Protestant jury that knew them and 
 me. And when the orders went over that I should be 
 tried in Ireland, and that no Roman Catholics should be 
 upon the jury, and so it was in both the grand and other 
 
In the Reigit of Charles II. 397 
 
 jury, yet then when I came to my trial, after I was ar- 
 raigned, not one appeared. This is manifest upon the re- 
 cord, and can be proved. 
 
 " Lord Chief- Justice. There was no prosecution of you 
 there. 
 
 " Plunket. But, my lord, here is no jury that knows me 
 or the quality of my adversaries, for they are not a jury 01 
 the neighborhood that know them,* and therefore my case 
 is not the same with other cases. . . . Therefore I 
 beseech your lordship that I may have time to bring my 
 records and witnesses, and then I will defy all that is upon 
 earth and under the earth to say anything against me. 
 
 "Lord Chief-Justice. Look you, Mr. Plunket, 'tis in 
 vain for you to talk and make this discourse here now. 
 You must know that, by the laws of this kingdom, when a 
 man is indicted and arraigned of treason or felony, 'tis not 
 usual to give such time. 'Tis rare that any man hath had 
 such time as you have had — five weeks' time — to provide 
 your witnesses. If your witnesses are so cautious, and are 
 such persons that they dare not or will not venture for fear 
 of being apprehended, or will not come to England with- 
 out such and such cautions, we cannot tell how to help 
 it. . . . 
 
 " Clerk of Crown. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand. 
 You of the jury look at the prisoner and hearken to his 
 charge : 
 
 " He stands indicted by the name of Oliver Plunket, late 
 of Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, doctor of di- 
 vinity, for that he, as a false traitor against the most illus- 
 trious and most excellent prince our sovereign lord Charles 
 the Second, . . . at Dublin, in the kingdom of Ireland, 
 in parts beyond the seas, with divers other traitors un- 
 known, traitorously did compass the death of the king. 
 
 • The writ for summoning a jury runs, " shall summon twelve men of the neighborhood 
 who best may know and judge." 
 
398 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 And to fulfil and accomplish his said most wicked treasons 
 ... did consult and agree our said sovereign lord the 
 king that is now to death and final destruction to bring, 
 . . . and tlie religion of the Romish Church into the king- 
 dom of Ireland aforesaid to introduce and establish, etc. 
 
 "Mr. Attorney-General. May it please your lordship, 
 and you, gentlemen of the jury, the character this gentle- 
 man bears, as primate under a foreign and usurped juris- 
 diction, will be a great inducement to you to give credit to 
 that evidence we shall produce before you." 
 
 After the speech of the attorney-general, of which I 
 have given the opening and most characteristic words, the 
 witnesses were called. These were some apostate friars 
 and bad priests whose evil doings Dr. Plunket had pun- 
 ished, and one or two friends of theirs of similar character. 
 Their character and history are fully traced by Dr. Moran. 
 
 It would only weary my readers were I to recount the 
 ridiculous tales they told of Dr. Plunket's connection with 
 what they called the popish plot. According to them, 
 this bishop (whose most private letters, now published, 
 show he was incessantly occupied in the labors of his epis- 
 copate, and could not obtain for himself a revenue of even 
 near £,ap a year, and frequently received only £,1^ rais- 
 ed annually large sums for the support of a French army,* 
 was to raise himself 70,000 men, and spent his time sur- 
 veying the ports of Ireland for the purpose of a military 
 landing, and kept 100 priests in his own house, when that 
 house was a thatched cabin of two rooms, and when there 
 were only sixty-two priests in the whole diocese of Ar- 
 magh. The only witness who showed even ingenuity in 
 concocting his tale was Moyer, an apostate Franciscan 
 friar, who produced a paper — whether a letter or a copy of 
 
 nnl 
 
 • They swore that for this purpose he raised forty shillings and fifty shillings a year fti ... 
 each priest, besides other sums, whereas in reality they were never able to pay the twenty 
 •hillings which they were bound to contribute for the archbishop's own support. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 399 
 
 the diocesan statutes is not clear — signed by Dr. Plunket, 
 in which it was ordered that ;^50 a year should be raised 
 by the clergy of Ireland to support their ecclesiastical agent 
 in Rome. Moyer had added a cipher, making the sum 
 ^500, and said the money was for the furthering of the 
 plot. On reading the document, however, Mr. Justice 
 Dolbein observed, " That is but negotia generally ;" and Dr. 
 Plunket pointed out the real sum was only ;£so. On which 
 the chief-justice said, " Look you, Mr. Plunket, consider 
 with yourself, ;^50 or .;^500 in this case is not five far- 
 things difference, but the money was to be raised by your 
 order." 
 
 " Plunket. Ay, but whether it was not raised to this effect : 
 there is never a nation where the Roman Catholic religion 
 is professed but hath an agent for their spiritual affairs at 
 Rome, and this was for the spiritual affairs of the clergy of 
 Ireland." 
 
 This was the only fragment of documentary or corrobo- 
 rative evidence produced. Moyer, indeed, produced what 
 he called a translatien of a letter of the primate's, but the 
 original was not produced, and the pretended translation 
 was evidently a forgery. The other witnesses, when asked 
 for the orders which they swore they had received from 
 Dr. Plunket to raise money for the plot, answered that 
 they had left them in Ireland, not thinking they would be 
 asked for. But Titus Oates had proved that no fable was 
 too gross for the credulity of that day, if only it were re- 
 lated of papists.* Dr. Plunket's answer to these absurd 
 charges could only consist, besides their own internal 
 inconsistencies and extravagance, in proving the bad char- 
 acter of the witnesses. But this he was not allowed to do. 
 
 • The most complete proof of the utter groundlessness of all the allegations in reference to 
 these pretended popish plots is the fact that, although all the most secret correspondence 
 of the persons alleged to have taken part in or been cognizant of them has since been pub- 
 lished, there is not a single allusion throughout which can be tortured into a reference to th« 
 great plot in which they were supposed to be engaged. 
 
400 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 We have seen already how the chief-justice met the na- 
 tural question of why they did not reveal his pretended 
 •reason for so many years, or while he was in prison in 
 Ireland, or on his trial at Dundalk, by the suggestion that 
 they were Catholics, and that that would account for any- 
 thing. But he protected the witnesses against the truth 
 still further. 
 
 "Dr. Plunket. My lord, to show what was part of the 
 falling out, (of Friar Meyer with himself,) I would ask him if 
 he was indicted of any crime and found guilty by a jury .? 
 
 " Mayer. That was for discovering, for I discovered it 
 before. 
 
 " Plunket. My lord, he confesses he was convicted for 
 giving powder and shot to the rebels. 
 
 " Mr. Justice Dolbein. No ; he does not say so. Produce 
 the record, if you have any of such thing.* 
 
 " Mr. Sergeant Jeffries. Look you. Dr. Plunket, if you 
 will ask him any questions that by law he is bound to 
 answer, do it, of God's name ; we will not interpose. But 
 if you ask him any questions that may tend to accuse him- 
 self, we must tell you he is not bound to answer them. 
 
 " Plunket. He hath been convicted and found guilty ; 
 he will confess it himself 
 
 " Lord Chief-Justice. He is not bound to answer such 
 a question.! Look you, Mr. Plunket, don't misspend your 
 own time ; for the more you trifle in these things {he less 
 time you will have for your defence. I desire you now to 
 consider, and well husband your time for your defence. 
 What have you to say for yourself.'' 
 
 • Tlie judges had judicial knowledge that the Irish courts had refused to give copies of an 
 records without pn express order from themselves, Jthe Court of King's Bench in England,) and 
 they had noi given any such order. — Trial, p. 62, 
 
 t This was not only manifestly unjust, but wholly illegal. A witness is not bound to 
 criminate himself— that is, to confess a crime of which he has not been found guilty ; but he is 
 bound to answer whether he has been convicted or not, for this does in no way endanger him 
 • But the chief-justice would neither give an order for the production of the witnesses' convic- 
 tions, nor allow them to be asked whether they had been convicted. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 401 
 
 " Plunket. My lord, I tell you I have no way to defend 
 myself, in that I was denied time to bring over my records 
 and my witnesses, which were ten or twelve. And if I 
 had them here, I would stand in defiance of all the world 
 to accuse me ; but I have not sufficient time to bring over 
 my records and my witnesses, and I am brought here from 
 out of my native country. Were I in Ireland, there both I 
 and they should be known ; but when I was to be tried 
 there, they would not appear ; and it is false and only malice. 
 These men used to call me Oliverus Cromwellus out of spite. 
 . . . As to the first point, I answer that I never receiv- 
 ed a farthing of money out of my own district ; and, but 
 for my own livelihood — and that I can prove by those that 
 have received it for me — that I never received over three- 
 score pounds a year in my life, unless some gentleman 
 would now and then give me ten shillings for my relief 
 For, my lord, this is the way in Ireland : every priest hath 
 so many families allotted to him, and every Catholic family 
 gives two shillings a year, (as they that profess that way 
 know,) and the priests give me, who am superior over them 
 in my owr district,- some twenty shillings, some thirty 
 shilhilgs, and I never got so much in my life as to maintain 
 a servant, and this was attested before the council in Ire- 
 land ; . . . and I never had above one servant, and the 
 house I lived in was a little thatched house, wherein was 
 only a little room for a library, which was not seven foot 
 high, where once this fellow came to affront me, because I 
 had hindered him from begging ; and that's for the money. 
 . . . Your lordship sees how I am dealt with. First 
 and foremost, I have not time to bring my witnesses, or 
 my records, which if I had I would not weigh one farthing 
 to leave my cause with any jury in the world. Besides all 
 this, I am brought out of my own native country, where 
 these men lived and I lived, and where my witnesses and 
 records are, which would show what these people are. I 
 
402 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 sent by the post and did all that I could, and what can 1 
 say when I have not my witnesses against these people ? 
 They may swear anything in the world ; you cannot but 
 observe the improbability of the thing in itself, and unto 
 what a condition I am brought. My lord, my life is in 
 imminent danger, because I am brought out of my own 
 country, where these people would not be believed against 
 me. 
 
 " Then the counsel for the crown spoke, and the chief- 
 justice charged the jury bitterly against the prisoner, 
 saying : 
 
 " These things do seem to be very plain by the witness- 
 es, that he himself hath taken a commission, or a grant, or 
 what you will please to call it, from the pope to be primate 
 of Ireland, that he hath taken upon him to make laws as 
 the provincial, and that he hath taken and endeavored to 
 settle the popish religion in that kingdom, and in order to 
 that he hath invited the aid of the French army. 
 
 "Then the jury withdrew for a quarter of an hour, and 
 • being returned gave this verdict : 
 
 " Clerk of the Crozvn. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand. 
 How say you, is he guilty of high treason wheraaf he 
 stands indicted, or not guilty .' 
 
 " Foreman. Guilty. 
 
 " Plunket. Deo gratias, God be thanked. 
 
 " Then the verdict was recorded, and the court rose. 
 And the keeper went away with his prisoner. 
 
 "On Wednesday, the 15th June, 1681, Oliver Plunket 
 was brought to the bar to receive judgment. 
 
 "Mr. Attorney-General. My lord, I pray your judg- 
 ment against the prisoner Oliver Plunket. 
 
 " Clerk of the Crown. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand. 
 Thou hast been indicted of high treason, thou hast been 
 thereupon arraigned, thou hast thereunto pleaded not guilty, 
 and for thy trial hast put thyself upon God and the country, 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 403 
 
 which country hath found thee guilty. What hast thou to 
 say for thyself why judgment of death should not pass upon 
 thee, and execution be thereupon awarded according to the 
 law? 
 
 " Plunket. My lord, may it please your lordship, I have 
 something to say, which, if your lordship will consider se- 
 riously, may occasion the court's commiseration and mercy. 
 I have, my lord, for this fact been arraigned in Ireland, 
 and brought to my trial there. At the day of my trial all 
 the witnesses voluntarily absented themselves, seeing I had 
 records and witnesses to convince them evidently, and show 
 what men they were, and the prepensed malice that they 
 did bear to me, and so, finding that I could clear myself evi- 
 dently, they absented themselves. On thedayof my trial no 
 Christian appeared, but hither over they come, and procure 
 that I should be brought hither, where I could not have a 
 jury that knew the qualities of my adversaries, or who knew 
 me, or the circumstances of the places, times, and persons. 
 The juries here, as I say, were altogether strangers to 
 these affairs ; and so, my lord, they could not know many 
 things that conduce to a fair trial ; and it was morally im- 
 possible they should know it. I have been accused chief- 
 ly for surveying the ports, for fixing upon Carlingford for 
 the landing of the French, for the having of 70,000 men 
 ready to join with the French. 'Tis well known that in all 
 the province of Ulster — take men, women, and children of 
 the Roman Catholics — they could not make up 70,000. 
 This a jury there, my lord, had known very well ; and, 
 therefore, the laws of England, which are very favorable to 
 the prisoner, have provided that there should be a jury of 
 the place where the fact was committed, as Sir Thomas 
 Gascoine, as I have heard, had a Yorkshire jury, though 
 he was tried in London. And then, after my coming here, 
 I was kept close prisoner for six months, nor any Chris- 
 tian was permitted to come at rae, nor did I know any- 
 
404 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 thing how things stood in the world. I was brought here 
 the 3d of May, to be arraigned, and I did petition your 
 lordship to have some time for my trial, and I would 
 have had it put off till Michaelmas ; but your lordship 
 did not think fit to grant so long, but only till the 8th 
 of this month, when my witnesses, who were ready at 
 the seaside, would not come over without passes ; and 
 I could not get over the records without an order from 
 hence, which records would have shown that some of 
 the witnesses were indicted and found guilty of high 
 crimes, some were imprisoned for robberies, and some 
 of the witnesses were infamous people. So I petition- 
 ed, the 8th of this month, that I might have time ^or 
 twelve days more, but your lordship thought, when the 
 motion was made, that it was only to put off my trial ; and 
 now my witnesses are come to Coventry yesterday morn- 
 ing, and they will be here in a few days ; and so, for want 
 of time to defend myself in, I was exposed to my adversa- 
 ries, who were some of my own clergy, whom, for their 
 debauched lives, I have corrected, as is well known there. 
 I will not deny myself but that, as long as there was any 
 toleration and connivance, I did execute the function of 
 a bishop, and that, by the second of Elizabeth, is only a 
 pr(Ziniinire, and no treason. So that, my lord, I was ex- 
 posed defenceless to my enemies, whereas now my wit- 
 nesses are come that could make all appear. And, my 
 lord, for those depositions of the 70,000 men, and the 
 moneys that are collected of the clergy in Ireland, they 
 cannot be true, for they are a poor clergy, that have no re- 
 venue nor land ; they live as the Presbyterians do here 
 There is not a priest in all Ireland that hath, certainly 01 
 uncertainly, above threescore pounds a year ; and that I 
 should collect of them forty shillings apiece for the raising 
 of an army, or for the landing of the French at Carling- 
 ford, if it had been brought before a jury in Ireland it 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 405 
 
 woul 1 have been thought a mere romance. If they had 
 accused me of z. prcstnunire for the exercise of my episco- 
 pal function, perhaps they had said something that might 
 have been believed ; but, my lord, as I am a dying man, 
 and hope for salvation bymy Lord and Saviour, I am not 
 guilty of one point of treason they have sworn against me, 
 no more than the child that was born but yesterday. I 
 have an attestation under my Lord of Essex's hand con- 
 cerning my good behavior in Ireland ; and not only from 
 him, but from my Lord Berkley, who was also governor 
 there, which the king's attorney saw. But here I was 
 brought, here I was tried, and, having not time to bring 
 my witnesses, I could not prove my innocence, as other- 
 wise I might. So that, if there be any case in the world 
 that deserves compassion, surely my case does. And 'tis 
 such a rare case, as I believe you will not find two of them 
 in print, that one arraigned in Ireland should be tried here 
 afterward for the same fact. My lord, if there be any- 
 thing in the world that deserves pity, this does ; for I can 
 say, as I hope for mercy, I was never guilty of any one 
 point that they swore against me. And if my petition for 
 time had been granted, I could have shown how all was 
 prepense malice against me, and have produced all cir- 
 cumstances that could make out the innocence of a person. 
 But not having had time, and being tried, I am at your 
 mercy. 
 
 "Lord Chief-Justice. . . . You have done as much 
 as you could to dishonor God in this case ; for the bottom 
 of your treason was your setting up your false religion, than 
 which there is not anything more displeasing to God or 
 more pernicious to mankind in the world — a religion that 
 is ten times worse than all the heathenish superstitions, the 
 most dishonorable and derogatory to God and his glory of 
 all religions or pretended religions whatsoever, for it un- 
 dertakes to dispel se with God's laws, and to pardon the 
 
406 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 breach of them. So that certainly a greatei crime tht .€ 
 cannot be committed against God than for a man to en- 
 deavor the propagation of that religion. . , . 
 
 " Pbmket. How could any one foresee, unless he was 
 Almighty God, that they would deny it, or that he could 
 not get out a copy of a record, paying for it, without a pe- 
 tition ? All the friends I had told me upon motion there 
 it might be had ; but here I have it under the lieutenant's 
 and council's hands that they would give no copy of re- 
 cords without order from hence, which, before I could 
 know it, it was impossible for me to have them ready 
 against my trial. . . . There were two friars and a 
 priest whom I have endeavored to correct this seven years, 
 and they were renegades from our religion, and declared 
 apostates. . . . 
 
 " May it please your lordship to give me leave to speak 
 one word. If I were a man that had no care of my con- 
 science in this matter, and did not think of God Almighty, 
 or conscience, or heaven, or hell, I might have saved my 
 life ; for I was offered it by divers people here, so I would 
 but confess my own guilt and accuse others. But, my 
 lord, I would rather die ten thousand deaths than wrong- 
 fully accuse anybody. And the time will come when your 
 lordship will see what these witnesses are that have come 
 in against me. I do assure your lordship, if I were a man 
 that had not good principles, I might easily have saved my 
 own life, but I had rather die ten thousand deaths than 
 wrongfully to take away one farthing of any man's goods, 
 one day of his liberty, or one minute of his life. 
 
 " Lord Chief-yustice. I am sorry to see you persist in 
 the principles of that religion. 
 
 " Plunket. T! ey are those principles that God Almighty 
 cannot dispense withal. 
 
 "Lord Chief-Justice. Well, however, the judgment 
 which we give you is that which the law says and speaks. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 407 
 
 And therefore you must go from hence to the place from 
 whence you came — that is, to Newgate ; and from thence 
 you shall be drawn through the city of London to Tyburn ; 
 there you shall be hanged by the neck, but cut down be- 
 fore you are dead, your bowels shall be taken out and burnt 
 before your face, your head shall be cut off, and your body 
 be divided into four quarters, to be disposed of as his ma- 
 jesty pleases. And I pray to God have mercy on your 
 soul. 
 
 " Plunket. God Almighty bless your lordship. And 
 now, my lord, as I am a dead man to this world, and as I 
 hope for mercy in the other world, I was never guilty of 
 any of the treasons laid to my charge, as you will hear in 
 time ; and my character you may receive from my Lord- 
 Chancellor of Ireland, my Lord Berkley, my Lord Essex, 
 and the Duke of Ormond. 
 
 " Then the keeper took away his prisoner, and, upon 
 Friday, the ist of July, he was executed according to the 
 sentence." 
 
 I shall now give the account of his execution from Dr. 
 Moran : 
 
 "Friday, the nth of July, 1681, was the day fixed for the 
 execution ; and at an early hour Dr. Plunket was conducted 
 from prison to the scaffold at Tyburn. The dauntless 
 spirit which he displayed while awaiting in prison the car- 
 rying out of the fatal sentence, and the heroic sanctity 
 with which he disposed himself to receive the martyr's 
 crown, belong rather to the next chapter ; for the present 
 it will suffice to give some extracts from a manuscript nar- 
 rative presented the same year to the Sacred Congregation, 
 and which was not improbably written by Father Teyling, 
 a distinguished member of the Society of Jesus. It is en- 
 titled A Brief Narrative of the Imprisonment, Accusations, 
 and Death of Monsignor Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh, 
 and Primate of Ireland, executed at Tyburn, in London, 
 
4o8 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 the nth* of yuly, 1681. Many of the facts, however 
 which it contains have already been commemorated from 
 other sources, wherefore we shall be content with present- 
 ing those passages which add new circumstances connect- 
 ed with the imprisonment and death of our holy prelate. 
 
 " The glorious death of this prelate, deserving of eternal 
 memory, as well for his innocence as for the heroic con- 
 stancy with which he supported his atrocious penalty, has 
 awakened in many a devout curiosity to learn its circum- 
 stances, and especially in those who will remember to have 
 known and conversed with him in this city of Rome, where 
 he lived for so many years, at first as student of the Irish 
 college, and afterward as professor of theology for many 
 years in the college of the Propaganda. Wherefore, not 
 to defraud so holy a desire, while we await a more com- 
 plete narrative of those facts, we shall here relate what is 
 known for certain, partly from various letters, and partly 
 from his own discourse, which may now be had in print in 
 many languages. . . . 
 
 " At the same time and place sentence of death was also 
 passed against a certain Fitzharris, a man for many and 
 heinous crimes deserving of that punishment ; this served 
 to form a contrast with Dr. Plunket and add new lustre to 
 his innocence. On fhe sentence of death being passed, 
 Fitzharris, by the terror of his looks, his trembling, and 
 the complete failure of strength, showed that his heart 
 was not less feeble than guilty. On the contrary, the pri- 
 mate, as well when awaiting the sentence as when it was 
 being passed, and after it, displayed such a frankness of 
 soul and heart, such a serene and joyous countenance, and 
 was so composed in all his actions and deportment, that all 
 were able to perceive, not only his perfect innocence, but, 
 moreover, his singular virtue, which was master and supe- 
 rior to every emotion of passion. And concerning all this 
 
 • New style. In England they stUI observed old style. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 409 
 
 the Catholics who were present wrote endless praises, at- 
 testing that none could wish for a deportment more noble, 
 more amiable, more worthy of Him whom he there repre- 
 sented. Having heard the sentence, (turning his thoughts 
 to his soul, and nowise solicitous as to the sufferings des 
 tined for his body,) he asked as a favor from the judge to be 
 allowed to treat of spiritual matters with a Catholic priest. 
 'You will have,' replied the judge, 'a minister of the 
 Church of England.' But he answered, ' I am obliged for 
 your good intentions, but such a favor would be wholly 
 useless to me.' 
 
 " The primate being reconducted to prison after this pub- 
 lic and so glorious trial, there arose between the Catho- 
 lics and the Protestants an eager strife who would visit 
 him and converse with him — the former attracted by a 
 singular devotion, the latter by an extraordinary curiosity ; 
 and he, during the few days that he survived, received both 
 with such courtesy, with such a sweetness, and calmness, 
 and amiableness of manner, that the Catholics departed 
 truly edified, and the Protestants were not only exceeding- 
 ly contented with his deportment, but also rendered more 
 affectionate toward the Catholics. Before his examination 
 he was able to confer with a spiritual father, to whom he 
 manifested, as that which most disturbed him, his having 
 no horror of death, on account of which he feared that he 
 'was not well prepared for it, which shows his humility, and 
 with what worthy sentiments he approached his death, as 
 the only scruple which disturbed him was one derived 
 from a special and excessive grace which God granted to 
 him. On his part, he was nowise negligent in disposing 
 himself for this great grace ; for, in addition to the suffer- 
 ings of prison, to the afflicting journeys so patiently borne 
 by him, to the generous and repeated pardon which he so 
 often breathed for his enemies in exchange for their many 
 outrages, he added, moreover, many voluntary penances, 
 
4IO Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 and especially a rigorous fast on bread and water three 
 times each week during the whole time that he was in pri- 
 son in London, as the keeper of the prison, a Protestant, 
 attested after Dr. Plunket's death, not without eulogy and 
 admiration. 
 
 " At length, on the i ith of July, the day destined for the 
 carrying out of the fatal sentence, the keeper of the prison, 
 imagining that the apprehension of approaching death and 
 horror of the atrocious punishment would have made some 
 impression on that soul hitherto so resolute, went early in 
 the morning to visit him, and, if necessary, to give him cou- 
 rage and comfort him ; but he was yet more surprised and 
 filled with astonishment on finding that the prelate, on 
 being awakened, was as little moved by the approach of 
 sufferings as though his body was insensible to pain, while, 
 nevertheless, he was of an ardent and delicate tempera- 
 ment. In a little while the announcement was made that 
 everything was in order, wherefore he was taken from pri- 
 son, and stretched (with his face uppermost) and tied with 
 cords upon a wooden hurdle, and thus drawn by a horse to 
 Tyburn. 
 
 " It had been a hundred years, perhaps, since a Catholic 
 bishop was executed there, and hence the curiosity to see 
 a victim of such exalted dignity, and already so famed for 
 his noble deportment, gathered together an immense mul- 
 titude of spectators, who partly awaited him on the road- 
 side, partly at the place of execution. Such as he had 
 shown himself when receiving sentence of death did he now 
 prove himself in this last scene when undergoing death it- 
 self, being ever serene and tranquil even to his last breath ; 
 so that he universally excited that esteem and sympathy 
 which are invariably evoked by a heroic virtue oppressed 
 by an extreme rigor, so that few could be found even 
 among the Protestants to entertain a doubt as to his inno- 
 cence. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 411 
 
 " On the scaffold he delivered a short discourse, in which, 
 after protesting his innocence as to the charges of conspi- 
 racy made against him, he prayed for life and health to the 
 king and all the royal family, gave a most complete pardon 
 to all his enemies and adversaries, and, in fine, supplicated 
 the Divine Majesty to be propitious to* him, through the 
 merits of Christ, through the intercession of the Blessed 
 Virgin and of all the holy angels and saints of paradise. 
 Which form of prayer, so simple and yet so pious, was re- 
 marked by the spectators, who never remembered to have 
 heard from any other such an express mention of the 
 Blessed Virgin and the saints. 
 
 " This discourse was the substance of the longer one which 
 he wrote with his own hand in prison, and left with his 
 friends, lest any, by a malignant alteration, might seek to 
 falsify his dying sentiments. Having concluded his dis- 
 course, the sentence was carried into execution, and his 
 happy soul sped its flight (as we may hope) to enjoy an 
 eternal repose. 
 
 " On the same day and in the same place Fitzharris was 
 executed, and to the last the contrast of his manner and 
 actions displayed in brighter light the happy lot of the pri- 
 mate ; and while Dr. Plunket excited compassion on ac- 
 count of his atrocious and unmerited suffering, and became 
 universally loved for his innocence and extolled to the skies 
 for his constancy, Fitzharris was abhorred for his wicked 
 deeds, despised for his vile cowardice, and uncompassioned 
 in his suffering, as being his due. 
 
 " The primate, before death, asked and obtained permis- 
 sion to be buried with the fathers of the Society of Jesus 
 who during the present persecution sacrificed their lives at 
 Tyburn. He was therefore interred with them in the 
 church of St. Giles ; and we cannot but remark the devo- 
 tion and great esteem which the English Catholics display- 
 ed for this sacred deposit ; and together with it they in- 
 
412 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 terred a copper plate, on which was inscribed the following 
 inscription : 
 
 '"In this tomb resteth the body of the Most Rev. Oliver 
 Plunket, late Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of All 
 Ireland, who, when accused of high treason, through hatred 
 of the faith, by false brethren, and condemned to death, 
 being nanged at Tyburn, and his bowels being taken out 
 and cast into the fire, suffered martyrdom with constancy, 
 in the reign of Charles II., King of Great Britain, on the 
 1st day of July, 1681.'" 
 
 Here we may remark that, by referring to this inscrip- 
 tion, it is not our intention to ratify the title of martyr till 
 the Holy Church will authenticate it ; as, also, we must add, 
 that the aforesaid date is not contrary to that given above, 
 as the 1st of July, according to the old style, still used in 
 England, is equivalent to the nth of July according to our 
 Gregorian computation. 
 
 Some few circumstances yet remain, connected with the 
 death of Dr. Plunket, which cannot be passed over in 
 silence, and which we now add : 
 
 I. It is deserving of attention, that all the. accusers, 
 judges, and other opponents of Dr. Plunket were not able 
 to attach the mark of conspiracy to his cause, or conceal 
 its being a manifest and direct cause of religion. The 
 plots in England were pretended to be directed against the 
 life of the king ; but neither the death of the king noi* the 
 advancement of any other cause could be put forward as 
 the scope of the pretended Irish conspiracy, but only the 
 establishment of the faith. 
 
 2 It has been written that two English lords (who 
 were successively viceroys in Ireland) declared to the 
 king that it was impossible to believe or deem probable 
 any of the accusations against the primate, for they had 
 experienced in him a man full of zeal for the public peace 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 413 
 
 — nay, one of the most efficacious in Ireland in appeasing 
 seditious movements. 
 
 3. It is certain tliat, on the part of one of the first noble- 
 men in England, his life was offered him should he consent 
 to accuse others, which offer, although resolutely rejected 
 by him, is said to have been renewed him on the scaffold, 
 God permitting the temptation for the greater merit of one 
 who thus in such innocence sacrificed his life. 
 
 4. The superior of a certain religious order, a man of 
 great prudence, who was present at the primate's death, 
 writes that on the scaffold, by the singular composure of 
 soul and actions, he seemed like an angel descended from 
 paradise, who was joyously arrived at the moment of once 
 more returning thither. 
 
 5. All write, with one accord, that this innocent victim 
 has done and yet performs great good in England, not only 
 by the edification he gave to the Catholics, but, moreover, 
 by the change of ideas and sentiments which he occasion- 
 ed in many Protestants, who now commence to regard all 
 these conspiracies as malicious fictions ; and there are 
 great grounds for believing that the fruit which England 
 will derive from his blood will not end here. The archbishop 
 himself wrote from prison in London that he h-^d ex- 
 perienced in the English Catholics the most exalted piety, 
 faith, and Christian charity which any one could desire-; 
 and he gives the names of many families and individuals 
 who, it seems, gave to him, though a stranger and unknown 
 to them, large sums of money to enable his witnesses to 
 come from Ireland, and offered themselves, moreover, as 
 most ready to undergo any other expense or render him 
 any service. He, therefore, in the letter referred to, pro- 
 fesses an unspeakable love for those so bounteous bene- 
 factors, and we may hope that as he has while living d<>ne so 
 much by his example, so now he will be efficaci ms in 
 
414 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 obtaining from Heaven most abundant blessings for those 
 by whom he deemed himself so benefited upon earth. 
 
 Such were the glorious sentiments with which the arch- 
 bishop encountered the barbarous sentence which had been 
 unjustly decreed against him. None, even among his ene- 
 mies, dared to insinuate his guilt or pretend that any 
 deeds of conspiracy could be imputed to him. All felt the 
 attractions of his innocence and sanctity, and could scarcely 
 find words to express their admiration and esteem. Even 
 among subsequent writers, no matter how ardent defenders 
 they may have been of the Protestant cause, none have 
 reproached his memory with the reputed guilt, but all have 
 uniformly recorded his innocence of the charges thus 
 made against him. We have already quoted the words of 
 the Protestant Bishop Burnet, we may now add the testi- 
 monies of some few others. Thus, for instance, Echard, in 
 his History of England, after stating that Dr. Plunket had 
 an attestation of his innocence under the hands of the two 
 viceroys Essex and Berkeley, adds that he himself was 
 
 "Assured, by an unquestionable hand, that the Earl of 
 Essex was so sensible of this good man's hardship that he 
 generously applied to the king for a pardon, and told his 
 majesty that these witnesses must needs be perjured, for 
 these things sworn against him could not possibly be true. 
 Upon which the king, in a passion, said, ' Why did you not 
 attest this at his trial.? It might have done him good 
 then. I dare not pardon any one.' And so cdincluded 
 with the same kind of answer he had given another person 
 formerly, ' His blood be upon your head, not upon mine.' " 
 
 The continuation of Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle 
 not only corroborates this fact relative to the Earl of Essex, 
 but gives us the general Protestant sentiment of the time 
 in regard to the perjured witnesses, and the accusations 
 which they brought against the primate. 
 
 " In the meantime," he writes, " came on the trial of Dr. 
 
In the Reign of Charles IT. 415 
 
 Oliver Plunket, popish titular Archbishop of Armagh, who 
 called himself Primate of All Ireland. He was a worthy 
 and good man, who, notwithstanding the title given him, 
 was in a very mean state of life, as having nothing to sub- 
 sist on but the contributions of a few poor clergy of his 
 own religion in the province of Ulster, who, having little 
 themselves, could not spare much to him. In these low 
 circumstances he lived, though meanly, quietly and content- 
 edly, meddling with nothing but the concerns of his func- 
 tion, and dissuading all about him from entering into any 
 turbulent or factious intrigues. But while the popish plot 
 was warm, some lewd Irish priests and others of that na- 
 tion, hearing then that England was disposed to hearken to 
 good swearers, thought themselves well qualified for the 
 employment, so they came over with an account of a plot 
 in Ireland, and were well received by Lord Shaftesbury. 
 They were also examined by the Parliament, and what they 
 said was believed. They were very profligate wretches, 
 and some of the priests among them had been censured by 
 Plunket for their lewdness, so, partly out of revenge and 
 partly to keep themselves in business, they charged a plot 
 upon that innocent, quiet man, so that he was sent for and 
 brought to trial. The evidences swore that, upon his being 
 made Primate of Ireland, he engaged to raise sixty or sev- 
 enty thousand Irish to be ready to join with the French to 
 destroy the Protestant religion, and to get Dublin, London- 
 derry, and all the seaports into their hands ; and that, be- 
 sides the French army, there was a Spanish army to join 
 them, and that the Irish clergy were to contribute to this 
 design. Plunket, in his defence, alleged the improbability 
 of all that was sworn against him, which was apparent 
 enough. He alleged that the Irish clergy were so poo- 
 that he himself, who was the head of the whole province, 
 lived in a little thatched house, with only one servant, hav- 
 ing never above sixty pounds a year income, so that nei- 
 
4i6 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 ther he nor they could be thought very likely to carry on 
 a design of this nature. But the fact being positively 
 sworn against him, and the jury unacquainted with the wit- 
 nesses' characters and the scene of action, he was brought 
 in guilty and condemned. It is said that the Earl of 
 Essex was so sensible of the injustice done to him that he 
 applied to the king for a pardon, and told him that the 
 matters sworn against Plunket were so absurd in them- 
 selves that it was impossible for them to be true. But the 
 king answered, in a passion, ' Why did you not declare 
 this, then, at the trial .'' It would have done him some 
 good then ; but I dare pardon nobody ;' and concluded by 
 saying, ' His blood be upon your head, and not upon 
 mine.' " 
 
 With peace and calm Dr. Plunket prepared himself in 
 prison to receive in a worthy manner the glorious privilege 
 of dying for the faith with which God wished to crown his 
 earthly labors. On the day after the final sentence had 
 been passed against him he thus wrote to his friend and 
 fellow-prisoner. Father Corker : 
 
 " Dear Sir : I am obliged to you for the favor and chari- 
 ty of the 20th, and for all your former benevolence ; and 
 whereas I cannot in this country remunerate you, with 
 God's grace I hope to be grateful to you in that kingdom 
 which is our proper country. And truly God gave me, 
 though unworthy of it, that grace to have fortem animum 
 mortis terrore carentem. I have many sins to answer for 
 before the Supreme Judge of the high bench where no false 
 witnesses can have an audience. But as for the bench 
 yesterday, I am not guilty of any crinie there objected to 
 me. I would I could be so clear at the bench of the AU- 
 Powerful ! However, there is one comfort, that he cannot 
 be deceived, because he is omniscient, and knows all se- 
 crets, even of hearts ; and cannot deceive, because all good- 
 
In tJifi Reign of Charles II. 417 
 
 'i 
 ness : so that I may be sure of a fair trial, and will get time 
 yufliclent to call witnesses — nay, the Judge will bring them 
 in a moment, if there be need of any. Your and your com- 
 rade's prayers will be powerful advocates at that bench ; 
 here none are admitted for 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 " Oliver Plunket." 
 
 This composure of soul, and tranquil resignation to the 
 will of God, is attested not only by the friends of the illus- 
 trious primate, but also by Protestants who, perchance, 
 had occasion to contemplate and admire his fortitude and 
 heavenly deportment in prison. Sir Richard Bulstrode, 
 for instance, attests that 
 
 " Captain Richardson, keeper of Newgate, being asked 
 by the lieutenant of the Tower how this prisoner behaved 
 himself, he replied, ' Very well, for when I came to him 
 this morning he was newly awake, having slept all night 
 without any disturbance ; and when I told him he was to 
 prepare for his execution he received the message with all 
 quietness of mind, and went to the sledge as unconcerned 
 as if he had been going to a wedding.' " 
 
 In addition to the particulars of the closing scene of 
 Tyburn, which we have already presented from the anony- 
 mous narrative, we learn many further circumstances 
 connected with Dr. Plunket's execution from the letter of 
 the Archbishop of Cashel : 
 
 "The 1st of July, (that is, the nth,) 1681, being at 
 length arrived, this great bishop (Dr. Plunket) was brought 
 to the place of execution destined for public malefactors, 
 being placed upon a sledge trailed on the ground, and 
 drawn by horses, and accompanied by a numerous guard 
 of military, as well as by a multitude of spectators and royal 
 officers ; and to all he gave occasion of surprise and edifica- 
 tion, because he displayed such a serenity of countenance. 
 
4i8 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 such a tranquillity of mind and elevation of soul, that he 
 seemed rather a spouse hastening lo the nuptial feast than 
 a culprit led forth to the scaffold. 
 
 " Being arrived at the place of execution, he mounted a 
 car which had been placed there on purpose, and delivered 
 a discourse which lasted an hour, clearing himself of the 
 accusfitions for which he suffered, calling God and the 
 whole heavenly court to witness his innocence as to the 
 pretended conspiracy, and declaring himself an unworthy 
 Catholic prelate, who labored to preserve and advance the 
 true faith in a just and lawful manner, and by no other 
 means, and pardoning his accusers, the friars and their 
 accomplices, the judges, and all who procured or concurred 
 in his death : and he delivered this discourse with such 
 sweetness and energy that, it seems, he moved to compas- 
 sion even his executioner, and much more so those who 
 assisted as spectators. Having finished his address, he 
 made a lengthened prayer to God, and passed to a better 
 life, with a fortitude and spirit truly apostolic. 
 
 " His discourse is everywhere to be met with in 
 print, and was applauded even by the adversaries of our 
 religion, who could not fail to admire the singular courage 
 and extol the many heroic acts of the pretended culprit, 
 and to censure the manner of proceeding of the court, and 
 the sentence pronounced against him ; the better part of 
 them, and especially those of the province of Armagh, 
 being well acquainted with and having ever esteemed the 
 deceased prelate as a man of honor, while they knew his 
 accusers to be wicked men, and their accusations incredi- 
 ble." 
 
 The discourse which he delivered from the scaffold, with 
 as great calmness and energetic zeal as though he were ad- 
 dressing from the pulpit his own immediate flock, moved 
 all the assembled multitude, and even his executioner, to 
 compassion ; and surely no one even nowadays can read 
 
In the Reigii of Charles II. 419 
 
 without emotion even the dead letters of the discourse, 
 especially the concluding passages, in which he pra3's for- 
 giveness to all his enemies, and supplicates from the 
 Almighty pardon for his own faults and eternal rest in 
 heaven. Dr. Plunket composed this discourse in prison, 
 and left it to his friends, written with his own hand ; for he 
 feared lest his dying wocds should be misrepresented, or 
 any false sentiments be imputed to him. 
 
 It was immediately printed, and translated into various 
 languages. We give it in full, from the printed copy in 
 the Archives of Propaganda : 
 
 " I 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 cor- 
 rupt 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 J^ti-dge, will infallibly decree an eternal re- 
 ward for all good works, and condign punishment for the 
 smallest transgression against his com.mandments, which 
 being a most certain and undoubted truth, it would be 
 wicked and contrary to my eternal welfare that I should 
 now, by declaring anything contrary to the truth, commit 
 a detestable sin, for which, within a very short time, I 
 must receive sentence of everlasting damnation, afte- 
 which there is no reprieve or hope of pardon. I will, there- 
 fore, confess the truth without any equivocation, and make 
 use of the words according to their accustomed significa- 
 tion, 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, that, as I hope for salvation at the hands of the Su- 
 preme Judge, I will declare the naked truth with all can- 
 
420 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 dor and sincerity ; and that my affairs may be better 
 known to all the world, it is to be observed that I 
 have been accused, in Ireland, of treason and prcemunire, 
 and that there I was arraigned and brought to my trial ; but 
 the prosecutors, (men of flagitious and profligate lives,) per- 
 ceiving that I had records and witnesses who would evidently 
 convict them, and clearly show 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. Here, after six months' close imprisonment, (or 
 thereabout,) I was brought to the bar the 3d of May, 
 and arraigned for a crime for which I was before arraigned 
 in Ireland — a strange resolution, a rare fact, of which you 
 shall 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 the difficulty of getting 
 copies of records, and bringing witnesses from many coun- 
 ties in Ireland, and many other impediments — of which 
 affidavits were made — I could not at the end of five weeks 
 get the records and witnesses brought hither. I there- 
 fore begged for twelve days more, that I might be in a read- 
 iness 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 perjurers, who did aim 
 at my life by accusing me of these following points : 
 
 " First. That I have sent letters by one Mat O'Neal 
 (who was my page) to M. Baldeschi, the pope's secretary, 
 to the Bishop of Aix, and to the Prince Colonna, that they 
 might ■solicit foreign powers to invade Ireland ; and also 
 to have sent letters to Cardinal Bouillon to the same 
 effect. 
 
 " Secondly. To have employed Captain Con O'Neal to 
 the French king for succor. 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 421 
 
 " Th.rdly. To have levied and exacted money from the 
 clergy of Ireland to bring in the French and to maintain 
 70,000 men. 
 
 " Fourthly. To have had in readiness 70,000 men, and 
 lists made of them ; and to have given directions to one 
 Friar Duify to make a list of 250 men in the parish of 
 I'oghart, in the county of Louth. 
 
 " Fifthly. To have surveyed all the forts and harbors 
 in Ireland, and to have fixed upon Carlingford as a fit 
 harbor for the French's landing. 
 
 "Sixthly. To have had several councils and meetings 
 where there was money allotted for introducing the French. 
 
 " Finally. That I held a meeting in the county of Mo- 
 naghan some ten or twelve years past, where there were 
 300 gentlemen of three several counties, to wit, Monaghan, 
 Cavan, and Armagh, whom I did exhort • to take arms to 
 recover their estates. 
 
 "To the first, I answer that Mat O'Neal was never my 
 page or servant, and that I never sent letter or letters by 
 him to M. Baldeschi, or to the Bishop of Aix, or to the 
 Prince Colonna ; and I say that the English translation of 
 that pretended letter produced by the friar MacMoyer is a 
 mere invention of his, and never penned by me, or its ori- 
 ginal, in English, Latin, Italian, or any other language. I 
 affirm, moreover, that I never wrote letter or letters to Car- 
 dinal Bouillon, or any of the French king's ministers, nei- 
 ther did any one who was in that court either speak to me 
 or write to me, directly or indirectly, of any plot or conspi- 
 racy against the king or country. Further, I vow that I 
 never sent agent or agents to Rome or any other place 
 about any civil or temporal affairs ; and it is well known (for 
 it is a precept publicly printed) that clergymen (living where 
 the government is not of Roman Catholics) are command- 
 ed by Rome not to write to Rome concerning any civil or 
 temporal affairs And I do aver that I never received let- 
 
422 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 ter or letters from the pope, or from any of his ministers, 
 making the least mention of any such matters, so that the 
 friars MacMoyer and Duffy swore falsely as to such letter 
 or letters, agent or agents. 
 
 " To the second, I say that I never employed Captain 
 Con O'Neal to the French king, or to any of his ministers ; 
 and that I never wrote to him, or received letters from him ; 
 and that I never saw him but once, nor ever spoke to him, 
 to the best of my remembrance, ten words ; and as for his 
 being in Charlemont or Dungannon, I never saw him in 
 these towns, or knew of his being in these places ; so that 
 as to Con O'Neal, Friar MacMoyer's depositions are most 
 false. 
 
 " To the third, I say that I never levied any money for a 
 plot or conspiracy for bringing in the Spaniards or French, 
 neither did I ever receive any on that account from priests 
 or friars, as Priest MacClave and Friar Duffy most untruly 
 asserted. I assure you I never received from any clergy- 
 man in Ireland but what was due to me, by ancient custom, 
 for my maintenance, and what my predecessors these hun- 
 dred years were wont to receive ; nay, I received less than 
 many of them. And if all that the Catholic clergy of Ire- 
 land get in the year were put in one purse, it would signi- 
 fy little or nothing to introduce the French, or to raise an 
 army of 70,000 men, which I had enlisted and ready, as 
 Friar MacMoyer most falsely deposed. Neither is it less 
 untrue what Friar Duffy attested, namely, that I directed 
 him to make a list of 250 men in the parish of Foghart, in 
 the county of Louth. 
 
 " To the fifth, I answer that I never surveyed all the 
 ports or harbors of Ireland, and that I never was at Cork, 
 Kinsale, Bantry, Youghal, Dungarvan, or Knockfergus ; 
 and these thirty-six years past I was not at Limerick, Dun- 
 gannon, or Wexford. As for Carlingford, I never was in it 
 but once, and staid not in it above half an hour ; ndther 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 423 
 
 d '1 I consider the port or haven ; neither had I it in my 
 thoughts or imagination to fix upon it, or any other port or 
 haven, for landing of French or Spaniards ; and while I 
 was at Carlingford (by mere chance passing that way) Friar 
 Duffy was not in my company, as he most falsely swore. 
 
 " To the sixth, I say that I never was at any meeting or 
 council where there was mention made of allotting or col- 
 lecting of money for a plot or conspiracy ; and it is well 
 known that the Catholic clergy of Ireland, who have nei- 
 ther lands nor revenues, and are hardly able to keep decent 
 clothes on their backs and life and soul together, can raise 
 no considerable sum — nay, cannot spare as much as would 
 maintain half a regiment. 
 
 " To the seventh, I answer that I never was at any meet- 
 ing of 300 gentlemen in the county of Monaghan, of any 
 gentlemen of the three counties of Monaghan, Armagh, 
 and Cavan, nor of one county, nor of one barony ; and that 
 I never exhorted gentleman or gentlemen, either there or 
 in any other part of Ireland, to take arms for the recovering 
 of their estates ; and it is well known that there are not, 
 even in all the province of Ulster, 300 Irish Roman Catho- 
 lics who had estates or lost estates by the late rebellion ; 
 and, as it is well known, all my thoughts and desires were 
 for the quiet of my country, and especially of that province. 
 
 " Now, to be brief, as I hope for salvation, I never sent 
 letter or letters, agent or agents, to pope, king, prince, or 
 prelate, concerning any plot or conspiracy against my king 
 or country. I never raised sum or sums of money, great 
 or small, to maintain soldier or soldiers, all the days of my 
 life. I never knew or heard (neither did it come to my 
 thoughts or imagination) that the French were to land at 
 Carlingford ; and I believe that there is none who saw 
 Ireland, even in a map, but will think it a mere romance. 
 I never knew of any plotters or conspirators in Ireland 
 but such as were notoiious or oroclaimed (commonly called 
 
424 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Tories) whom I did endeavor to suppress. And, as I 
 hope for salvation, I always have been and am entirely 
 innocent of the treasons laid to my charge, and of any 
 other whatsoever. 
 
 " And though I be not guilty of the crimes of which I 
 am accused, yet I believe none came ever to this place in 
 such a condition as I am ; for, if even I should acknowledge 
 (which in conscience I cannot do, because I should belie 
 mysell) the chief crimes laid to my charge, no wise man 
 that knows Ireland would believe me. If I should confess 
 that I was able to raise 70,000 men in the districts of 
 which I had care, to wit, Ulster, nay, even in all Ireland, 
 and to have levied and exacted moneys from the Catholic 
 clergy for their maintenance, and to have proposed Car- 
 lingford for the French's landing, all would but laugh at 
 me, it being well known that all the revenues of Ireland, 
 both spiritual and temporal, possessed by his majesty's 
 subjects, are scarcely able to raise and maintain an army of 
 70,000 men. If I will deny all these crimes, (as I did and 
 do,) yet it may be that some who are not acquainted with 
 the affairs of Ireland will not believe that my denial is 
 grounded on truth, though I assert it with my last breath. 
 I dare mention further, and affirm, that if these points of 
 70,000 men, etc., had been sworn before any Protestant 
 jury in Ireland, and had been even acknowledged by me at 
 the bar, they would not believe me, no more than if it had 
 been deposed and confessed by me that I had flown in the 
 air from Dublin to Holyhead. 
 
 " You see, therefore, what a condition I am in, and you 
 have heard what protestations I have made of innocency, 
 and I hope you will believe the words of a dying man. 
 And, that you may be the more induced to give me credit, 
 I assure you that a great peer sent me notice 'that he 
 would save my life if I would accuse others ;' but I 
 answered ' that I never knew of any conspirators in Ireland, 
 
In the Reign of Charles II. 425 
 
 but such (as I said before) as were publicly known outlaws ; 
 and that to save my life I would not falsely accuse any, 
 nor prejudice my own soul. ' Quid prodest homini,' etc. 
 To take away any man's life or goods wrongfully ill 
 becometh any Christian, especially a man of my calling, 
 being a clergyman of the Catholic Church, and also an 
 unworthy prelate, which I do openly confess. Neither will 
 I deny to have exercised in Ireland the functions of a 
 Catholic prelate, as long as there was connivance or tolera- 
 tion, and by preaching, and teaching, and statutes to have 
 endeavored to bring the clergy (of which I had a care) to 
 a due comportment, according to their calling ; and though 
 thereby I did but my duty, yet some, who >vould not 
 amend, had a prejudice for me, and especially my accusers, 
 to whom I did endeavor to do good — I mean the clergymen, 
 (as for the four laymen who appeared against me, namely, 
 Florence MacMoyer, the two Neals, and Hanlon, I was 
 never acquainted with them ;) but you see how I am 
 requited, and how, by false oaths, they brought me to this 
 untimely death, which wicked act, being a defect , of 
 persons, ought not to reflect on the Order of St. Francis, 
 or on the Roman Catholic clergy, it being well known that 
 there was a Judas among the twelve apostles, and a 
 wicked man called Nicholas among the seven deacons ; 
 and even as one of the said deacons, to wit, holy Stephen, 
 did pray for those who stoned him, so do I for those who, 
 with perjuries, spill my innocent blood, saying, as St. 
 Stephen did, 'Lord, lay not this sin to them.' I do 
 heartily forgive them, and also the judges who (by deny- 
 ing me sufficient time to bring my records and witnesses 
 from Ireland) did expose my life to evident danger. I do 
 also forgive all those who had a hand in bringing me from 
 Ireland to be tried here, where it was morally impossible 
 for me to have a fair trial. I do, finally, forgive all who did 
 concur, directly cr indirectly, to take away my life ; and I 
 
426 Martyrs and Cojifessors 
 
 ask forgiveness of all those whom I ever offended bj 
 thought, word, or deed. I beseech the All-Powerful that 
 his divine Majesty grant the king, the queen, and the 
 Duke of York, and all the royal family, health, long life, and 
 all prosperity in this world, and in the next everlasting 
 felicity. 
 
 " Now that I have shown sufHciently (as I think) how 
 innocent I am of any plot or conspiracy, I would I were 
 able, with the like truth, to clear myself of high crimes 
 committed against the divine Majesty's commandments, 
 (often transgressed by me,) for which I am sorry with all 
 my heart ; and if I could or should live a thousand years, 
 I have a firm resolution and a strong purpose, by your 
 grace, O my God, never to offend you ; and I beseech your 
 divine Majesty, by the merits of Christ, and by the inter- 
 cession of his blessed Mother and all the holy angels and 
 saints, to forgive me my sins, and to' grant my_soul eter-. 
 nal rest. ' Miserere mei, Deus,' etc. ' Farce animse,' etc. 
 ' In manus tuas,' etc. Oliver Plunket. 
 
 '• To the final satisfaction of all persons who have the 
 charity to believe the words of a dying man, I again de- 
 clare before God, as I hope for salvation, what is contained 
 in this paper is the plain and naked truth, without any 
 equivocation, mental reservation, or secret evasion what- 
 ever, taking the words in their usual sense and meaning, 
 as Protestants do when they discourse with all candor and 
 sincerity. To all which I have here subscribed my hand. 
 
 " Oliver Plunket." 
 
 Having concluded his discourse on the scaffold, the 
 archbishop knelt in prayer, and, with eyes raised toward 
 heaven, recited the psalm " Miserere mei, Deus," and many 
 other devout prayers ; and, having breathed the aspiration, 
 " In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum," " In- 
 
hi the Reign of Charles II. 427 
 
 to thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," the cart was 
 drawn away, and while at the hands of the executioner he 
 received the disgraceful punishment of a traitor, he yield- 
 ed his happy soul into the hands of his Creator. 
 
 Dr. Plunket was the last victim to the anti-Catholic furv 
 with which the English nation was then inflamed ; and 
 the next day, which witnessed the fall of Shaftesbury, and 
 saw the arch-enemy of the Catholics conducted to the 
 tower, saw also the very witnesses whom he had fostered 
 employ their perjured tales to hurry on his ruin. Many, 
 indeed, even in after-years, were called to share in Dr. 
 Plunket's crown, but never with the formahties of a trial, 
 or with the public and direct sanction of the government. 
 With him was closed the bright array of heroes of the 
 faith .who at Tyburn received the martyr's crown. The 
 .enemies of the Catholic Church had vainly hoped by shed- 
 ding their blood to destroy the faith, but they forgot that 
 Jhe blood of martyrs is a fruitful seed — that the sword of 
 persecution can only prune the vine and cause it to put 
 forth new branches, and that the church of God is, indeed, 
 the mystic field in which each grain cast into the earth 
 buds forth remultiplied. 
 
 RIGHT REV. PETER CREAGH, BISHOP OF CORK. 
 
 " He was born in Limerick, and was descended from 
 that family of the Creaghs distinguished by the name of 
 Corrigeen. He was grandnephew to the most illustrious 
 and famous Archbishop and Primate of Armagh, Richard 
 Creagh, who died a martyr for the faith in the Tower of 
 London during Queen Elizabeth's reign, and whose life I 
 have given under the year 1.585. In his youth our Pierse 
 went to Poitiers, in France, where he was most carefully 
 educated by his uncle, the Right Rev. Father Pierse Creagh 
 
428 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 of the Society of Jesus. From Poitiers he went to Rome in 
 order to perfect himself in divinity, and in that study he 
 acquired great honors under the protection of his other 
 uncle, the Rev. Father in God John Creagh, who was a 
 domestic prelate to Pope Alexander VII., and on whose 
 family the same pope conferred the title of duke, and gave 
 an addition to their arms. After finishing his studies in 
 Rome he received the order of priesthood, and then pre- 
 pared himself for the mission of Ireland, which at that 
 time stood greatly in need of zealous persons. Upon his 
 arrival in Dublin he spared no pains or labor in confirming 
 the Catholics in their faith, and in reclaiming to the church 
 those whom interest and persecution had induced to aban- 
 don it. In these and the like works of piety he employed 
 himself for three years, when the clergy of Ireland judged 
 him the properest person to be their agent for the mission 
 at the court of Rome. He condescended to their desires, 
 and for that purpose he repaired again to Rome, where he 
 signalized himself in procuring all the advantages and 
 possible relief for the mission of Ireland. 
 
 " His zeal and assiduity herein were so conspicuous that 
 Pope Clement X. took particular notice of him to be a fit 
 person to fill the see of Cork, which was destitute of a 
 pastor for twenty- six years before. Upon his arrival in 
 his diocese he exerted himself in preaching, teaching, 
 visiting it, and reforming the many abuses which had 
 crept into it during the long time it was deprived of a 
 bishop. He continued in this holy exercise until the time 
 that Titus Oates laid the foundation of his pretended plot, 
 which occasioned so much bloodshed in England.* But 
 
 • Oates did not implicate Dr. Creagh in the alleged traitorous conspiracy. The only Irish 
 prelates he accused were Dr. James Lynch, Archbishop of Tuam, whom he charged as being 
 privy to the design of murdering King Charles II., the design being communicated to him at 
 Madrid in August, 1677 ; and Dr. Peter Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, who was charged 
 witli employing four Jesuits, and, in their default. Dr. Fogarty, to murder Ormond, and with 
 intending the massacre of all the Irish Protestants there, and a total overtllrow of 
 
In the Reigii of Charles II. 429 
 
 that the Protestants of Ireland may not be any way more 
 backward than the English in promoting such wicked 
 schemes, they encouraged the greatest villains they could 
 find to swear there was likewise a plot forming in Ireland. 
 In consequence of these false evidences, the Rev. Peter 
 Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, was imprisoned, and died 
 with the hardships he suffered ; the Rev. Oliver Plunket, 
 Primate of Armagh, was sent a prisoner to London, and 
 was executed at Tyburn ; and a strict search was made 
 after our Rev. Pierse Creagh, Bishop of Cork ; but he 
 retired, and sought the woods and mountains for shelter. 
 In these lonesome places he frequently assembled his 
 clergy, and exhorted them to persevere and to be vigilant 
 in their duty. The pursuit was so close after him, and as 
 he three times escaped being taken, he thought proper to 
 conceal himself more closely, and therefore did not stir 
 abroad, but kept himself within doors in a house in the 
 country. He continued here for two years, but at length 
 was discovered by a neighboring Protestant, who informed 
 the Protestant bishop thereof Immediately a guard of 
 
 the government Other reprobates started first in Ulster to accuse Oliver Plunket and 
 Bisliop Tyrrell. Their success invited a few in the South, as abandoned as themselves, to 
 imitate their example. It was one David Fitzgerald, a Protestant of Rathkeale, that sought 
 the life of Dr. Creagh, This nefarious villain, who styled himself esquire, was the tenant'bf a 
 small farm from Sir Thomas Southwell, who distrained and impounded his cows for rent and 
 long arrears. Fitzgerald broke open the pound and stole away the cattle. He had some 
 time before been tried for treason and acquitted. But, apprehending the punishment of the 
 law for this other offence, he resolved to secure himself, to retrieve his ruined circumstances, 
 and wreak vengeance on his landlord. Sir Thomas, by a tale of treasonable conspiracy, more 
 plausible, he thought, and better concocted than Oates's It was, he saw, necessary and 
 sufiicient, to have any story of rebellion believed by the furious bigotry of that day, that popish 
 bishops and priests should be the principal actors aifd contrivers. He therefore swore that he 
 knew them to be hatching a conspiracy since 1652, and says : " About 1676, I saw Dr. Creagh, 
 thular Bishop of Cork, who, as Dr. Stritch told me, was then newly come from France and 
 Rome. Bishop Mullowny soon after told me that they had more information about it, (the 
 foreign aid they were to receive by Dr. Creagh and others, lately arrived.) that the pope had 
 already granted the dispensation from allegiance, and that France would faithfully perform its 
 agreement." Again, he swore that he attended a meeting in the house of Dr. James Stritch, 
 P.P. of Rathkeale, at which Dr. Creagh and the Bishops of Limerick and Killaloe, besides 
 several priests and about twenty Catholic gentlemen, assisted, in order to give instructions to 
 Dr. Hetberman, V. G. of Limerick, whom they despatched as their agent to France on that 
 rebellious design. 
 
430 Martyrs ajtd Confessors 
 
 soldiers surrounded the house ; they burst open the door 
 and led the bishop prisoner to Limerick, where he was 
 lodged in jail. 
 
 " He there continued for three months, and then an 
 order came from the English Parliament that he should be 
 transmitted to London, along with the Rev. Oliver Plun- 
 ket, Archbishop of Armagh. He was conveyed to Dublin 
 for that purpose, but, being there seized with a violent fit 
 of sickness, occasioned by the hardships he suffered in jail, 
 they would not transmit him to London along with the 
 Archbishop of Armagh, and consequently our holy prelate 
 was by this means robbed of the crown of martyrdom, 
 which the blessed Primate of Armagh received there, and 
 which his granduncle, Richard Creagh, of Armagh, receiv- 
 ed there before from Queen Elizabeth. For the space of 
 two years our bishop was kept a prisoner in Limerick and 
 Dublin, during which time the eyes of King Charles H. 
 began to be opened : he put to death many of those who 
 before accused innocent Catholics ; he committed Oates 
 to perpetual imprisonment, and restored to liberty the 
 imprisoned Catholics, both priests and prelates. 
 
 " Yet this could not be done without acquitting them 
 according to the formality of the laws : our prelate, Pierse 
 Creagh, was therefore conveyed to Cork to stand his trial. 
 The judge was intent upon acquitting him, and 'one of the 
 Vvfitnesses against him repented of his crime ; but there 
 was another witness who was hardened in wickedness, and 
 was resolved to prosecute him with all his might. Our 
 poor prelate was as a criminal seated at the bar, patiently 
 istening to many lies and calumnies which the wicked fel- 
 low was laying to his charge. But just as this villain had 
 kissed the book, and called for the vengeance of Heaven to 
 fall down upon him, if what he swore to was not true, the 
 whole floor of the court-house gave way, and, with all the 
 people upon it, tumbled down into the cellar, and the 
 
In the Reign ^t/"' Charles II. 431 
 
 rogue was crushed to death in the ruins. The other false 
 witnesses who were at hand immediately fled, and hone 
 escaped falling down with the floor except the judge, 
 whose seat was supported by an iron bar, and our prelate, 
 whose chair happened to be placed on a beam which did 
 not give way, and there he continued sitting as it were in 
 the air. The judge cried out that Heaven itself acquitted 
 him, and therefore dismissed him with great honors. 
 But, that perjured villains should not go unpunished, the 
 judge next day got them apprehended, and was going to 
 put the penal laws in force against them for their perjury, 
 but our holy bishop prostrated himself on his knees before 
 him, and, with tears in his eyes, begged the judge to par- 
 don them ; and it was with great difficulty that the judge, 
 who was greatly incensed against them, condescended to 
 his charitable request. 
 
 " After this our holy prelate continued in peace in his 
 diocese, and when King James II. came to the throne he 
 exerted himself in establishing the Catholic faith, in erect- 
 ing altars, in filling the parishes with worthy pastors, and 
 in encouraging religious people to fix themselves all over 
 his diocese. But this sunshine of religion was but of short 
 duration ; for King James being expelled the throne by his 
 son-in-law, the Protestant religion again became superior, 
 and bloody wars were kindled in Ireland. The Catholic 
 party made choice of our prelate to go as an ambassador 
 from them to Louis XIV., to crave his assistance. His 
 errand was attended with the desired success ; and when 
 he was upon his return to Ireland he was stopped at St. 
 Germain's by King James, who presented him to the arch ■ 
 bishopric of Dublin, but would not permit him to come to 
 Ireland or quit his own person. The Bishop of Stras- 
 bourg, having a particular regard and liking for him, beg- 
 ged of King Jaroes to suffer him to go with him to Stras- 
 
432 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 bourg, in order to assist him in his diocese.* The king 
 condescended to his request, and our holy prelate con- 
 tinued at Strasbourg, exercising all episcopal functions 
 and duties, and leading a most exemplary life, until the 
 month of July, 1705, when he made a most happy end; 
 his remains were there buried, and a sumptuous monu- 
 ment erected over him. One Father Baltus, of the 
 Society of Jesus, preached his funeral oration, and it was 
 out of this that I extracted the above particulars of the life 
 of this holy prelate." — (Thus Rev. James White ;) Renehan, 
 Bishops, p. 238. 
 
 A.nno 1691. 
 
 REV. GERALD GIBBON, O.P.P. 
 
 " He studied in Spain, and on his return to Ireland was 
 elected sub-prior of the convent of Kilmallock. He 
 managed the resources of the convent so prudently that 
 he provided for the sustenance of fifteen religious. This 
 good man was met by the enemy in the county of Kerry, 
 and slain by them in the village of Listuahil, in the year 
 i69i."-\—0'IIej'n,Y>. 18. 
 
 * August 20th, 1703. The nuncio in Paris writes to Cardinal Paulucci at Rome, saying 
 that the Archbishop of Dublin had arrived at Paris, and requested him to transmit the an- 
 nexed memorial to the Holy See ; that he learned from the queen that Dr. Creagh was a 
 man deserving much respect, not only on account of his dignity, but also personally estimable, 
 having shown great prudence and zeal in the government of his church; that he was now, 
 however, reduced to great distress by a stroke of apoplexy, which deprived him of speech to 
 some extent. The memorial sets forth that the archbishop, after having labored more than 
 twenty years in the Irish Mission, was obliged, like other prelates, to fly to France, where tie 
 had been a long time destitute of benefice or patrimony ; that the French king, informed of 
 his sufferings and poverty, at the request of the English queen, reserved to him a pension 
 of 1500 livres in the Benedictine Abbey of Mormontier. But as that abbey requires no bulls 
 of provision, being entirely dependent on the bishop, the pension cannot be mentioned in a bull 
 as is usual on such occasions, and therefore the archbishop prays the nuncio to obtain for him 
 a brief, or at least the tacit consent of the pope, authorizing him, out of respect for his charac- 
 ter, his sufferings, feeble health, and destitute condition, to enjoy that pension, which 1ms con- 
 science could not allow him to accept merely by virtue of a decree in council, as others do is 
 France, when bulls are refused. — 7Viezn-er MSS. 
 
 ^ This must have been a roving party of Williamite horse who met the good priest. 
 
In the Reign of William III. 433 
 
 ^nno 1693. 
 
 MOST REV. PATRICK RUSSELL, ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN 
 
 Patrick Russell, son of James Russell, of Rush, 
 county Dublin, was born in that parish in the year 1629. 
 Of his early years, student life, and labors as a priest we 
 know hardly anything beyond what may be learned by 
 conjecture and our general acquaintance with the times 
 and his subsequent career. 
 
 Dr. Russell was elected Archbishop of Dublin on the 
 2d August, 1683. He had to endure at first all the 
 hostility of the bigoted faction that deprived his predeces- 
 sor, Dr. Talbot, of life and liberty. They watched every 
 movement closely, and sought every opportunity to accuse 
 him of violating the law. In these circumstances the 
 public exercise of his ministry would be attended with the 
 greatest risk, and hence his time was chiefly occupied in 
 the performance of those duties less likely to attract notice 
 and expose him to danger. Notwifhstanding this caution 
 and anxiety to avoid giving offence, from time to time his 
 enemies became more furious and intolerant ; their worst 
 passions were excited by some fresh calumny against the 
 Catholics and their religious principles. On these occa- 
 sions the archbishop generally retired for awhile to his 
 native parish and lay concealed there in the house of a 
 kinsman, Geoffrey Russell, until the storm that threateneo 
 him blew over. These visits were long remembered in 
 the village of Rush, and are still spoken of by pious persons 
 there as the most remarkable event in their annals. 
 
 But a great and unexpected change soon took place, 
 which for a time almost restored the Catholic religion to 
 its former splendor. After Charles IL had given the 
 strongest oroof of the sincerity of his early conversion, by 
 dying in communion with the church, and his brother. 
 
434 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 James II., who never disguised his religious convictions, 
 ascended the throne of England, apparently with the 
 fullest approbation of his Protestant subjects, no one could 
 think of enforcing the penal laws, though tney still remain- 
 ed on the statute-book, or of interfering with the public and 
 free exercise of the Catholic religion. 
 
 The new king, it was well known, was too warmly 
 attached to his creed to permit insult or injury to those 
 who embraced it ; his zeal, indeed, required to be checked 
 rather than stimulated. The fullest liberty was given the 
 Irish bishops to meet in council, and to direct their energies 
 to useful legislation. Dr. Russell availed himself at once 
 of this favorable opportunity, and convened a provincial 
 synod on the 24th of July, 16S5, to reform the abuses which 
 crept in during a long period of religious persecutions, 
 when it was impossible for the pastors of the church to 
 assemble together. One law then sanctioned deserves to be 
 specially noticed just now, when a cry of innovation has 
 been substituted for the old charge of traditional dogmatism, 
 because it proves how ancient and how widely diffused and 
 how sincere is the devotion to the Immaculate Conception 
 in the Irish Church. The festival of the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary, commemorative of her exemption from original sin, 
 was ordered to be celebrated throughout the province as a 
 holyday of strict obligation. 
 
 Another provincial synod was held on the 1st of August, 
 1688, at which Dr. Russell and Dr. Phe.lan assisted, with 
 the Vicars-General of Kildare, Leighlin, and Ferns, and 
 James Russell and Edward Murphy. 
 
 We have also still extant the acts of three diocesan 
 synods of Dublin during Dr. Russell's administration — the 
 first on June loth. 1686 ; the second, May 9th, 1688 : and 
 the third, April 4th, 1689 — which prescribe very minutely 
 the duties of the clergy and faithful, and evince a know- 
 ledge of the requirement of church discipline worthy of 
 
In the Reign of William III, 435 
 
 belter times. Although this close attention to the reli- 
 gious wants of his own diocese occupied necessarily much 
 of Dr. Russell's time, he warmly supported the efforts, of 
 others to promote the general welfare. He signed the 
 petition presented by the bishops of Ireland to the king, July 
 2 3 St, 1685, praying him to confer on Tyrconnell the 
 necessary authority for protecting them in the free ex 
 ercise of their ministry ; and he took a most active part in 
 convening the assembly in which the primate, Dr. Ma- 
 guire, and Patrick Tyrrell, Bishop of Clogher, were appoint- 
 ed delegates to wait on his majesty, and to suggest the 
 best means of securing religious freedom. King James 
 received the prelates most graciously, and ordered the Earl 
 of Sunderland, Chief Secretary of State, to write to Lord 
 Clarendon, the Viceroy, recommending the said archbishop, 
 the Bishop of Clogher, and the rest of his brethren, to his 
 excellency, " for his patronage and protection upon all 
 occasions wherein they should apply to him or stand in 
 need thereof" The king himself wrote to Dr. Maguire, 
 acquainting him that he had ordered certain sums of 
 money to be paid out of the exchequer in Ireland — .£300 
 per annum for his own use, ;^200 per annum to Dr. 
 Russell, and like pensions to the other Catholic bishops. 
 These concessions, which to us appear so insignificant, but 
 were in reality valuable benefits when compared with the 
 grievances of the Catholics before the accession of James, 
 and again under his successor, are to be ascribed to Dr. 
 Russell's zeal and influence. Indeed, but for the wisdom 
 with which he directed the councils of his brethren, many 
 important changes, deeply affecting the interests of reli- 
 gion, would never have been made in his time. 
 
 One act of the archbishop's public ministry remains to 
 be noticed here. This was the consecration of the church 
 of the Benedictine nuns in Channel Row, Dublin, June 6th, 
 1689, which seems to have been performed with unusual 
 
436 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 pomp and splendor: King James, who had only a few 
 months before arrived in Ireland, attended with his court, 
 and a vast concourse, who welcomed his majesty with a 
 kind of religious enthusiasm. It was the first time for 
 ages that an English king took part in such a ceremony. 
 Soon after followed in quick succession the battle of the 
 Boyne, the defeat and shameful flight of James, the taking 
 of Athione, the victory of Aughrim, the siege and treaty 
 of Limerick, the submission of the Irish to the Prince of 
 Orange, and the departure of the native troops for France. 
 
 No one of the Irish prelates, it would seem, felt the 
 consequences of this change sooner than Dr. Russell. It 
 was probably remembered to him that he had the honor of 
 officiating in the presence of the deposed king, not only on 
 the occasion alluded to here, but also at other times. Strong 
 fears were entertained of his fidelity, and his position in the 
 church tended to increase them. He was accordingly 
 seized, in the very beginning of William's reign, and cast 
 into prison, where he remained almost without interruption 
 to the time of his death. In an interesting letter from 
 Francis, Archbishop of Rhodi, and nuncio at Paris, to 
 Cardinal Spada, December 31st, 1690, it is stated that 
 King James was then at Brest, " examining the state of 
 all those who had already come over from Ireland, amount- 
 ing to about 15,000, of whom about 700 were women and 
 400 or 500 children. Among the exiles are the Arch- 
 bishops of Armagh and Tuam, and the Bishops of ' Cluan' 
 and Elphin. The Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishop 
 of Kildare, both of whom were at Limerick, and the Bishop 
 of Ossory, are supposed to be still in Ireland So is also 
 the Archbishop of Dublin, now a long time in jail." 
 
 The fullest information on Dr. Russell's imprisonment 
 and death is left to us by Dr. James Lynch, Archbishop 
 of Tuam, in an eloquent letter addressed to the Cardinal- 
 Prefect of Propaganda, and dated Paris, October 28th, 1692 
 
In the Reign of William III. 437 
 
 Since his departure from Ireland, he says, many pious ec- 
 clesiastics, among others the Bishops of Meath and Ferns 
 and the Archbishop of Dublin, have suffered death at the 
 hands of their enemies. " The Archbishop of Dublin re- 
 mained as much as possible in his diocese, but, finding 
 that he could not conceal himself in the city or escape the 
 snares of heretics, he retired to his friends in the country 
 and lay'hidden for some time in caves and caverns, or wan- 
 dered through the woods and mountains. He was at 
 length detected, conveyed to Dublin, and cast into a loath- 
 some prison, where he endured, repeated insults, much 
 miseiy and hardship. On one occasion, indeed, he was 
 liberated on giving bail to appear when called on. But of 
 what use this brief respite .' The same tortures were re- 
 peated again ; guards were set to watch him in a filthy 
 underground prison-cell, until, worn out with heavy afHic- 
 tions, this faithful servant was called to his Master, to en- 
 joy the reward of so much labor. The Archbishop of Dub- 
 lin is now two months dead. God grant he may have a 
 successor who will imitato his piety, and show the same 
 zeal in his ministry." 
 
 By the " two months " Dr. Lynch may have understood 
 the interval from the ettd of July, in which the death took 
 place, to the beginning of October, in which the letter was 
 written ; or he may have reckoned from the time the in- 
 telligence reached him. The error in any case is very 
 slight, the true date of Dr. Russell's death being the 14th 
 July, 1692, as appears from the coffin-plate, now in the 
 possession of the venerable parish priest of Rush, the Very 
 Rev. A. Fagan. — Renehaiis Collections. 
 
 Ajnno leOS. 
 
 The surrender of Limerick left William the acknow- 
 ledged king of Great Britain and Ireland, but the terms of 
 
438 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 capitulation, or treaty of Limerick, guaranteed to the Irish 
 Catholics, then in arms, liberty of conscience. This was, 
 however, soon violated by the enactment of the penal laws 
 The first of these was enacted in 1697, after the Peace of 
 Ryswick had freed William from the embarrassment of a 
 continental war. In this year an act was passed " for ban- 
 ishing all papists exercising any ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
 whatever in Ireland before the ist May, 1698, and if found 
 there after that date to be imprisoned during pleasure with- 
 out bail, and then transported for life ; that in the mean- 
 time no archbishop, bishop, vicar, etc., should ever land in 
 Ireland from abroad, after the 29th December, 1697, under 
 pain of a year's incmrceration and then perpetual banish- 
 ment ; and that, if any archbishop, etc., should in either 
 case return from banishment, he should be judged guilty of 
 high treason, and die the death of a traitor." Moreover, 
 harboring or concealing them was punishable by a fine 
 of ;£20 for the first offence, ^^40 for the second, and con- 
 fiscation of all estates and chattels for the third, the fines 
 to be divided, one half to the informer, and one half to the 
 king. 
 
 Under th&se inhuman laws, nearly every bishop, and 
 most of the regular clergy in Ireland, were either deport- 
 ed out of the country or obliged to seek safety in flight. 
 Among these were Dr. Dominick Maguire, Archbishop 
 of Armagh, the Archbishops of Dublin and Tuam, the 
 Bishops of Ossory and Elphin. According to Captain 
 South's account of the 495 regulars then known to be em- 
 ployed in Ireland, 424 were shipped off this year — namely, 
 153 from Dublin, 190 from Galway, 75 from Cork, and 26 
 from Waterford. The secular clergy, said to be 892 in 
 number, were obliged by their office to remain with their 
 flock at all hazards. The Archbishop of Cashel, Dr. Com- 
 erford, courageously braved the terrors of death rather 
 than leave the whole Irish Church without a bishop. In 
 
In the Reign of William III, 439 
 
 1701, Dr. Comerford tells the Secretary of Propaganda 
 there were only three or four bishops still in Ireland. 
 These were Dr. Comerford himself, (6tait fort ag^,) Dr. 
 Donelly, of Dromore, (dtait en prison,) and, perhaps, the 
 Bishop of Clonfert. — Renehan's Collections, pp. 84, 301 ; 
 Dalton's Archbishops of Dublin, p. 458. 
 
 REV. FATHER JAMES O'FiELAIN, (ANGLICE, FULLAM,) O.P.P, 
 
 " He completed his studies in Portugal, and lived in 
 the convent of Dublin, an example and a service to the 
 house, for he was a prudent and provident procurator ; he 
 was several times sub-prior of the same house ; he was 
 always head of the confraternity of the Holy Rosary, and 
 taught and instructed the associates, which office he 
 executed with great satisfaction to all. When the kingdom 
 was conquered, he was obliged to flee across the seas, and 
 being taken at sea by the English, was carried to London, 
 where he endured want and all the hardships of prison for 
 two years. At length, by good fortune, he obtained his 
 liberty ; he made his way to France, and dwelt for some 
 years at Abbeville. He made every possible effort to 
 return to his country, and was again thrown into prison in 
 England for a year, and when set at liberty returned to 
 Belgium, where he was made chaplain to the regiment of the 
 Duke of Berwick, where, serving faithfully, he was slain in 
 a battle in the Milanese, between Prince Eugene of Savoy 
 and the Duke of Vend6me, in the year 1705." — O'Heyn, 
 
 p. 7. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 REV. FATHERS DANIEL MACDONEL AND FLEMING, O.P.P. 
 
 "In the same convent of Urlar, in the county Mayo, 
 there lived Father Daniel MacDonel, who had studied in 
 Portugal, and on his return to his native land lived con- 
 
440 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 tinually in his convent until the late expulsion of priests. 
 He returned to Ireland out of France, and being detected 
 as a religious in the ship, while yet it was at anchor, he 
 was thrown into prison with Father Fleming, whom I 
 have spoken of before, and was kept there for fourteen 
 months with gyves on his feet. He was then sent back to 
 France, but, again attempting to return, landed at Gal way, 
 where he was immediately made prisoner, and has now 
 (1706) been nearly six years in prison, without any present 
 hope of release." — O'Heyn, p. 39. 
 
 REV. WALTER FLEMING, O.P.P., 
 
 Was one of the regulars transported beyond the seas, as 
 we learn from De Burgo, who says : 
 
 " He was sent into exile in the same ship with myself,* 
 and landed in France. After a year he returned to Ire- 
 land, but, being seized before he landed from the ship, was 
 thrown into prison in Cork, where he remained with a 
 companion for nearly a year in iron fetters. He was sent 
 back to France and fell ill at sea, and lay sick for a long 
 time in an inn at Nantes, where, having piously received 
 the sacraments, he died at an advanced age, in the year 
 1701." — Hit. Dam. p. 504. 
 
 Anno 170s. 
 
 REV. JOHN MORROGH, O.P.P. 
 
 " There died in this year, after the last exile. Father 
 John O'Moraghuadh, (commonly Morrogh,) a good man 
 who had been frequently prior of the convent of Cork and 
 elsewhere. He died in prison, where he had been detain- 
 
 • In 1698, Father O'Hsyn, the writer, was, on the 17th June, forced to emb.irk, with I3« 
 other religious, on board a ship at Galway, and sent out of the kingdom. 
 
In the Reign of Anne. 441 
 
 z>\ four years, for he was unable from gout to fly" — 
 
 OHeyn, p. 13. 
 
 — • — 
 
 A.mw 1704. 
 
 REV. CLEMENT O'COLGAN, O.P.P. 
 
 " He studied with credit in Spain. Returning to his 
 native land, he lived piously in his convent of Derry, and 
 preached fervently and well until the conquest of the 
 kingdom in the year 1691, when he crossed into France. 
 Hence he proceeded to Rome, and taught philosophy in 
 the convent of St. Sixtus, and afterward returned to 
 Ireland. Being taken by the heretics, he endured two 
 years' imprisonment in the city of Derry, and died for the 
 faith in the same prison, in the year 1704." 
 
 Anno 1706. 
 
 REV. JOHN MAGLAINN, NICHOLAS BLAKE, AND 
 GREGORY FRENCH, O.P.P. 
 
 " One of these was Father John Maglainn, who has now 
 been in prison at Limerick for ten years on account of the 
 conversion of a heretic to the faith. 
 
 "There yet live, (1706,) of the fathers of the convent of 
 Galway, Father Nicholas Blake, who was a distinguished 
 student and monk at Louvain. When he had completed 
 his studies, he returned to Ireland, and chose the convent 
 of Galway for his residence, where he dwelt among his 
 relatives and fellow-citizens, esteemed for his piety and 
 observance pf the rule. When driven into exile, he came 
 to Nantes, and thence returned to Galway, where now for 
 five years he lies by day in some hiding-place, and at 
 night visits the faithful. Truly I fear lest he be now in 
 prison, because the heretics are taking extraordinary pains 
 this year in hunting down the religious. 
 
442 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 "Father Gregory French, of the same convent, studied 
 at Madrid, in the convent of the Blessed Virgin of Atocha. 
 Returning to his country, he was after some years made 
 prior ut his convent. Driven into exile, he lived for two 
 years at Nantes, and returning from thence to Ireland, he 
 was at once thrown into prison, where he lay for a year 
 and a half; but at the solicitation of his brother he was 
 allowed, on giving heavy bail, to live with this brother. 
 
 " The Rev. Father Peter Furlong, of the convent of 
 Athenry, is now, 1706, three years in prison in England." 
 ~ OHeyii, pp. 27, 36, 
 
 REV. LAURENCE O'FERRALL, O.P.P. 
 
 " He was an alumnus of the convent of Longford, and 
 studied at Prague, in Bohemia, but read his philosophy in 
 Rome with the Irish Dominicans in the convent of Saints 
 Sixtus and Clement, and theology with the English 
 Dominicans in the house of Saints John and Paul. He 
 thence proceeded to England, and while discharging the 
 duties of an apostolic missionary was seized and confined 
 in a most strict prison in London, where he suffered much 
 for more than a year. At length by the favor of God he 
 was set free, and proceeded to Belgium, where he patient- 
 ly bore a long illness. Again he returned to England, 
 and was again imprisoned, but was sent as a German into 
 Portugal with the Archduke Charles, afterward Emperor 
 of the Romans. From thence he took an opportunity of 
 going to Spain, where he piously died, serving as a 
 chaplain to Berwick's regiment, in 1708." — Hib. Dom. p 
 586. 
 
In the Reign of Anne. 443 
 
 Amno 1710. 
 
 In 1 704, all the secular priests in Ireland, not bishops or 
 other dignitaries, were ordered to register themselves, and 
 were promised protection if they complied. In 1709, an 
 act had been passed, offering a reward of ;^50 for the arrest 
 of a bishop or vicar-general and j^20 for a friar. What 
 .rendered this bribe peculiarly grievous was that the money 
 was to be levied on the Catholics of the county in which 
 the ecclesiastic was convicted. In 17 10, the real object of 
 the Registration Act of 1704 was made manifest; for it 
 was enacted that before the 25th March, 1710, every register- 
 ed priest should present himself at the quarter sessions and 
 take the oath of abjuration, under the penalty of transporta- 
 tion for life, and of a traitor's death if he returned. By 
 the oath of abjuration the priest was ordered to swear that 
 the sacrifice of the Mass and the invocation of the saints 
 were damnable and idolatrous. In other words, the priest, 
 who had been induced to register under the promise of 
 protection, was called upon to apostatize, under the 
 penalty of transportation for life, and a bribe of £10 a year 
 for life waii offered to any priest who would apostatize. 
 The priest- hunters were now called into full activity, and 
 for some thirty years pursued their infernal trade in full 
 force. Each of these wretches had under him an infamous 
 corps, designated priest-hounds, whose duty was to track, 
 with the untiring scent of the bloodhound, the humble 
 priest from refuge to refuge. In cities and towns the 
 Catholic clergy were concealed in cellars or garrets, and 
 in the country districts they were hid in the unfrequented 
 caves, in the lonely woods, or in the huts of the faithful 
 Irish peasantry. De Burgo tells us that this persecution 
 and hunting after priests was most bitter toward the close 
 of the reign of Anne and the commencement of George I. ; 
 and he says that none would have escaped were it not for 
 
444 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 the horroi in which priest-catchers were held by the peopk 
 He adds, moreover, and it is a pleasing reminiscence, that 
 so odious and detestable were these priest-hunters and 
 informers in the eyes of the honest Protestants of Dublin, 
 that, when any of the wretches made their appearance in 
 public, both Protestants and Catholics rushed forth to stone 
 them in the streets, amidst shouts and groans of execra- 
 tion.* 
 
 Instances of this persecution will be given under the 
 
 years i/iSand 1737. 
 
 — ♦— 
 
 A-nno 1712. 
 
 THE FRANCISCAN NUNS OF GALWAY, 
 
 In 1 71 2, when Edward Eyre, Mayor of Galway, was 
 directed to suppress the nunneries in that town, " Dr. John 
 Burke, then provincial of the Franciscans in Ireland, of 
 which order the nuns were, obtained permission from Dr. 
 Edmund Byrne, titular Archbishop of Dublin, to admit 
 them into his diocese, hoping they would be less noticed 
 there than in a place upon which government kept so 
 strict an eye as Galway. A few of these unhappy ladies 
 were accordingly translated to Dublin ; but they had 
 scarcely reached the city, when the lords-justices received 
 information of their arrival, and immediately issued orders 
 for their apprehension, in consequence of which several 
 were taken in their conventual habits. A proclamation 
 was then issued, dated 20th September of that year, to 
 apprehend said John Burke, Dr. Byrne, and Dr. Nary as 
 popish priests attempting to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion contrary to the laws of this kingdom ; and it was 
 ordered that all laws in force against the papists should be 
 strictly carried into execution. Such were the fears and 
 
 • Cogan, Dioccu tf Meath^ vol. i. p. 266. 
 
In the Reign of George II. 445 
 
 alarms caused by the arrival of a few weak women in the 
 capital, as if the circumstance had been sufficient to over- 
 turn the government, or to shake the foundations of the 
 Established Church." — Hardiman's History of Galway, p. 
 
 275- 
 
 In 171 7, the Dominican nuns were driven from Galwayi 
 as the Franciscans had been a few years previously. 
 
 A-nno 1718. 
 
 REV. ANTONY MAGUIRE, O.P.P., AND OTHERS. 
 
 De Burgo gives a striking instance of the proceedings 
 of the priest-hunters which occurred in this year. 
 
 " In this year," says he, " as I well remember, seven 
 priests were taken prisoners together in Dublin by means 
 of a Portuguese Jew named Gorsia, who pretended to be a 
 priest, in order to discover the true priests. Among them 
 were Father Antony Maguire, Irish provincial of the Domi- 
 nicans, two Jesuits, one Friar Minor, and the other three 
 secular priests. They were sent into exile, and threatened 
 with death if they returned. Nevertheless, they all return- 
 ed under feigned names, and escaped detection." — Hib. 
 
 Dam. p. 160. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 A.nno 1737. 
 
 REV. JOHN BARNEWALL. 
 
