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MEMOEIALS

OF THOSE WHO SUFFERED FOR THE CATHOLIC FAITH

IN IEE LAND

IN THE 16-TH, 17ra, AND 18TH CENTURIES.

MEMOEIALS

OF THOSE WHO SUFFERED FOE THE CATHOLIC FAITH

IRELAND

IN THE 16TH, 17TH, AND 18TH CENTURIES.

COLLECTED AND EDITED FROM THE ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES

BY

MYLES O'REILLY, B.A. LL.D.

LONDON:

BURNS, OATES, & CO.,

17 & 18 PORTMAN STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE,

AND 63 PATERNOSTER ROW.

1868.

LONDON

WYMAN AND SONS, PEINTEBS, GREAT QUEEN STEBET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C.

PKEFACE.

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 labours and successes of great men), to the Christian it was the very instrument of victory — the moment of triumph : to the former it was the termination of existence, to the latter it was the commencement of the real

* Tacit., Agric. 3

b

VI PREFACE.

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 martyr.

In no country was this practice of preserving the memorials of the saints more carefully observed than in Ireland. Our earliest and most authentic records since the days of S. Patrick are the lives of our saints ; and from Jocelyn to Colgan to record their deeds was a labour 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 tidings to many a distant land; the "number of her prophets who uttered praise" was not small ; but she num bered in her calendar 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 evan gelists," 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, culmi nated in the middle of the seventeenth in what was probably the most exterminating attack ever endured by a Christian Church. The fanatical followers of Mahomet, in the seventh century, propagated their faith by the sword ; but the hordes of Cromwell abandoned the attempt to make the Irish con verts, and turned all their energies to blotting out Catho-

PREFACE. Vll

licity 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. Whilst 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 conquest, of government, all added their elements of bitterness to intensify and prolong the strife.

England had conquered Ireland, but never absorbed its identity in her own, and, although she nominally ruled it, her rule up to 1600 was far from being consolidated. England became Protestant, whilst Ireland remained Catholic, and hence the persecution of Catholicity in Ireland was not only the persecution 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 infinitely 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 Catholics of the various races which had so long remained separated. Norman and Celt, Palesman and " mere Irish," forgot their differences in their common Catho licity ; the laws which had sought to exclude men of Irish descent from certain posts in the Church became obsolete when the honours of the Church were the passport to martyrdom ; and so also the dislike of the Irish outside the Pale to seeing

* English and Scotch Catholics, settled in the north of Ireland, were as ruthlessly expelled in 1650 as those of Irish descent. — See Curry's Memoirs, referred to in note on next page.

b 2

Vlii PREFACE

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 Archbishop of Dublin, a see which had been occupied uninterruptedly by Englishmen since the time of S. Laurence CTToole; the see of Tuarn was filled by Archbishops Bodkin and Skerritt ; and the sainted Oliver Plunket, the " Palesman," was welcomed enthu siastically by the Irish of Armagh. Out of the furnace of persecution there arose a new nationality for Ireland, composed of Irish Catholics ; whether of Irish, of English, or of Scotch descent,* it has continued to our day, and we may hope will endure to the end. And it is a nationality of which we may well be proud, and which may console us for the sad defi ciencies 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,t and for some four hundred years the English did not succeed in reducing the whole island under one rule; thus, since 1200, Ireland, as a whole, has never had a national government J or national life; and, since 1600, even the local Irish governments, or rules of the great chiefs, had disap-

* If my readers will glance down the list of names of those wnose memorials are here given, they will see mingled with such purely Celtic names as O'Neill, O'Conor, O'Heilly, O'Brien, those of Nurman and English race, as De Burgo, Nugent, Bathe, Barry ; as Archer, English, Hussell, Slingsby, Stapleton, Prendergast. Curry (" Civil Wars, " Appendix, p. 623) gives instances of Catholics of English and Scotch birth, resident in Ireland, slain for their religion.

•f" The political state of Ireland in 1172 was analogous to that of England under the Heptarchy, and of France before Charlemagne.

J Unless we except the brief rule of the Confederation of Kilkenny from 1641 to 1647, or from 1788 to 1800, when Ireland was ruled by an oligarchy, whilst the Catholics, the great majority of the people, were outside the pale of the constitution.

PREFACE. IX

peared. Thus we may say that since 1200 we have no great consecutive national political 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 history of our Church alike in tem pest and in calm — her struggles in the dark and stormy ages of persecution, and her renewed youth and vigour 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 ever felt the deepest interest in the gallant, but gradually less and less successful, struggles for independence of my own race, I have dwelt with still deeper interest on the religious history of the same race, a history 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 gratitude 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 for ward 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 our 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 collecting the bio graphies of those martyrs and confessors the tale of whose sufferings make 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 complete collection of this sort. Ireland is a country

X PREFACE.

where the habit of preserving local histories and biographies has flourished from before the Christian era, and from the days of S. 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 persecu tion annihilated the life of the Irish race that for nearly one hundred years hardly an effort was made to preserve a re cord of the sufferings of her sons. This is not the case with regard to the earlier and less sweeping persecutions 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 Martyrialis " of Dr. Rothe, published in 1619 ; Mooneyes 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 ;*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 deficiencies in the collection of the lives of our Irish martyrs, and although I have collected as far as I could all those recorded, they can be regarded only as speci mens, not as forming a complete enumeration, especially as regards the period from 1640 to 1680.

I have undertaken to collect the biographies of those who

* With the exception of the small tract, Morison's " Threnodia," published at Innsbruck in 1659.

PREFACE. XI

suffered 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 noinino 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 reli gion, 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, although 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 sur render 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. Al though, 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 supremacy, or having a second time defended the supremacy of the Roman See" (5 Eliz. cap. 1), or "obtaining any bull, or persuading any one to be reconciled to the Church of Rome" (13 Eliz. cap. 2, and 23 Eliz. cap. 1, and 3 Jac. cap. 4), or, "having been conse-

* So also Morisou : " Non recenseo hie ullum in bello occisuffi, quamvis fidei causa occideretur."

Xll PREFACE.

crated priest abroad, entering or remaining in the kingdom, or receiving, hiding, or assisting a priest" (27 Eliz. cap. 2). And if my readers will turn to the lives of Archbishop O^Hurley, Archbishop Creagh, or Archbishop Plunket, they will see how little their deaths were due to anything save their religion. 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 condemned, nay, had sanctioned the resistance of the Irish to the English invaders ; but from the time that their power be came firmly established and was the only existing government within the Pale, the ecclesiastics subject to their sway preached obedience to what was henceforth, in those districts, the only representative of authority. The case was very different in those parts of the country which preserved their independence for centuries later ; but, as I have before mentioned, there was not from the thirteenth century a national government exer cising, or even claiming, supreme authority over the whole kingdom. In the sixteenth century the suzerainty of the Eng lish king was pretty generally acknowledged ; even the great O'Neill, although preserving a virtual independence, did not claim a perfectly independent sovereignty ; and from the reign of Elizabeth the sovereign 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 themselves, but preached the duty of submission to others. Thus Dr. Rothe 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 Koman empire under Augustus) ; I know how they detest the tumults of war, and desire to devote themselves to the arts

PREFACE. Xlll

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 towards the Irish, both in respect to other matters 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 re belled against him, the Irish defended his cause with arms ; and the Catholic synod of Kilkenny 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 royal rights of our gracious King Charles,"" and ordered the following oath to be taken by all : — "I, A. B., do profess, swear, and protest, before God and His angels, that I will, 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 ; but it is essential to remember that the Confederation of Kilkenny 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 favour, even when Charles was wholly unable to afford that protection which is the correlative of obedience. The Irish of the middle of the seventeenth

XIV PREFACE.

century were, indeed, called rebels, and treated as such, but it was by those who were themselves really rebels against their legitimate sovereign, the republicans 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 subjects; 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 in 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.* " All priests are to take care not to mix themselves up, either publicly or privately, with affairs of state or of temporal government, nor to incur 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 inflexible in preserving their own and their peopled higher spiritual allegiance to their Divine Ruler and His vicegerent on earth, and to them we owe the preservation of our noblest and most enduring nationality, our Catholicity. Of them it may well be said, " They took care of their nation and delivered it from destruction." Rightly may we " praise these men of renown and our fathers in their generation," for they pre-

* Renehan's "Bishops," p. 118.

PREFACE. XV

served 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 pre served to Ireland, not only the faith, but also the spirit of fidelity and sacrifice of which they have left such glorious 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.1' Nay, even at a 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 their mothers ; " when it might truly be said " it was better with them that were slain by the sword than with them 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 torture to make the poor forswear their religion, who offered food and clothing as the price of apostacy, and tempted our

* " Manum suam misit hostis ad omnia desiderabilia ejus."

XVI PREFACE.

starving peasants to barter, like Esau, their birthright of faith for a mess of potage. And there were found hundreds, I might say thousands, — 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 do these things signify that they seek a country, and that they desire a better — that is to say, a heavenly country."

It cannot then be doubtful that the brief record 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 religious persecution is past : the descendants of the persecutors and the persecuted are now citizens of a common country, and can respect the noble deeds of all her former children. The valour and endurance of her martial sons are a subject of pride, whether displayed in the defence of Lon donderry 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 ; to none can it be ungrateful, save to those, if any such there be, who would

PREFACE. XV11

renew the persecutions which caused them. Of course these Memorials have a deeper interest for those who are of the household of the faith, — 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 old serpent ! O glorious confessors of our God and His Christ, to whom it was given not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for 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 beautiful are the feet of those who were witnesses to God even unto the ends of the earth ! And you, who, con temning the tempest and the swelling waves, ceased not in trepidly 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

XV111 PREFACE.

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 ! Hail ! holy priests, worthy of double honour ! Praise be to God who gave to you this victory, through Christ our Lord. Happy persecution which brought you such a reward ! Happy prisons through which you reached the heavenly palaces ! Happy death which gave you eternal life ! Holy fathers, glorious brothers, who now joyfully stand around the throne of the Lamb, look down from heaven and bring help to your brethren, your flocks, your country men. We are still in the strife, whilst you have attained the happy rest. Aid us by your prayers."*

* Arvisenet, Manual. Saeer.

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 ad vantage, not only of enabling the reader to judge for himself, but of presenting a more lively and truthful picture than any modern resume 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

O

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 lan guage, as we do ours.

XX INDEX OF PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO.

Annales Ordims Minorum. Auctore LucaWaddingo. Komse,l731. Wadding's well-known annals of his own order. This work is to be found in all our great libraries, as the British Museum, Trinity College, Maynooth College, &c.

Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, quibus accessifc syllabus eorum qui ex eodem ordine pro fide Christi fortiter occubuerunt. Eomse, 1806. This is the revised and continued edition, by Thisboralea, of the work by Wadding. It is in Trinity College, &c.

Acta Sanctorum. Colgan. Lovanii, 1645. The preface gives an account of the death of Fathers Fleming and Ward, two of the com pilers. It is in the British Museum, Trinity College, &c.

Hibernia Dominicana. De Burgo. Col Agrippinse, 1762. This well-known work is in all our public and many of our private libraries.

Monumenta Dominicana. Fonseca. Romse, 1665. This is not an uncommon work ; I have myself a copy.

Historian Catholiose Compendium. Auctore O'Sullevano Bearro. Ulissiponi, 1621. The original is in the British Museum, Trinity College, &c. The reprint of 1850 is to be had easily.

Eelatio Persecutions Hibernise. Auctore Dominico a Eosario (O'Daly). And Hist. Gerald. Ulissip., 1655. Is in the British Museum, Trinity Library, &c. A translation of it by Father Meehan was published by Duffy in 184.7.

Propugnaculum Catholicse Yeritatis, etc. Auctore E. P. F. Antonio Bruodino. Pragse, 1669. Is in Maynooth library.

De Eegno Hibernise, a Petro Lombardo. Lovanii, 1632. Is in the British Museum, &c.

Lyra sive Anacephalosis Hibern. Auctore T. Carve. Sulzbaci, 1666. Is in the British Museum, &c.

Eelatio Viridica Provincise Hibernise Ordinis Minornm. Auctore E. 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.

Analecta Sacra Nova et Mira de Eebus Catholicorum in Hibernia pro FideetEeligione gestis. Auctore N.Philadelpho (Dr. David Eothe, Bishop of Ossory). Colonise, 1617. And Processus Martyrialis, etc., by the same author. The first printed in 1617, the second in 1619. The first is a general account of the history of the time ; the second con tains a catalogue and lives of those who up to that date had suffered for the faith. The first exists in the Bollandists', Louvain, and

INDEX OF PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO. XXI

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 kind ness of the Bev. T. O'Hea.

Societas Jesu usque ad Sanguinem, etc. Tanner. Pragse, 1675. This volume of lives of the Jesuits of these countries who suffered for the faith is to be found in the British Museum and some of our other libraries.

Collections towards illustrating the Biography of Members of the Society of Jesus. Exeter, 1838. By Dr. Oliver. This work is to be found in most libraries.

Persecutio Hiberniae. By the Irish Seminary of Seville. Printed 1619. I am indebted for my knowledge of this work, which is in the library of S. Isidore's, Borne, to Dr. Moran.

Sanctorale Cisterciensum. Valladolid, 1613. For references to this, which is to be found in the private library of Propaganda, Rome, I am also indebted to Dr. Moran.

Historical Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland. Curry. Dublin, 1775. Is in all our libraries.

Noticias Historicas de las tres florentissimas Provincias del Celeste Orden de la Sma. Trinidad. A Fr. Domingo Lopez, &c. Madrid, 1714. This curious, but I fear apochryphal work, is to be found in the library of Maynooth College, and in the private library of Propaganda.

Theologia Tripartita. Ardsdekin. Antverpise, 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 Morte Eeverendi D. Francisci Kirwan, Alladensis Episcopi, Authore loanne Lyncheeo, Archidiacono Tuamensi. Maclovii, 1649. The copy in the Grenville Library, in the British Museum, is the only one known to exist. On the fly-leaf is written by R. Heber, to whom the book belonged, " I believe this to be the rarest volume in existence connected with the history of Ireland, and the portrait of Bishop Kirwan preBxed is totally unknown." The biographer, John Lynch, titular Archdeacon of Tuam, fled out of Ireland into France after the surrender of Galway to Cromwell, and is the author of the scarce and well-known work, " Cambrensis Eversus." A translation by Father Meehan was printed by Duffy in 1848.

c

XX11 INDEX OF PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO.

Epilogus Chronologiee exponens succincte conventus et fundationes Sacri Ordinis Predicatorum in Kegno Hibernise. Lovanii, 1706. Fr. loanne O'Heyn, O.P. It gives a very short account of each convent, and its most remarkable alumni. The book is scarce ; the only copy I know of in Ireland is in the library of the Dominican convent, Galway.

Threnodia Hiberno-Catholica, sive Planctus Universalis totius Cleri et PopuliBegni Hibernise, 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. Renehan's Collections on Church History, edited by Rev. D. M'Carthy. Dublin, 1861.

Dr. Moran's Lives of Archbishops of Dublin, Life of Dr. Plunket, History of Persecutions, &c.

Father Meehan's valuable translation of O'Sullivan Lynch and others, and his last work, Flight of the Earls.

Father Cogan's Diocese of Meath.

The various calendars of State Papers published by the Eecord Office.

gts in % gmpnMan Ptojs,

No. 2307. A Catalogue of tlie Martyrs, &c., of the Society of Jesus, quoted as " Catalog. Soc. Jesu." It is a catalogue of all those of the society who had recently (about 1700) suffered for the faith.

No. 2159. Magna Supplicia a Persecutoribus aliquot Catholicorum in Ibernia sumpta. Written about 1600. A very curious collection of contempory anecdotes.

No. 2167. Compendium Martyrii Reverendi Cornelii O'Dovanii. An account of the martyrdom of Bishop Dovany in 1612, written by a contemporary. Bound up with the same is a curious letter, dated 15th April, 1612, from the Kev. Father Fleming, of the order of S. 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 Hiberniae Ordinis Sancti Francisci Tractatus a Eev. Donato Money. Anno 1627. This account of the Franciscan province of Ireland has been frequently referred to, and a good part of it published in Duffy's Magazine by Father Meehan.

No. 3824. Lettres des Jesuites Anglais, or Correspondance des Peres Jesuites Irlandais. This is the collection of letters from Irish Jesuits and others, giving the life of Henry Slingsby, which my readers will find under the year 1641 .

mttr

IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.

ANNO 1530.

IT had frequently been remarked as extraordinary that the early annals of the Irish Church did not record a single martyr : such was the gentleness and docility of the pagans of Ireland of the time of S. Patrick that their conversion was effected without provoking any violence, or the death of a single missionary. But the history of the Irish Church was not to be as 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.

According^, the death of Archbishop Allen in 1534 having caused a vacancy in the see of Dublin, Henry appointed, in March, ] 535, Doctor George Browne, an English Augustinian friar, to the vacant bishopric ; and, without any confirmation from Rome, he was consecrated by Cranmer, and received from him, in compliance with the schismatical 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

B

I* r

2 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

of Meath* in 1530 by Pope Clement VII., at the request of Henry VIII. By their advice a Parliament was convened in ]536, 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," whilst it prescribed 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 per chance be promoted to any benefice, there was an oath im posed, " that he would endeavour to learn and teach the English tongue to all and every being under 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 cease to be Irish.f But it was one thing to have laws passed by a timorous Parlia ment, it was another to enforce their observance. In a large part of Ireland, inhabited by the original Irish, the authority of Parliament was little respected, and even in the pale the clergy and people appear to have very little regarded the Parliamentary decrees which transferred the supremacy

* Staples really was Bishop of Meath, having been duly appointed and consecrated, although he afterwards apostatized ; but Browne never was Archbishop of Dublin, never having been lawfully elected or consecrated. He was, as he himself said, " made (archbishop) ~by the King" See his letter quoted in Dr. Moran's " Archbishops of Dublin," p. 4. t See Dr. Moran, chap. I.

IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 3

from the Pope to the King. Except Browne and Staples, no bishops appear to have leaned towards the new opinions, as they were called ; and in 1538 we find Browne writing to Cromwell that not even in the diocese of Dublin " can I persuade or induce 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." * But the most urgent desire 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 grant 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 monasteries to the Crown, severer measures were resorted to; and oneinstance is especially recorded of Manus O'Fihily, the last Abbot of S. Mary's, Thurles, who, on a refusal to comply with the wishes of the Crown, was carried a prisoner to Dublin, and subjected to a long and painful imprisonment.t

I cannot better describe the persecution of the Catholics than in the words of the Four Masters (ad an. 1537) : — "A heresy and a new error broke out in England, the effects of pride, vain-glory, avarice, sensual desire, and the prevalence of a variety of scientific and philosophical speculations, so that the people of England went into opposition 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 per-

* "Diocese of Meath," p. 90.

f Grose's " Irish Antiquities," ii. 85, quoted by Dr. Moran.

B 2

4 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

mitted to hold worldly possessions — viz., monks, canons regular, nuns, and Brethren of the Cross ; and also the four mendicant orders — the Franciscans, the Preachers, the Car melites, and the Augustinians. 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 monastery 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 burned, 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 S. Patrick down to that time, and which was in the hands of Christ whilst He was among men. They also made archbishops and bishops for themselves, and, although great was the persecution of the Roman emperors against the Church, it is not probable that so great a persecution as this ever came upon the world ; so it is impossible to tell or narrate its description, unless it should be told by him who saw it." Under the year 1540 we shall meet with a particular instance, recorded by the same annalist, of the martyrdom of some of their own order.

ANNO 1539.

THE Spanish writer Lopez gives under this year and 1545 the martyrdom of a large number of Trinitarian fathers, but as there is great doubt as to the accuracy of those accounts in Lopez, I shall not here insert them.

ANNO 1540.— FRANCISCAN FATHERS OF THE MONASTERY OF MONAGHAN.

"THE English, in every place throughout Ireland where they established their power, persecuted and banished the

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

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 1560.— WILLIAM WALSH, BISHOP or MEATH, CONFESSOR.

DURING the reign of Henry VIII. Meath had been dis* graced by an apostate bishop. Dr. Edward Staples, an Englishman, had been appointed in 1530, at the request of Henry VIII,, Bishop of Meath. As to the early years of his episcopate little is known. In 3534 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 re turned to the diocese of Meath, deeply infected with the principles of the Reformation, and from that time he was a willing assistant of Dr. Browne, the intruder into the see of Dublin, in the work of despoiling the monasteries and endea vouring to force the new heresy on the Irish -people.

Mary ascended the throne in 1553, and in April, 1554, Dr. Dowdall, Archbishop of Armagh, lately returned from banish ment, and Dr. WTilliam Walsh, received a commission to pro ceed 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 benefice, and suspended from all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and this Dr. William Walsh was afterwards duly appointed Bishop of Meath.

Sir James Wrare says that he was a native of Waterford, but another authority, who certainly had better opportunities of information, namely, John alias Malachy Hortrey, a Cistercian monk of the Abbey of Holy Cross, in a manu script treatise entitled De Cistertiensium Hibernorum 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

6 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 inno vations of Henry VIII. 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 conge d'elire 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 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 his consecration. He therefore prays a grant of the temporalities of the see from the date of the deprivation of the late incumbent, which was the feast of SS. Peter and Paul last past/'

On the receipt of this petition the King and Queen wrote to the Lord Deputy, the Chancellor, and the Council of Ire land, 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 utterlemagne 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. 18th, 1st and 2nd Mary and Philip.

Dr. Walsh was consecrated about the close of 1554, and

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 7

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 amongst 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 deputy ship of the Earl of Suffolk, which ordered all ecclesiastical persons, judges, officers, justices, mayors, and all other the Queen's officers, to take the oath of supremacy under penalty of for feiture, and also enacted that if any person should, by writ ing, 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 prsemunire, and for the third be deemed guilty of high treason. (2nd Eliz. cap. i.)