 Another striking instance of the proceedings of the 
 priest-hunters may be given from the Diocese of Meath. 
 It shows the violence of the persecution as late as 1737: 
 
 "In 1704, Rev. John Barnewall was registered at Trim 
 as 'popish priest of Ardbraccan, Martry, Rathboyne, and 
 L'scartan.' He was ordained in 1680, at Dunadea, county 
 Kildare, by Dr. Mark Foristall, Bishop of Kildare, lived at 
 
446 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 Neilstown the year of the registration, and was then forty- 
 seven years of age. This great ecclesiastic was nearly 
 related to Lord Trimblestown, and was, in every sense of 
 the word, worthy of the noble family from which he sprang. 
 Very few of his contemporaries suffered more intensely 
 and continuously from the operation of the penal laws. 
 Many years have elapsed since his departure, yet his 
 memory is fondly cherished by the people of this parish. 
 Whatever residence Father Barnewall may have had in the 
 year of registration, it is certain that, a few years subse- 
 quently, when he refused to take the oath of abjuration, he 
 was obliged to flee like a felon from his home, and take 
 shelter in the ditches, the barns, and the cabins of the poor. 
 He seems to have been particularly singled out for perse- 
 cution ; and neither his illustrious birth, his distinguished 
 relatives, his fine, manly figure, nor his piety, charity, learn- 
 ing, or self-sacrifice could screen him from the informers 
 and priest-hunters, whom the infamous penal laws called 
 into existence. 
 
 " In the early part of the last century, there were two 
 mud-wall thatched chapels in this district, one at Neilstown, 
 and the other in the valley, beneath the old church of 
 Rathboyne, or Cortown. Father Barnewall, during the lull 
 of the storm, officiated in these humble temples ; but when 
 the tempest would burst forth, these wretched houses of 
 worship would be closed, and then Mass would be celebrat- 
 ed by stealth on the hills, in the woods, or at the backs 
 of ditches. The place selected for the celebration of the 
 sacred mysteries would constantly be changed, in order to 
 baffle the priest-hunter ; and word, in the meantime, would 
 be whispered round the people, during the week, where to 
 meet the priest on the following Sunday. At break of day, 
 and frequently before it, the faithful would assemble to as- 
 sist at the Holy Sacrifice, and the most active of the flock 
 would keep vigil, to protect the sacred ceremonies from 
 
Ill the Reign of George II. 447 
 
 ' profanation, and the unfortunate priest from the dread 
 penalties of the law. 
 
 " There lived at that time on the banks of the Black- 
 water, at a place called Oldtown, near Kilmainham-Hert- 
 ford, a notorious priest-hunter, named Sir Richard Barker. 
 In order to accomplish his purposes, and to clutch his bribe, 
 he had in his pay a troop of spies distributed throughout 
 the district, by means of whom he sought to discover the 
 hiding-places of the clergy, and the lonely places where the 
 people assembled to worship on Sunday mornings. Often 
 did these men plot the capture of Fatheir Barnewall, but 
 failed, either because it was difficult to discover his hiding- 
 place, or because they found it dangerous to attempt his 
 capture. On one occasion they well-nigh succeeded. They 
 
 assembled in the house of one of their corps, named G , 
 
 at Martry. A messenger was sent among the people to 
 find out Father Barnewall, in order (as was pretended) to 
 have the last rites of the church administered to a person 
 in danger of death. When Father Barnewall heard that a 
 person was dangerously ill, he hastened to discharge his 
 duty, but a poor Catholic servant-girl, who had overheard 
 what was in contemplation, contrived to meet him outside 
 the house, and, in a few words, warned him to make off 
 with his life. Father Barnewall acted on the suggestion, 
 •and, for this time, the priest-hunters were baffled. At 
 length they succeeded by a stratagem, in the following 
 manner : There lived at that time, at Allenstown House, a 
 kind-hearted Protestant gentleman, named Waller, who 
 often sheltered Father Barnewall, and gave him timely 
 information whenever the priest-hunters contemplated 
 prosecuting a search. Waller was a magistrate, living in 
 the parish, and thus had an opportunity of acquiring much 
 valuable knowledge, of which he made liberal use for the 
 protection of Father Barnewall. He was obliged, however, 
 to proceed with extreme caution, as the Act of Parliament 
 
448 Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 expressly stated ' that the prosecuting and informing 
 against papists was an honorable service,' and 'that all 
 magistrates who neglected to execute these (penal) laws 
 were betrayers of the liberties of the kingdom.' The priest- 
 hunters strongly suspected that Waller was more closely 
 acquainted with Father Barnewall than the law allowed, 
 and hence, having placed their ruffians in ambush, they 
 despatched a messenger to find out Father Barnewall's 
 ' hiding-place,' and to tell him that Mr. Waller wanted him 
 in all haste, as he had information of the greatest impor- 
 tance to communicate. The priest lost no time in hasten- 
 ing to Allenstown, but when he entered the grounds he 
 found himself surrounded by his enemies, and, having no 
 means of escape, was obliged to surrender. He was 
 marched off in triumph, and lodged in Trim jail. The 
 charges advanced against him were that he was a popish 
 priest, living in the county in defiance of the statute, that 
 he refused the oath of abjuration, and that he practised 
 ' the damnable and idolatrous superstitions of the Church 
 ai Rome.' The penalty for each of these offences was 
 transportation for life, and, if he returned, to be hanged, 
 drawn, and quartered. In the meantime Mr. Waller was 
 not idle. He felt deeply grieved at the incarceration of his 
 old friend, and he used all his family interest with the 
 members of the grand jury, and succeeded at length in 
 obtaining Father Barnewall's liberation. 
 
 " In this age of Catholic development we can only dim- 
 ly conceive the sufferings of the Irish priesthood, the in- 
 cessant privations, humiliations, and persecutions to which 
 Ihey were exposed. The penal laws could be enforced at 
 any moment, at the whim of every bigot. The clergy were 
 clad in frieze like the peasantry, in order to conceal their 
 ecclesiastical dignity ; and they usually travelled with a wal- 
 let, or linen bag, across their shoulders, in each end of which, 
 equally balanced, were stowed the vestments and altar linen 
 
In the Reign of George 11. 449 
 
 for the Holy Sacrifice. They had no fixed residence, but 
 journeyed from cabin to cabin, distributing graces, in- 
 structing their flocks, and administering the sacraments ; 
 and they partook of the humble fare of the peasantry, to 
 which they were at all times welcome. Father Barnewall 
 was one morning on his way to celebrate Mass in a house 
 near Allenstown. He was clad in frieze, had his vest 
 raents in a satchel across his shoulder, a stick in his right 
 hand, and in his left a small silver chalice, unscrewed so 
 as to fit in a little chajnois cover. On the roadside Mr. 
 Waller was speaking to a notorious priest-hunter, named 
 Pilot, who was out that very morning searching for infor- 
 mation about Father Barnewall. A glance of friendly re- 
 cognition passed between Waller and the priest, and each 
 knew it would be unsafe to hazard more. The priest-hunt- 
 er, half-suspecting the disguised traveller, said, ' Good- 
 morning, sir.' ' Good-morning,' was answered. ' My 
 name is Pilot ; what is yours ?' ' Your name, (Pilate,) 
 sir, bodes no good to a Christian.' Waller interposed, 
 saying, ' Let him pass, let him pass.' This was good ad- 
 vice for Pilot ; for, if he had assailed the priest single- 
 handed, he would have met a rather unpleasant reception. 
 " At one time, during which the penal laws against the 
 priesthood were enforced with more than usual rigor. Wal- 
 ler had Father Barnewall concealed for several weeks in 
 his house. Many of the peasantry were aware of this, and 
 understood also the propriety of seeming not to know, and, 
 of course, the necessity of not divulging, the hiding-place 
 of their afflicted pastor. Hence, when any of the people 
 had a sick-call, the messenger would proceed to Aliens- 
 town, pass round the house so as to attract attention, and 
 when Mr. Waller inquired the cause of uneasiness, the re- 
 ply would be that a priest was required in such a place. 
 The peasant knew the hint was enough, and forthwith 
 Father Barnewall would be seen journeying on his mission 
 
^jo Martyrs and Confessors 
 
 of charity, and, having discharged his duty, stealing back 
 to the house of his protector and friend. However, Father 
 Barnewall was sometimes obliged to visit remote parts of 
 his parish, and then found it impossible to return for a 
 considerable time. On one occasion, while visiting the 
 parish of Cortown, the priest-hunter from Kells made so 
 close a search for him that to ensure his safety a farmer 
 constructed a little apartment for him in a rick of turf, in 
 which Father Barnewall dwelt for several days. It some- 
 times happened, too, when dwelling in the cabins of the 
 poor, that in order to take exercise, and at the same time 
 escape the watchful eyes of his enemies, he roamed through 
 the lonely unfrequented fields with a woman's cloak around 
 him, and the hood over his head. Such were some of the 
 many stratagems the Irish priest was obliged to adopt in 
 the days of persecution, in order to preserve the faith ; and 
 in the worst of times they never flinched or deserted the 
 people. A volume might be written on the trying scenes 
 through which the intrepid Father Barnewall passed 
 in those dismal times. But hi« reward was near at hand ; 
 the martyr's crown was soon to recompense him for years 
 of labor and suffering. He was more than eighty years of 
 age when he was again arrested by the priest-hunters, and 
 pleaded guilty to the charge of having celebrated Mass. 
 He was clad in a long frieze coat, wore an old hat, had a 
 breviary in one hand and a staff" in the other, and in this 
 plight, surrounded by his enemies, he was marched in tri- 
 umph to Navan, and lodged in the bridewell. After a fort- 
 night's confinement, he was sent a prisoner to Dublin Cas- 
 tle,* whence he never returned to his faithful people. The 
 
 * The late William Forde, Esq., town clerk to the corporation of Dublin, who was oom in 
 this parish, told the writer that Father Barnewall was =irrested about the year 1737, was con- 
 veyed a prisoner to Dublin, and was put to death for the faith. There is a tradition in some 
 parts of the diocese that, after .suffering for some time in prison, he was shipped off in exile to 
 the Continent, and the ship having entered some portin England, Father Barnewall was point- 
 ed out as a popish priest from Ireland, was dragged from the ship, and hung in the streets. A'J 
 acroimts concur that he suffered martyrdom for the fa"th. — Cogan, 
 
In the Reign of George II. 451 
 
 traditions of the parish are most specific in representing 
 him as having been put to death for the faith ; but whe- 
 ther in England, as some say, or in Dublin, there is no au- 
 thentic account. Whether he died violently, or by slow, 
 torturing imprisonment, he is equally entitled to the dis- 
 tinction of having been one of the martyred priests of Ire- 
 land." — Cogatis Diocese of Meath, vol. ii. p. 263. 
 
 Anno 1744. 
 
 REVS. NICHOLAS ENGLISH, DOMINICK KELLY, THOMAS 
 NOLAN, MICHAEL LYNCH, AND JOHN GERALDINE. 
 
 We have now come to the last scene in the sanguinary 
 drama of religious persecution which we have traced 
 through two hundred years. From 1700, as my readers 
 have seen, the rigor of persecution against ecclesiastics had 
 slackened. The penal laws were, indeed, in all their ma- 
 lignant force, and their edge was yearly sharpened,* but 
 priests were no longer put to death, and even their impri- 
 sonment had become comparatively rare. In the year 
 1743, under the administration of the Duke of Devonshire, 
 a fresh act of active persecution led to such lamentable 
 consequences as shocked the reviving humanity of the 
 country, and led to the first regular toleration of the 
 Catholic service. 
 
 "On the 28th of February, 1743, a proclamation was 
 issued, signed by the lord-lieutenant and the members of 
 the privy council, directing all justices of the peace and 
 others diligently to put in force the laws for the detection 
 and apprehension of popish prelates and priests ; and large 
 rewards were offered for the seizure and conviction of those 
 proscribed persons, and of any others who shovlJ dare to 
 conceal them or receive them into their houses. Nor was 
 
 * The first relaxation of the penal laws was in 1765. 
 
452 Martyrs aitd Confessors 
 
 this anidle threat. On Saturday, the 17th February, 1744, 
 a certain alderman named William Aldrich went secretly 
 to the Catholic parish church of St. Paul, in the north part 
 of Dublin, and finding there a secular priest of the diocese 
 of Dublin, named Nicholas English, in the act of saying 
 Mass, (he had just read the preface,) he arrested him, and, 
 only allowing him to lay aside the sacred vestments, sent 
 him off to prison in a car. He then went to the convent 
 of the Dominican nuns, and seeing two Dominican fathers 
 who were chaplains there — Father Dominick Kelly, of 
 Roscommon, and Thomas Nolan, of Gaula, in the county 
 Fermanagh — sent them in another car to the same prison.* 
 
 " All the other priests, both secular and regular, imme- 
 diately changed their places of abode and concealed them- 
 selves. The same Alderman Aldrich contrived, however, 
 to arrest a Minorite named Michael Lynch, while he was 
 deliberating about changing his domicile. All the bishops 
 and priests fled to Dublin, because in so large a city it 
 was easier to lie concealed than in the country. The 
 faithful were deprived of all opportunity of hearing Mass, 
 even on Sundays and holydays, except a few who managed 
 to hear Mass in caves, and in Dublin in stables and other 
 hidden places. As a certain Meath priest, of the name of 
 John Geraldine, was saying Mass before a crowded con- 
 gregation in the top story of an old and ruinous house, at 
 the end of the Mass, just as the blessing was given and 
 the people stood up, the house fell down ; and the priest 
 and nine laics of both sexes were killed on the spot, and 
 many mortally wounded. 
 
 "The viceroy and the privy council were moved to 
 pity by this lamentable event, and let it be known that 
 they preferred that the chapels should be opened, rather 
 
 * Father Thomas de Burgo, the wiiter, was, he tells us, himself attached to the church of 
 St. Paul, and said Mass there at nine o'clock every day, while Father English said it at ten 
 o'clock. Father De Burgo had formerly said his Mass at ten, and had changed hours with 
 Father English only a few days before. 
 
In the Reign of George II. 453 
 
 than that the citizens should be thus miserably cut off. 
 All the chapels in Dublin were, therefore, opened on St. 
 Patrick's Day, the seventeenth of March, 1745, and have 
 remained open even to this day," namely, 1762. — Hib. 
 Dam., pp. 175, 717. 
 
 From 174s, the CathoHcs of Ireland heard Mass and 
 received the sacraments in safety. Bishops and priests 
 were restored to their missions ; the severity of the 
 penal laws relaxed ; the axe had become blunted with 
 use, the gibbet clogged with the blood of its victims, 
 and, although eighty-five years more passed away before 
 Catholic Emancipation became law, they were years of 
 comparative peace. The martyrs had fought the good 
 fight and conquered. The fruit of their victory was 
 the immortal crown they had earned for themselves : 
 and this victory and triumph they had secured for the 
 Church and for Ireland. 
 
RETROSPECT. 
 
 Though, from the year 1744, Catholic blood flowed 
 •ess profusely in Ireland, persecution was not discon- 
 tinued. From time to time, bigoted zealots and intoler- 
 ant fanatics reminded the proscribed Catholics that the 
 penal laws still stood upon the statute books. In their 
 insatiable thirst for Papist blood, and in order to gratify 
 their hatred for Popery, these misguided heretics con- 
 tinued to devise new plots in which to entrap their 
 unsuspecting brethren. The same unfounded and un- 
 proven charges of high treason that sent the martyr 
 Plunket to the gibbet in 168 1, consigned the saintly 
 Father Nicholas Sheehy to the gallows in 1766. 
 
 Before entering into any further specific cases of the 
 martyrdom, physical and civil, to which the Irish race 
 was subjected by the government of England, we would 
 do well to give a hasty retrospective glance at the 
 various stages of English policy, and its results, in the 
 unhappy island. 
 
 The broad, fertile lands of Tipperary had become the 
 spoil of Cromwellian planters and soldiers, while 
 nearly all the Catholic people of Ireland who owned 
 any portion of the land, were driven out of Munster, 
 Leinster and Ulster, and on the first of May, 1654, they 
 were forced across the Shannon into Connaught. The 
 phrase used by the Cromwellians on the occasion was, 
 " that they were to go to hell or Connaught." To the for- 
 mer place, however, as being no part of the inheritance 
 of St. Patrick, they did not go, but they were obliged 
 
Retrospect. 455 
 
 to go to Connaught. Lest, even there, they might main- 
 tain any hope of relief by .sea, or enjoy the sight of those 
 fair provinces and that beautiful country once their own, 
 a law was established that no Irishman, transplanted 
 into Connaught, was to come within four miles of the 
 liver Shannon, on the one side, or within four miles of 
 the sea, on the other. There was a cordon of English 
 soldiery and English forts drawn about them, and there 
 they were to 1 ve in the bogs, in the fastnesses, and in the 
 wild wastes of the most desolate region in Ireland ; there 
 they were to pine and expire by famine and by every 
 form of suffering that their Heavenly Father might per- 
 mit to fall upon them. The fond hope, however, that 
 they would yet have their own, — a hope which has never 
 died out in an Irishman's bosom, — kept alive their natural 
 antagonism to the Cromwellian settlers. The rough 
 Puritan soldiers who came over to Ireland with the Bible 
 in one hand and the sword in the other, and who had 
 settled in the desolated plains of fair Mtinster, and the 
 beautiful valleys of Leinster, were men of pluck, who 
 would not tamely endure the restless spirit of these old 
 outlawed proprietors, backed by the daring peasantry, 
 who for generations had ever been the faithful clansmen 
 or retainers of the ancient families. Having the adminis- 
 tration of the civil laws and the disposal of the military 
 in their hands, they proved themselves more than a match 
 for their dispossessed and hereditary foes, while every 
 means in their power was mercilessly brought into use to 
 accomplish their purposes. 
 
 When Cromwell died, in 1658, Ireland lay void as a 
 wilderness ; five-sixths of her people had perished ; men, 
 women and children were found daily perishing in ditches, 
 starved ; the -bodies of many wandering orphans, whose 
 fathers had embarked for Spain, and whose mothers had 
 died of famine, were fed upon by wolves. In the years 
 16152 and 1653, the plague and famine had swept away 
 
45 6 Retrospect. 
 
 the inhabitints of whole counties, so that a man might 
 travel twenty or thirty miles, and not see a living creature : 
 man, beast or bird, — they were all dead, or had quit 
 these desolate places. The troopers would tell stories of 
 places where they saw smoke — it was so rare to see fire 
 or smoke, either by day or night. In two or three cabins 
 where they went, they found none but aged men, with 
 women and children, and, in the words of the prophet, 
 " they became as a bottle in the smoke ;", their skin was 
 black, like an oven, because of the terrible famine ; they 
 were seen to eat filthy carrion out of the ditch, black 
 and rotten, and were said to have even taken corpses 
 out of the graves to eat. 
 
 " Within a twelvemonth after the Marquis of Clanri- 
 carde left Ireland," says Borlase, " Mortagh O'Brien, the 
 last of the Irish commanders, submitted to the parliament, 
 on the usual terms of transportation, by the favor of 
 which, twenty-seven thousand men had been that year 
 sent away." "Cromwell," says Dalrymple ("Men of 
 Great Britain," vol. i, part 2, page 267), " in order to get 
 free of his enemies, did not scruple to transport forty 
 thousand Irish from their own country, to fill all the 
 armies in Europe with complaints of his cruelty, and 
 admiration of their own valor." 
 
 The design of the English Protestant party was 
 totally to exterminate the Irish people. For the pur- 
 pose of effectually clearing the country of the native 
 Irish, it was, of course, expedient to get rid of as many 
 persons of the military age as possible. In this way 
 several other detachments, comprising from one to four 
 thousand men each, under the command of Irish officers, 
 were disposed of, by Cromwell and his government, to 
 foreign princes. 
 
 But the enormities of the ruling tyrants did not stop 
 here. Those of military age who were spared from the 
 slaughter, to the amount, by a safe calculation, of more 
 
Retrospect. 457 
 
 than forty thousand, were sent into foreign service, on 
 the continent of Europe, especially to Spain and Belgium. 
 The following note will be found in Dr. Lingard's 
 " History of England," vol. x, page 306: "According to 
 Petty, six thousand boys and men were sent away. Lynch 
 {^Cambrensis Eversus) says that they were sold for slaves. 
 Broudin, in his 'Propugnaculum' {Pragce, 1669), numbers the 
 exiles at one hundred thousand. . ' Ultra centum millia 
 omnis sexus et cBtatis, e quibus aliquot millia in diversas 
 Americ(B tabacarias insulas relegata sunt ' (page 692).* In 
 a letter in my possession, written in 1656, it is said: 
 ' Catholicos pauperes plenis navibus mittunt in Barbados et 
 insulas Americcz. Credo jam sexaginta millia abivisse. 
 Expulsis enim ab initio in Hispaniam et Belgium maritis, 
 jam uxores et proles in Americam destinantur.' " 
 
 It would, indeed, be idle to exclaim at any cruelty com- 
 mitted at that time. Those unhappy exiles perished in 
 hundreds and thousands. Of the myriads thus trans- 
 ported, not a single one survived at the end of twenty 
 years. 
 
 Was there any species of crime which was not per- 
 petrated against the Irish by the barbarians of the Eng- 
 lish government? 
 
 In Thurlow's correspondence the formation of press- 
 gangs, to collect the male and female youths for trans- 
 portation, is stated at length. " Some have thought," says 
 the great O'Connell, " that the system adopted by the 
 monster who now rules in Russia, of collecting young 
 women from his Polish subjects to send to his military 
 colonies, was an invention of his own. But there is no 
 
 • " Beyond one hundred thousand of either sex and every age, of whom 
 lome thousands were sent to the tobacco-growing islands of America." 
 
 t" They are sending vessels, filled with poor Irish,toBarbadoes and the islands 
 of America. I believe upward of sixty-thousand have already gone, it being 
 intended to- send to Anoerica the wives and children of those men who have 
 been already exiled to Spain and Belgium." 
 
458 Retrospect. 
 
 atrocity so great as to not have its prototype in the 
 brutalities inflicted upon the people of Ireland by some 
 of their English rulers. It is melancholy to read such 
 a statement as the following : — 
 
 " ' Aftertheconquestof Jamaica, in 1655, the Protector, 
 that he might people it, proposed to transport a thousand 
 Irish boys and a thousand Irish girls to the island. A 
 hrst onl^' the young women were demanded, to which it 
 is replied : ' Although we must use force in taking them 
 up, yet it being so much for their own good, and likely 
 to be of so great advantage to the public, it is not in the 
 least doubted that you may have such number of them 
 as you shall think fit.' (Thurlow, iv, 23.) 
 
 "In the next letter, H. Cromwell says: 'I think it 
 might be of like advantage to your affairs there, and 
 ours here, if you should think fit to send one thousand 
 five hundred or two thousand young boys, of twelve or 
 fourteen years of age, to the place afore- mentioned. We 
 could well spare them, and they would be of use to you ; 
 and who knows but it might be a means to make them 
 Englishmen, I mean, rather. Christians?' (Page 40.) Thur- 
 low answers: ' The committee of the council have voted 
 one thousand girls, and as many youths, to be taken up 
 for that purpose.' (Page 75.) 
 
 "Sacred heaven! Thus it is that the English 'did 
 good' to the people of Ireland ! The young women were 
 to be taken by force from their mothers, their sisters, 
 their homes, and to be transported to a foreign and 
 unhealthy clime. ' O but,' said the English rulers, ' it is 
 all for their own good ! ' Then, again, look at the cold 
 blooded manner in which Henry Cromwell proposes tc 
 make them ' English and Christians.' 
 
 " ' Englishmen and Christians^ But no ! Comment is use- 
 less. All these things appear like a hideous dream. They 
 would be utterly incredible, only that they are quite 
 certain. 
 
Retrospect. 459 
 
 " Tnere remained, however, too many to render pos* 
 sibiC the horrible cruelty of cutting all their throats. The 
 Irish government, constituted as it was of the superior 
 officers of the regicide force, resorted to a different plan. 
 Here is the account given by Lord Clarendon of their 
 conduct : — 
 
 " ' They found the utter EXTIRPATION of the nation 
 {which they had intended) to be in itself very difficult, and 
 to carry in it somewhat of horror, that made some 
 impression on the stone-hardness of their own hearts. 
 After so many thousands destroyed by the plague which 
 raged over the kingdom, by fire, sword and famine, and 
 after so many thousands transported into foreign parts, 
 there remained still such a numerous people that they 
 knew not how to dispose of; and though they were 
 declared to be all forfeited, and so to have no title to 
 anj'thing, yet they must remain somewhere. They, 
 therefore, found this expedient, which they called an act 
 of grace : there was a large tract of land, even to the half 
 of the province of Connaught, that was separated from 
 the rest by a long and large river, and which, by the 
 plague and MANY MASSACRES, remained almost 
 desolate. Into this space they required all the Irish to 
 retire by such a day, under the penalty of death; and all 
 who should after that time be found in any other part of the 
 kingdom, man, woman or child, SHOULD BE KILLED 
 BY ANYBODY WHO SAW OR MET THEM. The 
 land within this circuit, the most barren in the king- 
 dom, was, out of the grace and mercy of the conquerors, 
 assigned to those of the nation as were enclosed, in such 
 proportions as might, with great industry, preserve their 
 Jives.' " (" Clarendon's Life," vol. ii, page 1 16.) 
 
 A year before Cromwell died, in 1657, we find a mem- 
 ber of the Irish parliament. Major Morgan, declaring 
 that the whole land of Ireland was in ruin ; for, besides 
 the cost of rebuilding the churches, court-houses and 
 
460 Retrospect, 
 
 market-houses, which were very heavy, they were under 
 a very heavy charge for public rewards, paid for the 
 destruction of three burdensome beasts. And what, 
 think you, were these three beasts? The wolf, 'Cn^ priest, 
 and the tory ! The wolf, because, at that very time, there 
 was made a grant of land within nine miles of Dublin, 
 ^11 the north, that is the most cultivated side of the city, 
 on the condition of keeping a pack of wolf-hounds to 
 tiunt and destroy the wolves. These animals had in- 
 creased with the desolation of the country, so that they 
 came, famishing, to the very gates of Dublin, whence 
 they had to be driven. The priest, because his head had 
 the same value in court as that of a wolf, namely, five 
 pounds ; and the law of the English parliament wnich 
 offered such a price, aye and twice as much, for the head 
 of a Jesuit or a bishop, was obliged to be enforced by 
 the magistrates, under most severe penalties. We find 
 the country filled with informers ; we find priest-hunting 
 actually reduced to a profession in Ireland, and, strange 
 enough, we find the Portuguese Jews coming all the 
 way from Portugal, in order to hunt priests in Ire- 
 land. When, in 1698, under William III, the rehgious 
 were shipped off into banishment and slavery, as we 
 have already mentioned (folio 438), not one of the eight 
 hundred and odd secular priests that remained in the 
 land would be allowed to say Mass in public or private, 
 nor indeed remain in the country until he first took the 
 oath to renounce the supremacy of the pope — of papal 
 abjuration ; in other words, until he became a Protestant. 
 The third troublesome beast of Major Morgan's cate 
 gory was the tory, under which name are included the 
 desperate men who, under some dispossessed gentleman 
 either aboriginal Irish or old English, had retired into 
 the wilds, on the surrender of the army, or who had run 
 out again, after submitting, and resumed arms rather 
 than remain in Connaught. The country was infested 
 
Retrospect. 461 
 
 with them, and all the great regions, left waste by war 
 and transplantations, gave them ample room for conceal- 
 ment, while the inadequate numbers of the forces of the 
 commonwealth, unequal to the full control of so extensive 
 a country as Ireland, left them at liberty to plan their 
 surprises. These outlaws, who were, at a later day, 
 known as Rapparees, and as such are described by, Eng- 
 lish historians in fearfui terms, continued long to infest 
 and desolate the country, and we find accounts of them 
 in state papers, down even to the last years of the reign 
 of George IV. 
 
 Before passing from the commonwealth to the restora- 
 tion of the English monarchy, in 1660, we give an ex- 
 tract from the rare and curious tract of Father Morison, 
 published in 1659, containing a summary of many of the 
 Irish chiefs and nobles who suffered for their faith, but 
 whose names are not eisewhere given in our pages : — 
 
 " I do not," sa3's the reverend chronicler (of whose 
 personal sufferings see mention on page 328 of this present 
 work), " here enumerate any person slain in battle, 
 although he might have fallen in the cause of his religion, 
 nor do I give the tenth Dart of the persons of quality who 
 were murdered, but only the more illustrious, being 
 chiefly those who were received into allegiance by the 
 Protestants after the amnesty had been made and actually 
 entered on : a treactiery which barbarians and infidels 
 themselves would abhor and deem detestable. 
 
 " I. Lord Hugh McMahon, the chief of his illustrious 
 race, a brave and no Die military leader, was, after two 
 years' imprisonment m London, half hanged, and, ere life 
 was extinct, quarterea ; his head was then placed on an 
 iron spike on Lonaon Bridge, to feed the ravenous fowls 
 of the air ; his four quarters were placed over four of the 
 gates of London. 
 
 " II. Cornelius Maguire, Lord Viscount Enniskillen, a 
 most devout and holy man, sole cornpanion in captivity 
 
462 Retrospect. 
 
 of the aforesaid Hugh McMahon, underwent the same 
 butchery about two months after the execution of Mc- 
 Mahon. 
 
 " 111. The illustrious Felix O'Neill (captured by Pro- 
 testatit device) was half hanged in Dublin, A. D. 1652, 
 and, while yet alive, was quartered. His head was stuck 
 on a great spike, at the western gate of Dublin, and his 
 quarters were sent to be stuck on spikes in four different 
 parts of the kingdom. 
 
 " IV. Henry O'Neill, son of Eugene O'Neill, taken 
 prisoner in battle, and, notwithstanding plighted faith, 
 slaughtered in Ulster, A. D. 1651. 
 
 " V. Thaddeus O'Connor (Shgo), descended from the 
 royal race of the last and most powerful monarchs of 
 ireland, a man of great goodness and innocence, hung 
 m the town of Boyle, in Connaught, A. D. 1652, after the 
 general amnesty had been made. 
 
 " VI. Constantine O'Ruairk, taken prisoner in battle, 
 murdered in 1652, notwithstanding plighted faith. 
 
 "VII. Theobald de Burg, Lord Viscount Mayo, after 
 a truce had been made with all such persons in the 
 kingdom as were not actually in arms against the Pro- 
 testants, and a ge-neral amnesty promised, was shot in 
 Gal way, in 165 1. 
 
 "VIII. Charles O'Dowd, of a most high and noble 
 race, was hanged A. D. 1651. 
 
 " IX. James O'Brien, of illustrious lineage, maternal 
 nephew of the brave Donatus O'Brien (of whom see 
 account, page 309), a youth of high hopes and prospects, 
 was murdered at Nenagh, in the Ormonds. They cut his 
 head off, and sent it to his brother, Moriarty O'Brien, 
 then their prisoner. 
 
 " X. Bernard O'Brien, of the same noble family, a 
 youth of equally fair prospects, was hanged in 165 1. 
 
 " XI. Daniel O'Brien, first cousin of the said Bernard, 
 was hanged, and his head cutoffat Nenagh, 165 1. 
 
Retrospect. 463 
 
 "XII. The illustrious Colonel John O'Kenedy a man 
 of the utmost integrity, was slain by the swords of the 
 Protestants, after their faith had been pledged to him in 
 battle. His head was then cut off, and fastened on a 
 spike in the town of Nenagh, A D. 1651. 
 
 "XIII. James O'Kened}', son of the aforesaid illus- 
 trious gentleman, a youth of great hopes, being deluded 
 with a similar pledge of good faith, was hanged also at 
 Nenagh, A. D. 165 1. 
 
 " XIV. The illustrious Sir Patrick Purcell, Vice-gen- 
 eral of all Munster, noble-hearted and a most accom- 
 plished warrior (renowned for his services in Germany, 
 against Sweden and France, under Ferdinand III, of 
 august memory), was hanged after the taking of Limerick, 
 his head cut off, and exposed on a stake over the southern 
 gate (called John's Gate) of the city of Limerick, A. D. 
 1651. 
 
 " XV. The illustrious and most generous Sir Godfrey 
 Barron, a sincere Catholic, of the highest fidelity, and 
 of singular eloquence, who had been deputed by the 
 confederated Catholics of Ireland as their envoy to his 
 most Christian majesty, Louis XIV, was also hanged at 
 Limerick. 
 
 " XVI. The noble Sir Godfrey Galway was likewise 
 hanged at Limerick, 165 1. 
 
 "XVII. The noble Thomas Stritch, Mayor of Lim- 
 erick, and alderman, was, with the like cruelty, hanged 
 at the same time with the rest. His head was then cut 
 off and fastened to the city gate. 
 
 ■'XVIII. The noble Dominic Fanning, ex-Mayor of 
 lyimerick, and alderman, a well-known man, and of the 
 hignest integrity, who had been of great service to the 
 confederated Catholics, and had laudably conferred much 
 benefit on the kingdom, as well as on the city, was hanged 
 at Limerick along with the rest, A. D. 165 1. His head 
 was cut off and affixed to the gate. 
 
4^4 Retrospect. 
 
 " XIX. Daniel O'Higgins, medical doctor, a wise and 
 pious man, was hanged at the same time at Limerick. 
 1651. 
 
 " XX. The illustrious John O'Connor, Lord of Kerry 
 and Tracht, on account of his adhesion to the Catholic 
 party, and his efforts to draw to it not only his personal 
 lollowers, but all with whom he had friendship, was, after 
 naving been seized upon by stratagem by Protestants, 
 brought to Tralee, in that county, and there half hanged 
 and then beheaded, A. D. 1652. 
 
 " XXI. The illustrious Lord Edward Butler, son of 
 Lord Mountgarret, an innocent man, who had never 
 taken arms, was hanged at Dublin after the truce had 
 been commenced and amnesty proclaimed throughout 
 the whole kingdom, A. D. 1652." 
 
 That no mistake may be made as to the real sentiment 
 which animated the English race in their relentless fury 
 against the Irish Catholics, we add an extract from a 
 pamphlet entitled, " The Simple Cobbler of Aggavam 
 in America," by Theodore de La Guard, which was first 
 published in London in 1647, and passed through several 
 editions : — 
 
 " A word of Ireland : not of the nation universally, nor 
 of any man in it, that hath as much as one haire of 
 Christianity or humanity growing on his head or beard ; 
 but only of the truculent cutthroats, and such as shall 
 take up arms in their defence. 
 
 " These Irish, anciently called Anthropophagi, man- 
 eaters, have a tradition among them, that when the devil 
 showed our Saviour all the kingdomes of the earth and 
 their glory, that he would not show Him Ireland, but 
 reserved it for himself. It.is most probably true, for he 
 hath kept it ever since for his own peculiar ; the old ''ox 
 foresaw that it would eclipse the glory of all the rest ; he 
 thought it wisdom to keep it for a bog-gard for himself 
 and all his unclean spirits employed in this hemisphere. 
 
Retrospect. 465 
 
 and the people to do his son and heire, I mean the Pope, 
 that service for which Lewis II kepc his barber, Oliver, 
 which makes them to b>; so bloodthirsty. They are the 
 very offal of men, dregges of mankind ; reproach of Chr ist en- 
 dome ; the bots that crawl on the beastes tail. I wonder 
 Rome itself is not ashamed of them. 
 
 ' I beg, upon my hands and knees, that the expedition 
 against them may be undertaken while the hearts and 
 iiandsof our soldiers are hot, to whome I will be bold to say 
 briefly : Happy is he that shall reward e them as they have 
 served us, and cursed is he that shall do the work of the 
 Lord negligently. CURSED BE HE THAT HOLD- 
 ETH BACK HIS SWORD FROM BLOOD ; YEA, 
 CURSED BE HE THAT MAKETH NOT HIS 
 SWORD STARKE DRUNK WITH IRISH BLOOD ; 
 that doth not recompense them double for their hellish 
 treachery to the English ; that maketh them not heaps 
 upon heaps, and their country a dwelling-place for drag- 
 ons, an astonishment to nations ! Let not that eye look 
 ior pity, nor that hand be spared, that pities or spares 
 them, and LET HIM BE ACCURSED THAT CURS- 
 ETH THEM NOT BITTERLY." 
 
 in 1659 came the Restoration, and Charles II was safely 
 seated on the throne of England. Of all who had sup- 
 ported the causf of his father, none had fought harder 
 or bled more freely than the natives of Ireland, whom 
 nis advent found in worse thai^ captivity, amid the wilds 
 of Connaught. What more natural than the anticipation 
 t.nat they, who had been so true and so faithful, would 
 share part and parcel in the restoration of rights? 
 Aside from all thoughts of honors and titles, were they not 
 authorized at least to expect their own estates and pos- 
 sessions ? And yet Charles II, by a direct act of settle- 
 ment, confirmed the Cromwellians in the lands they had 
 seized, in the very wealth and influence which they had 
 used against their lawful possessors, and by means of 
 
466 Retrospect. 
 
 which they had labored so successfully to destroy his 
 own father's life and kingdom. 
 
 There was, indeed, a court of claims organized, but it 
 was only intended for the benefit of such Englishmen as 
 had suffered from the revolution ; and as soon as it was 
 perceived that Irish gentlemen also were advancing their 
 claims likewise, and opening their cases, the court was at 
 once closed, leaving, as Nugent writes, over five thousand 
 parties who, although never outlawed, had been deprived 
 of their property, and were now prevented from even 
 legally seeking to recover it. 
 
 The negation of rights was not all the evil that Charles 
 II inflicted on the unhappy race, for, beginning in 1673, 
 he repeatedly affixed his signature to most infamous laws, 
 framed for the very purpose of abolishing and rooting 
 out every vestige of Catholicity frorr Irish soil. Bishops 
 and priests were denied all right of residence, and even 
 the laity had to obtain a license in order to breathe freelv 
 their native air. Edmond O'Riley, the Primate, was ban- 
 ished ; Archbishop Talbot, to whom permission had been 
 given to return home to die, was seized at Maynooth, ana 
 ended his days in a dungeon. In 1679 Bishop Plunket 
 was seized by Ormond, carried to London, away from 
 all danger of a possibly honest jury in Ireland, and exe- , 
 cuted at Tyburn, in t68i. 
 
 Four years later came James II ; and when, but three 
 years later, his own daughter, Mary, and her husband, 
 William of Orange, landed to establish a Protestant 
 succession, James was very glad to have the loyal Irish to 
 fall back upon as his supporters, and the only supporters 
 of the legitimate king of England. The Irish parliament 01 
 1689, summoned by James, declared " that there should 
 be no more religious persecution in Ireland, and that 
 no man, from that day forward, should suffer for his con- 
 science or his faith." The only bill of attainder they 
 passed was against the enemies of the crown, ao-ainst 
 
i 
 
 u, 
 O 
 
Retrospect. 467 
 
 the upholders of the rebellion, and the unfilial children 
 of their king. 
 
 It is not our purpose here to recount the days when 
 those two armed forces of James and William went up 
 and down the land, rich already with the blood of so 
 many thousands of her sons, slain for conscience' sake, 
 and by the sword of England, and now again to be satu 
 rated with that of another generation, ever faithful to theii 
 Church, and obedient to the command of the unworthy 
 ruler who claimed their services. From the Boyne to 
 the Shannon, and Athlone to Limerick, spite the lack of 
 discipline and want of equipments, short of artillery, 
 their best leaders discouraged by the blundering faint- 
 heartedness of the king, the brave Irish never for a mo- 
 ment tarnished their name for heroism and undaunted 
 bravery. 
 
 The second siege of Limerick closed the public career 
 of the last Catholic king of England, in 1691, with the 
 surrender of the gallant Sarsfield, and then began another 
 •period of martyrdom for the children of the saints. 
 The depths of infamy to which the English government 
 sank from the day of the Treaty of Limerick can only 
 be conceived by those who read, as we here give them, the 
 particulars of the treaty, and then consider the manner 
 in which each and all of its provisions were so outrage- 
 ously trampled on by that nation whose leaders, having 
 deliberately denied their fealty to God, felt doubly sure 
 in denying it to their fellow-subjects. 
 
TREATY OF LIMERICK 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Reign of William III. 
 1691. 
 
 When James 11 abdicated the throne of England, he 
 retired to France to solicit the aid of Louis XIV to en- 
 able him to secure the possession of Ireland, where he 
 was still acknowledged as their lawful sovereign. On the 
 12th of March, 1689, James landed at Kinsale, with about 
 twelve hundred of his own subjects, in the pay of France, 
 and one hundred and ninety French officers. He was 
 received with open arms, and the whole country seemed 
 to be devoted to him ; for, although the Protestants in 
 the North had declared for the new government, their 
 strength and number were inconsiderable, when com- 
 pared with the forces of the Lord-Deputy Tyrconnel. 
 This minister had disarmed all the other Protestants in 
 one day, and assembled an army of thirty thousand foot 
 and eight thousand calvary.* Addresses were poured 
 in upon James from all orders of the people. Even the 
 established clergy, among the rest, filled a conspicuous 
 part in congratulating him upon his arrival. 
 
 James continued to govern Ireland, without any inter- 
 ruption from William, till the 13th of August, f when 
 Schomberg landed at Belfast with an English army of 
 ten thousand men. To oppose him, James collected his 
 
 ' Smollett, i, 36. t Leland, vol. iii, b. 6, t. 6. 
 
Treaty of LimeHck in the Reign of William HI. 469 
 
 forces, amounting to thirty thousand men, at Drogheda.* 
 Schomberg, who had arrived at Dundalk, thought it 
 prudent to advance no tarther; and, instead of reducing 
 Ireland, after having lost one-half of his army by sickness, 
 he, at the end of the campaign, was under the necessity 
 of entrenching himself against an enemy which he had 
 been taught in England to despise, and of confining his 
 operations to the protection of the northern province, f 
 
 On the 14th of June, 1690, William landed with rein- 
 forcements at Carrickfergus. The distracted state of 
 England, and the formidable preparations of France, 
 mclined him to a vigorous prosecution of the war in 
 Ireland. % 
 
 He advanced toward Dublin with an army of thirty- 
 six thousand men. James collected his forces, amount- 
 ing to thirty-three thousand, at Drogheda, and, by 
 an unaccountable infatuation, rejected the advice of his 
 general officers to act on the defensive against William, 
 who would then have to contend, at the same time, 
 against a threatened foreign invasion of Britain, the in- 
 surrection which his own subjects were plotting, and the 
 difficulty of maintaining his Irish army in an unfriendly 
 country, without provisions or succors. 
 
 Though William obtained a decided victory at the 
 Boyne, the Irish army had fought with courage and 
 obstinacy, and in consequence of having at one time 
 repulsed the centre of the English army, were able to 
 retire in good order, with the loss of only fifteen hundred 
 men.§ The subsequent defeat of General Douglas before 
 Athlone, and of William himself before Limerick, left 
 James, at the end of the campaign, in possession of nearly 
 one-half of Ireland, and well supported by an army 
 inured to war, and commanded by able and experienced 
 geaerals. William experienced still greater embarrass- 
 ments on the continent and in England. A victory had 
 *Leland. t IbiJ. X Ibid. J H'id. 
 
470 Treaty of Limeruk 
 
 been gained by Luxemburgh, in Flanders, over Prince 
 Waldeck and the confederate arm}- ; Tourville had de- 
 feated the united fleets of England and Holland, and 
 great dejection and discontent were visible among 
 William'"s British subjects. 
 
 The king having returned to England in the autumn 
 of 1690, General Ginkel, with an army inferior to that 
 of St. Ruth, who now commanded the Irish forces, 
 commenced the campaign by the capture of the fort 
 of Baltimore. Having afterward taken Athlone,. and 
 defeated St. Ruth at the battle of Aughrim, he laid 
 siege to Limerick on the 25th August, 1691. The for- 
 tifications had been strengthened since William was 
 repulsed before it, in the preceding year ; the garrison 
 was healthy, well supplied, and in numbers equal to the 
 assailants, and strong succors were daily expected from 
 France.* The besiegers, on the other hand, were too 
 few for the undertaking, the season of the year was far 
 advanced, and they had no expectations of receiving any 
 reenforcements. Week after week passed away without 
 Ginkel obtaining any advantage over the besieged ; at 
 length he made a lodgment on the west of the Shannon. 
 But, notwithstanding this success, it was debated whether 
 the siege should be carried on, or converted into a block- 
 ade : such were the difficulties foreseen in reducing the 
 city. It was dangerous for the besiegers to continue 
 in their present station on the approach of wintec, and 
 hazardous to divide an army sufficient only for assailing 
 the town on one side ; and yet the only effectual way of 
 reducing it was to invest it on all sides, by cutting off the 
 garrison from all intercourse with the county of Clare. f 
 
 William, in the meantime, was so sensible of the ne 
 cessity of obtaining the surrender of the Irish army, in 
 ' order to secure his newly-acquired throne and the success 
 of the revolution, that he sent instructions to the lords- 
 
 * Leland. t Ibid 
 
o 
 en 
 
 UJ 
 
 _l 
 
 UJ 
 
 o 
 
 UJ 
 
 en 
 
In the Reign of IVilliavi HI. 471 
 
 justices to issue a proclamation offering to the Catholics 
 still more liberal terms than those which the)' afterward 
 accepted ; and he gave Ginkel urgent directions to termi- 
 nate the war on;iny conditions* Fortunately, however, 
 for William and the revolutionary party, but most unfor- 
 tunately, as events have since proved, for the Catholics, 
 the garrison of Limerick beat a parley on the twenty-ninth 
 day of the siege. A cessation of three days was granted, 
 on the last day of which, the Irish generals proposed 
 terms of capitulation. They required an act of indemnity 
 for all past offences, with a full enjoyment of the estates 
 they possessed before the present revolution, freedorh 
 for the Catholic worship, with an establishment of one 
 Roman Catholic ecclesiastic in each parish. They also ' 
 required that the Catholics should be declared fully quali- 
 fied for every office, civil and military ; that they should 
 be admitted into all corporations, and that the Irish army 
 should be kept up and paid in the same manner with the 
 king's other troops, provided they were willing to serve. 
 Ginkel refused to accede to their proposal; but, being 
 desired to offer such terms as he could grant, he proposed 
 conditions which were accepted by the garrison, and 
 which are contained in the following civil articles. 
 
 Three days after they were signed, the French fleet 
 arrived in Dingle Bay. 
 
 The civil articles of Limerick, exactly printed 
 
 FROM the letters- patent, WHEREIN THEY ARE 
 
 ratified and exemplified by their Majesties, 
 
 under the great seal of england. 
 
 "Gulielmuset Maria Dei gratia, Anglice, Scotia, Francice 
 et HibernicB, rex et regina, fidci defensores, etc., omnibus ad 
 quos presentes Uteres nostra pervenerint salutem. Inspeximus 
 
 • Leland, vol. iii, b. 6, c. 6, and Harris's "Life of William," p. 732. This was 
 called the secret proclamation, because, though printed, it never was publishe 1, 
 in consequence of the lords-justices being informed of the inclination of the 
 garrison to treat for their surrender. 
 
4/2 Treaty of Limerick 
 
 irrotulament. quarund. literarum patentiuin de confirmU' 
 Hone, gercn. dat. apud Westmonasterium vicesimo quarto 
 die Februarii, ultirni prceteriti in cancellar. nostr.^ irrotulat. 
 ac ibidem de recordo remanem. in hcec verba. 
 
 " William and Mary, by the grace of God, etc., to all 
 lo whom these presents shall come, greeting: 
 
 ' Whereas certain articles, bearing date the 3d day 
 of October last past, made and agreed on between our 
 justices of our kingdom of Ireland, and our general of 
 our forces there on the one part, and several officers 
 there commanding within the city of Limerick, in our 
 said kingdom, on the other part, whereby our said 
 justices and general did undertake that we should ratify 
 those articles within the space of eight months or sooner, 
 and use their utmost endeavors that the same should 
 be ratified and confirmed in parliament; the tenor of 
 which said articles is as follows, viz. : — 
 
 "Articles agreed upon the 3d day of October, 1691, 
 between the Right Honorable Sir Charles Porter, Knight, 
 and Thomas Coningsby, Esq., Lords-Justices of Ireland, 
 and his Excellency, the Baron De Ginkcl, Lieutenant- 
 general and Commander-in-chief of the English army, 
 on the one part; and the Right Honorable Patrick, Earl 
 of Lucan, Piercy Viscount Galloway, Colonel Nicholas 
 Purcel, Colonel Nicholas Dusack, Sir Toby Butler, Colo- 
 nel Garret Dillon, and Colonel John Brown, on the other 
 part, in the behalf of the Irish inhabitants in the city and 
 county of Limerick, the counties of Clare, Kerry, Cork, 
 Sligo and Mayo, in consideration of the surrender of the 
 city of Limerick, and other agreements made between 
 the said Lieutenant-general Ginkel, the governor of 
 the city of Limerick, and the generals of the Irish army, 
 hearing date with these presents, for the surrender of 
 the said city, and submission of the said army, it is 
 agreed that : 
 
 "I. The Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall enjoy 
 
In the Reign of William III. 473 
 
 such privileges in the exercise of their religion as are 
 consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did enjoy 
 in the reign of King Charles II; and their majesties, 
 as soon as the affairs will permit them to summon a 
 parliament in this kingdom, will endeavor to procure 
 the said Roman Catholics such further security in that 
 particular as may preserve them from any disturbance 
 upon account of their said religion. 
 
 " 1 1. All the inhabitants or residents of Limerick, or any 
 oiher garrison now in possession of the Irish, and all 
 officers and soldiers now in arms, under any commission 
 ot King James, or those authorized by him to grant the 
 same in the several counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, 
 Cork and Mayo, or an}' of them ; and all the commis- 
 sioned officers in their majesties' quarters, that belong to 
 the Irish regiments now in being, that are treated with, 
 and who are not prisoners of war, or have taken protec- 
 tion, and who shall return and submit to their majesties' 
 obedience ; and their and every of their heirs shall hold, 
 possess and enjoy all and every their estates of freehold 
 and inheritance, and all the rights, titles and interests, 
 privileges and immunities, which they and every or any 
 of them held, enjoyed, or were rightfully and lawfully 
 entitled to, in the reign of King Charles II, or at any 
 time since, by the laws and statutes that were in force in 
 the said reign of King Charles 11, and shall be put in pos- 
 session, by order of the government, of such of them as arc 
 in the king's hands, or the hands of his tenants, without 
 being put to any suit or trouble therein ; and all such 
 estates shall be freed and discharged from all arrears 
 of crown rents, quit rents, and other public charges in- 
 curred and become due since Michaelmas, 1688, to the 
 day of the date hereof; and all persons comprehended 
 in this article shall have, hold and enjoy all their goods 
 and chattels, real and personal, to them or any of them 
 belonging and remaining, either in their own hands or in 
 
474 Treaty of Limerick 
 
 the hands of any persons whatsoever, in trust for oi foi 
 the use of them, or any of them ; and all and every the 
 said persons, of what profession, trade or calling soever 
 they be, shall and may use, exercise and practise their 
 several respective professions, trades and callings, as 
 freely as they did use, exercise, and enjoy the same in the 
 reign of King Charles 11, provided that nothing in this 
 article contained be construed to extend to or restore any 
 forfeiting person now out of the kingdom, except what 
 are hereafter comprised ; provided, also, that no person 
 whatsoever shall have or enjoy the benefit of this article 
 that shall neglect or refuse to take the oath of allegiance,* 
 made by act of parliament in England, in the first year 
 of the reign of their present majesties, when thereunto 
 required. 
 
 "III. All merchants or reputed merchants of the city of 
 Limerick, or of any other garrison now possessed by the 
 Irish, or of any town or place in the counties of Clare 
 or Kerry, who are absent beyond the seas, that have not 
 borne arms since their majesties' declaration in February, 
 1688, shall have the benefit of the second article, in the 
 same manner as if they were present, provided such mer- 
 chants and reputed merchants do repair into this kingdom 
 within the space of eight months from the date hereof 
 
 "IV. The following officers, viz., Colonel Simon Lutterel, 
 Captain Rowland White, Maurice Eustace of Germans- 
 town, Chieveas of Maystown, commonly called Mount 
 Leinster, now belonging to the regiments in the afore- 
 said garrisons and quarters of the Irish army, who were 
 beyond the seas, and sent thither upon affairs of their 
 respective regiments, or the army in general, shall have 
 the benefit and advantage of the second article, provided 
 they return hither within the space of eight months from 
 
 •"I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear 
 true allegiance to their majesties, King William and Queen Mary. So help 
 me God ! " 
 
In the Reign of William III. ^y^ 
 
 the date of these presents, and submit to their majesties 
 government, and take the above-mentioned oath. 
 
 " V. That all and singular the said persons comprised 
 in the second and third articles shall have a general 
 pardon of all attainders, outlawries, treasons, misprisions 
 of treason, premunires, felonies, trespasses, and other 
 crimes and misdemeanors whatsoever, by them or any 
 of them committed since the beginning of the reign of 
 King James II ; and if any of them are attainted by par- 
 liament, the lords-justices and general will use their best 
 endeavors to get the same repealed by parliament, and 
 the outlawries to be reversed gratis, all but writing- 
 clerks' fees. 
 
 " VI. And whereas these present wars have drawn on 
 great violences on both parts, and that, if leave were 
 given to the bringing all sorts of private actions, the 
 animosities would probably continue that have been too 
 long on foot, and the public disturbances last. For the 
 quieting and settling, therefore, of this kingdom, and 
 avoiding those inconveniences which would be the neces- 
 sary consequence of the contrary, no person or persons 
 whatsoever, comprised in the foregoing articles, shall 
 be sued, molested or impleaded at the suit of any party 
 or parties whatsoever, for any trespasses by them com- 
 mitted, or for any arms, horses, money, goods, chattels, 
 merchandises or provisions whatsoever by them seized 
 or taken during the time of the war. And no person or 
 persons whatsoever, in the second or third articles com- 
 prised, shall be sued, impleaded, or made accountable 
 for the rents or mesne rates of any lands, tenements or 
 houses, by him or them received or enjoyed in this king- 
 dom, since the beginning of the present war, to the day ot 
 the date hereof, nor for any waste or trespass by him or 
 them committed in any such lands, tenements or houses • 
 and it is also agreed that this article shall be mutual and 
 reciprocal on both sides. 
 
47& Treaty of Limerick 
 
 " VII. Every nobleman and gentleman comprised m 
 the said second and third articles shall have liberty to 
 ride with a sword and case of pistols, if they think fit, 
 and keep a gun in their houses for the defence of ths 
 same, or for fowling. 
 
 "VIII. The inhabitants and residents of the city of 
 Limerick, and other garrisons, shall be permitted to 
 remove their goods, chattels, and provisions, out of the 
 same without being viewed and searched, or paying any 
 manner of duties, and shall not be compelled to leave 
 the houses or lodgings they now have, for the space ot 
 six weeks next ensuing the date hereof. 
 
 " IX. The oath to be administered to such Roman 
 Catholics as submit to their majesties' government shall 
 be the oath aforesaid, and no other. 
 
 " X. No person or persons who shall at any time here- 
 after break these articles, or any of them, shall thereby 
 make or cause any other person or persons to forfeit or 
 lose the benefit of the same. 
 
 " XI. The lords-justices and general do promise to 
 use their utmost endeavors that all the persons compre- 
 hended in the above-mentioned articles shall be protected 
 and defended from all arrests and executions for debt or 
 damage, for the space of eight months next ensuing the 
 date hereof. 
 
 " XII. Lastly, the lords-justices and general do under- 
 take that their majesties will ratify these articles within 
 the space of eight months, or sooner, and use their 
 utmost endeavors that the same shall be ratified and 
 confirmed in parliament. 
 
 " XIII. And whereas Colonel John Brown stood in- 
 debted to several Protestants, by judgments of record, 
 which appearing to the late government, the Lord Tyr 
 connel and Lord Lucan took away the effects the said 
 John Brown had to answer the said debts, and promised 
 to clear the said John Brown of the said debts, which 
 
In the Reign of William III. 477 
 
 effects were taken for the public use of the Irish and 
 their army ; for freeing the said Lord Lucan of his, said 
 engagement, past on their public account, for payment 
 of the said Protestants, and for preventing the ruin of the 
 said John Brown, and for satisfaction of his creditors, at 
 the instance of Lord Lucan, and the rest of the persons 
 aforesaid, it is agreed that the said lords-justices and 
 the said Baron De Ginkel shall intercede with the king 
 and parliament to have the estates secured to Roman 
 Catholics by articles and capitulation, in this kingdom 
 charged with, and equally liable to, the payment of so 
 much of the said debts as the said Lord Lucan, upon 
 stating accounts with the said John Brown, shall certify 
 under his hand that the effects taken from the said 
 Brown amount unto, which account is to be stated, and 
 the balance certified by the said Lord Lucan, in one 
 and twenty days after the date hereof 
 
 "For the true performance hereof, we have hereunto 
 set our hands. 
 
 " Present : — Scravenmore, Charles Porter, 
 
 H. Magcay, Thomas Coningsby, 
 
 T. Talmash, Baron De Ginkel." 
 
 " And whereas the said city of Limerick hath been 
 since, in pursuance of the said articles, sui^rendered unto 
 us, now know ye that we, having considered of the said 
 articles, are graciously pleased hereby to declare that 
 we do for us, our heirs and successors, as far as m us lies, 
 ratify and confirm the same, and every clause, matter, and 
 thing therein contained. And as to such parts thereof, for 
 which an act of parliament shall be found to be neces- 
 sary, we shall recommend the same to be made good by 
 parliament, and shall give our royal assent to any bill or 
 bills that shall be passed by our two houses of parliament 
 to that purpose. And whereas it appears unto us that 
 it was agreed between the parties to the said articles that 
 
478 Treaty of Limerick 
 
 after the words, Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Mayo, or 
 any of them, in the second of the said articles, the words 
 following, viz., ' And all-such as are under their protection 
 in the said counties,' should be inserted, and be part of the 
 said articles, which words having been casually omitted 
 by the writer, the omission was not discovered till after the 
 said articles were signed, but was taken notice of before 
 the second town was surrendered; and that our said jus- 
 tices and general, or one of them, did promise that the said 
 clause should be made good, it being within the intention 
 of the capitulation, and inserted in the foul draft thereof. 
 Our further will and pleasure is, and we do hereby ratify 
 and confirm the said omitted words, viz., ' And all such 
 as are under their protection in the said counties,' hereby 
 for us, our heirs and successors, ordaining and declaring 
 that all and every person and persons therein concerned 
 shall and may have, receive and enjoy the benefit thereof, 
 in such and the same manner as if the said words had been 
 inserted in their proper place in the said second article ; 
 any omission, defect or mistake in the said second article 
 in any wise notwithstanding. Provided always, and our 
 will and pleasure is, that these, our letters-patent, shall 
 be enrolled in our court of Chancery, in our said kingdom 
 of Ireland, within the space of one year next ensuing. In 
 witness, etc., witness ourself at Westminster, the 24th 
 day of February, anno regni regis et regince Gulielmi et 
 Mari<2 quarto per breve de privato sigillo. Nos autem tenorein 
 premissor. predict. A d requisitionem attornat-general. domim 
 regis et domincz regince pro regno Hibernice. Duximus exem- 
 ' plificand. per presentes. In cujus rei testimonium has litter as 
 nostras fieri fecimus patentes. Testibus nobis ipsis apua 
 Westmon. quinto die Aprilis, annoq. regni eorum quarto. 
 
 " Bridges." 
 " Examinat. per nos : 
 " S Keck ) 
 
 Lacon Wm. Childe. \ ^'^ ^''''"^- M^sistros:' 
 
In the Reign of William, III. 479 
 
 If this treaty is only considered according to those 
 rules of common morality which influence the conduct 
 of man to man ; if, in proportion to the great advantages 
 which England derived from it, she. was bound to con- 
 strue it with liberalit}', as well as to execute it with good 
 faith, then the Irish Catholics must be considered as 
 placed by it in a situation nearly of complete equality 
 with their Protestant countrymen. 
 
 The free exercise of their religion was granted' in the 
 most unqualified manner ; security of property was as 
 fully confirmed to them. In regard to personal security, 
 they were pardoned all misdemeanors whatsoever of 
 which they had been guilty. As to political power, 
 inasmuch as the ninth article stipulated that the oath to 
 be administered to such Catholics as submitted to his 
 majesty's government should be the oath of allegiance 
 of the first year of the reign of William and Mary, and 
 no other, they were entitled by the treaty to sit in par- 
 liament and to vote at elections, no law being then in 
 existence to deprive them of those rights ; and they 
 were also entitled to enjoy every other political right 
 in common with all the king's subjects, except civil and 
 corporate offices.* 
 
 The practice of the several tirades or professions was 
 secured to them. They were allowed the use of arms, 
 some of them especially, but all of them in consequence 
 of limitation or exception to the contrary. Even the 
 
 • The Articles of Limerick were signed by De Ginkel on the 3d of October, 
 1691. The English parliament that passed the 3 William and Mary, w. 2, by 
 which Irish peers and members of parliament were first excluded from sitting 
 in parliament, by being required to take the oath of supremacy, met on the 22i 
 of' October, 1691. According to the constitution of Ireland, as granted by 
 Henry II, and confirmed in 1782, this act of 3 William and Mary, c. 2, was not 
 binding in Ireland; and though the Catholics submitted to it, they were not 
 legally excluded from parliament till the twenty-second year of his late 
 majesty's reign. This act was in direct violation of the Treaty of Limerick. 
 Catholics were excluded from offices by the act of Charles II, menlioned iu 
 the following note. 
 
480 Treaty of Limerick 
 
 laws which were in force against Catholics when the 
 treaty took place, ought, according to the first article, to 
 have been repealed,! because their majesties engaged 
 by this article to obtain for the Catholics such further 
 security, in respect to the exercise of their rehgion, as 
 might preserve them from any disturbance on account 
 of that religion. It is impossible for any other fair con 
 struction to be given to this article than that which is here 
 given. It would be beneath the dignity of, and wholly 
 inconsistent with, that character for good faith of which 
 it has always been the pride of England to boast, to 
 attempt to apply any other meaning to it. No doubt 
 there are those who would wish to act, on all occasionsi 
 toward the Catholics according to that system of per- 
 verted morality which the powerful always impose on 
 the weak; but so long as the true principles of justice 
 shall have their due influence, the majority of mankind 
 can never consider this first article of the Treaty of 
 Limerick in any other light than as a complete and per- 
 
 tlhese laws were, 1st. An act against the authority of the See of Rome. It 
 enacts that no person shall attribute any jurisdiction to the See of Rome • 
 that the person offending shall be subject to a premunire, and that all who 
 have any office from the king, every person entering into orders, or taking a 
 degree in the university, shall take the oath of supremacy. 
 
 2d. An act restoring to the crown the ancient jurisdiction over the state, 
 ecclesiastical and spiritual. It likewise enacts that every ecclesiastical person, 
 every person accepting office, shall take the oath of supremacy. 
 
 3d. An act for the uniformity of Common Prayer. It enacts that every person 
 having no lawful excuse to be absent shall, every Sunday, resort to some place 
 of worship of the Established Church, or forfeit twelve pence. 
 
 4th. An act by which the chancellor may appoint a guardian to the child of a 
 Catholic 
 
 5 th. An act by which no Catholic schoolmaster can teach in a private house 
 without a license from the ordinary of his diocese, and taking the oath of 
 supremacy. 
 
 6th. The new rules, by which no person can be admitted into any corpora- 
 tion without taking the oath of supremacy. 
 
 , This statement is taken from the Report of the Committee of the House 
 of Commons, appointed in 1697, to consider what penal laws were then in 
 force against the Cathalics. — "Com. Journal, ol Ireland," vol. ii 
 
In the Reign of William III. 481 
 
 pelual exemption of the Irish Catholics from all political 
 and religious disqualification on account of their religion. 
 This treaty has been very accurately described as the 
 great charter of the civil and religious liberty ot the 
 Catholics;* and though not hitherto observed as such 
 by the English government, the Catholics have a right 
 — which time cannot efface, nor perfidy destroy — to recui 
 to its stipulations, f 
 
 Although William, in his declaration and confirma- 
 tion of the treaty, said he would recommend such parts 
 thereof, for which an act of parliament should be found 
 necessary, to be made good by parliament, he dissolved 
 the first parliament of his reign, which had met on the 5th 
 of October, 1692, in September, 1693, without proposing 
 to them any such measure. 
 
 He was further guilty of a want of attention to his 
 engagement, by not summoning another parliament till 
 the 27th of April, 1695; and when this parliament did meet, 
 he seems to have entirely forgotten that his own faith 
 and the faith of the English nation were plighted to the 
 Catholics in a solemn treaty : for, instead of recommend- 
 ing to them to proceed to confirm the Articles of Lime- 
 rick, he told them, in the speech of his lord-deputy, that 
 he was intent upon the great work of a firm settlement 
 of Ireland upon a Protestant interest. % The parliament 
 was not backward in promoting his object. They, first 
 of all, passed an act to deprive the Catholics of the means 
 of educating their children, either at home or abroad, 
 and of the privilege of being guardians either to their 
 own or any other person's children. § Then they passed 
 
 • Smolett. 
 
 t The ninth volume of Mr. Burke's works, which was published some time 
 after this history of the penal laws, contains a complete justification of the view 
 here taken of the Treaty of Limerick. See p. 377, and note A in Appendix. 
 
 t " Com. Journal of Ireland," ii, 279. 
 
 § 7 William III, t. 4. Of this act Mr. Burke says: "Whilst this restraint 
 upon foreign and domestic education was part of a horrible and impious system 
 
482 Treaty of Limerick 
 
 an act to disarm the Catholics * another to banish their 
 priests.t and, strange as it maj' appear, they then thought 
 proper, in the year 1697, to pass an act to confirm the 
 Articles of Limerick. 
 
 Of this act it is to be observed, in the first place, that 
 the very title of it is a proof of its injustice, for it is 
 styled " An act for the confirmation of articles," and nut, 
 as it ought to be, " of the articles made at the surrender 
 of Limerick." 
 
 The preamble affords further evidence of the intention 
 of the framers of it to evade its proper object. It runs 
 thus : " That the said articles, or so much of them as may 
 consist with the safety and welfare of your majesty's sub- 
 jects of this kingdom, may be confirmed," etc. 
 
 But the whole act goes to convict the parliament, and (as 
 this pariiament was completely under the control of the 
 lord-deputy):]: even William himself, of gross injustice to- 
 ward the Catholics ; for the first article of the treaty is 
 
 of servitude, the members were well fitted to the body. To render men 
 patient under a deprivation of all the rights cf human nature, everything which 
 could give them a knowledge or feeling of those rights was rationally forbid- 
 den. To render humanity fit to be insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded. 
 Indeed, I have ever thought the prohibition of the means of improving our 
 rational nature to be the worst species of tyranny that the insolence and per- 
 verseness of mankind ever dared to exercise." 
 
 * See 7 William III, c 5. See sec. 8, Catholic Apprentices. 
 
 t See 9 William III, c. i. This act for the banishment of priests was enforced 
 rigorously. " It appears,'' says Mr. Matthew O'Connor (" Hist.," p. 145), " from 
 Captain South's account, that in 1698 the number of regular priests amounted 
 to four hundred and ninety-five, the number of seculars to eight hundred and 
 ninety-two, and that the number of regulars shipped off in that year to foreign 
 parts was four hundred and twenty-four. Some few, disabled by age and infirmi- 
 ties from emigration, sought shelter in caves, or implored and received conceal- 
 ment and protection of Protestants, whose humane feelings were superior to theif 
 prejudices." "There was not," says Dr. Bourke, in his Hstory of the Irish 
 Dominicans, p. 155, "a single house of that order in Ireland which was not 
 suppressed." 
 
 X " He (Lord Capel, the lord-deputy) carried the projects of the crown in 
 parliament, and was recommended as an excellent governor, in a special 
 address sent by the Commons to the king." — " Macpherson's Hist.," 11, 94. 
 
In the Reign of William III. 483 
 
 wholly omitted, which guarantees to the Catholics the 
 free exercise of their religion, and an exemption from all 
 disturbance on account of it ; and each clause of the act 
 has the effect of limiting the terms of the other articles, 
 and depriving the Catholics of the benefit of them, instead 
 of ratifying and confirming them. 
 
 The first clause, which refers at once to the second 
 article, explains who are entitled to the benefit of it, and 
 the rights conferred upon them ; assuming as a fact, for 
 which there could be no foundation, that this article 
 required explanation. With respect to the persons 
 entitled to the benefit of the treaty, a most remarkable 
 difference occurs between the words of the second 
 article and those of this clause, in describing them. In 
 the ratification of the treaty by William, there is the 
 following passage : " And whereas it appears to us 
 that it was agreed between the parties to the said 
 articles that after the words, Limerick, Clare, Kerry, 
 Cork and Mayo, or any of them, in the second of the 
 said articles the words following, viz., "And all such as 
 are under their protection in the said counties,' should 
 be inserted, and be part of the said article ; our further 
 will and pleasure is, and we do ratify and confirm the 
 said omitted words." 
 
 These words, according even to the strict letter of the 
 article, extended the benefit of the treaty to the whole 
 Catholic population of these counties, which certainly 
 was the object of the treaty, as it may be collected 
 from the preamble to it, in which it is stated that the Irish 
 generals acted in behalf of the Irish inhabitants of these 
 coimties. But in this clause of the act of parliament to 
 confirm the treaty these words are omitted ; and therefore 
 the benefit of the treaty is limited, by this explanatory and 
 confirmatory act, to the Irish army and the inhabitants of 
 the city of Limerick, and a few more garrison towns, — a 
 limitation in every respect most perfidious and wholly 
 
484 Treaty ef Limerick 
 
 unjustifiable upon any plea of ambiguity in the language 
 of the article, even if such a plea could for a moment 
 be allowed. 
 
 This act for confirming the treaty wholly omits that 
 part of the second article which guarantees to the Cath- 
 olics the exercise of their several trades and professions. 
 It also omits the fourth article. It limits the benefit of 
 the indemnity, granted by the sixth article, to a period 
 subsequent to the loth of April, 1689, and enables all 
 persons who suffered any injuries between the 5th of 
 November, 1688, and this period, to bring their actions, 
 for the same until the ist of September, 1691, by declar- 
 ing that the commencement of the war referred to in the 
 article was the loth of April, 1689, and not the 5th of 
 November, 1688, and it omits the seventh, eighth, ninth 
 and tenth articles ; being, in short, an act that, under 
 the name of conferring favors upon the Catholics, really 
 placed them in a worse condition than that in which they 
 were placed before it passed into a law. 
 
 Thirteen peers, including six bishops, entered a protest 
 to this bill. It states: " We, the lords spiritual and tem- 
 poral, whose names are hereunto subscribed, do dissent 
 from the aforesaid vote, and enter our protest against the 
 same, for the reasons following; ist. Because we think 
 the title of the bill doth not agree with the body thereof ; 
 the title being 'An act for the confirmation of articles 
 made at the surrender of Limerick,' whereas no one of 
 the articles is therein, as we conceive, fully confirmed. 
 2dly. Because the said articles were to be confirmed in 
 favor of them to whom they were granted, but the con- 
 firmation of them by the bill is such that it puts them in 
 a worse condition than they were before, as we conceive. 
 Sdly. Because the bill omits these material words, ' And 
 such as are under their protection in the said counties,' 
 which are, by his majesty's letters-patent, declared to be 
 part of the second article, and several persons have been 
 
In the Reign of William III. 485 
 
 adjudged within the said second article accordingly, who 
 will, if this bill passeth into a law, be entirely barred 
 and excluded from any benefit of the said second article 
 by virtue of the afore-mentioned words ; so that the 
 words omitted being so very material, and confirmed by 
 his majesty, after a solemn debate in council, as we are 
 informed, some express reason, as we conceive, ought 
 to have been assigned in the bill, in order to satisfy the 
 world as to that omission. 4thly. Because several words 
 are inserted in the bill which are not in the articles, 
 and others omitted which alter the sense and meaning 
 of some parts of the articles, as we conceive. Sthly. 
 Because we apprehend that many Protestants may and 
 will suffer by this bill, in their just rights and pretensions, 
 by reason of their having purchased and lent money 
 upon the credit of the said articles, and,, we conceive, in 
 several other respects." The other acts of this reign re- 
 lating to the Catholics are : an act to prevent Protestants 
 from intermarrying with Papists,* and an act to prevent 
 them from being solicitors. f A clause was introduced in 
 an act for the preservation of game, prohibiting Papists 
 from being employed as gamekeepers.:]: 
 
 How it is possible to defend William and his ministers 
 from the charge of having acted with perfidy toward 
 t^f Catholics, it is not easy to discover. That they were 
 guilty of violating the treaty, no one can deny. Why 
 did he not refuse his consent to these laws, on the ground 
 of their being contrary to his solemn engagements to the 
 Catholics? He had exercised this prerogative in the 
 case of one Scotch § and one English bill.|| But even 
 this extremity might have been avoided, because the law_ 
 of Poynings required that every bill should be approved 
 
 • 9 William m, c. 3. 1 10 William III, c. 13. \ Ibid., c 8. 
 
 § For excluding from any public trust all such as had been concerned in 
 the encroachments of the late reign. 
 II Concerning free and impartial proceedings in parliament. 
 
4S6 Treaty of Limerick in the Reign of William III. 
 
 by the King and council of England, before it could 
 pass the House of Commons ; and if a bill was exception, 
 able, by withholding their approbation, — a very common 
 proceeding, — it fell, of course, to the ground. But, if 
 William and his ministers were guilty of perfidy to- 
 ward the Catholics, his successor far outstripped him, 
 nor has any succeeding prince been free from the blame 
 of having been accessory to his misconduct, in proportion 
 as he has neglected or refused to repeal those penal laws, 
 which are so many glaring violations of the Treaty of 
 Limerick, and a scandal to the boasted good faith of the 
 English nation. 
 
PATRICK SARSFIELD, 
 
PENAL LAWS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Reign of Anne. 
 
 1701-1714. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1704, the roj'al assent was given 
 to the aot to prevent the further growth of Popery, 
 being the first of those two famous acts which have, most 
 deservedly, been termed by Mr, Burke "the ferocious 
 acts of Anne." 
 
 By the third clause of this act, the Popish father, 
 though he may have acquired his estate by descent from 
 a long line of ancestors, or by his own purchase, is 
 - deprived of the power, — in case his eldest son, or any 
 son', become a Protestant, — to sell, mortgage, or otherwise 
 dispose of it, or to leave out of it any portion of legacies. 
 
 By the fourth clause, the Popish father is debarred, 
 under a penalty of ;£^SOo, from being a guardian, or from 
 having the custody of his own children ; but if the 
 child, though ever so young, pretend to be a Protestant, 
 it is to be taken from its own father, and put into the 
 hands of a Protestant relation. 
 
 The fifth clause provides that no Protestant shall 
 marry a Papist having an estate in Ireland, either in or 
 out of the kingdom. 
 
 The sixth clause renders Papists incapable of purchas- 
 ing anv manors, tenements, hereditaments, or any rents 
 
4? 8 Penal Laws 
 
 or profits arising from out of the same, or of holding 
 any lease of lives, or other lease whatever, for any term 
 exceeding thirty-one years. Even with respect to this 
 advantage, restrictions are imposed on them : one of 
 which is, that, if a farm produced a profit greater than one- 
 third of the amount of the rent, the right of holding it was 
 immediately to cease, and to pass over entirel)' to the first 
 Protestant who should discover the rate of profit. 
 
 The seventh clause deprives Papists of such inheritance, 
 devise, gift, remainder, or trust, of any lands, tenements, 
 or hereditaments, of which any Protestant was or should 
 be seized in fee simple, absolute, or fee-tail, which, by the 
 death of such Protestant or his wife, ought to have de- 
 scended to his son or other issue in tail, being Papists, 
 and makes them descend to the nearest Protestant rela- 
 tion, as if the Popish heir and other Popish relations 
 were dead. 
 
 By the tenth clause, the estate of a Papist, for want of 
 a Protestant heir, is to be divided, share and share alike, 
 among all his sons ; for want of sons, among his daughters , 
 and for want of daughters, among the collateral kindred 
 of the father. 
 
 By the fifteenth clause, no person shall be exempt from 
 the penalties of this act that shall not take and subscribe 
 the oath and declaration required by this act to be taken. 
 
 By the sixteenth clause, any persons whatsoever who 
 shall receive any office, civil or military, shall take and 
 subscribe the oath and declaration required to be taken by 
 the English act of 3d William and Mary, and also the oath 
 and declaration required to be taken by another English 
 act of 1st Anne; also, shall receive the sacrament.* 
 
 * Upon this clause of the bill, the Protestant Bishop Burnett makes the 
 following observations: "A clause was added (in England) which they fthe 
 Roman Catholics) hoped wquld hinder its being accepted in Ireland- The 
 matter was carried on so secretly that it was known to none but those who were 
 at the council, till the news of it came from Ireland, upon its being sent 
 
In the Reign of Anne. ,489 
 
 The twenty-third clause provides that no Papist, 
 except under certain conditions, shall dwell in Limerick 
 or Gal way. 
 
 The twenty-fourth clause, that no persons shall vote at 
 elections without taking the oaths of allegiance and 
 abjuration. 
 
 And the twenty-fifth clause, that all advowsons pos- 
 sessed by Papists shall be vested in her majesty. 
 
 The Catholics, who had submitted in silence to all the 
 unjust transgressions of the last reign, felt it necessary, 
 when this act was first brouciht before parliament, to use 
 their utmost exertions to prevent it from passing into a 
 law. They, however, appealed in vain to the English 
 cabinet to respect the solemn engagements of the Treaty 
 of Limerick, and were obliged to have recourse to a 
 petition to the Irish parliament. 
 
 Sir Theobald Butler was heard as counsel for the 
 petitioners, at the bar of the House of Commons, on the 
 22d February, 1703. He stated " that the bill would 
 render null and void the articles of Limerick; that those 
 articles had been granted for the valuable consideration 
 of the surrender of the garrison at a time when the 
 Catholics had the sword in their hand, and were in a 
 condition to hold out much longer, and when they had 
 it in their power to demand and make such terms as 
 might be for their own future liberty, safety, and security 
 that the allowing of the terms contained in these article, 
 was highly advantageous to the government to which 
 they submitted, as well for uniting the people who 
 were then divided, quieting and settling the distractions 
 and disorders of this miserable kingdom, as for the oilier 
 
 thither. It was hoped, by those who got this clause added to the bill, that 
 those in Ireland who promoted it would be less fond of it when it had such a 
 weight hung to it." — Hist, v, ii. p. 24. 
 
 This clause has since been called the Sacramental Test, the first imposed 
 on Dissenters in Ireland It was repealed without any opposition in the 
 Sessions of 1 782. 
 
490 
 
 Penal Laws 
 
 advantages which the government would thereby reap 
 ill its own affairs, both at home and abroad, when its 
 enemies were so powerful, both by sea and land, as to 
 render the peace and settlement of these countries a 
 circumstance of great uncertainty ; that these articles 
 were ratified by their late majesties for themselves, their 
 heirs, and successors, and the public faith thereby plight- 
 ed to all those comprised in these articles, in the most 
 binding manner it was possible for faith to be plighted, 
 and than which nothing could be more sacred and 
 solemn ; that, therefore, to violate and break those articles 
 would, on the contrary, be the greatest injustice possible 
 for any one people of the whole world to inflict upon 
 another, and contrary to both the laws of God and man.' 
 He then proceeded to show that the clauses of the bill 
 which take away from Catholics the right to purchase, 
 bequeath, sell, and inherit estates, were infringements of 
 the second article of the treaty ; that the ninth clause of 
 the bill, imposing upon Catholics new oaths, was another 
 manifest breach of the articles; for that, by the ninth 
 article, no oath is to be administered to, nor imposed 
 upon, such Catholics as should submit to government, but 
 the oath of allegiance, appointed by an act made in Eng- 
 land in the first year of the reign of their late majesties ; 
 that the clauses for prohibiting Catholics from residing 
 in Limerick or Galway, from voting at elections without 
 taking certain new oaths, and from possessing advowsons, 
 were likewise infringements on the treaty : " For, if," 
 concludes Sir Theobald Butler, "there were no law in 
 force in the reign of Charles II against these things, as 
 I here certainly was not, and if the Roman Catholics of 
 this kmgdom have not since forfeited their right to the 
 laws that then were in force, as for certain they have not, 
 then, with humble submission, all the aforesaid clauses 
 and matters contained in this bill; entitled 'An act to 
 prevent the further growth of Popery,* are directly 
 
In the Reign of Anne. 491 
 
 against the plain words and true interest and meaning 
 of the said articles, and a violation of the public faith." * 
 
 In consequence of the passing of this act, and of those 
 other acts of a similar tendency which were passed in 
 tlie last reign, the Catholics were deprived of all those 
 privileges and immunities which, they trusted, had been 
 secured in consequence of a king of England havint^ 
 bound himself, his heirs, and successors, to fulfil the 
 conditions ot the Treaty of Limerick. In place of being 
 the free subjects of a prince, from whom they were 
 taught to expect nothing but justice and mercy, they 
 were made the slaves of every one, even of the very 
 meanest of their Protestant countrymen. They saw the 
 English government, on whom they had claims for protec- 
 tion, directing, against their own parliament, its fanatic 
 counsels, and confirming its crimes. By the Treaty of 
 Limerick, they were left at liberty to educate and to act 
 as guardians of their own children ; by the penal laws, 
 they can neither send them to be educated abroad, nor 
 have them educated at home, nor can they be guardians 
 of their own, nor of the children of any other persons. 
 
 By the Treaty of Limerick, the free exercise of their 
 religion was guaranteed to them ; by the penal laws, 
 their chapels are shut up, their priests are banished, and 
 hanged if they return home. 
 
 By the Treaty of Limerick, their noblemen and gentle- 
 men were especially allowed the privilege of wearing 
 arras, and the whole body were equally entitled to the 
 same privilege, because, when it was executed, no law 
 existed to the contrary ; by the penal laws, no Catholic 
 is permitted to have the use of arms, even of those 
 who were specially comprised in the treaty, except a 
 very few. 
 
 By the Treaty of Limerick, Catholics might inter- 
 
 * Curry's "Civil Wars of Ireland," vol. ii, p. 387, App. xyi, wherein the 
 speech of Sir T. Butler is given at length. 
 
492 PenaC Laws. 
 
 marry with Protestants ; by the penal laws, this privilege 
 is removed. 
 
 By the Treaty of Limerick, the profession of the law 
 was open to them ; by these laws, it is taken from them. 
 
 By the Treaty of Limerick, the Catholics could pur. 
 chase, sell, bequeath, and inherit landed property ; by 
 the penal laws, they can neither purchase, sell, -be- 
 queath, nor inherit landed property, take annuities for 
 lives secured on lands, or any lease of land for more 
 than thirty-one years ; nor can they lend money on mort- 
 gage,* or invest it in public securities. 
 
 By the Treaty of Limerick, the Catholics were left in 
 full enjoyment of every political franchise, except that of 
 holding offices under government, and of becoming 
 members of corporation ; by the penal laws, they cannot 
 vote at vestries, serve on grand juries, act as constables, 
 or as sheriffs, or under-sheriffs, be magistrates, vote at 
 elections, or sit in parliament-^ 
 
 By the Treaty of Limerick, they were protected from 
 being called upon to take any other oaths besides the 
 oath of allegiance of the ist William and Mary; by the 
 penal laws, they are required to take the oaths of abjura- 
 tion and supremacy, and to subscribe declarations against 
 the principal tenets of their religious faith. 
 
 By the Treaty of Limerick, they were acknowledged 
 as the free subjects of a British king; by the penal laws, 
 
 * By a construction of Lord Hardwicke. 
 
 t "The exclusion from the law, from grand juries, from sheriffships and 
 under-sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any corporation, may subject them 
 to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude them wholly from all that is bene- 
 ficial, and expose them to all that is mischievous, in a trial byjary. This 
 was manifested within my own observation, for I was three times in Ireland, 
 from the year 1760 to the year 3767, where I had sufficient means of information 
 concerning the inhuman proceedings (among which were many cruel murders, 
 besides an infinity of outrages and oppressions, unknown before in a civilized 
 oge) which prevailed during that period, in consequence of a pretended con- 
 spiracy among Roman Catholics against the king's governnient." — Burke's 
 Letter to a Peer of Ireland. 
 
In the Reign t/f Anne. 493 
 
 they are placed in the double capacity of slaves and 
 enemies of their Protestant countrymen. 
 
 Had they become mere slaves, they might have 
 expected some decree of humane treatment; but, as the 
 policy which made them slaves held them out at the 
 same time as the natural and interested enemies of their 
 masters, they were doomed to experience all the oppres- 
 sion of tyranny, without any of the chances, that other 
 slaves enjoy, of their tyrants being merciful from feeling 
 their tyranny secure. 
 
 This statement will be sufficient to convince those who 
 really foi-m their political opinions upon principles of 
 justice, that the penal laws never should have been 
 enacted, and that it is the duty of every upright states- 
 man to promote the instant repeal of the whole of them, 
 because it proves a solemn compact entered into between 
 the Catholics and the English government, and the 
 breach of that contract by the English government, 
 notwithstanding the Catholics fulfilled their part of the 
 agreement. How can men gravely and zealously con- 
 tribute to make perpetual the political disabilities of the 
 Catholics, which were the base and perfidious means 
 adopted by a wicked legislature to influence men's con- 
 sciences by corrupt motives, and tempt and bribe them 
 to apostasy ? 
 
 As there are, however, no small number of politicians 
 who, though they would think it praiseworthy to keep a 
 Catholic in a state of slavery, yet would be scandalized 
 at the bare idea of breaking faith with him in any affairs 
 of barter, particularly if the}' had already received from 
 him their consideration, and that a valuable one, it will 
 be necessary to make some further observations upon 
 the violation of the Treaty of Limerick, in order that no 
 one may have a pretext on which he can escape the fair 
 conclusion that ought to be drawn from what has been 
 advanced, that the English government and nation are. at 
 
,^. Penal Laws 
 
 494 
 
 this da}', bound to make good to the Catholics of Ireland 
 the stipulations contained in that treaty. For, if ever there 
 was an instance in which the consideration that formed 
 the basis of a treaty should have secured a liberal and 
 a just fulfilment, it was the instance 'of this Treaty of 
 Limerick. 
 
 In the course of the three campaigns during which the 
 war lasted in Ireland, the English army had been defeated 
 on several occasions : in the North, under Schomberg ; 
 before Athlone, under Douglass ; and before Limerick, 
 under William himself. 
 
 The victory of the Boyne was the result of the personal 
 failings of James, not of any deficiency in the number of 
 his army, nor of any want of courage on their part. " Ex- 
 change kings," said the Irish officers, " and we will once 
 more^fight the battle." St. Ruth had won the battle of 
 Aughrim, and had exclaimed, in an ecstasy of joy, " Now 
 will I drive the English to the walls of Dublin," at the 
 moment the fatal ball struck him.* And at the time the 
 garrison of Limerick capitulated, the Irish army was in 
 a condition to hold out at least another campaign, with a 
 good prospect of being able to restore the fallen fortunes 
 of James. The besieging army had made no impression 
 on the principal part of the city ; it was inferior in num- 
 bers to that of the garrison ; winter was fast approach- 
 ing, and it so happened that French succors were at this 
 very moment on the coast: yet all these advantages did 
 the Irish army forego, in consideration of the terms which 
 were granted them by the Treaty of Limerick. 
 