It was now the fidelity of Dr. Walsh was tested to the utmost. Had he, like a few of his contemporaries, sacrificed conscience to expediency, worldly comfort and ephemeral honour were soon to have been his portion. But he felt he had a higher authority to obey than Queen Elizabeth, and hence he repudiated her pretensions to rule the Church, and guarded his flock, even at the peril of his life, against her par liamentary creed. Ware thus narrates the event : —

" After the return of the Earl of Sussex to Ireland, letters came from her Majesty signifying her pleasure for a general meeting of the clergy of Ireland, and the establishment of the Protestant 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

8 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

newly come over and ordered to be observed, for which the Lord Lieutenant 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 16th July, 1565, Adam Loftus, Protestant Arch bishop 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 majesties 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 con- ferringe with the lerned bishoppes there, he might be brought to sum conformitie ; he is one of great creadit amongst his countrimen, and uppon whome (as tutchinge cawsis of re ligion) thay wholy depend."f

As no pretext could be devised for leading him to the scaffold, he once more received the culprit's chains (he bore

* " Ware's Annals," 1560. I need hardly say it was only the tempo- ralities 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 imprisoned a first time in 1560, and more definitely consigned to prison in 1565. — See Henriquez and his .Epitaph ap. Moran and Cogan.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 9

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 thir teen 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 overwhelmed with heavenly consola tions, so that his dungeon seemed transformed into a paradise of delights. To preclude the possibility of idleness, he pro cured 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 fervour in spiritual contemplation a continual reproacli 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 labours, and to leave his flock defenceless amidst the many enemies that now compassed its destruction. He says himself (letter of 5th July, 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 danger 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 ship wreck on the coast of France. Weighed down with the in firmities which he had contracted in prison, and with the burthen 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

10 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

in Alcala.* A noble Spanish lady received him into her house, and attended 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 pre pared for him, he passed to the convent of the Cistercian fathers in the same city, and there, on the 4th of January, 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 Bishop of Meath, who, after thirteen years' imprisonment, and many labours 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. J

ANNO 1565.— CONOR MCCARTHY, ROGER MAC- CONGAIL, AND FERGAL WARD, FRANCISCAN FRIARS.§

THE occurrence in which these confessors suffered is un doubted, but there is a slight confusion as to the name of the second. " In this year the heretical soldiers attacked the

* Alcala, called by the Eomans Complutum. It was here Cardinal Ximenes had the Complutensian Polyglot, as it was called, printed.

f " Con grandissima ragione fu questo stimato martire e ricevuto per santo come quello clie in tutto il decorso di sua vita mai con pec- cato grave aveva macchiata 1'innocenza battessimale." — Martyrolog. Cisterc. MS. ap. Moran.

J 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 of Dublin," and Eev. A. Cogan, diocese of Meath, where the reader will find the original authorities referred to.

§ The only notices I have found of these confessors is in Luke Wad-

IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 11

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 supre macy. 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 inno cent Catholics having been flogged to death in 1798 : amongst others, two who died under the stripes in the barrack of Dundalk.

ANNO 1568.— REV. DAVID WOLF, S.J.

THE life of this remarkable confessor has been so well and ably written by Dr. Morari that, with the kind permission of the author, we give it in his words. Father Wolf is enu merated in the catalogue of martyrs and confessors given by Dr. Routh in his " Analecta."

One of the most remarkable men who, during the first years of Elizabeth's reign, laboured in our Irish Church to gather together the scattered stones of the sanctuary was Father David Wolf, a member of the Order of S. Ignatius. A native of Limerick, he spent seven years in Rome, im bibing the full spirit of his order, under the immediate guidance of its holy founder and S. Francis Borgia ; and in August, 1560, he was sent by the Holy See, with all the privileges of apostolic commissary, to confirm his country men in the faith, amidst the impending persecutions of

ding's "ScriptoresOrdinis Minorum," and his "Annales Ordinis Min.," ii. 1291. In the first passage their names 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 Vardceus and Henricus Femlamaidh are com memorated. Probably there were four who suffered. Apparently Wadding has confounded Fergial Ward, who was hanged in 1577, with the others, who were thus scourged in 1565. See later, at the year 1577.

12 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 diocese; 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 Ulster. The English agents were filled with alarm at the presence in the country of one who, by public acclamation, received the title of papal nuncio ; and when, in 1561, Pope Pius IV. invited Queen Elizabeth to send her representatives 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 ex cite there disaffection against her crown. }> So watchful were the agents of the English government in pursuit of the Jesuit father that he was for several years unable to enter within the limits of the pale ; and we find him, when delegating his jurisdiction for Dublin and its vicinity to Father Newman, in 1563, affirming that so many were the dangers which beset his journey thither that he feared to visit that district.

Amongst the papers of the secret archives of the Vatican there is one which was presented in 1560 to the Cardinal Protector of Ireland, and which sketches the course to be pursued by the agents of the Holy See whilst performing 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 S. Ignatius. " His first care shall be to visit the Catholic leaders, and especially 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 atten-

IN THE RETGN OF ELIZABETH. 13

live 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 adminis tering the sacraments, and to afford them every aid, espe cially in administering the holy sacraments of confession and communion, in preaching the word of truth, and in exhort ing their Catholic 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 establish grammar-schools, supplying them with Catholic masters, 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 monasteries were to be established, and exact discipline maintained ; hospitals, too, were to be founded, and other places of refuge and succour for the poor.

For these things, and for whatsoever else might be done, no reward or recompense, even in the name of alms, was 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 made acquainted 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 succours 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 exactly pursued by Father Wolf, and before the close of this chapter we shall have occasion to cite some of his letters, which, whilst they disclose precious details regarding the condition of our island, clearly demonstrate how indefatigable he was

14 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

in his labours, and how unceasingly he struggled to restore our suffering Church to its primitive comeliness and fervour.

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 accessible to the English arms, no mere Irishman or Catholic could, with out risking liberty or life, seek to instruct his fellow-country men in the rudiments of literature and religion. To meet this want, a " brief " was addressed by the Holy Father on the 31st of May, 1564, to the newly-consecrated Primate, Dr. Richard Creagh, and to Father David Wolf, empowering them to erect schools wheresoever they should deem fit throughout the kingdom of Ireland, and communicating to such schools all the privileges of an university ; whilst, 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. Neither Dr. Creagh, however, nor Father Wolf was allowed sufficient time to carry into effect the wise designs of Rome. The history of Dr. Creagh' s im prisonment is well known. Father Wolf shared his suffer ings, being loaded with chains, and thrown into the dungeons of Dublin Castle. 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 pro cure, through the mediation of the Spanish monarch, the liberation of these two ecclesiastics, whose labours 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 pontiff 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 English in the city of Dublin, both of them being treated with the greatest severity. Their sufferings overwhelm us with afflic tion on account of their singular merits, and of their zeal for the

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 15

Catholic faith. And as it is our desire and our duty to suc cour them as far as is in our power, we know of no other means for doing so than that our dearest son, his Catholic Majesty, should employ his authority with the English Queen in their behalf. You, therefore, will use every endeavour 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 favour 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 closest custody till 1572, when he happily made his escape 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 6th February, 1573, characteristically remarks, <e James Fitz maurice 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 labours, and in 1575 we find him engaged once more in visiting and con soling the Catholics of Ireland. We shall conclude our notice of this indefatigable and holy man with the words of the author of "Cambrensis E versus:" — " I saw a dispensation granted by David Wolf, of Limerick, to Richard Lynch, a citizen of Galway, grandfather to Nicholas 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, Apostolic Nuncio."* Orlandini speaks of him in his " History of the Society of Jesus ": — " I have learned that he was a man of extraordinary piety, who fearlessly denounced crime whenever it was committed.

* Nuncio. Perhaps when returning a second time to Ireland lie re ceived the title of nuncio ; it is probable, however, that he was only commissary. He was commonly styled nuncio, even on his first arrival, though he was certainly at that time only commissary apo stolic.

1C MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

When the whole country was embroiled in war, he took refuge in the castle of Chunoan,* 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 Hibernus, occurs for the last time in a list transmitted by the Spanish nuncio to Rome, on 3rd of June, 1578 ; and from this list we learn that he was then living in Lisbon, supported by the generous contributions of the Holy See.

ANNO 1569.— DANIEL O'DUILLIAN, FRANCISCAN.

THIS martyr's sufferings and triumph are related by Father Mooney, in his " Provincial Hibernise Descriptio," in the following words:— -

" In the year 1569 (if I be rightly informed as to the datet) & 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

* Now Cluain Dubhain or Clonoan, an old castle close to the boun dary of the county Galway, and not far from Rockvale, in the parish of Kilkeedy, barony of Inchiquin, county Clare.

f In this and many other instances there was a difficulty in ascer taining the exact date, the witnesses who narrated the events a few years afterwards recollecting the circumstances well enough, but in the absence of all almanacks 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 and the execution of Archbishop O'Hurley the year is differently stated by different writers.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 17

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, whilst he lived he never uttered an impatient word, but, like a good Christian, incessantly re peated 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 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 22nd of April in the year aforesaid." — Mooney, p. 53.

As this is the first recorded martyr of the host that the Order of S. 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, whilst all the others either took to flight, or at least quitted their monasteries, and, for safety sake, lived privately and singly amongst their friends, and receiving no novices, the Order of S. 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 held

c

18 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

their regular provincial chapters,* and observed the rule as it is kept in provinces that are in peace/' — Mooney, p. 2.

ANNO 1570.— DERMOD MULRONEY AND TWO OTHER

FRANCISCANS.f

UNDER the heading of " Convent of Gallvaise, Aharlagh," J 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, whilst Henry Sydney, who was then Viceroy, was making excursions in those parts, three brothers suffered martyrdom in that convent : 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 persecu tion, 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 tower ; 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 repeated the psalm, ' Have mercy on me, O Lord.' The soldiers,

* These chapters were generally held in woods, as Mooney relates at the respective years.

t From Mooney MS., p. 54, andRothe's " Analecta Mira et Nova," 2nd part. See also Wadding's " Scriptores " and " Annales."

J Kothe calls it " Monastery of Gallbally, in the mountains of Ahar- lagh, near Tipperary." The town of Gallbally is in the county Tippe- rary, in the glen of Aharlow, at the foot of the Galty mountains.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 19

nothing softened, loaded him with blows and wounds, and at length struck off his head. Then a marvel was seen ; 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.

ANNO 1576.— THADD^EUS DALY, FRANCISCAN.* THE following is the account of his martyrdom given by Father Mooney t under the head "Convent of Roscrea" : — " 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 professed 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 whilst he sought to escape beyond the seas ; and, con stant in the confession of the faith, he rejected the offer of life and rewards 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,J I \;ould 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 aban doned his rule, and, having received some gifts, he deserted his order and obtained his temporal liberty, and, returning to his own part of the country, which was not far distant from that convent, he then led a secular life until 1611. At that

* From Mooney, p. 55, and Wadding's " Scriptores " and " Annales," vol. xxi. p. 64.

t Kothe's " Analecta " mentions Father Daly under the year 1579, and says he came from the convent of Asketin ; but Mooney is clearly the better authority.

£ The " Annals " say on the 1st of January, about the year 1570.

c 2

20 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 Viretiu, that as far as in 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." — Mooney, p. 55.

ANNO 1577. FATHER FERGAL WARD, FRANCISCAN.*

DR. MORAN thus relates his martyrdom : — "Whilst 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 moun tainous 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 soldiery, and, being scourged with great barbarity, was hanged from the branches of a tree with the cincture of his own religious habit."

* From Dr. Moran's " History of the Archbishops of Dublin," in troduction, p. 141, where lie quotes " Synop. Prov. Franciscan, in Hib.," p. 66. The same account is given by Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20, where he refers to John Good's work.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 21

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, whilst others lay the scene in the convent of Moyne, in the county of Mayo. Clearly the English soldiers who assisted at the massacre and narrated 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 soldiers f seized a certain priest of our order and some other 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 hang 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 confes sion was 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 offered him life and freedom if he would reveal, and threatened tor ture if he refused. He answered he could not, and they immediately knotted a cord J round his forehead, and, thrust ing a piece of wood through it, slowly twisted it so tightly

* From Dr. Moran, who quotes " Syuop. Prov. Franciscan, in Hib." and Mooney, p. 35. The name we learn from the former, and also the date.

t They were the soldiers of Filton, then President of Connauglit.

J Others say the cord of his habit.

22 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

that at length, after enduring this torment for a long time, his skull was broken in, and, the brain being crushed, he died.* I have seen and examined ocular witnesses of this fact, who were serving in that body of English troops, and sought absolution from me; but they did not remember the name of the brother or the exact year ; but it was about l'6T7.»—Mooney} p. 35.

EIGHT REV. THOMAS LEVEROUS, OR LEARY,

BlSHOP OF KlLDARE.

I GIVE his life, translated from the work of Dr. Rothe, Bishop of Ossory.

The memory of those deserves to be preserved who have left to posterity an example of fidelity to God and man worthy both of honour and of imitation. Such was the Right Rev. Thomas Leverous,t who was born in a village of the county Kildare, of a family bound by old ties of client- ship to the illustrious family of Kildare in the same county.

In the reign of Henry VIII., when schism was already impending over England, Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare and Viceroy of Ireland, was summoned to England at the instigation of his enemies and by the advice of Cardinal Wolsey, who was then all-powerful and not at all favourable to the Geraldines. The earl was accused of being unfaithful to the King, and of having in his office of Viceroy 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 received 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

* On the 9th of June.

f Leurusius is the name as given in Latin, which is translated Le- veroug

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 23

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 favoured by Leonard, Lord Gray, he afterwards paid the penalty of this connivance with his head. But how could so 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? Nor could any common man give a shelter to a youth of so noble a race without it being remarked. But the affectionate 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 write.

He was as a father to the youth whilst he grew up, and by constant flight eluded the snares of his enemies; and a guide and councillor when he grew up and travelled in foreign lands. When he was named to the bishopric of Kildare he lost nothing of his humility, gentleness of mind, piety, and Christian charity ; yea, rather, his lowliness of spirit and contempt of worldly honours 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 esta blished in the bishopric of Kildare.f

That diocese is ample and honourable, the land thereof is rich, the inhabitants numerous, and embrace many noble families ; but of these by far the most numerous and most honourable is that of the Geraldines. His bishopric Thomas enjoyed during the reign of Queen Mary, but at her death,

* 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, the elder, aged about thirteen, found an asylum in Thomond. See Haverty's " Ireland," p. 361.

t " He succeeded by provision of Queen Mary, 1st March, 1554, but was not confirmed by the Pope's bull till the 3rd August, 1555."'— Wares "Antiquities : " Bishops of Kildare.

~< MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

when her sister Elizabeth succeeded to the crown by the will of her father, she gave instructions to the Viceroy, 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 con science, the earl asked him for what reason he denied that the Queen was the head of the Church, since so many illus trious 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 common man might understand, namely, that all true ecclesiastical jurisdiction must come from Christ our Lord; and, since He had not given even the smallest share of ecclesiastical power to His Mother, so glorious and so dear, so adorned with virtues and honours, how much less could such supreme jurisdiction be given to any one of the same sex ! S. Paul would not allow any woman even to speak in church : how much more are all excluded from judging, ruling, and pre siding ! S. John Chrysostom well expressed the mind of our Lord (lib. ii., " De Sacerdotis") 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.5'' 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 authority, 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 honour 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 dishonour to His Mother not to participate in the jurisdiction which her Son conferred.

IN THE REIGN Ol1 ELIZABETH. ^

Hence it followed that Elizabeth could not lawfully take, nor her father Henry give, nor any Parliament bestow on women that authority which Christ gave, and which was, 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 heaven is shut and opened.

The answer of the bishop pleased not the Viceroy, who drove him from his bishopric as unworthy of the honour who thus dishonoured his Queen ; yet he, with a sincere mind, sought not to deprive her of any just honour, but only re fused her an unlawful title and a vain figment of honour devised by flatterers, and which became not her head, adorned with an earthly crown.

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 burthens, 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 appearance, unfitted for any business save the cure of souls and the upholding of ecclesiastical discipline, compelled to turn his aged limbs to tasks fitted only for the youthful, — the labours 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 living in exile. But he could console himself with the wise words of the great S. Leo (Serm. 9, 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 bear-

26 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

ing the cross; and there is often more danger from a con cealed 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 mother of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond, a wise and prudent 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 com pensated the generosity of his host, and his piety, modesty, sobriety of life, and fervour in promoting the divine honour made him acceptable to the neighbouring nobles and the inhabitants amongst whom he sedulously laboured 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 laboured like a simple priest in administering the sacraments, and found such labours 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 venerable bishop in these labours 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 afterwards 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 distin guished! how well cultivated the field, in which the labourers

IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 27

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 enter that school to hear you, Leverous and Creagh, teaching even the rudi ments of philology to the tender minds of youth, as a pre paration for the higher mysteries of the faith, and forming their souls at once in learning and virtue ! I may well address you in the words which S. Augustine uses of SS. 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 Lord 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 labourers, who gathered an abundant harvest into the granary of the Lord : the one laboured in the north, the other in the south. Were there no other monument of their piety, their labours in teaching youth were deserving of com memoration. 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, whilst when age has hardened them they are more difficult to change." What I before said of his colleague * is yet more applicable to Leverous, who the more deserves our admira tion in that he was a bishop when he thus devoted himself to the labour of teaching youth. Thus did he ever strive to

* " His colleague," Dr. Creagh, whose life comes before that of Dr. Leverous in Eothe.

J8 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

preserve the faith in his country and hand it over to pos terity, and after having thus laboured to the end; he went to receive at the hand of his Lord and God the crown he had earned by his labours. He died at the age of 80, and was buried in the town of Haas,* which, after the cathedral city, is the principal town in the diocese of Kildarc. The towns people unanimously assert that he has been honoured by miracles, lie died about the year 1577. — Eothe, " DC. Processu Martyriali."

REV. THOMAS COURCY.

" HE was from Munster, a most zealous priest, and Vicar- 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 Perrot, then President of Minister, by whose order he was hung. And thus he obtained of Christ the victory, on the 30th March, 1577." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.

ANNO 1578.

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 copy his excellent account of this holy martyr.

Dr. Patrick O'Hely, the last Bishop of Mayo,:j; was a native of Connaught, and from his youth was adorned with every virtue. Having embraced the religious order of S. Francis, he proceeded to Spain, and pursued his sacred studies with great applause in the university of Alcala. In obedience to the minister-general of his order, he repaired to

* In the parish church of S. David. — Wares " Antiquities.'" t From Dr. Moran, p. 139. The original authorities arc O'Sullivan, p. 00 ; Eothe's " Analecta," p. 63 ; Dom, a Eosario, p. 140; Mooncyj pp. 9 and 54; Theatre of Prot., p. 50; Eruodin, p. 437 ; Arthur a Monasterio in Martyrolog. Francis. Sec also Eenehan, Collec., p. 389. J Mooney, p. 9

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 29

Rome in 1575, and, having resided for some time in the convent of Ara Coeli 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 Cor nelius O'Rorke, a Franciscan priest, who, though the eldest son of the Prince of Breffnj^ had abandoned all the pleasures of the world to embrace a life of prayer and poverty. 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 sta tioned along the southern coast of Ireland soon recognized the venerable strangers. They were, therefore, almost im mediately 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 August, 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 instruct 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 authority 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 sacred truth." Father O'Rorke replied in the same strain. Threats and promises were unavailing to change their resolution ; and they both joy fully received sentence to be first put to the torture, and then to be hanged in the presence 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, f and sharp iron

* Ex Act, Consist, i Domin. a Rosario,

30 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 neighbouring 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 mar tyr-prelate was being hurried to execution, he turned 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.* The 22nd of August, 1578, was the day rendered illustrious by their martyrdom. By the care of the Earl of Desmond, their bodies were reverently laid in the Franciscan convent at Clonmel, whence, seventy years afterwards (in 1647), they were translated with solemnity, and deposited, together with the implements of their torture, in the convent of Askeaton.

RIGHT KEY. MAURICE GIBBON OR FITZGIBBON, ARCHBISHOP OF

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. Rothe amongst 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.

* Besides the authorities quoted by Dr. Moran, this fact is men tioned in the ancient MS. in the Burgundian Library, which is en titled " Magna Supplicia," &c. MS. No. 2159.

t From Bothe's " Analecta Nova et Mira," 2nd part.

IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 31

EIGHT REV. EDMUND TANNER, BISHOP OF CORK.

" HE was a native of Cork, and for many years a member 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,* 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 imprison ment 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 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

* Dr. Tanner was appointed bishop on the nones of November, 1574, He was a native 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 llth October, 1580. — Moran, ex ArcMv. Vatican, in Alps. Dublin, vol. i. p. 187. Mooney, p. 2.

32 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

others.*" Wherefore he received the benediction, and re mained. 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."

Wadding 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^

THESE fathers were members of the Franciscan convent of Down. A military commissioner, named Britton, and his ravaging band, resolved to fix their winter quarters in that ancient town. Their thirst for religious spoils soon impelled them to the convent. But the sacred vessels had been con cealed, 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 over shadowed the sanctuary.

* Because the others were priests.

t From Bruodin, " Passio Martyr.," p. 440 ; and L. Wadding, " Scriptores " and " Annales," vol. xx. p. 258, and who puts their mar tyrdom about 1570 ; but Bruodin gives the exact date.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 33

ANNO 1579.— EIGHT REV. THOMAS O'HERLAGHY, BISHOP OF Ross.

I GIVE his life in full from Dr. Rotlie : —

<( After collecting as best I could any information in my power about Archbishop OJ Hurley, it now remains for me to relate what befell a suffragan of his see, Thomas O'Herlaghy. 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 Carabry, 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 an humble family yi 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, which 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 chaplain, intent on prayer and meditation; yet he was not long safe from the pursuer. They were both taken prisoners 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 misfor tunes, hated by the strangers, and detested by the natives and his former friends. He took his captives to Sir John Perrott, 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 fetters on his legs, and

* Filio majore majoris O'Sullivan.

D

34 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

after he had suffered much torment and misery in Ireland he was sent to England.

" The night previous to his being taken before the President he took care to have his episcopal tonsure shaved, in token of Catholic union and the faith which he professed, 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 gaolers. When taken to England, he was thrown into the Tower of London, where he was kept for three years and about seven months with the Primate, Arch bishop 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.

' c Freedom and honours were offered to him if he would yield to the Queen's will ; but he would not. Many persons were sent to persuade him, by threats and fair words, to apostatize, but he adhered firmly to the rock on which he had taken his stand. They brought him in writing a 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 orthodox 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 orthodox bishops had entrusted to him for safe keeping, and threatened that his right hand should be cut off, boldly answered, ' 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 Cormac Dermicia,* of the house of Carter, lord of Muskerry, in

"" So written in the original : it is probably a translation of Dermody, as Dermiciada, later, is a classic form of the same patronymic.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 35

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, removing 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 until after noon 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 labours ; for he was ever engaged either in the administration of the sacraments or of his episcopal jurisdiction and preaching, or in private prayer and chastis ing his flesh. He heard the confession of the people, and even of the poorest, in wretched hovels often covered with mud ; he often administered confirmation to the crowds who pressed to receive it until he was exhausted ; he con ferred holy orders on those who were chosen ; he blessed the sacred vessels and the holy oils, and laboured in every way possible for a prudent and zealous 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-

D 2

36 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

factors, for he never received one farthing of the revenues of his see, which an intruder held. He avoided all familiarity with women, nor would he ever speak with them save before witnesses. He was a lover of solitude and silence, and even when sitting at the table of seculars he frequently led the conversation to spiritual subjects, taking occasion from passing events to rise to spiritual thoughts, and to 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 Ireland, 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 little 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 nappery, 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 water from the spring, or a little weak beer, or whey ; hunger was his only sauce, labour 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

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 37

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 jurisdiction ; there he meditated day and night on the law of the Lord. Thus, whilst the usurper, who had been placed by the favour of Elizabeth in the see of Ross, occupied his cathedral, the legitimate pastor was not only driven from his country, but was made captive, and fettered and sent out of the kingdom by Perrott, the President, and returned at length with difficulty to the 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 neighbour ing church, 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 freezes. In the midst of his labours 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 repeating the Psalter.