 On the other hand, in granting these terms, the English 
 government and nation obtained advantages of the utmost 
 importance to themselves; for, as long as James had a 
 powerful army in Ireland,-}" and nearly one half of the 
 
 • Leland, b. vi, cap. 7. 
 
 t 6,000 soldiers actually embarked for France after the surrender of 
 eritk. See Dr. Duigenan's " Demands of Romanists," p. 60. 
 
 & 
 
In the Reign of Anne. ^gi, 
 
 kingdom under his dominion, the great work of the 
 Revolution was neither accomplished nor secured. The 
 fair way, therefore, of judging of the value of the Treaty of 
 Limerick to England is to consider how far it contributed 
 to promote this object. If the Treaty of Limerick in any 
 degree led to the establishment of the Revolution, the vast 
 importance of this event should incline the people of Eng- 
 land to act with justice, at least, toward the Catholics; 
 but if their submission contributed essentially to crown 
 the brilliant efforts of the friends of liberty with success, 
 then, indeed, the people of England should feel zealous 
 to act toward the Catholics, not on a cold calculation of 
 what was merely just on their part, but with that kind- 
 ness with which we always regard those who have pro- 
 moted our prosperity, whether intentionally or not. That 
 the submission of the Irish Catholics did so contribute 
 to complete the Revolution is plain, from the means 
 which they possessed of continuing the war, from the 
 opportunity it afforded William to bring his whole forces 
 to bear against Louis, and from the termination it fixed to 
 the hopes and the conspiracies of the adherents of James 
 of England. Yet, notwithstanding the great conces- 
 tions which the Catholics on their part made, by their 
 submission, in order to obtain the terms of the Treaty 
 of Limerick, and the great advantages which the Eng- 
 Hsh nation, on the other hand, acquired by it, twelve 
 years only elapsed before the Catholics were deprived 
 of every right and privilege which was solemnly guar- 
 anteed to them by that treaty. 
 
 The only species of justification that could, under any 
 circumstances, have been brought forward for acting in 
 this manner toward the Catholics, would have been tiie 
 proof of the forfeiture, by misconduct, of their right to 
 the fulfilment of the treaty. That anything which they 
 did prior to the treaty could have, in justice, any in- 
 Huence on measures passed subsequent to its taking 
 
496 Penal Laws 
 
 place, is quite impossible, because the treaty admitted 
 their acts to be those of open and honorab.e enemies, 
 and specifically pardoned them.* 
 
 As to their conduct afterward, even their most in- 
 veterate and most unprincipled enemies did not charge 
 them with a single transgression against the state 
 from the year 1691 to the year 1704, when the "act to 
 prevent the further growth of Popery " was passed. 
 And it is very plain that no such charge could be 
 maintained, from the paltry attempt that was made in 
 parliament to justify this act. It was said " that the 
 Papists had demonstrated how and where, since the 
 making of the articles of Limerick, they had addressed 
 the queen or government, when all other subjects were 
 so doing; and that any right which they pretended 
 was to be taken from them by the bill, was in their 
 own power to remed}-, by conforming, as in prudencR 
 they ought to do, and that they ought not to blame 
 any but themselves." f 
 
 No circumstance can possibly illustrate more clearly 
 the innocence of the Catholics and their loyalty and 
 good conduct, from the Treaty of Limerick to the passing 
 of this act, than this mockery of justification ; nor could 
 anything bring to our understanding an accurate compre- 
 hension of the perfidy and baseness of that government 
 
 • " The peculiar situation of that country," (Ireland), says Macpherson, 
 "seems to have been overlooked in the contest. The desertion, upon which 
 the deprivation of James had been founded in England, had not existed in 
 Ireland. The lord-lieutenant had retained his allegiance ; the government 
 was uniformly continued under the name of the prince from whom the ser- 
 vnnts of the crown had derived their commissions ; James himself had, for 
 more than seventeen months, exercised the royal function in Ireland. He was 
 cei tainly de facto, if not de jure, king. The rebellion of the Irish must, there- 
 fore, be founded on the supposition that their allegiance is transferable by tiic 
 parliament of England. A speculative opinion can scarcely justify the puni?li- 
 ment of a great majority of a people. The Irish ought to have been cnniciJered 
 as enemies, rather than rebels." — " Hist. Great Britain." 
 
 \ Cuiry, " Debates on the Popery Laws," vol. ii. p. ■^^•j. 
 
In the Reign of Anne. 497 
 
 and of that parliament more distinctl)' than so silly an 
 excuse for such stern and crafty oppression. 
 
 Though the Treaty of Limerick was now violated in 
 every point, the spirit of persecution was still restless and 
 unsatisfied. However great was the ingenuity of the 
 legislators who produced the masterpiece of oppression, 
 the "act to prevent the further growth of Popery," it 
 was found that another act was still wanting to explain 
 and amend it. Such an act was passed in the year 1709.* 
 
 The first clause provides that no Papist shall be 
 allowed to take any annuity for life. 
 
 The following is the third clause, every word of which 
 is of value, in order to show the vexations to which the 
 unfortunate Catholics of Ireland have been exposed : — 
 
 " And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, 
 that where and as often as any child or children of any 
 Popish parent or parents hath or have heretofore pos- 
 sessed or conformed him, her, or themselves to the Pro- 
 testant religion as by law established, and enrolled in the. 
 High Court of Chancery a certificate of the bishop of the 
 diocese in which he, she, or the}' shall inhabit or reside, 
 testifying his, her, or their being a Protestant, and con- 
 forming him, her, or themselves to the Church of Ireland 
 as by law estabhshed, it shall and may be lawful for the 
 High Court of Chancery, upon a bill founded upon this act, 
 to oblige the said Papists, parent or parents, to discover 
 upon oath the full value of all his, her, or their estate, as 
 well personal as real, clear, over and above all real in- 
 cumbrance; and debts, contracted bona fide, for value or 
 consideration, before the enrolment of such certificate, 
 and thereupon to make such order for the support and 
 maintenance of such Protestant child or children, by the 
 distribution of the said real and personal estate to and 
 among such Protestant child or children, for the present 
 support of such Piotestant child or children ; and also to 
 • 8 Anne, t. 3. 
 
49 S Penal Laws 
 
 and for the portion or portions, and future maintenance 
 or maintenances, of such Protestant child or children 
 after the decease of such Popish parent or parents, as 
 the said court shall judge fit." 
 
 The twelfth clause provides that all converts in public 
 employments, members of parliament, barristers, attor- 
 neys, or officers of any court of law, shall educate their 
 children Protestants. 
 
 By the fourteenth clause, the Popish wife of a Papist, 
 having power to make a jointure, conforming, shall, if 
 she survive her husband, have such provision, not ex- 
 ceeding the power of her husband, to make a jointure. 
 as the chancellor shall adjudge. 
 
 By the fifteenth clause, the Popish wife of a Papist, 
 not being otherwise provided for, conforming.'shall have 
 a proportion out of his chattels, notwithstanding any will 
 or voluntary disposition, and the statute 7 William III, 6. 
 
 The sixteenth clause provides that a Papist teaching 
 school publicly, or in a private house, or as usher to a 
 Protestant, shall be deemed and prosecuted as a Popish 
 regular convict. 
 
 The eighteenth clause provides that Popish priests 
 who shall be converted shall receive ;^30 per annum, to 
 be levied and paid by grand juries. 
 
 The twentieth clause provides, whimsically enough, 
 for the reward of discovering Popish clergy and school- 
 masters, viz. : — 
 
 For discovering an archbishop, bishop, vicar-general, 
 or other person exercising any foreign ecclesiastical 
 jurisdiction, £^^0. 
 
 For discovering each regular clergyman not regis- 
 tered, £20. 
 
 For discovering each Popish schoolmaster or usher, 
 £ 10* 
 
 * "The average annual amount of premiums for transporting priests, for six- 
 teen years preceding 1745, was;^l27 17s. 4d. The premium ceased after 1745.'' 
 Newenham's " View of Ireland," p. 195. 
 
In the Reigyi of Anne. 499 
 
 The twenty-first clause empowers two justices to sum- 
 mon any Papist of eighteen years of age, and, if he shall 
 refuse to give testimony where and when he heard Mass 
 celebrated, and who and what persons were present at 
 the celebration of it, and likewise touching the residence 
 and abode of any priest or Popish schoolmaster, to com- 
 mit him to jail, without bail, for twelve months, or until 
 he shall pay £20. 
 
 By the twenty-fifth clause, no priest can officiate 
 except in the parish for which he is registered by 2 
 Anne, c. 7. 
 
 The thirtieth clause provides for the discovery of all 
 trusts to be undertaken in favor of Papists, and enables 
 any Protestant to file a bill in chancery against any per- 
 son concerned in any sale, lease, mortgage, or encum- 
 brance, in trust for Papists, and to compel him to discover 
 the same ; and it further provides that all issues to be 
 tried in any action founded upon this act shall be tried 
 by none but known Protestants. 
 
 The thirty-seventh clause provides that no Papist in 
 trade, except in the linen trade, shall take more than 
 two apprentices. 
 
 The following are the other acts passed in this reign 
 concerning Catholics : — 
 
 " An act to prevent Popish clergy from coming into the 
 kingdom."* 
 
 "An act for registering Popish clergy," by which all 
 the Catholic clergy then in the kingdom were required, 
 to give in their names and places of abode at the next 
 quarter-sessions. By this act they are prohibited from 
 employing curates.f 
 
 " An act to amend this act." % 
 
 * 2 Anne, c. 3. 
 1 2 Anne, c. 7. 
 t 4 Anne, c. 2. See also 6 Anne, c. i6, sec 6 ; and 8 Anne, c. 3, sec. 26, 
 
 concerning priests marrying Protestants. 
 
500 
 
 Penal Laws 
 
 "An act to explain and amend an act to prevent Papists 
 being solicitors or sheriffs," etc.* 
 
 Clauses are introduced into this act, by which Cath- 
 olics are prevented from serving on grand juries, and 
 by which, in trials upon any statute for strengthening 
 the Protestant interest, the plaintiff might challenge a 
 Papist : which challenge the judge was to allow. 
 
 During all Queen Anne's reign the inferior civil offi- 
 cers, by order of government, were incessantly harassing 
 the Catholics with oaths, imprisonments and forfeitures, 
 without any visible cause but hatred of their religious 
 profession. In the year 1708, on the bare rumor of 
 an intended invasion of Scotland by the Pretender, 
 forty-one Roman Catholic noblemen and gentlemen 
 were imprisoned in the Castle of Dublin ; and when 
 they were afterward set at liberty, the government was 
 so sensible of the wrong done to them, that it remitted 
 their fees, amounting to ;^8oo. A custom that had 
 existed from time immemorial, for infirm men, women 
 and children to make a pilgrimage every summer to a 
 place called St. John's Well, in the county of Meath, 
 in hopes of obtaining relief from their several infirmities, 
 by performing at it certain acts of penance and devotion, 
 was deemed an object worthy of the serious considera- 
 tion of the House of Commons, who accordingly passed 
 a vote that these sickly devotees " were assembled in that 
 place to the great hazard and danger of the public 
 peace and safety of the kingdom." They also passed 
 a vote on the 17th March, 1705, "that all magistrates, 
 and other persons whosoever, who neglected or omitted 
 to put them [the penal laws] in due execution, were 
 betrayers of the liberties of the kingdom ;"f and in June, 
 1705, they resolved "that the saying and hearing of 
 Mass by persons who had not taken the oath of abjuration, 
 tended to advance the interest of the Pretender; and 
 
 • 6 Anne, c. I. f " Com. Jour.," 3, 289. 
 
hi the Reign of Anne. 501 
 
 that such judges and magistrates as wilfully neglected 
 to make diligent inquiry into and discover such wicked 
 practices, ought to be looked upon as enemies to her 
 majesty's government ; " * and upon another occasion 
 they resolved " that the prosecuting and informing 
 against Papists were an honorable service to the govern- 
 ineuff 
 
 * " Com Jour." 3, 319. tlk 
 
PENAL LAWS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Reign of George I. 
 
 I 7 14-1727. 
 
 The following acts of parliament were passed in this 
 reign, for the purpose of strengthening the system which 
 had been adopted by William and Anne for preventing 
 the growth of Popery. 
 
 " An act to make the militia of this kingdom more 
 useful." * 
 
 By the eleventh and twelfth clauses of this act, the 
 horses of the Papists may be seized for the militia. 
 
 By the fourth and eighteenth clauses, Papists are to 
 pay double toward raising the militia. 
 
 By the sixteenth clause, Popish housekeepers in a 
 city are to find Protestant substitutes. 
 
 " An act to restrain Papists from being high or petty 
 constables, and for better regulating the parish watches.''^ 
 
 " An act for the more effectual prevention of fraudulent 
 conveyances, in order to multiply votes for electing 
 members to serve in parliament," etc.;}: 
 
 By the seventh clause of this act, no Papist can vote 
 lit an election unless he takes the oath of allegiance and 
 ^ibjuration. 
 
 " An act for better regulating the town of Galway, and 
 for strengthening the Protestant interest therein." § 
 
 * 2 George I, c. 9. 
 
 t lb., c. 19. This act expired in three years, and was not renewed. 
 
 t lb. J 4 George I, c. 15. 
 
Penal Laws m the Reign of George I. 503 
 
 " An act for better regulating the corporation of the 
 city of Kilkenny, and strengthening the Protestant inter- 
 est therein." * 
 
 "An act by which Papists,resident in towns, who shall 
 not provide a Protestant watchman to watch in their 
 room, shall be subject to certain penalties." f 
 
 By 12 George I, c. 9, sec. 7, no Papist can vote at any 
 vestry, held for the purpose of levying or assessing 
 money for rebuilding or repairing parish churches. 
 
 These acts of parliament originated in the same spirit 
 of persecution which disgraced the reigns of William 
 and Anne, and were, like the penal laws against the 
 Catholics of those reigns, palpable violations of the 
 Treaty of Limerick. 
 
 Though a glimmering of toleration had found its way 
 uito the councils of England, and given rise to " an 
 act for exempting Protestant dissenters of this country 
 [Ireland] from certain penalties to which they were 
 subject," the Catholics were excluded, b}' a particular 
 clause, from any benefit of it. And though it was in 
 this reign that the first act:]: passed "for discharging all 
 persons in offices and employments from all penalties 
 which they had incurred by not qualifying themselves 
 pursuant to 'an act to prevent the further growth of 
 Popery,' " the favor conferred by it was a favor conferred 
 on Protestant dissenters only, as no Catholic had 
 been placed in any public office since the passing of that 
 penal law. 
 
 The loyalty of the Catholics was in this reign put to a 
 complete trial by the Scotch rebellion of 1715. If, after 
 having fought three campaigns in support of James's 
 pretensions to the throne of Ireland ; after having ex- 
 perienced the infractions of every part of the Treaty 
 of Limerick, and been exposed to a code of statutes by 
 which they were totally excluded from the privileges of 
 * 4 George I, c. 16. t 6 George I, i.. 10 t lb., c. 9. 
 
504 Penal Laws in the Reign of George I. 
 
 the constitution ; and if, after they had become subject 
 "to the worst of all oppressions, the persecution of 
 private society and private manners," * they had em- 
 barked in the cause of the invader, their conduct would 
 have been that of a high-spirited nation, goaded into a 
 state of desperation by their relentless tormentors ; and, 
 if their resistance had been successful, their leaders 
 would have ranked among the Tells and Washingtons 
 of modern history. 
 
 But so far from yielding to the natural dictates of 
 revenge, or attempting to take advantage of what was 
 passing in Scotland to regain their rights, they did not 
 follow the example of their rulers, in violating, upon the 
 first favorable opportunity, a sacred and solemn com- 
 pact ; and thus they gave the strongest testimony that 
 they had wholly given up their former hopes of estab- 
 lishing a Catholic prince upon the throne. Their loyalty 
 was not, however, a protection to them against the 
 oppressions of their Protestant countrymen. The penal- 
 ties for the exercise of their religion were generally and 
 rigidly inflicted. Their chapels were shut up, their 
 priests dragged from their hiding-places, hurried into 
 prisons, and from thence sent into banishment, f 
 
 * Burke's Letter to a Peer of Ireland. 
 
 t " In 1732 a proclama'.ion was issued against the Roman Catholic clergy, and 
 the degree of violence with which it was enforced made many of the old natives 
 look seriously, as a last resource, to emigration. Bishop O'Rorke retired froir* ~ 
 Ballinagare, and the gentlemen of that neighborhood had no clergyman for a 
 considerable time to give them Mass, but a poor old man, one Pcndergast, w lio, 
 before day-dawn on Sunday, crept into a cave in the parish of Baslick, ai.d 
 waited there for his congregation, in cold and wet weather, hunger and thirst, 
 to preach to them patience under their afflictions, and perseverance in their 
 principles, to offer up prayers for theii persecutors, and to arm them with resig- 
 nitinn to the will of heaven in their misfortunes. The cave is called Poll-an- 
 Aifrin, or Mass-cave, to this day, and is a melancholy monument of the piety ■ 
 of our ancestors." — " Mem. of the Life and Writings of the late Charles O'Con- 
 nor," vol. i, p. 179. 
 
PENAL 1^A.WS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Reign of George II. 
 
 I 727-1 760. 
 
 In this reign the following disabilities were imposed 
 upon the Catholics : — 
 
 By the i George II, c. 9, sec. 7, no Papist can vote at 
 an election without taking the oath of supremacy. How- 
 ever great the oppression which the Catholics had ex- 
 perienced during former reigns, this measure completed 
 their entire exclusion from the benefits of the constitution, 
 and from the opportunity of regaining their former just 
 rights. 
 
 It was because this privilege had begun to operate 
 amongst Protestants in a manner very favorable to the 
 Catholics, and to bring about a feeling of regret for theii 
 sufferings, and a coalition between the two parties to 
 oppose the influence of the English government, a' 
 a common cause of grievances, that Primate Boulter 
 advised the ministers to pass this law. 
 
 His principle of government for Ireland was to up 
 hold the English interest by the divisions of the inhabi- 
 tants ; and on this occasion it induced him to adopt the 
 desperate resolution of disfranchising, at one stroke 
 above five-sixths of its population.* 
 
 By the first clause of i George II, c. 30, clerks, bar- 
 
 * Primate Boulter, in his letter of this year to the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 (vol. i, p. 2io_), says : " There are probably in this kingdom five Papists, at least, 
 to one Protestant." See note B, Appendix, upon the present amount of the 
 p< >jiulation, and the proportion of Catholics to Protestants. 
 
5cd6 Penal Laws 
 
 risters and citizens occupying other stations in life, are 
 required to take the oath of supremacy. 
 
 .By the second clause, all converts are bound to edu- 
 cate their children as Protestants. 
 
 By 7 George II, c. 5, sec. 12, barristers or solicitors, 
 marrying Papists, are deemed Papists, and made sub- 
 ject to all penalties as such. 
 
 By 7 George II, c. 6, no convert can act as a justice 
 of the peace whose wife, or children under sixteen years 
 of age, are educated Papists. 
 
 The 13 George II, c. 6, is an act to amend former act? 
 for disarming Papists. 
 
 By the sixth clause of this act, Protestants educating 
 their children as Papists are made subject to the samt 
 disabilities as Papists are. 
 
 By 9 George II, c. 3, no person can serve on a pettj 
 jury, unless seized of a freehold of ;^5 per annum, or. 
 being a Protestant, unless possessed of a profit rent of 
 £\i) per annum, under a lease for years. 
 
 By 9 George II, c. 6, sec. 5, persons robbed by priva- 
 teers, during war with a Popish prince, shall be reim- 
 bursed by grand jury p>resentment, and the money levied 
 up>=yn the goods and lands of Popish inhabitants only. 
 
 The 19 George II, c. 5, is an act for granting a duty 
 on hawkers and peddlers to the Society of Protestant 
 Charter Schools.* 
 
 • The following is the preamble of the charter for erecting these schools : 
 "George II by the grace of God, etc. Forasmuch as we have received 
 information, by the petition of the lord primate, lord chancellor, archbishops, 
 noblemen, bishops, judges, gentry and clergy, of our kiugdom of Ireland, 
 that in many parts of the said kingdom there are great tracts of land almost 
 entirely inhabited by Papists, who are kept by their clergy in great ignorance 
 of the true religion, and bred up in great dissatisfaction to the government ; 
 that the erecting of English Protestant schools in those places is absolutely 
 neces.sary for their conversion; that the English parish schools already estab- 
 lished are not sufficient for that purpose, nor can the residence of the 
 parochial clergy only fully answer that end." Catholics are excluded by this 
 charter fr-jm being subscribar.'- to, or members of, this society. — See Report of 
 
In the Reign of George II. 507 
 
 The 19 George II, c. 13, is an act to annul all marriages 
 between Protestants and Papists, or celebrated by Popish 
 priests.* 
 
 By the 23 George II, c. 10, sec. 3, every Popish priest 
 who shall celebrate any marriage contrary to 12 George I, 
 c. 3, and be therefor convicted, shall be hanged. 
 
 Of these last acts, and of Lord Chesterfield's adminis- 
 tration, Mr. Burke gives the following account:" This 
 man, while he was duping the credulity of the Papists with 
 fine words in private, and commending their good behav- 
 ior during a rebellion in Great Britain, as it well deserved 
 to be commended and rewarded, was capable of urging 
 penal laws against them in a speech from the throne, f and 
 
 Committee of Irish House of Commons, l4Apperidix, 1788 ; Ir. Com. Jour., 12 
 Appendix, p. 810. 
 
 The children admitted into the schools are orphans, or thechildren of Cath- 
 olics, and other poor natives of Ireland, who, from their situation in life, are 
 not likely to educate them as Protestants. They are apprenticed into Protest- 
 ant famiMesat the age of fourteen years, at a fee of seven guineas vcith each 
 female, and five guineas with each male. The society gives " portion of five 
 pounds to every person educated in these schools, upon his or her marrying a 
 Protestant. 
 
 In September, 1806, the number of children in the schools was 2,130. 
 
 The funds of the society consist of lands, funded property, and an annual 
 grant of parliament ; they amount to about ^34,000 per annum. From the 
 year 1754, 31 George II, c. I, to the 1st January, 1808, there has been granted 
 by parliament to this society ^^491, 326, besides certain duties on hawkers and 
 pedlers, from 1754 '° ^l^P- 
 
 By the 23 George II, c. 2, the society may appoint persons to take uj 
 beggar children, and send them to the charter schools, and, when old enough, 
 bind them apprentices. 
 
 By the same act, sec. 8, a child received with the parents' consent is deemed 
 a child of the public, and may be disposed of, though claimed by the parents. 
 
 • The first acts on this head are 6 Anne c. 16, sec. 6, and 8 Anne, c 3, sec. 26. 
 
 f " The measures that have hitherto been taken to prevent the growth of 
 Popery have, I hope, had some, and will still have a greater effect ; however, I 
 leave it to your consideration whether nothing further can be done, either by 
 new laws or by more effectual execution of those in being, to secure the nation 
 against the greater number of Papists, whose speculative errors would only 
 deserve pity, if their pernicious influence upon civil society did not both require 
 and authorize restraint." — Speech to both Houses of Parliament, October 8, 
 1745: Com. Jour., 7, 64. 
 
i,o8 Penal Lawi 
 
 of stimulating with provocatives the weary and half- 
 exhausted bigotry of the parliament of Ireland. They 
 set to work, but they were at a loss what to do, for they 
 had already almost gone through every contrivance 
 which could waste the vigor of their country ; but, after 
 much struggle, they produced a child of their old age, 
 the shocking and unnatural act about marriages, which 
 tended to finish the scheme for making the people not only 
 two distinct parties forever, but keeping them as two 
 distinct species in the same land. Mr. Gardiner's human- 
 ity was shocked at it, as one of the worst parts of that 
 truly barbarous system, if one could well settle the pre- 
 ference, where almost all the parts were outrages on the 
 rights of humanity and the laws of nations." * 
 
 On the conduct of the Catholics during the Scotch 
 rebellion of 1745, fortunately for them, but greatly to the 
 shame of those who accuse them of being actuated by 
 religious principles inconsistent with their duty to their 
 sovereign, there is on record an irrefutable document. 
 In the year 1762, upon a debate in the House of Lords 
 about the expediency of raising five regiments of Cath- 
 olics for the King of Portugal, the Primate, Doctor Stone, 
 in answer to the usual objections that were urged on all 
 occasions against the good faith and loyalty of that body, 
 declared in his place, "that in the year 1747, after that 
 rebellion was entirely suppressed, happening to be in 
 England, he had ar opportunity of perusing all the 
 papers of the rebels and their correspondents, which 
 were seized in the custody of Murray, the Pretender's 
 secretary ; and that, after having spent much time, and 
 taken great pains in examining them, not without some 
 share of the then common suspicion that there might be 
 some private understanding and intercourse between 
 them and the Irish Catholics, he could not discover the 
 least trace, hint, or intimation of such intercourse or 
 
 * letter to a Peer in IrelnnJ. 
 
In the Reign of George II. 509 
 
 correspondence in them, or of any of the kttet's favor- 
 ing or abetting-, or having been so much as made ac- 
 quainted with, the designs or proceedings of the rebels. 
 And what," he said, " he wondered at most of all was, 
 that in all his researches he had not met with any pas- 
 sage in any of the papers from which he could infer 
 that either their Holy Father, the Pope, or any of his 
 cardinals, bishops, or other dignitaries of that Church, 
 or any of the Irish clergy, had, either directly or indi- 
 rectly, encouraged, aided, or approved of the commenc- 
 ing or carrying on of that rebellion."* 
 
 Those of the clergy of England who lately took so 
 active a part in exciting and upholding the infamous 
 outcry of " No Popery," will do well to compare this 
 declaration of Primate Stone with the followino- state- 
 ment of the conduct of the Irish clergy, immediately 
 upon the breaking out of the Scotch rebellion. They 
 will learn how easy it is, even for the grave profession 
 of the Church, to commit errors, and to pollute its sacred 
 character, by embarking in the controversy of party 
 politics : " The bishops wrote pastoral letters to their 
 respective diocesans, to excite the members of the Estab- 
 lished Church to enforce all the penal statutes, and, with 
 equal wisdom and charity and a ready obedience, did the 
 clergy follow the example and directions of their supe- 
 riors, and apply the whole power of their body to support 
 the Idnatic politics of the da}'. In their inflammatory 
 sermons they excited religious animosity, by reviving 
 the most shocking circumstances of the Irish Rebellion 
 of 1641, and of the Gunpowder Plot in England, in 1605. 
 These transactions were studiously aggravated, and the 
 crimes, whether real or supposed, committed by Cath- 
 olics, dead more than a century before, were imputed to 
 all those who survived of the same religious persuasion. "f 
 
 * Curry's " Rev;ew of the Civil Wars of Ireland," vol. ii, p. 261. 
 tib., p. 259. 
 
Sio 
 
 Penal Laws 
 
 If the conduct of the bishops and clergy was improper, 
 on account of its inconsistency with those principles of 
 universal charity that the Gospel inculcated, it was still 
 more s® from there being no grounds, even of suspicion, 
 that the Catholics were disloyal. Besides, it was inde- 
 cent, in the last degree, for those who were endowed 
 by the state for the purpose only of discharging the 
 functions of a religious profession, to degrade their 
 sacred character by assuming the duties of partisan 
 magistrates, and embarking in all the tumult and passion 
 of political persecution. The conduct of the Catholic 
 priests at this period forms a contrast by no means 
 creditable to those who teach the superior tolerance of 
 the Protestant religion, and ground their animosities 
 against the Catholics on the supposed illiberality which 
 controls their principles. This oppressed and indigent 
 body of men, instead of taking offence at the proceedings 
 of the bishops and clergy of the Established Church, " co- 
 operated with their Protestant brethren to maintain order 
 and tranquillity. Their pastoral letters, public discourses 
 from the pulpit, and private admonitions, were equally 
 directed for the service of the government."* 
 
 Yet these clergy were the members of that Church, 
 the principles of which are stated to be of such a nature 
 by many of the English clergy as to render it absolutely 
 impossible for a Catholic to be a good subject. 
 
 On the 26th September, 1757, the Duke of Bedford was 
 sworn in as lord-lieutenant. His open declarations of 
 liberal sentiments toward the Catholics, and some com- 
 munications, that were made for the first time since the 
 passing of the " ferocious act of Anne" to prevent the 
 growth of Popery, of an intention to repeal some part 
 of the penal laws, encouraged them to hope foi a change 
 in the system of Irish government. Ten days after his 
 arrival, the Catholic clergy of Dublin, influenced by these 
 
 * Chesterfield's Works, vol. i, p. 150. Ir. Ed. 
 
In the Reign of George II. 511 
 
 communications, read the following to their respective 
 congregations. It forms the first, and a very important, 
 document, in proof of the sufferings, the resignation, and 
 the loyalty of the Catholic body. It was one peculiarly 
 deserving of attention, as being well calculated to re- 
 move the ignorance and prejudices of those who still 
 persist in calumniating the Catholic clergy of Ireland, 
 and representing them as enemies to the king and con- 
 stitution : — 
 
 " Exhortation of the Roman Catholic Clergy of Dublin, 
 read from their altars on the 2d October, 1757. 
 
 " It is now time. Christians, that you return your most 
 grateful thanks to the Almighty God, who, after visiting 
 you with a scarcity which approached near to a famine, 
 has been graciously pleased, like a merciful father, to hear 
 your prayers, and feed you with a plentiful harvest ; 
 nor ought you to forget those kind benefactors who, in 
 the severest times, mindful only of the public good, 
 generously bestowed, without any distinction of persons, 
 those large charities by which thousands were pre- 
 served, who otherwise must have perished, the victims 
 of hunger and poverty. 
 
 " We ought especially to be most fearnest in our 
 thanks to the chief governors and magistrates of the 
 kingdom, and of this city in particular, who, on this oc- 
 casion, proved the fathers and saviors of the nation. 
 
 " But as we have not a more effectual method of 
 showing our acknowledgments to our temporal gov- 
 ernors, than by an humble, peaceful, and obedient 
 behavior as hitherto, we earnestly exhort you to 
 continue in the same happy and Christian disposition, 
 and thus, by degrees, you will entirely efface in their 
 minds those evil impressions, which have been conceived 
 so much to our prejudice, and industriously propagated 
 by our enemies. 
 
 " A series of more than sixty years spent, with pious 
 
512 Penal Laws 
 
 resignation, under the hardships of very severe penal 
 laws, and with the greatest thankfulness for the lenity 
 and moderation with which they were executed, ever 
 since the accession of the present royal family, is certainly 
 a fact which must outweigh, in the minds of all unbiassed 
 persons, any misconceived opinions of the doctrines and 
 tenets of our holy Church. 
 
 " You know that it has always been our constant prac- 
 tice, as ministers of Jesus Christ, to inspire you with the 
 greatest horror for thefts, frauds, murders, and the like 
 abominable crimes, as being contrary to the laws of God 
 and nature, destructive to civil society, condemned bj 
 our most holy Church, which, so far from justifying them 
 on the score of religion, or any other pretext whatsoever, 
 delivers the unrepenting authors of such criminal prac- 
 tices over to Satan. 
 
 " We are no less zealous than ever in exhorting you to 
 abstain from cursing, swearing, and blaspheming: detest- 
 able vices to which the poorest sort of our people are 
 most unhappily addicted, and which must, at one time or 
 another, bring down the vengeance of Him upon you in 
 some visible punishment, unless you absolutely refrain 
 from them. 
 
 " It is probable that from hence some people have taken 
 occasion to brand us with this infamous calumny, that 
 we need not fear to take false oaths, and consequently to 
 perjure ourselves. As if we believed that any power 
 upon earth could authorize such damnable practices, or 
 grant dispensations for this purpose ! 
 
 " How unjust and cruel this charge is, you know by 
 our instruction to you both in public and private, in 
 which we have ever condemned such doctrines as false 
 and impious. Others, likewise, may easily know it from 
 the constant behavior of numbers of Roman Catholics, 
 who have given the strongest proofs of their abhorrence 
 of those tenets, by refusing to take oaths, which, however 
 
In the Reign of George II. 513 
 
 conducive to their temporal interest, appeared to them 
 entirely repugnant to the principles of their religion. 
 
 " We must now entreat you, dear Christians, to offer up 
 your most fervent prayers to the Almighty God who 
 holds in His hands the hearts of kings and princes : beseech 
 Him to direct the counsels of our rulers, to inspire 
 them with sentiments of moderation and compassion 
 toward us. 
 
 " We ought to be more earnest at this juncture in our 
 supplications to heaven, as some very honorable, persons 
 have encouraged us to hope for a mitigation of the penal 
 laws. Pray, then, the Almighty to give a blessing to these 
 their generous designs, and to aid their counsels in such 
 a manner that, whilst they intend to assist us, like kind 
 benefactors, they may not, contrary to their intentions, by 
 mistaking the means, most irretrievably destroy us. 
 
 " To conclude : be just in your dealings, sober in your 
 conduct, religious in your practices, avoid riots, quarrels, 
 and tumults, and thus 3^ou will approve yourselves good 
 citizens, pef-.ceable subjects, and pious Christians." 
 
 Instead, however, of a repeal taking place of any of 
 the penal laws, rumors began very generall}' to prevail 
 of its being the intention of the government to proceed 
 to carry into eflfect a bill that had been prepared by the 
 former administration for altering the law respecting 
 the registry of the clergy. The existing law, which 
 passed in the reign of Queen Anne, had been found too 
 penal to admit of its being carried into execution, and 
 thus, by an excess of tyranny, was the object of it wholly 
 defeated. In the place of this law, it had been proposed 
 to pass one with such provisions that it should, like the 
 other penal laws, execute itself; and upon this project 
 being now revived, the Catholics, for the first time since 
 1704, took measures, as a body, to indicate their religious 
 and civil principles. Mr. Charles O'Connor, the cele- 
 brated Irish scholar and antiquarian, with the assistance 
 
514 Penal Laws 
 
 of Dr. Curry, author of the " Review of the Civil Wars 
 of Ireland," and Mr. Wyse, of Waterford, exerted them 
 selves with good effect in persuading- their .suffering 
 countrymen of the necessity of coming forward to induce 
 their rulers to admit them into a participation of the 
 privileges of the constitution. As a groundwork of their 
 future labor, Dr. O'Keefe, the titular Bishop of Kildare, 
 proposed, at a meeting held at Lord Timbleton's, a 
 declaration of the principles of their Church, as far as 
 they could bear upon the civil duties, to be signed by 
 the chiefs of their body, and published as an answer to 
 the misrepresentations and calumnies they had labored 
 under since the reformation of the national religion. This 
 declaration was unanimously adopted ; it was signed by 
 many clergymen and gentlemen of rank and property 
 and sent to Rome as the act and deed of the Irish Cath- 
 olics. It is as follows : — 
 
 " Whereas, certain opinions and principles, inimical to 
 good order and government, have been attributed to 
 the Catholics, the existence of which we utterly deny ; 
 and whereas it is at this time peculiarly necessary to 
 remove such imputations, and to give the most full and 
 ample satisfaction to our Protestant brethren, that w( 
 hold no principles whatever, incompatible with our duty 
 as men or as subjects, or repugnant to liberty, whether 
 political, civil, or religious : 
 
 " Now we, the Catholics of Ireland, for the removal, of 
 all such imputations, and in deference to the opinion of 
 many respectable bodies of men and individuals among 
 our Protestant brethren, do hereby, in the face of our 
 country, of all Europe, and before God, make this our 
 deliberate and solemn declaration : — 
 
 " I. We abjure, disavow, and condemn the opinion 
 that princes, excommunicated by the pope and councilor 
 by any ecclesiastical authority whatsoever, may there- 
 fore be deposed or murdered by their subjects or any 
 
In the Reigii of George 11. i;i5 
 
 other person. We hold such doctiine in detestation as 
 wicked and impious, and we declare that we do not 
 believe that either the pope, with or without a general 
 council, or an)' prelate or priest, or any ecclesiastical 
 power whatsoever, can absolve the subjects of this 
 kingdom, or auy of them, from their allegiance to His 
 Majesty, King George III, who is, by authority of par- 
 liament, the lawful king of this realm. 
 
 " 2. We abjure, condemn and detest, as unchristian 
 and impious, the principle that it is lawful to murder, 
 destroy, or anyways injure any persons whomsoever, for, 
 or under.the pretence of being heretics ; and we declare 
 solemnly before God that we believe that no act in itself 
 unjust, immoral, or wicked, can be justified or excused 
 b}', or under, pretence or color that it was done either for 
 the good of the Church, or in obedience to any ecclesi- 
 astical power whatsoever. 
 
 " 3. We further declare that we hold it as an unchris- 
 tian and impious principle that no faith is to be kept with 
 heretics. The doctrine we detest and reprobate, not 
 only as contrary to our religion, but as destructive of 
 morality, of society, and even of common honesty ; and 
 it is our firm belief that an oath made to any person, not 
 of the Catholic religion, is equally binding as if it were 
 made to any Catholic whomsoever. 
 
 " 4. We have been charged with holding, as an article 
 of our belief, that the pope, with,or without, the authority 
 of a general council, or by certain ecclesiastical powers, 
 can acquit and absolve us before God from our oath of 
 allegiance, or even from the just oaths and contracts 
 entered into between man and man. 
 
 " Now we do utterly renounce, abjure, and deny that 
 we hold or maintain any such belief, as being contrary 
 to the peace and happiness of society, inconsistent with 
 morality, and, above all, repugnant to the true spirit of 
 the Catholic religion. 
 
5i6 Penal Laws 
 
 " 5. We do further declare that we do not believe 
 that the Pope of Rome, or any other prince, prelate, 
 state, or potentate, hath, or ought to ha^ e, any temporal 
 or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or preeminence, 
 directly or indirectly, within this realm. 
 
 '= 6. After what we have renounced, it is immaterial, in 
 a political light, what may be our opinion of faith on 
 other points respecting the pope; however, for greater 
 satisfaction, we declare that it is not an article of the 
 Catholic laith, neither are we hereby required to believe 
 or profess, that the pope is infallible, or that we are 
 bound to obey any order, in its own nature immoral, 
 though the pope, or any ecclesiastical power, should 
 issue or direct such order, but, on the contrary, we hold 
 that it would be sinful in us to pay any respect or 
 obedience thereto. 
 
 " 7. We further declare that we do not believe that any 
 sin whatsoever committed by us can be forgiven at the 
 mere will of any pope, or of any priest, or of any person 
 or persons whomsoever ; but that sincere sorrow for 
 past sins, a firm and sincere resolution, as far as may be 
 in our power, to restore our neighbor's property or 
 character, if we have trespassed, or unjustly injured 
 either ; a firm and sincere resolution to avoid future 
 guilt, and to atone to God, are previous and indispensable 
 requisites to establish a well-founded expectation of 
 forgiveness ; and that any person who receives absolution 
 without these previous requisites, so far from obtaining 
 thereby any remission of his sins, incurs the additional 
 guilt of violating a sacrament. 
 
 " 8. We do hereby solemnly disclaim and forever 
 renounce all interests in, and title to, all forfeited lands 
 resulting from any rights, or supposed rights, of our 
 ancestors, or any claim, title, or interest therein ; nor do 
 we admit any title as a foundation of right, which is not 
 established and acknowledged by the laws of the realm 
 
In tlie Reign of George II 517 
 
 as the)' now stand. We desire, further, that whenever 
 the patriotism, liberality, and justice of our countrymen 
 shall restore to us a participation in the elective franchise, 
 no Catholic shall be permitted to vote at any election 
 for members to serve in parliament until he shall pre- 
 viously take an oath to defend to the utmost of his power 
 the arrangement of property in this country', as estab- 
 lished by the diflFercnt acts of attainder and settlement. 
 
 "9. It has been objected to us that we wish to subvert 
 the present Church establishment, for the purpose of 
 substituting a Catholic establishment in its stead. Now, 
 we do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure 
 any such intention ; and further, if we shall be admitted 
 into any share of the constitution, by our being restored 
 to the right of elective franchise, we are read}'', in the 
 most solemn manner, to declare that we will not exercise 
 that privilege to disturb and weaken the establishment 
 of the Protestant religion or Protestant government in 
 this countrj'." 
 
 Though this declaration did not produce any change 
 of conduct on the part of the English government at that 
 time, its failure can be attributed only to the obstinacy 
 with which the principle of governing Ireland, upon the 
 system of separate interests between the Protestants and 
 Catholics, was adhered to. This declaration, though at 
 first ineffectual, was republished in 1792, and may surely 
 be expected at least to open the eyes of mankind to the 
 true character of the Irish Catholics, and to secure to 
 them the reward which it deserves : the unlimited con- 
 fidence of their king and fellow-subjects, and the entire 
 restoration of their constitutional rights. 
 
 In the year 1759, when it was known that a French 
 force, under the command of Conflans, was collected to 
 invade Ireland, the conduct of the Catholics on this, as it 
 had uniformly been on similar occasions, was loyal in the 
 extreme. Mr. O'Connor. Dr. Curry, and Mr. Wyse had, 
 
jiS Penal Laws 
 
 some time before, in 1757, succeeded in establishing a gen- 
 eral committee of the Catholic body, formed by delegates 
 of parishes, and the principal Catholic nobility and gentry. 
 As soon as this invasion was announced in parliament 
 by a message from the Duke of Bedford, this committee 
 was summoned to meet; and Mr. O'Connor having sub- 
 mitted to it the following address to the lord-lieutenant, 
 it was unanimously approved of: — 
 
 " May it please your grace : 
 
 " We, his majesty's dutiful and faithful subjects, the 
 Roman Catholic gentlemen, merchants, and citizens of 
 Dublin, do, with the greatest respect, approach the illus- 
 trious representative of the best of kings with our hearty 
 congratulations on those glorious successes, by sea and 
 land, which have attended his majesty's arms, in the 
 prosecution of this just and necessary war. 
 
 " We gratefully acknowledge the lenity extended to 
 us by his most sacred majesty, and by his royal father, 
 of happy memory. Our allegiance, may it please your 
 grace, is confirmed by affection and gratitude, our relig- 
 ion commands it, and it shall be our invariable rule 
 firmly and ijiviolably to adhere to it. 
 
 " We are called to this duty at the present time in 
 particular, when a foreign enemy is meditating des- 
 perate attempts to interrupt the happiness and disturb 
 the repose which these kingdoms have so long enjo3'ed 
 under a monarch who places his chief glory in proving 
 himself the common father of all his people; and we 
 sincerely assure your grace that we are ready and 
 ■willing, to the utmost of our abilities, to assist in 
 supporting his majesty's government against all hostile 
 attempts whatsoever. 
 
 " Whenever, my lord, it shall please the Almighty 
 that the legislative power of this realm shall deem the 
 peaceable conduct of his majesty's Catholic subjects in 
 
In the Reign of George II. 515 
 
 Ireland, for many years past, an object worthy of its 
 favorable attention, we humbly hope means may be 
 devised to render so numerous a body more useful 
 ■members to the community, and more strengthening 
 friends to the state, than they possibly could have hither- 
 to been under the restraint of the many penal laws 
 against them. We most humbly beseech your grace to 
 represent to his majesty these sentiments and resolutions 
 of his majesty's faithful subjects, the Roman Catholics of 
 this metropolis, who sincerely wish that a peace honor- 
 able to his majesty, and advantageous to his kingdom, 
 may be the issue of the present war, and that the people 
 of Ireland may be long governed by your grace, a viceroy 
 in whom wisdom, moderation, and justice are so emi- 
 nently conspicuous." 
 
 On that occasion, also, wealthy individual members ol 
 the Catholic body offered to accommodate the govern- 
 ment with large sums of money in case of necessity, to 
 support the Protestant Establishment against all its 
 enemies ; and the Catholics of the city of Cork, in a 
 body, presented an address to the lord-lieutenant,, 
 expressing their loyalty in the warmest terms of assur- 
 ance. They professed the warmest indignation at the 
 threatened invasion of the kingdom by an enemy vainly 
 flattered with the imaginary hope of assistance in Ire- 
 land from the former attachment of their predecessors. 
 They assured his grace that such schemes were altogether 
 inconsistent with their principles and intentions, and 
 that they would, to the utmost exertion of their abilities, 
 with Iheir lives and fortunes, join in the defence and 
 support of his majesty's royal person and government 
 against all invaders whatsoever.* 
 
 These circumstances are proof of no ordinary fidelity 
 in the Irish Catholics to the house of Brunswick. They 
 
 •Smollett's " History of England," vol. iv, p. 69. 
 
520 Penal Laws in the Reign of Georgt II. 
 
 were, however, of no avail in mitigatirtj tlie rigor 
 of the magistracy in the execution of the pr.nal laws, or 
 in inducing the British government to repeal any part 
 of them, for the reign of George II closed, wJihout any 
 grateful acknowledgments being made to them foi the 
 steadiness, the moderation, and the loyalty whK»** fl^p.T 
 had displayed on so many trying occasions. 
 
PENAL LAWS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Reign of George III. 
 
 1760-1820. 
 
 Though the first measure of this reign, the royal 
 recommendation to Parliament to make the judges inde- 
 pendent of the crown, bespoke the determination of his 
 majesty to respect the feelings and confirm the rights 
 and liberties of his subjects, still the unfortunate Cath- 
 olics of Ireland were doomed to suffer under new pains 
 and penalties. 
 
 In the year 1776 an act of parliament was passed,* by 
 which one or more justices of the peace, and all sheriffs 
 and chief magistrates of cities and towns corporate, with- 
 in their respective jurisdictions may, from time to time, 
 as well by night as by day, search for and seize all 
 arms and ammunition belonging to any Papist not en- 
 titled to keep the same, or in the hands of any person in 
 trust for a Papist ; and for that purpose enter any dwell- 
 ing-house, out-houses, office, field, or other place belong- 
 ing to a Papist, or to any other person where such 
 magistrate has reasonable cause to suspect any such arms 
 or ammunition to be concealed, and on suspicion, after 
 search, may summon and examine on oath the person 
 suspected of such concealment. 
 
 By the seventeenth clause of this act, Papists refusing 
 
 * iq and 16 George HI, c. 11, sec. 15. 
 
522 Penal Laws 
 
 to deliver up or declare such arms as they, or any with 
 their privity, have in their possession, or hindering their 
 dehvery, or refusmg to discover on oath, or, without 
 cause.neglecting to appear on summons to be examined 
 before a magistrate concerning the same, shall, on con- 
 viction, be punished by fine and imprisonment, or such 
 corporal punishment of pillory or whipping as the court 
 shall, rn their discretion, think proper. 
 
 In the year 1782 a clause was introduced into an act* 
 by which no person shall be admitted into the society of 
 King's Inns as a student, who shall not, at the time of 
 his admission, be a Protestant. 
 
 In the same year an act was passed, by the third 
 clause of which all statutes in England or Great Britain, 
 and all such clauses and provisions contained in any 
 statute there made as relate to the taking of any oath or 
 oaths, or making or subscribing any declaration in Ire- 
 land, or to any penalty or disability of omitting the 
 same, shall be accepted, used, and executed in Ireland. 
 
 This act referred to : first, the English f act of 3 Wil- 
 liam and Mary, c. 2, sees, i, 4, 5, 6, 7, by which the oath 
 of supremacy mentioned in 2 Elizabeth, i, c. i, is abro- 
 gated, and a new oath of supremacy is required to be 
 taken by all persons admitted into Ireland to hold any 
 civil or military office, and by members of both houses 
 of parliament ; second, to the English act of i Anne, 
 Stat. 2, c. 17, requiring all persons to take the oath of 
 abjuration prescribed by the English acts of 13 William 
 III, c. 6, and I Anne, stat. i, c. 22 ; third, to the English 
 act of 6 George III, c. 53, sec. 2, declaring that from the 
 1st August, 1776, the oath of abjuration, by this act ap- 
 pointed to be taken in Great Britain, shall be the oath of 
 abjuration to be taken in Ireland. 
 
 Though this clause of the 21 and 22 George HI, 
 
 •21 and 22 George III, c. 32, sec. 2. 
 t lb., c. 48, sec. 3. 
 
In tJu Reign of George III. 523 
 
 c. 48, has attracted very little public attention, it was 
 of no less import than that of being the first lega. ex- 
 clusion of Catholics from sitting in the Irish parliament. 
 They had been excluded de facto by their voluntary 
 submission to the English act of 3 William and Mary, but 
 not de jure till this act of 21 and 22 George 111, which 
 made the act of 3 William and Mary, just mentioned, 
 binding in Ireland.* 
 
 This circumstance, which has always been overlooked, 
 even by the Catholics themselves, proves how readily they 
 have been inclined, at all times, to submit to the authority 
 of government ; and it also proves how unfounded those 
 arguments are which maintain that the exclusion of the 
 Catholics of Ireland from parliament is a principle on 
 which the family of his majesty was placed upon the 
 throne. It completely overturns the system of erroneous 
 reasoning concerning the coronation oath, which of 
 late had been so common; it reduces the question to 
 this simple point: whether the king can conscientiously 
 place the Catholics of Ireland in the same condition, 
 with respect to sitting in parliament, in which they had 
 continued till the twenty-second year of his own reign. 
 
 In 1785 an act was passed* for granting ;^4,ooo, to be 
 expended in apprentice fees, to such tradesmen or manu- 
 
 ' The first Irish parliament summoned by William having met on the 5th 
 October, 1692, immediately after the election of a speaker, and his being seated, 
 "A motion was made for the reading of a late act of parliament, made in 
 England in the third year of their majesties' reign, entitled ' An act for abro- 
 gating the oath of supremacy in Ireland, and app.jinting other oaths ;' upon 
 reading whereof the house immediately proceeded to the swearing of their 
 members, and, they being sworn, the house adjourned." (Irish Com. Jour., vol. 2, 
 p. 9.) " It does not appear by the journals that any objection was made to this 
 motion, or that any Catholic had been elected to serve in this parliament, 
 notwithstanding this English act was not binding in Ireland; nor is any 
 mention made by the historians of that day concerning the grounds upon 
 which the Catholics submitted to it. The submissive forbearance of tliem un- 
 ('er a most severe extension of the penal code is the only point relating to 
 them which has arrested their notice." — Plowden, vol, 1, p. 198. 
 * 25 George III, c 48, sees. 11, 12. 
 
524 Penal Laws 
 
 facturers, as should take children from charter schools 
 or the Foundling Hospital ; but it was expressly pro- 
 vided that the children should be bound to none but 
 Protestant tradesmen and manufacturers. 
 
 The whole code of the penal statutes against the 
 Catholics of Ireland is now laid before the view of the 
 reader, under which they so long and so patiently 
 languished, — statutes unexampled for their inhumanity, 
 their unwanantableness and their impolicy, which were 
 adopted to exterminate a race of men already crushed 
 and broken by the longest series of calamities which 
 one nation had ever the opportunity of inflicting upon 
 another. 
 
 They were framed against Christians under the 
 pretence of securing religion • they were the work of 
 Protestants, than whom no sect has cried out more 
 loudly against persecution when Protestants were the 
 martyrs ; they were sanctioned by a nation who owed 
 its liberties, and by monarchs who owed their throne, to 
 a solemn covenant that such penal disabilities should 
 never exist.* Here, may we not inquire if the Enghsh 
 nation, legislature and king, have not a duty to fulfil 
 toward the Irish Catholics even greater than that of 
 justice, — a duty of compunction, of repentance, and 
 atonement? The faith of a solemn treaty made with 
 them has been broken: it is not enough that it has been 
 in part reestablished, it ought to be religiously fulfilled. 
 They have been ruled with tyranny : it is not enough 
 that the tyranny should be relaxed, it should cease 
 altogether. They have been driven from the pale of the 
 constitution : it is not enough that they should be allowed 
 to pass its barriers, they should range free and uncon- 
 trolled through all its rights. 
 
 1 hat this system of slow political torture was not 
 warranted by any alleged delinquency on their part, is 
 
 * See the articles of the Treaty of Limerick. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 525 
 
 notorious; for it was devised and perfected in times of 
 profound tranquillit}'. That they were not deserving 
 even of the suspicion of being disloyal subjects, is proved 
 by their signal forbearance, which has preserved the 
 empire from the calamitous consequences of such flagi- 
 tious misgovernment ; and that, on the contrary, they 
 fully merited the confidence and protection of the 
 legislature, no fair and candid mind can deny, when it 
 gives to their conduct, in strictly adhering to the 
 stipulations of the Treaty of Limerick, and to their 
 allegiance to the house of Brunswick, the just value to 
 which it is entitled. 
 
 Having now reached the utmost point to which the 
 penal statutes extended, which seems to be as far as 
 human invention, quickened by mixed feelings of alarm, 
 of bigotry, and of pride, could go, we should not be 
 excusable on general grounds if we neglect to record 
 their effects. 
 
 But there is even a nearer interest in this examination. 
 At a period when the state of Ireland so much occupies 
 the attention of the legislature and of the public ; when 
 it is admitted on all sides that the prosperity and 
 security of England herself must rise or- fall with the 
 prosperity and security of Ireland, and when the events 
 of each succeeding day prove the absolute necessity of 
 some measures to ameliorate her condition, and show that 
 things cannot go on as they are, without the inevitable 
 destruction of the British empire, it will be of great 
 importance to be able to form an accurate opinion upon 
 the effects which were the result of the penal statutes. 
 
 It appears from unquestionable authority that, during 
 the mterval that elapsed between the surrender of Lim- 
 erick and the total infraction of the treaty of 1704. by 
 the " act to prevent the further growth of Popery," the 
 toleration which the Catholics experienced by virtue of 
 that treaty, produced its natural consequences. The 
 
526 Penal Laws 
 
 security they enjoyed restored industry, and plentv of 
 all things; useful arts were introduced: the land was 
 cultivated, and a fine island, reduced to a desert by the 
 late war, soon assumed a new face. In fact Ireland was 
 never happier than during this interval of religious tolera- 
 tion* Of the effects of the penal laws, in entirely revers- 
 ing the order of things, Lord Taffe, in his valuable tract 
 on Irish affairs, gives the following description : " Those 
 penalties and interdicts (by the laws of Anne) had their 
 natural effects in the dispeopling greatly the three fine 
 provinces wherein the bulk of Catholics reside. They 
 took their effect in putting a stop to the cultivation began 
 in King William's reign. No sooner were the Catholics 
 excluded from durable and profitable tenures, than they 
 commenced graziers, and laid aside agriculture; they 
 ceased from draining and enclosing their farms and build- 
 ing good houses, as occupations unsuited to the new part 
 assigned them in our national economy. They fell to 
 wasting the lands they were virtually forbid to cultivate, 
 the business of pasturage being compatible with such a 
 conduct, and requiring, also, little industry and less labor 
 in the management." 
 
 In the year 1723 the wretchedness of the people of 
 Ireland was so great, that the Duke of Grafton, in a 
 speech from the throne, recommended parliament to 
 take measures for relieving them. The distress, how- 
 ever, continued; and in a petition presented to the House 
 of Commons, in the same year, by the woollen manu- 
 facturers, they say that " the woollen manufacture of 
 this kingdom, which is confined to our own consumptioTi, 
 has of late been so considerably lessened that several 
 thousand families have been forced to beg alms and char- 
 ity of good Christians, and that a collection had lately 
 been made throughout the whole city to relieve them."t 
 
 * " Observations on the aflfairs of Ireland," by Lord Taffe, p. 4. 
 t " Coin. Jour.," vol. iii, p. 24. 
 
In the Reign of George III. t^zy 
 
 Primate Boulter, in a letter of the 25th of March, 1732, 
 to the Duke of Newcastle, bears testimony to this 
 wretched state of Ireland. He says : " Since I came here 
 in the year 1725, there was almost a famine amongst the 
 poor; last year the dearness of corn was such, that thou- 
 sands of families quitted their habitations to seek bread 
 elsewhere, and many hundreds perished."* 
 
 Again, on the 23d of November, 1728, he says, in 
 writing to the duke: " 1 am sorry I am obliged to give 
 your grace so melancholy an account of the state of the 
 kingdom as I shall in this letter.' 
 
 But one of the most pernicious effects of these penal 
 laws was the emigration of the principal Catholic fami- 
 lies to the continent. They carried with them what 
 would otherwise have been the materials of the civili- 
 zation, tranquillity and prosperity of their own country ; 
 they left the mass of the Catholic population without 
 the influence of men of education and property to direct 
 and control their conduct ; and in the place of serving 
 their own native land, they filled, with the highest credit 
 to themselves, the situation of statesmjen and generals 
 in those nations which virere hostile to the interests of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Of the visible effect these laws had produced in their 
 avowed objects of propagating the Protestant religion, 
 and promoting the national prosperity, it is impossible to 
 give a more able or a more accurate description than 
 the following, by Mr. Arthur Young, who was in Ire- 
 land at the period we now treat of: + 
 
 " While property lay exposed to the practices of power, 
 the great body of the people, who had been stripped of 
 their all, were more enraged than converted ; they 
 adhered to the persuasion of their forefathers, with the 
 steadiest and most determined zeal, while the priests, 
 actuated by the spirit of a thousand inducements, made 
 * Letters, p. 226. 1 1 778. 
 
528 Penal Laws 
 
 proselytes among the common Protestants, in defiance of 
 ever}' danger. And the great, glaring fact yet retrains, 
 and is even admitted by the virarmest advocates for the 
 laws of discovery, that the established religion has not 
 gained upon the Catholic in point of numbers ; on the 
 contrary, that the latter has been rather on the increase. 
 Public lists have been returned from the several dio- 
 ceses which confirm this fact, and the intelligence 1 re- 
 ceived on my journey spoke the same language. 
 
 " As it is the great body of the common people that 
 form the strength of a country when willing subjects, 
 and its weakness when ill-affected, this fact is a decision 
 of the question : after seventy years' undisturbed oper- 
 ation, the system adopted in Queen Anne's reign has 
 failed in this great aim, and meets at this day with a more 
 numerous and equally determined body of Catholics 
 than it had to oppose when first promulgated. Has not 
 the experience of every age and every nation proved 
 that the effect is invariable and universal? 
 
 " Let a religion be what it may, and under whatever 
 circumstances, no system of persecution ever yet had 
 any other effect than to confirm its professors in their 
 tenets, and spread their doctrines, instead of restraining 
 them. The great plea of the Roman Catholic priests, 
 and their merit with their congregations, are the dan- 
 gers they hazard and the persecutions they suffer for the 
 sake of their faith, — arguments that have and ever will 
 have weight, while human nature continues formed of 
 its present materials. 
 
 " But if these exertions of a succession of ignorant legis- 
 lators have failed continually in propagating the religion 
 of government, much more have they failed in the great 
 object of natural prosperity. The only considerable 
 manufacture in Ireland, which carries in all parts the 
 appearance of industry, is the linen ; and it ought never 
 to be forgotten that this is solely confined to the Protcs- 
 
Ih the Reign of George III. 529 
 
 tant parts of the kingdom. The poor Catholics in the 
 south of Ireland spin wool generally, but the purchase 
 of their labor, and the whole worsted trade, is in the 
 hands of the Quakers of Clonmel, Carrick, Bandon, etc. 
 The fact is, the professors of that religion are under 
 such discouragements that they cannot engage in any 
 trade which requires both industry and capital. If the}' 
 succeed and make a fortune, what are they to do with 
 .t ? They can neither buy land, nor take a mortgage, nor 
 even fine down the rent of a lease. Where is there a 
 people in the world to be found industrious under such 
 circumstances ? 
 
 " It is no superficial view I have taken of this matter 
 in Ireland ; and being at Dublin at the time a very 
 trifling part of these laws was agitated in parliament, I 
 attended the debate, with my mind open to conviction, 
 and an auditor for the mere purpose of information. I 
 have conversed on the subject with most distinguished 
 characters of the kingdom, and I cannot, after all, but de- 
 clare that the scope, purport, and aim of the laws of dis- 
 covery, as executed, are not against the Catholic religion, 
 which increases under them, but against the industry and 
 property of whosoever professes that religion. 
 
 " In vain has it been said that consequence and power 
 follow poverty, and that the attack is made in order to 
 wound the doctrine through its property. If such was 
 the intention, I reply, that seventy years' experience 
 proves the folly and futility of it. Those laws have 
 crushed all the industry and wrested most of the prop- 
 erty from the Catholics, but the religion triumphs: it 
 is thought to increase. Those who have handed about 
 calculations to prove a decrease, admit, on the face of 
 them, that it will require four thousand years to make 
 converts of the whole, supposing the work to go on 
 in future as it has in the past time. But the whole pre- 
 tence is an affront to common-sense, for it implies that 
 
530 Penal Laws 
 
 3'ou will lessen a religion by persecuting- it. All history 
 and experience condemn such a proposition. 
 
 " The system pursued in Ireland has had no other 
 tendency but that of driving out of the kingdom all the 
 personal wealth of the Catholics, and prohibiting their 
 industry within it. The face of the country, — every object, 
 in short, which presents itself to the eye of a traveller, 
 tells him how effectually this has been done. I urge it, 
 not as an argument — the whole kingdom speaks it as a fact. 
 We have seen that this conduct has not converted the 
 people to the religion of government, and instead of 
 adding to the internal security, it has endangered it. 
 If, therefore, it does not add to the national prosperity, 
 for what purpose but that of private tyranny could it 
 have been embraced and persisted in ? Mistaken ideas of 
 private interest account for the actions of individuals ; 
 but what could have influenced the British government 
 to permit a system which must inevitably prevent the 
 island from even becoming of the importance which nature 
 intended?"* 
 
 Of the state of the agriculture of Ireland at this period 
 a tolerably accurate idea may be formed from the words 
 of the same author : " I have reason to believe that five 
 pounds sterling per Enghsh acre, expended all over 
 Ireland, which amounts to ^88,341,136, would not more 
 than build, fence, plant, drain and improve that country, 
 to be upon a par, in those respects, with England." f 
 
 The prices also of the produce of land afford proof 
 of the general poverty of the kingdom. In 1778 butter 
 sold for S|d. per lb., mutton 2Sd., beef 2id., pork 2jd., 
 veal 3jd., a fat turkey for io|d., a goose for 8|d., and 
 a chicken for 2jd.f 
 
 From these several authorities upon the state of Ireland 
 in 1778, much information may be collected concermng 
 
 ' " Young's Tour," vol. ii, p. 135. English Ed. 
 
 t lb., A pp. Jib., 
 
In the Reign of George III. 531 
 
 the causes of many of those peculiar circumstances which, 
 at this day, belong to that country. If it be asked why 
 the people of Ireland are so illiterate, the answer that 
 presents itself is : Look to the penal laws that deprived 
 them, till a late period, of education. If it be asked whv 
 they are poor, the same answer must be given : Look to 
 the penal laws. If it be asked why the lower orders eal 
 vegetables only, and live in hovels, still the same answer : 
 Look to the penal laws. If it be asked why there is no 
 class of yeomanry in Ireland like that in England, the 
 answer is : Because the penal laws prohibited industry, 
 and prevented the small land-owner from acquiring 
 either property or consequence in the one country, as he 
 might do in the other. If it be asked why the people 
 are discontented, and dislike England, this answer alone 
 can be given : Because from England they received 
 this penal code, under which they have endured, for 
 above a century, every species of calamity, contrary to 
 the positive stipulations of a sacred and solemn treaty. 
 
 It was in the year 1774 that the Irish legislature passed 
 the first act toward conciliating the Catholics : " An act 
 to enable his majesty's subjects, of whatever persuasion, 
 to testify their allegiance to him,"* which is as follovirs : — 
 
 " Whereas many of his majesty's subjects in this king- 
 dom are desirous to testify their loyalty and allegiance 
 to his majesty, and their abhorrence of certain doctrines 
 imputed to them, and to remove jealousies which hereby 
 have for a length of time subsisted between them and 
 others of his majesty's loyal subjects ; but upon account of 
 their religious tenets are, by the laws now in being, pre- 
 vented from giving public assurances of such allegiance, 
 and of their real principles, and good-will and affection 
 toward their fellow-subjects: in order, therefore, to give 
 such persons an opportunity of testifying their allegiance 
 to his majesty, and good-will toward the present constitu- 
 
 • 13 and 14 George III, c. 35. 
 
532 Penal Laws 
 
 tion of this kingdom, and to promote peace and industrj 
 amongst the inhabitants thereof, be it enacted by the 
 king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice 
 and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and 
 commons, in this present p irliament assembled, and by 
 the authority of the same, that, from and after the 
 first day of June, 1774, it shall and may be lawful for 
 any person professing the Popish religion to go before 
 the judges of his majesty's Court of King's Bench, any 
 justice of the peace for the county in which he does or 
 shall reside, or before any magistrate of any city or town 
 corporate wherein he does or shall reside, and there take 
 and subscribe the oath of allegiance and declaration here- 
 inafter mentioned, which oath and declaration such judges 
 of the King's Bench, justices of the peace and mag-istrates, 
 are hereby enabled and required to administer :- 
 
 " ' I, A. B., do take Almighty God and His only Son, 
 Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, to witness that I will be 
 faithful and bear true allegiance to our most gracious 
 sovereign lord, King George III, and him will defend 
 to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies and 
 attempts whatever, that shall be made against his 
 person, crown and dignity ; and I will do my utmost 
 endeavor to disclose and make known to his majesty and 
 his heirs all treasons and traitorous conspiracies which 
 may be formed against him or them ; and I do faithfully 
 promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost 
 of my power, the succession of the crown in his majesty's 
 family against any person or persons whatsoever, here- 
 by utteny renouncing and abjuring any obedience or 
 allegiance unto the person taking upon himself the style 
 and title of Prince of Wales, in the lifetime of his father, 
 and who, smce his death, is said to have assumed the 
 style and title of King of Great Britain and Ireland by 
 the name of Charles III, and to any other person claiming 
 01 pretending a right to the crown of these realms ; and 
 
In the Reign of George III. 533 
 
 I do swear that I do reject and detest as unchristian 
 and impious to believe that it is lawful to murder or de- 
 stroy any person or persons whatsoever, for or under 
 pretence of their being heretics, and also that unchris- 
 tian and impious principle, that no faith is to be kept with 
 heretics. I further declare that it is no article of my 
 faith, and that I do renounce, reject, and abjure, the 
 opinion that princes excommunicated by the pope and 
 council, or by any authority of the See of Rome, or by 
 any authority whatsoever, may be deposed and murdered 
 by their subjects, or by any person whatsoever ; and I 
 do promise that I will not hold, maintain, or abet any 
 such opinion, or any other opinion contrary to what is 
 expressed in this declaration ; and I do declare that I do 
 not believe that the Pope of Rome, or any other foreign 
 prince, prelate, state, or potentate, hath or ought to have 
 any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or 
 preeminence, directl}'^ or indirectly, within this realm; 
 and I do solemnly, in the presence of God, and His only 
 Son, Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, profess, testify, and 
 declare that I do make this declaration, and every part 
 thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words of 
 this oath, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental 
 reservation whatsoever, and without any dispensation 
 already granted by the pope, or any authority of the 
 See of Rome, or any person whatever, and without 
 thinking that [ am or can be acquitted before God or 
 man, or absolved of this declaration, or any part thereof, 
 although the pope, or any other person or persons, 
 or authority whatsoever, shall dispense with or annul 
 the same, or declare that it was null and void from tho 
 beginning. So help me God.' * 
 
 " And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the 
 officers of the Court of King's Bench, justices of peace 
 and magistrates of the cities and towns corporate, shall 
 yearly, within twenty-one days after the istof December, 
 
Penal Laivs 
 
 return to the clerk of the Privy Council of tuis kingdom, 
 or his deputy, a true and perfect list, under his or their 
 hand, of every such Papist as shall, in the course of the 
 preceding year, have taken and subscribed such oath, in 
 which list the quahty, condition, title, and place of such 
 Papist shall be specified." 
 
 About the same time, fearing that their grievances were 
 not known to his majesty, the Catholics prepared a 
 petition, which was presented to Lord Buckinghamshire 
 by Lord Fingal, Mr. Preston, and Mr. Dermot, in order 
 that it might be transmitted by him to the king: — 
 
 " To THE King's Most Excellent Majesty, the 
 
 HUMBLE .address AND PETITION OF THE ROMAN 
 
 Catholics of Ireland : 
 " Most Gracious Sovereign : — 
 
 We, your majesty's most dutiful subjects, the Roman 
 Catholics of your kingdom of Ireland, with hearts full 
 of loyalty, but overwhelmed with affliction, and de- 
 pressed by our calamitous and ruined circumstances, beg 
 leave to lay at your majesty's feet some small part of 
 those numerous and insupportable grievances under 
 which we have long groaned, not only without any act 
 of disobedience, but even without murmur or complaint, 
 in hopes that our inviolable submission and unaltered 
 patience und,er those severe pressures would fully con- 
 fute the accusation of seditious principles, with which we 
 have been unfortunately and unjustly charged. 
 
 " We are deeply sensible of your majesty's clemency in 
 moderating the rigorous execution of some of the laws 
 against us, but we humbly beg leave to represent that 
 several, and those the most severe and distressing of 
 those laws, execute themselves with the most fatal 
 certainty, and that your majesty's clemency cannot, in 
 the smallest degree, interpose for their mitigation ; other- 
 wise your Roman Catholic subjects would most cheei 
 
..ri the Reign of George III. 535 
 
 fully acquiesce in that resource, and rest with an absolute 
 and unbounded assurance on your majesty's princely 
 generosity, and your pious regard to the rights of pri\ate 
 conscience. 
 
 " We are, may it please your majesty, a numerous and 
 very industrious part of 3'our majesty's subjects ; and 3-et 
 by no industry, by no honest endeavors on our part, is it 
 in our power to acquire or to hold almost any secure or 
 permanent property whatsoever. We are not only dis- 
 qualified to purchase, but are disabled from occupying any 
 land, even in farm, except on a tenure extreme!}' scanted 
 both in profit and in time; and if we should venture to 
 expend anything on the melioration of land thus held, by 
 building, by enclosure, by draining, or by any other species 
 of improvement so very necessary in this country, so far 
 would our services be from bettering our fortunes, that 
 these are precisely the very circumstances which, as the 
 law stands, must necessarily disqualify us from continuing 
 those farms for any time in our possession. 
 
 " Whilst the endeavors of our industry are thus dis- 
 couraged, — no less, we humbly apprehend, to the detri- 
 ment of the national prosperity, and the diminution of your 
 majesty's revenue, and to our particular ruin, — there are 
 a set of men who, instead of exercising any honest 
 occupation in the commonwealth, make it their employ- 
 ment to pry into our miserable poverty, to drag us into 
 the courts, and to compel us to confess, on our oaths, 
 and under the penalties of perjury, whether we have, in 
 any instance, acquired a property in the smallest degree 
 exceeding what the rigor of the law has admitted ; and 
 in such cases the informers, without any other merit than 
 that of their discovery, are invested, to the daily ruin of 
 several innocent, industrious families, not only with the 
 surplus in which the law is exceeded, but in the whole 
 body of the estate and interest so discovered ; and it is 
 our grief that this evil is likely to continue and increase. 
 
536 Penal Laws 
 
 as informers have, in this countr}', almost worn off the 
 infamy which, in all a.sjes and in all other countries, has 
 attended their character, and have grown into some 
 rejmte by the frequency and success of their practices. 
 
 "And this, most gracious sovereign, though extremely 
 grievous, is far from being the onl}' or most oppressive 
 particular in which our distress is connected with the 
 breach of the rules of honor and morality. By tlie 
 laws now in force in this kingdom, a son, however un- 
 dutiful or profligate, shall, merely by the merit of con- 
 forming to the established religion, not only deprive the 
 Roman Catholic father of that free and full possession of 
 his estate, that power to mortgage or otherwise dis- 
 pose of it which the exigencies of his affairs may require, 
 but shall himself have full liberty immediately to mort- 
 gage or otherwise alienate the reversion of that estate 
 from his family forever: a regulation by which a father, 
 contrary to the order of nature, is put under the power 
 of his son, and through which an early dissoluteness is 
 not only suffered, but encouraged, by giving a pernicious 
 privilege, the frequent use of which has broken the hearts 
 of many deserving parents, and entailed poverty and de- 
 spair on some of the most ancient and opulent families in 
 this kingdom. 
 
 " Even when the parent has the good fortune to escape 
 this calamity in his lifetime, 3-et he has, at his death, the 
 melancholy and almost certain prospect of leaving neither 
 peace nor fortune to his children ; for, by that law, which 
 bestows the whole fortune on the first ' conformist, or, 
 on non-conformity, disperses it among the children, in- 
 curable jealousies and animosities have arisen, a total 
 extinction of principle and of a natural benevolence has 
 ensued, whilst we are obliged to consider our own off- 
 spring and the brothers of our own blood as our most 
 dangerous enemies; the blessing of Providence on our 
 famihes, in a numerous issue, is converted into the most 
 
In the Reign of George III. t^^^-j 
 
 certain means of their niin and depravation ; we are, 
 most gracious sovereign, permitted neither to enjoy the 
 few broken remains of our patrimonial inheritance, nor 
 by our industry to acquire any secure establishment to 
 our families. 
 
 " In this deplorable situation let it not be considered, 
 we earnestly beseech your majesty, as an instance of 
 presumption or discontent, that we thus adventure to lay 
 open to your majesty's mercy a very small part of our 
 uncommon sufferings: what we have concealed under a 
 respectful silence would form a far longer and full as 
 melancholy a recital. We speak with reluctance, though 
 we feel with anguish ; we respect from the bottom of our 
 hearts that legislation under which we suffer, but we 
 humbly conceive it is impossible to procure redress with- 
 out complaint, or to make a complaint that by some 
 construction may not appear to convey blame. And noth- 
 ing, we assure your majesty, should have extorted from us 
 even these complaints but the strong necessity v.-e find 
 ourselves under, of employing every lawful, humble en 
 deavor, lest the whole purpose of our lives and labors 
 should prove only the means of confirming to ourselves, 
 and entailing on our posterity, inevitable beggary and the 
 most abject servitude, — a servitude the more intolerable 
 as it is suffered amidst that liberty, that peace, and that 
 security, which, under your majesty's benign influence, 
 is spread all around us, and which we alone, of all your 
 majesty's subjects, are rendered incapable of partaking. 
 
 " In all humility we implore that our principles may 
 not be estimated by the inflamed' charge of controversial 
 writers, no'r our practices measured by the events of 
 those troubled periods when parties have run high 
 (though these have been often misrepresented, and always 
 cruelly exaggerated to our prejudice), L"at that we may 
 be judged by our own actions, and in c ir own times. 
 And we humbly offer it to your most equitable and 
 
SjS Penal Laivs 
 
 princel}' consideration, that we do not rest the proof of 
 our sincerity on words, but on things: on our dutiful, 
 peaceable, submissive behavior for more than fourscore 
 years ; and though it will be considered as too severe to 
 form any opinion of great bodies by the practice of 
 indiviuals, yet if, in all that time, amongst all our people, 
 in the daily increase of severe laws against us, one treasonable 
 insurrection, or one treasonable conspiracy can be proved, if, 
 amongst our clergy, one seditious sermon can be shown to have 
 been preached, we will readily admit that there is good 
 reason for continuing the present laws in all their force 
 against us. But if, on the contrary (we speak in full 
 confidence), it can be shown that our clergy have ever 
 exerted their utmost endeavors to enforce submission to 
 your majesty's government, and obedience to your laws ; 
 if it can be shown that these endeavors have always 
 been most strenuous in times of public danger, or when 
 any accident tended to create a ferment amongst the 
 people ; if our laity have frequently offered (what we are 
 always ready to fulfil) to hazard their lives and fortunes 
 for your majesty's service; if we have willingly bound 
 up the fruits of our discouraged industry with the for- 
 tunes of your majesty's government in the public loans, 
 then we humbly hope we may be admitted to a small 
 portion of mercy, and that that behavior, which your 
 majesty's benignity and condescension will esteem a merit 
 in our circumstances, may entitle us, not to reward, but 
 to such toleration as may enable us to become useful 
 citizens to our country, and subjects as profitable as we 
 are loyal to your majesty. 
 
 " Permit us, most gracious sovereign, on this occasion 
 to reiterate the assurances of our unshaken loyalty, 
 which all our sufferings have not been able to abate; of 
 our sincere zeal for your majesty's service, of our 
 attachment to the constitution of our country, and of our 
 warmest gratitude for your majesty's continual indul- 
 
In the Reign of George III. 539 
 
 gence, and for the late instance of favor we have experi- 
 enced from parliament, in enabling us, consistent with 
 our religious tenets, to give a legal proof of our sentiments 
 upon these points. And we humbly hope that the 
 alacrity and eagerness with which we have seized this 
 first, though long-wished-for opportunity of testifying in 
 the most solemn and public manner our inviolable 
 fidelity to your majesty, our real principles, and our good- 
 w'ill and affection toward our fellow-subjects, will 
 extinguish all jealousies, and remove those imputations 
 which alone have hitherto held us forth in the light of 
 enemies to your majesty and to the state. And if any- 
 thing further can be suggested or devised, whereby we 
 can, by our actions, more fully evince our sincerity, we 
 shall consider such an opportunity of demonstrating 
 our real loyalty as a high favor, and shall be deficient 
 in no act whatever which does not amount to a renun- 
 ciation of that religious profession which we value more 
 than our lives, and which it cannot be suspected we hold 
 from obstinacy or a contempt of the laws, since it has 
 been taken up by ourselves, but has, from time imme- 
 morial, been handed down to us from our ancestors. 
 
 " We derive no small consolation, most gracious sover 
 eign, from considering that the most severe and rigor- 
 ous of the laws against us had been enacted before the 
 accession of your majesty's most illustrious house to 
 the throne of these kingdoms ; we, therefore, indulge the 
 more sanguine hopes that the mitigation of them, and 
 the establishment of peace, industry, and universal hap- 
 piness amongst all your loyal subjects, may be one of 
 the blessings of your majesty's reign. 
 
 " And though we might plead in favor of such relaxa- 
 tion, the express words of a solemn treaty, entered into 
 with us by your majesty's royal predecessor, King Wil- 
 liam (which has been forfeited by no disobedience on our 
 part), yet we neither wish nor desire to receive anything 
 
540 Penal Laws 
 
 but as a mere act of your majest3''s clemency, and of the 
 indulgence and equit}' of your parliament. 
 
 "That this act of truly loyal beneficence and justice may 
 be added to the other instances of your majesty's august 
 virtues, and that the deliverance of a faithful and dis- 
 tressed people may be one of those distinguishing acts of 
 your reign, which shall transmit its memory to the love, 
 gratitude and veneration of your latest posterit}', is the 
 humble prayer of," * etc., etc. 
 
 In the year I778,t an act was passed " for the relief of 
 his majesty's subjects of this kingdom professing the 
 Popish religion," the preamble of which contains a con- 
 firmation of everything that has been already advanced 
 concerning the loj'^alty of the Catholics, and a declara- 
 tion on the part of the king and parliament respecting 
 the policy of admitting the Catholics into a full partici- 
 pation of the blessings of the constitution, which is a 
 complete recognition of their right to enjoy them. It 
 states : " And whereas, from their uniform peaceable 
 behavior for a long series of years, it appears reasonable 
 and expedient to relax the same [the laws of Anne], and 
 it must tend not only to the cultivation and improvement 
 of this kingdom, but to the prosperity and strength of ali 
 his majesty's dominions, that his subjects of all denomina- 
 tions should enjoy the blessings of a free constitution, 
 and should be bound to each other by mutual interest 
 and mutual affection," etc. 
 
 By this act, Papists, provided they take the oath and 
 declaration of 13 and 14 George III, c. 35, are admitted 
 to the following privileges : — 
 
 They may take land on leases not exceeding nine hun- 
 dred and ninety-nine years, or determinable upon any 
 number of lives not exceeding five. 
 
 * This petition is from the pen of Ml:. Burke. 
 1 17 and 18 George III, c. 49. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 541 
 
 The lands of Papists are to be descendible, devisable, 
 and transferable, as fully as if the same were in the 
 seizure of an}' other of his majesty's subjects. 
 
 Papists are rendered capable to hold and enjoy all 
 estates which may descend, be devised or transferred to 
 them. 
 
 No maintenance is to be hereafter granted to a con- 
 forming child of a Papist out of the personal property 
 of such Papist, except out of such leases as may be 
 taken under this act. 
 
 And the conformity of the eldest son is not to alter, 
 hereafter, the Popish parent's estate. 
 
 In the year 1782 another act was passed "for the 
 further relief of his majesty's subjects of this kingdom 
 professing the Popish religion."* 
 
 The preamble of this act: "Whereas all such of his 
 majesty's subjects in this kingdom, of whatever per- 
 suasion, as have heretofore taken and subscribed, or shall 
 hereafter take and subscribe, the oath of allegiance and 
 declaration prescribed by an act passed in the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth years of his present majesty's reign, entitled 
 ' An act to enable his majesty's subjects, of whatever per- 
 suasion, to testify their allegiance to him,' ought to be 
 considered as good and loyal subjects to his majesty, 
 his crown and government: and whereas a continuance 
 of several of the laws formerly enacted, and still in force 
 in this kingdom, against persons professitig the Popish 
 religion, is therefore unnecessary in respect to those 
 who have taken or shall take the said oath, and is in- 
 jurious to the real wealth and prosperity of Ireland, 
 therefore," etc. 
 
 By this act. Catholics, provided they take this oath, 
 may purchase or take lands, or any interest therein, ex- 
 cept advowsons or boroughs, returning members of parlia- 
 ment, and dispose of the same by will or otherwise ; and 
 
 * 21 and 22 George III, c. 24. 
 
542 Penal Laws 
 
 Popish ecclesiastics, on the same condition, and regis- 
 tering their names and abode with the register of the 
 diocese, are discharged from all penalties. 
 
 This act repeals so much of 8 Anne as subjects a 
 Papist to fine and imprisonment on his refusal to testify 
 on oath, before two justices of the peace, when and where 
 he heard the Popish Mass celebrated, and the name of the 
 person celebrating it; and so much of 7 William III, c. 
 5, as subjects any Papist, who shall have in his possession 
 any horse of the value of ;^5 or more, to the penalties 
 therein mentioned ; and so much of 8 Anne as enables 
 the lord-lieutenant to seize any horse belonging to a 
 Papist, upon a prospect of invasion or rebellion. It also 
 repeals so much of 9 George II, c. 6, as enables grand 
 juries to reimburse such persons as have been robbed by 
 privateers in time of war for their losses, and to levy 
 the same on the goods of Papists only ; and so much of 
 6 George I, c. 10, as subjects Papists who shall not 
 provide a Protestant watchman to watch in their turn, to 
 certain penalties ; and so much of 2 Anne, c. 6, as sub- 
 jects Papists who took any house, or came to dwell in 
 Limerick after the year 1703, or within the town of 
 Galway, to certain penalties. 
 
 In the same year was likewise passed an act to allow 
 persons professing the Popish religion to teach school 
 in this kingdom, and for regulating the education of 
 Papists, and also to repeal parts of certain laws relative 
 to the guardianship of their children.* 
 
 The preamble states : " Whereas several of the laws 
 made in this kingdom relative to the education of 
 Papists, or persons professing the Popish religion, are 
 considered as too severe, and have not answered the 
 desired effect." 
 
 This act repeats so much of 7 William III, c. 4, and 
 of 8 Anne, c. 3, as subjects Catholics who shall publicly 
 * 21 and 22 George III, c. 62. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 54.3 
 
 teach school, or privately instruct youths, to the like 
 penalties as any Popish regular convict, provided they 
 take the oaths of 13 and 14 George III, c. 35 ; and it 
 enables Catholics, except ecclesiastics, to be guardians. 
 
 Of the numerous individuals who at this time distin- 
 guished themselves for their exertions in favor of Cath- 
 olics, there was no one to whom they were under greater 
 obUgations than to the late Mik Burke. He wrote for 
 them the petition which was presented to the king in 
 1774. In the English House of Commons, in 1778, he was 
 the first to declare the necessity of concessions being 
 made to them. He said that " Ireland was now the 
 chief dependence of the British crown, and it particu- 
 larly behoved that country to admit the Irish nation 
 to the privileges of British citizens;" * and in the year 
 1782 he wrote his celebrated letter to Lord Kenmare, 
 in which he so ably exposed the folly, injustice, and 
 tyranny of the penal laws. 
 
 It certainly is a fact of no small importance in favor of 
 the wisdom of unlimited concession to the Catholics, that 
 this great statesman, the advocate of existing establish- 
 ments, and who was the first and most formidable 
 opponent to the progress of the Jacobinical principles of 
 France, should have advised it, and incessantly forwarded 
 it by his powerful talents and extensive influence. 
 
 But the Catholics were indebted, not only to the 
 labors of their friends, but also to the great revolution 
 which was going on at that period in America, for the 
 success of the first concessions that were made to them. 
 This soon appeared very evident. An attempt was made 
 by Mr. James Fitzgerald, a few months before the intro- 
 duction of the act of 17 and 18 George III, to obtain 
 for them a power to take leases of lands for sixty-one 
 years: and this attempt failed. But soon afterward, 
 when the intelligence arrived of the defeat of the British 
 
 • 8 Eng. Deb. 9, 185, 1st April, 1778. 
 
544 Penal Laws 
 
 forces in America, the same parliament, on the recom- 
 mendation of the government, passed an act for enabling 
 them to take land on leases for nine hundred and ninety- 
 nine years. 
 
 It was not, however, till the British government were 
 obliged to transport the whole of the British army from 
 Ireland to America, and thus leave it exposed to the in- 
 vasion of France, that the Catholics became of sufficient 
 importance, in the eyes either of their own Protestant 
 countrymen or of the British government, to be attended 
 to and caressed by them. 
 
 The only alternative, then, left for the Protestants to 
 adopt was, either to promote a union of sects in the com- 
 mon defence of the kingdom, or to make up their minds 
 to fall an easy prey to the arms of France. Upon this 
 principle of preservation, by an oblivion of all past ani- 
 mosities, the volunteers were embodied, and composed 
 indiscriminately of Catholics and Protestants. But, in 
 proportion as the danger of invasion diminished, they 
 naturally turned their attention to the grievances that 
 both sects experienced at the hands of the British govern- 
 ment, and soon became an armed association for the 
 attainment of political rights. * 
 
 In this appeal to arms, in open resistance to the power 
 of Great Britain, for the purpose of compelling her to 
 grant to Ireland the independence of her legislature, 
 and a reform of her parliament, the Protestants took 
 the lead. But the contention between them and the 
 British government was not one of arms, because Great 
 
 * " In the year 1782, when the treasury hart no supply, but was, in fact, bank- 
 rupt, when a French fleet appeared off Cork, when the army was only 4,000 
 men, and unprovided, it was evidently owing to the wealth of the Roman 
 Catholics that the country was put into a posture of defence, and saved from 
 " the invasion of the enemy; whereas, had they been disposed to be disloyal 
 upon that occasion, and to have made use of that power which they actually 
 possessed, they might have completely separated Ireland from the government 
 of this country." — Speech of Lord Buckingham, June 22, 1808. 
 
In tlie Reigii of George TIL 545 
 
 Britain had no troops with which to dispute with the 
 Volunteers, but one of political manoeuvring. It was 
 plain that, to whichever party the Catholics attached 
 themselves, victory would belong. The government, 
 therefore, in order to secure them, passed the acts of 
 1778 and 1782, while the Protestants, on the other hand, 
 endeavored to conciliate them by public resolutions and 
 declarations in favor of their complete emancipation. 
 
 The Dungannon Conx'^ntion, which met in February', 
 1782, and was composed' of the representatives of one 
 iiundred and forty-three Protestant corps of volunteers, 
 resolved, with two dissenting voices only : " That they 
 held the right of private judgment, in matters of religion, 
 to be equally sacred in others as themselves ; therefore, 
 that, as Christians and Protestants, they were rejoiced in 
 the relaxation of the penal laws against their Roman 
 Catholic fellow-subjects, and that they conceived the 
 measure to be fraught with the happiest consequences to 
 the union and prosperity of Ireland." 
 
 These liberal declarations on the part of this meeting, 
 and the general tenor of the conduct of the Protestants 
 throughout Ireland toward the Catholics, secured their 
 cordial concurrence ; and the British government were 
 at length reluctantl}"^ obliged to concede the favorite 
 object of an independent Irish legislature. 
 
 The Protestants now proceeded to attempt to carry 
 their other great object, a parliamentary reform ; and after 
 the sense of the kingdom had been expressed, at various 
 public meetings, to be decidedly in favor of it, they deter- 
 mined to hold a convention in Dublin for the purpose of 
 impressing upon government and parliament the neces- 
 sity of acceding to their demands. In the meantime a 
 division of opinion had manifested itself among some 
 of the Northern corps of volunteers on the Catholic 
 question, and Lord Charlemont and other persons had 
 declared themselves hostile to further concessions. This 
 
54^ Penal Laws 
 
 circumstance afforded the government an easy oppor- 
 tunity of defeating the object of the convention. They 
 contrived to have a motion made for connecting the 
 emancipation of the Catholics writh the question of par- 
 liamentary reform ; and upon its being rejected by the 
 convention, knowing that its power was not to be 
 dreaded, if unsupported by the Catholic population, they 
 despised its threats, and by a manly opposition to their 
 demands, they secured their dispersion without tumult, 
 and certainly without the regret of the advocates of 
 such a reform in parliament as the general circumstances 
 of the countrj' absolutely required. 
 
 From this period to the year 1790 the Catholic ques- 
 tion was not once agitated, either by the Catholics or by 
 parliament. In this year the attorney-general brought 
 in a bill to explain and amend the act of 22 George III, 
 c. 62. 
 
 The intention of this act was to give to Catholics the 
 power of appointing guardians to their children ; but it 
 was so carelessly drawn that, upon consulting it in the 
 case of the will of the late Lord Gormanstown, bv which 
 he had appointed guardians to his son, it was discovered 
 that they were not competent to act. The present bill 
 was therefore introduced to remedy this defect. 
 
 A circumstance which took place this summer shows 
 that this act of common justice was not in any degree 
 the result of an inclination on the part of the govern- 
 ment to treat the Catholics with more than customary 
 liberality. Lord Westmoreland, then lord-lieutenant, 
 had visited the south of Ireland, and, on his arrival at 
 Cork, it was intimated to the Catholics there that an 
 expression of their loyalty would be acceptable. Accord- 
 ingly an address of that nature was prepared, which, 
 however, concluded ^N\\h a hope that their loyalty would 
 entitle them to some relaxation of the penal code. 
 Before its being formally presented, it was submitted to 
 
In the Reign of George III. 547 
 
 his excellenc}', and was returned to them to strike out 
 the clause which expressed hope. With a feehng rather 
 natural to men not perfectly broken down by oppression, 
 they refused to strike it out, and declined presenting the 
 address. 
 
 A century of pains and penalties had now elapsed, in 
 which period the most severe and minute investigation 
 had not been able to ascribe to the Catholics one instance 
 of disloyalty, when they at length determined to make 
 a vigorous exertion to obtain a restoration of their con- 
 stitutional rights. In the course of the year 1790, violent 
 resolutions had been entered into by the magistrates of 
 the county of Armagh against them. Those of Dublin, 
 and of the other principal cities and towns of Ireland, 
 were, in consequence, roused to adopt resolutions on their 
 part, expressive of the necessity of petitioning parlia- 
 ment. These had been transmitted to the general com- 
 mittee of Catholics, who, thereupon, hold a meeting to 
 consider them, on the nth February, 1791. The general 
 committee referred these resolutions to a sub-committee, 
 who made upon them the following report: — 
 
 " Your committee having, in obedience to your direc- 
 tions, carefully perused the resolutions of the Catholics 
 of Ireland, report that said resolutions contain the most 
 unequivocal sentiments of loyalty to our most gracious 
 sovereign, George III, of love for our country, and 
 obedience to its laws, and the most humble hope of 
 being restored to some participation of its excellent 
 constitution. 
 
 " That your Catholic brethren refer, with confidence, 
 to the numberless proofs they have given of fidelity, in 
 times most perilous, when rebellion raged in the bosom 
 of Britain, and when foreign invasion threatened our 
 coast, and to that alacrity with which all descriptions of 
 our people took the oath of allegiance ; and they rely on 
 the fact that their scrupulous observance of such r^acred 
 
548 Penal Laws 
 
 obligation will nowhere be doubted, when it is considered 
 that, if they took those oaths required by law, they would 
 thereby become entitled to all the rights of citizens. 
 
 " That with all humility they confide in the justice, 
 liberality and wisdom of parliament, and the benignity 
 of our most gracious sovereign, to relieve them from their 
 degraded situation, and no longer to suffer them to con- 
 tinue like strangers in their native land, but thus have 
 the glory of showing all Europe that, in the plenitude 
 of power, strength, and riches of the British empire, 
 when nothing they grant can be imputed to any motives 
 but those of justice and toleration, — that at such a period 
 they deign to hear and relieve the oppressed and faith- 
 ful subjects, and to unite them forever to their country 
 by every tie of gratitude and interest; and that they 
 will show all Europe that humble and peaceful conduct 
 and dutiful application are the only true and effectual 
 methods for good subjects to obtain relief from a wise 
 and good government. 
 
 " That our Catholic brethren, therefore, desire that 
 application may be made for such relief as the wisdom 
 and justice of parliament may grant ; and they hope to 
 be restored at least to some of the rights and privileges 
 which have been wisely granted to others who dissent 
 from the Established Church, that they may be thus 
 enabled to promote, in conjunction with the rest of their 
 fellow-subjects, the present and future happiness and 
 strength of their country. 
 
 "That our said Catholic brethren direct that such 
 application be immediately made and continued in the 
 most submissive and constitutional manner for a mitiga- 
 tion of the restrictions and disqualifications under which 
 they labor." 
 
 The general committee having agreed with and 
 adopted this report, a petition was prepared, in order to 
 be laid before parliament in the ensuing session. 
 
In the Reign of George III. t^q 
 
 With this petition a deputation of the general com- 
 mittee waited upon the chief secretary, Lord Hobart, to 
 solicit the countenance and protection of government: 
 but in vain. This was not only refused them, but the 
 Catholics of Ireland, constituting, at the lowest calcula- 
 tion, a very large majority of the inhabitants of the 
 kingdom, had not even sufficient influence to induce any 
 one member of parliament to present it. 
 
 A second deputation having failed to obtain even an 
 answer from government to a renewed application for 
 Its support, it was determined to send Mr. Keogh to 
 London, to lay before his majesty's ministers the state of 
 his Cathohc subjects. 
 
 Mr. Keogh, on his arrival in London, instituted a nego- 
 tiation with Mr. Pitt and the cabinet, at the close of 
 which the Catholics were given to understand that they 
 might hope for four objects : grand juries, county magis- 
 trates, high sheriffs, and the bar. Admission to the right 
 of suffrage was also mentioned and taken under consid- 
 eration. 
 
 The spirit of religious liberty having, at this time, 
 made great progress among the Protestant dissenters in 
 Ulster, the first Belfast volunteer company, in July, 1791, 
 passed a resolution in favor of admitting the Catholics 
 to a full enjoyment of the constitution ; and in October 
 the great Northern Association of United Irishmen* 
 pledged themselves " to endeavor, by all due means, to 
 procure a complete and radical reform of the people in 
 parliament, including Irishmen of every religious per- 
 suasion." 
 
 In the meantime, whilst Mr. Keogh was in London, the 
 Irish administration had been endeavoring to counteract' 
 the views of the Catholic body, by a negotiation with 
 the principal nobility and gentry belonging to it ; and in 
 
 ' It was not till 1794 that a new society under this name embarked m an 
 attempt ta separate Great Britain from Ireland. 
 
-CQ Penal Laws 
 
 some degree their exertions were successful. For, at a 
 meeting of the general committee, held in December, 
 1791, for the purpose of consideriag the policy of petition- 
 ing parliament in the ensuing session, some of the meet- 
 ing wished to adopt a resolution of seeking no removal 
 of the existing disabilities but in such a manner and to 
 such an extent as the wisdom of the legislature deemed 
 expedient. This was resisted by others, and on a division 
 upon the question of petitioning, the nobility were left in 
 a minority of ninety to seventeen. 
 
 Pursuant to this decision, the following petition was 
 drawn up, and introduced into the House of Commons 
 by Mr. O'Hara, on the 28th January, 1792: — 
 
 " We, your petitioners, being appointed, by sundry ot 
 his majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic 
 religion, to be agents for conducting applications to the 
 legislature for their relief, in our own and their names 
 beg leave to approach this high court of parliament 
 with an unfeigned respect for its wisdom and authority, 
 and at the same time with a deep and heartfelt sensation 
 of our singular and deplorable situation. And, first of 
 all, we implore (and for this we throw ourselves on the 
 indulgence of parliament) that no irregularity or defect 
 in form of language should obstruct the success of these 
 our most ardent supplications. The circumstances in 
 which we stand deserve consideration. For near a hun- 
 dred years we, and our fathers and our grandfathers, have 
 groaned under a code of laws (in some parts already 
 purged from the statutes), the like of which no age, 
 no nation, no climate, ever saw. Yet sore, as it were, 
 from the stourge of active persecution, scarce yet con- 
 firmed in our minds, and but lately secure in our persons 
 and in our houses from the daily alarms of search-war- 
 rants and informers, we come before parliament for the 
 first time, and we come to ask alleviation of burdens under 
 which we can find consolation only in the melancholy 
 
In tlie Reign of George III. 551 
 
 comparison of former times. In this state of recent 
 apprehension and troubled, anxious hope, with minds un- 
 adapted to the precise observances of decorum, we rest 
 upon the simple merits of our case. It is a part of our 
 calamities that we do not know how to tell them with 
 propriety; and if our complaints should deviate into 
 remonstrance, and we should seem to upbraid when we 
 mean to supplicate, we trust a due allowance will be 
 made for expressions extorted by our anguish, or pro 
 ceeding from an inevitable ignorance of form. Excluded 
 from the constitution in all its parts, and, in many 
 respects, aliens to the law, how should we have learned 
 the forms of parliament? 
 
 "The hardships we suffer proceed from the law ; it is, 
 therefore, only to the fountain of the law that we can look 
 for relief. You are the great council of our sovereign lord 
 the king ; but you are also subjects like ourselves. The 
 bar of majesty, by the law of the land and by the benignit}' 
 of that sovereign whom it is your glory to imitate, is 
 ever open to the petitions of his people. As far as we are 
 able to discern the great outlines of a constitution which 
 we know only in speculation, we conceive that it is the 
 boast of the constitution of these kingdoms to have asso- 
 ciated a portion of the people into the sovereign power, in 
 order that, not dazzled by the awe of supreme majesty, 
 the subject may find a happy mediatorial institution, an 
 asylum wherein to deposit the burden of his grief, to ex- 
 pose the nakedness of his oppressions, and indulge com- 
 plaint even to exaggeration. There were, indeed, those 
 who would have made .us believe that parliament was only 
 to be approached with circumspect and timid steps, at 
 most, in general terms ; and that, wrapped in proud and 
 inexorable slate, you would consider a specification of 
 the wants of the people as an insult, and a reason for not 
 supplying them. But we knew it could not be ; we knew 
 that no senate, no king, no tyrant, had ever professed to 
 
552 Penal Laws 
 
 turn his ear from detailed supplication. The majesty of 
 God Himself is willing to receive and demands the in- 
 cense' of particular prayer: and shall we, who speak 
 from man to man, from subject to subject, not dare to 
 specify the measure and extent of our crying necessities? 
 
 " Despising that base and hypocritical affectation, we 
 are sure it is far more congenial to the nature and to 
 the temper of parliament, with a firm and generous con- 
 ridence to say, as we say : Here is the evil, there is the 
 remedy ; to you we look for relief. 
 
 " Behold us, then, before you, three millions of the 
 people of Ireland, subjects of the same king, inhabitants 
 of the same land, bound together by the same social con- 
 tract, contributing to the same revenues, defended by the 
 same armies, declared by the authentic words of an act of 
 parliament to be good and loyal subjects to his majesty, 
 his crown and government, and yet doomed to one 
 general, unqualified incapacity, and universal exclusion, 
 and universal civil proscription. We are excluded from 
 the state ; we are excluded from the revenues ; we are 
 excluded from every distinction, every privilege, every 
 office, every emolument, every civil trust, every cor- 
 porate right ; we are excluded from the navy, from the 
 army, from the magistrature, from the professions ; we 
 are excluded from the palladium of life, liberty, and 
 property : the juries and inquests of our country. From 
 what are we not excluded ? We are excluded from the 
 constitution ; we stand a strange anomaly in the law ; 
 not acknowledged, not disavowed, not slaves, not free- 
 men ; an exception to the principles of jurisprudence; a 
 prodigy in the system of civil institution. We incui 
 no small part of the penalties of a general outlawry 
 and a general excommunication. Disability meets us 
 at every hour, and in every walk of life. It cramps 
 our industry, it shackles our property, it depresses our 
 genius, it debilitates our minds. Why are we disfran 
 
In the Reign of George III. 553 
 
 chised, and why are we degraded ? Or rather, why 
 do these evils afflict our country, of which we are no 
 inconsiderable part ? 
 
 " We most humbly and earnestly supplicate and implore 
 parliament to call this law of universal exclusion to a 
 severe account, and now, at last, to demand of it upon 
 what principle it stands of equity, of morality, of justice, 
 or of policy ; and while we request this scrutiny into 
 the law, we demand, also, the severest scrutiny into our 
 principles, our actions, our words, and our thoughts. 
 Wherein have we failed as 103'al and affectionate subjects 
 to the best of sovereigns ; or as sober, peaceable, and 
 useful members of society? Where is that people who 
 can offer the testimony of a hundred years' patient sub- 
 mission to a code of laws of which no man living is now 
 an advocate, without sedition, without murmur, without 
 complaint? Our loyalty has undergone a century of 
 severe persecution for the sake of our religion, and we 
 have come out of the ordeal with our religion and with 
 our loyalty. 
 
 " Why, then, are we still left under the ban of our 
 country ? We differ, it is true, from the national church 
 in some points of doctrinal faith. Whether it is our 
 blessing or our misfortune. He only knows to whom all 
 things are known. For this, our religion, we offer no 
 apology. After ages of learned and critical discussion, 
 we cannot expect to throw further light upon it. We 
 have only to say that it is founded on revelation, as well 
 as the religion established by law. Both you and we 
 are regenerated in the same baptism, and profess our 
 belief in the same Christ: you, according to the Cburch 
 of England ; we, according to the Church of Rome. We 
 do not exercise an abject or obscure superstition. If we 
 err, our errors have been, and still are, sanctioned by 
 the examples of many flourishing, learned, and civilized 
 nations. We do not enter, we disdain to enter, into the 
 
554 Penal Laws 
 
 cavils of antiquated sophistry, and to insult the under- 
 standing of parliament, by supposing it necessary to 
 prove that a religion is not incompatible with civil 
 government which has subsisted for so many hundred 
 years under every possible form of government, in some 
 tolerated, in sQme established, even to this day. 
 
 " With regard to our civil principles, we are unalter- 
 ably, deeply and zealously attached to his majesty's 
 person and government. Good and loyal subjects we 
 are, and we are declared by law to be. 
 
 " With regard to the constitution of the state, we are as 
 much attached to it as it is possible for men to be attached 
 to a constitution by which they are not avowed. With 
 regard to the constitution of the Church, we are, indeed, 
 inviolably attached to our own : first, because we 
 believe it to be true ; and next, because, beyond belief, 
 we know that its principles are calculated to make us 
 good men and good citizens. But, as we find it answers 
 to us, individually, all the useful ends of' religion, we 
 solemnly and conscientiously declare that we are satisfied 
 with the present condition of our ecclesiastical policy. 
 
 " With satisfaction we acquiesce in the establishment o" 
 the national church; we neither repine at its possessions, 
 nor envy its dignities. We are ready, upon this point, to 
 give every assurance that is binding upon man. 
 
 " With regard to every other subject, and to every 
 other calumny, we have no disavowals, we have no 
 declarations, to make. Conscious of the innocence of 
 our lives, and the purity of our intentions, we are justi- 
 fied in asking what reason of state exists (and we deny 
 that any does exist) for leaving us still in tne bondage 
 of the law, and under the protracted restriction of penal 
 statutes? 
 
 "Penalties suppose, if not crimes, at least a cause of 
 reasonable suspicion. Criminal imputations like those 
 (for, to be adequate to the effect, they must be great 
 
In the Reign of George III. 555 
 
 indeed) are, to a generous mind, more grievous than 
 the penalties themselves. They incontrovertibly imply 
 that we are considered by the legislature as standing in 
 a doubtful light of fidelity or loyalty to the king or 
 to the constitution of our country, and perhaps both. 
 While on these unjust suppositions we are deprived of 
 the common rights and privileges of British and Irish 
 subjects, it is impossible for us to say we are contented, 
 while we endure a relentless civil proscription, for which 
 no cause is alleged, and for which no reason can be 
 assigned. 
 
 " Because we now come, vv^ith a clear, open and manly 
 voice, to insist upon the grievances under which we 
 still labor, it is not to be inferred that we have forgot 
 the benignant justice of parliament, which has relieved 
 us from the more oppressive, but not the most extensive, 
 part of the penal system. In those days of affliction, 
 when we lay prostrate under the iron rod, and, as it 
 were, entranced in a gulf of persecution, it was necessary 
 for parliament to go the whole way, and to stretch out 
 a saving hand to relieve us. We had not the courage to 
 00k up for hope, to know our condition, or even to 
 conceive a remedy. It is because the former relaxations 
 ivere not thrown away upon us ; it is because we 
 begin to feel the influence of somewhat more equal laws, 
 and to revive from our former inanition, that we now 
 presume to stand erect before you. Conceiving that 
 parliament has a right to expect, as a test of our grati- 
 tude, that we should no longer lie a dead weight upon 
 our country, but come forward in our turn to assist, witli 
 our voice, our exertions and our councils, in a work to 
 which the wisdom and power of parliament is incompe- 
 tent without our cooperation : the application of a policy, 
 wholly new, to the pressing wants and to the intimate 
 necessities of a people long forgotten, out of the sight 
 and the knowledge of a superintending legislature:— 
 
556 Penal Laws 
 
 accordingly we are come ; and we claim no small merit 
 that we have found our way to the door of parliament. 
 
 "It has not been made easy for us ; every art and indus- 
 try has been exerted to obstruct us. Attempts have 
 been made to divide us into factions, and to throw us 
 into confusion. We have stood firm and united. We 
 have received hints and cautions, obscure intimations 
 and public warnings,, to guard our supplications against 
 intimidation. We have resisted that species of disguised 
 and artful threat. We have been traduced, calumniated, 
 and libelled. We have witnessed sinister endeavors 
 again to blow the flame of religious animosity, and awake 
 the slumbering spirit of popular terrors and popular 
 fury ; but we have remained unmoved. 
 
 "We are, indeed, accustomed to this tumid agitation 
 and ferment in the public mind. In former times it was 
 the constant precursor of more intense persecution, but 
 It has also attended every later and happier return of 
 legislative merc3^ But whether it betokens us evil or 
 good, to parliament we come, to seek at that shrine a 
 safeguard from impending danger, or a communication 
 of new benefits. 
 
 "What, then, do we ask of parliament? To be thor- 
 oughly united and made one with the rest of our fellow- 
 subjects. That, alas! would be our first, our dearest 
 wish ; but if this is denied us, if sacrifices are to be ma^e, 
 if an example of rare moderation, we do not aspire to the 
 condition of a fair equality, we are not at a loss to find, 
 in the range of social benefits (which is nearly that of our 
 present exclusions) an object which is and ought to be 
 the scope and resting-place of our wishes a;nd our hopes. 
 That which we do not ask, we are not worthy to obtain. 
 We knock that it may be opened unto us. We have 
 learned by tradition from our ancestors, we have heard by 
 fame in foreign lands, where we have been driven to seek 
 education in youth and bread in manhood, and by the 
 
In the Reign of George III. 557 
 
 contemplation of our own mind we aie filled with a deep 
 and unalterable opinion, that the Irish, formed upon the 
 model of the British constitution, is a blessing of inestim- 
 able value ; that it contributes, and is even essentially 
 necessary for national and individual happiness. Of this 
 constitution we feel ourselves worthy, and, though noi 
 practically, we know the benefits of its franchises. Nor 
 can we, without a criminal dissimulation, conceal from 
 parliament the painful inquietude which is felt by our 
 whole persuasion, and the danger to which we do not 
 cease to be exposed by this our total and unmerited 
 exclusion from the common rights, privileges, and fran- 
 chises conceded by our king for the protection of the 
 subject. This exclusion is indeed the root of every evil. 
 It is that which makes property insecure, and industry 
 precarious ; it pollutes the stream of justice ; it is the 
 cause of daily humiliation; it is the insurmountable 
 barrier, the impassable line of separation which divides 
 the nation, and which, keeping animosity alive, prevents 
 the entire and cordial intermixture of the people ; and 
 therefore inevitably it is that some share, some portion, 
 some participation, in the liberties and franchises of our 
 country becomes the primary and essential object of our 
 ardent and common solicitation. It is a blessing for 
 which there is no price, and can be no compensation. With 
 it every evil is tolerable ; without it no advantage is 
 desirable. In this, as in all things, we submit ourselves to 
 the paramount authority of parliament, and we shall ac- 
 quiesce in what is given, as we do in what is taken away ; 
 but this is the boon we ask : we hunger and we thirst 
 for the constitution of our country. If it shall be deemed 
 otherwise, and shall be determined that we are qualified, 
 perhaps, for the base and lucrative tenures of professional 
 occupation, but unworthy to perform the free and noblo 
 services of the constitution, we submit indeed, but we 
 solemnly protest against the distinction for ourselves and 
 
558 Penal Laws 
 
 our children. It is no act of ours. Whatever judgment 
 may await our merits or our failings, we cannot conclude 
 ourselves, by recognizing for a consideration the princi- 
 ple of servility and perpetual degradation. These are the 
 sentiments which we feel from the bottom of our hearts, 
 and we disclose them to the free parliament of a monarch 
 whose glory it is to reign over a free people ; to )'Ou we 
 commit our supplications and our cause. We have indeed 
 little to apprehend, in this benigner age, from the malig- 
 nant aspirations of former times ; and not more from 
 the obsolete calumnies of former strife, although we see 
 them endeavoring again to collect the remnants of their 
 exhausted venom, before they die forever, in a last and 
 feeble effort to traduce our religion and our principles. 
 
 " But, as oppression is ever fertile in pretexts, we find 
 the objections started against us more dangerous because 
 the)' are new, or new at least in the novelty of a shameless 
 avowal. They are principally three : first, it is contended 
 that we are a people originally and fundamentally differ- 
 ent from yourselves, and that our interests are forever 
 irreconcilable, because some hundred years ago our 
 ancestors were conquered by yours. We deny the con- 
 clusion, we deny the fact; it is false. In addressing our- 
 selves to you, we speak to the children of our ancestors, 
 as we are also the children of )'our forefathers. Nature 
 has triumphed over law ; we are intermixed in blood ; we 
 are blended in connection ; we are one race ; we are all 
 Irishmen, subjects of the imperial crown of Ireland. The 
 honor of parliament is concerned to repress the audacity 
 of those who tell us that you are a foreign colony, and 
 consequently ought to govern according to the princi- 
 ples of invaders, and the policy of recent usurpation. 
 At least we confide that you will not suffer the walls of 
 parliament to be contaminated with that libel upon the 
 government of Ireland. The shaft which was aimed at 
 us has struck yourselves, —a memorable, but, at the same 
 
In the Reign of George III. 559 
 
 time, we trust, a most auspicious example to teach botli 
 you and us, and our common posterity, tliat our interests 
 are one, and that whatever affects the well-being and 
 honor of the Roman Catholics is also injurious to the 
 Protestant interests. Of the same complexion and tend- 
 ency are the two objections: one, that our advancement 
 in property and privilege would lead to a repeal of the 
 act of settlement ; the other, that our participation in the 
 liberties and franchises of our country would endanger 
 the existence of the constitution into which we are ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 " A resumption of the lands forfeited by our and your 
 ancestors (for they are the same), after the lapse of so 
 many years (near three returns of the longest period of 
 legal limitation), after the dispersion and extinction of so 
 many families, after so many transitions and divisions, 
 repartitions and reconsolidations of property, so many 
 sales, judgments, mortgages, and settlements, and after 
 all the various processes of voluntary and legal operation, 
 to conceive the revival of titles dormant for one hundred 
 and fifty years is an idea so perfectly chimerical, so con- 
 trary to the experience of all ages and all countries, so 
 repugnant to the principles of jurisprudence, and so 
 utterly impossible in point of fact, that the Roman 
 Catholics of Ireland, once for all, make it their earnest 
 request to have that question thoroughly investigated, 
 in the assured hope that so idle, vain and absurd an object 
 of public apprehension, being exposed and laid open to 
 tho eye of reason, may sleep in oblivion forever. 
 
 "As to the other subject of apprehension, we have but 
 one answer to make : we desire to partake of the constitu- 
 tion, and therefore we do not desire to destroy it. Par- 
 liament is now in possession of our case, our grievances, 
 our sorrows, our obstructions, our solicitudes, our hopes. 
 We have told you the desire of our hearts. We do not 
 ask to be relieved from this or that incapacity, nor the 
 
560 Penal Laws 
 
 abolition of this or that odious distinction; not even, 
 perhaps, to be, in the fulness of time, and in the accom- 
 plishment of the great comprehensive scheme of legisla- 
 tion, finally incorporated with you in the enjoyment of 
 the same constitution. Even beyond that mark we have 
 an ultimate and, if possible, an object of more inferior 
 desire. We look for a union of affections, a gradual and 
 therefore a total obliteration of all the animosities (on 
 our part they are long extinct), and all prejudices which 
 have kept us disjoined. 
 
 " We come to you a great accession to the Protestant 
 interest, with hearts and minds suitable to such an end. 
 We do not come, as jealous and suspicious rivals, to 
 gavel the constitution, but, with fraternal niinds, to parti- 
 cipate in the great incorporeal inheritance of freedom, to 
 be held according to the laws and customs of the realm, 
 and by our immediate fealty and allegiance to the king; 
 and so may you receive us. 
 
 " And we shall ever pray," etc. 
 
 Objections having been made to this petition, upon 
 Mr. O'Hara's presenting it, as being informal, he with- 
 drew it; and the general committee, finding that so bold 
 and explicit a statement of their case had given offence, 
 prepared another petition, merely praying that the house 
 would take into consideration whether the removal of 
 some of the grievances of the petitioners might not be 
 compatible with Protestant security. This petition was 
 presented by Mr. Egan on the i8th of February, and 
 on the 20th was afterward rejected, on a division of two 
 hundred to twenty-three. 
 
 On the same day was also rejected a petition from 
 tiie Protestant inhabitants of Belfast, which went much 
 further than the petition of the Catholics, as it required 
 that they should be placed on the same footmg with 
 their Protestant fellow-subjects. 
 
 It was on the 3d of January of this year that Mr. Burke 
 
In the Reig}i of George III. 561 
 
 published his letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, in which 
 he gave that learned and liberal opinion upon the sub- 
 ject of the elective franchise which, it is said, obtained 
 the royal assent to the measure that afterward was 
 adopted for conceding it. This letter was admirably 
 well adapted to meet every species of objection, moral, 
 local and constitutional. It was calculated to remove 
 the prejudices of the Church of England, and every sect 
 of Protestant dissenters ; and, above all, it was quite 
 conclusive as a demonstration of the compatibility of 
 Catholic emancipation with the coronation oath. 
 
 At a meeting of the general committee, on the 4th of 
 February, the following resolutions were agreed to, and 
 afterward published, with an address to the Protestants, 
 written by Mr. R. Burke, and corrected by his father. 
 To this address were added the answers of the foreign 
 Catholic universities to questions that had been put to 
 them in 1789. at the desire of Mr. Pitt, concerning the 
 existence and extent of the Popish dispensing-power : — 
 
 "■Resolved, That this committee has been informed that 
 reports have been circulated that the application of the 
 Catholics for relief extends to unlimited and total eman- 
 cipation, and that attempts have been made, wickedly 
 and falsel)^ to instil into the minds of the Protestants of 
 this kingdom an opinion that our applications were pre- 
 ferred in a tone of menace. 
 
 " Resolved, That several Protestant gentlemen have ex 
 pressed great satisfaction on being individually informed 
 of the real extent and respectful manner of the applica- 
 tions for relief, and have assured us that nothing could 
 have excited jealousy or apparent opposition to us from 
 our Protestant countrymen, but the above-mentioned 
 misapprehension. 
 
 "Resolved, That we therefore deem it necessary to 
 declare that the whole of our late applications, whether 
 to his majesty's ministers, to men in power, or to private 
 
562 Penal Laws 
 
 members of the legislature, as well as our intended peti- 
 tion, neither did nor does contain anything, or extend 
 further, either in substance or in principle, than the four 
 following objects: — 
 
 " I. Admission to the profession and practice of the law. 
 
 " 2. Capacity to serve as county magistrates. 
 
 " 3. A right to be summoned and to serve on grand 
 and petty juries. 
 
 "4. The right of voting in counties only for Protestant 
 members of parliament, in such a manner, however, as 
 that a Roman Catholic freeholder should not vote unless 
 he either rented or cultivated a farm of twenty pounds 
 per annum, in addition to his forty shilling freehold, or 
 else possessed a freehold to the amount of twenty pounds 
 a j'ear. 
 
 " Resolved, That in our opinion these applications, not 
 extending to any other objects than the above, are 
 moderate, and absolutely necessary for our general allevi- 
 ation, and more particularly for the protection of the 
 Catholic farmers and the peasantry of Ireland ; and that 
 they do not, in any degree, endanger either Church or 
 state, or endanger the security of the Protestant interest. 
 
 " Resolved, That we never had an idea or thought so 
 extravagant as that of menacing or intimidating our Pro- 
 testant brethren, much less the legislature ; and that we 
 disclaim the violent and turbulent intentions imputed to 
 us in some of the public prints, and circulated in private 
 conversation. 
 
 " Resolved, That we refer to the known disposition of 
 the Roman Catholics of this kingdom, to our dutiful 
 Dehavior during a long series of years, and particularly 
 to the whole tenor of our late proceedings, for the full 
 refutation of every charge of sedition and disloyalty. 
 
 " Resolved, That, for the more ample and detailed ex- 
 posure of all the evil reports and calumnies circulated 
 against us, an address to our Protestant fellow-subjects, 
 
In the Reign of George III. 563 
 
 and to the public in general, be printed by the order 
 and in the name of the general committee." 
 
 The queries and answers concerning the Popish dis- 
 pensing-power are as follows : — 
 
 " I St. Has the pope, or cardinals, or, any body of men, 
 or any individual of the Church of Rome, any civil 
 authority, power, or jurisdiction, or preeminence what- 
 soever, within the realm of England ? 
 
 " 2d. Can the pope, or cardinals, or any body of men, 
 or any individual of the Church of Rome, absolve or 
 dispense his majesty's subjects from their oath of alle- 
 giance upon any pretext whatsoever? 
 
 " 3d. Is there any principle in the tenets of the Catholic 
 faith by which Catholics are justified in not keeping 
 faith with heretics, or other persons differing from them 
 in religious opinions, in any transaction either of a public 
 or a private nature ? " 
 
 Abstract from the answer of the Sacred Faculty of 
 Divinity of Paris to the above queries. 
 
 After an introduction according to the usual forms of 
 the universit}^ they answer the first query by declaring : — 
 
 " Neither the pope, nor the cardinals, nor any bod}' of 
 men, nor any other person of the Church of Rome, hath 
 any civil authority, civil power, civil jurisdiction or civil 
 preeminence whatever, in any kingdom, consequently, 
 none in the kingdom of England, by reason of virtue ot 
 any authority, power, jurisdiction, or preeminence by 
 divine institution inherent in or granted, or by any other 
 means belonging, to the pope or the Church of Rome. 
 This doctrine the Sacred Faculty of Divinity of Paris 
 has always held, and upon every occasion maintained, 
 and has rigidly proscribed the contrary doctrines from 
 her schools." 
 
 Answer to the second query : — 
 
 " Neither the pope, nor the cardinals, nor any body oi 
 men, nor any person of the Church of Rome, can, by 
 
5^4 Penal Laws 
 
 virtue of the keys, absolve or release the subjects of .he 
 King of England from their oath of allegiance." 
 
 This and the first query are so intimately connected, 
 that the answer of the first immediately and naturally 
 applies to the second, etc. 
 
 Answer to the third query : — 
 
 " There is no tenet in the Catholic Church by which 
 Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics 
 or those who differ from them in matters of religion. 
 The tenet, that it is lawful to break faith with heretics, is 
 so repugnant to common honesty, and the opinions of 
 Catholics, that there is nothing of which those who have 
 defended the Catholic faith against Protestants have 
 complained more heavily than the malice and calumny 
 of their adversaries in imputing this tenet to them," etc., 
 etc. 
 
 " Given at Paris, in the General Assembly of the 
 Sorbonne, held on Thursday, the eleventh day before the 
 Calends of March, 1789." (Signed in due form.) 
 
 " University of Louvain. 
 
 "The Faculty of Divinity at Louvain, having been 
 requested to give her opinion upon the questions above 
 stated, does it with readiness ; but struck with astonish- 
 ment that such questions should, at the end of this 
 eighteenth century, be proposed to any learned body by 
 inhabitants of a kingdom that glories in the talents and 
 discernment of its natives. The Faculty being assembled 
 lor the above purpose, it is agreed, with the unanimous 
 assent of all voices, to answer the first and second 
 queries absolutely in the negative. 
 
 " The Faculty does not think it incumbent upon her, in 
 this place, to enter upon the proof of her opinion, or to 
 show how it issupportedby passages in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures or the writings of antiquity. That has already 
 been done by Bossuet, De Marca, the two Barclays, 
 
In the Reign of George III. 565 
 
 Goldastus, the Pithaeuses, Argentre, Widrington, and hig 
 majest}', King James I, in his Dissertation against Bel- 
 larmine and Du Perron, and by many others," etc., etc. 
 
 The Faculty then proceeds to declare that the sover- 
 eign power of the state is in nowise (not even indirectly, 
 as it is termed) subject to, or dependent upon, any other 
 power, thougn it be a spiritual power, or even though 
 it be instituted for eternal salvation, etc., etc. 
 
 That no man, or any assembly of men, howe-ver 
 eminent in dignity and power, nor even the whole body 
 of the Catholic Church, though assembled in general 
 council, can, upon any ground of pretence whatsoever, 
 weaken the bond of union 'between the sovereign and 
 the people, still less can they absolve or free the subjects 
 from their oath of allegiance. 
 
 Proceeding to the third question, the said Faculty of 
 Divinit}"^, in perfect wonder that such a question should 
 be proposed, most positively and unequivocally answers 
 that there is not, and there never has been, among the 
 Catholics, or in the doctrines of the Church of Rome, 
 any law or principle which makes it lawful for Catholics 
 to break their faith with heretics or others of a different 
 persuasion from themselves, in matters of religion, either 
 in public or private concerns. 
 
 " The Faculty declares the doctrine of the Catholics to 
 be, that the divine and natural law, which makes it a 
 duty to keep faith and promises, is the same, and is 
 neither shaken or diminished even if those with whom the 
 engagement is made hold erroneous opinions in mat- 
 ters of religion," etc., etc. 
 
 (Signed in due form on the i8th November, 1788.) ^ 
 
 " University of Valladolid. 
 
 "To the first question it is answered, that neither 
 
 pope, cardinals, or even a general council, have any civil 
 
 authority, power, jurisdiction or preeminence, directly 
 
566 Penal Laws 
 
 or indirectly, in the kingdom of Great Britain, or over 
 any other kingdom or province in which they possess 
 no temporal dominion. 
 
 " To the second it is answered, that neither pope nor 
 cardinals, nor even a general council, can absolve the 
 subjects of Great Britain from their oaths of all-egiance, 
 or dispense with their obligation. 
 
 " To the third it is answered, that the obligation of 
 keeping faith is grounded on the law of nature, which 
 binds all men equally, without respect to their rehgious 
 opinions ; and with regard to Catholics, it is still more 
 cogent, as it is confirmed by the principles of their 
 rehgion." 
 
 (Signed in the usual form, February 17th, 1789.) 
 
 While the general committee were occupied in carry- 
 ing these measures into effect, parliament had passed a 
 law* for removing part of the restraints and disabili- 
 ties, to which the Catholics were liable. It was intro- 
 duced into the House of Commons by Sir H. Langrishe, 
 and being supported by government, it met with little 
 opposition. 
 
 But the conduct of government on this occasion was 
 so suspicious, and its favors conferred with so bad a 
 grace,t that it did not in the least degree contribute to 
 appease the irritation which its former conduct, in 1791, 
 had so justly given rise to. 
 
 By this act. Catholics may be called to the bar, and 
 may be admitted as students into the King's Inns. Attor- 
 neys may take Catholic apprentices, and are relieved 
 from the necessity of educating their children Protestants, 
 and barristers may marry Catholics. Catholic barristers 
 and apprentices to attorneys must, nevertheless, qualify 
 
 • 32 George III. c. 21. 
 
 t This measure was introduced into the House of Commons without any 
 communication with the general committee. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 567 
 
 themselves for the benefits of this act b}' taking the oath 
 of the 13th and 14th George III, c. 35. 
 
 By this act, so much of 9 William III, c. 3, and 2 
 A.nne, c. 6, as prevents Protestants from intermarrj'ing 
 with Papists, is repealed ; but Protestants married to 
 Catholics are not to vote at elections ; and the law is 
 not altered which makes it a capital felony for a priest 
 to celebrate the marriage of a Protestant and a Catholic, 
 though the very next act in the statute-book enables a 
 Presbyterian clergyman to celebrate the marriage of a 
 Protestant and a Presbyterian. 
 
 By this act, also, the 7 William III, for restraining 
 foreign education, is repealed, and Catholics are per- 
 mitted to teacf! school without taking out a license from 
 the ordinary ; and so much, likewise, of 8 Anne, c. 3, is 
 repealed which enacts that no Papists shall take more 
 than two apprentices. 
 
 In the course of the debates upon this act, the Cath- 
 olics were accused of professing tenets inimical to good 
 order and government, and with harboring pretensions 
 to the forfeited estates of their forefathers, and with wish- 
 ing to subvert the existing establishment, that they 
 might reinstate a Popish one instead. The general com- 
 mittee were also accused of being turbulent and seditious 
 agitators. It was asserted that the petition which they 
 presented this year to parliament was the act of an 
 obscure faction, confined merely to the capital, and dis- 
 avowed by the great mass of the Catholics. 
 
 In order to repel the first of these accusations, the 
 declaration of 1774, which has already been introduced 
 into this work, was republished, and signed by Dr. Tory 
 and the principal Catholic clergy and laity of the kingdom. 
 The second charge was not easy to be contradicted. It 
 was one of most serious importance to the interests of the 
 whole body, and, if suffered to pass without the fallacy of 
 it being exposed, would have contributed to defeat all 
 
^68 Penal Laws 
 
 the exertions which had been made to obtain redress. 
 Urged by these considerations, and also by a communi- 
 cation which, about this time, was made from the first 
 authority, that a further application for relief would have 
 great weight with his majesty and with parliament, if 
 the committee were quahfied to declare that it was the 
 measure of every Catholic in the kingdom,* the committee 
 devised a plan by which a convention of delegates should 
 be held, elected by the whole Catholic body. A circular 
 letter was immediately written, directing that each parish 
 should proceed to choose one or two electors, and that 
 these electors should then elect from one to four dele- 
 gates, as it might appear most expedient to them. Their 
 directions were obeyed, and carried into effect with so 
 much promptitude and good order, that the convention 
 were able to meet on the 3d of December, without the 
 smallest degree of tumult or agitation having occurred 
 in any part of the kingdom. 
 
 In the meantime, this circular-letter had been laid hold 
 of by the government, as a proper instrument with which 
 to rekindle the embers of religious animosities. Where 
 the partisans of government were sufficiently strong, 
 corporate and county meetings were held to reprobate 
 the plan of the general committee ; but if defeat, or even 
 formidable resistance, was apprehended, similar resolu- 
 tions were entered into by the grand juries, where 
 success could easily be secured from the influence of 
 government in their appointment. 
 
 In order to counteract the effect of these resolutions, 
 those Protestants who had the virtue and the good sense 
 neither to become the tools nor the dupes of government, 
 held a great number of meetings in different towns and 
 districts. 
 
 Some few, with Londonderry at their head, expressed 
 
 * See the plan for conducting the election of delegates, published 1793. 
 Plowden, vol,»ii, Ap. 89. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 569 
 
 themselves favorable to a gradual admission of the 
 Catholics; but the great majority followed the example 
 of an immense body of volunteers who, when assemb ed 
 together at their commemoration meeting, declared their 
 sentiments in favor of the immediate and unqualified 
 extension of the right of suffrage to the whole Catholic 
 body. 
 
 When the convention met in December, their proceed- 
 iiigs were wise, temperate, and decisive, and conducted 
 without any violation of the laws of the land, or of the 
 good order of society. At the first meeting the follow- 
 ing petition to the king was unanimously agreed to, 
 pursuant to instructions which had been given to each 
 delegate by his respective electors : — 
 
 " To THE King's Most Excellent Majesty, the hum- 
 ble PETITION OF the UNDERSIGNED CATHOLICS, ON 
 BEHALF OF THEMSELVES AND THE REST OF HIS CATH- 
 OLIC SUBJECTS OF THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND. 
 "Most Gracious Sovereign: — 
 
 " We, your majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects 
 of your kingdom of Ireland, professing the Catholic 
 religion, presume to approach your majesty, who are 
 the common father of all your people, and humbly to 
 submit to your consideration the manifold incapacities 
 and oppressive disqualifications under which we labor. 
 
 " For, may it please your majesty, after a century ot 
 uninterrupted loyalty, in which time five foreign wars 
 and two domestic rebellions have occurred ; after having 
 taken every oath of allegiance and fidelity to your 
 majesty, and given, and being still ready to give, every 
 pledge which can be devised for their peaceable 
 demeanor and unconditional submission to the laws, the 
 Catholics of Ireland stand obnoxious to a long catalogue 
 ot statutes, inflicting on dutiful and meritorious sub- 
 jects pains and penalties of an extent and seventy which 
 
570 Penal Latjs 
 
 scarce any degree of delinquency can warrant, and pro- 
 longed to a period when no necessity can be alleged 
 to justify their continuance. 
 
 " In the first place we beg leave, with all humility, to 
 represent to your majesty that, notwithstanding the 
 lowest departments in your majesty's fleets and armies 
 are largely supplied by our numbers, and your revenue 
 in this country to a great degree supported by our con- 
 tributions, we are disabled from serving your majesty in 
 an\' office of trust and emolument whatsoever, civil or 
 military, — a proscription which disregards capacity or 
 merit, admits of neither qualification nor degree, and rests 
 as an universal stigma of distrust upon the whole body 
 of your Catholic subjects. 
 
 " We ai-e interdicted from all municipal stations, and 
 the franchise of all guilds and corporations ; and our 
 exclusion from the benefits annexed to those situations 
 is not an evil terminating in itself, for, by giving an 
 advantage over us to those in whom they are exclusively 
 vested, they establish throughout the kingdom a species 
 of qualified monopoly, uniformly operating in our dis- 
 favor, contrar}' to the spirit, and highly detrimental to 
 the freedom, of trade. 
 
 " We may not found nor endow any university, college 
 or school for the education of our children, and we 
 are interdicted from obtaining degrees in the University 
 of Dublin by the several charters and statutes now in 
 force therein. 
 
 " We are totally prohibited from keeping or using 
 weapons for the defence of our houses, families or 
 persons, whereby we are exposed to the violence of 
 burglary, robbery and assassination; and to enforce 
 this prohibition, contravening that great original law 
 of nature which enjoins us to self-defence, a variety of 
 statutes exist, not less grievous and oppressive in their 
 provisions than unjust in their object; by one of which, 
 
In the Reign of George III. 571 
 
 enacted so latei^ as within these sixteen years, every 
 one of your majesty's Catholic subjects, of whatever 
 rank or degree, peer or peasant, is compellable by any 
 magistrate to come forward and convict himself of what 
 may be thought a singular offence in a country profess- 
 ing to be free : keeping arms for his defence ; or, if he 
 shall refuse so to do, may incur not only fine and im- 
 prisonment, but the vile and ignominious punishments 
 of the pillory and whipping, — penalties appropriated to 
 the most infamous malefactors, and more terrible to a 
 liberal mind than death itself. No Catholic whatsoever, 
 as we apprehend, has his personal property secure. The 
 law allows and encourages the disobedient and unnatural 
 child to conform, and deprive him of it; the unhappy 
 father does not, even by the surrender ol his all, purchase 
 his repose: he may be attacked by new bills, if his 
 future industry be successful, and again be plundered, by 
 due process of law. 
 
 " We are excluded, or may be excluded, from all 
 petit juries in civil actions, where one of the parties is a 
 Protestant; and that we are further excluded from all 
 petit juries in trials, by information or indictment, founded 
 on any of the Popery laws, by which law we most 
 humbly submit to your majesty that your loyal subjects, 
 the Catholics of Ireland, are in this, their native land, in a 
 worse situation than that of aliens, for they may demand 
 an equitable privilege denied to us : of having half their 
 jury aliens like themselves. 
 
 " We may not serve on grand juries unless, — which it 
 is scarcely possible can ever happen, — there should not be 
 found a sufficiency of Protestants to complete the panel, 
 ■contrary to that humane and equitable principle of the 
 law which sa3^s that no man shall be convicted of any 
 capital offence, unless by the concurring verdicts of two 
 juries of his neighbors and equals, whereby (and to this 
 we humbly presume more particularly to implore your 
 
572 . Penal Laws 
 
 ro^^al attention) we are deprived of the great palladium 
 of the constitution : trial by our peers, independent of the 
 manifest injustice of our property being taxed in assess- 
 ments of a body from which we are formally excluded. 
 
 " We avoid a further enumeration of inferior griev- 
 ances ; but, may it please your majesty, there remains 
 one incapacity which your loyal subjects, the Catholics 
 of Ireland, feel with most poignant anguish of mind, as 
 being the badge of unmerited disgrace and ignominy, 
 and the cause and bitter aggravation of all our other 
 calamities : we are deprived of the elective franchise, to 
 the manifest perversion of the spirit of the constitution, 
 inasmuch as your faithful subjects are thereby taxed 
 where they are not represented actually or virtually, 
 and bound by laws, in the framing of which they have no 
 power to give or withhold their assent. And we most 
 humbly implore your majesty to believe that this, our 
 prime and heavy grievance, is not an evil merely specu- 
 lative, but is attended with great distress to all ranks, and, 
 in many instances, with the total ruin and destruction 
 of the lower orders of your majesty's faithful and loyal 
 subjects, the Catholics of Ireland ; for, may it please your 
 majesty,— not to mention the infinite variety of advan- 
 tages, in point of protection and otherwise, which the 
 enjoyment of the elective franchise gives to those who 
 possess it, nor the consequent inconveniences to which 
 those who are deprived thereof a re liable ; not to mention 
 the disgrace to three-fourths of your loyal subjects of 
 Ireland, of living, the only body of men incapable of fran- 
 chise, in a nation possessing a free constitution, — it con- 
 tinually happens, and of necessity, from the malignant 
 nature of the law, must happen, that multitudes of the 
 Catholic tenantry in divers counties in this kingdom are, 
 at the expiration of their leases, expelled from their tene- 
 ments and farms to make room for Protestant freeholders, 
 who, by their votes, may contribute to the weight and 
 
In the Reigji of George III. 573 
 
 importance of their landlords : a circumstance which 
 renders the recurrence of a general election, that period 
 which is the boast and laudable triumph of our Protestant 
 brethren; a visitation and heavy curse to us, your majesty's 
 dutiful and loyal subjects. And, may it please your 
 majesty, this uncertainty of possession to your majesty's 
 Catholic subjects operates as a perpetual restraint and 
 discouragement on industry and the spirit of cultivation, 
 whereby it happens that this, your majesty's kingdom of 
 Ii-eland, possessing many and great natural advantages 
 of soil and climate, so as to be exceeded therein by few, 
 if any, countries on the earth, is yet prevented from 
 availing herself thereof so fully as she otherwise might, 
 to .the furtherance of your majesty's honor, and the more 
 effectual support of your service. 
 
 " And, may it please 3'our majesty, the evil does not 
 even rest here ; for many of your majesty's Catholic 
 subjects, to preserve their families from total destruction, 
 submit to a nominal conformity, against their conviction 
 and their conscience, and preferring perjury to famine, 
 take oaths which they utterly disbelieve : a circumstance 
 which, we doubt not, will shock )'our majesty's well- 
 known and exemplary piety, not less than the misery 
 which drives those unhappy wretches to so desperate a 
 measure, must distress and wound your royal clemency 
 and commiseration. 
 
 " And may it please your majesty, though we might 
 here rest our case on its own merits, justice and 
 expediency, yet we further presume humbly to submit to 
 your majesty that the right of franchise was, with divers 
 other rights, enjoyed by the Catholics of this kingdom, 
 from the first adoption of the English constitution by 
 our forefathers, was secured to at least a great part of 
 our body by the Treaty of Limerick, 1691, guaranteed 
 by your majesty's loyal predecessors. King William 
 and Queen Mary, and finally confirmed and ratified by 
 
574 ' Penal Laws 
 
 parliament; notwithstanding- which, and breach of the 
 public faith of the nation, thus solemnly pledged, for 
 which our ancestors paid a valuable consideration, in the 
 surrender of their arms and a great part of this kingdom, 
 and notwithstanding the most scrupulous adherence, 
 on our part, to the terms of the said treaty, and our 
 unremitting loyalty from that day to the present, the 
 said right of elective franchise was finally and universally 
 taken away from the Catholics of Ireland so lately as the 
 first year of his majesty. King George II. 
 
 " And when we thus presume to submit this infraction 
 of the Treaty of Limerick to your majesty's royal notice, 
 it is not that we ourselves consider it to be the strong 
 part of our case, for, though our rights were recognized, 
 they were by no means created by that treaty ; and we 
 do with all humility conceive that, if no such event as 
 the said treaty had ever taken place, your majesty's 
 Catholic subjects, from their unvarying loyalty and 
 dutiful submission to the laws, and from the great 
 support afforded by them to your majesty's government 
 in this country, as well as in their personal service in 
 your majesty's fleets and armies, as from the taxes and 
 revenues levied on their property, are fully competent 
 and justly entitled to participate and enjoy the blessings 
 of the constitution of their country. 
 
 " And now that we have, with all humility, submitted 
 our grievances to your majesty, permit us, most gracious 
 sovereign, again to represent our sincere attachment to 
 the constitution, as established in the three estates of 
 king, lords, and commons ; our uninterrupted loyalty, 
 peaceful demeanor, and submission to the laws for one 
 hundred years, and our determination to persevere in the 
 same dutiful conduct, which has, under your majesty's 
 happy auspices, procured us those relaxations of the 
 penal statutes which the wisdom of the legislature has, 
 from time to time, thought proper to grant. We humbly 
 
In the Reign of George III. 575 
 
 presume to hope that your majesty, in your paternal 
 goodness and affection toward a numerous and oppressed 
 body of your loyal subjects, may be graciously pleased 
 to recommend to your parliament in Ireland to take 
 into their consideration the whole of our situation, our 
 numbers, our merits, and our sufferings; and as we do 
 not give place to any of your majesty's subjects in loyalty 
 and attachment to your sacred person, we cannot sup- 
 press our wishes of being restored to the rights and 
 privileges of the constitution of our country, and there- 
 by becoming more worthy, as well as more capable, of 
 rendering your majesty that service which it is not less 
 our duty than our inclination to afford. 
 
 " So may your majesty transmit to your latest pos- 
 terity a crown secured by public advantage and public 
 affection, and so may your royal person become, if pos- 
 sible, more dear to your grateful people." 
 
 On the 2d' January, 1793, the gentlemen who had been 
 deputed to present this petition, were introduced to his 
 majesty by Mr. Dundas, and on the loth of the same 
 month Lord Westmoreland, in a speech from the throne 
 to both houses of parliament, said : " I have it in particu- 
 lar command from his majesty to recommend it to you 
 to apply yourselves to the consideration of such measures 
 as may be most likely to strengthen and cement a general 
 union of sentiment among all classes of his majesty's 
 subjects, in support of the established constitution. With 
 this view his majesty trusts that the situation of his 
 majesty's Catholic subjects will engage your serious 
 attention, and in consideration of this subject he relies 
 on the wisdom and liberality of parliament." 
 
 In a few days afterward Major Hobart, the chief sec- 
 retary of the lord-lieutenant, presented to the House of 
 Commons a petition from the Catholics, and soon after 
 the royal assent was given to the following " act for 
 
576 Penal Laws. 
 
 dffording relief to his majesty's Popish, or Roman Cath- 
 olic, subjects of Ireland :" — 
 
 "Whereas various acts of parliament have been passed 
 imposing on his majesty's subjects professing: the Popish, 
 or Roman Catholic religion, many restraints and dis- 
 abilities to which other subjects of this realm are not lia- 
 ble, and from the peaceable and loyal demeanor of his 
 majesty's Popish, or Roman Catholic subjects it is fit that 
 such restraints and disabilities shall be discontinued : 
 
 "I. Be it therefore enacted by the king's most excellent 
 majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords 
 spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present 
 parUament assembled, and by the authority of the same, 
 that his majesty's subjects being Papists, or persons 
 professing the Popish, or Roman Catholic religion, or 
 married to Papists, or persons professing the Popish, or 
 Roman Catholic religion, or educating any of their chil- 
 dren in that religion, shall not be liable or subject to any 
 penalties, forfeitures, disabilities or incapacities, or to 
 any laws for the limitation, charging or discovering of 
 their estaites and property, real or personal, or touching 
 the acquiring of property, or securities affecting property, 
 save such as his majesty's subjects of the Protestant 
 religion are liable and subject to ; and that such parts of 
 all oaths as are required to be taken by persons, in order 
 to qualify themselves for voting at elections for members 
 to serve in parliament ; and also such parts of all oaths 
 required to be taken by persons voting at elections for 
 members to serve in parliament as import to deny that 
 the said person taking the same is a Papist, or married to 
 a Papist, or educates his children in the Popish religion, 
 shall not hereafter be required to be taken b}' any voter, 
 but shall be omitted by the person administering the 
 same ; and that it shall not be necessary, in order to en- 
 title a Papist, or person professing the Popish, or Roman 
 Catholic religion, to vote at an election for members to 
 
In the Reign of George III. 577 
 
 serve in parliament, that he should at, or previous to his 
 voting, take the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, any 
 statute now in force to the contrary of any of the said 
 matters in anyw^ise notwithstanding. 
 
 " 2. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that 
 all Papists, or persons professing the Popish, or Roman 
 Catholic, religion, who may claim to have a right of 
 voting for members to serve in parliament, or of voting 
 for magistrates in any city, town corporate, or borough, 
 within this kingdom, be hereby required to perform all 
 qualifications, registries, and other requisites, which arc 
 now required of his majesty's Protestant subjects in like 
 cases by any law or laws now in force in this kingdom, 
 save and except such oaths and parts of oaths as are 
 hereinbefore excepted. 
 
 "3. And provided always, that nothing hereinbefore 
 contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to 
 repeal or alter any law or act of parliament now in force, 
 by which certain qualifications are required to be per- 
 formed by persons enjoying any offices or places of 
 trust under his majesty, his heirs and successors, other 
 than as hereinafter is enacted. 
 
 " 4. Provided also, that nothing herein contained shall 
 extend, or .be construed to extend, to give Papists, or 
 persons professing the Popish religion, a right to vote at 
 any parish vestry for levying money to rebuild or repair 
 any parish church, or respecting the devising or dis- 
 posal of the income of any estate belonging to any 
 church or parish, or for the salary of the parish clerk, or 
 at the selection of any churchwarden. 
 
 " 5. Provided always, that nothing contained in this 
 act shall extend to, or be construed to affect, any action 
 or suit now pending, which shall have been brought or 
 instituted previous to the commencement of this session 
 of parliament. 
 
 "6. Provided also, that nothing herein contained shall 
 
5/8 Penal Laws 
 
 extend to authorize any Papist, or person professing the 
 Popish, or R( man Catholic religion, to have or keep in 
 his hands or possession any arms, armor, ammunition, 
 or any warlike stores, sword-blades, barrels, locks, or 
 stocks of guns or firo-arms, or to exempt such persons 
 from any forfeiture or penalty inflicted by any act re- 
 specting arms, armor or ammunition, in the hands or 
 possession of any Papist, or respecting Papists having or 
 keeping such warlike stores, save and except Papists, or 
 persons of the Popish, or Roman Catholic religion seized 
 of a freehold estate of ^loo a year, or possessed of a 
 personal estate of i^i,ooo or upward, who are hereby 
 authorized to keep arms and ammunition as Protestants 
 now by law may ; and also save and except Papists, or 
 Roman Catholics, possessing a freehold estate of;^io 
 yeai'ly value and less than ;£'ioo, or a personal estate of 
 ;£'300 and less than ;£'i,ooo, who shall have, at the session 
 of the peace in the county in which they reside, taken the 
 oath of allegiance prescribed to be taken by an act passed 
 in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of his present 
 majesty's reign, entitled 'an act to enable his majesty's 
 subjects, of whatever persuasion, to testify their allegiance 
 to him,' and also, in open court, swear and subscribe an 
 affidavit that they are possessed of a freehold estate, yield- 
 ing a clear yearly profit to the person making the same 
 of ^ lo, or a personal property of ^300 above his just debts, 
 specifying therein the name and nature of such freehold, 
 and nature of such personal property, which affidavits 
 shall be carefully preserved by the clerk of the peace, who 
 shall have for his trouble a fee of sixpence, and no more, 
 for every such affidavit ; and the persons making such 
 affidavits, and possessing such property, may keep and use 
 arms and ammunition as Protestants may, so long as'they 
 shall respectively possess a property of the annual value 
 of £\o and upward, if freehold, or the value of £100 if 
 personal, any statute to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 579 
 
 " 7. And be it enacted that it shall and may be lawful 
 for Papists, or persons profi gjjfe ig the Popish, or Roman 
 Catholic religion, to hold,-^^|cise, and enjoy all civil 
 and military offices, or placelof trust or profit, under his 
 majesty, his heirs and successors, in this kingdom, and 
 to hold, to take degrees, or any professorship in, or to 
 be masters in, or fellows of any college to be hereafter 
 founded in this kingdom, provided that such college shall 
 be a member of the University of Dublin, and shall not 
 be founded exclusively for the education of Papists, or 
 persons professing the Popish, or Roman Catholic re- 
 ligion, or to hold any office or place of trust in, and to be 
 a member of any lay body corporate, except the College 
 of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth, 
 near Dublin, without taking and subscribing the oath of 
 allegiance, supremacy or abjuration, or making or sub- 
 scribing the declaration required to be taken, made, and 
 subscribed, to enable any person to hold and enjoy any 
 of such places, and without receiving the sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper according to the rites and ceremonies 
 of the Church of Ireland, any law, statute, or by-law of 
 any corporation to the contrary notwithstanding ; pro- 
 vided that every such person shall take and subscribe the 
 oath appointed by the act passed in the thirteenth and 
 fourteenth years of his majesty's reign, entitled ' an act 
 to enab4e his majesty's subjects, of whatever persuasion, 
 to testify their allegiance to him;' and also the oath and 
 declaration following, that is to say : — 
 
 " ' I, A. B., do hereby declare that L do profess the 
 Roman Catholic religion. 
 
 " ' I, A. B., do swear that I do abjure, condemn, and 
 detest, as unchristian and impious, the principle that it is 
 lawful to murder, destroy, or any way injure any person 
 whatsoever, for or under the pretence of being a heretic ; 
 and I do declare solemnly, before God. that I believe 
 that no act, in itself unjust, immoral or wicked, can ever 
 
jSo Penal Laws 
 
 be justified or excused by or under preter.ce or color 
 that it was done either foir' the good of the Church, or 
 in obedience to any ecclesiastical power whatsoever. I 
 also declare that it is rio~t an article of the Catholic 
 faith, neither am I thereby required to believe or profess 
 that the pope is infallible,* or that I am bound to obey any 
 order in its own nature immoral, though the pope or any 
 ecclesiastical power should issue or direct such order ; 
 but, on the contrary, I hold that it would be sinful in me 
 to pay any respect or obedience thereto. I further 
 declare that I do not believe that any sin whatsoever 
 committed by me can be forgiven at the mere will of any 
 pope, or of any priest, or from any person or persons 
 whatsoever; but that sincere sorrow for past sins, a firm 
 and sincere resolution to avoid future guilt and to atone 
 to God, are previous and indispensable requisites to estab- 
 lish a well-founded expectation of forgiveness ; and that 
 any person who receives absolution without these pre- 
 vious requisites, so far from obtaining thereby any remis- 
 sion of his sins, incurs the additional guilt of violating a 
 sacrament; and I do swear that I will defend,to the utmost 
 of my power, the settlement and arrangement of property 
 in this country as established by the laws now in being. 1 
 do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any' 
 intention to subvert the present Church establishment, for 
 the purpose of substituting a Catholic establishment in 
 Its stead ; and I do solemnly swear that I will not exercise 
 any privilege to which I am or may become entitled, to 
 disturb and weaken the Protestant religion and Protestant 
 government of this kingdom. So help me God.' 
 
 " 8. And be it enacted that Papists, or persons pro- 
 fessing the Popish, or Roman Catholic religion may be 
 capable of being elected professors of medicine upon 
 the foundation of Sir Patrick Dunn, any law or statute tc 
 the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 • Papal Infallibility not having tiien been a defined article of faith. 
 
In the Reigit of George III. 581 
 
 " 9. Provided always, and be it enacted, that nothing 
 herein contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, 
 to enable any person to sit or vote in either house of par- 
 liament, or to hold, exercise, or enjoy the office of Lord- 
 Lieutenant, Lord-Deputy, or other Chief Governor or 
 Governors of this kingdom, Lord High Chancellor or 
 Keeper, or Commissioner of the Great Seal of this king- 
 dom, Lord High Treasurer, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench or Common 
 Pleas, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, 
 Justice of the Court of King's Bench or Common Pleas, 
 or Baron of the Court of Exchequer, Judge of the High 
 Court of Admiralt3S Master or Keeper of the Rolls, 
 Secretary of State, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Vice-Treas- 
 urer, Teller and Cashier of the Exchequer, or Auditor- 
 General, Lieutenant, or Governor, or Custos Rotulorum 
 of Counties, Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant, Lord- 
 Deputy, or other Chief Governor or Governors of this 
 kingdom. Member of His Majesty's most Honorable Privy 
 Council, Prime Sergeant, Attorne)'-General, Solicitor- 
 General, Second and Third Sergeants-at-Law, or King's 
 Counsel, Masters in Chancery, Provost, or Fellow of the 
 College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen 
 Ehzabeth, near Dublin, Postmaster-General, Master and 
 Lieuteiiant-General of His Majesty's Forces, Generals on 
 the Staff, and Sheriffs and Sub-sherifFs of any county in 
 this kingdom, or any office contrary to the rules, orders 
 and directions made and established by the Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant and Council, in pursuance of the act passed in the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth years of the reign of King 
 Charles II, entitled 'an act •for the explaining of some 
 doubts arising upon an act entitled " an act for the better 
 execution of his majesty's gracious declaration for the 
 settlement of his kingdom of Ireland, and satisfaction of 
 the several interests of adventurers, soldiers, and other 
 h's majesty's subjects there, and for making some altera- 
 
582 Penal Laws 
 
 tion of, and additions unto the said act, for the more 
 speedy and effectual settlement of this kingdom," unless 
 he shall have taken, made, and subscribed the oaths and 
 declaration, and performed the several requisites which 
 by any law heretofore made, and now of force, are 
 required to enable any person to sit or vote, or to hold, 
 exercise, and enjoy the said offices respectively.' 
 
 " 10. Provided also, and be it enacted, that nothing 
 in this act contained shall enable any Papist, or person 
 professing the Popish, or Roman Catholic religion, to 
 exercise any right of presentation to any ecclesiastical 
 benefice whatsoever. 
 
 "II. And be it enacted that no Papist, or person pro- 
 fessing the Popish, or Roman Catholic religion, shall be 
 liable or subject to any penalty for not attending divine 
 service on the Sabbath-day, called Sunda}^ in his or her 
 parish church. 
 
 " 12. Provided, also, and be it enacted, that nothing 
 herein contained shall be construed to extend to authorize 
 any Popish priest, or reputed Popish priest, to celebrate 
 marriage between Protestant and Protestant, or between 
 any person who hath been, or professed himself or her- 
 self to be, a Protestant at any time within twelve months 
 before such celebration of marriage, and a Papist, unless 
 such Protestant and Papist should have been first married 
 by a clergyman of the Protestant religion ; and that every 
 Popish priest, or reputed Popish priest, who shall cele- 
 brate any marriage between two Protestants, or between 
 any such Protestant or Papist, unless such Protestant and 
 Papist shall have been first married by a clergyman of 
 the Protestant religion, shall forfeit the sum of ^500 to 
 his majesty, upon conviction thereof.* 
 
 " 13. And whereas it may be e xpedient, in case his 
 
 • In England the celebration of divine service in Catholic chapels is pro- 
 tected by an act of parliament C31 George III, c. 32J imposing a penalty of £20 
 upon any person disturbing it. No such protection exists in Ireland. 
 
/;i tlie Reign of George III. 583 
 
 majesty, his heirs and successors shall be pleased to 
 alter the statutes of the College of the Holy and Undi- 
 vided Trinity, near Dublin, and of the University of 
 Dublin, as to enable persons professing the Roman Cath- 
 olic religion to enter into, or take degrees in the said 
 university, to remove any obstacle which now exists by 
 statute law, be it enacted : 
 
 " That from and after the first day of June, 1793, it 
 shall not be necessary for any person, upon taking any 
 of the degrees usually conferred by the said university, 
 to make or subscribe any declaration, or to take any 
 oath save the oath of allegiance and abjuration, any law 
 or statute to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 " 14. Provided always, that no Papist or Roman 
 Cathohc, or person professing the Roman Catholic, or 
 Popish religion, shall take any benefit by or under this 
 act, unless he shall have first taken and subscribed the 
 oath and declaration in this act contained and set forth, 
 and also the said oath appointed by the said act, passed 
 in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of his majesty's 
 reign, entitled ' an act to enable his majesty's subjects, 
 of whatever persuasion, to testify their allegiance to 
 him,' in some one of his majesty's Four Courts of Dublin, 
 or at the General Sessions of the Peace, or at any adjourn- 
 ment thereof, to be holden for the county, city or borough, 
 wherein such Papist or Roman Catholic, or person pro- 
 fessing the Roman Catholic, or Popish religion, doth 
 inhabit or dwell, or before the going judge or judges of 
 assize, in the county wherein such Papist or Roman 
 Catholic, or person professing the Roman Catholic, or 
 J'opish, religion, doth inhabit and dwell, in open court. 
 
 "15. Provided always, and be it enacted, that the 
 names of such persons as so shall take and subscribe 
 the said oaths and declarations, with their titles and 
 additions, shall be entered upon the rolls for that purpose, 
 to be appointed by said respective courts ; and that 
 
584 Penal Laws 
 
 tlie said rolls, once in every year, shall be transmitted to, 
 and deposited in the rolls office, in this kingdom, to 
 remain amongst the records thereof; and the master? 
 or keepers of the rolls in this kingdom, or their lawful 
 deputy or deputies, are hereby empowered and required 
 to give and deliver to such person or persons, so taking 
 and subscribing the said oaths and declarations, a certifi- 
 cate or certificates of such person or persons having 
 taken and subscribed the said oaths and declarations, 
 for each of which certificate the sum of one shilhng, and 
 no more, shall be paid. 
 
 " 16. And be it further provided and enacted that, 
 from and after the first day of April, 1793, no freeholder, 
 burgess, freeman, or inhabitant of this kingdom, being 
 a Papist or Roman Catholic, or person professing the 
 Roman Catholic, or Popish religion, shall at any time be 
 capable of giving his vote for the electing of any knight 
 or knights of any shire or county vi^ithin this kingdom, 
 or citizen or burgess to serve in any parliament, until 
 he shall have first produced and shown to the high sheriff 
 of the said county, or his deputy or deputies, at any elec- 
 tion of a knight or knights of the said shire, and to the 
 respective chief officer or officers of any city, borough 
 or town corporate to whom the return ol any citizen or 
 burgess to serve in parliament, such certificate of his 
 having taken and subscribed the said oaths and declara- 
 tion, either from the rolls of office, or from the proper 
 officer of the court in which the said oaths and declara- 
 tion shall be taken and subscribed ; and such person being 
 a freeholder, freeman, burgess, or inhabitant, producing 
 and showing such certificate, shall be then permitted to 
 vote as amply and fully as any Protestant freeholder, free- 
 man, burgess, or inhabitant of such county, city, borough, 
 or town corporate, but not otherwise."* 
 
 ' As admission into the army and navy, and the privilege to hold revenus 
 offices in Great Britain, are the only concessions that have been made to ths 
 
In tfie Reign af George III. 585 
 
 The general committee, in testimony of their gratitude 
 to the king for this most important concession, presented 
 the following address to the lord-lieutenant, to be by him 
 transmitted to his majesty : — 
 
 " Most Gracious Sovereign : 
 
 " We, your majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, 
 the Catholics of Ireland, animated with sentiments of 
 the most lively gratitude, beg leave to approach your 
 majesty with our sincere and heartfelt thanks for the sub- 
 stantial benefits which, through your majesty's gracious 
 recommendations, we have received from the wisdom and 
 liberality of parliament. 
 
 " Impressed with a deep sense of your majesty's 
 goodness, we reflect that, in consequence of this last 
 and signal instance of your royal favor, the disabilities 
 under which we and our ancestors so long labored, have, 
 
 Catholics since 1793, it may be as well to enumerate here, as in any other 
 place, the various disabilities to which they are still liable : — 
 
 Education. — ^They cannot teach school, unless they take the oaths of 13 and 
 14 George III, c. 35. They cannot take Protestant scholars, or be ushers to 
 Protestant schoolmasters, by 32 George III, u. 20. 
 
 Guardianship. — They cannot be guardians, unless they take the oaths of 13 
 and 14 George III, c. 35. If ecclesiastics, they cannot, under any circumstance, 
 be guardians; nor can any Catholic be guardian to a child of a Protestant, by 30 
 George III, c. 29. 
 
 Marriage. — If a Catholic clergyman marries a Protestant and a Catholic, 
 unless the marriage has been previously solemnized by a Protestant clergyman, 
 the marriage is null and void, and he is liable to a penalty of ;^5oo, by 33 
 George III, c. 21, } 12. 
 
 Self-defence. — No Catholic can keep arms unless he possesses a freehold 
 estate of £10 per annum, or a personal estate of £^00. If so qualified, he must 
 further qualify himself by taking the oaths of 13 and 14 George III, c. 35 (unless 
 he has a freehold estate of £loa per annum, or a personal estate of ^f 1,000, by 33 
 George III, c. 21). 
 
 Exercise of Religion. — The Catholic clergy must take the oaths of 13 and 
 14 George III, c. 35, and register their place of abode, age and parish . No 
 chapel can have a steeple or bell, and no rites or ceremonies of the religion or 
 habits of their order are permitted, except within their several places of worship, 
 or in private houses, by 21 and 22 George III, c. 24, § 6. 
 
 Property. — The penal laws are in full force in respect to landed property 
 
586 Penal Laws 
 
 ill a considerable degree, been removed, the constitutional 
 energy of three-fourths of your loyal subjects restored 
 to their country, and themselves enabled to testify, in a 
 manner more useful to j'our majesty's service, their 
 devoted attachment to your person, family and govern- 
 ment. Restored, as we now are, to such valuable 
 privileges, it shall be our duty, as it is our inclination, t.. 
 unite in support of our excellent constitution, as 
 established in kmg, lords, and commons, — a constitution 
 revered b}' us for its excellence, even when secluded 
 from its blessings, and from which every advantage we 
 derive becomes a new tie of fidelity and attachment. 
 
 " Permit us, most gracious sovereign, to express our 
 unfeigned satisfaction that, to a monarch 'endeared to us 
 by so many proofs of clemencjr, belongs the glorious 
 distinction of being the first to begin that work of 
 emancipation, in accomplishment of which we humbly 
 
 against all Catholics, and all Protestant purchasers from Catholics, when the 
 Catholic proprietor has omitted to take the qualifying oaths of 13 and 14 George 
 III, c— . 
 
 " The Catholic guilty of such omission not merely risks the total loss of his 
 landed property, but is immersed in fomenting litigation. His lands and 
 tenements, and all collateral securities made and entered into for covering 
 or protecting them, become discoverable, and may be sued for and recovered 
 from him by any Protestant discoverer. The discoverer, so vested with this 
 property, is enabled to find it out by every mode of inquisition, and to sue for 
 it with every kind of privilege (8 Anne, c. 3, §} 27 and 30). 
 
 "Not only are the courts of law open to him, but he may enter [and this is 
 the usual method ] into either of the courts of equity. He may file his bills against 
 those whom he suspects to be possessed of this forbidden property, against 
 those whom he suspects to be their trustees, and against those whom he suspects 
 to be privy to such ownership, and oblige them, under the guilt of penalties for 
 perjury, to discover, upon oath, the exact nature and just value of their estates 
 and trusts, in all particulars necessary to affect their forfeiture. In such suits 
 the informer is not liable to the delays which the ordinary procedure of those 
 courtF throws in the way of the most equitable claimant, nor has the Catholic 
 the indulgence allowed to the most fraudulent defendant: that of plea and demur- 
 rer. He is obliged to answer the whole directly, upon his oath, and the old 
 nde of 'extending benefit and restraining penalty is, by this law, struck out of 
 the ancient jurisprudence.' " ("Statement of the Penal Laws," p. 307.) 
 
 Franchises.— No Catholic can hold any office enumerated in } g of the 
 
In tJie Reign of George III. 587 
 
 hope your majesty will enjoy the gratification of seeing 
 your whole people united in the bonds of equal laws and 
 equal liberty. 
 
 " May your majesty long continue to reign in the 
 hearts of your faithful subjects, dispensing, as common 
 father to all your people, the inestimable blessings of 
 freedom, peace and union." 
 
 Although this act declared that Catholics might hold 
 any military office or employment, as its powers could 
 not extend out of Ireland, and' as all Irish Catholic 
 soldiers, sailors and officers were uniformly employed 
 on services out of Ireland, it was represented to the 
 government that, in order to give it any useful effect 
 in this respect, the English act of i George I, which 
 prohibits Catholics from filling any military situation, 
 should be repealed. In answer to their application, the 
 Catholics were informed by Lord Hobart that such a 
 measure would be immediately adopted, and the letter 
 of the secretary of state was shown to them, containing 
 the promise of the English government. In the House 
 
 act here inserted, of 33 George III, c. 21. Catholics cannot sit in parliament. 
 They cannot vote at elections for members, without taking the oaths of 13 
 and 14 George III, c. 35, and of 33 George III, c. 21. They cannot vote at 
 vestries, where the question relates to building or repairing churches, the salary 
 of the clerk, or the election of churchwarden, by 55 4-33 George III, c. 21. 
 They cannot be barristers, attorneys or professors of medicine on Sir P. Dunn's 
 foundation, without taking the oaths of 13 and 14 George III, c. 35, and of 33 
 Geirge III, u 21. 
 
 Catholic Soldiers. — By the Mutiny Act, if they refuse to frequent the 
 Church of England worship, when ordered to do so by their commanding 
 officer, shall, for the first offence, forfeit twelvepence, and for the second not 
 only forfeit twelvepence, but be laid in irons for twelve hours ; and by the 
 2d section, act 5, of the Articles of War, the punishment extends even to that oi 
 death. 
 
 No part scarcely, in fact, of the penal code is repealed, but all of it is now 
 the law of the land, and in full force against those Catholics who have not 
 qualified themselves for relief from its violence, by taking the oaths of 13 and 
 14 George III, c 35, and of 33 George III, c. 21. 
 
588 Penal Laws 
 
 of Lords, when, upon the debate of this act. Lord 
 Farnham proposed an amendment to the clause relating 
 to the military officers, by rendering its operation con- 
 ditional, until England should pass a similar law, the 
 Chancellor, Lord Clare, opposed it: " For," said he, "it 
 could not be supposed that his majesty would appoint a 
 man to such a post until the laws of the empire should 
 qualify him to act in every part of it. It was more than 
 probable a similar law to this would be adopted in 
 England before the lapse of two months, and on this 
 ground the amendment would be wholly unnecessary." * 
 
 Fourteen years, however, were allowed to pass by 
 without any attempt being made to pass such a law in 
 England; and when the cabinet, in 1807, sought to 
 rescue the plighted faith of their predecessors from 
 well-merited reproach, they were accused of an attempt 
 to subvert the Established Church, and were driven from 
 the councils of his majesty. 
 
 In the course of this year a most unequivocal proof 
 was given to the liberal sentiments which prevailed 
 throughout among the Protestants of the north of 
 Ireland, in regard to their Catholic fellow-countrymen. 
 At the meeting of the convention of delegates, which 
 was held, in February, at Dungannon, and in which 
 the counties of Antrim, Down, Londonderry, Tyrone. 
 Donegal and Monaghan, were fully represented, they 
 passed resolutions in favor of the absolute necessity of a 
 reform in parliament, including the unqualified admission 
 of Catholics. The Synod of Ulster also (a body consist- 
 ing of the whole dissenting clergy of the North, and the 
 Presbytery of Dublin, together with a lay delegate from 
 each parish) presented an address to the lord- lieutenant, 
 in which they expressed their satisfaction at the admission 
 of the Catholics to the privileges of the constitution. 
 
 'Plowden's Hist, of Br. Empire, during 1792 and 1739." 
 
In the Reign of George III, 589 
 
 These occurrences are of vast importance in forming a 
 correct view of the opinion of the Irish Protestants upon 
 this question, because the Presbyterians being in numbers 
 fully equal to the Protestants of the Church of England, 
 it leaves but a small number of the whole people adverse 
 to the Catholic claims, even if all these Protestants were, 
 as they certainly are not, hostile to emancipation. 
 
 During this session another subject occupied the seri- 
 ous attention of the upper house of parliament. Dis- 
 turbances had broken out, and outrages were committed 
 in the county of Louth, and the neighboring counties of 
 Meath, Cavan and Monaghan, by persons of the very low- 
 est rank in life, associated under the name of Defenders. 
 This body had its origin in religious persecution, and 
 was an almost inevitable consequence of the system ac- 
 cording to which Ulster had been colonized and settled, 
 and Ireland ruled since the Reformation. In that pro- 
 vince English and Scotch planters had been established 
 on the forfeited lands of the native Catholics. 
 
 These last were, for the most part, obliged to retire to 
 the bogs and mountains ; but, even there, they were not 
 permitted to lose the remembrance of their forefathers, 
 their power and their opulence, in the tranquil enjoyment 
 of security and content. 
 
 The bogs and mountains afforded them no refuge 
 against the acts of uniformity and supremacy, or the ac- 
 cumulating oppressions ot the Popery laws. Nor were 
 ^he wretched inhabitants exempted by their defenceless 
 condition from the hatred, contempt and persecution of 
 their privileged and arrogant neighbors. Hence arose 
 a mutual rancorous animosity between the new settlers 
 rmd natives, or, in other words, between the Protestants 
 and Catholics, transmitted from generation to genera- 
 tion, until at last it became more violent and intolerant 
 than in any other part of Ireland. 
 
 The Volunteers, by the benign influence of their institu- 
 
5yo Penal Laws 
 
 tion, had, for the first time, considerably abated this spirit, 
 and by their successful activity, as military men, in keep- 
 ing the peace, had prevented its receiving fresh provo- 
 cation by outrage and insult. But in proportion as this 
 body declined or was discouraged, prejudices and hatred 
 revived, especially in districts remote from the princi- 
 pal Presbyterian towns, where the growing liberality of 
 the most enlightened dissenters could scarcely operate. 
 These prejudices which, chiefly prevailing in the county 
 of Armagh,* extended, more or less, into the adjoining 
 districts of the counties of Down and Tyrone, bpgan to 
 break out in the year 1791. About that period several 
 associations among the lower order of the Protestants 
 were formed, under the appellation of Peep-o'-Day Boys, 
 whose object was to scour the Catholic districts about 
 the break of day, and strip the inhabitants of fire- 
 arms, alleging that they were warranted in so doing by 
 the Popery laws, which had, indeed, for a long period, 
 .forbidden to the members of that communion the use 
 of arms, even for self-defence. 
 
 * Lord Viscount Gosford's address to the magistrates of the county of Armagh: 
 " Gentlemen ; — Having requested your attendance here this day, it becomes my 
 duty to state the grounds upon which I thought it advisable to propose this 
 meeting, and, at the same time, to submit to your consideration a plan which 
 occurs to me as most likely to check the enormities that have already brought 
 disgrace upon this country, and may soon reduce it into deep distress. It is no 
 secret that a persecution, accompanied with all the circumstances of ferocious 
 cruelty which have, in all ages, distinguished that dreadful calamity, is now 
 raging in this county. Neither age nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence 
 as to any guilt in the late disturbances, is sufficient to excite mercy, much less 
 to afford protection. 
 
 " The only crime which the wretched objects of this ruthless persecution are 
 charged with, is a crime, indeed, of easy proof: it is simply profession of 
 the Roman Catholic faith, or an intimate connection with a person professing 
 that faith. A lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges of this new 
 species of delinquency, and the sentence they have denounced is equally con- 
 cise and terrible. It is nothing less than a confiscation of all property, and 
 an immediate banishment. It would be extremely painful, and surely unneces- 
 sary, to detail the horrors that attend the execution of so rude and tremendous 
 a proscription, — a proscription that certainly exceeds, in the comparative numbei 
 
In tlie Reign of George III. 591 
 
 The Catholics, thus exposed and attacked, entered into 
 a counter association, called Defenders, which derived its 
 name from the necessity of their situation, and its excuse 
 from the difficulty, or, as they stated, the impossibility of 
 obtaining justice against their aggressors. This associa- 
 tion, at first local, and confined, as much as mutual hatred 
 would allovv, to actual self-defence, began, in 1792, to 
 spread through other parts of the kingdom, and not a 
 little to connect itself with more general politics. 
 
 In proportion as this association extended itself into 
 districts where no Protestants of inferior rank of life were 
 to be found, and therefore no outrages like those com- 
 mitted by the Peep-o'-Day Boys to be apprehended, it 
 gradually lost its characteristic of being a religious feud, 
 and became, in fact, an association of the very worst char- 
 acters, particularly for procuring a redress of the griev- 
 ances of the ver}' humbler classes. Even in the counties 
 where it originated, it ceased to be actuated by religious 
 animosity before the end of 1792, in consequence of 
 the exertions of the early United Irishmen, whose chief 
 
 of those it consigns to ruin and misery, every example that ancient and modern 
 history can supply : for, where have we heard, or in what story of human cruel- 
 ties have we read of more than half the inhabitants of a populous country 
 deprived at one blow of the means, as well as the fruits of their industry, and 
 driven, in the midst of an inclement season, to seek a shelter for themselves 
 and their helpless families where chance may guide them ? This is no ex- 
 aggerated picture of the horrid scenes now acting in this country, yet surely it 
 is sufficient to awaken sentiments of indignation and compassion in the coldest 
 bosoms. Those horrors are now acting with impunity. The spirit of impartial 
 justice (without which law is nothing better than an instrument of tyrannyj has 
 for a time disappeared in this country, and the supineness of the magistracy 
 of Armagh is become a common topic of conversation in every corner o( the 
 kingdom. 
 
 "It is said, in reply, the Catholics are dangerous. They may be so — they 
 may be dangerous from their numbers, and still more dangerous from the un- 
 bounded views they have been encouraged to entertain ; but I would ventuije to 
 assert, without fear of contradiction, that these proceedings are not more contrary 
 to humanity than they are to sound policy. It is to be lamented that no civil 
 magistrate happened to be present willi the military detachment on the night of 
 the2ist instant ; but I trust the suddenness of the occasion, the unexpected 
 
592 Penal Laws 
 
 endeavors were always directed to reconcile the Protes- 
 tants and Catholics. 
 
 These disturbances having attracted the attention ot 
 the House of Lords early in 1793, a secret committee was 
 appointed to inquire into these causes, to endeavor to 
 discover their promoters, and to prevent their extension. 
 
 In their report they exculpate the Catholics as a bod}- 
 from all criminality with respect to their proceedmgs. 
 They say that " nothing appeared before them which 
 could lead them to beUeve that the body of the Roman 
 Catholics in this kingdom were concerned in promoting or 
 countenancing such disturbances ;" and then they even 
 acquit the lower order of Catholics of being to blame, 
 by saying that, "if all the magistrates in the disturbed 
 counties had followed the spirited example of the few 
 who, much to their honor, exerted themselves with 
 vigor and courage to support the laws, the committee 
 are persuaded that these disturbances might have been 
 suppressed ; but, instead of doing so, they remained 
 inactive." 
 
 and instantaneous aggression on the part of the delinquents, will be universally 
 admitted as a full vindication of the conduct of the officer, and the party acting 
 under his command. Gentlemen, I have the honor to hold a situation in this 
 country which calls upon me to deliver ray sentiments, and I do it without fear 
 and without disguise. I am as true a Protestant as any gentleman in this 
 room ; I inherit a property which my family claimed under a Protestant title, and, 
 with the blessing of God, I will maintain that title to the utmost of my power. I 
 will never consent to make a sacrifice of Protestant ascendancy to Catholic 
 claims, with whatever menace they may be urged, or however speciously or 
 invidiously supported. Conscious of my sincerity in this public declaration, 
 which I do not make unadvisedly, but as the result of mature deliberation, I 
 defy the paltry insinuations that malice or party spirit may suggest. 
 
 " I know my own heart, and I would despise myself if, under intimidation, I 
 could close my eyes against such scenes as present themselves on every side, 
 or my ears against the complaints of a persecuted people. 
 
 " I should be guilty of an unpardonable injustice to the feelings of gentlemsn 
 here present, were I to say more on this subject. I have now acquitted mv- 
 self to my conscience and my country, and take the liberty of proposing the 
 fnlJov/ing resolutions: — 
 
 '■ 1st. That it appears to this meeting that the county of Armagh is at ihi; 
 
In the Reign of George III. 
 