" Such was his conversation, pious and edifying, whether at home or abroad ; and, whether at home or abroad, he was

38 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

ever employed in his Lord's service, for the venerable bishop laboured much to bring back many who had wandered from the faith, to confirm those who were wavering, to inflame the tepid and strengthen the weak ; and it was 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, tmd 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 labours 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," fyc., T. N. Philadelpho, 1619.

ANNO 1580. — This year was peculiarly fruitful in martyrs.

EIGHT KEY. 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 whilst Henry VIII. was yet a Catholic. 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 favour, 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 Cork, where he nearly perished from the filth of the dungeon. He was freed by the

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 39

dexterity of his friends, and returned to Limerick to collect his flock, which he found scattered by the Anglican wolf. But the persecution 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 supremacy, where, worn out with suffering, the noble-hearted bishop died, the 26th March, anno 157l."*—Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx.

REV. LAURENCE MOORE, PRIEST.

" FATHER MOORE, together with Oliver Plunket, an Irish man 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 llth of November, the feast of S. Martin, 1580."— Philadelphus .

A letter, written on the 9th January, 1581, in the Vatican archives, published by Dr. Moran, gives a fuller account of their death. They were in the Golden Fort, held by a

* Here, as in many other instances, Bruodin, although right in the substance of his narrative, is wrong in his dates. Dr. Rothe puts his imprisonment and death at 1580, and he is confirmed by the Vatican list given by Dr. Moran, which describes the see of Limerick as vacant in 1580 " per obitum D. Ugonis Lacy, in sua ecclesia defuncti ;" and his successor, Dr. Cornelius Nachten, was appointed in 1581. Dr. Lacy was deprived of the temporalities in 1571, and William Casey intruded by Edward VI. But he remained at liberty at least until 1575.— See Moran, "Archbishops of Dublin," vol. i. p. 186, and Wares " Bishops" 8ee also Casey's recantation, from the /State Paper Office, in Brady, " Papers Concerning the Irish Church" p. 119.

40 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

Spanish force under San Jose. When this traitor surren dered 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 II. 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, C( History of the Archbishops of Dublin," vol. i. p. 202; and Haverty, "History of Ireland," p. 243.

KEY. GELASIUS O'QUILLENAN, EUGENE CRONE, AND HUGH O'MELKERAN.

u FATHER GELASIUS O'QUILLENAN, of the Cistercian order, Abbot of the monastery of Boyle, was martyred, together with the priest Eugene Cronius (probably Cronin), 1580."— Philadelphus.

The following account of the life of this holy martyr is taken from Dr. Moran, who drew it from Henriquez and O'Sullivan : —

"Gelasius O'Cullenan was born of a noble family in Connaught, and in his early years embraced the Cistercian order. Having completed his noviciate and sacred studies in Paris, the monastery of Boyle was destined as the field

* In winch was embodied the oath of supremacy,

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 41

of his labours. On his arrival in Ireland lie found that the monastery, with its property, had been seized on by one of the neighbouring gentry, who was sheltered in his usurpation 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 admonished 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 embraced their religious institute. In 1580, Gelasius, being in Dublin, was arrested by order of the Government, and, together with Hugh O'Melkeran, another Cistercian father, was thrown into the public gaol. John O'Garvin,* then Protestant Dean of Christ Church, was amongst those who assisted at his first interrogatory, and having proposed many induce ments 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 professing the name of Christ, that he might thus become worthy to receive a heavenly crown/ The holy abbot and his companion were then subjected to torture, and, amongst 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 pos sible ignominy to execution. They, however, were filled with consolation ; the sight of the joyous sufferers excited

* He is styled Garvey by Ware and Mant. He was soon after ap pointed Protestant Bishop of Kilmore.

42 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

the admiration of the assembled multitude; and many even of the heretics declared that they were more like angels than men. It was on the 21st November, 1580, that they were happily crowned with martyrdom. The garments which they wore, and the implements 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 Cisterciensis decor, sseculi nostri splendor, et totius Hibernia3 gloria."* — Hen- riquez, " Fasciculus" part i. distinct 27, cap. i. ; 0' Sullivan, Hist. Cath., p. 126.

BEV. THADDETJS DONALD AND JOHN HANLY.

THESE two martyrs received their crown on the 10th August, 1580. They had long laboured among the suffering faithful along the south-western coasts of our island. When the convent of Bantry was seized by the English troops, these holy men received the wished-for crown of martyrdom. Being conducted to a high rock impending over the sea, they were tied back to back and precipitated into the waves beneath.f

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

* Curry, in his " Civil Wars," says,—" Among many other Eoman Catholic bishops and priests, there were put to death for the exercise of their function in Ireland Glaby O' 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 1580." These two are probably 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 " Pather John," would easily lead to the confusion as to the surname. O'Boyle, in Irish, would be " from Boyle."

f Bruodin, "Passio Mart.," p. 440, and Wadding, " Annales Ord. S. F.," p. 251.

IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 43

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, undertook 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 battle ments. 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/*

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 Fran ciscan. Dr. Moran, on the authority of Bruodin, calls him a secular priest. Wadding also claims him as a Franciscian.f

KEY. 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 labours in their native county and the surrounding territory. It was in the town of Lislaghton that they received the crown of martyrdom. Whilst 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.

* Bruodin> lib. iii. cap. 20.

f Philadelph., and Wadding, " Seriptores O. S. F.j" also "Annals/' vol. xxi. p. 258.

41 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

REV. MAURICE KINREHAN

was parish priest of Mullinahone, in Tipperary, in a special manner attracted the rage of the heretics, and was compelled 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 frequently scoured by military parties, anxious to seize on their prey.

At length, whilst engaged in administering the last sacra ments to a dying man, he was overtaken by his pursuers, who at once hurried him towards Clonmel. Before arriving in that town, the officer of the guard, named Farrows, 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.* — Bruodin.

REV. EDMUND DONNELLY, S.J.

His life is thus narrated by Tanner : — f

" 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 ; amongst 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. J He was born at Limerick, and, by the desire of the Holy Father, returned to his native country to console and encourage the Catholics,

* This is quite a different person from the Maurice Kinrechtin who suffered in 1585, whose life, as given by Kothe, see at that year. Han- richan or O'Hanrichan, and Kinrechin or Kinrechtin, and O'Kin- rechtin were very common names in Tipperary at this period.

t Tanner, Societas Jesu, usque ad sanguinis et vitro profusionem pro Deo et Christiana religionc militans.

} That is, the first of the Jesuits.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 45

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 Refor mation. 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 gaol at Cork, where he was tortured in divers ways. As his constancy was still unshaken, he was tried for high treason and publicly condemned, 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 by Queen Elizabeth, under the penalty of treason if he returned, yet had returned to lead and strengthen his fellow- 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 whilst 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, Philadelph., and Bruodin (lib. Hi. cap. 20), who puts his death at 1575.

46 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

TWENTY-TWO OLD MEN, WHOSE NAMES ARE NOT

KNOWN.

PHILADELPHIA 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, 158Q."*—Philadelph. " De Processu."

FORTY CISTERCIAN MONKS OF S. MARY'S, NENAGH.

THEIR martyrdom is thus narrated by Dr. Moran, from Henriquez : —

"About the same time the monastery of S, Mary of Maggiof became illustrious by the martyrdom of its holy inmates. An 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 executioners. 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 unconscious of the scenes of sacrilegious plunder that were perpetrated around them, and wholly absorbed in prayer. 'Like hungry wolves, the heretics at

* Bruodin (lib. iii. cap. 20) gives the name of the village as Bally- mohun, in the diocese of Limerick.

f " St. Mary, Abbey of Nenay, or De Maggio.— Ware's "Antiquities."

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 47

once precipitated themselves 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. Throwing himself prostrate before the mutilated statue of our Lady, he poured forth his lamentations that her monastery was no more, and that her glorious festival, which should be then commenced, would pass in sadness and silence. He had scarcely breathed his prayer, when he heard the bells of the monastery to 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 mar tyred 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 CHEEYERS.

" THESE, together with some other Catholic sailors, had secretly carried over into France a certain father of the

48 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

Society of Jesus, and some other priests and laymen who were flying for the faith, and, being seized, were tortured and hung, cut down whilst only half dead, and then dismem bered, on the 5th day of July, 1581." — PMladelph. Bruo- din gives a slightly different account, lib. iii. cap. 20.

PATRICK HAYES,

" a merchant and shipowner of Wexford, because that he had oftentimes aided the Catholics in their distress, both bishops, priests, and others, suffered a long imprisonment, and, worn out by confinement and suffering at Dublin, he slept in the Lord in the year 1581." — PMladelph.

REV. RICHARD FRENCH,

a priest of the diocese of Ferns, worn out with laborious journeys, was cast into prison because that he had ingenu ously confessed and strenuously defended the faith, and sunk under the filth and horrors of the prison, going to his Lord in the year of salvation 1581. — PMladelph.

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 frequently given hospitality to Father Rochford, the Jesuit. He was hung and cut in four parts, and so gloriously died, 1st July, 1581."-— Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.*

* This, and the next, is a curious instance where the law, making it treason to "entertain a Jesuit," was literally put in execution. Rothe, however, says that it was for having given shelter to the Catholic Baron of Baltinglas when in extreme want,

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 49

ANNO 1582.

REV. DONATUS HEINRECHAN, PHILIP O'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 savour in the sight of the Lord, the 20th July, in the year l582."—Philadelph, and Wadding, "Annals," vol. xxi. p. 366.

REV. THADD^US O'MERAN, FELIX O'HARA, AND HENRY LAYHODE, O.S.F.

" IN the convent of Enniscorthy, Thaddseus 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." —-"Annals," 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 Feb. 1582."— "Annals," ut sup.

REV. .ENEAS PENNY,

" a priest of Connaught, was slain by the heretical soldiers, in the act of celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in his parish church of Killatra, the 4th May, 1582." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.

* Friary of Lislaghtin (county of Kerry). The place has its name from S. Lactin, who died in the year 622.— Ware, p. 107.

50 MARTYRS AND CONFESSOilS

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 afterwards pierced with swords, and so nobly finished his life, 12th June, 1582." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.

REV. JOHN WALLIS,

" a priest of Leinster, honourable by birth, but still more by piety, was seized by the heretics and endured many tor ments. Being sent prisoner to England, he there died, in the prison of Worcester, and so triumphed for Christ, 20 Januarii, 1582."— Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.

ANNO 1583. MOST REV. NICHOLAS SKERRETT,

" Archbishop of Tuam, after a long imprisonment, escaped to Portugal, and died, much regretted, in the city of Lisbon, in 1583. He is buried in the church of S. Roch." *— " De Processu Martyriali"

DAME MARGERY BARNEWALL.