 ^93 
 
 In further corroboration of the innocence of tne Cath- 
 olics, there is the following declaration of one of the 
 members of the committee, in the debate on the Catholic 
 bill. Lord Portarlington said that, " if he was not fully 
 convinced that the Catholic body had no connection 
 whatever in the disturbances created by some of their 
 communion in the North, he should never give this bill 
 his support." 
 
 The Catholic clergy, who had been uniformly ready 
 to promote tranquillity, and to inculcate the obligatior 
 of a strict submission to the laws, were not backward, 
 on this occasion, in assisti.jg government to suppress the 
 outrages of the Defenders. 
 
 Dr. Troy, Dr. O'Reilly, Dr. Bray, Dr. Bellew and 
 Dr. Cruise, all of them titular bishops, happening to be 
 in Dublin when the business was first taken up to the 
 House of Lords, published the following admonition to 
 those of their communion, and directed the priests of 
 their dioceses to read it in their respective chapels : — 
 
 moment in a state of uncommon disorder ; that the Roman Catholic inhabitants 
 are grievously oppressed by lawless persons unknown, who attack and plunder 
 their houses by night, and threaten them with instant destruction, unless they 
 immediately abandon their lands and habitations. 
 
 "2d. That a committee of magistrates be appointed to sit on Tuesdays and 
 Saturdays in the chapter-room, in the town of Armagh, to receive information 
 against all persons of whatever description, who disturb the peace of this 
 county. 
 
 " 3d. That th,e instruction of the whole body of magistrates to their committee 
 shall be to use every legal means within their power to stop the progress of 
 the persecution now carried on by an ungovernable mob against the Roman 
 Catholic inhabitants of this county. 
 
 "4th. That said committee, or any three of them, be empowered to expend 
 any sum or sums of money, for information or secret service, out of the fund 
 subscribed by the gentlemen of this county. 
 
 " Sth. That a meeting of the whole body of the magistracy be held every second 
 Monday, at the house of Mr. Charles McReynolds, in the town of Armagh, to 
 hear the report of the committee, and to give such further instructions as the 
 exigency of the case may require. 
 
 "6th. That offenders of every description in the present disturbances shall be 
 prosecuted out of the fund subscribed by the gentlemen of this county." 
 
594 Penal Laws 
 
 " Dublin, January 25th, 1793. 
 
 " Dear Christians : — 
 
 It has been our constant practice, as it is our indis- 
 pensable duty, to exhort you to manifest, on all occasions, 
 that unshaken loyalty to his majesty and obedience to 
 the laws which the principles of our holy religion inspire 
 and command. This loyalty and obedience have ever 
 peculiarly distinguished the Roman Catholics of Ireland. 
 We do not conceive a doubt of their being actuated at 
 present by the same sentiments, but think it necessary 
 to observe that a most lively gratitude to our beloved 
 sovereign should render their loyalty and love of order, 
 if possible, more conspicuous. Our gracious king, the 
 common father of all his people, has, with peculiar energy, 
 recommended his faithful Roman Catholic subjects of this 
 kingdom to the wisdom and liberality of our enlightened 
 parliament. How can we, dear Christians, express our 
 heartfelt acknowledgments for this signal and unprece- 
 dented instance of ro3'al benevolence and condescension ? 
 Words are insufficient ; but 3'our continued and peaceable 
 conduct will more effectually proclaim them, and in a man- 
 ner equally, if not more, satisfactory and pleasing to his 
 majesty and his parliament. Avoid, then, we conjure you, 
 dearest brethren, every appearance of riot; attend to 
 your industrious pursuits for the support and comfort of 
 your families ; fl}' from idle assemblies ; abstain from the 
 intemperate use of spirituous and intoxicating liquors ; 
 practise the duties of our holy religion. This conduct, so 
 pleasing to heaven, will also prove the most powerful 
 recommendation of your present claims to our amiable 
 sovereign, to both houses of parliament, to the magis- 
 trates, and to all our well-meaning fellow-subjects of 
 every description. None but the evil-minded can rejoice 
 in your being concerned in any disturbance. 
 
 " We cannot but declare our utmost and con>jcien- 
 
In the Reign of George III 595 
 
 tious detestation and abhorrence of the enormities lately 
 committed by seditious and misguided wretches of every 
 religious denomination in some counties of this king- 
 dom ; they are enemies of God and man, the outcasts of 
 society, and a disgrace to Christianity. We consider the 
 Roman Catholics amongst them unworthy the appella- 
 tion, whether acting from themselves, or seduced to out 
 rage by arts of designing enemies to us and to nationa. 
 prosperity, intimately connected with our emancipation. 
 
 " Offer your prayers, dearest brethren, to the Father of 
 mercy, that He may inspire these deluded people with 
 sentiments becoming Christians and good subjects ; sup- 
 plicate the Almighty Ruler and Disposer of empires, by 
 whom kings rule, and legislators determine what is just, to 
 direct his majesty's councils, and forward his benevolent 
 intentions to unite all his Irish subjects in bonds of com- 
 mon interest, and common endeavors for the preservation 
 of peace and good order, and for every purpose tending 
 to increase and secure national prosperity. 
 
 " Beseech the throne of mercy, also, to assist both 
 houses of parliament in their important deliberations, 
 that they may be distinguished by consummate wisdom 
 and liberality, for the advantage of the kingdom, and 
 the relief and happiness of his majesty's subjects. 
 
 " Under the pleasing expectations of your cheerful 
 compliance with these our earnest solicitations, we most 
 sincerely wish you every blessing in this life, and ever- 
 lasting happiness in the next, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Amen." 
 
 In the summer of 1794, Mr. Pitt formed his memorable 
 coalition with the Rockingham party ; and though the 
 ground of this transaction was a concurrence of opinion 
 concerning the war with France, " if the general man- 
 agement and superintendence of Ireland had not been 
 offered to the Duke of Portland, that coalition could 
 
5r)6 Penal Laws 
 
 not have taken place. The sentiments he had enter- 
 tained, and the language he had held so publicly for 
 years back on the subject, rendered the superintendence 
 of Irish affairs a point that could not be dispensed with 
 by him." * 
 
 It having thus become a point that could not be 
 dispensed with by the Duke of Portland, to grant the 
 Catholics of Ireland complete emancipation, the first 
 measure of his grace, immediately upon the coalition 
 being arranged, was to solicit Lord Fitzwilliam to 
 accept of his office of lord-lieutenant, and to propose 
 to him to carry this measure instantly into effect, f 
 This measure was decided upon by the cabinet on the 
 day the Duke of Portland kissed hands, after frequent 
 consultations between Mr. Pitt, the Duke of Portland, 
 Lord Fitzwilliam, Mr. Grattan and Mr. Ponsonby. % 
 
 Lord Fitzwilliam, having acceded to the pressing 
 solicitations of the Duke of Portland to undertake to 
 carry this favorite and indispensable measure into effect, 
 landed in Dublin on the 2d January. He had consented 
 not to bring the question forward on the part of gov- 
 ernment, but rather to endeavor to keep it back until a 
 period of more general tranquillity ; " but it had been re- 
 solved by the cabinet that if the Catholics should appear 
 determined to stir the business, and bring it before par- 
 liament, then he was to give it a handsome support on 
 the part of government." But no sooner was Lord Fitz- 
 william landed than he found this determination had 
 been taken by the Catholics. 
 
 The Catholics of Dublin had held a meeting on the 23d 
 December, and agreed to a petition to parliament, claim- 
 ing the repeal of all the penal laws. Similar petitions 
 had been agreed to throughout the kingdom, — the natu- 
 ral consequences of its being known for some months 
 
 • Letter of Lord Fitzwilliam to Lord Carlisle. t Ibid. t Ibid. 
 
1.^ ' ?|t n- 
 
 \.j 
 
 HEN.UY GUATTAH. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 597 
 
 that so steady and strenuous a friend to emancipation 
 as the Duke of Portland had become one of his majesty's 
 ministers. Lord Fitzwilliam, finding, therefore, that the 
 question would force itself upon his immediate consider 
 ation, communicated his opinion and intentions to the 
 English government on the third day after his arrival, 
 in the following terms : " That, not to grant cheerfully, 
 on the part of government, all the Catholics wished for, 
 would not only be exceedingly impolitic, but perhaps 
 dangerous ; that, in doing this, no time was to be lost ; that 
 the business would presently be at hand ; and that, if he 
 received no very peremptory directions to the contrary, 
 he would acquiesce to the wishes of the Catholics." * 
 
 Parliament met on the 22d January, and on the 12th 
 February, " no peremptory directions to the contrary 
 having arrived," though so much time had elapsed since 
 Lord Fitzwilliam had communicated his intentions to the 
 English government, Mr. Grattan, with the consent of 
 Lord Fitzwilliam, moved for leave to bring in a bill for 
 the further relief of the Catholics. 
 
 Meanwhile the English cabinet forgot the stipulations 
 which they had entered into with Lord Fitzwilliam, 
 "that, if the Catholics should appear determined to stir 
 the business, and bring it before parliament, he was to 
 give it a handsome support on the part of government ;" 
 and the Duke of Portland was directed by Mr. Pitt to 
 inform Lord Fitzwilliam that, notwithstanding the length 
 to which the Irish government had gone, it must retrace 
 its steps. 
 
 " Then," says Lord Fitzwilliam, in his letter to Lore 
 Carlisle, " it appears to have been discovered that the 
 deferring of it would be not merely an expediency, or 
 thing to be desired for the present, but the means of 
 doing a greater good to the British empire than it has 
 
 * Letter of Lord Fitzwilliam to Lord Carlisle. 
 
598 Penal Laws 
 
 been capable of receiving since the Revolution, or at least 
 since the Union." 
 
 Lord Fitzwilliam having refused to become a party 
 to the inconsistency of Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Port- 
 land, that fatal measure of his recall was determined 
 upon, — a measure which has involved Ireland in thirty 
 years of suffering, under mihtary tyranny, insurrection 
 and rebellion, and which, at times, has shaken the stability 
 of the empire to its centre. 
 
 Upon a debate in the House of Lords, which took 
 place soon after Lord Fitzwilliam's return to England, 
 on the subject of his conduct in Ireland, Lord West- 
 moreland said, by the direction of Mr. Pitt, "that he 
 had no authority whatever from ministers in this country 
 for taking the steps which he had done on the Catholic 
 question." The incorrectness, however, of this assertion 
 it is no very difficult matter to expose. In the first place 
 the measure of emancipation to the Catholics was origi- 
 nall}' the measure of Mr. Pitt and the Westmoreland ad- 
 ministration.* " The most strenuous and zealous friends," 
 says Lord Fitzwilliam, " of my predecessor claimed the 
 credit of it for their patron in terms of the highest com- 
 pliment. They did it in the House of Commons, they 
 did it in the House of Lords last night. The person 
 whom Lord Westmoreland then principally consulted, 
 opposed it; but the open interference of Lord Hobart, 
 the avowed determination of the British cabinet, com- 
 municated as such to the Catholic agents on the spot, 
 through the medium of confidential persons sent over to 
 England for that purpose, bore down the opposition. 
 The declarations of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas are well 
 known in this country, and are often quoted : they would 
 not risk a rebellion in Ireland on such a question." 
 
 Here, then, is evidence which has never been contro- 
 
 * Letter of Lord Fitzwilliam to Lord Carlisle. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 599 
 
 verted, that, even before Lord Fitzwilliam went to Ireland, 
 the measure had been determined upon by Mr. Pitt. 
 The only question, therefore, to be decided in judging 
 of the correctness of Lord Westmoreland's assertion is, 
 whether or not Mr. Pitt had consented that the proper 
 time for adopting this measure was arrived when Lord 
 Fitzwilliam was sent to Ireland. That he had so consented, 
 there is in proof the language which the Duke of 
 Portland had held so publicly for years back," that the 
 emancipation of the Catholics was indispensably neces- 
 sary ; there is the fact of his refusing to coalesce with 
 Mr. Pitt unless this measure was conceded ; there are 
 the frequent consultations that took place concerning 
 it between Mr. Pitt, Lord Fitzwilliam, Mr. Grattan and 
 Mr. Ponsonby ; the acceptance, also, of the office of 
 lord-lieutenant by Lord Fitzwilliam ; and, finally, the 
 word and honor of Lord Fitzwilliam that Mr. Pitt's con- 
 sent was absolutely given. 
 
 No event in our history has ever happened that has 
 been attended with more pernicious consequences than 
 the decision that Mr. Pitt at this time made to recall Lord 
 Fitzwilliam. 
 
 Had he allowed Ithe Catholics to be restored to their 
 constitutional rights, they would have secured the peace 
 of Ireland, and have afforded every supportin their power 
 to the government. The contrary policy threw the mass 
 of the poorer Catholics into the hands of the United Irish- 
 men, involved the country in a civil war, and established 
 that succession of disturbances and insurrections which 
 nave prevailed in Ireland, with little interruption, from 
 the year 1795 to the present time. 
 
 When the differences that existed between the lord- 
 lieutenant and the English cabinet were known, grief 
 and consternation seized all who had flattered themselves 
 that the measures of his excellency's administration were 
 to redress the grievances, remove the discontents, and 
 
Coo Penal Laws 
 
 work the salvation of Ireland. In the House of Commons 
 Sir Lawrence Parsons moved to limit the money bills to 
 two months ; but Lord Milton and Mr. George Ponsonby 
 deprecated the measure, and it was rejected. The House 
 of Commons, however, unanimously resolved that his 
 excellenc}' had, by his conduct since his arrival, merited 
 (he thanks of the house, and the confidence of the people. 
 
 Out of parliament the discontent was more manifest. 
 The Catholics, who had now for six months felt secure 
 of being at length relieved from the execrable system of 
 pains and penalties, as the Duke of Portland himself was 
 accustomed to call it, now saw the cup dashed from their 
 lips, and could not but despair of ever seeing any termina- 
 tion to the duplicity of English cabinets. The Catholics 
 of Dublin, impelled by these feelings, assembled on the 
 27th February, and voted a petition to the king for the 
 continuance of Lord Fitzwilliam as their chief governor ; 
 and those of the whole kingdom followed their example, 
 by adopting resolutions and addresses expressive of the 
 same sentiments. 
 
 The Protestants, too, assembled extensively, and as 
 loudly spoke their indignation at what they condemned 
 as ministerial treachery, and considered as a great public 
 calamity. The freemen and freeholders of the city of 
 Dublin, like the Catholics, agreed to a petition to the 
 king. The merchants and traders of the city expressed 
 Iheir sorrow at the rumored recall of his excellency, and 
 their entire concurrence in the removal of all religious 
 disabilities. 
 
 The counties of Kildare, Wexford, Antrim and Lon- 
 donderry, followed the example of the freemen and free- 
 holders of the capital, and the same sentiments seemed 
 to pervade every part of the kingdom. The active 
 republicans and the United Irishmen alone were not 
 sorry at the agitation and controversies which were 
 now springing up. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 60 1 
 
 These expressions, however, of dissatisfaction on the 
 part of the Irish people were of no avail. Ireland was 
 doomed to see a system of burning and torture succeed 
 a system of conciliation, and Lord Camden was selected 
 as a fit person to succeed Lord Fitzwilliam as lord- 
 lieutenant. 
 
 The measure of union comes the next in the course of 
 events in which the Catholics, as a body, were concerned ; 
 and, in strict propriety, it would be right now to proceed 
 to show how the Catholics were affected by it. But 
 as there have been, and still are, those who, either 
 through ignorance or in defiance of all regard for truth, 
 assert that the rebellion of 1798 was a Catholic rebellion, 
 and that the conduct of the CathoHcs on that occasion 
 afforded a justification for refusing to grant to them such 
 concessions, it will contribute to promote a more just 
 view of the subject if those facts are referred to, which 
 exist, to refute the supposition that the Catholics, as a 
 body, were concerned in the rebellion. 
 
 Fortunately for the cause of truth and justice, there 
 do exist documents the authority of which no sophistry 
 or calumny can impeach. These are the reports of the 
 committee of the Irish parliament. They so minutely 
 explain the cause, the conduct, and the character of this 
 rebellion, and give such accurate information respecting 
 those who are concerned in it, that it is impossible for 
 any one to affix to it any other character than that which 
 they have given to it. The justification, therefore, of the 
 Catholics by these reports rests upon this circumstance, 
 that to maintain that the rebellion was a Catholic rebellion 
 is to dispute the authority of these reports, which make 
 no such charge, and account for it by other means. 
 
 The following extracts from the report of the comrnitee 
 of the House of Commons, appointed in 1798 to examine 
 the evidence, contain a faithful description of the origin 
 and object of this transaction : — 
 
6o3 Penal Laws 
 
 " The society, under the name of United Irishmen, it 
 appears, was established in 1791 ; its founders held forth 
 what they termed Catholic emancipation and parliamen- 
 tary reform as the ostensible objects of their union ; but 
 it clearly appeared from the letter of Theobald Wolfe 
 Tone, accompanying their original constitution, as trans- 
 nitted to Belfast for their adoption, that, from its com- 
 mencement, the real purpose of those who were at the 
 head of the institution was to separate Ireland from Great 
 Britain, and to subvert the established constitution of 
 this kingdom. In corroboration of which your committee 
 have annexed to this report several of their earl}' publica- 
 tions, particularly a prospectus of the society, which 
 appeared in the beginning of the year 1791, as also the 
 plan of reform they recommended to the people. 
 
 " For the first three years their attention was entirely 
 directed to the engaging in their society persons of 
 activity and talents, in every quarter of the kingdom, 
 and in preparing the public mind for their future pur- 
 poses, by the circulation of the most seditious publi- 
 cations, particularly the works of Mr. Thomas Paine. 
 At this time, however, the leaders were rather cautious 
 of alarming minds not sufficiently ripe for the adopiion 
 of their principles, by the too open disclosure of the real 
 objects which they had in view. In 1795 the text of the 
 society underwent a striking revision ; the words in the 
 amended text stand, ' A full representation of the people,' 
 omittmg the words, ' In the Commons House of Par- 
 liament,' the reason for which has been admitted by 
 three members of the executive, examined before your 
 committee, to be the better to reconcile reformers and 
 republicans in a common exertion to overthrow the 
 State. 
 
 "In the summer of 1796 great numbers of persons, 
 principally in the province of Ulster, had enrolled them- 
 selves in this society. About the same period, as will be 
 
In the Reign of George IIT, C03 
 
 more fully explained hereafter, a direct communication 
 had been opened by the heads of the party with the enemy, 
 and French assistance was solicited, and promised to be 
 speedily sent in aid of the disaffected in this kingdom. 
 
 " With a view of being prepared as much as possible to 
 cooperate with the enemy then expected, and in order 
 to counteract the effect of the armed associations of 
 yeomanry, established in October, 1796, directions were 
 issued by the leaders to the societies to form themselves 
 into military bodies, and to be provided with arms and 
 ammunition. 
 
 " These directions were speedily obeyed ; the societies 
 assumed a new military form, and it appears by the 
 original papers seized at Belfast in the month of April, 
 1797, that their numbers at that period, in the province 
 of Ulster alone, were stated to amount to nearly one hun- 
 dred thousand men ; that they were largely supplied 
 with lire-arms and pikes ; that they had some cannon and 
 ammunition, and were diligently employed in the study 
 of military tactics; in short, that nothing was neglected 
 by the party which could enable them to take the field 
 on the arrival of the enemy, or whenever they might 
 receive orders to that effect from their superior officers, 
 whom they were bound by oath to obey." 
 
 In the report of the committee of 1797, it appears that 
 no part of the kingdom in which the Catholic popula- 
 tion prevails was organized, except the counties of West- 
 meath and Kildare, and the city of Dublin. These ex- 
 tracts establish the following facts : — 
 
 1. That the persons who were the founders of the 
 rebelHon were those who formed the societies of United 
 Irishmen, and who were all Protestants. 
 
 2. That the object of the rebellion was a republican 
 form of government and separation from England, and 
 not Catholic emancipation, or the establishment, of the 
 Catholic religion. 
 
6o4 Penal Laws 
 
 3. That in May, 1797, no Catholic whatever was con- 
 cerned in the rebellion, except some of the lowest orders 
 in Dublin, and in the counties of Westmeath and Kil- 
 dare ; and, 
 
 4. That one hundred thousand Protestants were, in 
 May, 1797, completely organized for open rebellion, and 
 well supplied with arms. 
 
 Now, as we learn from the evidence of Mr. McNevin, 
 before the committee of the House of Lords, in 1798, 
 that the leaders of the measure had determined to com- 
 mence operations in 1797, let us suppose the rebellion had 
 then broken out, and ask this question, Would it have 
 been a Catholic rebellion ? Certainly not. No man could 
 venture to maintain an opinion so utterly untenable. 
 Then, if the rebellion, had it broken out in 1797, would 
 have been a rebellion of Protestants, and not one of 
 Catholics, how could it become a Catholic rebellion in 
 1798? Let us again refer to the report of the secret 
 committee. This gives an accurate account of the pro- 
 gress of the rebellion during the year 1797, and shows 
 by what means, and by whom, the deluded Catholic 
 peasantry of the South were made parties to the treason : 
 
 " It appears to your committee that the leaders of 
 the treason, apprehensive lest the enemy might be dis- 
 couraged from any further plan of invasion by the loyal 
 disposition manifested throughout Munster and Con- 
 naught (the two great Catholic provinces) on their for- 
 mer attempt (by Hoche, in December, 1796), determined 
 to direct all their exertions to the propagation of the 
 system in those provinces which had hitherto been but 
 partially infected. With this view, emissaries were sent 
 into tne South and West in great numbers, of whose 
 success in forming new societies, and administering the 
 oaths of the union, there were, in the course of a few 
 months, but too evident proofs, in the introduction of 
 the same disturbances and enormities into Munster 
 
In the Reign of George III. 605 
 
 with which the northern province had been so severely 
 visited. 
 
 " In order to engage the peasantry in the southern 
 counties, particularly in the counties of Waterford and 
 Cork, the more eagerly to their cause, the United Irish- 
 men found it expedient, in urging their general principles, 
 to dwell with peculiar energy on the supposed oppres- 
 siveness of tithes (which had been the pretext for the 
 old Whiteboy insurrections) ; and it is observable that, 
 in addition to the acts of violence usually resorted to by 
 the party for the furtherance of their purposes, the 
 ancient practice of burning the corn and houghing the 
 cattle of those against whom their resentment was 
 directed, was revived, and very generally practised in 
 those counties. 
 
 "With a view to excite the resentment of the Cath- 
 olics,' and to turn their resentment to the purpose of the 
 party, fabricated and false texts were presented, as having 
 been taken to exterminate Catholics, and were industri- 
 ously disseminated by emissaries of the treason through- 
 out the provinces of Leinster, Munster and Connaught. 
 Reports were frequently circulated amongst the ignorant 
 of the Catholic persuasion, that large bodies of men 
 were coming to put them to death. This fabrication, 
 however extravagant, was one among the many wicked 
 means by which the deluded peasantry were engaged 
 the more readily in the treason. 
 
 " The measures thus adopted by the party * completely 
 succeeded in detaching the minds of the lower classes 
 from their usual habits and pursuits, insomuch that, in 
 the course of the autumn and winter, 1797, the peasantry, 
 in the midland and southern counties, were sworn and 
 ripe for insurrection." 
 
 From this account of the progress of the treason in 
 1797, in the South of Ireland, the following inferences 
 • The Protestant United Irishmen. 
 
6o6 Penal Laws 
 
 may be deduced: ist, that the Catholics of Ireland 
 were unconnected with the system of rebellion which 
 had extended over the whole of the Protestant province 
 of Ulster ; 2d, that the peasantry of the South were cor- 
 rupted by emissaries sent amongst them by the leaders 
 of the treason in the North, and not by the Catholic 
 clergy or Catholic aristocracy; and, 3d, that the organi- 
 zation of the South was not a distinct effort of a distinct 
 body of people, but a measure subsidiary to the original 
 organization of the Protestants of the North, conducted 
 by the same party, and having the same object in con- 
 templation. 
 
 Then it follows that the leaders of the rebellion, being 
 the same in 1798 as they were in 1797, the object of it 
 the same in 1798 as it was in 1797, the means for carry- 
 ing it into effect in 1798 the same as the means for carry- 
 mg it into effect in 1797, there can be no more grounds 
 for calling it a Catholic rebellion in 1798 than there were 
 for calling it a Catholic rebellion in 1797 ; and, therefore, 
 as there were no grounds for affixing this character to it 
 in 1797, neither are there any for calling it a Cathc^ic 
 rebellion in 1798. 
 
 In direct contradiction, however, of such a conclusion, 
 and of the statements of the secret committee, it has been 
 asserted by those who are interested in calumniating the 
 character of the Irish rebellion, and believed by those 
 who are ignorant of its true nature, that it was a Catholic 
 rebellion ; that the designs of the Catholic body went 
 to the massacre and destruction of every Protestant in 
 Ireland, and that all their other plans were wholly sub- 
 scivient to that of establishing the Catholic religion.* 
 
 • These are the propositions which Sir Richard Musgrave has labored tQ 
 maintain. His work professes to do that which the secret committee of the 
 House of Commons was appointed to do, namely : to give a faithful account of 
 this rebellion. A discerning pul^lic will at once see to which authority they 
 ought to give a preference Sir Richard dedicated his first edition to Lord 
 
In the Reign of George III. 607 
 
 As to the conduct of the Catholic clergy of the county 
 of Wexford, it is well known " that not one of them who 
 had a flock, not one parish priest was implicated, or had 
 any concern in fomenting, encouraging or aiding the 
 rebellion; nay, it is certain that they abhorred and 
 detested and shuddered at it as the most wicked, 
 scandalous, and abominable event that they had ever 
 witnessed."* 
 
 The supposition that the establishment of the Cath- 
 olic religion was one of the objects of this rebellion, is 
 proved to be unfounded by the evidence of the princi- 
 pal leaders, Emmett and McNeiven. 
 
 The following are their answers, given before the 
 committee, to the question, " Whether or not they would 
 set up the Catholic religion ?" 
 
 McNeiven. — " I would no more consent to that than to 
 the establishment of Mahometanism." 
 
 Emmett. — " I do not think the Catholics would wish to 
 set up a Catholic establishment, even at the present day. 
 Perhaps some old priests, who have long groaned under 
 the penal laws, might wish for a retribution to them- 
 selves, but I do not think the young priests wish for 
 it; and I am convinced the laity would not submit to it, 
 
 Cornwallis. Upon reading it, however, Lord Cornwallis directed his secretary 
 to write the following letter to him : 
 
 "Dublin, March za,, 180:. 
 " Sir : — I am directed by the lord-lieutenant to express to you his concern 
 at its appearing that your late publication of the ' History of the Rebellions 
 of Ireland' has been dedicated to him by permission. 
 
 ' ' Had his excellency been apprised of the contents and nature of the work, he 
 would never have lent the sanction of his name to a book which tends so 
 strongly to revive the dreadful animosities which have so long distracted this 
 country, and which it is the duty of every good subject to endeavor to compose. 
 
 " His excellency, therefore, desires me to request that, in any future edition 
 of the book, the permission to dedicate it to him may be omitted. 
 
 "I have, etc., 
 
 " E. LITTLEHALES." 
 • See "Dr. Caulfield's Reply to Sir R. Musgrave," sold by Keating & Co. 
 Duke Street 
 
6o8 Penal Laws 
 
 and that the objections to it will be every day gaimncr 
 strength." 
 
 Only two circumstances more remain to be taken notice 
 of regarding the conduct of the Catholics, as a body, in 
 this rebeUion. One of them, the indisputable fact, that 
 of the twenty-four leaders of the rebellion who were 
 banished to Fort St. George, only four of them were 
 Catholics, twelve were of the Church of England, and 
 the remaining eight were Dissenters. Well indeed, then, 
 might Mr. Pitt say, in the House of Commons, in 1805, 
 whose opinion is the other circumstance alluded to: "I 
 do not consider the late rebellion in Ireland to have been 
 a Catholic rebellion."* 
 
 Facts, reason and authority, therefore, it appears, all 
 coincide in the condemnation of the calumny which 
 a few blind and mistaken men have had just talent 
 enough to propagate amongst the ignorant and pre- 
 judiced. The magna vis veritatis will, however, prevail 
 on this, as well as upon all other occasions, and sooner 
 or later bring forward the unfortunate and much-injured 
 Catholics of Ireland to the view of their English fellow- 
 subjects as highly deserving of their confidence and 
 their affection. 
 
 The next great event belonging to the Catholic ques- 
 tion is the measure of Union, not as having, in any way, 
 altered the pohtical condition of the Catholics in respect 
 to the penal laws, but as a measure concerning- which a 
 compact was virtually entered into between them and 
 the English government. For, though it is true that no 
 regular articles like those of Limerick can be produced 
 to prove this compact, still there is circumstantial evi 
 dence of such a nature as is sufficient to bring conviction 
 lo every candid mind that, on the one hand, the Cath- 
 olics did agree to support the Union, and, on the others 
 that the English government, on their part, did indi- 
 
 • "Debates on the Catholic Petition." ' 
 
In the Reign of George III. 609 
 
 rectly agree to secure to them, in consideration of that 
 support, the measure of emancipation. 
 
 This evidence is to be collected, ist, from the speech 
 of Mr. Pitt, on proposing the Union articles to the House 
 '^^ f^ommons ; 2dly, from the act of Union ; sdly, from Mr, 
 r ICC s speech, and his letters and those of Lord Cornwallis 
 concerning the change of administration in 1801. 
 
 First, Mr. Pitt's speech : — " I am well aware," says 
 Mr. Pitt, " that the subject of religious distinction is a 
 dangerous and delicate topic, especially when applied to 
 a country such as Ireland, the situation of which, in this 
 respect, is different from every other. When the estab- 
 lished religion of the state is the same as the general 
 religion of the empire, and where the property of the 
 country is in the hands of a comparatively small number 
 of persons professing that religion, while the religion of 
 a great majority of the people is different, it is not easy 
 to say, on general principles, what system of church 
 establishment, in such a country, would be free from dif- 
 ficulty and inconvenience. By many I know it will be 
 contended that the religion professed by the majority of 
 the people would at least be entitled to an equalit}'^ of 
 privileges. I have heard such an argument urged in this 
 house ; but those who apply it, without qualification, 
 to the case of Ireland, forget, surely, the principles on 
 which English interest and English connection have been 
 established in that country, and its present legislature 
 IS formed. No man can sa}'' that, in the present state of 
 things, and while Ireland remains a separate kingdom, 
 full concessions could be made to the Catholics without 
 endangering the state, and shaking the constitution tc 
 its centre." 
 
 Is not this as much as to say that, after an incorpo- 
 rate union shall have taken place, these full concessions 
 could be made without endangering Ireland ? Could 
 these words be understood in any other way by the 
 
6io Pc7ial Laws 
 
 Catholics ? Are they not an indirect offer, on the part of 
 Mr. Pitt, to the Catholics, to make these full concessions, 
 ])rovi'ied they would enable him to make them with- 
 out endangering the state ? But the language which he 
 next employs is stronger and still more in point. He im- 
 mediately proceeds : " On the other hand, without anti- 
 cipating the discussion, or the propriety of agitating the 
 question, or saying how soon or how late it may be fit to 
 discuss it, two propositions are indisputable: ist. When 
 the conduct of the Catholics shall be such as to make it 
 safe for the government to admit them to the participa- 
 tion of the privileges granted to those of the established 
 religion, and when the temper of the times shall be 
 favorable to such a measure, — when those events' take 
 place, it is obvious that such a question may be agitated 
 in an united imperial parliament with greater safety than 
 it could be in a separate legislature. In the second place, 
 I think it certain that, even for whatever period it may 
 be thought necessary, after the Union, to withhold from 
 the Catholics the enjoyment of those advantages, many of 
 the objections which at present arise out of their situation 
 would be removed if the Protestant legislature were no 
 longer separate and local, but general and impartial." 
 
 The speech from which the foregoing is extracted was 
 circulated gratis, by government, throughout Ireland. 
 It was considered by the Catholics as a tender of eman- 
 cipation ; it was anxiously read by all who could read ; 
 at the Castle it was explained to those who sought for 
 explanation, as an unequivocal offer of every conces- 
 sion and, in the result, the Catholics opposed their own 
 parliament, and gave their support to Mr. Pitt, and, by 
 the aid of this support, he was enabled to contend with 
 a majority in the House of Commons, and finally to carry 
 the measure. 
 
 We come no-w to the evidence to be collected from the 
 act of Union. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 6i i 
 
 Many of the leading Catholics have not hesitated 
 to declare that the oath prescribed by this act to 
 qualify members of parliament to take their seats, was 
 framed under an arrangement that, immediately after the 
 measure was passed, they were to enjoy the privilege of 
 sitting in parliament. The act runs thus : " That every 
 one of the Lords and Commons of parliament of the 
 United Kingdom, and every member of the House of 
 Commons of the United Kingdom, in the first and every 
 succeeding parliament shall, until the parliament of the 
 United Kingdom shall otherwise provide, take the oath 
 as now enjoined to be taken." " Do not quibble with us," 
 the Catholics say, " concerning terms and formalities ; 
 it was clearly understood between us that, it we cooper- 
 ated to bring about the Union, as we actually did, you 
 would effect the emancipation. To give a coloring to 
 this engagement, you inserted in the articles of union 
 an intimation of a proposed change of the oaths in our 
 favor, when, behold ! now you roundly tell us that this 
 alteration never shall take place, and that we must make 
 up our minds to wear our shackles till the end of time." 
 
 The third head of evidence is Mr. Pitt's speech, on ex- 
 plaining the cause of his resignation, in 1801 : " As to the 
 merits," Mr. Pitt said, " of the question which led to my 
 resignation, I am willing to submit them to the house. 
 I and some of my colleagues in office did feel it an in- 
 cumbent duty upon us to propose a measure on the part 
 of government which, under the circumstances of the 
 union so happily effected between the two countries, we 
 thought of great public importance, and necessary to 
 complete the benefits likely to result from that meaiure. 
 We felt this opinion so strongly that, when we met with 
 circumstances which rendered it impossible for us to 
 propose it as a measure of government, we felt it equally 
 inconsistent with our duty and our honor any longer to 
 remain a part of that government. What may be the 
 
6i2 Penal Laws 
 
 opinion of others, I kno\y not ; but 1 beg to have it un- 
 derstood to be a measure which, if I had remained in 
 government, I must have proposed." * 
 
 Why must Mr. Pitt have proposed this measure ? To 
 this question one answer alone can be given : because 
 his honor, as a statesman, was substantially engaged to 
 the CathoHcs that, if they supported the Union, he would 
 propose emancipation. 
 
 We now come to the written communications which, 
 at this time, were made to the Catholics by Mr. Pitt 
 and Lord Cornwallis, and which were given by Lord 
 Castlereagh to Dr. Troy. 
 
 Mr. Pitt to Lord Cornwallis:— 
 
 " The leading part of his majesty's ministers, find- 
 ing insurmountable obstacles to the bringing forward 
 measures of concession to the Catholic body whilst in 
 office, have felt it impossible to continue in administra- 
 tion under the inability to propose it, with the circum- 
 stances necessary to carrying the measure with all its 
 advantages, and they have retired from his majest3''s 
 service, considering this line of conduct as most likely 
 to contribute to its ultimate success. 
 
 " The Catholic body will therefore see how much 
 their future hopes must depend upon strengthening 
 their cause by good conduct in the meantime ; they will 
 prudently consider their prospects as arising from the 
 persons who now espouse their interests, and compare 
 them with those which they could look to from any 
 other quarter; they may with confidence rely on the 
 zealous support of all those who retire, and of many 
 who remain in office, when it can be given with a pros- 
 pect of success. They may be assured that Mr. Pitt 
 will do his utmost to establish their cause in the public 
 favor, and prepare the way for their finally attaining 
 their objects; and the Catholics will feel that, as Mr. Pitt 
 
 • " Debrett's Debates," 14 and 161. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 615 
 
 could not concur in a hopeless attempt to force it now, 
 ne must at all times repress, with the same decision 
 as if he held an adverse opinion, any unconstitutional 
 conduct in the Catholic body. 
 
 " Under these circumstances, it cannot be doubted that 
 the Catholics will take the most loyal, dutiful and patient 
 line of conduct ; that they will not suffer themselves to be 
 led into measures which can, by any construction, give 
 a handle to the opposers of their wishes either to mis- 
 interpret their principles, or to raise an argument for 
 resisting their claims ; but that, by their prudent and ex- 
 emplary demeanor, they will afford additional grounds to 
 the growing number of their advocates to enforce their 
 claims on proper occasions, until their objects can be 
 finally and advantageously attained." 
 
 The sentiments of a sincere friend (/. e.. Marquis of 
 Cornwallis) to the Catholic claims : — 
 
 " If the Catholics should now proceed to violence, or 
 entertain any ideas of gaining their object by conclusive 
 measures, or forming associations with men of Jacobinical 
 principles, they must of course lose the support and aid 
 of those who have sacrificed their own situations in their 
 cause, but who would, at the same time, feel it to be 
 their indispensable duty to oppose everything tending to 
 confusion. 
 
 " On the other hand, should the Catholics be sensible 
 of the benefit they possess by having so many characters 
 of eminence pledged not to embark in the service of 
 government except on the terms of the Catholic privi- 
 leges being obtained, it is to be hoped that, on balancing 
 the advantages and disadvantages of their situation, they 
 would prefer a quiet and peaceable demeanor to any line 
 of conduct of an opposite description." 
 
 The originals of these two declarations were handed 
 to Dr. Troy, and afterward to Lord Fingal, by the Mar 
 quis of Cornwallis. His excellency desired they should 
 
6i4 Penal Laws 
 
 be discreetly communicated to the bishops and principaj 
 Catholics, but not inserted in the newspapers. They 
 appeared, nevertheless, in the English prints soon after- 
 ward, and were copied into the Irish papers. 
 
 Under circumstances such as these, is it surprising that 
 the Catholics should now feel that faith has been broken 
 with them by the government of England? 
 
 Mr. Pitt, so long ago as in Lord Westmoreland's admin- 
 istration, had made no hesitation to say, in such a manner 
 that his sentiments might be known to the Catholics, that 
 he would not risk a rebellion by withholding emancipa- 
 tion. In 1795 he sent Lord Fitzwilliam to Ireland, to carry 
 this measure into effect; and in 1799 he held forth, in 
 language not to be misunderstood, this measure as the 
 reward which he would give the Catholics for their sup- 
 port to the Union. 
 
 At this time he had governed England for fourteen 
 years ; he was supported by great majorities in parlia- 
 ment, and he possessed the unbounded confidence of the 
 king and of the people. What other construction could 
 his language on the Union bear among the Catholics than 
 that of a positive engagement, on the part of England, to 
 give them emancipation, provided they gave the Union, 
 in the first instant, their support ? No one can say that 
 they formed their expectations that this measure would 
 be conceded to them, without good grounds for doinf 
 so ; and there being good grounds, no correct moralis't 
 can maintain that England made no such engagement. 
 
 Having now traced the history of the penal laws and 
 the Catholics from the Treaty of Limerick down to the 
 Union, it remains only to make a conclusion of this work, 
 by collecting the several inferences which may be drawn 
 from the facts contained in it. 
 
 In the first place, the Catholics have to complain of 
 two distinct breaches of faith by the government of 
 England : ist, in the violation of the Treaty of Limerick ; 
 
In the Reign of George III. 615 
 
 and, 2dly, in the treatment which they have received 
 since the Union. 
 
 Secondly. — They have to complain of having endured 
 a greater share of insult and of oppression than it ever 
 was the lot of any people, in any other country, to be 
 exposed to. 
 
 Thirdly. — They have it in their power to repel all 
 those charges that have been made against them of being 
 disloyal to the House of Brunswick: ist, b)' their con- 
 duct in 1715; 2dly, by their conduct in 1745; 3dly, by 
 their conduct in 1798. 
 
 Fourthly. — They have it in their power to show that 
 their clergy have at all times inculcated sound doctrines 
 of morality, of peace and submission to the government, 
 and of brotherly affection for their Protestant fellow- 
 countrymen. 
 
 Fifthly. — They can prove that their religious principles 
 nave been wholly misunderstood, and that these prin- 
 ciples are not, in any degree, repugnant to their duty 
 as loyal subjects.* 
 
 Sixthly. — This very important inference may be drawn 
 from what has already been stated, namely : that for a 
 long period of time there has prevailed amongst the 
 Protestants of Ireland a very general inclination to 
 concede to the Catholics a participation with them in 
 constitutional privileges. 
 
 •And lastly. — When we consider the effects, direct and 
 collateral, of such a penal code as has existed in Ireland, 
 it is not too much to say that it may be laid down as 
 incontrovertibly proved that it is to the penal code 
 England has to look as the source of all the alarm she 
 now entertains for the safety of Ireland ; and to England 
 Ireland has to look for the cause of all the misery and 
 degradation which, at this day even, peculiarly mark her 
 character among the nations of the world. 
 
 " Note c. 
 
•516 Penal Laws 
 
 We shall conclude this history of the penal laws with 
 stating what the opinions are, concerning them and the 
 Catholic religion, of men entitled to the highest public 
 ■veneration for their great authority as divines and 
 statesmen. 
 
 The following is the testimony of an Irish Protestant 
 Bishop of Down, in 1647:* 
 
 " To this antiquity of doctrine," he says, " is annexed 
 an uninterrupted succession of their bishops from the 
 apostles, and particularly of their supreme bishop, St. 
 Peter, whose personal prerogatives were so great ; and 
 the advantageous manner in which many eminent prelates 
 of other sees have expressed themselves with regard to 
 the Church of Rome. This prerogative includes the 
 advantages of monarchy, and the constant benefits which 
 are derived from that form of government. 
 
 " Nor does the multitude and variety of people- who 
 are of this persuasion, their apparent consent with elder 
 ages, and their agreement with one another, form a less 
 presumption in their favor. The same conclusion must 
 be inferred from the differences which have arisen 
 amongst their adversaries ; the casualties which have 
 happened to many of them ; the oblique and sinister 
 proceedings of some who have left their communion. 
 
 " To these negative arguments the Catholics add those 
 of a more positive kind : the beauty and splendor of the 
 Church of Rome, her solemn service, the stateliness and 
 magnificence of her hierarchy, and the name of ' Catholic,' 
 which she claims as her own due, and to concern no 
 other sect of Christianity. It has been their happiness to 
 be instrumental to the conversion of many nations. The 
 world is witness to the piety and austerity of their 
 religious orders, to the single life of their priests and 
 bishops, the severity of their fasts and observances, the 
 great reputation of many of their clergy for faith and 
 
 * Dr Jeremy Taylor, 
 
CARLISLE BRIDGE AND SACKVILLE ST., DUBLIN. 
 
In the Reign of George III. 617 
 
 sanctity, and the known holiness of some of those per- 
 sons whose institutes the religious orders follow."* 
 
 Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, perhaps the most emi- 
 nent lawyer of modern times, treated the incapacities 
 and disabilities which affected Catholics as penalties of 
 the severest nature. 
 
 In the memorable conference between the Houses of 
 Peers and Commons of England respecting the occa- 
 sional conformity bill, the managers of the former house 
 (amongst whom was the great Lord Soraers) solemnly 
 declared " that an honest man cannot be reduced to a 
 more unhappy condition than to be put, by law, under 
 an incapacity of serving his prince and his country, and 
 that, therefore, nothing but a crime of the most detest- 
 able nature ought to put him under such a disability." 
 
 " The Irish," says Dr. Johnson, " are in a most unnatural 
 state, for there we see the minority prevailing over the 
 majority. There is no instance, even in the ten persecu- 
 tions, of such severity as that which has been exercised 
 over the Catholics of Ireland." 
 
 Dr. Law, Bishop of Elphin, in his speech in the Irish 
 House of Lords on the Catholic Bill of 1793, delivered 
 the following opinion : " He felt it his duty to declare 
 fully his sentiments on these points, because he looked 
 upon his Roman Catholic brethren as fellow-subjects and 
 fellow-Christians, believers in the same God, and part 
 ners in the same redemption. Speculative differences ii 
 some points of faith from him were of no account ; they 
 and he had but one religion, — the religion of Christianity. 
 Xherefore, as children of the same Father, as travellers 
 on the same road, and seekers of the same salvation, why 
 not love each other as brothers? It was no part of Pro- 
 testantism to persecute Catholics ; and without justice 
 to the Catholics, there could be no security for the Pro- 
 testant establishment." 
 
 • " Statement of Penal Laws," p. 136. 
 
6i8 Penal Laws 
 
 D] . Watson, Bishop of LlandafT, in a publication entitled 
 "A Speech Intended to be Spoken," dated November 
 23d, 1803, says: — 
 
 " If any one should contend that this is not the time 
 for government to make concessions to Ireland, I wish 
 him to consider whether there is any time in which it is 
 improper for either individuals or nations to do justice ; 
 any season improper for extinguishing animosity ; any 
 occasion more suitable than the present for putting an 
 end to heartburnings and internal discontent." 
 
 " It has been asserted," says Archdeacon Paley, " that 
 discordancy of religions is enough to render men unfit 
 to act together in public stations. But upon what argu- 
 ment or upon what experience is this assertion founded ? 
 I perceive no reason why men of different religious 
 persuasi.ons may not sit upon the same bench, deliberate 
 in the same council, or fight in the same ranks, as well as 
 men of various or opposite opinions upon any contro- 
 verted topic of natural philosophy, history, or ethics. 
 
 " Why should not the legislator direct his text against 
 political principles which he wishes to exclude, rather 
 than encounter them through the medium of religious 
 tenets? Why should a man, for example, be required to 
 renounce Transubstantiation before he is admitted to an 
 office in the state, when it might seem to be sufficient 
 that lie abjures the Pretender?" 
 
 " When, in addition to these great authorities, the 
 names of Wyndham, Sheridan, Burke, Pitt and Fox can be 
 added as strenuous advocates for the repeal of these 
 penal laws, can any man be warranted in entertaining a 
 doubt of the policy of admitting the Catholic subjects of 
 the:;e countries into a full enjoyment of the rights and 
 pri trileges of the constitution ? Can any man be justified 
 in believing that the constitution will be changed, or that 
 the Protestant Church and Protestant succession to the 
 crown will be exposed to danger ? The constitution rests 
 
In the Reign of George HI. 619 
 
 upon the foundation of every subject of the King having 
 an interest in protecting it; in every subject being in 
 possession of full security for his person, and his property 
 and his liberty, against all invasions, whether of arbitrary 
 power or popular outrage. This principle 01 universal 
 admission into the rights of the constitution makes the 
 principle of its preservation universal ; and every excep- 
 tion of it, in place of securing a safeguard, creates a real 
 danger. And for any man at this time gravely to say 
 that the oath of supremacy, the declaration against Tran- 
 substantiation and the sacramental test, are the bulwarks 
 of the constitution, is a matter to excite surprise, and can 
 only be accounted for, either by an unpardonable igno- 
 rance of those things that every one may easily learn, 
 or by the sinister influence of some private interest." * 
 
FATHER NICHOLAS SHEEHY. 
 
 1766 
 
 From the petty tyranny which had at all times driven 
 the peasantry to band together in illegal associations, from 
 the rack-rent and the persecution of the tithe-proctors — in 
 short, from that spirit of natural and universal resistance 
 to injustice and oppression, sprang the terrible organiza- 
 tion known as the Whiteboys, which caused such terror 
 in Tipperary and Limerick, and the south of Ireland 
 generally, in the course of the last and present centuries. 
 They fairly overran the country at night, dressed in 
 white shirts, from which they took their name; levelled 
 the fences with which the landlords had enclosed the 
 public commons for their own use ; dug up the fields 
 which had been sown in grass, and from which, most 
 likely, some of the Whiteboys had been themselves 
 ejected ; cut down trees, and carried on such an inces- 
 sant, harrassing war of destruction, that the landlords 
 were encouraged to increase their already abundant 
 means of persecution, and this they did with terrible 
 effect. 
 
 In order, in the first place, to secure the aid of govern- 
 ment and the sympathy of those in high places, the 
 landlords sought and found a host of witnesses ready at 
 any time to swear to the existence of a treasonable con- 
 spiracy for the restoration of the .Stuarts and the CathoHc 
 religion. In the next place, they proposed to strike terror 
 at once to the hearts of the disaffected people, by wreak- 
 ing desperate vengeance on some of the faithful, self-sacri- 
 ficmg clergy. 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 621 
 
 Their plots succeeded admirably well ; for the Earl 
 of Drogheda, with the forces under his command, was 
 ordered to Clogheen, county Tipperary, to act in con- 
 junction with the Protestant magistrates and gentlemen, 
 who, thus strengthened and encouraged, proceeded to 
 carry out their programme, selecting as their victim the 
 Rev. Nicholas Sheehy. 
 
 This good priest was just such a man as wins the 
 utmost respect and love of the true Irish heart. He was 
 warm and generous in disposition, destitute of every 
 thought of self; full of sympathetic charity for the flock 
 of over-awed, poverty-stricken, down-trodden people 
 among whom he had chosen to cast his lot, pitying their 
 affliction, relieving by every means in his power their 
 actual distress, while fatigue and time, humiliation and 
 insult, were of no account in his estimation, when it was a 
 question of softening the wrath or staying the persecu- 
 tion of their oppressors. He was a man of bold heart, 
 one to whom the sense of fear seemed unknown, as the 
 petty tyrants themselves seemed to acknowledge by their 
 combined and inhuman thirst for his death. Yet in his 
 case, as in that of every true Catholic priest persecuted 
 under one or another political pretext, the blindness of 
 those who fight against the Lord is most manifest. Had 
 it not been for the noble and incessant exertions of the 
 Catholic clergy, who made use of their vast influence 
 over their flocks to curb and control, or at least restrain, 
 the unhappy inclination to rebellion which seems inherent 
 in human nature, especially against illegal and ill-used 
 authority, there is but little doubt that the whole fair 
 island would have become one vast arena of violence 
 and anarchy : for the Catholic people were fairly driven 
 to understand that they had absolutely naught to hope 
 from their heartless rulers. They saw their priests 
 accused of rebellion and treasonable teachings, when, time 
 and again, they well knew how strenuously those same 
 
622 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 priests had not only coaxed and urged, but threatened 
 with the terrible judgments of the Church, all those who 
 were inclined to take the vengeance of the Lord into 
 their own hands against their oppressors. They had 
 heard their fathers tell, the memories of their own infancy 
 recalled, and now their own manhood witnessed, the 
 scorn, the ignominy, the diabolical treatment to which 
 priest after priest and bishop after bishop were exposed, 
 and from which, for their sake, these martyrs of the 
 living God never flinched. 
 
 Such a man was Father Sheehy, a native of Tipperary, 
 but educated in France, because the laws of Christian 
 England forbade a Catholic gentleman to educate his 
 children in the faith of his fathers. Even after his return 
 to his native land, he was for a time compelled to offet 
 the Holy Sacrifice and administer the consolations of 
 religion secretly, because the number of priests who 
 began to be tolerated was limited by law, and could not 
 be increased without certain punishment. Already had 
 he been several times within the grasp of the law, 3'et 
 managed each time to escape conviction, when his ap- 
 pointment to the regular mission at Clogheen, and, later, 
 to the united parishes of Shandraglian, Ballysheehan and 
 Templeheny, brought mm somewhat under the protec- 
 tion of the law, but still more under the eye of his bitter 
 enemies, the Orange magistrates and landowners of the 
 county. These men, among whom were Sir Thomas 
 Maude, John and WiUiam Bagwell, Bumbury, Toler 
 (worth) ancestor of the notorious Lord Norbury), and 
 John Hewitson, Rector of Clogheen, irritated by his undis- 
 guised opposition to their unjust taxation and crushing 
 intolerance, formed a close alliance for his destruction or, 
 rather, murder. 
 
 After one or another trumped-up charge against him 
 had been in vain essayed, they succeeded in havino- him 
 indicted on the charge of aiding and abetting in the 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 623 
 
 murder of one John Bridge, a poor half-simpleton, whom 
 intimidation had induced to turn informer against the 
 Whiteboys. Bound over to appear for their prosecution 
 at the coming assizes, Bridge suddenly disappeared, and 
 the enemies of Father Sheehy seized the opportunity 
 to accuse him of complicit}' in the supposed or pretended 
 murder of John Bridge. Here was a rare chance ; and 
 no trouble was spared, nor expense, in manufacturing a 
 body of witnesses who would swear away the priest's 
 life for a few paltry guineas, or to gratify some personal 
 spite. Parson Hewitson was eminently successful in 
 getting such ; and by promises and bribes succeeded in 
 enlisting in his service a disreputable woman named 
 Mary Bradly, alias " Moll Dunlea," whom Father Sheehy 
 had expelled from his chapel for her wicked, immoral life ; 
 one Toohey, a noted horse-thief, who was brought out 
 of the jail of Kilkennj' for this purpose; and a vagabond 
 strolling boy, named Lonergan. On the information of 
 these immaculate witnesses, a warrant was issued for the 
 arrest of the priest, and ;^300 offered for his apprehension. 
 
 Father Sheehy, knowing full well that, if he were 
 brought to trial at Clonmel, he had not the least chance 
 of escape from his relentless enemies, concealed himself 
 for several months, and was even sheltered by several 
 Protestants, particularly by a farmer named Griffith, at 
 Shandraghan. After much suffering and many escapes. 
 Father Sheehy wrote a letter to Secretary Waite at 
 Dublin Castle, offering to surrender, on condition tnat 
 he should be tried in Dublin ; stating that, so bitter were 
 the Tipperary magistrates against him, he could not have 
 a fair trial at Clonmel. 
 
 His offer was accepted. Father Sheehy at once deliv- 
 ered himself up to Mr. O'Callaghan, a just magistrate, 
 and ancestor of the present Lord Donoghmore, who not 
 only received him kindly, but sent to Clogheen for a 
 troop of horse to escort him to Dublin, fearing to deliver 
 
624 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 him to the Orange constables, whom his brother magis- 
 trates had in their service. 
 
 Once escaped from the clutches of his enemies, his 
 natural goodness of heart and his Trank affability of man- 
 ner failed not to produce their effect on those about him. 
 He was first lodged with the provost, in the lower castle- 
 vard ; but, after a cursory examination, his innocence was 
 so apparent to Mr. Secretary Waite (already prepos- 
 sessed in his favor by his letter of capitulation, so to 
 speak) and to Town-Major Sirr,* that he was at once 
 freed from ail restraint, and permitted to go anywhere 
 within the city limits. Major Sirr went so far as to 
 become securit}' for his appearance at the approaching 
 trial. 
 
 " I will never believe," said the good-natured town- 
 major, " that such a man as he is guilty of the crimes laid to 
 his charge. I have had some experience of those over- 
 zealous worthies in the South, who trump up plots thick 
 and fast to keep their hands full of business ; and I swear 
 to you (of course it goes no further) that in nine cases out 
 of ten it is they who deserve trial, and not the poor 
 miserable devils of countrymen whom they goad to mad- 
 ness with their oppressions and exactions. But that is 
 not our affair ; it is for the judges to look after that. 
 This priest, however, must not be kept in prison, for I 
 see his innocence as plain as I see your face. So I'll be 
 his security for appearing when called on ; let him out 
 on my responsibility." 
 
 "Agreed!" was Waite's answer; and Father Sheehy 
 was speedily informed that, until such time as his trial 
 came on, he was at liberty to go where he pleased, pro- 
 vided he did not quit the precincts of Dublin city. 
 
 His word of honor was then taken that he would 
 
 ' This Major Sirr was father to him who exercised such wanton cruelty on 
 the noble but unfortunate Lord Edward Fitzgerald, — a striking verification,' 
 surely, of the old proverb that many a good father has a bad son. 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 625 
 
 appear when called, and, with many expressions of heart- 
 felt gratitude to the high-minded gentlemen who had dealt 
 so generously by him, he withdrew, almost a free man. 
 ********* 
 
 Nearly eleven months had passed away before Father 
 Sheehy was brought up for trial, the case being put back 
 from time to time under one pretence or another. During 
 all that long period he had been supplied with funds by 
 his friends in the country, whom he had the comfort, 
 moreover, of seeing from time to time, and especially his 
 favorite cousin, Martin O'Brien, who, in fact, remained 
 almost constantly with him. 
 
 On the loth of February, 1765, he was arraigned at the 
 bar of the Court of Queen's Bench, before Chief-Justice 
 Gore and Judges Robinson and Scott. 
 
 It is remarkable that in this trial he was accused of 
 only treasonable practices, and not for the murder of 
 Bridge. The charge was a serious one, no doubt, and 
 even the stoutest heart might well have quailed under 
 the circumstances, but Father Sheehy looked with a smil- 
 ing countenance on the imposing array of white-wigged 
 lawyers, the earnest-looking occupants of the jury-box, 
 as they crowded forward'to see the prisoner; na)', even 
 the grave and awful dignity of the three judges failed to 
 blanch his cheek or to dim his eye. That cheek had 
 much of the freshness of youth, and that clear, blue eye 
 was full of life and spirit, while his fine aquiline nose 
 gave token of the decision which marked his character. 
 The trial went on, evidence on both sides was sifted to 
 the bottom, and it is but fair to say (what respectable 
 historians have already said) that the whole proceedings 
 were marked by the strictest impartiality. Several hours 
 were occupied in the examination of the witnesses, and 
 very often, as some glaring inconsistency was discovered 
 in the evidence for the prosecution, or some shameless 
 bribery was brought to light, Town-Major Sirr, who sat 
 
626 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 near the judges, would address a whispered remark to 
 the gentleman who sat next to him. Throughout the 
 whole trial the judges treated the Tipperary dignitaries 
 with something very like contempt, to the great discom- 
 fiture of those ultra-loyal persons; and when, at seven 
 o'clock in the evening, Chief-Justice Gore rose to ad- 
 dress the jury, he said it gave him no ordinary pleasure 
 to assure them that the court was unanimous in declaring 
 Mr. Sheehy innocent of the charge brought against him. 
 The jury retired, and very soon returned to their box with 
 a verdict of " Not guilty." No sooner was the word pro- 
 nounced than one wild, epthusiastic cheer rang out from 
 hall and gallery, and was caught up by the multitude 
 without. Father Sheehy manifested not the smallest 
 change of countenance, but stood leaning against the 
 railing of the dock, with folded arms and head slightl}' 
 raised in the attitude of listening. 
 
 But the drama was not 3'et concluded — the chief-jus- 
 tice arose to address the prisoner. 
 
 At that moment Father Sheehy looked toward one of 
 his chief opponents, who had come all the way from 
 the neighborhood of Clogheen to be present at the trial, 
 and he saw on his face an exulting smile which boded 
 him no good. His eye wandered on to the chief-justice, 
 and he was convinced that there was something more to 
 come, for the face of the judge had undergone a serious 
 change. After a momentary pause he said : " The jury, as 
 I expected, has acquitted you of the charges contained 
 in the indictment, and by this time you should have 
 been free, had not a fresh obstacle presented itself, — one, 
 too, involving the most serious consequences." He 
 paused a moment, and then exchanged a few words in a 
 low voice with the other two judges : a deathlike quiet 
 pervaded the court,— the silence of intense anxiety and 
 expectation. All eyes were turned on the priest; his 
 head had fallen on his chest, and he seemed lost in thought 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 627 
 
 but no shadow of fear was seen on his face. The judge 
 spoke again, and Father Sheehy raised his head to listen : 
 " Nicholas Sheehy, it is now my painful duty to remand 
 you to prison : you are charged with being accessory to 
 the wilful and deliberate murder of John Bridge I" At 
 these words a shudder ran through the assembly, whilst 
 a cry of horror escaped from almost every individual 
 present. All eyes were now turned on the unfortu- 
 nate prisoner, who was evidently doomed to undergo 
 every species of persecution, and to be deprived of all 
 chance of escape. He was pale, but his eye was still un- 
 dimmed, though a tear was evidently forcing its way- 
 After a moment of silence he bowed low to the chief- 
 justice, and then to each of the other two judges, and 
 lastly to the jury. 
 
 ''My Lord Chief-Justice," he said at length, "this 
 new accusation, terrible as it is, does not at all surprise 
 me. Knowing the men from whom it comes, and their 
 persevering enmity toward me, I had every reason to 
 expect that they would be prepared to follow up my ac- 
 quittal here — if acquitted I should be — with some other 
 charge. Such a charge as this, no one who knows me 
 could have anticipated ; but God's will be done ! 1 
 accept this grievous humiliation as coming from His 
 paternal hand, and will onl}' pray Him to turn the hearts 
 of those who persecute me. I am thankful to this 
 worshipful court, my lord, and to the gentlemen of the 
 jury, for the impartiality with which my trial has been 
 conducted, and will ever pray that the righteous Judge 
 of all may deal mercifully by those who have not shrunk 
 from doing justice to an oppressed and persecuted man. 
 I am now ready to suomit to whatever fate awaits me, 
 always declaring that, if John Bridge were indeed mur- 
 dered — which God forbid ! — I have had neither act or part 
 in, nor knowledge of, that execrable deed. I am well 
 aware that this declaration avails nothing before a court 
 
628 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 of justice, but I owe it to my reputation as a man, and 
 still more as a priest of tlie Most High God : and that 
 God, who seeth the heart, knoweth I do not prevaricate. 
 I have done, my lords!" 
 
 " Mr. Sheehy," repHed the humane chief-justice " it 
 is not for me to express an opinion of any sort in this 
 matter ; but this I will say, that I have seldom performed 
 a more painful duty than that of remanding you to prison. 
 Mr. Sheriff," he added, addressing that functionary, "you 
 will take the prisoner at the bar again into custody, until 
 such time as he may be brought up for trial." 
 
 The officer bowed, so did the prisoner; but a shout ot 
 execration arose from the multitude within and without 
 the building. " A plot ! a plot !" was the general cry, and 
 a A'iolent commotion was seen to agitate the crowd. 
 Father Sheehy, before leaving the dock, turned toward 
 the multitude and made a warning gesture with his hand. 
 Speech was not allowed him, but the people understood 
 his desires, and showed their respect for him by the pro- 
 found silence which followed, — a silence which was only 
 broken by a murmur of pity and indignation. If any 
 were present who believed him guilty of this new crime, 
 they took good care to conceal their opinion, for not one 
 dissenting voice was heard in the place. 
 
 Hardly had the prisoner quitted the dock, and the 
 judges withdrawn from the bench, when the fierce shout 
 was heard : "A groan for Maude, Hewitson and Bagwell, 
 the priest-hunting, bloodthirsty magistrates of Clogheen ! 
 There goes one of them, boys : let him hear how well the 
 Dublin lads can hoot such rascals!" The eroan, or rather 
 series of groans and hisses which followed, made Bag- 
 well right glad to escape to nis carriage, which was in 
 waiting, while his black heart overflowed with venom 
 to hear the wild and oft-renewed cheer which ascended 
 from many thousand voices at the mention of Father 
 Sheehy's name. And again and again the cry arose of, 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 629 
 
 "Sheehy forever! down with the Tipperary magis- 
 trates!" until Bagwell thought it would never cease, or 
 that he could never get fast enough out of hearing. 
 " But we'll have our revenge for this," was his con- 
 soUng reflection,—" by the soul of King William, but 
 rte'll have our day, and a black day it will be for him, 
 the Popish villain ; that's as sure as my name is John 
 Bagwell. His Dublin mob shan't save him ; no, by 
 
 h , nor this white-livered Gore, if he was again sitting 
 
 in judgment ; but he shan't, for we'll lose a fall for it, or 
 we'll have him brought to Clonmel. This trying the 
 fellow in Dublin will never do, and 1 knew that all along." 
 
 Bagwell had his revenge, for he succeeded in having 
 Father Sheehy sent back to Clonmel for trial ; and in 
 order to heap indignities upon him, on his way back, his 
 hands were manacled, and his feet tied under the horse's 
 body, so that the cords sank into the very flesh to the 
 bones. 
 
 It was night when he entered Clonmel, and it was by 
 torchlight that he passed those gloomy gates which 
 were to him the portals of fate. They closed behind 
 him, and as the echo died away along the dreary walls, a 
 cold shiver darted through all his body, and for the first 
 time in his life his heart sank within him, for he felt as 
 though the icy hand of death were already grasping 
 him, and the warm, living world was shut out forever. 
 But his depression was only momentary. " Why should 
 I despair? " he said to himself. " The}' cannot deprive me 
 of heaven unless through my own fault ; and the greater 
 my sufferings and humiliations here, the greater will be 
 my reward hereafter, provided God gives me the grace 
 to sanctify them by consecrating all entirely to Him. 
 Courage, my soul ! heaven lies beyond the dark portals 
 of death ; let us not shrink from the passage, since Christ 
 Himself has set us the example. He died, then why 
 should we fear to die? " 
 
6^o Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 His reflections were cut short by the jailer, who 
 roughly bade nim follow ; and he was very soon the ten- 
 ant of a cold, damp cell, on the first floor of the prison. 
 Again did his heart sink ; but he quickly shook off his 
 despondency, and betook himself to prayer. 
 
 No sooner was his arrival in Clonmel made known 
 than the whole country was thrown into a feverish ex- 
 citement. Some were rejoiced, — that is to say, the few 
 who lived in the hopes of seeing the Catholic party 
 entirely prostrated, and the Protestant ascendancy per- 
 manently established ; but by the great mass of the 
 people the event was hailed with all the wildness of lam- 
 entation. It is very questionable if any one individual there 
 really believed Father Sheehy cognizant of Bridge's 
 murder, if murdered he indeed was ; but it is quite certain 
 that many affected to believe it. 
 
 But the priest was not alone in this new misfortune, 
 for it was the policy of the ruling party to get rid of the 
 most influential Catholics, either by fair or foul means; 
 and the disappearance of Bridge, the crown witness, was 
 a glorious opportunity for involving many of them in one 
 common ruin. 
 
 On the 1 2th of March, 1766, he was brought to trial at 
 Clonmel, with Edward Meehan, or Meighan, of Grange, 
 charged with the murder of John Bridge, at Shanbally, on 
 the 28th of October, 1764. So great was the terror in 
 which the Tipperary magistrates were held, that he 
 could not get a lawyer to take up his case, except a 
 Dublin attorney named Sparrow, who knew little of its 
 merits, or of the character of the priest's enemies, and 
 who had to steal out of town at night, owing i.o the threats 
 of the Orange faction. 
 
 Toohey, who had been brought out of jail to swear 
 away the life of the priest, stated that he was present 
 with a party of Whiteboys when Sheehy tendered an oath 
 
Father NicJiolas Sheehy. 631 
 
 to Bridge, binding liini to deny liis information at the 
 coming trial ; that Bridge refused to take it, and then one 
 Pierce Byrne struck at him with a stone, and Edmund 
 Meehan struck him with a billhook on the head, killing 
 him instantly ; that Father Sheehy then swore all present 
 10 keep the murder secret, and to be true to the King of 
 France ; that the body was then removed two miles from 
 ihe scene of .the murder, and interred in a lonely place. 
 
 The boy Lonergan swore that he met the party on 
 iheir way to bury the body, and that Father Sheehy 
 gave him three half-crowns not to inform on them. 
 
 Moll Dunlea was the next witness, and, as she had an 
 old spite against the priest for hunting her out of the 
 parish on account of her debauchery, she did some strong 
 swearing. 
 
 She swore that she lived with her mother at Clogheen ; 
 that Michael Kearney was at their house, and that, the 
 night of the murder, Father Sheehy called for him ; that 
 .-she followed them to Shanbally, when she saw them 
 and Ned Meehan, Thomas Magrath, and others, carrying 
 the dead body of Bridge, which they buried at a place 
 called Baron ; that she was also present when the body 
 was removed from there, and buried at Ballysheehan ; 
 ihat on both occasions the priest swore all present to 
 secrecy. 
 
 The above is the leading testimony upon which sev- 
 eral persons were hanged. Is there anything more im- 
 probable than that a body of men contemplating murder 
 would let a notorious thief and scoundrel, a strolling boy 
 and an unprincipled prostitute, into the secret? 
 
 Ann Hullan, Moll Dunlea's mother, swore that Moll 
 slept in the same bed with her the night of the murder 
 and several nights before and after; and that Michael 
 Kearney was not in their house that year at all. 
 
 George Flannery, Thomas Gorman, Harry Keating 
 and others, proved that Michael Kearney had left the 
 
632 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 country before the time of the murder ; and a farmer 
 named Hendrekin swore that Edmund Meehan spent, in 
 his house, the entire night on which it was said Bridge 
 was killed. 
 
 In any other country but Ireland such an impeach, 
 ment of the prosecutors would immediately acquit the 
 prisoners, but the ascendancy party had the judge and 
 jury in their hands, and were resolved to hang their vic- 
 tims. Father Sheehy had several respectable witnesses 
 to testify in his behalf; but his relentless enemies laid 
 snares for them, and had some arrested as Whiteboys, 
 and others for murder. 
 
 A Mr. Herbert, a respectable farmer, was arrested on 
 the charge of being a Whiteboy, on his way to court, and 
 was so terrified by threats of execution, that he subse- 
 quently turned a witness ior the prosecution. 
 
 Mr. Keating, of Ttibrid, a highly respectable Catholic 
 gentleman, testified that, during the entire night of the 
 supposed murder. Father Sheehy was in his house at 
 Tubrid, and could not have left it without his knowledge. 
 At this stage of the proceedings. Parson Hewitson arose 
 in court, with a paper in his hand, and said : " I find in 
 this list Mr. Keating's name among those concerned in the 
 late murder of a serjeant and a corporal at Newmarket." 
 Mr. Keating was at once removed and committed to jail, 
 and his testimon)' expunged.* 
 
 This rjise showed how well the magistrates had laid 
 their devilish plots, and struck terror into several in 
 court who might have given important evidence, but 
 who saw that, by so doing, they would get themselves 
 flung into jail, without doing any good to the doomed 
 priest. 
 
 • Mr. Keating succeeded in having his trial removed'to Kilkenny, out uf 
 reach of the Tipperary Orange magistrates, and was honorably acquitted. The 
 jury scouted the evidence brought against him, which was partly the some as 
 convicte.l Father Sheehy. 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 633 
 
 The high-sheriff of the county, Daniel Toler, ancestor 
 of the notorious and bloody Lord Norbury, made himself 
 very active in intimidating witnesses from appearing on 
 behalf of the prisoners. 
 
 Father Sheehy saw how deeply the plot had been laid 
 for his ruin, and as he saw Mr. Keating removed a 
 prisoner from the witness-stand, he knew that his fate 
 was sealed. 
 
 It availed little th,at several witnesses proved that they 
 had seen Bridge after the night on which it was said he 
 had been murdered, and that he stated to them that he 
 was about leaving the country for good, in order to avoid 
 swearing at the trials of some Whiteboys.* 
 
 All this availed little, for the jury found Edmund 
 Meehan guilty of the murder of John Bridge, and the 
 same jury found Nicholas Sheehy guilty of the murder 
 of John Bridge ; that is to say, as having aided and 
 abetted Edmund Meehan therein. f 
 
 * " It is strange that there was nothing said about the body of Bridge during 
 the trial. The impression at the time, and which still exists in Tipperary, 
 was. that Bridge had fled the country to avoid both ihe Orange faction, who 
 were using him as an informer, and the Whiteboys, whom he feared on 
 account of his testimony against them. It is also stated that he was after- 
 ward identified by several parties iu St. John, Newfoundland. On the 
 other hand, Major Sirr of Dublin Castle, father of the notorious Major Sirr of 
 1798, held a letter purporting to be from Father Sheehy, in which he stated that 
 Bridge hadjieen killed, but that he knew nothing of the murder until a dying 
 man accused himself of the crime. Though Dr. Curry, Dr. Egan, and other 
 eminent authorities, accept this letter as genuine, we doubt it, and look on it 
 ai" a forgery, for, if the witnesses saw Bridge murdered, and saw the body 
 buried, as they testified, they could have pointed out the place to the authorities, 
 who would, most certainly, have made the most of such strong proof in their 
 favor; but the fact is, neither the body nor the grave was ever found. 
 Funhermore, Father Sheehy's reply to the judge confirms the belief that the 
 document was a forgery, concocted to mitigate the atrocity of Father Sheehy's 
 foul murder.'' 
 
 t It is a remarkable fact that not one of the jurors who tried Father Sheehy 
 died by a natural death. Sir Thomas Maude died a raving maniac crying out 
 that Father Sheehy was <h'agging him down to hell. Bagwell, of Kihnore, 
 b-came an idiot ; and his eldest son shot himself in a packet, on his way to 
 
634 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 Ag=ii was the voice of wailing, loud and deep, heard 
 echoing through the building ; sighs and loud groans 
 gave no'e that many a heart, even in that packed assem. 
 blage, sympathized with the unfortunate victim of injus- 
 tice. Bat the prisoner himself only raised his eyes to 
 heaven and said : " Even this, my God ! even this can I 
 bear— all things whatsoever Thou wilt, whether they bt 
 good or evil. So long as Thou keep me in the state of 
 grace, I can cheerfully submit to Thy holy will." 
 
 On the following morning the prisoners were brought 
 up for sentence. Poor Meehan received his death-sen- 
 tence with great composure, but the sobs and cries of 
 his aged father and distracted wife were pitiful to hear. 
 Father Sheehy was then brought forward. 
 
 " Nit.holas Sheehy," said the judge, " have you any 
 reason to offer why sentence of death should not be 
 passed upon you?" 
 
 "M> good lord," said the priest, with a simple earnest- 
 ness ol manner that touched every heart not steeled by 
 prejudice, — " my good lord, I am aware that your ques- 
 tion is a mere form, and anything I could say would have 
 no effect ; still, as the opportunity is afforded me, I must 
 say that 1 am entirely innocent of the crime — the heinous 
 crime — of which I have been convicted. Not only am I 
 
 England, a-nd that branch of the family soon became extinct. Jacob was 
 seized with fits, in which he barked like a dog, and could scarcely be kept from 
 eating the flesh off himself. Cork, of Kiltinan, was drowned. Parson 
 I lewitson died suddenly. Barker had no heir, and died in fits. Tuthill cut 
 his throat.' Another juror, named Shaw, was choked to death. Alexander 
 Hoops was drowned. Ferris died mad. Another dropped dead at his own door. 
 Another died in a privy. Dunvill was killed by his horse. Minchin died in 
 beggary. The Pennefeather family was reduced to poverty, and many of them 
 died idiots. The Barker and Jacob families are also extinct, in a direct line 
 The same might be said of the families of nearly all the jurors who triea 
 Father Sheehy. Though I cannot give the fate of each of the jurors, it is 
 remarkable that a curse seemed to blight each and every one of them, and 
 even their descendants. 
 
 To finish the catalogue : MoU Dunlea was killed by falling into a cellar, in 
 Cork, wiiile drunk ; Lonergan died of a loathsome dijease, in Uuhliu ; and 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 635 
 
 innocent thereof, but, to the best of my belief, no such 
 murder has been committed. 1 am almost fully persuaded 
 that this very John Bridge is still living, for vv^e have the 
 clearest evidence that, some days subsequent to the date 
 of the supposed murder, the man viras seen alive and ia 
 good health, and took leave of his friends, to go either to 
 Cork or Kinsale, to embark for some foreign countr}'." 
 Here he vsras interrupted by the judge, who desired him 
 to confine himself to his own case. " My Lord, it appears 
 to me that I speak to the purpose ; surely I do when my- 
 self and another are to be put to death for a crime which 
 never was committed by any one. Knowing, or at least 
 believing, this to be the case, I protest against the entire 
 proceedings, as regards Meehan and iiiyself, and will pro- 
 test until my latest moment against the shameful injustice, 
 the gross perjury, the deadly malice, of which we are 
 the victims. In conclusion, I must declare that, notwith- 
 standing all this, I bear these unhappy men who perse- 
 cute me even to death, not the slightest ill-will : I leave 
 them in the hands of a just God, knowing that He will 
 deal with them according to their deserts. That is all I 
 have to say. I leave God to distinguish between the 
 innocent and the guilty. " 
 
 Toohey died of the leprosy. On the other hand, the descendants of Mr. 
 Callaghan, who showed justice and mercy to the poor, persecuted priest, have 
 become nobles in the land. 
 
 The following verse;, taken from an old Irish song, allude to the fate of 
 Father Sheehy's jury, and were attributed to his sister, who went half crazy, 
 and watched his head for twenty years, until it was given up to her: — 
 
 " And where are they, dear head, that once reviled thee ? 
 Who spiked thee high, and with filthy pitch defiled thee? 
 All prayers for pity spurn'd, scofTd and slighted, 
 They crushed my head, and left me old and blighted. 
 Sure of their doom, some died in madness, yelling 
 Of Sheehy's quartered corpse, of hell's dark dwelling ; 
 And some, righteous God! impious and daring, 
 Pour'd forth their cursed lives, and died despairing." 
 
636 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 The judge, after a few remarks, passed sentence in the 
 following words: — 
 
 " You shall be hanged, drawn and quartered, on Satur- 
 day next, the 15th inst.; and may God have mercy on 
 your soul, and grant you a sight of the enormity of your 
 crime ! " 
 
 " I thank your lordship for your good wishes," replied 
 the poor priest. " Doubtless I have much to answer for 
 before God, since we are all sinful creatures at the very 
 best ; but He knows that of this crime, or aught like unto 
 it, 1 am wholly innocent. To His justice I fearlessly and 
 with all confidence give myself up. Praise, however, 
 and glory to His holy name, now and for evermore ; and 
 may His will be done on earth as it is in heaven!" 
 
 Here the long-restrained feelings of Father Sheehy's 
 friends burst forth anew. Sighs and groans, and half- 
 stifled exclamations of horror and pity were heard on 
 every side, and it required all the authority of the judge 
 to restore anything like order. In the midst of the 
 tumult the prisoner was removed, and, very soon after, the 
 court adjourned till the following day. 
 
 During the short interval between the sentence and 
 its execution, nothing could equal the excitement of the 
 public mind. People of all classes felt themselves deeply 
 interested. The Catholics, of course, were filled with in- 
 dignation ; for the trial and conviction of Father Sheehy 
 and Meehan had outraged every sense of justice, being 
 the very climax of shameless corruption, and a direct 
 violation of all law, human and divine. There were few 
 men of his day so popular as Father Sheehy, and the 
 people seemed everywhere to regard him as the victim 
 of his high-souled generosity and undisguised sympathy 
 with them in their sufferings. It required, indeed, all the 
 influence of the priests to keep them from pouring into 
 Clonmel and attacking the jail. 
 
 In their ardent attachment to Father Sheehy they 
 
JhOMAS W. (JKOKE, 
 , — , ,. .'1 I, 1 
 
 Rev. Eugene Sheeby, 
 Ireland's Patriot Priest. 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 617 
 
 utterly lost sight of their own safet}', and would have 
 rushed on certain destruction, without even a chance of 
 saving the doomed victim of religious intolerance and 
 political hatred. The jail was constantly surrounded by 
 a strong military force ; some of Lord Drogheda's troof)s 
 having been brought from Clogheen to reenforce the 
 garrison. 
 
 B3' a great stretch of favor, his own immediate family 
 were permitted to see him, and also Father Doyle, as his 
 spiritual director. His demeanor was calm during all 
 those mournful days, and he even succeeded in cheer- 
 ing and consoling his afflicted relatives by his glowing 
 descriptions of the joy which awaits the blessed in the 
 other world, — in that world whither he was hastening. 
 He studiously diverted their minds from the violent 
 death which awaited him, and dwelt on the joy of being 
 released from the miseries of this life, and of putting on 
 the robes of immortality: " And then," said he, " as for 
 the dark stain which will rest on my character, even that 
 need not' distress you, my kind friends ; for I feel assured 
 that the all-righteous God will clear up this fearful 
 mj'stery and show forth my innocence and that of poor 
 Meehan. On this head I have no fears." 
 
 It was the day before that appointed for his execution, 
 and Father Sheehy had just parted with his two sisters 
 and some other dear friends, of whom he begged that 
 they would not ask to see him on the following day : 
 " For," said he, " as I am to-morrow to appear before my 
 God, I would rather be left to undisturbed preparation. 
 Let none of you come near me, then, for I would fain 
 break asunder, of my own free will, those bonds of 
 earthly affection, — those 'cords of Adam '_which death 
 will rend to-morrow. Go now, my sisters ; and may God 
 bless you and yours, and guide you safe into the port 
 of salvation ! For shame, for shame ! why weep so bit- 
 terly ? Why one would think you had but little of the 
 
638 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 Christian's hope. Do you not know and feel that we 
 will meet again, probably very soon, in that heaven where 
 our divine Master lives to welcome our coming? Only 
 keep your last end continually in view, so as to avoid 
 sin, as much as in you lies, and 1 will venture to predict 
 a happy meeting for us all ; knowing that the God whom 
 we serve delights in showing mercy to the contrite 
 sinner. Farewell ; be of good cheer, and forget not to 
 pray for me when I am gone hence." So saying, he took 
 the hand of eacji, and held them a moment, while, with 
 eyes raised to heaven, he invoked a blessing on their 
 heads, and again exhorted them to be of good heart : to 
 which they replied only b}' a doleful shake of the head 
 and a fresh burst of tears. 
 
 Martin O'Brien just then came in, and Father Sheehy 
 said to him : " When I shall have suffered the extreme 
 penalty of the lazv, you will bury all of this poor body 
 that you may obtain, in the old churchyard of Shan- 
 draghan. It is not, to be sure, where you would wish to 
 lay ray remains, but I bespoke my lodging there some 
 months ago. You will make my grave close to that old 
 vault, under the shade of a gnarled elm which overhangs 
 the spot. Tell Billy Griffith that his noble protection 
 of a poor persecuted priest will be remembered, even in 
 heaven, if I am so happy as to reach there, and that my 
 blessing rests, and shall rest, upon him and his children. 
 You will also give him this watch (it was a large, old- 
 fashioned silver one) : it is the only treasure I possess on 
 earth, and I would fain send that excellent friend a token 
 of my gratitude. Tell him to keep it for my sake : it is 
 all 1 have to give him. To you, Thomas Burke, I give 
 this silver snuff-box : and do you, Terence, keep this little 
 ivory crucifix," drawing forth one which he wore on his 
 neck; "but your legacy is only reversional, my dear 
 fellow," he added with a melancholy smile, " for you 
 are not to have it until after my death. Then you are to 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 639 
 
 take possession ; but I have worn it for many a year, and 
 I cannot part with it while hfe remains. For you, 
 Martin, 1 have reserved my beads, which I value very 
 highly, for they were given me, when life was warm and 
 young within me, by one of the' professors in Lou vain. 
 My breviary, and a few other books, I have given to 
 Father Doyle ; and so I have already bequeathed all my 
 effects : my body to Shandraghan, and my soul to God, 
 if He will deign to accept the offering. Not a word 
 now, not a word now!" he said, seeing that some of 
 his listeners were about to speak. " I'll not have a word 
 spoken with such a doleful face as that. O'Brien," he 
 suddenly added, " we little thought of this as we walked 
 along, looking down on the black, muddy LifFey. I 
 know not what you may have thought, but for myself 
 1 can safely say that I never dreamed of such an end." 
 
 " Truly I must say, Father Nicholas," interrupted 
 Martin, " that I have always had a misgiving on my 
 mind, ever since 1 heard the report of Bridge's murder. 
 That report is the unfortunate cause of this dreadful 
 catastrophe." 
 
 " Not at all, Martin, not at all," replied the priest, 
 briskly ; " the cause lies farther back, and may be traced 
 to the active part I took in getting the church-rates 
 knocked off in a parish where they ought never to have 
 been paid, seeing that it contained not a single Protestant, 
 and then in encouraging ray people to resist that novel 
 and most unjust marriage- tax. These are the_/fr.f/ causes ; 
 this pretended murder of Bridge is but an adjunct of the 
 main scheme, for, if his disappearance had not furnished 
 a weapon against me, they would have found another. 
 My only grief is for poor Keating. God knows what is 
 to become of him and this unfortunate Meehan, who 
 leaves so many helpless mourners behind him ; but I 
 trust God will provide for them, since He sees fit to 
 deprive them of their main support." 
 
640 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 " With regard to Mr. Keating," interposed Burke, " 1 
 hear he has been sent to Kilkenny jail, so that he will 
 not be tried here. " 
 
 " Thank God for that same ! " exclaimed Father Sheehy, 
 with fervor. " He has, then, a much better chance ol 
 escape : I am truly rejoiced to hear that he is not to be 
 tried in Clonmel. Should any of you ever see him again, 
 tell him how anxious I was about him, and that my 
 prayers were continually offered up in his behalf, that 
 God might reward his goodness, even in this life, by 
 delivering him from the hands of his enemies. You 
 Martin O'Brien, will pay a visit, as soon as possible after 
 to-morrow, to Mr. Cornelius O'Callaghan, and thank him 
 for his kind and respectful treatment of me. Tell him 
 how deeply grateful I was, and that I remembered his 
 disinterested kindness to the last moment of my exist- 
 ence. I beUeve this is all," and he looked around with 
 a pleased expression of countenance. " My worldly affairs 
 are now arranged ; and I am at full liberty to attend to 
 ' the one thing needful : ' my final preparation for eternity. 
 Father Doyle promised to come back this evening, and I 
 hope to receive the adorable sacrament to-morrow morn- 
 ing for my viaticum. So now, my dear friends, 3'ou will 
 leave me to myself awhile ; ray soul must needs prepare 
 to meet the Bridegroom, and secure His approbation 
 before He ascends the tribunal of judgment. God be 
 with you till we meet again ! " He then shook the hand 
 of each in turn, and they quitted the prison in silent 
 anguish. 
 
 On Saturday, the fifteenth of the month. Father Sheehy 
 was brought out from his cell to undergo the murderous 
 punishment. He was attended by his faithful friend and 
 spiritual director. Father Doyle ; and of the two, the latter 
 showed far more dejection than the prisoner— the felon. 
 They came out on the platform in front of Clonmel jail, 
 and there stood side by side, while one loud, long shout 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 641 
 
 of sorrowful greeting arose from the assembled imilti 
 tude. Sighs and groans were heard on every side, and 
 many a convulsive sob from the bosom of brave and 
 stout-hearted men. 
 
 Father Sheehy's eyes filled with tears as he advanced 
 to the front of the platform, and raising his right hand, he 
 made the sign of the cross over the heads of the crowd 
 below. " May the Almighty God, before whose judg- 
 ment-seat I am about to appear, bless and protect you all, 
 and may He grant to each of you the graces of which you 
 stand most in need ! May He preserve you steadfastly 
 in the true faith, by which alone salvation is to be ob- 
 tained ! I need scarcely tell you, my good people, that I die 
 entirely innocent of the foul crime laid to m}- charge. As 
 for those who have persecuted me, even to death, and the 
 jury who condemned me on such evidence, I forgive and 
 pity them all, and would not change places with any of 
 them for all the riches of the earth. The care oimy repu- 
 tation I leave to my God: He will reestablish it in His 
 own good time. In conclusion, I pray you all to retire 
 quietly to your homes, and make no disturbance, for that 
 would only give a pretext for fresh persecution." 
 
 He then shook hands with the priest, and begged to 
 be remembered in his prayers ; then calmly turned and 
 made a signal to the hangman. That functionary was 
 prompt in his obedience : a moment, and the body of 
 Father Sheehy swung in the air ; another, and he had 
 ceased to breathe. The pain of death was passed : 
 heaven in mercy had made it but momentary ; and the 
 wild scream that arose from the multitude below, loud 
 and heart-piercing as it was, rolled away unheard by 
 him, and mingled with the boisterous wind that filled 
 the air around. 
 
 " May the Lord God of hosts have mercy on your 
 soul, Nicholas Sheehy ! " exclaimed Father Doyle, loud 
 enough to be heard by the people in the street ; " He 
 
642 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 will not refuse you that justice which your fellow-men 
 withheld from you. A melancholy death was yours, but 
 your soul has, I trust, found favor before God, for you 
 were, indeed, free from guile." 
 
 All, however, was not yet over. The body of the 
 martyred priest was cut down, and taken away to under- 
 go the remainder of the sentence. Hanging was not enough 
 for the brutal spirit of the Protestant ascendancy ; the 
 poor, lifeless frame was to be drawn and quartered, and, 
 while the task was being accomplished, Edward Meehan 
 was brought out on the platform. He, too, declared his 
 innocence in the most positive terms, and offered up an 
 affecting prayer for those who had sworn away his life, 
 for the jur}' who had condemned him on their false 
 testimony, and for the judge who had passed sentence 
 upon him. He also repeated his solemn declaration of 
 Father Sheehy's innocence.* 
 
 " Though I know, " said he, " that he is already gone 
 where I am soon to follow, but still it is right to speak 
 the truth to the ver}' last. That good priest has been put 
 to death wrongfully ; and when they did it to him, that 
 was God's own servant, they may well do it to me, poor 
 sinful man that 1 am, though, thanks to the great God, 
 I am as innocent of this murder as the child unborn. 
 That is all I have to say, only that I freely forgive all 
 my enemies, and pray God to have mercy on my soul, 
 and the Blessed Virgin and all the saints to pray for me, 
 and for them I leave behind." 
 
 He was launched into eternity almost before the words 
 were uttered : no, not quite so soon, for his sufferings 
 were somewhat longer than those of the priest ; for two 
 or three minutes he struggled in the agony of his violent 
 death, and then all was still. 
 
 The Catholics who had occasion to pass that way 
 about an hour before sunset, hurried on with a shudder, 
 and murmured, " Lord, have mercy on him ! " as they 
 
Father Nicholas Sheehy. 643 
 
 glanced at the strange and ghastly spectacle over the 
 arched porch of the old jail, where was hoisted, on a 
 pole, the severed head of the ill-fated priest, the well- 
 known features little changed, were it not for the un- 
 natural purple hue diffused over all : the natural effect of 
 the fearful death which had parted soul and body. 
 
 The murder of Father Sheehy did not appease the 
 Orange landlords. In the following month his cousin, 
 Ned Sheehy ; a respectable farmer, James Buxton, and 
 James Farrell, were also tried for the murder of Bridge, 
 for swearing Toohey to be true to Shaun Meski// (a. name 
 given to the Whiteboys, after one of their leaders) and 
 his children, and other charges. The swearing against 
 them was reckless and savage, being the same as hung 
 the priest. They were, of course, sentenced to death, and 
 executed at Clogheen. When their heads were chopped 
 off, a young girl, named Ann Mary Butler, snatched up 
 the head of Ned Sheehy, and made off with it. 
 
 The sympathizing soldiers made way for her and closea 
 upon the hangman, who pursued her. The head was 
 decently interred with the body, while the other two 
 were spiked at Clonmel. These men declared, just be- 
 fore their execution, that they were offered their hberty 
 by the Rev. Lawrence Broderick, Rev. John Hewitson, 
 Sir William Barker's son, Matthew Bumbury, Bagnell, 
 Toler, and Bagnall, if they would swear against Bishop 
 Creagh, Lord Dunboyne's brother, Robert Keating, 
 several other gentlemen, and some priests, charging them 
 with being engaged in a conspiracy with the French 
 government to raise an insurrection in Ireland ; but,. 
 above all, if they would declare that Father Sheehy 
 was guilty, and that he " had died with a he in his 
 mouth." These brave men withstood all, and died with 
 remarkable fortitude, declaring their innocence to the 
 last. Ned Sheehy was the grandfather of the cele- 
 brated Countess of Blessington, one of his daughters 
 
644 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 being married to Edmund Power of Curragheen. 
 twenty years afterward, in 1786, Father Sheehy's s 
 was allowed to take away his head, and inter it wit) 
 body in Shandraghan graveyard. 
 
 Beside the ruins of the old church repose the ren 
 of Father Sheehy. A beaten path leads to the gi 
 for many a pilgrim has ,trod over it. The white h 
 stone that marks this hallowed spot bears the folloi 
 inscription : — 
 
 " Here lieth the remains of the Rev. Nicholas She 
 parish priest of Shandraghan, Ballysheehan and 1 
 pleheny. He died March 15th, 1766, aged 38 yi 
 Erected by his sister, Catherine Burke, alias Sheehy 
 
FLORENCE O'MOELCHONRY 
 
FATHER FLORENCE O'MOELCHONRY.* 
 
 A. D. 1629. 
 
 Most Rev. Florence O'Moelchonry, or Conroy, Archbishop of Tuam, and 
 Founder of the College of St. Anthony of Padua, at Louvain. — Father Dona- 
 tus Mooney. Provincial of Ireland, and first Guardian of St. Anthony's. — 
 Father Bonaventure Hussey. 
 
 Ireland owes no small debt of gratitude to those 
 self-sacrificing men who, during the first halt of the 
 seventeenth century, devoted their lives to illustrate 
 her annals, and gather together the scattered fracr- 
 ments of her early history. Throughout Elizabeth's 
 reign, ruin and desolation had fallen upon that king- 
 dom ; its monasteries were destroyed, its schools pro- 
 scribed, its clergy persecuted, its most fertile districts 
 reduced to a desert waste, and nothing was left undone 
 to seize upon or destroy every monument of its ancient 
 glory. Some of the agents of this reckless vandalism 
 were impelled by irreligious fury, for thus they imag- 
 ined they might turn away our devoted people from 
 the long-cherished faith of their fathers; others were 
 led on by the delusive hope that the national spirit of 
 Ireland, would cease when the monuments of her early 
 fame were obliterated and forgotten. " It seemed to 
 you " (thus writes Michael O'Clery, the chief of the 
 Four Masters, when dedicating his work to the O'Gara 
 of Coolavin, in 1636), — " it seemed to you a cause of pity 
 and regret, grief and sorrow, for the glory of God and 
 the honor of Ireland, how much the race of Gaedhai 
 
 • " Irish Ecclesiasticil Record." 
 
646 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 have gone under a cloud and darkness, without a know- 
 ledge of the death of saint or virgin, archbishop, bishop, 
 abbot, or other noble dignitary of the Church ; of king or 
 prince, lord or chieftain, and of the synchronis«n or con- 
 nection of the one with the other. I explained to you that 
 1 thought I could get the assistance of the chroniclers fo- 
 whom I had most esteem, for writing a book of annals 
 in which the aforesaid matters might be put on record; 
 and that, should the writing of them be neglected at 
 present, they would not again be found to be put on rec- 
 ord, or commemorated to the end and termination of the 
 world." Dr. Petrie, the great restorer of Celtic archceo- 
 logical studies in our own time, having cited these words 
 in an address before the Royal Irish Academy, adds: 
 " How prophetic were the just apprehensions of that 
 chief compiler that, if the work were then neglected or 
 consigned to a future time, a risk might be run that the 
 materials for it should never again be brought together. 
 Such, indeed, would have been the sad result. ... In 
 that unhappy period nearly all the original materials 
 of this compilation probably perished, for one or two 
 of them only have survived to our times. . . . Had this 
 compilation been neglected, or had it, as was supposed, 
 shared the fate of its predecessors, what a large portion of 
 our history would have been lost to the world forever !" 
 
 There was also another reason why it was particularly 
 important, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
 to guard the few surviving monuments of our country. 
 The traditions of the past were then rapidly fading away 
 from the memory of our people. 
 
 The newly-imported settlers from England and Scot- 
 land had no interest in cherishing such traditions. Novel 
 names of districts and towns were everywhere springing 
 up, and gradually supplanting the old Irish designations ; 
 the system of clans and tribes, each with its respective 
 chronicler or bard, handing down from father to son the 
 
Father Florence 0' Moelchonry. 647 
 
 knowledge of the early dialects, was also broken up for- 
 ever ; and thus there was imminent peril lest even the few 
 monuments that had survived the storm of past vandal- 
 ism might be unintelligible records and a sealed book 
 for posterity. Hence I hesitate not to say that, were it 
 not for the Irish Franciscans in the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century, and for others who, both at home 
 and abroad, emulated their devotedness, and rivalled 
 them in their zeal for preserving the literature of our 
 country, the history of Ireland at the present day would 
 be little more than a mere blank. The name, Island of 
 Saints, indeed, might not be forgotten ; but visionaries 
 and aliens to our country might, without fear of rebuke, 
 usurp its glory, or set forth, as based on reality, the 
 most foolish dreams of their imagination, and pervert 
 alike the truths of our history ancL the tenets of our faith. 
 Thanks, however, to those devoted sons of Ireland in 
 the seventeenth century, many precious monuments of 
 our early Church and history have been preserved to us, 
 sheltered' by the mantle of St. Francis, in the recesses 
 of our island, or in the monasteries on the continent. 
 The traditions of our people were dul}' chronicled, the 
 records of the past were illustrated, the knowledge of the 
 ancient Celtic language was preserved, and those mate- 
 rials were handed down which have enabled the writers 
 of our own day to place beyond cavil the just claims of 
 our island to a glorious and hallowed page in the his- 
 tory of the Christian world. 
 
 In the ranks of those devoted men, the Irish Francis- 
 cans of the Convent of St. Anthony, in Louvain, merit 
 the place of honor; not, indeed, that they were the first 
 to enter the field of labor, but because they were foremost 
 in reducing to system the study of our antiquities, and, 
 more than an}- others, labored untiringly and persever- 
 ingly to preserve and illustrate the records of our history. 
 
 This Convent of St. Anthony of Padua, at Louvain, 
 
648 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 dates from the year 1606. " The Rev. Father Conroy. a 
 Irishman born, a Franciscan Friar, and then Provincial 
 the Order in Ireland (it is thus an official account of Ih 
 foundation of the college runs), petitioned King Phili 
 III, in 1606, ' that his Catholick majistie would be pleasei 
 to grant the Irish Franciscans a place for a college, am 
 means whereby to live in the towne and universitie o 
 Loven, and diocese of Mechlin, to the service and glori 
 of God, to the preservation of the Catholick religion, am 
 their holy Order in the Kingdome of Ireland.' " * 
 
 On the 6th of Januarj^, 1602, three days after the fata 
 battle of Kinsale, which sealed the fate of Ireland as ai 
 independent nation, Father Florence Conroy set sail witl 
 the heroic O'Donnell, to solicit aid from the Spanisl 
 monarch. Eight months later he watched by the death 
 bed of that brave chjpftain, at Simancas, and accom 
 panied his remains to their regal tomb, in the cathedra 
 of Valladolid. 
 
 Father Conroy knew too well the fate that awaited hin 
 if he set his foot again on the Irish shore. He remainec 
 at one of the Franciscan convents of Spain, but still con 
 tinued to devote all his energies to promote the welfan 
 of religion in his suffering country. 
 
 At the general chapter of the order held at Toledo 
 in i6c6, he was appointed Provincial of Ireland; for, sc 
 bitter was the persecution that then raged throughou 
 the kingdom, that the provincial chapter could nowhere 
 be held in Ireland. 
 
 His first care was to petition the Spanish monarch foi 
 the erection and endowment of a convent of the ordei 
 
 • Archiv. S. Isid., Rome.— There has been much controversy about the dati 
 of the foundation of the Convent of St. Anthony, some placing it in the yea 
 1606, others in 1609, others at a later period. See Renehan, "Collections 01 
 Irish Church History," page 190. The dates in our text are taken from thi 
 ofScial document above referred to, and from copies of the original letters oi 
 Philip III and the Archbishop of Mechlin, preserved in the archives of Si 
 Isidore's in Kome, 
 
Father Florence O' Moelchonry. 649 
 
 in the city and university of Louvain. This request 
 was readily granted ; and Philip III, by letters dated the 
 2 1 St of September, 1606, signified his pleasure to the 
 'Archduke Albert, Governor of the Low Countries, as 
 also to the Marquis Spinola, commander of the forces 
 there, that the petition of Father Conroy should be 
 granted without delay, and that one thousand Spanisli 
 ducats per annum should be allotted for the support of 
 the new college. Some difficulties, however, arose in 
 Louvain about the erection of this national Franciscan 
 convent; and early in the following year we find "Father 
 Conroy addressing a petition to the reigning pontiff, 
 Paul V, soliciting "apostolicke authoritie for building 
 the intended coUedge," and asking, at the same time, a 
 confirmation of the royal pension accorded by Philip IIL 
 A brief of his Holiness, granting all the requests of the 
 Franciscan Provincial, was published on the 3d of April, 
 1607, and the letters of the Archduke Albert and of 
 Isabella, commanding that this brief should be put into 
 immediate execution, are dated the 17th of August, 1607. 
 The erection of the building was at once proceeded with ; 
 and precisely two years from the date of the papal brief 
 {i. e., the 3d of April, 1609), an official, deputed by the 
 Archbishop of Mechlin, visited the new college, and in 
 canonical form declared it duly " erected and instituted 
 for the Franciscans of the Irish nation." 
 
 To the influence of Dr. Florence Conroy at the Spanish 
 court, and to the favor of the Holy See, Ireland was 
 mainly indebted for the tranquil retreat thus secured for 
 the zealous children of St. Francis. The fruits which 
 the college soon produced, proved how just were the 
 expectations which had been formed by its patrons. Its 
 chronicler assures us that, from the time of its foundation 
 to the year 1630, there were chosen from its inmates no 
 fewer than three archbishops and two bishops for Irish 
 sees, besides eighteen professors of theology, twenty-five 
 
650 Martyrs and Confesson. 
 
 professors of philosophy, and sixty-three missionaries for 
 laboring in the vineyard of the Irish Church * "some 
 of whom laid down their lives, and others suffered im- 
 prisonment or exile for the faith of Christ." f 
 
 Although Dr. Conroy receives no place among the 
 writers on Irish history and antiquities in the seven- 
 teenth century, there can be but little doubt that he 
 exercised considerable influence in forming that great 
 historical school which, in after time, shed such lustre on 
 St. Anthony's of Louvain. He was the son of Fithil 
 O'jNIoelchonry, of Cluantuibh, in Connaught, who was 
 an antiquary by profession, and whose family had been 
 for centuries the depositaries of the traditions and 
 glories of the western .districts of the island. In baptism 
 he received the name of Flathri, though in after years he 
 was better known by the Latin name, Florentius. When 
 rather advanced in age, he embraced the religious life 
 of the Franciscans of strict observance, and, as Lynch 
 informs us, discharged the duties of Provincial of his 
 order in Ireland, even before the close of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 In the month of May, 1609, he was promoted to the See 
 of Tuam, and though he was unable to console his flock 
 in person, he never ceased, by the appointment of zealous 
 vicars, and by frequent pastoral letters, to watch over 
 their interests, and provide for their spiritual wants. 
 
 During his leisure hours he devoted himself with special 
 ardor to the study of the writings of St. Augustine; and 
 
 le 
 
 •• There were Hugh MacCaghwell, appointed Archbishop of Armagh on the 
 id of April, 1626 ; Thomas Fleming, appointed Archbishop of Dublin, 23d 
 of October, 1623; Florence Conroy, appointed Archbishop of Tuam in 1609; 
 Bcctius MacEagan, appointed Bishop of Elphin in 1625; and Hugh (Bonaven- 
 ture) Magennis appointed Bishop of Down and Connor on the 9th of April, 
 1630. The last-named prelate entered the Convent of St. Anthony, Louvain, 
 June 2, 1614. 
 
 ♦ "Quorum aliqui niorte, alii caplivitate et carcere fro fide affecti." {Mt, 
 Brevis Sytiop., etc., p. 60.) 
 
Father Florence O' Moelchuury. 651 
 
 t is recorded that he read each of that great Father's 
 works seven times. 
 
 Warding, in his history of the writers of the Francis- 
 can Order, gives a list of the theological writings of 
 Dr. Conroy, some of which were not published till after 
 the death of this prelate. They were held in great 
 esteem by some of his contemporaries, and were fre- 
 quently appealed to in the angry controversies on the 
 subject of divine grace, which agitated the schools at 
 this period. 
 
 An important letter of Dr. Conroy, dated at Val- 
 ladolid, the ist of March, 161 5, on the conduct of the 
 Catholic members of the Irish parliament, in permitting 
 ..he confiscation of the estates of the Ulster chieftains, 
 O'Neil and O'Donnel, is preserved to us in the "■ His- 
 toria Catholica" of O'SuUivan Beare. In it he passes 
 a high eulogy on the individual character of those mem- 
 bers, most of whom were of English descent, but he 
 censures their parliamentary conduct in sacrificing the 
 interests of their Irish brethren, and thus effecting the 
 ruin of religion in Ulster. " They showed but little 
 constancy," he says, "in admitting Sir John Davis as 
 Speaker of the House, and in allowing the unconstitu- 
 tionally elected members to sit with them in parliament. 
 My fears," he adds, " were increased by what you told 
 me of the confiscation, and you appear yourself as if un 
 decided about its illegality, when you say that otherwise 
 the king and his party would be offended. What ! will they 
 not be offended if you refuse the oath of supremacy, or 
 if you oppose the confiscation of your own property 
 to-morrow or next-day ? . . . Do you doubt that it i 
 sinful to rob men, not convicted of any crime, of their 
 property ? Were not these noblemen pardoned by the 
 king? And if they, either to avoid calumnious suspicion, 
 or to ])ractise their religion more freely, retired from the 
 country, is that a crime either proved or notorious? 
 
652 Martyrs and Conjessors. 
 
 JNIoreovcr, most of the Catholics on all that territory 
 must soon, at least in a few generations, be perverted 
 to error, and their example and numbers will spread 
 heresy through the other provinces. And are these souls 
 to be sacrificed to etiquette, or to the labor and pain of a 
 three days' struggle and opposition? What! doyounot 
 daily give up your properties; do you not sacrifice the 
 fines and penalties of not attending the Anglican worship, 
 rather than violate a law of the Church? And yet here 
 is a matter prohibited, not by a law of the Church, but 
 by the law of nature and of God. God in his mercy 
 grant that you commit not such a crime, nor tarnish your 
 former glory, nor provoke the wrath of the Almighty!" 
 
 One of the most valuable of Dr. Conroy's works was a 
 sniall catechism which was printed in Irish, at Louvain, 
 in 1626, with the title, " The Mirror of a Christian Life." 
 
 After many years of painful exile, this illustrious 
 founder of St. Anthony's died in a convent of his order, 
 at Madrid, on the i8th of November, 1629, in the sixty- 
 ninth year of his age, and the twenty-first of his episco- 
 pacy. His remains were translated to Louvain in 1654, 
 and a becoming monument was erected at the right of 
 the high altar in the church of the Irish Franciscans, with 
 an appropriate inscription, dictated by Nicholas Aylmer, 
 the rector of the pastoral college at Louvain. 
 
 If the new Irish foundation at Louvain was fortunate 
 in having such a founder, it was, perhaps, still more for- 
 tunate in having Father Donatus Mooney for its first 
 guardian. He was a man earnestly devoted to the study 
 of the antiquities of Ireland ; and to him we are especially 
 indebted for that Irish historical school which soon 
 became characteristic of St. Anthony's, and enabled it, 
 in after times, to render such services, and shed such 
 light on the early monuments of our nistory 
 
 Whilst as yet a Franciscan novice. Father Mooney 
 suffered imprisonment for the faith. He was living with 
 
Father Florence O'Moekhonry. 653 
 
 the Provincial of the order, Father John Gray, in the mon- 
 astery of- Multifernan, and the aged Bishop of Kilmore, 
 Dr. Richard Brady,* had chosen the same sanctuary as 
 a safe retreat. They were, however, all seized, in 1601, 
 and dragged to prison, where our young novice lin- 
 gered for some months. Whilst yet in prison he com- 
 pleted his novitiate, and was admitted to the holy vows 
 of his order by his fellow captive, the Father-Provincial. 
 Soon after, he was liberated, but on the condition that 
 he should seek a home in exile on the continent. 
 
 The chronicler of the order adds that he was " a man 
 of great ability and learning. After teaching philo- 
 sophy and theology in France, he was appointed the first 
 guardian of the Convent of St. Anthony in Louvain, and 
 subsequently he held a similar office in Drogheda. He 
 was a distinguished preacher, and strenuously labored for 
 the conversion of the heretics, and the salvation of the 
 faithful. Being elected Provincial of the order, in the 
 chapter held in Waterford, in 161 5, he for three years 
 faithfully discharged the duties of that arduous post." 
 
 Father Mooney seems to have had a special talent 
 for the reconstruction of the walls of the sanctuary in 
 Ireland. 
 
 In 1610 he was sent as superior to Drogheda, to 
 restore the house of the order, which, from the middle 
 of the thirteenth century, had flourished till the year 
 1546, when it was reduced to ruin by Moses Hill, one of 
 the unprincipled agents of the lawless monarch, Henry 
 VIII. From an account of this Franciscan mission in 
 Drogheda, which was forwarded to Rome in 1623, we 
 
 Dr. Richard Brady was a religious of the Order of Saint Francis, and had 
 been Provincial from 1570 to 1573. He was appointed Bishop of Ardagh on the 
 27th of January, 1576. and was subsequently translated to Kilmore on the 9th 
 of March, 1580. He lived to an advanced age, and died from the hardships of 
 his imprisonment, in 1607. Ward, in his narrative, merely states that "he was 
 several times seized and imprisoned by the heretics.'' Many details regarding 
 the bishop may be seen in the history of the Franciscan monasteries. 
 
654 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 learn some interesting details regarding the Irish Church 
 at that period of its desolation. 
 
 Father Balthaser de La Hoyd, a native of the diocese, 
 was at this time vicar-general of the absent primate, 
 Peter Lombard,* and resided in Drogheda. In 1623 his 
 health was seriously impaired by illness, and his nephew, 
 Christopher de La Hoyd, was his appointed delegate, 
 with the same powers of vicar-general, and at the same 
 time received the charge of the parishes of St. Peter's 
 and St. Mary's, in that town. At this time there was only 
 one public oratory in the town; in it the vicar-general 
 performed the ceremonies of the Church with as much 
 pomp as the circumstances of the time would allow, and 
 he was assisted by two Jesuits, Fathers Robert Bath 
 and James Everard, who established there the Confrater- 
 nity of the Blessed Virgin, aud labored with zeal in admin- 
 istering the Bread of Life to the faithful. 
 
 Some ruins of the old Franciscan convent still re- 
 mained ; and as close to them as his safety would permit, 
 the new superior rented a private house, where a small 
 oratory was erected, and the faithful very soon flocked 
 in crowds, to approach the holy sacraments. 
 
 It happened that the Protestant Primate, Christopher 
 Hampton, had chosen Drogheda for his residence, and 
 was now busily engaged building an episcopal palace 
 for himself and his successors. 
 
 The new impulse given to Catholic piety was little 
 less than treason in the eyes of the Protestaiit dignitary ; 
 hence, he more than once assailed the humble lodsinsrs 
 of the Franciscans, destroyed the altar, and carried off 
 the rehgious to prison. They persevered, nevertheless ; 
 and the chronicler of the order, writing in 1630, was able 
 to attest that, from the reestablishment of the convent in 
 
 • For many particulars connected with this illustrious Archbishop of Armagh, 
 see the introduction to his work entitled, "De Hibemia Insula Commentarhn " 
 Dubhn, Duffy: 1868. 
 
Father Florence O'Moelchonry. 655 
 
 1610, "the friars never ceased to labor for the salvation 
 of the faithful and the conversion of heretics, although 
 they have been several times persecuted, and some of them 
 arrested and put in prison." 
 
 It was also through the exertions of Father Mooney 
 that the Franciscan Order was reestablished in Dublin, 
 in 161 5. Here, too, the ancient convent had been sup- 
 pressed by order of Henry VIII, and was sold for secu- 
 lar purposes in 1543. In Cook Street, which was now 
 chosen for their new and more humble abode, the relipf- 
 ious set to work with true devotedness ; schools were 
 opened, especially for the instruction of their own stu- 
 dents in philosophy and theology, and the chronicler 
 adds that " the faith received extraordinary increase in 
 the city and neighboring county by the preaching of 
 the friars." The persecuting spirit of the so-called 
 Reformation was soon, however, to blight all the lair 
 promise of this good work. The destruction of the 
 Franciscan schools and convent has been described 
 by many anti-Catholic as well as Catholic writers. It 
 is unnecessary to repeat what they have written, but we 
 will add to their testimony the following unpublished 
 narrative, written in 1633 : — 
 
 " Through the enmity of Satan our schools and con- 
 vents were soon destroyed, when, on the 26th December, 
 the feast of St. Stephen, in the year 1629, the heretical 
 mayor of the city of Dublin, named Christopher Foster, 
 accompanied by the Protestant pseudo-bishop and a body 
 of troops, assailed the chapel of the Friars Minors of that 
 city, overthrew the images and altars, and carried off its 
 other ornaments ; but when leaving the place, the mayor 
 with his followers was assailed with sticks and stones by 
 an excited tumultuous crowd of women and boys, on 
 account of which offence very many of the Catholics, 
 men and women, boys and girls, were arrested and 
 thrown into prison; some youths, moreover, were pun- 
 
656 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 ished with the lash ; and in the following year, 1630, 
 the 24th of February, by a new edict of King Charles 
 of England, the aforesaid chapel and convent of the 
 Friars Minors, in Dublin, were sacked and levelled to 
 the ground." 
 
 Father Mooney, as we have seen, was chosen Provincial 
 of the order in Ireland, in 161 5. The following year he 
 proceeded to St. Anthony's in Louvain, to watch over 
 the growth of that institution; and during the leisure 
 months that he enjoyed there, composed the history 
 of his order in Ireland, — a work of vast research, and full 
 of invaluable details, not only regarding the early founda- 
 tions of the various Franciscan convents, but still more 
 illustrative of the desolation and ruin that fell upon the 
 Irish Church during the sad era of the Reformation, under 
 Henry VIII, Elizabeth, and James I. It has been em- 
 bodied and popularized in the interesting " History of 
 the Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries," 
 by Rev. P. C. Meehan, — a work full of interest to all 
 students of Irish literature. 
 
 There is another Franciscan father who merits to be 
 mentioned among the first promoters of Celtic studies at 
 St. Anthony's. This was Giolla-Brigid, or Bonaventure 
 Hussey, a native of Ulster, who, in the chronicles of 
 the order, is described as a " man held in great esteem 
 for his singular skill in the language and history of 
 Ireland." 
 
 In a manuscript list of the first religious who received 
 the habit in the convent of St. Anthony, we find the 
 name, " Bonaventura Hosceus, antea Brigidus, diocesis 
 Cloghorensis, admissus die i Novembris, 1607." O'Reilly, in 
 his " Irish Writers," states that, in 1608, Father Hussey 
 published his prose Irish catechism in Louvain, the first 
 book printed on the continent in Irish, and that it was 
 reprinted at Antwerp, in 161 1. 
 
 We suspect, however, that the date of its first publication 
 
Father Florence 0" Moclchonry. 657 
 
 m Louvain should be 161 8, in which year an edition ot it, 
 under the title of" The Christian Doctrine," is mentioned 
 by Anderson. At all events, it was only in 161 1 that 
 the Irish typographical press was established at St. 
 Anthony's, as we learn from the following passage of the 
 •history of the order, written in 1630: "The Irish con- 
 vent of Louvain, for the salvation of souls in the kingdom 
 of Ireland, established in the year 161 1 a printing-press, 
 with the proper type for the Irish letters, which, on 
 account of the prevailing heretical rule, was heretofore 
 impracticable to the Catholics of that kingdom, and 
 printed some books in the Irish language, to the great 
 advantage of the faithful." Father Hussey also com- 
 posed a metrical catechism, in two hundred and forty 
 verses, which, a century later, was published by Donlevy 
 as an appendix to his own famous catechism in the Irish 
 language. O'Reilly mentions several other unpublished 
 poems composed by the same writer, some of which are 
 preserved in the Royal Irish Academy. 
 
 The extract from the history of the order just cited 
 mentions jow^ ^^^/^j printed in the Irish language at St. 
 Anthony's. It is not easy now to determine what these 
 books were : one of them, no doubt, was the Irish cate- 
 chism of Dr. Conroy, already referred to ; another was 
 the " Mirror of Penance," published in 1618 by Hugh 
 MacCaghwell, O. S. F., who was subsequently appointed 
 to the primatial See of Armagh. 
 
 In a manuscript catalogue of the books of the Irish 
 convent of Louvain, made about the year 1675, we find 
 mention of another work, with the title, "Acta Sanctariim 
 Virginum HibernicB," which, some time before, had been 
 lent to the convent of Donegal. Perhaps this, too, may 
 have been one of the books referred to in the above 
 extract. At all events the Irish type of St. Anthony's 
 continued for many years to render good service to Irish 
 literature. The illustrious annanst, Michael O'Clery, 
 
658 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 availed himself of it when publishing his " Glossary," in 
 1643. Father Anthony Gernon, another Irish Franciscan^ 
 made use of it, in 1645, for his " Paradise of the Soul;" 
 a Jesuit, Father Richard MacGiollacuddy (better known 
 by his Anghcized name of Archdekin) printed with it a 
 "Treatise on Miracles," in 1677; and Colgan and his 
 brother hagiologists made frequent use of it in the Irish 
 extracts inserted in their various Latin works. The type 
 was still preserved at St. Anthony's in 1675, but there 
 was then but little encouragement for Irish publications. 
 In the manuscript list of the books belonging to the 
 convent, of which we have already spoken, the following 
 passage is added, as precious as it is concise, giving the 
 only reference to this Irish type which we have been able 
 to discover in contemporary records : — 
 
 " In a plain chest is preserved the type of the printing- 
 press ; the key is over the chest. In the pulpit there is one 
 silver chalice belonging to the convent of Donegal, a small 
 case of the relics of various saints, and the silver seal 
 belonging to O'Donell. In the first of the upper rooms, 
 in a small chest, is the Irish type, with its own forms ; also 
 several copies of Colgan's works. Ward's ' St. Romuald,' 
 the Fochloir {i. e., O'Clery's " Glossary,") and some skins 
 for the covers of books." 
 
 With the annals of Father Hugh Ward, in 1623, began 
 the golden era of historical studies in St. Anthony's. For 
 fifty years the religious of that convent pursued these 
 studies with unrivalled activity, although more than once 
 their material resources were quite exhausted ; and they 
 merited for their convent the eulogy bestowed by no 
 partial writer in our own days : " No Franciscan, college 
 has maintained, with more zeal than this, the character 
 of the order, as expressed in their motto : ' Doctrina et 
 sanctitate.' " (Proceedings of R. I. A., vol. iii, page 485.) 
 
 The learned Bollandist, Father de Buck, having cited 
 these words, adds : " It would be easy to show the justness 
 
Father Florence O' Moelchonry. 659 
 
 of this eulogy, presenting in detail the names of the pro- 
 fessors who have taught at St. Anthony's." 
 
 The historian of Louvain, writing in 1667, laments the 
 poverty which the inmates of St. Anthony's had so often 
 to endure ; for frequently the promised aid of the govern- 
 ment was withheld, and the Irish exiles, now that all 
 their property was confiscated in Ireland, could con- 
 tribute but little to the support of their religious country- 
 men, either at home or abroad. A century later, another 
 writer of Louvain dwells on the same theme, but adds: 
 " Notwithstanding their poverty, we have often seen 
 amongst these religious, and we still see amongst them, a 
 number of men of distinction, and of the highest nobility, 
 who prepared themselves there, by study and piety, to 
 sustain the Catholic religion in England and Ireland. 
 There were even many amongst them who suffered per- 
 secution, imprisonment, and cruel torments for the faith." 
 In the wars and tumults of which Belgium was the 
 theatre during the closing quarter of the last century, the 
 Convent of St. Anthony's was more than once exposed 
 to the fury of the contending parties : and yet this was 
 not the worst violence to which it was subjected. An 
 edict of the Emperor Joseph II, in 1782, appointed a 
 visitor, and enacted some vexatious laws regarding the 
 religious, though it did not entirely suppress the con- 
 vent. Two years later, the overflowing of the Dyle swept 
 away all their cattle, wood, and property of every kind. 
 At length, in 1796, when Louvain was invaded by the 
 French, their convent was wholly dismantled, its church 
 was desecrated, its property sold, and this hallowed abode 
 of Irish piety and learning was thenceforth closed against 
 the children of St. Francis. 
 
FATHER PATRICK FLEMING, 0. S. F. 
 
 1631. 
 
 Father Patrick Fleming, O. S. F. (i 631).— Reverend Matthew Hoare, Deacon, 
 O. S. F. (1 631). — Most Reverend Hugh MacCaghwell, Archbishop of Armagh 
 {1626). — Right Reverend Edmund Dongan, Bishop of Down and Connor 
 {l629_). — Fathers Francis Ferrall.Malachy Fallen, Francis Fleming, O. S. F., 
 and also many early Irish Saints, Sketches of whose Lives were preserved 
 by Father P. Fleming in his valuable ' ' Collectanea Sacra." 
 
 Patrick Fleming was bom at Bel-atha-Lagain, in the 
 parish of Clonkeen, county Louth, on the 17th of April, 
 1599. The ruins of his family mansion are still pointed 
 out, close by the modern Lagan bridge, near the junc- 
 tion of the three counties of Louth, Meath and Mona- 
 ghan. He was connected by birth with the noble 
 houses of Slane and Delvin, but his virtues and learn- 
 ing, still more than his family honors, reflected a bright 
 lustre on his name. From a short-time biographical 
 notice which was composed by Colgan, and prefixed to 
 Sirinus' edition of the " Collectanea Sacra," we learn that 
 Fleming received in baptism the name of Christopher, 
 and that from his infancy he gave proofs of that piety, 
 sedateness and diligence, which characterized his after 
 years. At the age of thirteen he was sent to the conti- 
 nent, to preserve him from the danger of proselytism, 
 which was as imminent from the Court of Wards to the 
 children of the Irish nobility, during King James's reign, 
 as it is to the children of our poor from the birds' nests 
 of the present day. The Reverend Christopher Cusack, 
 uncle of Fleming, was at this time administrator of the 
 Irish colleges for the secular clergy in Flanders ; and, in- 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, O. S. F. 66 1 
 
 deed, these institutions mainly depended on his munifi- 
 cence for their support. Under his guidance, Flemini^ 
 pursued the humanity studies in Douay, and passed 
 thence to the College of St. Anthony, at Louvain, where, 
 on the 17th of March, 1617, at the hands of Father An- 
 thony Hickey, he received the habit of St. Francis, and 
 assumed in religion the name of Patrick. 
 
 In 1623,, Father Fleming, having completed his philo- 
 sophical and theological course, was chosen by Hugh 
 MacCaghwell, — then Definitor-General of the Order of 
 St. Francis, and soon after promoted to the primatial see 
 of Armagh, — to be the companion of his journey to Rome. 
 
 Passing through Paris, he contracted a close friendship 
 with Hugh Ward, to whom he promised a zealous and 
 devoted cooperation in searching out and illustrating 
 the lives of the early saints of Ireland, " in the hope," says 
 his biographer, " that, by promoting piety toward those 
 holy men, their example might be imitated by our people, 
 and those golden years be renewed amongst us which 
 shed such lustre and glory on our country." 
 
 In the memoir of Father Hugh Ward, we give the 
 letters that were addressed to him by Father Patrick 
 Fleming as he journeyed on toward the Eternal City. 
 His subsequent letters from Rome furnish us with addi- 
 tional interesting details regarding his researches in the 
 cause of Irish history. He had passed through Bobbio, 
 and discovered there, with other monuments of our 
 ancient Church, the precious fragments of St. Colum- 
 banus, which were afterward published in the " Collectanea 
 Sacra." These he forwarded without delay to Ward, and 
 on the feast of St. Mary Magdalen, 22d of July, 1623, he 
 wrote to him as follows : — 
 
 " Write as soon as possible, to let me know whether 
 you have received the bundle which I sent you with 
 the Rule of St. Columban, that we may no >longer be 
 
662 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 in anxiety about it. Should you not have received it, 
 I will transcribe these documents again for you. The 
 other works which I saw in Bobbio have not yet come to 
 hand, but there are copies of them here in Rome, so that 
 Messingham may be sure to have them for an appendix to 
 his work; or they will suffice for a separate volume, 
 especially as the Lives I sought for can in part be pro- 
 cured here. Thus, instead of one small volume, I think 
 you may be able to publish two volumes, which will be 
 far more becoming for our Island of Saints. 
 
 " That you might have some idea of the treasure 
 which I hope, with the blessing of God, to send you, I 
 went with Father Wadding (to whom you will return due 
 thanks for all the trouble he has taken with me in this 
 matter) to the library of the Oratorians, where Baronius 
 composed his ' Annals,' and I found there the Life of St. 
 Peregrinus, in four large manuscript sheets, from which 
 it appears that he was a true saint, and a glorious de- 
 spiser of mundane vanity. I found there, also, the Life of 
 St. Donatus of Fiesole, with a lengthy appendix of a 
 Benedictine monk, named Cajetan, who, amongst other 
 things, proves him to have come from Ireland. The Life 
 of the same saint, which is in the Minerva Library, where, 
 however, it is hard to find anything as its books are all 
 upside down, states that he was ex Scotia ubi nullum vivit 
 animal venenosum, which manifestly refers to Ireland. 
 Some other Lives as, for instance, of St. Patrick and St. 
 Brendan, I found there also ; but you do not require 
 these. There are also some poems of St. .^milian, but 
 I could not find his Life. I hope, in the course of time, 
 to find much more in this library ; and rest assured I 
 will not be slothful at the work. 
 
 " If I had a religious to accompany me in the present 
 great heat, I would myself copy the above Lives. Father 
 Hugh MacCaghwell, however, cannot bear the heat at all, 
 and thus I am obliged to defer this toil for the present. 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, O. S. F. 66^ 
 
 There is ;i pretty full Life of St. Andrew of Fiesole, who 
 is expressly called HybernuSy which Father Luke Wad- 
 ding has promised to translate into Latin for me. 
 
 " I will be able to have, without much trouble, the Life 
 of St. Frigidian, for his congregation is established at 
 Lucca, where he founded a monastery, still so famous 
 throughout Italy, that there are some cardinals connected 
 with it. Our primate, Peter Lombard, saw this Life, and 
 thinks he has a copy of it among his papers, and promises 
 it to me. 
 
 " There are some persons in this city who celebrate St. 
 Frigidian's office, and I am sure we will find his Acts 
 with some of them. 
 
 " Be careful to mark the place and library from which 
 )'ou receive each work, that thus your history may be 
 the more trustworthy, for that is a ver}' important point, 
 as Father Luke Wadding assures me; and hence he 
 constantl}' marks them in his writings. I have in my 
 possession the commentary of our primate, Lombard, 
 on the affairs of Ireland; but if you except the history 
 of the last centuries, he has scarcely anything that I had 
 not seen before. He is more full, however, than others 
 on the question of the nomenclature, as he illustrates it 
 copiously from Bede and other writers. 
 
 " This is the third day that the cardinals are in con- 
 clave for the election of a Pontiff. Pray to God that we 
 may have a Pope who, by word and example, may 
 instruct the fold of Christ." 
 
 The many Lives of our Irish Saints enumerated by 
 Fleming in this letter are all still preserved in the Ora- 
 torian Library, at the Chiesa Nuova. The most interest- 
 ing, perhaps, and at the same time the least known, is the 
 life of St. Pellegrine, or Peregrinus, by which name our 
 countrvman is now known among the faithful of Italy. 
 
 Having made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he chose 
 
664 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 for himself a hermitage there in a desert place, and for 
 several years practised in his daily life all the austerities 
 of the early anchorets. In the first Saracen irruptions, 
 he was made prisoner, and suffered a great deal. The 
 leader, however, of these marauders was so struck by 
 some miracles which the saint performed, that he restored 
 him to liberty. The holy man then journeyed back to 
 Italy, and chose for himself another hermitage in a 
 mountainous and woody district on the borders of the 
 territory of Lucca, where he soon after passed to a 
 better life. After his death many miracles attested his 
 sanctity. An oratory was erected over his remains, and 
 pilgrims, to the present day, flock thither to invoke his 
 intercession. 
 
 The St. Andrew to whom Fleming refers, was a 
 deacon, and brother of St. Donatus. A small church, 
 dedicated to St. Martin, situated on the declivity of 
 the hill of Fiesole, and on the banks of the Melsola, was 
 repaired by him, and enriched with valuable posses- 
 sions. His remains are now enshrined under its high 
 altar, and the memory of St. Andrew is cherished with 
 warm devotion by the inhabitants of the surrounding 
 territory. 
 
 On the i6th of September, 1623, Father Fleming again 
 wrote to Hugh Ward, who had now passed from Paris 
 to Louvain. He had written, he states, five letters since 
 his interview with Ward in Paris, and had as yet received 
 no letter in reply. A note, however, had come to hand 
 from Messingham, to the effect that his work was has- 
 tening to a close, but that he was still ready to fulfil his 
 promise of adding any important documents that might 
 be forwarded to him. " It would grieve me," adds 
 Fleming, " if, through your fault, this present opportunity 
 should be lost to us, which, perhaps for years, may not 
 occur again. 
 "^The present time is specially favorable to us, for the 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, O. S. F. 665 
 
 Sacred Congregation has imposed a precept on Demp- 
 ster to abstain in future from treating of such historical 
 matters ; and, whilst this precept lasts, it would be 
 important for us to set forth our state of the question, 
 whereof, whatever you may have in Louvain, send it 
 without delay to Paris to Messingham ; and, hereafter, 
 if God gives us the means, we ourselves can republish 
 the same documents more elegantly and accurately." 
 The conclusion of this letter is altogether characteristic 
 of the writer : — 
 
 " If you are suffering from sickness, as I have heard, 
 you will do well to depute Father Gallagher to maintain 
 correspondence with me till such time as you may be 
 restored to health. In the meantime, invoke our coun- 
 tryman, St. Peregrinus, who, during life, obtained the 
 privilege from God that those who implore his aid for 
 anything conducive to their greater good should obtain 
 the wished-for favor. 1 pray, you, dear father, be firm 
 in your resolve, and be friendly with me, God forbid 
 that you yourself should cease to enjoy the blessing of 
 light, now that you are preparing to restore our saints 
 to that light of which they have been so long deprived !" 
 
 His next letter is dated the 1st of June, 1624. In the 
 interval, Fleming had been busily engaged in preparing 
 for his public thesis in Rome, and hence had been able to 
 do but little in exploring the libraries of the Eternal City 
 
 The first page of this letter is very much effaced, but 
 from the few sentences that remain, it appears that Ward 
 had been for some time dangerously ill, and hence 
 Fleming now exhorts him to allow no longer any delay 
 in carrying out his holy project in regard to the saints 
 of Ireland. He then continues : — 
 
 " You asked me to send you all that I have collected 
 here. I would willingly obey, were it not that the thesis 
 which I had to defend in public before several cardinals 
 occupied all my time. With the blessing of God I will 
 
666 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 be free from this trouble in fifteen days' time, and then 
 you will know, by experience, how firm I am in my reso- 
 lution ; for, as soon as I shall hear that you have printed 
 what I already sent to you, I will transcribe and forward 
 the Lives of St. Frigidian, St. Andrew, St. Brigid, St. 
 Peregrinus, St. Marinus, bishop, St. Silas, bishop, and 
 also the Life of St. Coemghen, which I procured from 
 the Jesuit library of Ingolstadt. 
 
 " As regards the Irish saints who flourished in Italy, 
 only two remain to be sought for, i. e.: St. Donatus, the 
 brother of St. Cathaldus, and St. ^miUan, whom, how- 
 ever, I know to have been called a Scot. I have already 
 told you what you may expect in the next parcel. I forgot 
 to mention the Bull for the canonization of St. Virgihus, 
 taken from the Regcsta of the Roman Pontiffs : it is drawn 
 up in the same style as that published for the canonization 
 of our holy founder, St. Francis. From this you will be 
 convinced of my diligence in exploring the records of 
 Rome. But would to heaven I were free to pursue 
 these studies ! I am now here for a year, or thereabouts, 
 and yet I have only been able to visit four or five libraries 
 in this city. You know hovy this happens, and hence 1 
 need say no more. Nevertheless, my noble Hugh, be 
 not dispirited; we will yet, with the aid of Him who 
 glorifies the saints, do something to add lustre to the 
 saints of Ireland, despite the clamor of those who pur- 
 sue the vain fictions of their own imagination. 
 
 " One of the librarians in charge of the Vatican Library 
 promised to let me see the catalogue of all the books 
 which have been sent by the Duke of Bavaria to the Sov- 
 ereign Pontiff: they formed that most celebrated collec- 
 tion which was called the Palatinate Library. I expect 
 to find many treasures there, as soon as the}' are arranged; 
 in order. I saw amongst them some noble manuscripts, 
 but I was not able at the time to examine them. 
 
 " Rev. Eugene Swiney, some time ago, wrote to us 
 
Fatlur Patrick Fleming, O. S. F. 667 
 
 from Paris, stating that he had discovered the writings 
 of some Irish philosophers, which he is about to publish, 
 and asking me to forward to him the Homilice Sancti 
 Columbani, that both might be published together. It is 
 too bad that we should have all the labor, whilst others 
 thusbearaway all the honor of publishing these homilies, 
 which are more precious than the purest gold. This 
 should undoubtedly annoy us, were it not that we seek 
 to promote the glory of our saints, and not our own 
 glor}'. The fact is, the homilies have not come from 
 Bobbio, but they will be sure to come shortly, for two 
 friars will be sent expressly to bring them to us. In the 
 meantime, therefore, see what can be done with them in 
 Paris, for I will not send them thither till I hear from 
 you. Should I have a moment of time, I will transcribe 
 one of them that I brought with me from Bobbio, to- 
 gether with the Rule of St. Columbanus, which you will 
 shortly see in the pages of Messingham's works. 
 
 " Indeed, you should not have accepted your present 
 post in Louvain, relinquishing your former important 
 work. Father Gallagher might have been appointed to 
 teach, for it is folly to select him, so inexperienced in 
 such studies, for so important and so urgent a work. 
 
 " Lest I should seem to send you an empty letter, I en- 
 close a concise and compendious history of St. Frigi- 
 dian, and a similar account of St. Patrick, which contains 
 some particulars either omitted or not clearly expressed 
 by Jocelyn. The other fragments which I send are most 
 curious, and to be highly esteemed ; and they are the 
 more authoritative as they were written by a holy martyr. 
 I am sure, if you show these things to those who are 
 there with you, they will say they are spurious: so be 
 careful not to cast such pearls before swine. Keep them 
 to yourself, and with the blessing of God we will soon 
 find a place for them. I will omit to mention several 
 fragmentary notes which I have extracted from the 
 
668 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 Martyrology of Canisius. I have searched in vain for 
 the work of Florus; I pray you to inquire about it from 
 all those who are versed in such matters, and especially 
 from Myraeus, who lives in Brussels. Ask, also, about 
 the Life of St. Livinus, written by Bonifacio, which I 
 know not where to find. 
 
 "See, then, my dearest father in Christ and in his 
 saints, what a long letter I have written, through my 
 anxiety to converse with you about everything. We 
 may soon be together; for, if God permits, I will pro- 
 ceed to Louvain after the general chapter, laden with 
 documents. 
 
 " In the meantime, let us pray for one another, that our 
 holy desires may be fulfilled. I now end this homily, foi 
 which I have stolen a few hours from my study-time. 
 " Dear father, be ever mindful of me. 
 
 " Your truly faithful friend, 
 
 " Fr. Patrick Fleming." 
 "Rome,2iJ^ June, 1624." 
 
 On the 27th of July, Father Fleming wrote again to 
 Ward, stating that on the preceding day he had received 
 his letter with exceeding joy. He had also received a 
 letter from Dr. Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, giving 
 the news that the religious of Louvain were thinking of 
 publishing the Lives of the Saints of Ireland, and of 
 appointing Father Gallagher to this work. " They do 
 not seem in this (adds Fleming) to have maturely pon- 
 dered the matter ; for this father, though qualified for 
 the task by his memory and his style, is deficient in the 
 knowledge of our ancient histories : wherefore 1 have 
 sought to dissuade them from their choice, and have 
 urged them to leave the whole burden on your shoul- 
 ders." Father Fleming subscqucndy exhorts Ward to 
 begin his seriesof works with a treatise, " Dc Viris Illustri- 
 biis Hibeniics," for which abundant malcrials were at 
 
Father Patrick Fleming O. S. F. 66(^ 
 
 hand. He complains that Messingham had failed in the 
 promise which he had made to them, and, therefore, it 
 now only remained for them to work on without him. 
 " I have sent to you (he thus concludes) some little notes 
 with the nephew of the deceased Archbishop of Dublin 
 Dr. Eugene Matthews). I have, at length, received 
 from Bobbio the homilies of Saint Columbanus; but in 
 the middle of my news 1 am obliged to bring my letter 
 to a close. I congratulate you with all my heart on the 
 many important documents you have found." 
 
 The last letter from Father Fleming, from Rome, is 
 dated 24th of August, 1624. In it he consoles Ward on 
 his appointment to teach philosophy, even though this 
 should distract him from the great work on the " Saints 
 of Ireland," in which he was engaged : " Obedience," he 
 says, " is better than sacrifice. Our zeal in publishing the 
 Lives of the Saints will not, I trust, be lessened on this 
 account, but will be increased by time; and as our reward, 
 we may be enabled to shed greater light on the early 
 monuments of our country." He subsequently adds : 
 " Lay aside, then, the annotations which, perhaps, you 
 contemplate : these require a great deal of leisure, and a 
 good supply of books, both of which are now wanting to 
 you ; and undertake rather to translate from the Irish lan- 
 guage those Livesof the Saints which you have collected, 
 and add them to the Latin Lives which you already 
 have, and give a compendium of all in one small volume, 
 ' De Vtris Illustribus Hibernice,' giving merely the place ol 
 each one's birth, his manner of life, and his death. 
 
 " This may be published at but little expense, and you 
 can promise in it a longer treatise on the saints ot Ire- 
 land. This work would cost you little trouble, and you 
 might take for 3-our model the work of '■ Pitsens de Scrip- 
 toribus Anglice.' By doing this you will avoid displeas- 
 ing Messingham ; and, besides, the continental readers, 
 seeing reference made to so many saints not named on 
 
6/0 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 their calendars, will be the more desirous of having 
 your treatise on the Lives of these saints. 
 
 "All this I already wrote to you and to the Archbishop 
 of Dublin (Dr. Thomas Fleming), but you yourself must 
 judge whether it be possible or not. There are many of 
 our saints about whom so little is known that they .would 
 have no place in the Lives of our Saints; but in such a 
 work as I have mentioned, they could be easily intro- 
 duced. At all events, rest assured that I will labor here 
 untiringly in extracting from various books everything 
 connected with our saints, which will serve in future time 
 to illustrate their lives. 
 
 " What you write to me about my journey to Louvain 
 {i. e., to visit the different libraries on the way), I fear can- 
 not be accomplished : for where will I find a companion, 
 and how could I intrude myself into houses where I am 
 not invited? There are three Irish religious here: two 
 in Rome, and one in Naples. Write to me by return of 
 post how a companion can be secured. At all events, by 
 the desire of my superiors, I will set out for Louvain next 
 Pentecost. 
 
 " Messingham has written here to say that you prom- 
 ised to send him any documents you have, if he wished 
 to publish them. If human glory were our object, we 
 should feel hurt, indeed, that for such a treasure as the 
 Rule of St. Columban no acknowledgment is made of 
 those who communicated it and discovered it; but have 
 courage, dear father : I have the homilies of St. Colum- 
 banus, and there are some letters of the same saint in this 
 city, though it is not easy to procure them. It is said 
 that one who resides in the palace of the cardinal to 
 whom my thesis was dedicated, has several works of St. 
 Columbanus. What truth, however, there is in this, you 
 will soon know with certai-nty. 
 
 " 1 have not yet received the life of St. Coemghen. 
 Si. Fulco is called Scotus; but perhaps I may get some 
 
Father Patrick Flcjning, 0. S. F. 671 
 
 details concerning him when I pass through Pavia. 
 Father Edmund MacCaghwell tells me that he saw in 
 Ireland, in Latin, the Life of St. Adamnan, which you say 
 is still preserved (in Irish), and easily met with. I par- 
 ticularly congratulate you on the Acts and the List of the 
 kings which you have received. Why not give us, in 
 the course of time, a history of the kings of Ireland, such 
 as other nations have ? 
 
 " Leave nothing undone that the library may be en- 
 riched with all books necessary for the work ; and make 
 sure to carry out your purpose of sending Brother 
 Clery to Ireland to collect the manuscripts there." 
 
 It was probably before his departure from Rome that 
 Father Fleming composed a sketch of the life of Dr. 
 Hugh MacCaghwell, whom he had accompanied to the 
 Eternal City, and who was in the meantime promoted 
 to the primatial see of Armagh : a dignity which he held 
 only for a few weeks. This work of Fleming was incor- 
 porated by Vernulseus in the elegant panegyric on the 
 deceased primate, which he delivered at Louvain ; and 
 its chief facts are preserved by Lynch, in his manuscript 
 history of the bishops of Ireland. As MacCaghwell 
 himself rendered no small service to Irish literature, in 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century, not only by 
 his labors in Louvain, but also by his edition of the 
 works of Duns Scotus, and his vindication of the claim of 
 Ireland to be the birthplace of that great writer, a few 
 passages from the work just cited may not be out of place 
 here, or uninteresting to the reader, 
 
 MacCaghwell, in Irish MacCathmhail, was born in 
 the county Down, in Ulster, about the year 1571, and in 
 his youth was sent to the island of Anglesey, to be trained 
 in the higher branches of science. There he shone as 
 the light of the school, honored by all his companions as 
 a prodigy of genius, and as a guide in every path of 
 virtue. From the school he was summoned by Hugh 
 
672 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 O'Neil, to be at the same time his counsellor and the 
 tutor of his children. He discharged the duties of this 
 arduous post with such devotedness and diligence, that 
 the great O'Neil presented him with a sword : the highest 
 mark of esteem which the warlike chieftain could bestow. 
 Toward the close of the century he was sent, together 
 with Henry, the son of Hugh O'Neil, on a mission to 
 the Spanish monarch, to solicit aid in the religious war 
 which the Irish septs were then waging against Eliza- 
 beth. This mission was eminently successful ; but other 
 thoughts now engaged the mind of MacCaghwell: and 
 laying aside all the hopes and honors which the world 
 presented to him, he enrolled his name at Salamanca 
 among the children of St. Francis. We need not enter 
 into the details of his life in the cloister. Suffice it to 
 say that his biographer attests that as, heretofore, he 
 surpassed his compeers in human science, so now, among 
 his religious brethren, he, " like an angel," pursued the 
 higher paths of religious perfection. 
 
 Among his penitential exercises, it is specially men- 
 tioned that he constantly wore a rough hair-shirt next 
 his flesh, and that he generally protracted his daily fast 
 until sunset. He taught sacred theology in Louvain ; 
 the same charge was subsequently intrusted to him in 
 Rome, and he discharged its duties with universal ap- 
 plause ; and whilst the title of Professor Emeritus was 
 awarded to him by his superiors, he became generally 
 designated by his brethren as " Hugh the Angelic." 
 
 Twice he made the journey to the Eternal City on 
 foot, and frequently he, in like manner, visited the houses 
 of the order in Spain. It is added, that during his stay 
 in Rome he made, once each month, and sometimes more 
 frequently, the pilgrimage to its seven chief basilicas. At 
 the same time he was instrumental in founding the college 
 of his order at St. Isidore's, and he used all his influence 
 with Cardinal Ludovisio to procure a sinailar college in 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, O. S. F. 673 
 
 the Holy City for the aspirants to the ranks of the secu- 
 lar clergy. This latter project, soon after his demise, 
 was realized through the exertions of his friend and 
 associate, Father Luke Wadding; and throughout the 
 whole long era of Ireland's gloom, it continued to confer 
 many blessings on our Church. He also, in opposition to 
 many who feared lest the appointment of new bishops 
 to the vacant sees in Ireland might reawaken the embers 
 of persecution, procured the appointment of four bishops 
 for our island. 
 
 On the death of Peter Lombard, this holy religious, at 
 the urgent request of John O'Neil, Earl of Tj'rone, was 
 selected by Urban VIII to fill the see of Armagh. 
 
 In this exalted dignity he pursued, unchanged, the 
 same practices of a devoted Franciscan, and a model of 
 observance to all his brethren. He asked and received 
 permission to select any six priests of his order, to bring 
 them with him as companions and fellow-laborers in his 
 new mission. 
 
 Many other special privileges were also accorded to 
 him, one of which was a plenary indulgence for those 
 who should visit the Church of SS. Patrick, Bridget, and 
 Columbkille, in Down and Connor. 
 
 However, he was not destined to revisit the shores of 
 his loved country, for, in the designs of God, his labors 
 already merited their crown. He had already taken his 
 leave of the Holy Father, and received a farewell blessing 
 for his flock ; he wished, however, to make, for the 
 last time, his usual penitential pilgrimage to the seven 
 chief churches of Rome. On the way he was seized with 
 fever, and so violent was the attack, that his companion 
 feared he would expire on the roadside. Conveyed 
 back to the convent of Ara Coeli, the last benediction for 
 the dying was sent to him by the Pontiff. He bequeathed 
 his cross and ring to Edmund Dungan, Bishop of Down 
 and Connor, who proved himself worthy of this gift, by 
 
6/4 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 laying down his life for the faith in prison, in 1629 ; and 
 his only request to his Holiness was that none should be 
 chosen as his successor in the see of Armagh but one 
 whom John O'Neil, the Earl of Tyrone, would nominate. 
 He was interred in the Church of St. Isidore, where an 
 epitaph was inscribed to his memory. 
 
 But to return to Father Fleming. Whilst journeying 
 from Rome to Louvain, we first meet with him at Ratis- 
 bonne, now Regensburg, at the famous Irish monastery 
 of St. Peter; and O'Sheerin informs us that he wrote 
 there a compendium of the ancient chronicle of that 
 monastery. 
 
 This chronicle is frequently referred to by the various 
 writers of ecclesiastical history in the seventeeth centur}', 
 and many passages from it are published by Ward, Lynch 
 and others. 
 
 This monastery of St. Peter was founded by St. Mari- 
 anus, an Irish pilgrim, who, in the year 1067, set out from 
 Ireland with two companions, John and Candidus, with 
 the intention of visiting the sanctuaries of Rome. Being 
 kindly received by a religious community at Ratisbonne, 
 they remained some time in that cit}*, copying missals 
 and other sacred books. They found at the monastery 
 called Obermiinster a holy Irishman named Murchertach, 
 who was leading a hermit's life, immured in a cell. This 
 recluse exhorted Marianus to abandon his journey to 
 Italy, and to stay where the rising sun should first dawn 
 on him. It was near the Church of St. Peter, at the 
 southern gate of Ratisbonne, that he met the rising sun. 
 That church, and the adjacent ground, were soon be- 
 stowed upon the Irish pilgrims ; and so many were the 
 religious who flocked to this monastery, especially from 
 the province of Ulster, that before the year 1090 it was 
 found necessary to found another monastery to receive 
 them. This was called the monastery of St. James, and 
 became, in the course of years, one of the richest monas- 
 
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Father Patrick Fleming, 0. S. F, 675 
 
 teries of Europe. The hisiory of its foundation is one of 
 the most interesting portions of the Ratisbonne Chronicle. 
 From it we learn that Isaac and Gervase, two Irishmen 
 of noble birth, accompanied by two others of the com- 
 munity, were sent by the Abbot of St. Peter's to Ireland, 
 to collect funds for the new monastery. They were 
 kindly received by Conchobhar O'Brien, King of Ireland 
 and, being loaded with rich presents, returned to Ratis- 
 bonne. With the money thus brought from Ireland, the 
 site for St. James's Monastery was purchased on the 
 western side of the city, and the new monastery erected. 
 
 "Be it known," writes the chronicler, "that neither 
 before nor since was there a monastery equal to this, in 
 the beauty of its towers, columns, and vaultings, erected 
 and completed in so short a time, because the plenteous- 
 ness of riches and of money bestowed by the king and 
 princes of Ireland was without bound." 
 
 Soon, however, the treasury of the monks was ex- 
 hausted ; and Christian, now abbot of the monastery of 
 St. James, and descended from the princely family of the 
 MacCarthys, undertook. a journey to his native country, 
 Ireland, to seek the aid of King Dounchadh O'Brien. 
 
 He is said to have been most successful in his mission, 
 receiving numerous presents and gifts, but when prepar- 
 ing to return, he fell sick and died, and was buried before 
 St. Patrick's altar, in the Cathedral of Cashel. The 
 treasure which he collected was subsequently forwarded 
 to its destination ; and with it were laid the foundations of 
 that princely estate with which this famous monasterium 
 Scotorum was ever afterward endowed. 
 
 There is one fact connected with the building of the 
 monastery which is characteristic of our Irish pilgrims : 
 " Whilst the building of the monastery of St. James was 
 in progress," writes the German narrator, Wattenbach, 
 " one of the monks pursued his journey, accompanied 
 only by a boy, till he reached Kiev, then the residence 
 
6y6 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 of the King of Russia; here the king and his nobles 
 made him rich presents, so that he loaded several wagons 
 with very valuable furs, to the amount of a hundred silver 
 marks, and arrived at home in safety, accompanied by 
 some merchants of Regensburg. The money obtained by 
 the sale of the furs turned to account, and with it the 
 'buildings belonging to the monastery were erected, and 
 the roof put on the church." 
 
 Father Wadding, in his short notice of the Life of Father 
 Fleming, after stating that he was wholly devoted to the 
 saints of Ireland, adds that, for the purpose of illustrating 
 their Lives, he visited the principal libraries of Italy, 
 France, Belgium, and Germany. 
 
 It was probably on the occasion of his present journey 
 that Father Fleming made this visit; and a short paper, 
 apparently drawn up to serve him as a guide in this 
 literary tour, is happily preserved in the library of St. 
 Isidore's at Rome : — 
 
 " At Verdun, in France, in the monastery of St. Michael, 
 is preserved the Life of St. Malcalinus, who was abbot 
 of that monastery. 
 
 " In Virssenaken, in the duchy of Brabant, the Life of 
 St. Himmelin, whose relics are preserved in that city. 
 
 " At Fosses, in the diocese of Namur, the Life of St. 
 Ultan, who died there. 
 
 " In the monastery of the town of Bury, in Cornwall, 
 the Life of St. Buriena, virgin. 
 
 " In Brussels, the Life of St. Rumold, published by 
 John Domyns. 
 
 " At Liessies, or Fecan {Lcstiis vel Fisiaci), in Hainault, 
 the Life of St. Etto, who reposes in the former place. 
 
 " In the district of Cumberland, in England, the Life 
 of St. Bees (St. Begas), virgin. 
 
 " In the city of Condy, in Hainault, the Life of 
 Wasnulph, wrho reposes there. He was the brother of 
 St. Etto. 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, 0. S. F. 677 
 
 "At Cologne, in the church of St. Chuvibert, repose 
 the two brothers Ewald. See the Chronicle of Sigebert, 
 at the year 693, and Molanus, in his additions to the 
 Roman Martyrology, at 3d October. 
 
 " At Wansor ( V/alciodoruni), in the territory of Liege, 
 the Life of St. Eloquius, abbot, who reposes there. 
 
 " At Vienna, in Austria, is enshrined the body of St. 
 Col man, martyr. 
 
 " In the monastery of Brie, near Paris, the Life of St. 
 Syna, who reposes there. 
 
 "At Louvain, the Life of St. Abbuin, Bishop of Fritziar, 
 who reposes there. He was bishop in the city of 
 Burback. 
 
 " In the city of Mecklenburg, in the province of the 
 Vandal (near Wismar), the Life of St. Ivan, a Scot, who 
 was bishop, and suffered mart)'rdom in the year 1067. 
 
 "At Malogne (Malonias), near Namur, the Life of St. 
 Bertuin, abbot, who rests there. 
 
 " In the territory of Aries (in territorio Atrebatensi), 
 in Albeniacke, the Life of St. Kilian, who rests there. 
 There is a college of regular canons at that city. 
 
 " At Cologne, in the monastery of St. Martin, the Life 
 of St. Mimborin, a Scot, who was abbot of that place. 
 
 " At Wurtzburg, in Germany, the Life of St. Machair 
 {Sancti Macarii), a Scot, who rests there. 
 
 " At Pontoise (Pontisarae), in Picardy, the Life of St 
 Sadoch, of whom mention is made in the Life of St. 
 Riquier, in Surius. 
 
 "At Ingolstadt, the Fathers of the Society of Jesus 
 have a Life of St. Kevin." 
 
 In Louvain, Father Fleming was engaged in the chair, 
 of philosophy and theology during the following years, 
 till he was, in 1630, chosen first superior of the newly 
 estabhshed convent of the order at Prague. One of his 
 last letters from Louvain is dated i8th February, 1630, and 
 
678 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 is addressed to Father Robert Rochford (also known as 
 Father Robert a Sancta Brigida), who was then in the 
 College of St. Francis, in Alcala. 
 
 He invites Father Rochford to hasten his journey to 
 Louvain, where everything was prepared to welcome 
 him. Their present lecturer of philosophy, he says, 
 Father Francis Ferrall, had been appointed to the chair 
 of theology in the Argentine Province ; and " as for my- 
 self," he adds, " if other duties be not assigned to me, I 
 will, at least, devote myself to my ' Columbanus.' " Saint 
 Columbanus was a favorite saint of Father Fleming, and 
 the fervent religious seems to have devoted each leisure 
 hour to collect and prepare for the press this saint's 
 hitherto scattered writings. In 1630 St. Anthony's was 
 found too small for their ever-increasing numbers; and 
 Father Malachy Fallon proceeded to the court of 
 Ferdinand II, to pray for the site of a second convent, 
 " in which the exiled students of the Irish province might 
 be gathered together to glorify God, and to prepare 
 themselves for the mission in their native land." This 
 prayer was granted ; and a site in the city of Prague 
 being assigned to them, Father Patrick Fleming was 
 selected to proceed thither as first guardian and founder 
 of the new convent. In the official report of the found- 
 ation, sent to Rome by the superiors in Louvain, Father 
 Fleming is styled " lector in sacred theology. Having 
 completed all his studies in Louvain, he subsequently 
 held the post of lector of philosophy and theology 
 there, and, what was of more importance, was at all 
 times remarkable for the lustre of his virtues." Fleming, 
 accompanied by another Irish Franciscan, named Father 
 Geraldine, set out on foot for Prague, in the beginning 
 of November, 1630, and having overcome a thousand 
 difficulties which such a journey in Germany, especially 
 in the winter season, presents to a poor Franciscan, 
 arrived at his destination before the close of November, 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, O. S. F. 679 
 
 and in the next month the first students were sent thither. ' 
 Some fragments of Fleming's letters from Prague have 
 fortunately been preserved. On the 12th of April, 1631, 
 he writes to Father Robert Rochford, now lector of 
 philosophy at St. Anthony's, Louvain : "There is here 
 the greatest scarcity of books, and hence, too, they are 
 very dear. Only one or two booksellers can be found in 
 the vvhole of this triple city. One of our greatest diffi- 
 culties will be to form a library, unless we get the books 
 from Frankfort, as, undoubtedly, we will have to do after 
 a time ; and, indeed, this will be less expensive than to 
 purchase them either bound or unbound here." On the 
 7th of June, writing to Father Malachy Fallon, lector of 
 theology in Louvain, he gives a few details concerning 
 the new convent : — 
 
 " We have formed a choir capable of containing thirty 
 religious, and underneath we have laid out a chapel, 
 opening on the street, where formerly there was a 
 smith's forge." 
 
 Writing again to Father Rochford, on the 6th of August, 
 1 63 1, he states that he was to start on the following day 
 for Vienna, to arrange some difficulties that had arisen 
 with the secular authorities regarding his convent. He 
 sent also a copy of the seal of the new convent, having 
 for its motto, " Nodus originalis non est in te" and adds: 
 " These words are attributed to St. Ambrose, and are 
 given by Father Hugh (MacCaghwell), in his ' Rosary of 
 the Immaculate Conception,' and therefore I added them 
 on the seal." Father Fleming continued in Vienna till the 
 middle of October, when he returned to Prague. On the 
 25th of that month he writes from his convent there 
 that for some days they were all in suspense, in conse- 
 quence of the rumors of war. He adds : " We are all well ; 
 and when these lawsuits and wars will have ceased, we 
 will have many consolations here." 
 
 In a second letter of the same day, he writes : " ' Co- 
 
CSo Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 lumbanus' is promised to me by the printer for the next 
 fair-day. Be good enough to tell Moretus not to print 
 the ' Penitential of St. Cummi-an,' till I send him a more 
 correct copy, together with a dedicatory letter to the 
 Abbot of St. Gall's. 
 
 " 1 have not been able to compose this as yet, owing to 
 tie many distractions I have had. Our own workshops 
 are in good order. The Prince de Coravite is our most 
 especial friend. Your reverence will kindly ask Father 
 Francis Fleming to transcribe for me what Messingham 
 has on the ' Purgator}' of St. Patrick,' for I am anxious 
 to print here the tract of the soldier George, and other 
 visions about it, and to dedicate them to this worthy 
 prince, who has often spoken to me about that ' Pur- 
 gatory ; ' and he is so interested in it that he would wish 
 to make thejourney to Ireland to see the place." 
 
 Some further details concerning the convent of Prague 
 and its devoted superior are given in the preface of 
 O'Sheerin to the writings of St. Columban. It was on 
 the 2d of July, 1631, that the Franciscans were publicly 
 inducted to their new establishment in Prague by Car- 
 dinal Harrach, Archbishop of Prague and Primate of 
 Bohemia. His eminence and all the other civil and 
 ecclesiastical authorities of Prague being present, a 
 discourse composed by Father Fleming was delivered 
 with great earnestness and effect by a young religious 
 in deacon's orders, named Matthew Hoar, who was 
 destined, in a few months, to be the companion of 
 Father Fleming in martyrdom. 
 
 Six friars thenceforward devoted themselves there to 
 he exercises of piety with unremitting fervor. They 
 /lad to contend against many difficulties ; but Father 
 Fleming, to uphold the courage of his companions, con- 
 tinually referred in his discourses " to St. Columbanus. 
 toward whom he cherished a most tender devotion. 
 He set before them the many and almost superhuman 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, O. S. F. 68 1 
 
 difficulties this saint had to encounter ; and to secure 
 his patronage and that of their other patron saints, he 
 caused the Litan}' of the Blessed Virgin to be recited 
 each day, with prayers to St. Francis, St. Patrick, St. 
 Columbanus, St. Ambrose, St. Catherine, and other 
 saints." 
 
 In the month of October, however, the Elector of 
 Saxony invaded Bohemia, and, after the victory of 
 Leipsic, ravaged the country without opposition. The 
 Lutheran peasantry at the same time formed themselves 
 into armed bands to plunder the Catholic inhabitants, 
 and to wreck the religious houses, scattering or murder- 
 ing the inmates. Being warned of impending danger. 
 Father Fleming, with three companions, resolved on 
 yielding before the storm, and seeking safety in flight, 
 whilst the other two religious were commissioned to 
 remain in Prague, and to continue, if possible, in posses- 
 sion of the monastery. During the octave of All-Saints 
 the fugitives set out on their perilous flight, but had not 
 proceeded very far when, on the 7th of November, 
 Father Fleming and the Deacon Hoar were overtaken 
 by a band of Lutheran peasants, and barbarously mur- 
 dered. The remains of these worthy religious, who 
 thus merited to lay down their lives for Christ, were 
 devoutly translated to the town of Noticium, and in- 
 terred there under the pulpit in the Franciscan church. 
 
 Before Father Fleming set out for Prague, he had con- 
 signed his " Collectanea Sacra" containing the life and 
 writings of St. Columbanus, and other valuable tracts 
 cbnnected with our early Church, to Moretus, a publisher 
 of Antwerp. The death, however, of the holy martyr 
 prevented its publication ; and it was only in the year 
 1667 that, through the exertions of O'Sheerin, this pre- 
 cious monument of Fleming's learning and industry was 
 printed and preserved to us. In addition to the extant 
 work on St. Columbanus, and the documents connected 
 
682 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 with the life of that saint, the " Collectanea Sacra " pre- 
 sents the Life of St. Comgall, founder of Bangor ; the 
 Life of St. Molua, patron of Killaloe, and founder of 
 Clonfert-Mulloe in the Queen's county ; the Life of St 
 Mochaemog (or Pulcherius), a companion of St. Colum 
 banus, in Bangor, whose feast is kept on the 13th ot 
 March ; also the Penitential Rule of St. Cummian, and 
 other important tracts. 
 
 One of its most curious fragments is the mystical inter- 
 pretation of the names which occur in the " Genealogy of 
 our Saviour," by St. Aileran, or Aireran, as his name is 
 sometimes written. St. Aileran has received from our 
 Irish writers the epithet of an Egra, i. e., " The Wise." 
 He was lecturer in the famous monastery of Clonard ; 
 his feast was observed on the 29th of December, and his 
 death is marked in the " Annals of Ulster and the Four 
 Masters," in the year 674, where he is styled Aileranus 
 Sapiens. This " Mystical Interpretation " was known 
 to Ware and Usher, both of whom refer to it in their 
 writings. Centuries earlier it was inserted by Sedulius, 
 in his " Commentary on St. Matthew," and he prefaces it 
 with these words : " Here begins the typical and figu- 
 rative signification of the genealogy of Christ, which St. 
 Aileran, the wisest of the Scottish nation, explained." 
 Fleming found an ancient, though imperfect, copy of 
 this tract in the library of St Gall's, in Switzerland, and 
 preserved it to us, by inserting it in his " Collectanea 
 Sacra." 
 
 Many of the extracts from manuscript Lives of our 
 Saints, and the incidental remarks of Fleming himself, 
 are full ot the deepest interest. Thus at page 362, he men- 
 tions that the cambatta, or staff, of St. Columbanus, which 
 was sent by that holy abbot to his great disciple, St. Gall, 
 as a token of pardon, was still preserved in the monas- 
 tery of Fosse, in Rhetia. He adds that " this cambatta 
 is of the wood which is called, in the Irish language. 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, 0. S. F. 683 
 
 cuilcann, i. e., holly, which the Germans call baxhohcr " 
 and that Stephen White, S. J., was of opinion that this 
 was the very pastoral staff of. St. Columbanus, which 
 perhaps derived its name, cambatta, from the Celtic word 
 cam, which means " crooked." In the same monastery 
 was preserved the portable reliquary of St. Magnus, 
 which he ever carried around his neck, and which con- 
 tained relics of the Holy Cross, of the Blessed Vi'rgin, of 
 St. Maurice and companions, and of St. Columbanus and 
 St. Gall. 
 
 Speaking of the wooden church erected by St. Colum- 
 banus, Fleming remarks that this was more Hibernico, as 
 is instanced in the church of St. Finan, in Lindisfarne 
 (see Bede, H. E., lib. 3, chap. 25), and in the oratory of 
 St. Malachy, which, as St. Bernard writes, was formed 
 ot planed planks of wood, closely and firmly united 
 together. 
 
 St. Attala, the disciple of St. Columbanus, erected a 
 large wooden cross before the oratory of his loved 
 master, and many miracles were performed at it through 
 his intercession. 
 
 The question. Did St. Columbanus visit Rome, has 
 been warmly controverted. Fleming adopts the opinion 
 that he did ; and he mentions, in confirmation of it, that, 
 on the ancient monument of the saint in Bobbio, he was 
 represented as kneeling at the feet of the Roman Pontiff, 
 and receiving from his hands the venerable reliquary 
 wnich had ever since been zealously guarded at that 
 monastery. A very old painting was also preserved 
 there, representing St. Comgall impartmg his blessing to 
 St. Columbanus and his twelve companions, when setting 
 out on their distant mission. 
 
 One of these figures had the inscription, " St. Kilian, 
 companion of St. Columbanus, on his journey to Rome." 
 We may be allowed to add that other ancient records 
 connected with the monastery of Bobbio, and now pre- 
 
684 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 served in the Barberini Library, Rome, fully confirm this 
 opinion of Father Fleming. 
 
 Speaking of the monastery of Bangor, where St. Co- 
 lumbanus had been trained to piety and science, Father 
 Fleming thus writes : "The seminary, indeed, merited that 
 its site should be marked out by an angelic vision, and be 
 watered into more abundant increase and growth by the 
 grace of the Hol)'^ Spirit. . . . There still may be seen, 
 on the spot where the Bangor monastery stood, some 
 structures, and vast walls of white stone, and various 
 enclosures, all of which betoken its former grandeur." 
 
 In a valuable commentary on the Life of St. Colum- 
 banus, Fleming treats of the various persons and places 
 mentioned in the memoir of the saint by Jonas, as also of, 
 the conversion of Ireland, of its ancient name of " Scotia," 
 its fame for sanctity, and the glories of the monasteries 
 with which it was enriched. 
 
 He has another special dissertation on the Rule of St 
 Columbanus, in which he inserts the Catalogue of the threr 
 orders of Irish saints, subsequently published by Usher 
 Fleming tells us that his text of this famous Catalogue 
 was taken from " a very ancient and accurate Life of St. 
 Patrick," and that he had also another copy of it, made 
 by Father Matthews, Provincial of the Order of St. 
 Francis, in the year 1626, from manuscript volumes of the 
 ancient Life of St. Finian ; one of which was in Usher's 
 library, and the other in the monastery of the Island of 
 All Saints, in Loughrea. There are some important 
 variations between Usher's and Fleming's text of this 
 Catalogue : and Dr. O'Connor, in his "Rev. Hib. Scriptores" 
 (vol. ii, page 162), and the most learned of our later 
 writers, give the preference to Fleming's text. We are 
 sure no apology is needed for inserting in full this most 
 important fragment from our ancient church : — 
 
 " Here begins the ' Catalogue of the Order of Saints in 
 Ireland,' according to the various periods. 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, O. S. F. 685 
 
 " The first order of saints was in the time of Patrick ; 
 and then they were all bishops, illustrious and holy, and 
 full of the Holy Ghost, four hundred and fifty in number ; 
 the founders of churcnes, worshipping the one head, 
 Christ, and following the one leader, Patrick, having the 
 one tonsure, and one liturgy of the Mass, and they kept 
 one Easter, viz., after the vernal equinox, and what was 
 excommunicated by one church was excommunicated by 
 all : they did not reject the ministrations and society of 
 women, because, founded on the rock, Christ, they feared 
 not the blast of temptation. This order of saints con- 
 tinued throughout four reigns, that is, from the time of 
 Laoghaire, the son of Niall, who reigned thirty-seven 
 years, and of Oilioll, surnamed Inolt, who reigned thirty 
 years, and of Lugadh, who reigned seven years ; and this 
 order of saints continued down to the latter days of 
 Tuathall who was surnamed Moelgarbh, and they all 
 continued holy bishops. 
 
 " But the second order of saints was as follows : for in 
 this second order there were few bishops and many 
 priests, in number three hundred, worshipping the one 
 head, the Lord ; they had different forms of liturgy and 
 different rules of life, and they celebrated the one Easter 
 on the fourteenth moon. And they made a uniform 
 tonsure, viz., from ear to ear. They also shunned the 
 society and ministrations of women, and they excluded 
 them from their monasteries. This order also lasted 
 for four reigns, that is, from the latter days of Tuathal 
 Moelgarbh, and during the thirty years that Diarmait 
 McKearvaill reigned, and throughout the time of the 
 two grandsons of Muiredach, who reigned for seven 
 years, and throughout the time of Aedh, son of Ainmire, 
 who reigned for thirty years. They received a form 
 of liturgy of the Mass from the holy men of Britain, 
 viz. : from St. David and St. Gildas, and from St. Docus. 
 And their names are these, viz. : Finian, Enda, Colman, 
 
686 Martyrs and Conjessors. 
 
 Comgall, Aedh, Kieran, Columba, Brendan, Briequinas, 
 Cainnech, Coemgen, Laisrean, Laisre, Lugeus, Barrinde, 
 and man}' others, who were of the second order of 
 saints. 
 
 " The third order of saints was as follows : for they 
 were holy priests and a few bishops, in number one hun- 
 dred, who dwelt in desert places. They lived on herbs 
 and water and the alms of the faithful, and despised all 
 earthly things, and wholly avoided all murmuring and 
 detraction. They had difTerent rules and different forms 
 of liturgy, and also a different tonsure, for some wore 
 the crown and others the hair, and they had a different 
 Paschal solemnity ; for some Celebrated it on the four- 
 teenth moon, others on the thirteenth. This order con- 
 tinued throughout four reigns, that is, during the time 
 of Aedh AUain, who reigned only three years, and during 
 the time of Domhnall, who reigned for thirty years, and 
 during the time of Aedh Slaine, and this order continued 
 till that great mortality. These are their names : 
 Petran, bishop ; Ultan, bishop ; Colman, bishop ; Aedan> 
 bishop ; Lomnan, bishop ; Senach, bishop. All these 
 and many others were bishops. But the priests were 
 these, viz.: Fechin, the priest, Airendan, Faillan, Cum- 
 mian, Colman, Ernan, Cronan, and many other priests. 
 
 " It is to be remarked that the first order was thrice 
 holy ; the second order holy in the second degree ; "and 
 the third order holy. 
 
 " The first order glows like the sun with the fervor of 
 charity ; the second is pale like the moon ; the third shines 
 like the aurora. 
 
 " The blessed Patrick, taught by a divine revelation, 
 foreknew these three orders when, in that prophetic 
 vision, he saw all Ireland filled with a glowing fire ; then 
 only the mountains seemed to burn, and afterward he 
 saw lights only burning in the valleys."* 
 
 * "Irish Ecclesiastical Record." 
 
Father Patrick Fleming, 0. S. F. 687 
 
 The " Collectanea Sacra " is a quarto volume of four 
 hundred and eighty pages. It is to be desired that a 
 book so valuable and so much sought for should be re- 
 published, and thus made accessible to the students of 
 our antiquities, most of whom are at present practically 
 excluded from the use of it. 
 
FATHER HUGH WARD, 0. S. F. 
 
 A. D. 1635. 
 
 St. Munsuetus, Bishop of Tulle. — SS. Fursey, Brigid and Cadroe. — SS. Dympn* 
 and Gerebern . — SS. Hilvaris and Oda. — St. Rumold, Archbishop of Dublin. 
 — St. Forannen. 
 
 It was in 1623 that Father Hugh Ward, O. S. F., ar- 
 rived at the Convent of St. Anthony of Padua, in Louvain. 
 He had many years before embraced the Franciscan Rule 
 at Salamanca, where he pursued his studies of philo- 
 sophy and theology, and acquired considerable fame 
 lor acuteness of mind and depth, of research. Father 
 I-'ontius, a distinguished professor of the order in Rome, 
 publicly eulogized him, in after times, as surpassing the 
 most famous Franciscan professors of that age in scholas- 
 tic subtlety. Father O'Sheerin gives him no less praise : 
 " Defurraed in bod}^ he was endowed with every accom- 
 plishment of mind ; he was affable in his words, which 
 sparkled with wit and humor; being of holy conversa- 
 tion and spotless life, he was at th^ same time endowed 
 with brilliant genius, and was profoundly versed in 
 philosophical and theological science. 
 
 From Salamanca he proceeded to Paris, as companion 
 to Father Francis de Arraba, confessor of the Queen of 
 France ; and there he enjoyed aburidant leisure to pursue 
 
Father Hugh Ward, 0. S. F. 689 
 
 his favorite studies, and explore the rich literary treasures 
 of that great capital. It was at this time that the Scot- 
 tish historian, Dempster, published his famous work on 
 the saints of Scotland, in which he appropriated to his 
 native calendar most of the holy men who adorned' our 
 country by their sanctity in the first ages of our faith. 
 It has been said of him that " he was as well inclined to 
 believe a lie as any man in his time, and as well qualified 
 to put it into a pretty dress of poetry." He was, how- 
 ever, a man of extensive reading, and he must be pardoned 
 if, writing in the beginning of the seventeenth century, he 
 assumed, as a matter of course, that in the olden records 
 the name Scotiis and Scotia referred to modern Scotland. 
 His piracy of Irish saints awakened the energy and zeal 
 of our exiled countrymen, and we will have occasion 
 hereafter to refer to the tracts which were published soon 
 after by David Rothe and others, refuting Dempster's 
 groundless but attractive statements. Ward enlisted 
 with ardor in this controversy, and thenceforward each 
 hour at his disposal was devoted to explore the records of 
 the past, and to search out new monuments illustrative 
 of the history of the saints of Ireland. 
 
 Indeed this study of the antiquities of our country 
 was nothing new in the family of Hugh Ward. He be- 
 longed to that branch of the family that gave name to 
 Ballymac-Ward, in Donegal. His ancestors had been for 
 centuries the hereditary bards of the O'Donnells, princes 
 of T3-rconnell, and in poetry and minstrelsy had often 
 borne away the palm from the chief poets of Ireland. 
 
 In the "Annals of the Four Masters," in 1541, we find 
 recorded that " MacWard, ollamh to O'Donnell in poetry, _ 
 a superintendent of schools, and a man not excelled in 
 poetry and other arts, who had founded and maintained 
 a house of general hospitality, died on the 20th of Decem- 
 ber, after unction and penance." In 1550 it is again 
 recorded: " MacWard, of Tyrconnell, a learned poet, a 
 
690 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 superintendent of schools, and a man of great name and 
 renown throughout Ireland in his time, who kept a house 
 of general hospitality, died." Also, in 1576, we meet the 
 entry : " William Oge MacWard, ollamh to O'Donnell in 
 poetry, a president of schools, illustrious for his learning 
 and knowledge, a patron and supporter of the learned and 
 the tea"hers, died at Druimmor, in Donegal, on the 22d of 
 February." Owen MacWard, brother of our Franciscan 
 Hugh, was the last of these hereditary bards, and died in 
 1609: " Owen MacWard, ollamh to O'Donnell in poetry, 
 an intelligent, ingenious man, who kept an open house of 
 general hospitality, died at an advanced age, after thb 
 victor}' of penance."* He was one of those who shared 
 the perils of the flight and exile of the earls, in 1607. 
 On the death of O'Donnell, in Rome, the following year, 
 he composed a beautiful Irish elegiac poem, addressed 
 to Nuala, the sister of the deceased earl, and in it she is 
 introduced as weeping alone on St. Peter's Hill over the 
 tomb of the illustrious dead : — 
 
 " O woman of the piercing wail, 
 
 Who mournest o'er yon mound of clay, 
 With sigh and groan, 
 Would God thou wert among the Gael 1 
 Thou wouldst not then, from day to day, 
 Weep thus alone. 
 
 " Twere long before, around a grave 
 
 In green Tyrcounel, one could find 
 This loneliness ; 
 Near where Beann-Boirche's banners wave, 
 
 Such grief as thine could ne'er have pined 
 
 Companionless. 
 • • • • • 
 
 " Red would have been our warriors' eyes, 
 Had Roderick found on Sligo's field 
 A gory grave ; 
 No Northern chief would soon arise, 
 So sage to guide, so strong to shield, 
 So swifl to save. 
 
 ' O'Donovan's "Annals of the Four Masters." 
 