I GIVE her life from Dr. Rothe : —

"This virgin was born of noble parents, and when she attained a marriageable age determined to dedicate her vir ginity to God, and in her thirtieth year received the holy veil from the Catholic bishop. The name of virgin, says S. 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

* Brennan says he " was flogged and incarcerated," but does not refer to his authority.— Eccl. Hist., vol. ii. p. 123.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 5]

modest virgins. She dwelt for the most part in the city, or at least diocese, of Dublin, nor could her profession and mode of life 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 information, 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, residence, and profes sion, to all of which she answered prudently and categori cally. 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 Luther, who, himself given up to concu piscence, 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 is it not impossible to Him whom all things obey and whose power is equal to His will. But our Sunamitess, who by the grace of God had observed that which she had promised, modestly blushing, answered that she marvelled her questioner should think it strange that God should give strength to observe the vow He had himself inspired, and which so many men and women in all ages had observed. Thus repulsed with regard to her vow of virginity, the bishop attacked her faith, using many artifices to induce her to swerve from the orthodox faith ; but she boldly 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 gaoler, and, having found a British ship in the port of Dublin,

E 2

52 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

agreed with the master to take her to S. Malo.* This u a city in the lesser Britain, called also Armorica, surrounded with walls and towers, yet, for greater safety, when the gates are shut at night large fierce dogs are loosed to strengthen the guard. They roam outside the walls and ferociously attack any man or beast whom they may meet. The sailors spoke much amongst 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 un principled 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 defeat 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 women, and, trembling lest they should be again attacked by these vile men, they thought of flying from that den of wild beasts. Tying their clothes tightly around them, they threw them selves 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 particularly terrified, but her mis tress encouraged her, reminding her of the Divine Providence

* Sancti Maclovis Portns.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 53

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 ferocious 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 native 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 them 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 led them to the bishop of the place, who was then celebrating the Divine Mysteries in the church. The news of the strange event spread through the city, and a crowd assembled at the church to see the two women, who, contrary 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 neighbourhood, as there is a constant intercourse between the inhabitants of Maclon and Ireland, the young people of each country being enter tained 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 bishop

* Dr, Eothe writes it Maclon.

54 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 evening to await for day in order to land. Finally, the two sailors who had assaulted them were brought up, and, on their con fessing 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 recol lection 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 entertained, dur ing 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 S. James of Compostella. On their arrival there the ser vant fell ill, and departed to the Lord. The stronger consti tution 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 Brit tany, the assaults of the two sailors and her escape from their power, the unusual gentleness of the watch-dogs, and how the waves and the wild beasts had spared their innocence.

"Afterwards, by her counsel and example, many pious women and religious maidens in Ireland dedicated their chastity to God, and, to use the words of S. Jerome (Epist. 8, ad Demetr.), ' by the solemn words of the priest covered 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 coenobitical life. But since, accord ing to the proverb, women require the protection either of a man or a wall to guard them ' from the attacks of the noon day 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 should

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 55

become tarnished in the heat of the worldly 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 darkness, and by whom the world, the flesh, and the devil are overcome.

" Our Margery was taken prisoner by the Protestants, 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 wanderings to her confessor, from whom we learned them, and for the edifica tion of our readers have here written them." — "De Processu Martyriali."

Dr. Rothe does not mention, nor have I been able to find, the date or place of Dame Margery BarnewalFs death. As he says himself, he collected, from time to time, what authentic accounts he could of the sufferings of those per secuted 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 hence.

ANNO 1584.

MOST REV. DERMOD O'HURLEY, ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL.

I GIVE his life from Dr. Rothe, and in the notes any addi tional facts from O' Sullivan and others.

" The birthplace of this glorious martyr was a little village in the diocese of Limerick, less than three miles from that city, called Lycodoon,* where his parents lived respectably

* Lycodumim : Lycodoon still retained in the town land — no longer a village — of Lycodoon, parish of Knockea, now the property of William Smith O'Brien, Esq.— (Renehan, p. 251.) Yicus, or village, seems, in writers of this period, often to mean only what is still called in Ireland, amongst the peasantry, "the town ; " viz., the dwelling-house of a gentleman or farmer, with its surrounding offices and labourers' cottages.

56 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

by farming, both of tillage and cattle j they were held in good estimation by their neighbours, both rich and poor, especially James Geraldine, Earl of Desmond. 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, throughout Ireland, although by change of fortune all that power has fallen. His mother was Honor M'Brien, who was descended of the celebrated family of Briens, Earls of Thomond, and, before the conquest of Ireland, Kings of Munster. But in treating of the man of whom we write it 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 quse 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 religion, he was chosen by the Holy See as a fitting man to be made the shepherd of his Catholic countrymen in Ireland, then suffer ing under the storm of schism. t

" Having then been raised to the episcopacy by Gregory XIII., and named Archbishop of Cashel, he took his route towards Ireland. But there was great difficulty in proceed ing, 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 opportunity of a Waterford ship in the port of Grosvico,J in Armorican Britain, he treated with the ship's factor for a passage to

• He gave public lectures in philosophy for four years in Louvain, and subsequently held, with great applause, the chair of canon law in Bheims. — Elogium Elegiac., ap. Moran, Hist. Alps., i. 132.

f He was appointed by Gregory XIII. in 1580.— Ex Act. Consist., ap. Moran.

J Probably Cherbourg.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 57

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 ; amongst 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 labourers in our vineyard, when they seek to return to their country to spend their labour, 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 Irish man), 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 danger of being denounced, especially if there is any suspicion of his being of any dignity, or even if the sailors have a bare suspicion that he be of an ecclesiastical vocation, as lately befell two Capuchin monks, whose innocence and uprightness was known to all, anno 1618. But as these two unexpectedly escaped from the hands of their pursuers, so may their example make others hope con fidently 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 neighbours' 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.f

* Abbas de Urio, Newry. 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.

t There were heavy penalties enacted against all those who should "aid in introducing Jesuits or priests." How strictly these were enforced another passage from our author will show :— " As a certain

58 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

" 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 awaiting them on the shores of their own land, that of being arrested by the guards of the port, and the authorities of the town ; dan gers by sea, lest they fall into the hands of heretical pirates, who would slay them for hatred of the Catholic faith ; dan ger every day they live in Ireland of falling into the hands of her present rulers, as lately happened to the Reverend Father Abbot Paul Ragetus, after a stay of many years in his native land, and a little before, the same fate befell the Reverend Father Gum,*" of whom the one was arrested as he was just about to step into the ship to embark in order to leave the kingdom, 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 Ireland is beset with danger. However, he who was last arrested, 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 sinners/ still lies in prison, with many other regular and secular 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. f

" Since what we are every day witnessing has led me into this disgression, I hope that pity for our daily misery will obtain me the reader's pardon. My only reason for this

father of the Society of Jesus, and with the illustrious Baron of In- chiquin, who had received him as a guest, was thrown into prison : the latter was at length dismissed with a heavy fine, for having ex tended to a man bound to him both by religion and blood that hos pitality which, in our country, is ever extended to all. The 'merchant who brought the priest was deprived of all his property by the Pre sident." — " Analecta Sacra Nova"

* Probably Quin.

t The proposed marriage between the heir of the crown, Charles (afterwards Charles I.), and the daughter of the Spanish Queen.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 59

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 rescript 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 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, E. 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 outgoing nor their abiding are safe.

" The Wexford merchant who carried the bulls fell into the hands of pirates, by whom he was spoiled and so pillaged 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, f and from thence proceeded to Waterford. Whilst he was hospi tably entertained there,! it chanced that one day there was

* He gives only the initials of his name.

t Sciretio insula; in Irish, Sciric. He landed at Drogheda. — See " State Papers."

J 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 bishops and priests are obliged to do in England, Ireland, and Scotland ever since this persecution first broke out." (p. 124.)

60 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

some conversation on religion; on these occasions his zeal and learning could not be restrained 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 lan guage, and soon after, starting off to Dublin, denounced Dermod to the governors 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 afterwards paid the penalty of this companionship by a long imprisonment, and with difficulty escaped death by the favour 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 aforesaid 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 attempt of Baal to have them arrested should have wholly failed, and the rumour 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

* O'Sullivan gives the date of this 1583.

f Ismay Dillon, daughter of Sir Bartholomew Dillon, of Riverstown, county Meath, and aunt 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 of Jenico, the third Viscount Gormanston. She died in 1597, and was buried in the hermitage of S. Erk Slane.— See ArchdalVs " Lodge" vol. iii. p. 78 ; vol. iv. pp. 143, 144

IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 61

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 on serious subjects, and the archbishop betrayed so much learning that it gave occasion to the sagacious Chief Justice (who bodily was blind of one eye, and mentally 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 governors and the Council. He laid all his sus picions 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 sus picions ; and that the Baron of Slane should be summoned before the Council, 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 shrunk 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

* " Anno 1582-3.— Lords Justices of Ireland, Adam Loftus, Arch bishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor, with Sir Henry Wallop, Treasurer of Ireland." — Ware's " Annals."

OZ MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

Archbishop Dermod by an unfounded 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 his, who had been denounced to the Inquisition by his own countrymen for offences against religion.* This prosecution is said to have so in flamed 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 if 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, over taking him at Carrick-on-Suir, just as he had returned from visiting the blessed cross,f 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 afterwards 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 him self, 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 com-

* Nota Authoris. — " Others relate that Wallop tortured the arch bishop out of hatred and envy to the Earl of Ormond, by whom the prelate had been received."

f This would be the Abbey of Holy Cross, in Tipperary, a celebrated pilgrimage in those days. — See Havertys " History of Ireland," p. 413.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 63

mitted;* nor shall I speak of the Lord 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 honour and safety ; and if the earl had turned a willing 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 wretched death of the earl, which happened 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 Mer cury 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 conversa tion turned upon the unhappy Bishop of Fems,t whom human weakness and the fear of men had led to desert the Catholic faith. ' Many/ said our holy martyr, 'who are lions before the battle, are timid stags when the hour of trial

1 * Our author refers here to the treachery by which the Desmonds were pursued, and to the slaughter, after quarter given, of the un armed Spanish garrison of the fort at Smerwick harbour, by order of Arthur, Lord Gray, in 1580.

t One circumstance connected with the heroic constancy of Dr. O'Hurley deserves to be specially commemorated. The Bishop of Ferns had wavered in his allegiance to the Holy See, and hence, at this period, stood high in court favour. 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 rejected 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." — Moran, p. 135, Epist. cit. See a further account of this bishop, Dr. Power, at p. 125.

64 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 salvation with fear and trembling, neither puffed up with self-confidence nor cast down by fear, and kept himself with 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 cajolements to induce him to conform, as they call it. Sir Henry Wallop was more savage, and re peatedly broke out into violent and abusive threats, and showed that his inveterate 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 condemned 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 whether he could not, at least, be sent into England, there to be tried under the sta tutes recently passed there against the Catholic subjects of that kingdom, especially those suspected of any foreign in trigues. But the judges answered that, as Ireland, although part of the possessions of the English Crown, is governed by its own laws, customs, and statutes, and is a different king dom from England, with a different Parliament, different privileges, and different tribunals, no one not born in Eng land 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 not be proved guilty of any crime in his own

* O'Sullivan says, at his first examination he was asked if he were a priest, to which he answered in the affirmative, and added, more over, that he was an archbishop. He was then thrown into a dark and loathsome prison, and kept there, bound in chains, till the Holy Thursday of the following year.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 65

country, that no means might be left him of escaping the hands of the executioner, a new and strange mode of trial was devised against him. And as by the laws of war some military crimes are punishable by death by the authority of the general, and sudden risings or breaches of military disci pline 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 sufferings, written by a noble and learned man, a citizen of Dublin, who learned the circumstance from eye-witnesses, if indeed he were not himself in the city when our martyr suffered ; wherefore I will give his words, as given in the introduction to his discussion with James Usher. (Stanihurst, 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 pre late, he adds, regarding Dermod O' Hurley,—

" c The Archbishop of Cashel met a harder fate, and the bar barous cruelty of Calvinism cannot be better 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 under 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 unable to look on such an inhuman spectacle, or to bear the piteous cries of the inno cent prelate, suddenly left his seat and quitted the place.