Father Hugh Ward, 0. S. F. 691 
 
 " Long would Leith-Cuinn have wept, if Hugh 
 Had met the death he oft had dealt 
 Among the foe ; 
 But had our Roderick fallen, too, 
 All Erin must, alas ! have felt 
 
 The deadly blow. 
 
 " What do Lsay ? Ah 1 woe is me I 
 Already we bewail in vain 
 
 Their fatal fall I 
 And Erin, once the great and free, 
 Now vainly mourns her breakless chain 
 And iron thrall I 
 
 "Then, daughter of O'Donnell, dry 
 r Thine overflowing eyes, and turn 
 Thy heart aside. 
 For Adam's race is bom to die, 
 And sternly the sepulchral urn 
 
 Mocks human pride. 
 
 » • * * * 
 
 " And Thou, O mighty Lord ! whose wayi 
 Are far above our feeble minds 
 
 To understand I 
 Sustain us in these doleful days, 
 And render light the chain that binds 
 Our fallen land I 
 
 " Look down upon our dreary state. 
 And through the ages that may still 
 Roll sadly on, 
 Watch Thou o'er hapless Erin's fate. 
 And shield, at least from darker ill, 
 
 The blood of Conn I" 
 
 We may here be allowed to remark that, like the subject 
 of this chapter, most of the religious of St. Anthony's of 
 Louvain, who rendered such services to the history of 
 Ireland, were linked by some personal ties with the 
 princely families of Tyrconnell and Tyrone. Thus it was 
 with Father Mooney, who, whilst guardian of St. An- 
 thony's, discharged the duties of tutor to the youthful 
 earls. Thus, too, MacCaghwell, whose name is men- 
 tioned more than once in the pages of our native land, 
 had fought under the banner of the earls in the wars 
 
692 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 against Elizabeth, and was subsequently their faithful com- 
 panion in exile. O'Sheerin, also, was closely allied by 
 blood with the same princely families of Ulster. 
 
 It was in Paris, in 1623, that Father Hugh Ward con- 
 tracted a close friendship with another member of his 
 order, Father Patrick Fleming. The same ideas that 
 quickened the energies of Ward had already found an 
 echo in the heart of Fleming ; and when the former made 
 known his project of laying the foundations of Irish 
 hagiology, by collecting together all the original Acts 
 of the Irish saints, and the other monuments connected 
 with the history of his native land, Father Fleming at 
 once promised to lend his earnest cooperation in thus 
 promoting the hallowed glory of Ireland. 
 
 Father Fleming was at this time journeying on to 
 Rome, companion of Father MacCaghwell, who was 
 Visitor of the order. They travelled, for the most part, 
 on foot, and chose for their resting-place, at each stage 
 of their journey, some house of their own order, or, 
 when none such could be found, some friendly monastery, 
 where, by their prayers and learned conversation, they 
 repaid the charitable hospitality which was shown them. 
 The monastery of Clairvaux renowned for its memories 
 of St. Bernard, our own St. Malachy, and so many other 
 illustrious ornaments of the Church, was one of the asy- 
 lums thus yisited by our travellers. Before continuing 
 his journev, Father Fleming thus wrote to Father Hugh 
 Ward :— ' 
 
 " My Venerated Father : — 
 
 " I arrived at last at this sanctuary of my desire, this 
 holy Clairvaux, where would to God I could remain at 
 least five days, that thus I might be able to glean some- 
 thing from the many manuscripts which enrich it. But 
 we have barely stopped two days here, and hence you 
 can expect but little from me. I did all that I could 
 

 O'GOKMAN MJHON. 
 
Father Hugh Ward, O. S. F. 693 
 
 however, in the short time that was allowed me, and I 
 wrote what I now send, leaving the charge to a faithful 
 friend to forward the remaining monuments to you, 
 should any such be found there. I have not seen the 
 archives of the monastery, nor can I see them, for we 
 leave this to-morrow, at five o'clock in the morning. I 
 was in hopes to find here the letters of St. Malachy, which 
 would be important for your work ; but have courage, 
 dear father, you will get everything that Clairvaux has 
 useful for your purpose, for I leave after me here an- 
 other myself, in the person of the monk, John Cantwell, 
 an Irish priest of great credit and authority with the 
 abbot. It was the desire of the abbot that he should be 
 prior in another monastery, near Paris, but, by chance, 
 through the mercy of God, he was not sent thither, and 
 he will not resign his present post. 
 
 " He is a man having the same zeal and desire as our- 
 selves ; he has the charge to arrange the books of the 
 library, which are now all in confusion, and scattered 
 about so that I could find nothing, although I turned 
 over several of them. He, however, found, a few days 
 ago, when putting the books in order, one work with the 
 title, ' Commentary of a Certain Irish Monk on the Rule 
 of St. Benedict,' in which many things are introduced 
 here and there about Ireland. I did not see the book, be- 
 cause one of the religious had brought it to his cell. I 
 saw, however, an unpublished history of Britain, in which 
 there are some things about Ireland, but which are of 
 no importance for your work. There, are also, some 
 prophecies — I suppose those of Merlin. I glanced over 
 large volumes of the ' Lives of the Saints,', among which 
 I found a very full Life of the Abbot of St. Dichuil: 
 it is, indeed, a most beautiful Life, and the above-men- 
 tioned John will have it copied for you within a few days. 
 St. Dichuil, in this Life, styles himself a Scot: from 
 which it is certain that he was not an Englishman, and 
 
694 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 hence, as the British Scots do not claim him, he must, 
 of course, be an Irish Scot. 
 
 " I saw, also, the ' Miracles of St. Columbanus,' but 
 believing it to be the same work that Messingham has, 
 I did not give any instructions to have it copied. The 
 Life of St. Mansuetus, Bishop of Tulle, from the pen of 
 some English prior, has been published. 
 
 " It was read and examined by Father Cantwell, at 
 whose request that work was undertaken. It proves, at 
 great length, that St. Mansuetus was an Irishman, and it 
 often expatiates at great lengt°h on the praises of Ireland. 
 The Bishop of Tulle has already erected a statue of 
 St. Mansuetus, with the inscription, ' Sanctus Mansuetus 
 Hibernus ' (' St. Mansuetus, native of Ireland ' ). Were it 
 not for the English prior, he would have styled him a 
 Scot. Father Cantwell will soon have a copy of this 
 work from his English friend, and will send it to you ; 
 and he has promised me that henceforward he will be 
 most diligent in our business, and that he will send to you 
 everything that he finds. This he can easily effect, for 
 he has persons here who, if he so wishes, will copy whole 
 treatises for. him. Moreover, there is an Irish novice 
 here who will not refuse such work : indeed he dare not 
 refuse it, for the assistant-master of novices is also an 
 Irishman, who will oblige him to do this work, if he shows 
 any difficulty about it. 
 
 " Father Cantwell has asked me since, as he says he 
 is the matter and you are the form, that I should be 
 the bond of union, requesting you to open a mutual and 
 frequent correspondence. I am sure he will be most 
 diligent in collecting the desired materials, which, if any- 
 where, are here most abundant. He is most anxious to 
 have the works of Scotus edited by Father MacCaghwell, 
 which will be highly prized here, on account of being 
 edited by an Irishman. The religious of this parent mon- 
 astery are so devotedly attached to the Irish, that the 
 
Father Hugh Ward, 0. S. F. 69; 
 
 lord-abbot himself now keeps a catalogue of the saints of 
 Ireland in his own private oratory. I therefore earnestly 
 and humbly request you to send the wished-for works- 
 of Scotus, as well for the ornament of the library as for 
 the private use of Father Cantwell, and thus he will feel 
 greatly indebted to you. 
 
 " You may send your letters through the procurator of 
 Clairvaux, who lives in Paris, in the College of the Ber- 
 nardines ; but do not disclose any of your projects to him, 
 as he is supposed not to be so favorable to us as others. 
 When you write to Father Cantwell, promise to send 
 the ' Scotus,' and also the work of Father Caghwell on 
 the rules of the order, published under the present gen- 
 eral. He himself will send instructions with this letter 
 how you may most readily communicate with him. 
 
 " My courageous and dearest father, proceed in your 
 work with earnestness, for, as I hope, there is no one 
 who can keep from your hands all the materials that are 
 necessary for you. For the rest, pardon me if I have 
 acted with any imprudence in this business ; and whilst 
 I depart from this terrestrial paradise, accompany me 
 with your prayers. I would wish to find before me in 
 Lyons your reply to this letter. Farewell in the Lord, 
 and pray for me. 
 
 " Fr. Patrick Fleming." 
 
 " The Feast of St Mark, 1623." 
 
 On his arrival at Lyons he again wrote to Father 
 Ward, adding interesting details regarding the various 
 memorials of St. Malachy, preserved in some of the 
 great French Cistercian monasteries : — 
 
 " I wrote to you from Clairvaux, in hopes of getting 
 an answer from you. As this has not come to hand, I 
 fear my letter may not have reached you ; and thus it 
 will be necessary for you to write to that effect to 
 Father John Cantwell, an Irish Monk in Clairvaux. . . . 
 
696 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 Ask him about the Lives of SS. Dichuil and Mansuetus, 
 and the letters of St. Malachy, though these have not 
 been found as yet. Ask him, also, about the mitre of 
 St. Malachy, which, according to traditioa, was placed 
 upon the head of that holy bishop by Pope Innocent ; 
 and about the chalice of St. Malachy, which I myself 
 used when offering the Holy Sacrifice. The inscrip- 
 tions on his monument were sent to 3''Ou enclosed in my 
 former letter. We met another memorial of St. Malachy 
 in the monastery of Obrier, which is about ten leagues 
 distant from Clairvaux, that is, the cup which he 
 brought with him from Ireland, and from which we had 
 the privilege of drinking. It is made of wood, and its 
 cover or case is more precious than itself, being of 
 leather, wonderfully embossed and adorned with inter 
 twinings, according to the Irish style {>nore Hibernico), 
 of singular ornamentation, generally used on the sheaths 
 of oblong instruments. I wrote this to yon, as Father 
 Caghwell thinks it may be interesting to you to know it. 
 All the religious drink from this cup only on the feast of 
 St. Malachy. Use your own discretion as to adding this 
 when writing the saint's life. 
 
 "As yet I have found no manuscripts, because there 
 was no time for searching for them. We stopped at the 
 Cistercian Monastery, bu-t on the day after our arrival 
 we again started on our journey, so that I was not able 
 to see the celebrated library of that house, much more 
 valuable, as I hear, than that of Clairvaux ; and this I 
 readily believe, as it is considered the first and mother 
 house of the Cistercian Order, and its abbot should be, 
 6y right, the General-Superior of the whole order. As 
 for the remainder of the journey, I despair of being 
 able to transmit anything to you, unless it may please 
 God to arrange matters othei'wise than at present. 
 
 " For my part I have lost nothing of my fervor ; never- 
 theless, I fear that this, my journey, will add but little to 
 
Father Hugh Ward, O. S. F. 697 
 
 your store. But this should not disturb you, for 1 hope 
 to find in Rome what I am unable to search for on the 
 road thither. 
 
 " Read the supplement to the ' Chronicle of Philip of 
 Bergamo,' where he treats about Ireland, and you will 
 find something useful, perhaps, on the question of the 
 nomenclature, if, however, it is our Ireland that he 
 speaks of. 
 
 " Direct your letters to Rome, to the care of Father 
 Luke Wadding, for I hope we will arrive there before 
 your letters can reach. I pray you to send all details 
 about the progress of your work ; and I lovingly salute 
 Messingham, who, I trust, earnestly continues to labor 
 for the glory of our saints, and the honor of our 
 country. 
 
 " I commend myself to the prayers of the fathers; as 
 for yours, I feel quite assured of them. I shall write no 
 more ; and even all this I have written, not as a matter 
 of any urgency, but merely to discharge my duty to- 
 ward you. God grant that you may be able to read 
 what my stupid pen has written. Farewell in Christ, 
 my dear father, and be not forgetful of one who is ever 
 mindful of you. 
 
 " Fr. Patrick Fleming." 
 " Lyons, ?itk May, 1623. 
 
 Before the month of September, 1623, Father Hugl 
 Ward proceeded to Louvain, to teach theology in the 
 College of St. Anthony. A little later he was chosen 
 guardian of that convent; and thus a wider field was 
 opened to him for promoting his cherished object of the 
 glory of the saints of Ireland. During his sojourn in 
 France he had visited the libraries of Paris, of Rouen, of 
 Harfleur and of Nantes. In Belgium he also gathered in 
 a rich literary store ; but it was in Ireland principally that 
 reseaches should be made for the surviving monuments 
 
bgS ' Martyrs and Confessi,rs. 
 
 of her early history. Here Providence came to his aid. 
 " Whilst he was guardian of Louvain," writes Father de 
 Buck, ♦' there came to the gates of St. Anthony's a man 
 advanced in years, who knew no Latin, but asked to be 
 admitted to the habit of the lay brothers of the Fran- 
 ciscan Order. This was Michael O'Clery, whose name 
 will be forever dear to the archaeologists and historians 
 of Ireland. Born about the year 1580, in the county of 
 Donegal, he was an antiquarian by profession, and ranked 
 amongst his colleagues as one of the most skilled in Celtic 
 archceology. Father Ward asked permission to have 
 O'Clery appointed his own assistant, and the permission 
 was readily accorded. He soon saw that Ireland would 
 be a better field of labor, for one so skilled in Irish litera- 
 ture, than Belgium. 
 
 " The superiors of the order came to a like decision, and 
 soon the antiquarian Brother was sent back to his coun- 
 try, commissioned to search out and transcribe the Lives 
 of the Irish Saints, and all other documents connected 
 with the history of the kingdom. As many of these 
 records of our early ages were written in the ancient 
 Gaelic, no one was better suited for such a task than 
 Brother Michael." 
 
 It will suffice here to cite a few passages of a letter 
 of Dr. Rothe, Bishop of Ossory, giving some details con- 
 nected with that learned explorer of our early monuments. 
 It is addressed, as follows, to Father Hugh Ward : — 
 
 " The T,otk January, 1628. 
 " WoRTHiE Friend: — 
 
 " I need not make any relation of the trivial occur- 
 rcnts now current in this poor realm, nor particularize 
 anything touching myself, but remit you to the bearer,, 
 who will punctually inform you of all. As I was teach- 
 ing at Cashel, upon your patron's festival day, there I 
 met your Brother Clery, who made a collection of more 
 
Father Hugh Ward, 0. S. F. 699 
 
 than three or four hundred Lives. I gave him the few 
 Lives I had collected, and sent him to Ormond, part of my 
 diocese, to write there for a time, from whence he prom- 
 ised to come to Chewmond {i. e., Thomond), where I 
 undertook to get many things for him, but he came not 
 since ; soon 1 do expect his coming ; he shall be welcome 
 truly to me. I have some little alms to be sent to your 
 house, but can find no way this year to convey the same to 
 you, or send any supply to my brother, because the ways 
 are stopped. I understood by one of your letters, written 
 long ago, that some false informations were given of mt, 
 for my partiality against religious orders, which was 
 most calumnious, as experience taught, and ever will 
 teach, during my life ; but I cannot sufficiently give you 
 thanks for your advice and care of me and mine, assur- 
 ing you your will was and will always be done, in that 
 behalf, as you will see in time. 
 
 " ! commend the bearer to you, who is my special 
 friend, and one of yours, worthy, for his parentage and 
 behaviour, of any furtherance, 
 
 " Remember my love and humble service to the two 
 noble gentlemen of Barnewall and McFrihill. 
 
 " I hear man}' are suitors for my place, and I pray God 
 to rid me of the pains thereof, if it will tend to His own 
 glory, and the common good : otherwise, benedicta ejus in 
 otnnibus fiat voluntas. ... I long to hear from yourself, 
 and when you intend to come for Ireland. I know you 
 heard, long ago, from Mr. Francis Brian, how Mr. Wil-. 
 !iam Kelly died of late, to my grief. I rest without end. 
 " Yours to be commanded, 
 
 " David Rothe." 
 "To the worthy and much respected friend, 
 
 . " Mr. Heagh Warde, Louvain." 
 
 However, the libraries of France, Italy and Ireland did 
 not satisfy this indefatigable man. He wished, also, to 
 
700 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 be enriched with the spoils of Germany, as we learn 
 from the following letter of the celebrated Benedictine, 
 Lessing, who thus writes to Ward, from the monastery 
 of St. Hubert, on the 23d of August, 1629 : — 
 
 "The Peace of Xt. 
 " My Reverend Father in Xt: — 
 
 " When two of your religious lately made a pilgrim- 
 age to our monastery of St. Hubert, one of them requested 
 me to have some Lives of Saints copied by one of our 
 brothers from a manuscript of the monastery. This copy, 
 faithfully and accurately made from the said manuscript, 
 which is entitled " Vitce Sanctorum^ I now send to you. 
 I trust your reverence may accept my good will, and 
 cause the Holy Sacrifice to be offered up by your relig- 
 ious for the good of our order; and may God grant His 
 protection and blessing to you. 
 
 " Your servant in Xt. 
 
 " Fr. Benedict Lessing." 
 " The Monastery of St. Hubert, 
 
 " The loth of the Calends of September, 1629." 
 
 A marginal note adds that the Lives of SS. Fursey, 
 Brigid and Cadroe, with a fragment of a Life of St. 
 Patrick, accompanied this letter. All these Lives were 
 subsequently made use of by Colgan, in \i\'s,"- Acta Sanc- 
 torum ; " and this' greatest of our hagiologists regarded, as 
 singularly important and venerable for its antiquity, the 
 valuable manuscript from which they were transcribed. 
 
 Whilst Ward was thus occupied enlisting the services 
 of skilful and devoted men to collect the scattered monu- 
 ments of Irish histor}', he himself was busily engaged 
 in preparing for the press several works which were 
 closely connected with the same subject. The following 
 treatises on which he was engaged, are mentioned by 
 O'Sheerin : — 
 
Father Hugh Ward, O. S. F. 701 
 
 1. "On the Ancient Names of Ireland " {De Nomenclatura 
 Hibernia ). 
 
 2. " Oh the Condition and Political Development of 
 Society in Ireland " [De Statu et Frocessu Veteris in Hiber- 
 nia ReipubliccB ). 
 
 3. " On the Privileges of St. Patrick " (Anagraplu Mira- 
 bilmm Sancti Patricii ). 
 
 4. "An Inquiry Concerning the Pilgrimage of St. Ur- 
 sula" [Investigatio Expeditio7iis Ursulancz). 
 
 5. "An Hiberno-Latin Martyrology, Compiled from 
 the Ancient Marcyrologies of Ireland " [Martyrologmm 
 ex Multis Vetustis Latino-Hibernicum ). 
 
 6. " The Life of St. Rumold, Bishop of Mechlin " {Sa7ictt 
 Ruinoldi Vita'). 
 
 The fame of Father Hugh Ward yi^as soon wide-spread 
 throughout Belgium. Letters were addressed to him 
 from all parts, proposing queries connected with the 
 saints of Ireland ; and among his correspondents we find 
 the renowned Father BoUandus, from whom the great 
 Jesuit collection of the Lives ol the Saints derives its 
 name. 
 
 One of the letters thus addressed to him is particularly 
 interesting. It was written by Father Augustine Wich- 
 mann, of the Premonstratensian Order, and dated from ' 
 Tungerloo, the feast of St. Waldetrude, in 1628. It is 
 addressed to Father Hugh Ward, Order of St. Francis, 
 guardian of the College of St. Anthony, in Louvain : — 
 
 " With both hands I have received, and then I have 
 lovingly kissed, the bundle of your most learned remarks 
 on the Life of St. Dympna. 
 
 " Our people of Brabant will be astounded, as well as 
 I, when they will receive, through your kindness, these 
 wonderful details in the Life of St. D)'mpna; and would 
 to heaven that manuscripts regarding her deeds, whicli 
 are preserved in your nation, should soon be placed 
 within our reach ! O Dympna ! hear my prayer, for it 
 
702 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 is directed to promote thy glory ; and thou, O angel; 
 who art named Accelera I hasten this boon for me." 
 
 He then propounds some of his own views about the 
 Life of St. Dympna, and, among other things, remarks 
 that she could not have been the superior of a convent, 
 as, according to the tradition of Gheel, she was only 
 fifteen years of age at the time she suffered martyr- 
 dom : " Therefore," he thus continues, "your conjecture 
 seems to me to be the most probable, that is, that her 
 staff, which is preserved, is not an abbatial crosier, but a 
 staff of pilgrimage, like that of St. Oda, which was brought 
 from Mount Garganum, as her Life, which we possess, 
 records : for she passed by that mountain, when journey- 
 ing from your country to Rome." 
 
 From other remarks of Father Wichmann we glean 
 that it was Ward's opinion that St. Dympna made a pil- 
 grimage to Rome ; that her martyrdom took place about 
 the year 480, and that the name of Gheel was derived 
 from the two Gaelic saints, SS. Dympna and Gerabern, 
 who rendered that spot so illustrious by miracles, that a 
 city soon sprung up round their shrines. He adds : " I 
 have nothing to oppose to your explanation of the name 
 Gheel ; but I would wish to learn from you, can any simi- 
 lar explanation be given to the name Tammale, by which 
 the town is called, where they resided before their mar- 
 tyrdom." He further gives the following interestmg 
 particulars regarding St. Oda, and her companion, St. 
 Hilvaris: " I don't know whether your reverence has 
 ever verified from other sources the statement made by 
 Gazet, in his 'Ecclesiastical History of Belgium,' written 
 in French, wherein, in the chapter on the saints of Bois- 
 le-Duc, he writes regarding the Irish saint, St. Hilvaris: 
 ' St. Hilvaris, virgin, the companion of Si. Oda, founded a 
 collegiate church in the town of Beca, which, from her, is 
 called Hilvaris-Beca.' This is also the constant tradition 
 there. The town is situated in the middle of our 
 
Father Hugh Ward, O. S. F. 703 
 
 Campania, which was the native place of the late famous 
 theologian, Martin Becanus." Twelve years later, Father 
 Wichmann again wrote to Louvain, seeking further details 
 about St. Dympna. His letter was no longer addressed to 
 Hugh Ward, who had passed to his reward, but to Father 
 John Colgan, the worthy successor of Ward as Irish 
 hagiologist in St Anthony's. He states in his letter that 
 the Life of St. Dympna, by F. Cameracensis, was the most 
 ancient preserved in Gheel, and was compiled in the 
 thirteenth century from the tradition of the inhabitants, 
 and from paintings and various monuments collected in 
 several places. This is fortunately preserved among the 
 Colgan fragments at St. Isidore's, In Rome, a fly-sheet 
 containing a rough draft of a portion of Colgan's letter 
 in answer to the above, and dated i8th September, 1640. 
 It adds not a little to our scanty information regarding 
 that great saint and martyr of our early Church. He 
 first remarks that the father of St. Dympna should not 
 be styled monarch of all Ireland, but rather dynast, or 
 inferior prince ; many of whom received the title of kings, 
 and sonre of whom, it is probable, persevered, for a time, 
 in their pagan vices and superstitions. 
 
 He then continues as follows : — 
 
 " That the matter may be more accurately illustrated, 
 I premise four remarks : 
 
 " I. That Dympna, or Dimhna, is generally written 
 Damhnad in Irish, although, according to the origin of 
 the word, we should rather write it Damhna. 
 
 " 2. That in Oirghialla, which is a very large district in 
 Ulster,in Ireland, there is still preserved, through rever- 
 ence for this saint, a celebrated memorial, called Bachull- 
 Damhnad, i. e., staff of St. Dympna, which is held in the 
 highest honor and veneration ; and when any one of this 
 territory, whether he be prince or peasant, wishes to 
 affirm anything on oath, he is invariably sworn on this 
 bachull, as a most inviolable tessera of truth. It is un- 
 
J04 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 certain whether it was used as a pastoral staff of abbess, 
 or as a staff of pilgrimage to foreign parts ; but now it is 
 covered with gems and gold, and held in the highest 
 honor. 
 
 " 3. That in different parts of Ireland there still rema'n 
 four churches dedicated to one or more saints of the 
 name of Dympna. The first and principal church is situ- 
 ated in the aforesaid province of Oirghialla, in the dis- 
 trict of Sliaabh-Beatha ; it is called Teagh-Damhnad, i.,e., 
 the house of St. Dympna, and was formerly the burial- 
 place of the princes and dynasts of Oirghialla (who in 
 olden times were called by the generic name of kings), 
 and in it, to our own times, was preserved the above 
 staff of St. Dympna. 
 
 " In it, also, the festival of St. Dympna is celebrated 
 with the greatest solemnity, as the feast of the patron not 
 only of that place, but of the whole province ; it is not 
 kept, however, on the 15th of May, as in Gheel, but on 
 the 13th of June, on which day a public fair is held, as an 
 occasion of special celebration. 
 
 " The second church is about five miles distant from the 
 former, and situated in the same district, on the side of 
 Mount Beatha, and is called Atchuniairc, i. e., the ford 
 of refuge ; and as a large portion of the mountain for- 
 merly belonged to this church, the saint seems to have 
 derived from it her characteristic designation, for she 
 is generally known as St. Dympna of Mount Beatha. 
 The third church is situated at a distance of about twenty 
 miles thence, in the town and county of Louth, in the 
 district of Maghera Oirghialla, i. e., the plain of Oirghi- 
 alla ; and at a short distance from this church there is 
 another chapel which, according to tradition, was dedi- 
 cated to Saint Gerebern, and tradition has it that it was 
 there St. Gerebern instructed our St. Dympna in science 
 and in religion. 
 
 "The fourth church is that called Kill-Alga, in the 
 
Father Hugh Ward, O. 5. F. 705 
 
 county of Meath, half way between Trim and Athboy, 
 being distant about three miles from each of these 
 towns. 
 
 " I have not, as yet, been able to discover on what day 
 the feast of the saint is kept in these churches. 
 
 " 4. The fourth point to be held in mind is this : that two, 
 if not three, holy virgins of the name of Dympna are 
 coramemorated by our hagiologists and other historians 
 as reno\vned for their birth and sanctity. The first 
 St. Dympna had, for her father, St. Ronan, the son of 
 Nennedh, and for mother, Dublacha, who was descended 
 from the celebrated family of the O'Neils : about her and 
 her sisters, see, at the 13th of November, the notes on the 
 Life of St. Lassair, who washer sister. As, however, St. 
 Ronan, the father of these holy virgins, was not a pagan, 
 but was a Christian from his infancy, and, as he advanced 
 in years, was remarkable for his sanctity, and after the 
 death of his wife was chosen bishop, and was celebrated 
 for miracles during the lifetime of his daughters, as ap- 
 pears from the Life of St. Lassair, it is manifest that St. 
 Dympna of Gheel, who was beheaded by her pagan and 
 impious father, cannot have been St. Ronan's daughter. 
 
 " The second St. Dympna is called St. Dympna of 
 Mount Beatha ; of whose father's family, as well as of 
 her mother and holy brothers, we are better informed 
 than of her father himself, whose name is passed over in 
 silence by our writers." 
 
 After this important passage, another short paragraph 
 IS added (which, however, is in great part erased), as 
 follows : " Her mother's name was Bronach, the daughter 
 of Milcho, 'with whom St. Patrick lived as a slave for 
 many years." (See .^ngus Keledeus.) 
 
 This is all that is preserved of the letter of Colgan. 
 The Mount Beatha here referred to is the modern Slieve 
 Beagh, which is situated in the county of Tyrone, near 
 its junction with Fermanagh and Monaghan. Near it, 
 
7o6 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 to the southeast, is the ancient Teagh-Damhnat giving 
 name to the modern parish of Tedavnet. The bachull 
 of St. Dympna is spoken of by Petrie, as forming part 
 of his valuable collection, and the ornamental work is de- 
 scribed by him as not later than the tenth century. He 
 gives two illustrations from it in his " Round Towers " 
 (page 318). As regards the town and whole districts 
 of Louth, special devotion seems to have been there 
 shown to St. Dympna, even to a late period. 
 
 In the sixteenth century, as Hanmer writes in his 
 chronicles, her memory was vividly cherished there ; and 
 it was supposed that her father had been some dynast 
 of that territory. 
 
 Colgan also writes, in the printed volume of his "Acta 
 Sanctorum " (page 713), that " a most celebrated virgin of 
 the name of Damhna, sprung from Oirghialla, is vener- 
 ated to the present day as the common patron of all the 
 territory of Oirghialla." The Kill- Alga mentioned above 
 is now known as Kildalkey. It still gives name to a 
 parish situated at a few miles from Trim. Mi. Donovan, 
 who examined this district in connection with the Ordi- 
 nance Survey, reported that St. Damhnat, i. e., Dympna, 
 was its patron saint. In the " Annals of the Four Mas- 
 ters," he thus writes: "Kill-Dealga, Anglicized Kildalkey, 
 was the name of an old church, now totally destroyed, 
 giving name to a parish situated between the parish of 
 Trim, in East Meath, and the boundary of West Meath " 
 (page 320). He adds that the festival of the saint was 
 formerly kept there on the 15th of May. Though no 
 vestige remains of the ancient church, a holy well near 
 ihe site still retains the name of Tobar-Damhnata, i, e., 
 St. Dympna's Well. 
 
 As an appendix to Hugh Ward's Life of St. Rumold, 
 some scattered poems were inserted, composed by him, 
 at leisure intervals, in honor of his special patrons. Two 
 of these short poems are in praise of St. Dympna. 
 
Father Hugh Ward, O. S. F. 707 
 
 The Life of St. Rumold is the onl)' published work of 
 Hugh Ward ; and it was not till many years after his 
 death that even this was given to the press by his friend 
 and companion, O'Sheerin. Nevertheless, it is justly 
 described by the learned BoUandist, de Buck, as indis- 
 putably one of the most erudite books for which we are 
 indebted to Irish archaeology. * 
 
 Hugh Ward engaged m this work at the request of 
 the Archbishop of Mechlin, who, with his clergy, was 
 most desirous of having the details of the Life of the 
 great patron of that see illustrated by one so well versed 
 in the antiquities of Ireland. It was completed in the 
 year 163 1, but its pu'blication was deferred, in the hope 
 that some further particulars connected with St. Rumold 
 might be gleaned from the documents which were then so 
 zealously sought for by O'Clery, and other members of the 
 order, in Ireland. Ward, however, was cut off by death 
 before these documents could be transmitted to Louvain. 
 It was the intention of Colgan to insert the whole work, 
 with additional notes, in his " Acta Sanctorum," on the ist 
 of July ; but he, too, was summoned to his reward before 
 accomplishing his design. 
 
 Hence it was that O'Sheerin, on being appointed 
 hagiologist of the order, resolved to begin his labors by 
 the publication of this work of Ward, lest, as he writes 
 in the preface, " he should be forgotten who had begun 
 these studies, and had collected a great deal of matter, 
 with much toil and industry ; or lest it should be sup- 
 posed that nothing had been achieved by all his toil." 
 
 The few and unfinished remarks made by Ward, 
 regarding the family of St. Rumold, show how accurate 
 was his knowledge of the antiquities of our country. 
 He conjectures that the Latinized name, Rumoldus, cor- 
 responds with the Celtic Rumond, which is often met 
 with in the annals of Ireland : thus, Rumond Duagh is 
 commemorated as connected by blood with St Kieran 
 
7o8 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 of Saigher, and as the father of many saints ; Rumond 
 O'Haedhagain, Abbot of Clonmacnoise, is mentioned in 
 978 ; Rumond MacCathusach, Bishop of Clonard, in 919 ; 
 another Rumond, "exceedingly versed in chronology 
 and poetry," in 742, at which time, indeed, the patron oi 
 Mechlin also flourished ; but Ward adds that this entry 
 of our annals pfobably refers to another St. Rumond, 
 who lived at the time, and is referred to by St. ^ngus, in 
 his tract on the " The Mothers of the Saints of Erin," 
 where Funechta is styled " the mother of St. Cormac, 
 Bishop of Athtruim, and of SS. Baithellach, Ossan and 
 Rumond." In the ancient Life, St. Rumold is said to have 
 been born in a city called Guervia. 
 
 This gives occasion to Ward to remark that the 
 Scottish writers were unable to find any place in Scot- 
 land corresponding with this name; but in Ireland, he 
 adds, we have Sliebh-Guaire, in Breffny, " which was 
 formerly part jof Connaught, but is now a county in 
 Ulster;" also, the more celebrated Durlas-Guaire, i e., 
 the fortress of Guaire, King of Connaught, situated nine 
 miles from Gal way, and four miles from the see of Kil- 
 macduagh, the royal palace of Prince Guaire, who was 
 renowned for his munificence and hospitality, formerly 
 marked this spot; then, again, Gort-insi-Guaire, the 
 hereditary property of the O'Shaugnessys, only two or 
 three miles distant from Durlas-Guaire ; a fourth town 
 situated between Dublin and Wexford (thirty-three miles 
 from the former, and twenty-three from the latter), in 
 the townland of Kilmantan, is still called Guaire-aH-Ri, 
 i. e.. Royal Guaire. It was formerly the residence of 
 the Dublin princes, and is now the seat of Viscount 
 Esmond ; in fine, Rath-Guaire, a village of Westmeath, 
 situated twenty-five miles from Dublin, and five miles 
 from MuUingar : " It was once a noble palace, as its 
 ruins still attest." It is not easy to decide which of 
 these places is the city mentioned in the Life of St. 
 
Father Hugh Ward, 0. S. F. 709 
 
 Rumold ; but as it states that the royal residence of the 
 father of the saint was situated there, we may, with some 
 probability, look to Guaire-an-Ri as the birthplace of St. 
 Rumold. It is worthy of remark that, in the , beginning 
 of the eighth century, our annals mention a prince of 
 the Hy-Kinnsellagh, called Dathi, which, as Ward fully 
 proves, was the name of the father of our saint. 
 
 The most important part, however, of the work of 
 Ward is an Essay on the Ancient Scotia, in which he dis- 
 plays the greatest learning, and proves that that name 
 originally belonged solely to Ireland, and that it was 
 only at a comparatively recent date it became appropri- 
 ated to the northern part of Britain. 
 
 In this essa}'^ he shows himself intimately acquainted 
 with all the then accessible materials of Irish histor}-, 
 and he brings forward many passages from manuscript 
 Lives of our early saints. In his incidental references 
 he remarks that the hymn in honor of St. Columbanus, 
 beginning " Nostri solemnis saculi," which by some is 
 attributed to Jonas, and by others to Notker Balbulus, is 
 marked, in the ancient manuscripts of Bobbio, as com- 
 posed by St. Gall, the holy companion of St. Columbanus. 
 
 At page 152 he states that in the sacristy of Namur was 
 preserved the inscription, " St. Forannan, an Irish arch- 
 bishop, and first abbot of the monastery of Walciodo- 
 rum, is enshrined there, illustrious by his many miracles;" 
 and, after a few other remarks, he adds : " These things 1 
 myself copied in Walciodorum, in 1626." Treating of the 
 religious rulefollowedby the Irish saints, he writes (p. 64) 
 that there were at least twelve great monastic founders 
 in our early Church, each of whom composed a rule for 
 his disciples : " I myself have fragments," he adds, " of 
 these various Rules, and they are referred to in the Lives 
 of our Saints, written in the earliest times. Thus, the 
 ancient narrative of St. Molua's life makes mention of 
 his Rule, which was brought to St, Gregory the Great by 
 
710 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 the holy abbot, Dagan, and it was so admired by that 
 great pontiff that he exclaimed : ' Molua has raised, even 
 unto heaven, a safe barrier for his followers, to preserve 
 them from every assault of worldly wickedness.' " 
 
 At page 105, speaking of the beautiful discourse ot 
 Vernulasus on the Irish saints in Belgium, he states that 
 it was delivered on the occasion of the consecration of 
 Dr. Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, in 1623, in the 
 public acadamy of Louvain, in the presence of four 
 archbishops, and a select number of academicians, who, 
 in their poems and various compositions, declared that 
 " Belgium was indebted to Ireland, and particularly to 
 Dublin, for St. Rumold and other saints, but now repaid 
 in part this debt, by sending to Dublin, as archbishops, the 
 superior and lecturer of theology at St. Anthony's." At 
 page 299 he also mentions that Edward Geraldine, con- 
 nected with the noble families of Kildare and Desmond, 
 and born in Ireland, held the post of sergeant-major in 
 the Irish Legion in Belgium, and subsequently attained 
 the rank of colonel and count of the Holy Empire, in 
 Germany, but died at Heidelberg, in 1626, and was in- 
 terred in the Franciscan church of that town. These few 
 instances will suffice to show how important, even in its 
 incidental references, is the Life of St. Rumold. 
 
 The last event that we meet with, connected with 
 Father Ward's life, is the visitation of the houses of his 
 order in the province of St. Andrew, in Belgium, which he 
 held in 1633, by special authority from the Papal Nuncio, 
 as well as by commission from the Franciscan general. 
 The archives of St. Isidore's preserve some minutes of 
 his report on the various allegations that were made to 
 him, and on the true causes which created disturbance 
 among the brethren of that province. From it we learn 
 that he proceeded to Lisle on the ist of July, 1633, held 
 a consultation with the nuncio, at Brussels, on the 28th of 
 the same month ; returned a second time to Lisle, on the 
 
Father Hugh Ward, 0. S. F. ^\\ 
 
 6th of August, and finally communicated the result of his 
 investigations to the nuncio, on the i8th of September, 
 1633, and, two days later, to the commissary -general of 
 his order. This was one ®f the last important missions 
 intrusted to Hugh Ward. 
 
 Two years later, a tedious and painful disease brought 
 his early career to a premature close, on the 8th of No- 
 vember, 1635. 
 
FATHER LUKE WADDING. 
 
 A. D. 1657. 
 
 AnthOT of " Scriptores Ordinum Minorum," "Annals of the Friars Minors," 
 and Founder of St. Isidore's College, Rome. 
 
 Father Luke Wadding was a native of the city ol 
 VVaterford. He was born on the 8th of October, 1588. 
 His father was a merchant, in wealthy circumstances; 
 his mother, sister to Peter Lombard, the Catholic Pri- 
 mate of Ireland. An elder brother, Matthew, superin- 
 tended his preliminary studies, until he was of an age to 
 be sent abroad for their completion. In 1603, he was 
 placed under the tuition of the Irish Jesuits, in Lisbon. 
 He graduated, finally, in the venerable University of 
 Coimbra. 
 
 In his seventeenth year he commenced a novitiate ac 
 cording to the rules of the Friars Minors of St. Francis, 
 and at twenty-five was ordained by John Emanuel, 
 Bishop of Visco. 
 
 As a priest, the first field of his labors was the convent 
 church of Liria, in whose pulpit he preached with great 
 success, " in the language of the country." From Liria, 
 he was called by the University of Salamanca, famous all 
 over Europe for its learning and munificence, where he 
 was successively installed as master of the students and 
 as professor of divinity. Here the controversy of the 
 Immaculate Conception was strenuously urged to a 
 «letermination, and by none more so than by Wadding. 
 In 1618, Philip III resolved on sending a deputation 
 for this purpose to Rome, at the head of which was 
 'a Trejo, Bishop of Carthagena. Wadding was appointed 
 theologian to the embassy, and he set out, with the rest, 
 from Madrid for the Eternal City. 
 
Father Luke Wadding. 713 
 
 Arrived in Rome, the deputation took up its abode in 
 the palace of Cardinal k Trejo, brother to the bishop. 
 The latter, after various interviews with the College of 
 Cardinals, effected his purpose, and all but Wadding 
 returned rejoicingly to Spain. He had resolved to remain 
 .11 Rome. Here was to him a whole world of labor, and 
 in the centre of Christendom, where the chiefs of the 
 Church had their home. Here, in innumerable archives, 
 were mouldering manuscripts, passing daily into dust, 
 and thus dissolving the labors of many a laborious brain. 
 It would, indeed, be a shame if, while Florence and all 
 Italy were raving, in their Hellenic fever, of Plato, and 
 Aristotle, and Sophocles, the pious writings of Christian 
 saints and fathers, with which the city abounded, should 
 know no fevival. He beheld herein a great literary 
 province stretched out before him, but one totally untrod- 
 den and unused by man : he, therefore, resolved not to 
 return to Salamanca. 
 
 The success of the mission of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception had made his name extensively known in Cath- 
 olic countries. From various religious bodies in Italy 
 and Spain he received letters of thanks for his great 
 exertions, and full of admiration at his learning. 
 
 Angelo de Paz, a deceased brother of St Peter's con- 
 vent, had left behind him several tracts of value and 
 teaming, which Wadding collected, and published in sue 
 cessive volumes, in the years 1621, 1623 and 1625, succes 
 sively ; in 1623 he also published an edition of the works 
 of St. Francis, the founder of his order, with original 
 annotations. In 1624 he edited two separate works' on 
 " Biblical Criticism," which had hitherto lain unknown : 
 the one from the pen of St. Anthony of Lisbon, the 
 other composed by an anonymous Irish Franciscan, styled 
 Thomas Hibernicus. 
 
 Wadding's industry now took an historical direction. 
 He resolved on writing the " Annals " of his wide-spread 
 
714 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 order, from its institution to his own time. It proposed 
 to inweave the records of its thousands of saints and 
 doctors, its missionaries and authors. The design was 
 gigantic, but the giant's load is light to the giant's 
 arm. Yet he took twenty-six years to bring out his eight 
 tomes of the "Annals," — from 1628 to 1654. 
 
 In 1637 he published a "Life of Thomasius, Patriarch 
 of Alexandria; and in 1641, that of St. James of Pice- 
 nium. In 1650, he wrote the Life of the Franciscan, 
 Gaullensis ; and, in 1657, " A Memoir of Anselm, Bishop 
 of Lucca." 
 
 In 1625, when but seven years in Rome, he founded, on 
 the ruins of a Spanish convent, dedicated to St. Isidore, 
 patron of Madrid, the Irish College, which bore and 
 Dears the same name. In 1628 he succeeded in inducing 
 Cardinal Loudovisius to establish a secular Irish college. 
 In 1630 he was elected -procurator of the Franciscans at 
 Rome, and in 1645 he was vice-commissary of his order. 
 
 The news of the Irish rising of 1641 had no sooner 
 reached Wadding, than he exerted himself to procure 
 foreign cobperation for the confederates. The " con- 
 federate Catholics," aware of his anxiety for their success, 
 appointed him, in 1642, their agent at Rome, at the same 
 time formally thanking him for his " past zeal and ser- 
 vices." Soon after, when Urban VIII, of the family of 
 Barberini, was raised to the Papacy, his influence still 
 increased, and he obtained the appointment, or caused 
 it to be rendered operative, of Nicholas Rinnuncinni 
 Archbishop of Pernio, as nuncio to Ireland. 
 
 The mission of Rinnuncinni failed. While he was in 
 Ireland, the sword of Aodh O'Neil came into the posses- 
 sion of Father Wadding ; he transmitted it, by the Dean 
 of Pernio, to the nuncio, who presented it to Owen Roe 
 O'Neil. 
 
 In 1645, the confederates sent Mr. Richard Belling, 
 as their ambassador, to Rome, to congratulate Urban on 
 
Father Luke Wadding. 715 
 
 hiS elevation to the Papacy. In 1646 the confederates 
 petitioned his Holiness that he might raise him to the 
 dignity of cardinal. 
 
 After the return of the luckless nuncio to Italy, the 
 connection between Ireland and Rome ceased to be 
 official, and Wadding's duties, as Irish agent, became 
 less numerous and pressing. The intervals of his leisure 
 he again turned to literary account. 
 
 In his declining years he became, for a second time, 
 president of St. Isidore's College. Here he had gathered 
 about him Irish professors, whose names are distin- 
 guished in the Church literature of their age. In 1650 
 he was seized with an illness, from the debilitating effect 
 of which his constitution did not recover. He lived on 
 for seven years more, suffering in body, yet active and 
 industrious in mind. On the i8th of October, 1657, he 
 was relieved by death. His funeral was solemnly cele- 
 brated ; his grave is in St. Isidore's, and over it a tomb, 
 raised to his memory by a noble Roman, who was his 
 friend through life : Hercules Rocconii. It bears a brief 
 inscription in Latin. 
 
AN IRISH MARTYR 
 
 AT 
 
 TIEN-TSIN, CHINA.* 
 
 A. D. 1870. 
 
 Although the murder of this saintly Sister of Charity 
 and daughter of Ireland is not attributable to English 
 persecution, yet it is deemed not amiss to insert here a 
 short account of her life and death. It will serve to 
 show that the ancient heroism of Ireland's saints still 
 lives in the hearts and souls of the present generation. 
 
 The 2ist of June, 1870, will forever be memorable in 
 the Christian annals of. China; and the blood of many 
 martyrs which, on that day, flowed in the city of Tien- 
 Tsin, gives promise that a rich harvest will soon smile 
 upon that dreary wilderness. Such days of martyrdom 
 are days of glory for the Church of Christ, and are sure 
 to usher in the triumph of the holy cause which the 
 heroes of religion thus seal with their blood. 
 
 It is a privilege for Ireland, that one of her chosen 
 daughters was included in the glorious array of that 
 2 1 St of June, as one of those ten Sisfirsof Charity who, 
 fired with the zeal and fervor of their great founder, St. 
 Vincent de Paul, welcomed on that day the pagan exe- 
 cutioners of Tien-Tsin, and, offering their lives as a 
 holocaust to God, attained their heavenly crown. 
 
 • " Irisli Ecclesiastical Record." 
 
An Irish Martyr at Tien-Tsin, China. 717 
 
 Sister Louise was born in the parish of St. Mary's, 
 Clonmel county, Tipperary, in the year 1835. She 
 showed, from infancy, a great disposition for works of 
 charity, and felt strongly inclined to devote herself to 
 religion and the service of the poor. After her early 
 studies, she went to complete her education to the Con- 
 vent of St. Mary's, Kingstown, where her memory is 
 still cherished, because of her piety and virtues. In the 
 year 1854, she became a postulant of the Sisters of 
 Charity, at their hospital in Amiens, France, and received 
 the habit of the Congregation, after the usual novitiate 
 in the parent-house, Rue du Bac, Paris. The first field 
 of her charity was Drogheda, where she spent five years 
 of loving labor amidst the poor of that town. Her only 
 pain was that she had not adequate resources to meet 
 the pressing demands of the numbers who appeared as 
 objects of her devoted charity. From Drogheda Sister 
 Louise was sent to the house of the Sisters at Hereford, 
 the difficulties and privations of which mission were a 
 suitable preparation for her future sacrifice. 
 
 The Jesuit father (at Shanghai, in China) asked for 
 some Daughters of Charity to take charge and direction 
 of a hospital about to- be established there ; and Sister 
 Louise, having frequently made known to her superiors 
 her readiness and desire to labor in any distant mission, 
 was selected to join other sisters from Italy, Algiers 
 and France, for this good work. 
 
 Sister Louise was very useful in the hospital at 
 Shanghai. Being the only Sister able to speak English, 
 her time and exertions were in constant demand in 
 laboring for the English, Irish and American sailors 
 and soldiers. These recipients of her kind and untiring 
 attention will long remember her who so tenderly 
 nursed them when suffering in a far-distant land. 
 
 The last work in which Sister Louise was engaged, 
 was the Institute of the Immaculate Conception at 
 
71 8 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 Pekin: an orphanage for the support and education of 
 poor children rescued from death, when abandoned by 
 their Chinese mothers, in consequence of the inhuman 
 and savage objection the Chinese have to rear female 
 children. 
 
 From this house Sister Louise proceeded, in company 
 with her superioress, as far as Tien-Tsin, when an 
 adorable Providence arranged that she should prepare 
 to sacrifice her life in her loving Master's service. She 
 was on her way to Europe when, making a short stay 
 at Tien-Tsin, she went to visit the Catholic church, and, 
 praying before the statue of our Ladj'^ of Victories, she 
 felt an irresistible impulse to request of her superioress 
 to take another companion to Europe, and to leave her 
 to her beloved work among the Chinese. 
 
 The superioress could not fail to see in her earnestness 
 and entreaty the work of grace, and, in accordance with 
 her request, took another with her to Europe, leaving 
 the Irish Sister to receive her early crown. 
 
 With renewed zeal Sister Louise devoted herself at 
 Tien-Tsin to the orphans and the ho^itals, from the 
 end of March to the 21st of June, when, with her heroic 
 companions, she lost her life in the cause of charity. 
 
 During the first month of 1870, the city of Tien-Tsin was 
 a favorite resort of the leading enemies of the Christian 
 name ; and for some time previous to the day of massacre 
 rumors were industriously set afloat that the Sisters of 
 Charity and the priests took special delight in tearing 
 out the eyes and hearts of Chinese children, which were 
 afterward used for medicinal purposes. The hatred of 
 the Chinese mob was gradually fanned into a flame ; and 
 at length, on the 21st of June, it burst forth in all its fury 
 against the Catholic institutions of Tien-Tsin. 
 
 The French consul, seeing the gathering storm, went, 
 on the morning of that day, to solicit the aid of the 
 government authorities, in guarding from violence the 
 
An Irish Martyr at Tien-Tsin, China. 719 
 
 foreign settlers in the city. On his return from the 
 governor, he himself and his companion were brutally 
 assailed, and cut to pieces by the mob. " But," continues 
 the correspondent of the Times, writing from Shanghai, 
 on the 8th of July, " dreadful as is this death, the details 
 are more horrible of the massacre of the priests and 
 Sisters of Charity, which followed the attack on the mis- 
 sion premises. It is not clear whether this occurred 
 before or after the attack on the French consul, but the 
 two occurrences were very nearly simultaneous. The 
 establishments of the Lazarists, the Jesuits and the Sisters 
 of Charity were burnt, and their inmates murdered with 
 circumstances of brutal atrocity. Women, whose only 
 fault was to have devoted their lives to do good, who had 
 earned the respect of the foreign community at Shanghai 
 (where they were known and appreciated), as well as at 
 Tien-Tsin, were stripped, their bodies ripped open, their 
 breasts cut off, their eyes scooped out, and their remains 
 cast into their own burning houses. All the native 
 inmates of the missions were also, it is said, burned to 
 death : the children only were saved, several hundred in 
 number ; and even of these, between thirty or forty were 
 unknowingly suffocated in a large cave, where they had 
 taken refuge at the first approach of the mob. The 
 body of a priest, since recovered, is so mutilated as to 
 be hardly recognizable ; and two others are missing, sup- 
 posed to have been also burnt." 
 
 One of the devoted Sisters who had left Tien-Tsin only 
 a few days before this dreadful massacre, writing froni 
 Ning-Po, on the 3d of July, to the superioress of the order 
 in Paris, details some circumstances connected with this 
 dreadful tragedy : " The courier of to-day bears to you 
 intelligence which will overwhelm your maternal heart 
 with affliction : for some days we were in great anxiety 
 about our dear mission at Tien-Tsin, but we were in hopes 
 that the rumors were exaggerated, and that the storm 
 
720 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 would soon cease. The events of the 2 1 st of June proved 
 how well founded were the fears that were entertained. 
 On that day the storm of persecution burst forth in all 
 its fury against the Catholics at Tien-Tsin. The mission- 
 house, the Catholic church, the consulate, the house of 
 our Sisters, were all reduced to ashes. Our ten Sisters 
 were massacred, and then their bodies were thrown into 
 the flames of their own burning houses. M. Chevrier 
 and M. Ou (a Chinese priest) were put to death, and 
 their bodies cast into the river. The French consul and 
 many other Catholics were also massacred. It was a 
 storm of fiendish fury. We are told that they even tore 
 out the eyes and hearts of our Sisters, and this would be 
 explained by the calumny that was circulated against us 
 for some time back : that we used to tear out the hearts 
 and eyes of the poor little Chinese children. All this 
 proceeds from the malice of Satan, who was filled with 
 envy at all the good that this mission was achieving, 
 and, hence, gathered together all the wickedness of hell, 
 in order to impede it. The persecution only fell on the 
 Catholics; the Protestants, though there are very many 
 of them in that city, did not suffer from it in any way, and 
 God did not permit their cause to be mixed up with 
 ours. Here, then, is a good number of martyrs. Our 
 Holy Father will, I hope, return thanks to God that 
 some of his children have attained this crown. How 
 I would rejoice to have been one of their number! But 
 I was not worthy of so great a favor ; and I was called 
 away from that city just at the moment when the per- 
 secution burst forth. All the persons connected with our 
 two houses were also massacred, and with them a good 
 many other Christians; and the children were carried 
 off to a pagan hospice. We have been told that our 
 dear Sisters expected this dreadful outburst of persecu- 
 tion, and, though they hoped it might be averted, they 
 spent the whole morning of 'hat day in preparing for it. 
 
An Irish Martyr at Tien-Tsin, China. 721 
 
 The missionaries also spent a part of the morning hearing 
 the confessions of the Christians. In fine, our hearts are 
 broken at this news ; for, though we feel sure that our 
 dear Sisters and worthy missionaries are in heaven, — 
 and here everybody calls them martyrs, — still this does 
 not prevent those that survive them being overwhelmed 
 with affliction at that dreadful massacre." 
 
 She then adds the following extract from a letter re- 
 ceived from Tien-Tsin : " It is reported here, and all the 
 pagans vouch for it as certain, that, at the time of the 
 massacre of the Sisters, a Bonzesse {i. <?., the wife of one 
 of the pagan priests) went to the balcony of her house to 
 look on at the bloody scene, and, as each one was mas- 
 sacred, she saw a beautiful and brilliant cloud mounting 
 to heaven. Struck with this prodigy, she cried out that 
 these people must have been beloved by God, and she at 
 once proceeded to the court-yard of the Sisters' house. 
 The murderers, seeing her, asked what she sought there. 
 She replied that they were injuring holy people, and that 
 she came to adore the God whom the murdered Sisters 
 adored : whereupon they at once struck off her head." 
 
 The Times' correspondent, at Shanghai, writing on 
 the nth of August, gives some details regarding the 
 interment of the remains of these victims of Chinese 
 ferocity : — 
 
 " The victims of the Tien-Tsin massacre were buried 
 on the 3d inst., in the presence of a large body of native 
 and foreign officials, and of nearly all the foreign residents 
 of Tien-Tsin. I mentioned, in a previous letter, that the 
 site of the burnt consulate and mission-premises had been 
 selected for their cemetery. 
 
 " The coffins had all been lowered into the grave on 
 the previous day, so that it remained only to perform 
 the funeral ceremony, which was impressively conducted 
 by Mgr. Thierry, the Pro- Vicar of Chili, aided by .two 
 other missionary priests. After it had ended, and holy 
 
f22 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 water had been sprinkled on the grave, orations were 
 delivered by several of the officials present, in relation 
 to the event. Count de Rochechouart, his imperial maj- 
 esty's charg^-d affaires, spoke first. History, he said, 
 might be searched in vain for events so detestable as the 
 massacre of the 21st of June. 
 
 " Seventeen French subjects, of whom twelve were 
 women, had been massacred, cut to pieces by a fanatical 
 mob, which, not content with killing and destroying, had 
 wished to increase the enormity of its crime by the mu- 
 tilation of the bodies after death. He could not trust 
 himself to relate the horrors which had been committed ; 
 but neither could he pass in silence the sublime conduct 
 of the Sister-Superioress, who, when the bloodthirsty 
 mob had surrounded the building, and was breaking in 
 the doors, advanced alone toward them, and offered 
 herself and her Sisters as victims to their rage, begging 
 that they would spare the Chinese who surrounded and 
 had learnt to rely on them. 
 
 " Mgr. Thierry spoke briefly but well, in a tone be- 
 coming his profession. The death of the victims had 
 been to them a gain: come to China with a hope of 
 martyrdom, they had obtained the accomplishment of 
 their most sincere wish, and had given their lives for 
 Christ." 
 
 That nothing should be wanting to complete the crown 
 of the martyred Sister Louise, the enemies of her faith 
 at home united with the barbarian murderers of Tien- 
 Tsin in seeking to heap obloquy on the memory of such 
 heroic victims of charity. The Protestant mission- 
 aries and residents of China raised their voice against 
 the barbarity of the pagan murderers. Nearer home, 
 Protestant merchants held a meeting at the London 
 Tavern, to protest " against the horrible outrages per- 
 petrated on Christian ladies, engaged in works of mercy." 
 But the Orangemen of Ireland are Protestants of quite 
 
An Irish Martyr at Tien-Tsin, China. 723 
 
 another stamp; and the Mail, in a leading article, writing 
 as their official spokesman, could find no other name for 
 these heroines of charity but baby-farming nuns ; and 
 adds, that at the hands of the Chinese populace they 
 received the punishment which they deserved. I need 
 not remind the reader that " baby-farming " is a term 
 reserved for those wicked wretches in England who ; 
 obtain babies from unnatural parents, undertaking to 
 rear them for a certain price, and then maliciously and 
 murderously drug them to death. And thus that Pro- 
 testant organ, almost surpassing the virulence of the 
 Tien-Tsin barbarians, wo.uld fain compare such a system 
 of assassination with the mission of those heroines of 
 charity, who gratuitously, and at the risk of their own 
 lives, would seek to rescue the Chinese infants from the 
 certain death to which their heartless pagan parents so 
 often expose them. 
 
 In contrast with such ignoble bigotry, we will present 
 two Protestant narratives, — the one English, the other 
 American, — regarding this dreadful tragedy. The 
 Rev. Charles Henry Butcher, M. A., British chaplain at 
 Shanghai, writes from that place on July the 6th : " It 
 is no exaggeration to say that, since Cawnpore, no such 
 deed of blood has been committed. The murder of the 
 Sisters of Charity is an outrage, not on a nation or a 
 church, but on humanity itself. As chaplain to the 
 British community of Shanghai, I have had oppor- 
 tunities of seeing the noble and devoted work of some of 
 these women, when taking care of the sick at the hos- 
 pital at this port, before they removed to the North. One 
 lady, who had been murdered with every circumstance 
 of horror, was an Irish lady, whose memory is cherished 
 with affection and gratitude by many of the community 
 here. While the recollection of these things is fresh, it 
 is not easy to write with calmness ; but I must venture 
 to ask your permission to place prominently before your 
 
724 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 readers three points, which are, in my judgment, the 
 most practical and important lessons of the Tien-Tsin 
 massacre : — 
 
 " I. This" event disproves one popular fallacy, viz,, 
 that the Chinese are free from superstition. 
 
 " We hear repeatedly a broad contrast drawn between 
 the calm and comprehensive spirit of the Confucian 
 philosophy, and the narrow-minded bigotry of sectarian 
 Christians. Now, though there is much that is ad- 
 mirable in the writings of Confucius, it is a mistake to 
 believe that his system has been able to preserve the 
 mass of the people from the most abject and ignorant 
 superstition. The credence obtained for the stories 
 about eye-gouging, etc., lately circulated against the 
 Roman Catholic missionaries, goes far to prove this 
 The people, whom many delight to represent as a school 
 of tolerant and placid philosophers, are actually proved 
 to be capable of cruelties which bear comparison with 
 those of North-American Indians. 
 
 " As an illustration of the fallacy of the popular view 
 I may say that, at the very time when I received the 
 news of the savage murder of nine Sisters of Charity, a 
 priest and his converts, I was reading an article in the 
 Saturday Review, stating that the Pekin government is 
 entirely exempt from religious bigotry ! 
 
 " 2. This event blows to pieces any fragments of trust 
 in the late Mr. BurKngham and his theories, that may 
 yet remain in men's minds. The speeches about the 
 Chinese mandarins desiring to see the ' shining cross on 
 every hill, are now felt to have been fabrications, made 
 to serve a particular purppse ; at least, even Chinese 
 perversity could scarcely persuade us that men show 
 their regard for a faith by burning its churches, and stab- 
 bing and disembowelling its priests. The truth is, the 
 literati hate missionaries ; the common people hear them 
 gladly. 
 
Aft Irish Martyr at Tien-Tsin, Chtna. 725 
 
 "3. The tragedy in the North shows us that the 
 Chinese government is absolutely untrustworthy. His 
 excellency, Chung How, knew, three or four days before 
 the massacre, that an outrage was intended. He took 
 no steps whatever to prevent it ; on the contrary, he con- 
 nived at it. The actual per£etrators of these crimes were 
 the bravoes of Tien-Tsin ; but it must never be lost sight 
 of that the Sisters were murdered in the presence of dis- 
 ciplined troops, who protected the native shops from 
 pillage, but did not stir a hand to defend the foreigners ; 
 i. e., they were present to keep the murderers to their fiend- 
 ish work, and to prevent their digressing into any other 
 more innocent employment. This event has no parallel 
 in the Gordon Riots, or any similar disturbances, when 
 a government has been temporarily unable to control the 
 mob. That the responsibility rests with the officials, none 
 can doubt who read the account, which says distinctly : 
 ' The whole thing was done by the bravoes of Tien- 
 Tsin, the fighting men and bullies, the streets being full 
 of troops, who were apparently there simply to keep 
 the rowdies from breaking into the shops. The attack 
 was made by signal, the same as used at fires ; and 
 when the murders were completed, the retreat was 
 lom-tommed in the same way as at fires, and the crowd 
 dispersed.' 
 
 " It is very important to keep this in mind, as, before 
 the assassins could have well washed the blood off their 
 hands, an Englishman, in the employ of the Chinese, was 
 engaged in writing to a Chinese newspaper an account, 
 endeavoring to throw the blame on the French consul 
 and the Sisters. No money and cunning will be spared , 
 to hide the truth ; and, therefore, it is the duty of every 
 one who is assured, from reliable sources, of the facts, to 
 endeavor to give them the widest publicity in Europe and 
 America. 
 
 " And now about the future. It is the wish of all fair- 
 
726 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 minded men interested in the China question that 
 foreigners may not attempt to atone for a culpable 
 remissness by an unreasonable violence. To take blood- 
 money, and to procure the judicial slaughter of a number 
 of substitutes, while the real criminals escape, will do 
 more harm than good. The troops whom we have aeen 
 so ready to protect the people while they were doing 
 evil, should be compelled to protect the foreign missionary 
 while he is doing good. 
 
 " This is all the Roman CathoHc fathers desire. To 
 quote the words of the Shanghai priest's reply to the 
 Protestant address of sympathy : — 
 
 " ' No doubt the blood of so many innocent victims, so 
 barbarously shed, must rise up to the altar of the Lamb, 
 and cry aloud on our behalf, till it obtains for us the 
 sole vengeance we wish for, viz. : the better spread of the 
 true light on these people, now living under the shadow 
 of death ; the greater freedom for the better exercise of 
 works of charity toward the sufferers, and principally 
 toward the little ones who were, for our divine Saviour, 
 objects of such singular affection.' " 
 
 An American correspondent from Tien-Tsin thus 
 writes to a New York journal, on July 23d, 1870: — . 
 
 " Notices of the Tien-Tsin massacre have reached you 
 already, doubtless ; but you may not be in possession of 
 the facts relating to it. Little more will be attempted 
 now than to bring before your readers the main features 
 of an event so horrible in its details, that no one can think 
 of it but with a shudder. 
 
 " For many months rumors were in circulation that 
 the Catholics were guilty of taking out the eyes and 
 hearts of children, for medicinal purposes, which, though 
 false, created much excitement. These rumors increased 
 in virulence till they burst forth in an infuriated mob, on 
 the 2 1st of June, causing great destruction of life and 
 property : twenty-two foreigners, occup3'ing various 
 
An Irish Martyr at Tun-Tstn, China. ;»27 
 
 positions in life, were tne victims of one of the most 
 brutal massacres whicti nistory records. 
 
 " Reliable evidence o: a most convincing- character had 
 been obtained, estabiisning the toUowing points, viz. : — 
 
 " The plot has been maturing for weeks, if not for 
 months, and the time of its consummation has been 
 arranged and known for days previous. 
 
 "The plot was known, approved, and aided in execu- 
 tion by two, at least, ot the leading city officials and 
 some of the military officers, one of whom led foreign 
 drilled troops to the attacK, and encouraged the people 
 in the work of destruction and death. More than a 
 month has elapsed since tne enactment of this fearful 
 deed of blood and sufiering, and yet no proof can be 
 adduced to show that our representative in Pekin has 
 attained even an approximately adequate conception of 
 the magnitude of the crisis which has overtaken us. The 
 only positive information we have is, that the members 
 of the United States legation are rusticating • at the 
 hills,' enjoying, in undisturbed tranquillity, the countless 
 charms of their summer retreat. Report speaks of them 
 as ' calm and grand ' in deportment, and philosophically 
 superior to what is occurring about them ; that they 
 receive, with a smiling suspicion, all our notices of this 
 sad catastrophe, as the fanciful narrations of an excited 
 brain. And what wonder, when we remember that their 
 official adviser, our consular agent at Tien-Tsin, is an 
 alien, whose interests are wholly with the Chinese gov- 
 ernment, in whose employ he receives about $5,000 per 
 annum ! 
 
 " That the above is not overdrawn, may be gathered 
 from the following facts : — 
 
 " The foreign ministers were informed that, for a con- 
 siderable period previous to the fatal day, the anti-foreign 
 feeling in Tien-Tsin and the surrounding country had 
 been deepening and intensif)'ing ; that it had been increas- 
 
728 ^ Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 ingly manifested in the conduct of the official classes; 
 and that, in manifold and specious ways, it was gradually 
 permeating all classes of society. The same facts were 
 often referred to by those resident in Pekin. The expul- 
 sion of the hated foreigner was known to be matter of 
 common desire and expectation. 
 
 " It was known to them that this general feeling 
 throughout China had found expression, during the last 
 three or four years, in a series of attacks on foreigners, — 
 all emanating from the same sources, aiming at the same 
 end, and, in degree, following an ascending scale of gra- 
 dation ; and that innocent blood of a preceding year 
 remainpd still unavenged. They were at last informed 
 that the climax had been reached m fearful deeds of vio- 
 lence and blood. The terrible events of that never-to-be- 
 forgotten day were minutely described to them, and of 
 the dire results they were fully apprised. They were 
 told that a score of foreigners, the most of whom were 
 unoffending, delicate women, were horribly murdered in 
 broad daylight; that they were subjected to the most 
 cruel barbarities that fiendish ingenuity could invent; 
 that, when death had at last ended their sufferings, their 
 remains were treated with every possible indignity : 
 haggled, cut in pieces, and cast, some into the water, and 
 some into the flames. 
 
 " They were told how the corpses were rescued from 
 the river at the foreign settlement, hacked, mutilated, 
 almost beyond recognition ; such spectacles of ghastly 
 horror that the stoutest hearts, in gazing, were terror- 
 stricken, and bowed down in grief. They were told that 
 when the coffins sent by the mandarins, and said to contain 
 the bodies of the Sisters of Charity, were opened, there 
 were found only a few ashes and a melancholy collection 
 of charred bones. They know that several scores of 
 natives. Christians and others, in foreign employ, were 
 robbed, beaten, tortured, and not a few murdered, fbt 
 
An Irish Martyr at Tien-Tsin, China. 720 
 
 no other crime but that of connection with us. Thev 
 have been informed that many buildings, in more than a 
 dozen localities, some of them imposing structures, erected 
 at great cost, others the houses of Christian and friendlv 
 natives, were sacked, torn to pieces,' or consigned to the 
 flames. 
 
 " They have had ample information of the fact that 
 this event was not the result of a sudden outburst of 
 popular feeling, but has been a matter of gradual ana 
 extensive preparation. 
 
 " Some may think this an overdrawn picture, but 1 
 assert it to be given on credible evidence. It is substan- 
 tiated by documents in our possession ; it is borne out 
 by competent judges in the capital ; it is proved by 
 the demand already made on Tien-Tsin residents to 
 prepare estimates of losses sustained, in order to im- 
 mediate payment by the Chinese government. And 
 all this while the villains who tore down our chapels, 
 searched in them for the missionaries, with avowed 
 intent to kill them, beat and killed the native Christians, 
 cut in pieces foreign officials, and cut off the breasts, 
 ran spears through, and ripped open the bodies, o* 
 mnocent and defenceless women, are still running at 
 large, vaunting their blood-stained booty, boasting of 
 their valor in perpetrating these diabolical deeds of 
 crime and shame, and stirring up the people to commi 
 further outrages." 
 
 We feel confident that Sister Louise will receive from 
 Holy Church, at no distant day, the bright aureola of the 
 martyrs of Christ ; but whilst, amidst the white-robed 
 army, she foUoweth the Lamb, and waits this earthly 
 tribute to her devoted heroism, we pray her to intercede 
 for those who calumniate the saving religion here at home, 
 that their eyes may be opened to see the wickedness of 
 the course which they pursued, their hearts be led cap- 
 tive to truth, and they themselves be brought to share 
 
730 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 the manifold blessings of God's mercy, as members of 
 l.he one true fold. 
 
 The present invaluable document is a letter addressed 
 by the Superioress of the Sisters of Charity, Pekin, to 
 the brother of the martyred Sister Louise (O'Sullivan). 
 A report was circulated by some newspapers, not too 
 friendly to Ireland, that Sister Louise had fled from the 
 hospital the morning of the massacre, and thus had been 
 deprived of the crown of raart3'dom which was granted 
 to the other Sisters of Charity. TJbe present letter of 
 the Superioress of the Sisters of Charity is an authorita- 
 tive contradiction of that false report : — 
 
 Pekin, June 2isi, 1871. 
 
 " Reverend Sir : — 
 
 " May the grace of our Saviour be with us forever- 
 more. Two days ago I received your esteemed letter 
 of the loth of April. I must suppose that you did not 
 receive my sorrowful letter of July, 1870. Your silence 
 induced me to presume so, and I was grieved; because 
 my affection for my good and well-beloved little Sister 
 Louise (O'Sullivan) would not permit me to imagine, 
 without sincere regret, that her worthy brother should 
 be without tidings from the distant country which she has 
 sprinkled with her blood. 
 
 " The misfortunes of our poor France have occasioned 
 the long delay of my letter. 
 
 "To-day, 21st of June, the anniversary of this sad and 
 awful tragedy, is a day well adapted to speak of this 
 dear beloved. No, no ; what they have told you is un- 
 true. Sister Louise did not abandon her post. Like her 
 companions, she suffered herself to be slaughtered as a 
 tender lamb. It is said that she was treated with great 
 cruelty, but it is difficult to ascertain with accuracy how 
 much these dear martyrs suffered. The infuriated popu- 
 lace inhumanly butchered them, and this flatters cur 
 
An Irish Martyr at Tten-Tsiti, China. 731 
 
 hope that they had not long to suffer. They were, indeed, 
 cut in pieces; and when, after the storm, the EngHsh 
 consul ordered the remains of our dear victims to be 
 gathered up, only some scattered members were discov- 
 ered, and these scorched by the fire. 
 
 " The dear remains have been deposited in six coffins, 
 and interred in the French consul's enclosure, where a 
 monument has been erected to the glory of our martyrs, 
 and to the eternal disgrace of the ungrateful country 
 which thus suffered«them to be slaughtered. 
 
 " The fact which you have heard has occurred, but 
 not to your sister. It happened to a French lady, 
 Madame Shallemaison, who escaped, and was recaptured 
 in the evening, as you are aware. The mother of this 
 lady is the onl}' one in the town of Tien-Tsin who en- 
 deavored to succor our good Sisters. Her husband was 
 among those who fell victims to the fury of the pagans: 
 may heaven recompense his charity ! Gratitude renders 
 it imperative that I should recommend him to youi 
 prayers. 
 
 " The bishop ordered that the scene of the massacre 
 should be diligently searched ; and in the ruins of the 
 house the sacred vases, which had been concealed the 
 very morning of the massacre, at the very moment the 
 rumor was circulated, have been found. They found, also, 
 a small piece of our Sister's habit : we look upon it as a 
 relic, and 1 have much pleasure in forwarding you a por- 
 tion of it. 
 
 " The sojourn of your sister at Tien-Tsin was so de- 
 cidedly marked by Providence, and so much against 
 my will, that I see a convincing proof in it that this dear 
 Sister obtained the favor of being martyred, that she 
 might the better expiate any little infirmities inseparable 
 from our poor human nature. But she was so straight- 
 forward and good that she could not but be acceptable 
 to God. She was so amiable on this earth, how much 
 
732 Martyrs and Confessors. 
 
 more so must she be in heaven ! I have often besought 
 her to give me some proof of her happiness. I hope that 
 some signal favors will console us in the assurance that 
 they are in heaven. 
 
 " For the past year we have had to suffer many anxie- 
 ties and troubles, both because of the dangers that have 
 menaced ourselves, and of the situation of France. Be 
 jileased to assist us by your prayers, while you profit by 
 our trials. I also recommend to you our poor and un- 
 grateful mission. The bishop is at Tien-Tsin, where he 
 is reconstructing the church and the houses which were 
 consumed. At his return I shall not fail to execute your 
 commands. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, with most profound respect, 
 your most humble and obedient servant, 
 
 "Sister Jaurias, 
 "Of the Sisters of Charity." 
 "Rev. M. O'Sullivan, C. M., 
 
 "St. Vincent de Paul's, Cork, Ireland." 
 
Patrick Egan. 
 
 'if' 
 
 V'fe- 
 
 Mrs. Dei.ia T. Stewart Pasneix. 
 
 MISB FANNY PAENELL. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TO 
 
 PARNELL'S HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PENAL LAWS. 
 
 "^sm — 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 The following extract is taken from 
 " Tracts on the Popery Laws " in the 
 ninth volume of Mr. Burke's works, 
 which was first published in 1 812, 
 four years after the first edition of this 
 history v/as published. It is here in- 
 serted as being a most conclusive 
 corroboration of the opinion given 
 in his history upon the Treaty of 
 Limerick ; and as also being an un- 
 answerable refutation of the arguments 
 contained in the pamphlets of the iate 
 Arthur Browne, Esq., and Doctor 
 Duigenan : — 
 
 " It will now be seen that, even if 
 these Popery laws could be supposed 
 agreeable to those of nature in these 
 particulars, on another and almost as 
 strong a principle they are yet unjust, 
 "as being contrary to positive compact, 
 and the public faith most solemnly 
 plighted. On the surrender of Lime- 
 rick, and some other Irish garrisons, 
 in the war of the revolution, the lords- 
 
 justices of Ireland, and the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the king's forces, 
 signed a capitulation with the Irish, 
 which was afterward ratified by the 
 king himself, by Inspeximus, under 
 the great seal of England. It contains 
 some public articles relative to the 
 whole body of the Roman Catholics 
 in that kingdom, and some with regard 
 to the security of the greater part of 
 the inhabitants of five counties: what 
 the latter were, or in what manner 
 they were observed, is at this day of 
 muchless public concern. The former 
 are two, the first and ninth. The 
 first is of this tenor : ' The Roman 
 Catholics of this kingdom ( Ireland ) 
 shall enjoy such privileges, in the ex- 
 ercise of their religion, as are consist- 
 ent w^ith the laws of Ireland, or as 
 they did enjoy in the reign of King 
 Charles II; and their majesties, as 
 soon as their affairs will permit them 
 to summon a parliament in this king- 
 dom, will endeavor to procure the 
 said Roman Catholics such further 
 
734 
 
 AppcTidix. 
 
 security in that particular as maj' pre- 
 serve them from any disturbance on 
 account of their religion.' The ninth 
 article is to this effect • ' The oath to 
 be administered to such Roman Cath- 
 olics as submit to their majesties' 
 government shall be the oath afore- 
 said, and no other, viz.: the oath of 
 allegiance made by act of parliament 
 in England, in the first year of their 
 majesties, as required by the second 
 of the Articles of Limerick.' Com- 
 pare this latter article with the penal 
 laws, as they are stated in the second 
 chapter, and judge whether they seem 
 to be the public acts of the same 
 power, and observe whether other 
 oaths are tendered to them, and under 
 what penalties. 
 
 "Compare the former with the 
 same laws, from the beginning to the 
 end, and judge whether the Roman 
 Catholics have been preserved, agree- 
 ably to the sense of the article, from 
 any disturbance upon account of their 
 religion ; or, rather, whether on that 
 account there is a single right of 
 nature, or benefit of society, which 
 has not been either totally taken 
 away, or considerably impaired. 
 
 " But it is said that the legislature 
 was not bound by this article, as it 
 has never been ratified in parliament. 
 1 do admit that it never had that sanc- 
 tion, and that the parliament was 
 under no obligation to ratify theSe 
 articles by any express act of theirs. 
 But still I am at a loss how they came 
 to be the less valid, on the principles 
 of our constitution, by being with- 
 out that sanction. They certainly 
 bound the king and his successors. 
 The words of the article do this, or 
 they do nothing ; and so far as the 
 crown had a share in passing those 
 acts, the public faith was unquestion- 
 
 ably broken. But the constitution 
 will warrant us in going a great deal 
 further, and in affirming that a treaty 
 executed by the crown, and contra- 
 dictory of no preceding law, is full 
 as binding on the whole body of the 
 nation as if it had twenty times re- 
 ceived the sanction of parliament; 
 because, the very same constitution 
 which has given to the houses of 
 parliament their definite authority, 
 has also left in the crown the trust 
 of making peace, as a consequence, 
 and much the best consequence, of 
 the prerogative of making war. If 
 the peace was ill-made, my Lord Gal- 
 way, Coningsby and Porter, who 
 signed it, were responsible because 
 they were subject to the community. 
 But its own contracts are now subject 
 to it. It is subject to them, and the 
 compact of the king actmg constitu- 
 tionally was the compact of the 
 nation. 
 
 " Observe what monstrous conse- 
 quences would result from a contrary 
 position. A foreign enemy has en- 
 tered, or a strong domestic one has 
 arisen in the nation. In such events 
 the circumstances may be, and often 
 have been, such that a parliament 
 cannot sit. This was precisely the 
 case in that rebellion of Ireland. It 
 will be admitted, also, that their 
 power may be so great as to make it 
 very prudent to treat with them, in 
 order to save effusion of blood ; per- 
 haps, to save the nation. Now, could 
 such a treaty be at all made, if your 
 enemies, or rebels, were fully per- 
 suaded that, in these times of con- 
 fusion, there was no authority in the 
 State which could hold out to them 
 an inviolable pledge for their future 
 security ; but, that there lurked in the 
 constitution a dormant but irresist 
 
Appendix. 
 
 735 
 
 Ible power, rhich would not think 
 itself bound by the ordinary subsist- 
 ing and contracting authority, but 
 might rescind its acts and obligations 
 at pleasure ? 
 
 " This would be a doctrine made to 
 perpetuate and exasperate war ; and, 
 on that principle, it directly impugns 
 the laws of nations, which are built 
 upon this principle, that war should 
 be softened as much as possible, and 
 that it should cease as soon as possi- 
 ble, between contending parties and 
 communities. The king has a power 
 to pardon individuals. If the king 
 holds out his faith to a robber to 
 come in on a promise of pardon of 
 Hfe and estate, and, in all respects, of 
 a full idemnity, shall the parliament 
 say that he mnst, nevertheless, be 
 executed; th.t his estate must be 
 forfeited, or that he shall be abridged 
 of any of the privileges which he 
 before held as a subject? Nobody 
 will affirm it In such a. case, the 
 breach of faith would not only be on 
 the part of the king who assented 
 to such an act, but on the part of the 
 parliament who made it. As the king 
 represents the whole contracting ca- 
 pacity of the nation, so far as his 
 prerogative (unlimited, as 1 said be- 
 fore, by any precedent law) can ex- 
 tend, he acts as the national procu- 
 rator on all such occasions. What is 
 true of one robber or rebel is as true, 
 and it is a much more important truth, 
 of one hundred thousand. To urge 
 this part if the argument further is, I 
 fear, not necessary, for two reasons : 
 First, that it seems tolerably evident 
 in itself; and, next, that there is but 
 too much ground to apprehend that 
 the actual ratification of parliament 
 would, in the then temper of parties, 
 have proved but a very slight and 
 
 trivial security. Of tl.is thei e is a very 
 strong example in the history of those 
 very articles. For, though the parlia- 
 ment omitted, in the reign of King 
 William, to ratify the first and most 
 general of them, they did actually con- 
 firm the second and more limited, — 
 that which related to the security of 
 the inhabitants of those five counties 
 which were in arms when the treaty 
 was made."* 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 Proportion of Catholics to 
 
 Protestants. 
 
 The following statement has been 
 
 made from matarials, the result of 
 
 actual enumeration, and contained in 
 
 Mr. Newenham's " View of Ireland," 
 
 published in 1809. 
 
 Catholics to Protestants, in 
 the diocese of Ross, 
 72,265 to 2,292 - 31^ to I 
 
 Ditto, in eight parishes of the 
 
 diocese of Cork, houses 11 to 1 
 
 Ditto, in the City of Cork, 
 
 numbers - - 7 to 2 
 
 Ditto.in the parish of Ardagh, 
 
 houses - - 70 to I 
 
 Ditto,in the town of Cloiimel, 
 
 houses - - 3 '° • 
 
 Ditto, in the parish of Kil- 
 
 larney 35 '° ' 
 
 Ditto, in the parish of Blarney. 
 
 houses - - 19 to I 
 
 Ditto, in the parish of Cove, 
 
 houses - 20 to I 
 
 Ditto,in eleven parishes of the 
 diocese of Tuam, num- 
 bers - - - - 54 to > 
 Ditto, in the town of Graigna- 
 
 mana, houses - - 100 to I 
 Catholics to Protestants in the 
 
 parishof Aries, families 100 to I 
 
 » liurko'» Wwks, vol. Ix, IJ- m- 
 
736 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 D'.tto, in the parish of Tul- 
 low, the most Protestant 
 parish in the diocese of 
 Leighlin, - - 12 to I 
 
 No Protestants in the following 
 parishes : — 
 
 Kilcummin, St. MuUin's, AUeni 
 Kilbegnot, Newport, Abbeyfeale. 
 
 Only eleven Protestant families in 
 the following parishes : — * 
 
 Castle Blakeny, Killyglass, Shankill 
 and Lusk. 
 
 Catholics to Protestants in 
 
 the county of Kilkenny! 17 to I 
 Ditto, in the counties of Clare, 
 Kerry, Limerick, Water- 
 ford, Leitrim, Mayo, 
 Roscommon, according 
 to general opinion - 50 to I 
 Ditto, in the counties of Kil- 
 dare, Meath, West Meath, 
 Galway, Sligo, according 
 to general opinion - - 20 to I 
 In the counties of Antrim and 
 Dunn the two sects are supposed to 
 be equal. 
 
 The Catholics are to the Protes- 
 tants, according to general opinion, 
 in the county of Londonderry, as 
 two to one ; in the counties of 
 Armagh and Fermanagh, as three to 
 one ; in the other counties of Ulster, 
 as four and five to one. 
 
 These statements are inserted, not 
 for the purpose of drawing an infer- 
 ence making the Catholics to bear a 
 very high ratio to the Protestants, but 
 to show that there can be nothing 
 very extravagant, or very far from 
 the truth, in assuming as the data 
 of the following calculation that, in 
 three provinces of Leinster, Munster 
 
 • 8« Now«nh«m'» "View of Ireland," Ap., p. 
 mrlll. 
 t i9« 'nchs'i SurT«7. 
 
 and Connaught, the Catholics are to 
 the Protestants as twelve to one; and 
 that, in the province of Ulster, the 
 Catholics are to the Protestants as 
 three to two. 
 
 Taking, then, the parliamentary 
 returns as the basis of the calculation 
 in these proportions, — 
 It appears from these, 
 that the population of 
 the three provinces 
 amounts to 4,803,333 
 (p. y\\), at twelve 
 Catholics to one Pro- 
 testant; -fj of this num- 
 ber are Catholics, viz. : 4,433,84 ' 
 It also appears that the 
 population of Ulster 
 amounts to 1,998,494 
 (p. vii), at three Cath- 
 olics to two Protes- 
 tants ; f of this number 
 are Catholics, viz. - 1,199,094 
 Thus it appears that the 
 total number of Cath- 
 olics, out of a popula- 
 tion of 6,801,821, is - 5,632,938 
 According to the above 
 numbers and propor- 
 tions, the Protestants 
 in three provinces are 
 fa of 4,803,333, viz. - 369,487 
 Ditto, in Ulster, f of 
 
 1,998,494, viz.: - - 799,396 
 Thus it appears that the 
 total number of Pro- 
 testants, out of a 
 popuL-ition of 6,801 - 
 821, is - - - i,i68,8Sj 
 These gross relative numbers make 
 the ratio of Catholics to Protestants 
 very nearly indeed as five to one. 
 
 Supposing, then, the number of both 
 Catholics and Protestants to have 
 gone on increasing in this ratio since 
 
Appendix. 
 
 737 
 
 1821, tlie number of Catholics to 
 Protestants, out of. the present 
 population of 7,700,000, will be as 
 five to one, and in whole numbers as 
 6,416,667, to 1,283,333. 
 
 If the population actually is now 
 at least 8,000,000, whi'ch abundant 
 reason exists to show to be the case, 
 then the Catholics will be to the Pro- 
 testants according to the ratio of five 
 to one, in number 6,665,666 to 1,333, 
 
 333- 
 
 The general rule in respect of the 
 rate at which the population of a 
 country increases, a rule founded upon 
 constant and uniform facts, is, that 
 "population, when unchecked, goes 
 on doubling itself every twenty-five 
 years, or increases in a geometrical 
 ratio." (Malthus' Essay, vol. I, p. 8.) 
 
 This has taken place for about a 
 century and a half, successively, in 
 North America; and as the means of 
 subsistence in Ireland are more ample, 
 the manners of the people more 
 pure, and the checks to early marriages 
 fewer than in any of the modern states 
 of Europe, there exists no reason to 
 doubt that the population of Ireland 
 is now increasing at the rate of doub- 
 ling itself in twenty-five years. 
 Although the numbers computed by 
 Dr. Beaufort, and those returned by 
 the census of 1821, may, so far as 
 they are worth anything, show a slower 
 rate of increase, the difference may be 
 explained, first, by the acknowledged 
 fact that the census of 182 1 is ex- 
 ceedingly incorrect; secondly, by 
 mentioning another fact, that the 
 circumstances of the last fifteen years 
 have been much more favorable to 
 a rapid increase of population, than 
 those were of the preceding fifteen 
 years. 
 
 If a comparison could be made of 
 the births and burials of the whole 
 kingdom, at different periods, it 
 would decide the question, for then 
 it would be necessary only to adopt 
 the rule laid down by Dr. Price (vol. 
 ii, p. 51), to find out the actual rate 
 of increase. lie says: "The rate of 
 increase, supposing the procreative 
 p6wers the same, depends upon two 
 causes: 'The encouragement to mar- 
 riage, and the expectation of a child 
 just born.' " When one of these 
 is given, the increase will be always 
 in proportion to the other ; that is, 
 as much greater or less as the ratio 
 is of the numbers who reach maturity, 
 and of those who marry, to the 
 number born, so much quicker or 
 slower will be the increase. Let us 
 suppose the operation of these causes 
 such as to produce an annual excess 
 of the births above the burials, equal 
 to a thirty-sixth part of the whole 
 number of inhabitants. It may seem 
 to follow from hence that the in- 
 habitants would double their own 
 number in thirty-six years, and thus 
 some have calculated. But the truth 
 is, that they would double their own 
 number in much less time. 
 
 Every addition to the number of 
 inhabitants from the births produces 
 a proportionably greater number of 
 births, and a greater excess of these 
 above the burials; and, if we suppose 
 the excess to increase annually at the 
 same rate with the inhabitants, or so 
 as to preserve the ratio of it to the 
 number of inhabitants always tlie 
 same, the period of doubling will be 
 twenty-five years." 
 
 * For th« fommla of maklDg th« calculaUon, b«« 
 oow, ToL U. p. », of Dr. Frico on " JLimiUtlo*-" 
 
738 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 NOTE C. 
 
 ["ITie Principles of Roman Cath- 
 olics," from the prayer-book which is 
 in general use amongst the Catholics 
 of Ireland, and which was published 
 by Dr. Coppinger, Titular Bishop of 
 Cloyne.] 
 
 Section I, 
 
 I. The fruition of God and the re- 
 mission of sin are not attainable by 
 man, otherwise than in and by the 
 merits of Jesus Christ, who gratui- 
 tously purchased them for us. 
 
 2. These merits of Christ are not 
 applied to us, otherwise than by a 
 right faith in Him. 
 
 3. This faith is but one, entire 
 and conformable to its object, which 
 is divine revelation, . and to which 
 faith gives an undoubting assent. 
 
 4. This revelation contains many 
 mysteries transcending the natural 
 reach of human understanding: where- 
 fore, 
 
 5. It becomes the Divine wisdom 
 and goodness to provide some way or 
 means whereby man might arrive at 
 the knowledge of these mysteries, — 
 means visible and apparent to all ; 
 means proportioned to the capacities 
 of all ; means sure and certain to all. 
 
 6. This way or means is not the 
 reading of the Scripture, interpreted 
 according to the private reason or 
 judgment of each particular person or 
 nation; but, 
 
 7. It is an attention and submission 
 to the voice of the Catholic, or Univer- 
 sal, Church, established by Christ for 
 the instruction of all, spread for that 
 end through all nations, and visibly 
 continued in the succession of pastors 
 and people through all ages. From 
 this Church, guided in truth, and 
 
 secured from error in matters of faith, 
 by the promised assistance of tho 
 Holy Ghost, every one may learn the 
 right sense of the Scriptures, and 
 such Christian mysteries and duties 
 as are necessary to salvation. 
 
 8. This Church, thus established, 
 thus spread, thus continued, thus 
 guided in one uniform faith and sub- 
 ordination of government, is that which 
 is termed the Roman Catholic Church, 
 the qualities just mentioned, unity, 
 indeficiency, visibility, succession, and 
 universality, being evidently applica- 
 ble to her. 
 
 9. It is from the testimony and 
 authority of this Church that we re- 
 ceive the Scriptures, and believe them 
 to be the word of God; and as she 
 can assuredly tell us what particular 
 book is the word of God, so can she, 
 with the like assurance, tell us also 
 the true sense and meaning of it 
 in controverted points of faith : the 
 same Spirit that wrote the Scriptures, 
 directs her to understand both theai 
 and all matters necessary to salva- 
 tion. From these grounds it follows, 
 
 10. Only truths revealed by Almight J 
 God, and proposed by the Church to 
 be believed as such, are and ought 
 to be esteemed articles of Catholic 
 faith. 
 
 11. As an obstinate separation from 
 the unity of the Church in known mat- 
 ters of faith is heresy, so a wilful 
 separation from the visible unity of the 
 same Church in matters of subordina- 
 tion and government is schism. 
 
 12. The Church proposes unto 
 us matters of faith, first and chiefly 
 by the Holy Scripture, in points 
 plain and intelligible in it ; secondly, 
 by definitions of General Councils, in 
 points not sufficiently plain in Scrip 
 
Appendix. 
 
 739 
 
 turc; thirdly, by apostolical traditions 
 derived from Christ and His apostles 
 10 all Eucceedingages, 
 
 Section II. 
 
 1. The pastors of the Church, who 
 are the body representative, either dis- 
 persed, or convened in council, have 
 
 •received no commission from Christ 
 to frame new articles of faith, these 
 being solely divine revelation, but 
 only to explain and to ascertain to 
 us what anciently was and is received 
 and retained as of faith in the Church, 
 when debates and controversies arise 
 about them. These definitions in mat- 
 ters of faith only, and proposed as 
 such, oblige all the faithful to an 
 interior assent ; but, 
 
 2. It is no article of faith that the 
 Church cannot err either in matters 
 of fact, or in matters of speculation 
 or civil policy, depending on mere 
 human reason, these not being divine 
 revelations deposited in ihe Catholic 
 Church; hence is reduced, 
 
 3. If a General Council, much less 
 a Papal Consistory, should presume 
 to depose a king, and to absolve his 
 subjects from their allegiance, no 
 Catholic could be bound to submit to 
 
 . such a decree ; hence it follows that, 
 
 4. Tlie subjects of the King of 
 England lawfully may, without the 
 least breach of any Catholic principle, 
 renounce, upon oath, the teaching or 
 practising the doctrine of deposing 
 kings excommunicated for heresy, 
 ty any authority whatsoever, as re- 
 pugnant to the fundamental laws of 
 the nation, as injurious to sovereign 
 power, and as destructive to peace 
 and government. 
 
 5. Catholics believe that the Bishop 
 ■\f Rome, successor to St. Peter, is 
 
 at the head of the whole Catholic 
 Church, in which sense this Cliurch 
 may, therefore, be styled Roman Cath- 
 olic, because an universal body under 
 one visible head ; nevertheless, 
 
 6. It is no matter of faith to 
 believe that the Pope is in himself 
 infallible, separated from the Church, 
 even in expounding the faith ; by 
 consequence. Papal definitions or de- 
 crees, taken exclusively from a General 
 Council, or universal acceptance of the 
 Church, oblige none, under the pain 
 of heresy, to an interior assent. 
 
 7. Nor do Catholics, as Catholics, 
 believe that the Pope has any direct 
 or indirect authority over the temporal 
 power and jurisdiction of princes. 
 Hence, if the Pope should pietend 
 to absolve or dispense with his 
 majesty's subjects from their allegi- 
 ance, on account of heresy or schism, 
 such dispensation would be vair 
 and null; and all Catholic subjects 
 notwithstanding such dispensation cr 
 absolution, would be still bound in 
 conscience to defend their king and 
 country, at the hazard of their lives 
 and fortunes (as far as Protestants 
 would be bound), even against the 
 Pope himself, should he invade the 
 nation. 
 
 8. As for the problematical dis- 
 putes or errors of particular divines, 
 in this or any other matter whatso- 
 ever, we are in no wise responsible 
 for them; nor are Catholics, as such, 
 justly punishable on their account; 
 but, 
 
 9. As for the king-killing doctrine, 
 or murder of princes excommunicated 
 for heresy, it is universally admitted 
 in the Catholic Church, and expressly 
 so declared in the Council of Con- 
 stance, that such doctrine is impiou» 
 
740 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 and execrable, being contrary to the 
 known laws of God and nature. 
 
 10. Personal misdemeanors, of what 
 nature soever, ought not to be imputed 
 to the body of Catholics, when not 
 justifiable by the tenets of their faith 
 and doctrine ; for which reason, though 
 the stories of the Irish cruelties or 
 powder-plot had been exactly true 
 (which yet, for the most part, are 
 notoriously misrelated), nevertheless 
 Catholics, as such, ought not to suffer 
 for such offences any more than the 
 eleven apostles ought to have suffered 
 for the treachery of Judas. 
 
 11. It is a fund.-imental truth in 
 our religion that no power on earth 
 can license men to lie, to forswear 
 cr perjure themselves, to massacre 
 their neighbors, to destroy their 
 native country, on pretence of pro- 
 moting the Catholic cause or religion. 
 Furthermore, all pardons or dispensa- 
 tions granted, or pretended to be 
 granted, in order to accomplish any 
 such ends or designs, could have 
 no other validity or effect than to 
 add sacrilege and blasphemy to the 
 above-mentioned crimes. ' 
 
 12. The doctrine of equivocation, 
 or mental reservation, however wrong- 
 fully imputed to the Catholic relig- 
 ion, was never taught or approved 
 by the Church as any part of her 
 belief; on the contrary, simplicity and 
 godly sincerity are constantly in- 
 culcated by her as truly Christian 
 virtues, necessary to the conservation 
 of justice, truth, and common security. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 1. Every Catholic believes that 
 
 when a sinner repents of his sins 
 
 from the bottom of his heart, and 
 
 acknowledges his transgressions to 
 
 God and His ministers, the dispensers 
 of the mysteries of Christ, resolving 
 to turn from his evil ways, and bring 
 forth fruits worthy of repentance, 
 there is then, and not otherwise, any 
 authority left by Christ to absolve 
 such a penitent sinner from his sins, 
 which authority Christ gave to JI^s 
 apostles and their successors, the 
 bishops and priests of His Church, in 
 these words, when He said : " Receive 
 ye the Holy Ghost ; whose sins yoa 
 shall forgive, they are forgiven unto 
 them." 
 
 2. Though no creature whatsoever 
 can make condign satisfaction, either 
 for the guilt of sin or the pain 
 eternal due to it, this satisfaction 
 being proper to Christ our Saviour 
 only, yet penitent sinners, redeemed 
 by Christ, may, as members of Christ, 
 in some measure satisfy by prayer, 
 fasting, almsdeeds, and other works 
 of piety, for temporal pain, which, in 
 the order of Divine justice, sometimes 
 remains due, after the guilt of sin, 
 and pain eternal have been remitted 
 Such penitential works are, notwith- 
 standing, not otherwise satisfactory 
 than as joined and applied to that 
 satisfaction which Jesus made upon 
 the cross, andin virtue of which all our 
 good works find a grateful acceptance" 
 in the sight of God. 
 
 ■5. The guilt of sin, or pain eternal 
 due to it, is never remitted by what 
 Catholics call indulgences, but only 
 such temporal punishments as remain 
 due after the guilt is remitted, those 
 indulgences being nothing else than 
 a mitigation or relaxation of canonical 
 penances enjoined by the pastors 
 of the Church on penitent sinners, 
 according to their several degrees of 
 demerit ; and if abuses and mistakes 
 
Appendix. 
 
 741 
 
 have been sometimes committed, 
 either in point of granting or gaining 
 indulgences, through the remissness 
 or ignorance of particular persons, 
 contrary to the ancient customs and 
 discipline of the Church, such abuses 
 or mistakes cannot reasonably be 
 cliarged on the Church, or rendered 
 matters of derision, in prejudice to 
 her faith and discipline. • 
 
 4. Catholics hold there is a purga- 
 tory, that is to say, a place or state 
 where souls departing this life, with 
 remission of their sins as to the eternal 
 guilt or pain, but yet obnoxious to 
 some temporal punishment still re- 
 maining due, or not perfectly freed 
 from the blemish of some defects or 
 deordiiiations, are purged before their 
 admittance into heaven, where nothing 
 that is defiled can enter. 
 
 5. Catholics also hold that such 
 souls so detained in purgatory, being 
 the living members of Jesus Christ, 
 are relieved by the prayers and suf- 
 frages of their fellow-members here on 
 earth ; but where this place is, or of 
 what nature cm: quality the pains are, 
 how long souls may be there detained, 
 in what manner the suffrages made in 
 their behalf applied, whether by way 
 of satisfaction or intercession, eta, are 
 questions superfluous and imperti- 
 nent as to faith. 
 
 6. No man, though just, can merit 
 either an increase of sanctity in this 
 life, or eternal glory in the next, 
 independently of the merits and pas- 
 sion of Christ Jesus ; but the good 
 works of a just man, proceeding from 
 pace and charity, are so far accept- 
 able to God as to be, through His 
 goodness and sacred promises, truly 
 meritorious of eternal life. 
 
 7. It is an article of the Catholic 
 
 faith that, in the most holy sacrament 
 of the Eucharist, there is truly and 
 really contained the body of Christ, 
 which was delivered for us, ind His 
 blood, which was shed for the remis- 
 sion of sins; the substance of bread 
 and wine being, by the power of 
 Christ, changed into the substance 
 of His blessed body and blood, the 
 species or appearances of bread and 
 wine still remaining ; but, 
 
 8. Christ is not present in this 
 sacrament according to His natural 
 way of existence, that is, with exten- 
 sion of parts, etc., but in a super- 
 natural mannpr, one and the same in 
 many places ; His presence, therefore, 
 is real and substantial, but sacra- 
 mental, not exposed to the external 
 senses, or obnoxious to corporal con- 
 tingencies. 
 
 9. Neither is the body of Christ in 
 this holy sacrament separated from 
 His blood, or His blood from His body, 
 or either of them disunited from His 
 soul and divinity, but all and whole 
 living Jesus is entirely contained un- 
 der each species ; so that whosoever 
 receives under one kind is truly par- 
 taker of the whole sacrament, and no- 
 wise deprived either of the body or 
 blood of Christ. True it is, 
 
 10. Our Saviour Jesus Christ left 
 unto us His body and blood under two 
 distinct species or kinds, in the uoing 
 of which. He instituted not only a 
 sacrament, but also a sacrifice, — a com- 
 memorative sacrifice distinctly show- 
 ing His death and bloody passion 
 until He come; for, as the sacrifice of 
 the cross was performed by a distinct 
 effusion of blood, so is that sacrifice 
 commemorated in that of the altar 
 by a distinction of the symbols. J esus, 
 therefore, is here given not only to us. 
 
742 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 but for us, und the Cliurch is thereby 
 enriched willi a true, proper and pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice, usually termed the 
 Mass. 
 
 11. Catholics renounce all divine 
 worship and adoration of images or 
 pictures. God alone we worship and 
 adore; nevertheless, we place pictures 
 in churches, to reduce our wandering 
 thoughts, arid enliven our memories 
 toward heavenly things. Further, 
 we allow a certain honor to be 
 shown to the images of Christ and 
 His saints beyond what is due to 
 every profane figure ; not that we 
 believe any divinity or virtue to reside 
 in them, for which they ought to be 
 honored, but because the honor 
 given to pictures is referred to the 
 prototype or thing represented. In 
 like manner, 
 
 12. There is a kind of honor and 
 respect due to the Bible, to the cross, 
 to the name of Jesus, to churches, to 
 the sacraments, etc., as things peculi- 
 arly appertaining to God; also to the 
 glorious saints in heaven, as the 
 friends of God ; and to kings, m£.>gis- 
 trates and superiors on earth, to 
 whom honor is due, honor may be 
 given, without any derogation to the 
 
 majesty of God, or that divine wor- 
 ship which is appropriate to Him. 
 Moreover, 
 
 13. Catholics believe that the blessed 
 saints in heaven, replenished with 
 charity, pray for us, their fellow-mem- 
 bers here on earth ; that they rejoice 
 at our conversion ; that, seeing God, 
 they see and know Him in all things 
 suitable to their happy state. But God 
 may be inclined to hear their requests 
 made in our behalf, and for their sakes 
 may grant us many favors : therefore, 
 we believe it is good and profitable 
 to desire their intercession, and that 
 this manner of invocation is no more 
 injurious to Christ, our Mediator, 
 than it is for one Christian to beg the 
 prayers of another in this world. 
 Notwithstanding which. Catholics are 
 not taught so to rely on the prayers 
 of others as to neglect their own duty 
 to God : in imploring His divine mercy 
 and goodness ; in mortifying the deeds 
 of the flesh ; in despising the world ; 
 in loving and serving God and their 
 neighbor; in following the footstep? 
 of Christ our Lord, who is the way 
 the truth, and the life, to whom b« 
 honor and glory for ever and ever, 
 Amen. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAOB. 
 
 Archer, Walter 183 
 
 Athy, Rev. 281 
 
 Barnewall, Rev. John 445 
 
 Barnewall, Dame Margery .... 75 
 Barnewall, Revs. Edmund and 
 
 George 338 
 
 Barry, Rev. Richard 272 
 
 Barry, Rev. 293 
 
 Bagot, Rev. Gerald 305 
 
 Barron, Godfrey 463 
 
 Bathe, Rev. John 281 
 
 Birmingham, Dame Eleanor. . . 112 
 
 Birmingham, Rev. Thomas.... 335 
 
 Begs, Rev. Roger 331 
 
 Black, Rev. Dominick, or Dona- 
 
 tus 292 
 
 Blake, Rev. Nicholas 441 
 
 Eoyton, Rev. William 272 
 
 Brady, Right Rev. Bishop Rich- 
 ard 165 
 
 Brien, Rev. 293 
 
 Broder, (or O'Broder), Rev. An- 
 tony 315 
 
 Bruodin, Rev. Dermitius 219 
 
 Burke, Most Rev. Archbishop 
 
 John 334 
 
 Burke, Rev. Thomas 343 
 
 Butler, Edward 464 
 
 Cana, Rev. Edmund 277 
 
 Canavan, Rev. Patrick 72 
 
 Coghlin, Rev. Oge 215 
 
 Gighwell, Rev. Henry 260 
 
 Carighy, Rev. Thadd^us 312 
 
 Carolan, Rev. John 331 
 
 Carighy, Rev. Hugh 321 
 
 PAG ft 
 
 Cheevers, Rev. Edward 7.4 
 
 Clancy, Rev. John 263 
 
 Clanchy, Rev. Daniel 3 1 j 
 
 Cluaine, Rev. Philip 215 
 
 Cluinne, Rev. MacGhioUa 340 
 
 Collins, Rev. Dominick 1 78 
 
 Costello, Rev. Peter 269 
 
 Costello, Rev. Peter 281 
 
 Collins, Rev. John 293 
 
 Connery, Daniel 324 
 
 Connery, Rev. Daniel 340 
 
 Coury, Rev. Hilary 316 
 
 Corny, Rev. Brien 343 
 
 Commin, Rev. Roger 343 
 
 Conry, Rev. McLeighlin 343 
 
 Co.-nins, Rev. Bernard 343 
 
 Connor, Rev. Bernard 333 
 
 Cornelius, Brother 224 
 
 Courcy, Rev. Thomas 51 
 
 Creagh, Most Rev. Archbishop 
 
 Richard Ii5 
 
 Creagh, Right Rev. Bishop Peter 427 
 
 Creidegain, Rev. DanieL 336 
 
 Crossan, Rev. Charles 216 
 
 Cnegan, Rev. Daniel 336 
 
 Crone, Rev. Eugene 64 
 
 Cushin, Rev. Paul 339 
 
 Davock, Rev. Gerald 340 
 
 Daly, Rev. Thaddaeus 41 
 
 Dant, Rev. Bonaventure 343 
 
 Daly, Rev, Eugene 267 
 
 De Burgo, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop John 334 
 
 De Burgo, Right Rev. John. ... 369 
 
 De Burgo, Sir John 186 
 
 De Burgo, Rev. Edmund 225 
 
744 
 
 Ittdex. 
 
 « PAOB. 
 
 De Burgo, Lady Honoria 328 
 
 De Burgo, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Dominick 381 
 
 De Burgo, Rev. Bonaventure.. 319 
 
 De Burg, Theobald 462 
 
 Delamar, Rev. Edward 343 
 
 Deir, Rev. Thomas 314 
 
 JJillon, Rev. John 343 
 
 Dillon, Rev. Dominick 281 
 
 Dillon, Rev. Vincent Gerald . . . 309 
 
 Donnelly, Rev. Edmund 69 
 
 Dillon, Rev. Gerald 269 
 
 Donald,' Rev. Thaddeus 66 
 
 Donatus, (or Donagh) Rev. 
 
 William 219 
 
 Donatus, Rev. Edmund 69 
 
 Donnellan, Rev. Roger 74 
 
 Dogherty, Rev. Cornelius 159 
 
 Donlevins, (or Ultan,) Rev. 
 
 Christopher 268 
 
 Donovan, Rev. Timothy 343 
 
 Duin, Rev. Edmund 340 
 
 Dowdall, James, (two of the 
 
 name) 223 
 
 Egan, Rev. Cormac 266 
 
 Egan, Right Rev. Bishop Boetius 289 
 
 English, Rev. Nicholas 45 1 
 
 Eustace, Rev. Maurice 158 
 
 Fallen, Rev. James 317 
 
 Farrell, Rev. William 343 
 
 Ferrall, Rev. Walfrid 159 
 
 Fahy, Rev. Edmund 341 
 
 Fernan, Rev. Walter j6o 
 
 Finaghty, Rev. James 340 
 
 Filzgibbon, Most Rev. Arch- 
 
 bi.shop, (or Gibbon, ) 54 
 
 Fitzsimons, Rev. Michael 388 
 
 Fitzsimons, Rev. William 323 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Lady Bridget 323 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Rev. Bernard 310 
 
 Fitzsymons, Rev. Turlogh. 344 
 
 Fleming, Rev. Walter. 440 
 
 Flaverty, Rev. John 338 
 
 rAai 
 
 Fleming, Rev. Patrick 660 
 
 Fleming, Rev. 439 
 
 Fprstall, Right Rev. Bishop.... 3S0 
 
 Fox, Rev. David 280 
 
 French, Rev. Richard 73 
 
 French, Rev. Gregory 441 
 
 FuUam, Rev. James 439 
 
 Furlong, Rev. Peter 442 
 
 Florence, Rev. 645 
 
 Fanning, Dominic 463 
 
 Gadran, (or MacGauran) 
 
 Most Rev. Archbishop 162 
 
 Gavan, Rev. Terlagh 343 
 
 Geoghegan, Rev. Arthur 141 
 
 Geraldine, Rev. Gerald 280 
 
 Geraldine, Rev. Thomas 218 
 
 Geraldine, Rev. William 304 
 
 Geraldine, Rev. John 304 
 
 Geraldine, Rev. John 45 1 
 
 Geoghegan, Rev. Anthony 343 
 
 Gelosse, Rev. Stephen 290 
 
 Gibbon, (or Fitzgibbon) Most 
 
 Rev. Archbishop 54 
 
 Gibbon, Rev. Gerald 432 
 
 Goran, Rev. Charles 74 
 
 Graves, Rev. John 196 
 
 Gragan, Rev. Bernard 214 
 
 Gragan, Rev. John 301 
 
 Giady, Rev. Thomas 343 
 
 Hanly, Rev. John 66 
 
 •Hayes, Patrick 73 
 
 Hagerty, Rev. Donald 340 
 
 Hegerty, Rev. Patrick 277 
 
 Hely, Right Rev. Bishop Patrick 165 
 
 Helan, Rev. Francis 197 
 
 Heinrechan, Rev. Donatus 74 
 
 Henessy, Rev. William 343 
 
 Higgins, Rev. Peter 256 
 
 Hore, Rev. Edmund 263 
 
 Horgan, Rev. Denis 343 
 
 Horan, Rev. Francis 343 
 
 Humbert, Rev. Patrick 25 
 
 Hurly, Rev. Connor 343 
 
Index. 
 
 7AI 
 
 Jordan, Kev. FuLGENTius... 314 
 
 Kelly, Rev. John 343 
 
 Kelly, Rev. Dominick 451 
 
 Keilly, Rev. Conner 343 
 
 Keogli, Rev. Raymond 253 
 
 Keogh, Brother Raymond 266 
 
 Keogh, Rev. Raymond 266 
 
 Kennaa, Rev. Patrick 74 
 
 Kerolan, Rev. Bernard 183 
 
 Kirwan, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Francis 317 
 
 Kilkenny, Rev. Bryan 332 
 
 Kinrechtin, Rev. Maurice 147 
 
 Kinrehan, Rev. Maurice 68 
 
 Knoles, Rev. Anthony 84 
 
 Lacy, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Hugh 62 
 
 Laior, Rev. Robert 185 
 
 Latin, Rev. James 262 
 
 Layhode, Rev. Henry 74 
 
 I amport, Rev. Matthew 73 
 
 Lee, Rev. 293 
 
 Leverous, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Thomas 44 
 
 Locheran, Rev. Patrick 198 
 
 Locheran, Rev. Nielan 322 
 
 Lune, Rev. John 197 
 
 Lynch, Most Rev. Archbishop 
 
 James 367 
 
 Lynch, Rev. James 287 
 
 Lynch, Rev. William 308 
 
 Lynze, Rev. Dominick 383 
 
 Lynch, Rev. Michael 451 
 
 Macanaspie, Rev. Terenxe.. 193 
 
 MacCongail, Rev. Roger 32 
 
 MacCuil, Rev. Charles 52 
 
 MacCarthy, Rev. Conor 32 
 
 MacDonel, Rev. Daniel 439 
 
 MacEgan, Rev. Eugene 178 
 
 MacEgan, Rev. Dominick 439 
 
 MacGeoghegan, Rev. Arthur . . 226 
 
 MacGrollen. Rev. James 215 
 
 MacGoilly, Rev. Hugh 330 
 
 ' u f A<n 
 
 MacGhiolU Cluinne, Rev. Ber- 
 nard 340 
 
 MacGeown, Rev. Hugh 344 
 
 MacKernan, Rev. Thomas 344 
 
 Mackeon, Rev. Hugh 312 
 
 Macnamara, Rev. Roger 313 
 
 MacSorley, Sir Alexander 217 
 
 MacGauran, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Edward 162 
 
 MacGuire, Cornelius 461 
 
 MacMahon, Hugh 461 
 
 Mngrath, Rev. Miler 292 
 
 Magennis, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Arthur 310 
 
 Magaen, Honoria 328 
 
 Maglainn, Rev. John 441 
 
 Maguire, Rev. Antony 445 
 
 Manus, O'Fidy 215 
 
 Mannin, Rev. Timothy. ; 343 
 
 Matthews, Rev. Francis 269 
 
 Maurice, Rev. 160 
 
 Mede, William 216 
 
 Mcyler, Bobert 72 
 
 Meyler, Peter 159 
 
 Miller, Rev. Peter 159 
 
 Mollony, Daniel 324 
 
 Moran, Rev. James 292 
 
 Moriarty, Rev. Bernard 165 
 
 Moriarty, Rev. Thaddaeus 325 
 
 Moore, Rev. Raymund 346 
 
 Morrogh, John 440 
 
 Moore, Rev. Laurence 63 
 
 Morison, Rev. M 328 
 
 Mulcahy, Rev. Nicholas 292 
 
 Mulroney, Rev. Dgrmod 40 
 
 Neagren, Rev. Dominick. ... 271 
 
 Nelan, Rev. Denis 311 
 
 Nerihing, Rev. Jeremias 313 
 
 Netterville, Rev. Robert 281 
 
 Netterville, Rev. Christopher. . 331 
 
 Nolan, Rev. Thomas 45 1 
 
 Nugent, Rev. Richard 287 
 
 Nugent, Rev. Nicholas 339 
 
 O'BoYLE, Rev. Nigel 184 
 
746 
 
 Index. 
 
 O'Boyle, Rev. Glaby 38 
 
 O'Brien, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Terence Albert 293 
 
 O'Brien, Rev. Donatus 309 
 
 O'Brien, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Muitagh 116 
 
 O'Brien, Rev. Cornelius 261 
 
 O'Bern, Rev. Edmund 325 
 
 O'Brien, James 462 
 
 O'Brien, Bernard , 462 
 
 O'Brien, Daniel 462 
 
 O'Coyn, Rev. Matthew 232 
 
 O'Connel, Rev. Thaddjeus 270 
 
 O'Conor, Rev. William 308 
 
 O'Conor, Rev. Cornelius 267 
 
 O'Connor, John 4^4 
 
 O'Conor, Rev. Patrick 270 
 
 O'Conor, Thaddzeus 462 
 
 O'Cuillin, Rev. John 325 
 
 O'Colgan, Rev. Clement 441 
 
 O'Cahill, Rev. yEneas Ambrose 308 
 
 O'Cuiffe, Rev. Arthur 293 
 
 O'Clary, Rev. Michael 304 
 
 O'Caholy, (or O'Cahosi) 304 
 
 O'Chamel, Rev. Bernard I S4 
 
 O'Cahan, Rev. Eugene 320 
 
 O'Dunne, Rev. Tliaddaeus 341 
 
 O'Dovany, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Cornelius 198 
 
 O'Duillian, Rev. Daniel 38 
 
 O'Dowd, Rev. 43 
 
 O'Dowd, Charles 462 
 
 O'Dyry Rev. Patrick 225 
 
 O'Ferrall, Rev. Laurence 306 
 
 O'Ferrall, Rev. Christopher 345 
 
 O'Ferrall, Rev. Laurence.. .... 442 
 
 O'Ferrall, Rev. Bernard 306 
 
 O'Ferrall, Rev. Anthony 320 
 
 O'Flaherty, Rev. John..> 134 
 
 O'Feus, Rev. Philip 74 
 
 O Faelaiii, (or FuUam) Rev. 
 
 J'lmes 439 
 
 O'Gall.aglier, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Redmond 183 
 
 O'GaUeher, Rev. Eugene 104 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 O'Gabhun, Rev. Cormac 215 
 
 O'Gowan, Rev. Turlogh 344 
 
 O'Haiilon, Rev. Roger 74 
 
 O'Higgins, Very Rev. Peter. . . . 257 
 
 O'Higgins, Rev. Thomas 308 
 
 O'Higgins, Daniel 4.64 
 
 O'Herlahy, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Thomas 5 
 
 0'Hurley,Most Rev. .A-rchbishop 
 
 Dermod 81 
 
 O'Hara, Rev. Felix 74 
 
 O'Hara, Rev. Phelim 54 
 
 O'tlely, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Patrick 51 
 
 O'Hart, Rev. John 345 
 
 O'Hanrichan, Rev. Daniel 68 
 
 O' Honan, Rev. John 22; 
 
 O'Kalian, Sirs Roderick and 
 
 Godfrey 217 
 
 O'Kieran, Conor 218 
 
 O'Kleryn, Rev. Michael 242 
 
 O'Kelly, Rev. John 176 
 
 O'Keliy, Rev. Malachy 146 
 
 O'Kelly, Rev. Bernard 326 
 
 O'Kennedy, John 463 
 
 O'Kenedy, Rev. Donatus 314 
 
 O'Kennedy, James 463 
 
 Oluin, Rev. William 186 
 
 Oluin, Rev. Donatus 186 
 
 Olabertag, Rev. Lewis 217 
 
 Oluin, (or O'Laighin) Rev. 
 
 John 272 
 
 O'Laighlin, Rev. John 340 
 
 O'Lochran, Rev. John 55 
 
 O' Murry , Rev. Patrick 44 
 
 O'Mannin, Rev. John 252 
 
 O'Melkeran, Rev. Hugh 64 
 
 O'Moelchory, Rev. Florence... 645 
 O'Mollony, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Malachy 176 
 
 O'Mollony, Donatus 174 
 
 O'Mahony, Rev. Francis 263 
 
 O'Maly, Rev. Romandus 314 
 
 O'Meran, Rev. Tiiaddceus 74 
 
 O'MoUoy, Rev. John ijg 
 
Index. 
 
 747 
 
 PAOB. 
 
 O'Neill, Sirs Bernard and 
 
 Arthur 217 
 
 O'Nielan, Rev. Daniel : 67 
 
 O'Neaghton, Rev.^Dominick... 271 
 
 O'Neill, Felix 462 
 
 O'Neill, Henry 458 
 
 O'Queely, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Malacliy 270 
 
 O'Quillenan, Rev. Gelasius 64 
 
 O'Reilly, Rev. James 284 
 
 O'Reilly, Rev. James 338 
 
 O'Reilly, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Edmund 347 
 
 O'Reilly, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Hugh 252 
 
 O'Riedy, Rev. Donatus 75 
 
 O'Rorke, Rev. Cornelius 51 
 
 O'Rorke, Rev. Donat 55 
 
 O'Ruairk, Constantine 462 
 
 Ormily, Rev. Roger 321 
 
 O'Shea, Rev. Philip 68 
 
 O'Scallan, Rev. Maurice 74 
 
 O'SulUvan, Sister Louise 716 
 
 O'Teman, Rev. Eugene 314 
 
 O'Truory, Rev. Bernard 184 
 
 Ovedon, Rev. Richard 292 
 
 Oveton, Rev. Richard 281 
 
 Panti, Rev. Arthur 345 
 
 Penny, Rev. /Eneas 74 
 
 Petit, Rev. Stephen 309 
 
 Pettit, Rev. Stephen 266 
 
 Philbin, Rev. Thomas 306 
 
 Pilan, Rev. John 74 
 
 Power, Rev. George 165 
 
 Power, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Peter 156 
 
 Plunket, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Patrick 366 
 
 Plunket, Most Rev. Archbishop 
 
 Peter 366 
 
 Plunket, Most Rev. Archbishop 
 
 Oliver 384 
 
 Prendergast, Rev. Maurice 341 
 
 Purcell, Patrick 463 
 
 PAOJI. 
 
 Read, Mrs. Al:s 3N 267 
 
 Roche, Lady ^2a 
 
 Roche, Rev. David 293 
 
 Roche, Rev. David 33a 
 
 Roche, Rev. Redmond 343 
 
 Roche, Christopher 1 60 
 
 Rooth, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 '^avid 288 
 
 Roony, Rev. Thomas 343 
 
 Russell, Most Rev. Archbishop 
 
 Patrick 433 
 
 Russell, Rev. John 343 
 
 ScANLAN, Rev. Maurice 68 
 
 Scanlan, Rev. Connor 343 
 
 Screnan, Rev. Donatus 314 
 
 Sheehy, Rev. Nicholas 620 
 
 Shiel, Rev. William 33 1 
 
 Slevin, Rev. James 343 
 
 Slingsby, Francis 227 
 
 Simmons, Rev. Edmund 55 
 
 Skerrett, Most Rev. Archbishop 
 
 Nicholas 75 
 
 Stapleton, Rev. Theobald 272 
 
 Stafford, Rev. Raymond ... . 285 
 
 Stritch, Thomas 463 
 
 Stephens, Rev. John 160 
 
 Stewart, Rev. John 277 
 
 Sulivan, Rev. Francis 315 
 
 Talbot, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Peter 371 
 
 Tanner, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Edmund 54 
 
 Tobin, Rev. 33 1 
 
 Trevor, Rev. Patrick 343" 
 
 Tinte, Revs. Richard and Thomas 338 
 
 Tully, Rev. Miles 343 
 
 TuUy, Rev. Thomas 314 
 
 Tynzbi, Rev. William 344 
 
 Ui.TAN, (or Donlevins) Rev. 
 
 Christopher 268 
 
748 
 
 Index. 
 
 PAOB. 
 
 Wadding, Rev, Luke 713 
 
 Walsh, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 William 25 
 
 Walsh, Rev. Philip 343 
 
 Walsh, Rev. John 165 
 
 Wallis, Rev. John 75 
 
 Ward, Rev. Hugh. 688 
 
 Ward, Rev. Ferga'i 32 
 
 Ward, Rev. fergal 42 
 
 rAss 
 
 Ward, Rev. Fergal 261 
 
 White, Rev. Henry 271 
 
 White, Patrick 305 
 
 White, Francis 305 
 
 Wolf, Rev. James 293 
 
 Wolf, Rev. David 32 
 
 Young, Rev. Nicholas 222 
 
INDEX OF PLACES. 
 
 Ahbeyleix, 159. 
 
 Adare, Convent of, 268, 
 
 Antrim, 588, 600, 
 
 Aries, 677. 
 
 Armagh, 657. 
 
 Armagh, Convent of, 32, 42, 312, 322. 
 
 Arran, Isles of, 341. 
 
 Askealon, Convent of, 53, 224. 
 
 Asseroe, Convent of, 184. 
 
 Athboy, 223. 
 
 Athenry, Convent of, 292, 309, 325, 
 
 342, 442. 
 Athlone, 312, 469. 
 Aughrim, 470, 494. 
 
 Ballymohun, 70. 
 ballynacargy, 271. 
 Ballysheehan, 644. 
 Baltimore, Fort of, 66. 
 Baltrasna, 338. 
 Bandon, 529. 
 Bantry, Convent of, 66. 
 Beerhaven, 180. 
 Bel-atha-Lagain, 660. 
 Belfast, 468, 549, 560. 
 Belgium, 457, 659. 
 Bobbio, 661. 
 Boyle, Monastery of, 64. 
 Boyne, 469, 494. 
 Brentire, 321. 
 Brunswick, House ot, 615, 
 Brie, Monastery of, 677. 
 Brittas, 187. 
 
 Brussels, 676. 
 
 Brussels, 710. 
 
 Bunargy, Convent of, 28a 
 
 Burishool, Convent of, 225, ja^ 
 
 Bury, 676. 
 
 Carrick, 529. 
 
 Carrickfergus, 339. 
 
 Cashel, 272. 
 
 Cashel, Cathedral of, 675. 
 
 Castle Hackett, 339. 
 
 Chester, 165. 
 
 China, 716. 
 
 Clairvaux, Monastery of, 69a. 
 
 Clanricarde, 456. 
 
 Clare, 313, 369. 
 
 Clogheen, 620. 
 
 Clonmel, 529, 629, 717. 
 
 Clonmel, Convent of, 53, 68, 148, 160, 
 
 284, 292, 308, 338. 
 Cluantuibh, 650. 
 Coimbra, University of, 
 Coleraine, Convent of, 338. 
 College of H. and U. T. of Q. Eliz., 
 
 519- 
 Cologne, 677. 
 Connaught, 454, 455, 459. 46o, 462, 
 
 605. 
 Connor, 673. 
 Coolrah, 75. 
 Cork, 69, 181, 216, 263, 269, 308, 333, 
 
 343. 440. 
 Cortown, 450. 
 Cumberland, 676. 
 
750 
 
 Index of Places. 
 
 Derry, Monastery of, l86, 225, 252, 
 
 a72, 34* 441- 
 Dingle Bay, 471, 
 Donegal, 588. 
 
 Donegal, Convent of, 185, 314, 657. 
 Down, 588, 671, 673. 
 Down, Convent of, 55. 
 Drogheda, 197, 223, 281, 287, 469, 
 
 653. 717- 
 
 Dublin, 74, 76, 89,112, 115, 116, 121, 
 184, 186, 197, 198, 218, 219, 224, 
 252, 256, 257, 260, 323, 346, 377, 
 386, 439, 451, 453, 460, 462, 464, 
 469. 5'°, 545- 593, 603, 623. 
 
 Dublin, Castle of, 
 
 Dublin, Four Courts of, 
 
 Dublin, University of, 583. 
 
 Dundalk, 199, 389, 469. 
 
 Dungaunon, 545, 588. 
 
 Dungarvan, 263. 
 
 Dunshaughlin, 267. 
 
 Elphin, 617. 
 
 Elphin, Convent of, 55, 316, 381. 
 
 Enniscorthy, Convent of, 74. 
 
 Enniskillen, 461. 
 
 Exeter, 223. 
 
 Fosse, Monastery of, 682. 
 Fosses, 676. 
 
 Galbally, 40. 
 
 Gallvaise, Aharlagh, Convent of, 40. 
 
 Galway, 159, 317, 320, 334, 441, 444, 
 
 462, 489, 502. 
 Golden Fort, 64. 
 Guaire, Fortress of, 
 Guervia, 708. 
 
 Hebrides, Islands of, 278. 
 Holy Cross, Abbey of, 88. 
 
 Jngolstadt, 666, 677. 
 
 ] nisbofin. Island of, 334, 341. 
 
 Innis, or Innisheen, Convent, of, 219, 
 
 222, 312, 321. 
 Inniscattety, Island of, 177. 
 
 Jamaica, 458- 
 John's Gate, 463. 
 
 Kells, 287. 
 
 Kerry, 464. 
 
 Kilchree, Convent of, 62. 
 
 Kildalkey, 706. 
 
 Kildare, 600, 603. 
 
 Kilkenny, 183, 288, 290, 503, 6*3. 
 
 Kilkenny Jail, 640. 
 
 Killatra, 75. 
 
 Killeen, 368. 
 
 Killmallock, $2, 148, 280, 43a. 
 
 Kilragty, 311. 
 
 Kinsale, 381, 468. 
 
 Lackagh, 337. 
 
 Laganbridge, 660. 
 
 Leighlin, 338. 
 
 Leinster, 454, 455, 60S. 
 
 Liessies, 676. 
 
 Limerick, I16, 193, 220, 293, 298, 31I, 
 
 324. 463, 464. 469. 47'. 489. ^■'o- 
 Lislaghtin, Convent of, 68, 74. 
 Lisle, 710. 
 Llandaff, 618. 
 London, 123, 160, 226, 269, 392, 442, 
 
 461. 
 London Bridge, 460. 
 Londonderry, 322, 588, 600. 
 Longford, Convent of, 307, 44b 
 Lorragh, 295. 
 Lougherew, 384, 
 Louvain, 647. 
 Lucca, 663. 
 Lycoboon, 81. 
 
 Malogne, 677. 
 Maryborough, 339. 
 Mecklenburgh, 677. 
 Mohoriack, Village of, TO, 
 Monoghan, 588. 
 Monoghan, Convent of, 25. 
 Mount Beatha, 705. 
 Moyne, Convent of, 43. 
 Mullinahone, 68, 
 
Index of Places. 
 
 ;s' 
 
 MuUingar, Convent of, 226, 266. 
 Mallifarnham, Convent of, 214, 280. 
 Munster, 454, 455, 463, 605. 
 
 Naas, 257. 
 
 Nenagh, 462, 463. 
 
 Nenay, or De Maggio, Convent of, 71. 
 
 Newry, Abbey of, 82. 
 
 Orkr, or De Urio, Convent of, 270, 
 
 284, 439. 
 Ormonds, 462. 
 
 Pekin, 718. 
 
 Pontoise, 677. 
 
 Poole Hall, Cheshire, 376. 
 
 Portugal, 460. 
 
 Prague, 677. 
 
 Quenhy, or Quinchy, Convent of, 313, 
 
 321- 
 
 Rathbran, Convent of, 330. 
 
 Rathconnell, 271. 
 
 Rath-Guaire, 708. 
 
 Ratoath, 287. 
 
 Regensburgh, 674. 
 
 Roscommon, Convent of, 266, 271, 
 
 325. 326. 
 Roscrea, Convent of, 41. 
 Ross, 29 1. 
 
 Ross, Abbey of, 333. 
 "^ush, 433. 
 Russia, 457. 
 
 Salamanca, 688. 
 Shandraghan, 644. 
 Shannon, 454. 
 Shruel, 332. 
 Simancas, 648. 
 Slane, 86. 
 Sb'go, 462. 
 
 Spain, 455, 457. 
 
 St. Anthony, Convent of, 647, 659. 
 
 St. Gallis, Library of, 682. 
 
 St. Giles, Church of, London, 411. 
 
 St. John's Well, 
 
 St. Kevin, Church of, Dublin, 94. 
 
 St. Malo, 77. 
 
 St. Mary's, Convent of, 717. 
 
 Strade, Convent of, 284. 
 
 Templeheny, 644. 
 
 Thurles, St. Mary's, Convent of, 23. 
 
 Tien-Tsing, 718. 
 
 Timoleague, Convent of, 178. 
 
 Tipperary, 454, 620, 622. 
 
 Toledo, 648. 
 
 Tracht, 464. 
 
 Tralee, Convent of, 293, 325. 
 
 Trim, 184, 222, 445. 
 
 Tuam, 650. 
 
 Tubrid, 632. 
 
 Tulsk, 320. 
 
 Tyrone, 5S8. 
 
 Ulster, 454, 462, 549, 603, 606. 
 Urlar, Convent of, in County Mayo, 
 
 437- 
 Valladolid, Cathedral of, 648. 
 Verdun, 676. 
 Vienna, 677. 
 Viressenaken, 676. 
 Viretin, Island of, 42. 
 
 Wansor, 677. 
 
 Waterford, 305, 341, 712. 
 
 Westmeath, 603. 
 
 Wexford, 159, 197, 285, 600, 607. 
 
 Worcester, 75. 
 
 Wurtsburgh, 677. 
 
 Youghal, 38, 67, 178. 
 
THE LANDLORD'S TEN COMMANDMENTS. 
 » ■ > ■ » — 
 
 Dedicated to Exterminators and Rack Renters, also to the people who 
 WORK the creed OF THE Rt. Hon. Lord Clan Rack Rent, Earl of Idleness, 
 Viscount Absentee. 
 
 1st. I am thy Landlord and thy Master, who paternally condescends to 
 take charge of thy earnings, in the shape of rent. r ti, 
 
 2d Thou Shalt have no other Master but me, and no other use tor thy 
 earnino-s than to be duly paid and delivered to me at my office, on ever)' 
 gale day, in order that I may live in a state befitting my rank, and be 
 sumptuously fed without stooping to the ignominy of labor, or feeling the 
 hardships of want. 
 
 3d. Thou Shalt keep holy the Sabbath Day, by laboring to earn the 
 sacred obligations of rent, and win for thyself that poverty and self-denial 
 which are essential to eternal salvation. 
 
 4th. Thou shalt not speak disrespectfully, or with covered head, of thy 
 Master, his agent, footman or dogman, or murmur against the holy 
 doctrine (obey thy Master.) 
 
 5th. Honor thy Master the Landlord, that thy toil may be long in the 
 land of thy birth, and thy reward on some distant day, to be eviction, poor- 
 house luxury, or accidental emigration. 
 
 6th. Thou shalt not kill any hare, rabbit, fox or bird that may visit thy 
 farms, neither shalt thou fish for, catch or eat any fish found in the streams 
 which flow through thy fields, or commit the sacrilege of doubting the 
 justice of those laws which give more protection to the game of the field 
 than to those who are moulded in the image of their Creator. 
 
 7th. Thou shalt not violate the great moral law upon my estate, which 
 forbids the marriage of thy sons and thy daughters, particularly thy 
 daughters, until myself or my agent shall first satisfy oiirselves such a step 
 will be beneficial to us. 
 
 8th. Thou shalt not steal an idle moment, neither shall thy children, 
 from the blessed occupation of labor in my service, nor indulge in ihe 
 worldly pleasures of reading books or newspapers, nor listen to immoral 
 teachings against my sacred prerogatives as thy Landlord and Master. 
 
 9th. Thou shalt not bear any witness against the difference between my 
 rents, and the valuation of that arch-infidel Griffith, neither shalt thou 
 speak to the evil agents of the national Land League, a Society which 
 aims at the destruction of Landlordism, and which must plunge its 
 fanatical supporters into eternal peasant proprietary. 
 
 loth. Thou shalt not covet the better condition of labor, or sigh for 
 worldly aflfairs, wealth or comfort, in which there lieth both evil of body 
 and soul, neither shalt thou envy me my horses, carriages, lands or 
 pleasures, but continue to cheerfully toil from early morning to late at 
 night, and rest satisfied with thy mud-walled cabin, thy rags and blissful 
 ignorance, in order that thy reward may be reaped by the appearance at 
 thy door of a legion of spirits in the uniform of the Royal Irish Con- 
 stabulary, to conduct thee and thy children to that mansion of penetential 
 bliss which the English Government and myself have prepared for thy use. 
 
THE EVICTION. 
 
 {A Scene from Life in Ireland,) 
 BY MRS. O'DONOVAN ROSSA. 
 
 The morning broke in mist and rain, 
 The village woke to fear and pain, 
 As from a brief, uneasy trance ; 
 And through the hills beheld advance 
 The Sheriff, with his black Brigade 
 For ruin and despair arrayed ! 
 
 Cold as the snow upon yon peak 
 
 The Agent's heart to groan and shriek 
 
 Of maid and matron, child and man, 
 
 Full soon the work of woe began, 
 
 And soon bestrewn was the damp earth 
 
 With household goods from every hearth. 
 
 " We owe no rent," a cottier cried ; 
 
 But the Sheriffs hirelings quick replied, 
 
 " Tou owe no rent ; no, not a pound, 
 
 " But the Earl wants space for his hunting-ground, 
 
 " And your wants, did they o'ertop the hill, 
 
 " Are as naught when compared with the landlord's will ! " 
 
 The crowbar worked : a frantic crowd 
 With streaming eyes and voices loud. 
 Implored for mercy where the name 
 Of Mercy had no softening claim. 
 With breaking hearts some stood aside, 
 In sullen scorn and injured pride. 
 
 And some, on desperate plans intent, 
 Their cowering brows together bent. 
 There swore within each silent breast 
 To know no peace, no home, no rest. 
 Until the wrongs they viewed to-day 
 In wronger's blood were washed away ! 
 
754 The Eviction. 
 
 There one, with loss and sorrow crazed, 
 Ean, grasping a great pitch-fork, raised 
 Upon the bayonets of the line. 
 His trembling wife and children twine 
 Their arms around him to impede 
 In this rash enterprise, his speed. 
 
 Here, by the coffin of her child 
 A widow kneels, with anguish wild ; 
 And from the cold, unsheltered road 
 The grandame mourns her lost abode ; 
 In piercing shrieks their plaints ascend 
 To Him who is their only friend. 
 
 " Spare my sick father," cried a maid 
 
 On bended knees : " we never prayed 
 
 " Indulgence for a backward rent ; 
 
 " Our tithes were ever duly sent ; 
 
 " But now for mercy I implore — 
 
 " The old man lies at Death's cold door ; 
 
 " His quivering lips would pray respite ; 
 
 " His dying eyes would seg the light 
 
 " The last time in his native cot ; 
 
 " The priest is sent for, — will be brought 
 
 " Directly, but the spoilers cease ; 
 
 " Oh, let my father die in peace ! " 
 
 In vain implored the gentle child : 
 The work went on, — the monsters piled 
 "With savage glee and action fleet 
 Her treasures in the muddy street. 
 " Oh, spare my father ! " still she cried, 
 "If ye be human, stand aside ! " 
 
The Eviction. 755 
 
 Tliey heeded neither prayer nor tear, 
 But to the old man's bed drew near ; 
 They shook him rudely, turned and said, 
 "The old man feels no more, — he's dead." 
 Over his daughter's senseless feet 
 They ilung his body in the street. 
 
 Then rose a fearful shriek to heaven, 
 To rain down fire upon the craven 
 Whose infamies so dire can stain 
 The record of a fertile plain ; 
 At whose foul will, a Christian race 
 Is crushed to give his cattle place ! 
 
 Spurred by this cry, across the ford 
 Appears a military horde ; 
 And village-ward they bend their course. 
 To aid the Earl, and Law enforce. 
 With clattering hoof and shining spear 
 And scarlet trappings, they draw near. 
 
 The opening crowds give sudden way, 
 And in the fading light of day. 
 Above the corpse, with hand upraised, 
 And bosom on whose surface blazed 
 Crimean medals, hardly won. 
 Stood the too late returned son. 
 
 " O Christ! " he muttered, in his breath, 
 
 "I have faced famine, fire and death, 
 
 "To hold aloft the power that gave 
 
 " My murdered father to the grave ; 
 
 " To prop the Crown beneath whose shade 
 
 "My dreams of hope and home must fade. 
 
756 The Eviction. 
 
 "Well may we curse the power we fed, 
 
 "And our own ignorance, that shed 
 
 " On Indian soil, in copious flood, 
 
 " For British fame, our Celtic blood. 
 
 "We dreamed — poor fools — the Irish race 
 
 " In Britain's glory found a place ! 
 
 "Back once again, and battle-wor6, 
 "I find my roof-tree rudely torn ; 
 "My sister senseless in her grief; 
 "My aged father past relief; 
 "My only home this trampled sward — 
 " Oh ! England ! 'tis a brave reward, 
 
 " If for thy rights on Irish earth, 
 " Dear blighted country of my birth, 
 " Against the Robber's flag of Eed 
 "The blood thy sons at Alma shed 
 "Were given, how thy veins would glow 
 " With fierce resistance to the foe ! 
 
 "If for thy rights the swords they bore 
 " On many a far-off foreign shore 
 "Were wielded; oh, thou trampled land, 
 "How thou wouldst take triumphant stand 
 "Amid the nations, proud and free, 
 "After such drear captivity. 
 
 "Around me, Heaven be praised! behold, 
 "Are Celts made resolute and bold, 
 "Whose life-long toil and latest breath, 
 "Shall echo — Liberty or Death — 
 "A Eighted Land — aEansomed Slave, 
 "Victory — or a Soldier's gravel" 
 
Thomas Sexton. 
 
 T. D. Sullivan. 
 
LIVES OF 
 
 THE CATHOLIC HEROES AND HEROINES 
 
 OF AMERICA, 
 
 By JOHN O'KANE MURRAY, B. S., M. D., 
 
 ACTHOB OF "The Popular History of the Catholic Church in th« 
 
 Ukited States," " Prose and Poetry of Ireland," " Little 
 
 Lives of the Great Saints " and '• Lessons 
 
 IN English Literature." 
 
 lUnstrated with 24 lnl]-page engrnvlngs, and printed from large, 
 clear type ou fine paper, 884 pages, 8vo, cloth, elegant. 
 
 PRICE, $3.50: GILT EDG-ES, $4,00. 
 
 C Boston, 47 Hanover street. t a if tt^o n tt i -. -n xt xt- t^ 
 
 1 \ Philadelphia, 30 N. 6th St. J AM.Jl,b bULEHY, PUBLISH 
 
 . ■) Baltimore 74 W. Fayette St. 
 
 ( Washington, 6X3 7th Street. *** Barclay Street, Netc York. 
 
 Ii Is now nearly four centuries since Columbus doubled the size of the world 
 by his sublime achievement, the discovery of America. In the words of Dr. 
 Murray, "he was the pioneer of a long line of Catholic Heroes and Heroines" 
 whose deeds are told in countless volumes and many tongues. The present work, 
 however, is the first attempt ever made to bring within the compass of one volume a 
 truthful and interesting account of those great representative Catholics who have 
 left bright, immortal names and enduring footprints on this Western Continent. 
 
 The "Lives of the Catholic Heboes and Heboines opAmeeica" embrace 
 twenty-four biographies, chronologically arranged. The following are the 
 illustrious personages sketched, the nationality being given after each: 
 
 12. MISS JANE MANCE.— French. 
 
 13. FATHER MARQUETTE, S. J.— French. 
 
 14. DE LA SALLE.— French. 
 
 15. DE MONTCALM.— French. 
 
 IB. COMMODORE BABRY.—Irish. 
 
 17. ARCHBISHOP CARROLL.— AmeriOiD. 
 
 18. MOTHER SBTON.— American. 
 
 19. CHARLES CARROLL.— American. 
 
 20. BISHOP BRUTfi.— French. 
 
 21. FATHER GALLITZIN— Russian. 
 
 22. BISHOP ENGLAND.— Irish. 
 
 23. ARCHBISHOP HUGHES.— Irish. 
 
 L COLUMBUS— Genoe... 
 
 2. OJBDA.— Spanish. 
 
 3. BALBOA— .Spanish. 
 
 4. CORTfiS.— Spanish. 
 
 5. ST. ROSE OF LIMA.— American. 
 
 6. CHAMPLAIN— French. 
 7 FATHER JOGUES. S. J.— French. 
 
 8. FATHER DE BRfiBEUP, S. J.— French. 
 
 9. FATHER WHITE, 8. J.— English. 
 
 10. VEN. MARY OP THE INCARNATION. 
 — French. 
 
 11. VEN. MARGARET BOURGEOIS.— 
 French. '| 24. FATHER DE SMBT, S. J— Belpan. 
 
 The Publisher would call attention to the following points of interest : 
 
 (1). Nearly every profession and state of life has an heroic representative in 
 this elegant volume. The great Columbus and the gallant Barry were seamen. 
 Cort6s stands, without a peer, the most splendid military genius the New World 
 has yet seen. Montcalm was a fearless and faithful soldier. Balboa, Champlain, 
 Marquette and La Salle are the princes of American discovery and exploration. 
 The holiness and devotion of the nun are well represented by St. Rose of Lima, 
 Ven. Mother Mary of the Incarnation, Ven. Margaret Bourgeois and good Mother 
 Seton. De Brebeuf, Jogues and De Smet are among the brightest of America's 
 illustrious missionaries. The statesman, the patriot, the ecclesiastic — all, in short, 
 »re fitly represented in th:s galaxy of great names. 
 
 (2). Each Life is complete in itself and is sketched in a most attractive style — 
 a style that unites the fascination of romance to the beauty of truth. 
 
 (3). Dr. Murray's good judgment in his selection of names is evidenced by the 
 fact that several publishers are even now issuing, at the heels of the present vol- 
 ume, separate biographies of a number of the famous personages whose careers 
 a'e recounted in the " Lives of the Catholic Heroes and Heroines of America." 
 
 <4). The reading of this very attractive work will put any one in possession of 
 most of the great landmarks of American History, from the discovery of the 
 , Continent to the present time. 
 
 (5). As can be seen at a glance the volume is a most handsome and substantiftl 
 specimen of American Book-making. 
 
22 CHBISTOPnEB COLUMBUS. 
 
 Thougli simply clad, he could pass nowhere without being 
 noticed. His very look suggested an air of modest distinc- 
 tion. Before kings and grandees he appeared with as much 
 ease and grace as if he had been born in a palace. 
 
 He had no other finery of dress than cleanliness. In this, 
 (however, he was exquisite. To the absence of stains or rents, 
 or negligence in his clothing — which he knew how to pre- 
 serve a long time — he endeavored to join whiteness, and 
 often fineness of linen, always slightly perfumed. For 
 him sweet scents had ever an unfailing attraction. 
 
 Nature had gifted him with an elegant taste. He admired 
 with tenderness the works of the Almighty, and sought with 
 eagerness for flowers, birds, and the productions of the sea. 
 
 Though a mariner from boyhood, the lofty character of 
 Columbus, raised him above the vices of the seaman. Swear- 
 ing and indecent songs he abhorred. He drank but little 
 wine. He disliked games of chance. He despised effeminate 
 pleasures. With no inclination for the pleasures of the table 
 he preserved on land the frugal habits of shipboard. He 
 preferred vegetable food. Water sweetened with candy sugar 
 and some drops of orange-flower, was his favorite drink. 
 
 His punctuality and habits of order were also remarkable. 
 He knew the value of time.' His sense of duty — his ener- 
 getic nature, and well-balanced character prevented him from 
 putting off till to-morrow what could be done to-day. 
 Never was he seen acting at random, or outside of the dic- 
 tates of duty or of good sense. 
 
 His goodness of heart made him most affectionate to his 
 relatives and friends, and affable to those about him, show- 
 ing his inferiors the kindness of superioritj^ graced' with an 
 urbanity which is not learned on shipboard. His simple and 
 flowing language harmonized with his richness of thought. 
 The ease of his elocution, the graphic turn of his images, his 
 expressions, often hardy, but always happy, rendered his 
 conversation attractive. He was, in short, one to be loved by 
 those near him. Of a singularly resolute and enduring 
 nature, he was likewise rapt in his own designs, having a 
 ringing forever in his ears of bold and gigantic projects. 
 
280 HERNANDO CORTSS 
 
 to plixn was to accomplish. Having frequently entertained 
 Montezuma with accounts of ships and the art of naviga- 
 tion, he awakened the latter' s curiosity to see those mov- 
 ing palaces, which without oars made their way through 
 the water. 
 
 Under the pretext of gratifying this desire, Cortes re- 
 quested Montezuma to appoint some of his subjects to bring 
 to the city part of the naval stores which the Spaniards had 
 left at Vera Cn^z, and to employ others in cutting down and 
 preparing timber. It was done. And with Mexican assist- 
 ance, the Castilian carpenters soon completed two brigan- 
 tines. A new source of amusement was thus afforded to 
 the dusky Mona.rch, and a means of escape to Cortes, if he 
 should be obliged to retire. 
 
 The Spanish Commander felt that the time had arrived to 
 persuade Montezuma to give some public sign of fealty to 
 the King of Spain. It was certainly a trying test. The 
 Mexican Monarch's elastic power of submission was now to 
 be stretched to the utmost. He called together the chief 
 men of his empire, and reminded them in a solemn speech of 
 the traditions and prophecies which led them to expect the 
 arrival of a people sprung from the same stock as themselves 
 in order to take possession of the supreme power. He de- 
 clared his belief that the Spaniards were this promised race. 
 He said he recognized the right of their King to govern the 
 Mexican empire, and that he would lay down his crown and 
 obey the Spanish Sovereign as a tributary. His grief was 
 visible, for he wept. This act of submission and homage 
 was executed with all due formality. What a sudden change 
 in the position of a vast empire ! 
 
 But the grand triumph of Cort6s, and that use of his 
 power for which he has been likened to Judas Maccabeus, 
 was in the destruction of the hideous Mexican idols, the 
 cleansing of their foul temples, and the stern forbidding of 
 human sacrifices any more. Montezuma himself and many 
 of his chief men were present at the downfall of the idols. 
 It must have been a glorious sipht. 
 
 About six months had n w passed away since the Mexi- 
 
OR, 
 
 THE JOINT VENTURE, 
 
 A TALE IN TWO LANDS. 
 
 By E. A. FITZSIMON. 
 
 Dedicated to the Sons and Daughters of Ireland, and their American Consins. 
 
 337 pp. IStno. Cloth, MUgant, $1. 00. Gilt Mdgea, $1.S5. 
 
 TATtr-nn r.xTT-i-nTT-«r "n — f Boston, 47 Hanovsr Street. 
 
 JAMES SHEEHY, Publisher, Branch J Baltimore, 74 W. Fayette Street 
 
 xo K««„i<.^. «t^^4,t sr^^i, To«.l, Offices. 1 Washington, 613 Seventh St 
 *3 Barclay Street, New Torlc. [ pijUaieiphia. 30 N. Fifth Street, 
 
 (From John O'Kane Mubkat, Esq.) 
 
 Brooklyn, Aug. 1, 1878. 
 During my stay amid the scenery of the Catskills, I found time to 
 give a perusal to the elegantly bound volume which I owe to your kind 
 courtesy — " The Joint Venture," by MissPitzsimon. I am much pleased 
 with it. The style is good. The plot is skilfully worked out. Atone 
 of lofty morality breathes through the whole book, as the gifted young 
 author writes in the true spirit of a Catholic. Though overflowing 
 with interest, it is flavored with no sensational nonsense. In short, it is 
 a healthy, well-written, deeply interesting, and very beautiful story. 
 
 (From the New Orleans Morning Star.) 
 "The Joint Venture, A Tale in Two Lands," is the most prettily 
 bound book of the season, and its emblems of tlie two lands — Ireland 
 and America — are tasteful and appropriate. The style of the work is 
 excellent — not only scholarly, but classical, and flashes with beams of 
 faith and scintillations of wit all through its page.s. It contains reflec- 
 tions upon the divorce laws which we would like every one to read, 
 and its pictures of broken hearts and homes are as touching as they are 
 truthful. The chapter whicti relates how Mrs. Ned O'Leary became a 
 Catholic is one of the best in the book, and will no doubt bu highly 
 appreciated by its Irish Catholic readers. 
 
 (From the iV. T. Evening Express.) 
 In " The Joint Venture, A Tale in Two Lands," Miss E. A. Pitz- 
 simon makes her debut in fictional literature. The scene is laid first in 
 Ireland, and then in America. The story is an attempt to idealize 
 Catholic, and especially Irish Catholic life. There is nothing very re- 
 markable about the bcok, but the earnestness with which the young au- 
 thor writes is commendable and interesting. If at times she is rather 
 too aggressive and speaks almost too loftily, that will wear off as expe- 
 rience increases. In "The Joint Venture" she has produced a very 
 readable book, which will be perused by many, if for no other reason, 
 for the moral and useful lessons which it inculcates. 
 
 (From the Providence Daily Journal, B. I.) 
 "The Joint Venture" is a story founded on the simple lesson of lif« 
 as presented from the Eoman Catholic point of view, and results in 
 the triumph of the good and the defeat of the bad through the medium 
 of its doctrines. The Protestant law of divorce is the main object of 
 attack, and the author shows it to be a bad thing so far as the person- 
 ages of the novel are concerned. 
 
TALE IN TWO LANDS. ]i09 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 •TBB THB ATLANTIC. A MESTINQ AND A PARTnTOk 
 
 After seeing the laat outline of her native ehore 
 recede from view, Alice turned her gaze on the 
 broad expanse of sky and water that formed the 
 horizon, and a mingled feelilig of interest and awe 
 took possession of her mind. Tusker Light had 
 thrown its last gleam over the mighty deep, which 
 iiow lay in unruffled majesty before her — scarcely a 
 ripple agitated its waters, extending as far as the eye 
 could reach to the blue canopy that overarched their 
 surface. It seemed like a picture of her future life, 
 from which the last bright ray had been shut out, 
 leaving her on a vast, untried ocean, looking smooth 
 indeed for the present, yet it might be that stormi 
 »nd dangers should be encountered before the havea 
 of refuge was gained. The blue sky, however, 
 would always encompass the dread abyss — this she 
 would look up to when the clouds darkened, and th» 
 j,ngry waves threatened destruction. 
 
 vVhilst Alic« mused thus, other reflections p^xxie-i 
 
(From the Chicago Inter- Ocean.) 
 " TLe Joint Venture, a Tale in Two Lands," is a story dedicated to 
 the sons and daugliters of Ireland, and their American cousins. It is a 
 love story with many mishaps, fully illustrating the maxim that the 
 course of true love runs not smooth ; and yet, as all love stories should, 
 it ends with a wedding. The author of the volume is a devoted Catho- 
 lic, and several chapters of the book are devoted to a glowing eulogy 
 upon the Catholic Church and the priesthood. The story is chastely 
 written, and the interest in the different characters is well retained un- 
 til the close. It is a strong plea for the Catholic Church. 
 
 (From the Philadelphia Catholic Standard.) 
 " The Joint Venture, A Tale in Two Lands," is, what its title indi- 
 cates, not a romance, but a tale. It has a number of decided merits. 
 The style is good ; the incidents are sufficiently varied to keep up the 
 reader's interest ; the narrative is direct, and, without unnecessary 
 complications, leads naturally up to the denouement. The personages, 
 too, are real, living persons, not mere aggregates of certain intellectual 
 or moral qual ities. There is emotion, but it is natural and genuine. 
 There is no mawkish sentimentalism, and none of the detestable analy- 
 sis and anatomical dissection of mental conflicls and "soul struggles" 
 which are so fashionable among writers of popular fictions. The truths 
 of the Catholic religion are occasionally referred to, and a spirit of 
 genuine Catholicity pervades the whole story, but religion is not lugged 
 in by the head and shoulders. The moral, which is not preached to the 
 reader, but left to suggest itself naturally, is the sacrifice of inclination 
 to duty. 
 
 Love is not represented after the false and pernicious manner in which 
 it is so fashionable to depict it, as an involuntary, uncontrollable emo- 
 tion, but as a rational sentiment, held in proper subjection by the will, 
 and regulated by regard for Christian principle. 
 
 The personages generally, are well drawn, particularly those of 
 Alice Desmond and her mother, of Father Walsh and Ned Leary ; the 
 spirit of the work is pure and healthful; the narrative well sustained 
 and interesting to the close. 
 
 (From the iV. T. Daily Graphic.) 
 James Sheehy, 33 Barclny St., has jiist published a highly entertain- 
 ing story, by^ E. A. Fitzsimon, entitled " The Joint Venture, A Tale in 
 Two Lands." The incidents which are woven together in this story 
 are drawn from the peculiarlv amicable associations which connect the 
 people of Ireland with the United States. The field furnishes abundant 
 material for romantic writing, and Miss Fitzsimon has turned it to good 
 account in the present work. Her descriptions will serve to recall 
 recollections which are doubtless familiar to thousands to whom the 
 work will prove instructive and entertaining. 
 
 (From Mc Gee's Illustrated Weekly.) 
 
 V I' V^^ ''^°'°* Venture, A Tale in Two Lands," by B. A. Fitzsimon,pub- 
 Mshed by James Sheehy. The story has two purposes— to fight against 
 divorce, and to give Catholic readers a high-class Irish novel. Its 
 Catholicity is unimpeachable, and, consequently, its moral is excellent. 
 Without being very powerful, ii is full of charming little touches which 
 betray the grace and skill of an educated feminine' mind. 
 
 JAMES SHEEHY, Publisher, I Boston, « Hanover street. 
 
 .. » > o.. , «■ ^ , Brancll' Baltimore, 74 W. Fayette street, 
 
 aa Barelay Street, *«• Tork, OfflwiB. 1 Washington. 613 Seireuth St. 
 
 I Philadelphia, SO H. Fittb Street 
 
LIVES OF THE 
 
 ffilSH MARTYE8 AND CONFESSORS, 
 
 By MYLES O'REILLY, B. A., LL. D., 
 And rev. RICHARD BRENNAN, A. M., LL. D. 
 
 ALSO 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE PENAL LAWS, 
 
 By PARNELL, 
 
 Illustrated with 24 Engravings, and a Colored Map of Ireland 
 
 Showlne the Localities and Titles of the Principal OM Irish Families. 
 
 750 Pages, 8y o, Cloth, Elegant, $3,00.~Gri t Edges, $3.75. 
 
 ( Boston. 47 Hanover street -r a tri-ia c-rr-r^-r^-^^ ^ 
 
 Branch I Philadelphia, 30 N. 6th St. JAMES SHEEHY, PUBLISHER. 
 
 Offices, -j Baltimore, 7i W. Fayette 8t. ' 
 
 ( Washington, 613 7th Street, *3 Barelay Btreet, New Torle. 
 
 This valuable work, the first that has attempted to give the public, in 
 a succinct and authentic form, a true account of what the Catholics of 
 Ireland suffered for their religion during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and 
 eighteenth centuries, from the moment of its appearance received the 
 cordial welcome and hearty endorsement of the hierarchy, priests, and 
 people of Ireland. Such a record of Irish suffering and fortitude tad 
 long been wanting, and its reception by the public was commensurate 
 with its gr^t merits. 
 
 It was a labor of love, as well as a noble and patriotic impulse, that 
 prompted the gallant Colonel O'Reilly, commandant of the Irish Papal 
 Zouaves, to collect, translate, and thus present to the world, the rich and 
 precious records of Irish piety, learning, and unswerving devotion to 
 the Church in the past, as a fitting sequel to the present efforts of that 
 gifted gentleman to maintain the rights of the late revered Sovereign 
 Pontiff, Pius IX., in his own dominions, and of those of the Irish 
 Oathf)lic3 in the British Parliament, in his capacity of member for the 
 County of Louth. 
 
 Through Colonel O'Reilly's labors, nearly every prominent ecclesias- 
 tic and laic who resisted the inroads of the " Reformation" in Ireland 
 is placed in a true light ; his unassuming piety, inflexi ble devotion to 
 his duties, and heroic determination to fulfil the duties of his station, 
 receive ample justice ; and thus is presented to his descendants and 
 countrymen a record of which in these more fortunate days all ought 
 to be proud. There are few districts in Ireland over which the pollut- 
 ing track of the " Priest-Hunter" has not been traced in those pages, 
 and very few genuine Irish or Anglo-Irish names that are not in some 
 measure associated with that desperate, heroic, and successful struggle 
 of the children of St. Patrick to preserve pure and undefiled the Faith 
 he bequeathed them. 
 
 This it is that has made this great book not only nationally, but per- 
 sonally popular wherever the Irish race exists. 
 
 The present edition, however, has marked advantages over all others. 
 It has been greatly enlarged and enriched by the pen of Rev. Richard 
 Brennau, A. M., New York, the well known author of "A Life of 
 Pius IX.," who contributes nearly three hundred pages of most val- 
 uable biographical and historical matter, 
 
 Ineludinff a full history and synopsis of the Penal Laws, 
 beginning with a resume of the condition of the Irish Catholics in the 
 time of the infamous Cromwell, and ending with the present time. 
 
 THE HISTOey OF THE PENAL LHWS B? PARNELL, EMaRflCES 143 PAGES 
 
AGENTS WANTED I 
 
 LIVES OF IHE IRISH iRIYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Including a History of the Penal Laws. 
 
 BY HTIIS O'REILLY, B, A., LL 0, AND REV. RICHiRD BRENNtH, A. H, LI D. 
 751 Pages, 8vo., crothTEl^t Mce~$3ioO, Gilt Edges $3.75 
 
 From the Nea OrUans Morning Star and Catholic Messenger. 
 
 This work is all of Myles O'Reilly's, with many additions, including 
 a history of the penal laws by Rev. Richard Brennan, A. M. ; so that 
 all who have read the beautiful work of O'Reilly, entitled "Irish 
 Martyrs and Confessors," will find in this second volume additional 
 records of heroism and martyrdom, with all of the valuable memoirs 
 contained in the first. 
 
 On the top cover we find the design of a golden monument, on 
 which are inscribed the names of those Irish heroes and martyrs who 
 lived and died in the cause of God and their country. The idea is a 
 beautiful one, and we hope some day a golden pillar may indeed be 
 raised on Irish soil, all shining with the names of the great men who 
 svere "men of renown and fathers in their generation;" but we think 
 this beautiful book of O'Reilly and Father Brennan is itself a glorious 
 monument, standing not alone upon a few feet of Irish sod, but shed- 
 ding its light wherever there is an Irish heart to prize, or an Irish home 
 to enshrine, it. 
 
 The pagans of St. Patrick's day received the faith with love and 
 veneration, so that no martyr's blood was shed by barbarian hand, nor 
 martyr's heart broken by barbarian persecution, but in tne civilized 
 days of Queen Elizabeth and later of Cromwell, Irish blood was poured 
 out like rain upon the soil, and the names of Irish martyrs gathered 
 thick and fast upon the pages of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 
 Their names — at least a large number of them — are recorded in this 
 book, and their heroic lives are given us as examples worthy of 
 perpetual remembrance. 
 
 We wish we could give the record of Very Rev. Peter O'Higgins' 
 martyrdom during the reign of Charles I. How he was accused of 
 sedition, treason, etc., and yet was oflFered a pardon and large gifts if 
 he would but renounce his faith. How, with this document in his 
 hand, he stood on the first step of the gallows, and nobly proved that 
 it was only the Catholic religion that in him was condemned to death, 
 and then, freely rejecting the proposal, and throwing the paper to a 
 friend in the crowd, went to meet his doom. 
 
 The names upon the cover are Brady, Creagh, Lynch, Moriarty, 
 O'Brien, O'Hurley, O'Neil. O'Reilly, Plunket, Sheehy and Walsh, but 
 within the pages are a host of glorious names; which, dear to every 
 Catholic heart, ought to be doubly so to every Irish heart. 
 
 JAMES SHEEHY, PobltsHER. fBoston, 47 Hanover street. 
 
 Branch I Baltimore, 74 W. Fayette Street. 
 Sa Barelay Street, Ifew Tarh, Offices. 1 Washington, 613 Seventh St 
 
 (.PhUadelphia. 30 K. Filth Street' 
 
LIVES OF THE 
 
 IRISH MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS. 
 
 The new edition of the well known volume published several yearg 
 ago by Myle* O'Reilly, eniitled Lives of the Irish Martyrs and Confessors^ 
 has afforded me the greatest pleasure, particularly on account of the in- 
 teresting additions made to it by Rev. Mr. Richard Brennan, of New 
 York. I cannot but express my most sincere satisfaction with regard to 
 everything it contains. 
 
 Colonel O'Reilly has been one of the modern heroes of Ireland. As 
 Commandant of the Irish Papal Zouaves, he gave the noblest personal 
 proofs of his country's deepest feelings, by his bravery and religious 
 enthusiasm. The books which such men as he was write ought to be 
 in the hands of all their countrymen. The more so, that the subject of 
 his work is eminently both national and Christian. As all classes of Irish- 
 men — ^lay and clerical, noble and plebeian — had honored their country 
 in shedding their blood for its religion, nothing is so well calculated to 
 excite feelings of true patriotism In the heart of all, as the simple chron- 
 icles of THEIR LAST FIGHT AND TICTORT Df DEATH. The Style of these 
 
 narratives, besides, having all the simplicity and truthfulness of the prim- 
 itive Acts of Christian Martyrs, produces on the reader the deep and en- 
 trancing impression well known to those who have perused the death- 
 records of Polycarp of Smyrna, Ignatius of Antioch, and Perpetua of 
 Carthage. 
 
 I would, therefore, very much wonder if a nngle Irishman's house in thii 
 country should be henceforth deprived of Colonel O'Reilly's book. 
 
 But the new matter contributed by the Rev. Richard Brennan, of St. 
 Rose of Lima, New York, adds a great deal to the value of the work. 
 A number of very interesting lives wliich the first edition did not con- 
 tain would of itself induce even those who possessed it to buy this new 
 one. There is in particular the story of a little Irish Sister born in 
 Tipperary in 1835, and martyrized in China in 1870, whose life alone is 
 a precious gem which all Irish people's casket must henceforth contain. 
 
 But best of all, the History of the Penal Laws introduced into this 
 edition alone is worth the money. I personally know how difficult it 
 was fornierly for a student of modern Irish history to form a right con- 
 ception of that atrocious policy known under that name of the "Penal 
 Laws. " Doctor Madden' s work on the subject must be now acknowledged as 
 very imperfect. Bev. Mr. Brennan has rendered a great service to tJte cause 
 of historical truth by compiling from ParnelVs volumes a complete and im^ 
 partial account of these heartless enactments. I wish I had a copy of it a 
 few years ago; but better late than never. 
 
 The remarks I have so far thought just and proper to make would be 
 completely misunderstood if the inference was drawn from them that 
 this work is good reading only for Irish people. I had no idea what- 
 "^ver of the kind. Americans of all races and creeds — as the usual ex- 
 pression has it — or of no creed at all, cannot but profit by looking over 
 these pages, which will transport them into a world of which they caa 
 scarcely have an idea, but which, after all. is a ereat world, full of har- 
 mony and moral beauty, because it is blessed by the priceless virtues of 
 faith, hope, and charity. ^^^ j thSBAUD, S. J. 
 
 JAMES SHEEHY, Publishbr, „ ,. f S",',*.""'' *' ?,'S?\^'' ^*J.^°lv . 
 
 u i^iu.^<^ ,j^^^ , , Branch J Baltimoro, 74 W. Fayette Strnet, 
 
 3S Barclay Street, Sew Tork, Offices. 1 Washington, ei.l Seventh St. 
 
 ( Philadelphia, 30 N. Fitth Street. 
 
yRISH MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS. 
 
 The Catholic Church has ever met with persecution. Generally those 
 Who first preach the Gospel in a Pagan country lose their lives lor tlie 
 Faith. As the twelve Apostles suffered, so have their successors. The 
 liistoiy of Ireland is singular in this respect. St. Patrick was not com- 
 pelled to die for his belief ; and those who assisted and those who suc- 
 ceeded him were not obliged to give to Pagan tribunals the martyr's 
 proof of the Catholic Faith. "But,"as the author of this work remarks of 
 Ireland, " the litany of her saints was to be completed, and He who was 
 the "Master of her Apostles,' 'Teacher of her evangelists,' and 'Purity 
 of her virgins,' was also to be the ' Light of her confessors,' and • Strength 
 of her martyrs'; and the Church whose foundation had been laid in peace, 
 was to see her persecution-shaken walls cemented and re-built with the 
 blood of her martyrs." Ireland could not but have at some time what is 
 one of the marks of the true Church of God, the glory of martyrs. 
 
 There is, however, a peculiar element in the history of the Irish mar- 
 tyrs. The persecutions that have been the lot of the Irish Church have 
 come from aliens in country as well as in creed. We might be led at 
 first to suspect on this account in the narrative of the trials of Irish 
 Catholics a color prejudicial to tiufh. The historian has been careful 
 to avojd such a blemish. The history which Father Morris has given 
 us of the martyrs of England in the first years of the " Reformation," 
 would have been deprived of its best qualities if he had not presented 
 us the story in the quaint, simple, unimpassioned language of the orig- 
 inal narratives: WB CANNOT BEAD WITHOUT BEING AT ONCE CONVINCED 
 
 AND CHAKMED. Mr. O'Reilly has pursued a similar course; he has given 
 us as far as possible the very words of the early chroniclers. We cannot 
 but appreciate their moderation. 
 
 The Romans may read the "Acts of the Martyrs," and feel tender 
 sympathy for the tortured victims, but the blood of the persecutors and 
 persecuted now mingles in peace, and no one can tell whether his an- 
 cestor was among the executioners or among the martyrs. Such is not 
 the case in Ireland. Side by side, ever separate, the race of the Catholic 
 and the race of his enemy ever descend, and when we think of the trials 
 of our fathars we cannot but remember that the heirs of the blood and 
 the hate of their enemies are still with us, and we need the example of 
 martyrs to make us do witli our foes as our more afflicted ancestors did 
 with theirs — pray that God may forgive them. We are told frequently 
 of the wrongs of Ireland past and present, and exhorted to remember 
 them and avenge them. Redress is lawful, eevbngb is not. 
 
 Mr. O'Reilly has shown us a page that has been seldom turned. We 
 know the lives of the patriots — may their deeds be ever recorded — but 
 the life of the saint is still more wonhy of our study. We see in these 
 pages the unity of the Catholic faith ; we see that we are in harmony 
 with those whose faith received at its start the seal of blood. Ireland 
 ftf tsr the lapse of eleven centuries from the first reception of the Faith 
 shows in her children all the glorious attestations that accompanied the 
 establishment in first fervor of the Faith of Christ under the Pagan 
 Csesars. We see again the catacombs, the rack, the hunted priest ; cen- 
 turies roll back, and we realize that we are the co-heirs of Him who died 
 , on Calvary. — The Catholic Universe. 
 
 JAMES SHEEHY, Publisher, f Boston, 47 Hanover street. 
 
 oj. i> I t... .. »r -^ , Branch I Baltimore, 74 W.Fayette street. 
 
 S» Barclay Street, New York, oaces. 1 WashiORton, 6UI sspvenfh St 
 
 I FhiladelpMa, 30 H. Mitli attest, 
 
LIVES OF THE 
 
 IRISH MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS, 
 
 We have perused with great pleasure the interesting pages of this 
 volume. It is a needed and very valuable addition to Catholic litera- 
 ture, and whilst it will elevate the character of the popular autbor in 
 the estimation of the public, it will also reflect credit on the publisher 
 who presents it in so neat and attractive a form. The work riclily de- 
 serves a prominent place on the shelves of every Catholic library iu the 
 country. In vivid, glowing narrative it details the sufferings oi the 
 most prominent of Irish martyrs for the Faith from the reign of Eliza- 
 beth to that of George III., inclusive. The history of tbe times in 
 whict those heroic champions of the Cross sealed and verified tbeir 
 mission by death is deftly interwoven with the admirable portraiture of 
 life and character. We are justly proud of the valor of tbe Irish sol- 
 dier, tested on nearly all, the historic battle-fields of the world. We re- 
 joice at many of the noble traits of our national character — generosity, 
 love for fatherland, deep reverence and sympathy for aged and infirm 
 relatives aad friends — but our chief est glory lies in the heroic record of 
 the men who lived and died the devoted champions of Catholic ortho- 
 doxy. We are told by one of the most eloquent of ancient orators that 
 Greece took all-conquering Rome captive by introducing among her 
 people the fruits of a higher culture and a more advanced civilization. 
 From a religious standpoint we may well predicate the same of Ireland 
 with regard to England, her merciless persecutor in the past, even now 
 her ungenerous, plundering taskmaster. 
 
 The descendants of the worshippers of mammon, of the iron abettors 
 of cruelty and plunder, have read the history of our suffering and en- 
 durance, and pronounced the religion that inspired them of divine in- 
 stitution. We might apply the phraseology of the auctioneer to the 
 rapid defections from the ranks of Protestantism in England — going, 
 going, gone. No one can for a moment doubt that much of the mod- 
 ern triumph of Catholicity in England is due to reflection on the age of 
 persecution in Ireland, recorded, as it is, in the blood of heroic mar- 
 tyrs and confessors. When the people of England learn the lessons of 
 faith from the history of our trials and unwavering allegiance to purity 
 of faith and morals, surely Irish men and women and their children 
 should dwell with pride and pleasure on these memoirs, every pajre of 
 which is tinted with the deepest piety and the most heroic fortitude, 
 """le inhuman cruelty and absence of all justice so graphically and grandly 
 aescribed in "Fabiola," when Christianity had to bury itself in the 
 Catacombs to avoid the rage of the heathen, will be found repeated 
 with no less brilliancy and force in the "Lives of Irish Martyrs and 
 Confessors." 
 
 Besides the biographical sketches, accompanied by a lucid review of 
 the history of the times, the work contains a masterly synopsis of his- 
 torical events before and after Limerick's siege and broken treaty, as 
 well as an accurate account of the Penal Laws and their baleful conse- 
 quences. The whole is given in a free, flowing nariative style which 
 swells into bold and stirring eloquence when the writers become ani- 
 mated in describing the grievances of their countrymen. — Sf. Y. Tablet. 
 
 JAMES SHEEHi;, Publisher, „ v fl°fi°°' *^?,*w"'l.''^'rrc. . 
 
 ' ' Branch J Baltimoi^e, 74 W. Fayette street 
 
 SS Bardav Street, Xeu Torh, OfBcee. 1 Washington, 613 Seventh St. 
 
 I PhllBdelphU, 30 N. Filth Stre*^ 
 
LIVES OF THE 
 
 IRISH MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS. 
 
 (From McGkb's Illustrated Wbbklt.) 
 This book should be eagerly welcomed by the Catholic public. A! 
 though none of the early teachers who spread the Faith in Ireland suf- 
 fered martyrdom, yet since their time the roll of Irish martyrs has been 
 filled with names which "angels and men call holy.' The reign of 
 Elizabeth was exceedingly prolific in martyrs, and the story of their 
 gloriousi suffering and death caunot fail to move our hearts to deeper 
 love for our religion, and admiration for their courage and fortitude. 
 The additions made by the Rev. Father Brennan — particularly the His- 
 tory of the Penal Laws — make the work remarkably complete and val- 
 uable. Among the men commemorated are several who, though they 
 did not shed their blood for their faith, yet earned their right to the 
 title of confessor by reason of their life-long exile in foreign lands. 
 "Let us remember," says Father Brennan, in a beautiful little preface, 
 " that we are closely related to those elect of heaven, that they are bone 
 of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ; that we and they are members of 
 the one great Church of God, which reaches from the recesses of pur- 
 gatory tc ..he surface of the earth, and extends aloft to the highest vaults 
 of heaven." The publisher deserves great credit for the elaborate and 
 careful manner in which he has issued this most excellent work. 
 
 (From the Catholic Mirror.) 
 Mr. James Sheehy has gotten out a new edition of MyleB O'Reilly's 
 " Lives of the Irish Martyrs and Confessors," to "which Rev. Richard 
 Brennan has made additions, including a complete collection of the 
 Penal Laws. This book shows the sufferings for the Faith of the bish- 
 ops and priests and people of Ireland, and records the history of the 
 most infamous and bloody legislation that ever stained the statute-book 
 of any nation. It can be procured on weekly payments of 25 cents, 
 until the full price, $3 or $3.75, according to the style of binding, is 
 
 (From the Catholic Review.) 
 The valuable work of Major Myles O'Reilly on the Irish Martyrs haa 
 been reprinted by Mr. Sheehy, with additions on the Penal Laws collated 
 by Rev. Father Brennan. The book is a useful one, and ought to in- 
 crease the devotion of Irishmen and their children to the Faith for 
 which their ancestors suffered so heroically. 
 
 (From the New Tork Pkeeman's Jotjenai..) 
 " It is good, in an pge of softness and luxurv, for Catholics to reaa 
 and meditate how their predecessors made their way to heaven. It is 
 especially good for the children of Irish Catholic parents to study the 
 footsteps of their forefathers." 
 
 (From the Boston Pilot.) 
 "It is a martyrology of the Irish Church— a work of thrilling inter. 
 est, great edification — a work that will make one's heart grow more 
 and more attached to that ancient and glorious Island of Saints." 
 
 "We have read it throughout with thrilling interest."— /mA People, 
 
 JAMES SHEESY, Publisher, | Boston, 47 Hanover street. 
 
 ' ' Branch I Baltimore, 74 W. Fayette Street. 
 
 S3 Barclay Street, New Torfc. Offices. | Washington, 613 Seventh St. 
 
 I Philadelphia, 30 N. Fifth Street. 
 
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