* O'Sullivan says he was subjected to tins torture for an hour,

F

66 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

The cruel minds of the Calvinistic executioners were gratified, but not appeased, by these extraordinary torments; and a few days afterwards, 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 amongst the people. There they hung him with a halter roughly woven of twigs, to increase his torture. This bar barous and inhuman cruelty satiated indeed their thirst for his blood, but opened for the holy prelate the fountain of eternal life ; so that, drinking of its eternal source, though cast down, he is raised up ; though conquered, he hath con quered ; 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 tor mented. 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 perspiration 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 extin guish his love of God.

" ' Exhausted and, as it were, suffocated by his sufferings whilst 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

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 07

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 tortured body, and if he could be recalled to his senses. The next morning, as he had a little revived, aromatic drinks were administered to him, to give him strength to endure 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 Phalaris : — 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 sought to make him waver in the faith, offering him dignity 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, amongst others, Thomas Johns, who is now Chancellor of this king dom. But he remained unshaken as the Marpesian rock. His only sister, too, Honor Hurley, 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.

" ' These governors were about to quit their office, to be succeeded by Sir John Perrott, who at this time arrived in Dublin ; but, before he entered on office, as it was rumoured that the Earl of Ormond was hastening to Dublin to congra tulate the new Viceroy and intercede with him for Dermod, Wallop was determined first to slake his hatred in the blood of the archbishop.

* O'Sullivan 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 been confined in prison by the English, but released on account of the skill with which he treated some noble men when suffering from dangerous illness."

F 2

08 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

" ' As Perrott was to receive the sword of office on Sunday, the feast of the Holy Trinity, and his power would then cease, lest his successsor might prove more merciful, on the preceding Friday,* and at early dawn, as we have men tioned, the archbishop was drawn on a hurdle through the garden-gate to the place where he was hanged, Wallop 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, amongst 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 gaoler 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 Saint Kevin, and it is stated that many miracles have been 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."t

* According to O'Sullivan, he was executed on the 7th June, 1581. William Simon, a citizen of London, removed the martyr's body in a wooden urn, and buried it secretly in consecrated ground. Eicliard, 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 Geoghegan, 4th June, 1584, and letter of Cornelius Laonensis from Lisbon, 29th October, 1584. (" Jlistory of the Archbishops of Dublin," i. ]35.) O'Sullivan is probably inexact, as he often is. Mooney also says he suffered " mense Mari ;" but the recently published " State Papers " say he was executed on the 19th June.

t 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 subjected to the most dreadful

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 69

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON.

Ireland, vol. cv. No. 10. 1583. Oct. 8.

[The original correspondence on the subject of the archbishop's trial between the lords justices in Ireland and the Council in England, lately discovered in the State Paper Office, London, throw much light on the whole matter, and so strikingly prove the accuracy of the narrative of Dr. Rothe that I give them here in extenso.~\

Indorsed— Sr. 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 company with Mr. Perse Butler, base son to the Earl of Ormond) into Murister. 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, returning again yes* terday, brought him unto us, but as yet our leisure hath not served to examine him. What shall fall out upon his ex amination we willby the next advertise the Lords at large. In the mean time it is most certain that he had been a leidyer at Rome for a long time, soliciting all matters that had been

torture, yet could never be induced to subscribe to the iniquitous in novations 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 faith." — Letter of Dr. Cornelius O'Ufulrian, ex ArcJiiv. Secret. Vatican, ap. Moran.

70 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

there attempted to the prejudice 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 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. Barne well's Second Confession.

Dr. Hurley.

Addressed — To the Right Honourable Sir Francis Wal- singham, Knight, Principal Secretary to her Majesty, give these at court.

Touching Since your Honour's departure into Scot-

Michael Fitz- ian(j we received a letter from the Lords simons pardon. ,r. , i -r,-, • ,1

concerning one Michael Fitzsimons, the copy

whereof we send your Honour, here enclosed. Whereby it seemeth that besides his flying into France without licence which he maketh the ground of 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. According to which letter we have called him before 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

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 71

for it according to 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 continual practiser against the State. So if it please your Honour to read the examination of Christopher Barnewell against Sedgrave and William Fitz- simons of this city your Honour shall find that this Michael Fitzsimons was made ac quainted with the whole practise, 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 sollicited for more aid ; and, therefore, since his offense is to be justified by Barnewell, and that he will not enter into the voluntary confession of it, il is like he find a guilty conscience in divers treasons, and therefore will depend upon this letter of the Lords for a refuge against the first fault wherewith he shall be charged. Wherefore, we wish (the quality of his offense considered) that we might have a revocation of their Lordships' said letter, whereby we might be at liberty to deal with him in a more severe sort.

Second confes- Secondly, your Honour is to understand Bion of Barne- that about the time of the beginning of your

journey into Scotland, we sent to the Lord Treasurer and your Honour jointly a second voluntary confession of the aforesaid Chris topher Barnewell touching 120. 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 secretary, as

72 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 resorted to his house under pretense of ac quaintance with a base son of the Earl of Ormondes, who married the Baron's daughter, and, passing some time there, from thence went into Oreylies country to seek some priests of his foreign acquaintance, and so into Minister to the Lord General (being a born man under his Lordship), and craving protection at his hands. Which being re vealed 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 pretendeth ignorance in all things saving that he confesseth that the Viscount of Bathinglas, his brother Richard Eustace, Barnewell, and he, were together with Cardinal Comensis, but denieth that he saw any such letters, as Barnewell in his con fession alledgeth, nor heard any matter of such importance. The other justifieth his former confession, and addeth that the Doctor was one of the House of Inquisitions, which he denieth not. And further the Doctor con fesseth that he had letters from Cardinal Sans [Sens] (who is called Protector of Ireland) to the Earl of Desmond and others, which letters

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 73

(he saith) he left in France and would not meddle with them. We heartily, therefore, pray your Honour 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 FitzsimonSj and so, most glad of your Honour's safe return, we commit you to the Lord.

From Dublin this 20th of October, 1588. Your Honour's always at commandment,

AD. DUBLIN, Cane.

H. WALLOP.

PUBLIC EECORD 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 Honour declaring her Majesty's pleasure for the proceeding with Dr. Hurley 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 examina tions) was employed in Connaught with Sir Nicholas Malbic 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 Hur ley, 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 Cardinalls,

74 MARTVllS AND CONFESSORS

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 favourers 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 examina tion of him and others, but also prepare that Barnewell, his accuser, may repair to the court to justify his former depo sition and other matters against Hurley, wherein we pray your Honour to be speedily informed if her Majesty please, and so do commit ye to the Lord.

At Dublin, the 10th of Dec., 1583.

Yr. Honour'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.

Indorsed— 10th 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 over to the Tower, and herein crave answer with speed.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON,

Ireland, vol. civ. No. 381.

1583, Aug. 12th.

The examination of Christopher Barnewell, of Dundalk, the 12th August, 1583. (N.B. The first half of this examina tion is regarding James Fitzmaurice and Rbchfort the priest.) Also when he went to Rome, as in his other con fession is expressed, he saith that, missing Richard Eustace at Paris, he went to Rome and there found him, at which time there was one Hurley, now created Archbishop of

IN THE REIGN 0V ELIZABETH. 75

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 no. He answered no ; he served against the Viscount, and before 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 said, " Who would trust an Irishman ? The Earl promised to take our part, and shrunk his shoulders 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 ? " And 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 said 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. WATERHOUSE,

MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 examina tion, as also of other examinations that touch Hurley.

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 having neither lands nor goods, that he be executed by martial law rather than by any ordinary trial.

To have resolutions herein from hence.

5th March, 1584. With the letters of Hurley to the Pope, intercepted since his torture.

Hurley and such-like, favoured 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 Treasurer and me with the examination of Earnewell.

They will desist if their travail be not acceptable, knowing how dangerous it is.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON.

1584, March 7th. From ye Lords Justices of Ireland, touching Dr. llurley.

Addressed— -To the Right Honble. Sir Francis Walsing- ham, K*. Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, and of Her Highnesses Most Honble. Privy Council.

May it please your Honour. Since the last term, which the other general aifairs 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 confess his knowledge, not only of any practice of disturbance

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 7/

pretended against the land in particular, but also of any 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 tbat 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 would 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 bad 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 Honour 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 Honour, together with all other declarations, 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 Honour will discern how many ways Hurley is to be overtaken with treason in his own person, and with what bad mind he came into Ireland, instructed from Rome to poison the hearts of the people with disobedience to her Majesty's Government, which was not unlike to put the realm in danger of a new revolt if he had not been intercepted in time. Even so we desire your Honour 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 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

78 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

to remember your Honour by way of our opinion that, con sidering how obstinate and wilful we find 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 admiration 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 being not here, as it is in England. And therefore we think it not amiss (if it be allowed of there) to have him executed by martial law, against which 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 retain ing still his former impudence and negative protestations, he may do to the people. So also it may be a mean to prevent danger to us, and the said Waterhouse and Mr. Secretary, that have from the beginning interposed ourselves, not only in his apprehension, but also in all his examinations, if (as it is most likely) he should break out and exclaim to the people that he was troubled for some noblemen of his country, whom your Honour may find by the extracts now sent chargeable with more than suspicion of confederacy in the late rebellion, whereof we humbly pray your Honour to be careful in our behalf, considering in how little safety we live here for the like services we have already done to her Majesty; and so, eftsoons desiring your Honour'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 your answer with all the diligence he may, we humby take our leave of your Honour.

At Dublin, the 7th day of March, 1584.

Your Honour's at commandment, *

AD. DUBLIN, Cane. H. WALLOP.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 79

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 Honourable Sir Francis Wal- singham, Knt., Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, give these.

It may please your Honour, as in our other letter to your Honour, 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 Honour, and used in such sort as shall seem good unto you, so also have we herewith sent the copies of such letters 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 fidelity of Sylvester Cooley, the constable, and the good handling of one of the warders, who hath the keeping of Hurley. By those letters your Honour may discover what favour these Romish runagates have with our great Potentate here. They that will not see let them be blind still ; and it shall suffice us to have discharged our duties herein as before, in Barnewall's examination, formerly sent unto the Lord Trea surer, and your Honour, 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 never had any answer, which maketh us somewhat doubtful how to proceed in these causes, not knowing how our doings in that behalf are there thought of. Beseeching your Honour 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 Honour find but small accompaniment to be made thereof, that it will

80 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 Honour's there, in lieu of backing and good countenance from thence, our doings shall be discovered ; and so, craving by the next despatch to be satisfied from your Honour herein, we humbly take our leave.

From Dublin, this 8th of March, 1583.

Your Honour's always at commandment,

AD. DUBLIN, Cano.

Sir Franc. Walsingham. H. WALLOP.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. State Papers, Ireland, No. 12, vol. iii. 1584, July 9. It may please your Honour, 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 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 accord ing 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 expec tation of some means to be wrought for his enlargement, if

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 81

he might have found that favour, to have had his time pro longed but to the end of our government. Thus much we thought good to signify unto your Honour of our proceedings in that behalf, to be imparted unto her Majesty and the Lords, as your Honour shall see cause, and in the meantime do receive no small comfort by your Honour's signification of her Majesty's good reception and allowance of our care ful and zealous travail in that matter.

Wherein we have done but our duties, so we will not, God willing, at any time omit to perform the same in like sort as occasion shall be offered, especially in such matters as so highly concern the glory of God, and her Majesty's crown and dignity, to whom we accompt we owe, not only all our endeavours, but also our lives and ourselves, and so, for the present, we betake your Honour to the tuition of the Almighty.

Dublin, this 9th of July, 1584.

AD. DUBLIN, Cane. H. WALLOP.

Directed — To the Right Honourable Sir Francis Walsing- ham, 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 Honours. 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 35th year of our late Sovereign Lord King Henry VIII. 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 thereof is set down, which statute is not confirmed nor established in this realm ; wherefore, and for that we find no precedent for any such trial, and that the rules of common law appoint no ordinary trials for things beyond the seas, our opinion is

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03 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 1st of June, 1584.

Your Honour's humble, to command,

ROBERT DILLON. LUCAS DILLON. EDMOND BUTLER. . WILTON BATHE. EDWARD FITZSIMONS. GEORGE DORMER. RICHARD BARLINGE. RICHARD SEDGRAVE.

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 Honourable Sir Francis Wal- singham, Knt., Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, give these.

(Extract?)

In our late letters touching Hurley, we earnestly pressed her Majesty and their Lordships' resolution for our pro ceedings with him, which eftsoons we humbly beseech your Honour 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 Kildare, &c.

From Dublin, this 14th of April, 1584.

Your Honour's always at commandment,

AD. DUBLIN, Cane. H. WALLOP.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 83

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 examinations 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 direction. Wherefore she having at length resolved, I have, accordingly by her commandment, to signify her Majesty's pleasure unto you touching Hurley, which is this : that the man being so notori ous and ill a subject, as appeareth 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 affec tions of such as shall be his jury, and for the supposal con ceived 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 Lordships will take with him; and the man being so resolute to reveal no more matter, it is thought meet to have no further tor tures 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 under stand 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 matters of Sedgrave and Fitz- simons, 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

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against the claim of that city, and therefore Sir John (Perrot) before his departure shall have directions to proceed accord ingly 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.

DAME ELEANOR BIRMINGHAM.

I GIVE her life from Dr. Rothe : —

" There lived in Dublin a widow of a generous soul, named Eleanor Birmingham, relict of Bartholomew Baal ;* she was worthy of honour, according to the saying of S. Paul, ' honour 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 diligently 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 besides her daily prayers, morning and evening, no day passed in which she did not devote some hours, spared from the care of her household and the other labours 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

* Or Ball. The habit of calling wives by their maiden name, as Dr. Rothe does here and elsewhere, still obtains amongst the peasantry in many districts of Ireland.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 85

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, lodging, and a certain annual honora rium, in order that there might always be there a priest to say Mass, administer the sacraments, 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 considerable 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,

86 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

of piety and innocence, of modesty and virtue to her servants, of purity to virgins, of continence 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 intrusted to her as to make them handmaids of virtue, so that they might say of her what S. Basil writes of his grandmother S. Macrina, where he says that, when a child, he was taught the Christian doctrine by her, where fore he calls her his nurse in the faith, and rejoices that he retained the faith which he had received 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 freshness in their souls.

" But her heart was grievously afflicted by the hardness of heart of her eldest son Walter Baal, who, from communication 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 person, renowned for sanctity, whom, when she had the opportunity, she did not beseech to pray for his conversion. It seemed as if S. Monica were again alive and renewing her prayers for the conversion of S. Augustin to the Catholic faith from which he had wandered. But Monica was happier, since she at length obtained her request and recovered a son, not only a Catholic, but a most intrepid defender 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 ' (Kings i. 25), and his folly he carried down with him into the grave ; and whilst many others by means of this matron were led back from their errors, he hardened his heart, and obstinately died in his blindness.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 87

"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 towards the mother that bore him, that although 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 patiently bore, and leaving behind her a sweet odour of constancy, longanimity, and unspotted faith, happily slept in the Lord, in prison, about the year 1584." f— Itotfte, " De Processu Martyriali."

* Walter Ball was Mayor of Dublin in 1580, having been sheriff in 1572. — Wares "Annals" p. 168. If, therefore, she died in prison in 1584 this, her second imprisonment, must have lasted between three and four years.

t As an introduction to the notices of Eleanor Birmingham and Margery Barnewall, Dr. Eothe says, —

" As I have thus given a few examples of constancy, taken from every rank of the male sex, 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 the other of a virgin, I shall not seem wholly to have omitted the sex. I shall, therefore, here briefly give a few parti culars, 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 re lated in a MS. in the Burgundian library : —

"In the same year (1599), Walter Ball, truly a man of Belial, a senator of Dublin, so impious 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 day, with a crowd of fol lowers, went to seek for a certain Franciscan father, and a father of the Society of Jesus, whom he just missed. On his return home, dis appointed, he was seized with sudden madness, and breathing blas phemies, he departed to join the other persecutors of priests." — MS. 2,159, entitled " Magna Supplicia a Persecutoribus aliquot Catkoli" corum in Sibernia sumpta."

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ANNO 1585. RIGHT REV. MURTAGH O'BRIEN,

Bishop of Emly, was appointed to the sec of Emly on 24th January, 1567.* In a letter of Dr. Cornelius O'Mul- rian, preserved in the Vatican archives, f 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 dungeons; 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 4 Philadelphus also mentions his death in prison at Dublin, but puts it at 1586.J

MOST REV. RICHARD CREAGH, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH.

I cive first his life, as written by Dr. Rothe, and then such additional particulars as can be drawn from other sources.

Notes on the Life and Death of Richard Creayh, Archbishop

of Armagh.

This great ruler of the Church of Ireland was a noble champion of the Catholic faith, and foremost amongst its defenders and restorers in his native land. He was born at Limerick, the sou of respectable but not distinguished citi zens of that city, Nicholas Creagh and Joanna White. That city is situated in the province of Munster, remarkable for its site and its cultivation : it is surrounded by walls and washed

* Dr. MoraD, Abp. of Dublin, p. 136.

t Ibid.

j Mooney, p. 95. In another passage (p. G9) be also mentions his death in this year (although the name, probably through a mistake of Mooney 's copyist, looks like Moriartus O'Kenny).

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 89

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 honourable of its citizens for the greater part bring up their sons to trade. Thus it hap pened that the young Richard was by his parents placed in a commercial house to learn business, as was S. Francis by his father ; and to acquire a knowledge of such articles as were most in demand. Amongst 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 abomination 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 determined, therefore, to abandon the balance that he might embrace the cross;* and having with some difficulty obtained the consent of his parents, he got his discharge from his master, and bidding adieu to the business of this world, devoted himself to study and piety in the hope of an abundant return, as he remem bered the treasure hidden 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 the dealing in spices, he yet gave a sweet odour of piety, like cinnamon and balsam, and to him might be applied what said S. Basil said, "as sweet ointments diffuse

* " Eelicto Taitnr croco ut se ad cruccm Christi rararet inelius."

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through the air a sweet odour, 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 com pleted 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 briars 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 laboured zealously, exhorting in private and preaching in public, and administering the sacraments; and warning all against the oath of the queen's usurped ecclesi astical supremacy, and against unlawfully communicating in divine things with the schismatics, and he withdrew many from these two snares of the soul.

* NOTE A. — The following reference to our archbishop occurs in the " Records of Louvain," published by De Earn in 1861. (" Eerum Lovaniensium libri 14," auctore Jac. Molano, 1582.)

" Bichard Crews, a native of Limerick, in Ireland, having obtained a free bourse from the almoner of Charles V., studied arts as a con- victor in domo Standonica, and afterwards theology in tlie Pontifical College, and in the year 1555 took his degree of bachelor. He was subsequently made Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland ; and, being taken prisoner in the persecution of Elizabeth, miraculously- escaped from prison in the year 1565, and came to Louvain, where lie was received with great kindness by Michael Banis, President of the Pontifical 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 other good men's costs."

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 91

. And as nothing remains so firmly fixed in the mind as what is learned in youth (Quint., lib. i. cap. 1), he gave what ever time he could spare from the duties of his sacred office to teaching youth and bringing them up in virtue, not unmindful of what S. Irenseus wisely observed, the know ledge 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 be 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 the teaching of youth, and by prohibiting Catholic schools, in which youth would be taught both literature and virtue.

Richard therefore laboured 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, how ever, he determined to leave Ireland, urged by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which makes men deem all that they have done nothing whilst yet anything remains to do ; and which made him, although wholly devoted to promoting the Ca tholic 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 labour, 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

92 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

Rome.* Here he was known and esteemed by Pope Pius V., who forbade him to enter a regular order, as he purposed,

* NOTE B. — The account which we gather chiefly from the arch-

hishop's examination in London is fuller. I take it from an excellent

sketch of his life, given in the Rambler of 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 Rothe. The details in

the life by Rothe are fuller and more authentic than any others, but

he has fallen into some not unnatural errors as 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 subsequently.

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.

1548. — 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 returned 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.

1558. — 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 preached London, and some time later landed in Ireland, and was soon after arrested and sent to London.

1565. — January 18th ; committed to the Tower. He was interrogated on the 22nd February and 23rd March, and escaped from prison on the octave of Easter Sunday, as related by the letter of Dr. Southwell and Father Navarchus. He returned to Ireland either the end of this year or the beginning of

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 end 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. 93

until he should learn more of the will of his Holiness ; but the Pontiff, although unknown to him, had already deter mined to send him back to Ireland, to strengthen and con sole its inhabitants so sorely tried for their faith ; and to give more scope to his zeal, 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 burthen 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 gaoler. 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 amongst 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 Pri mate returned a second time to Ireland, and, whilst 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 con- temner of the statutes of the kingdom, an escaped criminal, and worthy of the severest 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 evidence, were to pronounce on the fact. The archbishop,

* See Note B, p. 92.

t This is a mistake. His escape with his gaoler was from his later imprisonment in 1567.

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confiding in the goodness of his cause, boldly pleaded before 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 gaoler 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 an swer 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 peine 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 omitting 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 discuss the facts and decide on their interlo cutory sentence, which is called the verdict. There ensued a long discussion amongst 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 re mained 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 much from dysentery, and all physicians are agreed that nothing is worse for such a complaint than cold and uncooked food, yet, supported by a sense of justice, his spirit upheld the weakness of his body, and far from suf fering, he was better and freer from the disease after than before his seclusion. At length the jurors returned a verdict of not guilty, but were in consequence themselves thrown

IX THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 95

into prison and fined. The archbishop was sent to London, and thrust 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 candle as his gaolers 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 lightsome room in the same tower, in which he could breathe freer and purer air and enjoy the light, not as in his former 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, whose aid never fails those who rest in the testimony of a good conscience, — those who love not the world, but God. In so great a cause he was neither slack nor timid ; and as poverty and suffering are said to be as sisters to a pure mind, so they strengthened him in constancy, fortitude, and liberty of spirit. He daily grew in the contempt of 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 S. Bernard says, "the faithful man is more faithful when afflicted." (Epist. 256.)

* The archbishop himself stated : " Besides divers my poor bodies sickness, I can neither 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 in commodity decency will not have it to be declared, beside the misery of cold, such others without even a convenient hose." He had been nearly three months in prison when he thus wrote.

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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 prison. (Athan., Oratio contra Gentes.) Small instruments suffice 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 watching 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 fugitive 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 him self how he had escaped out of the lion's den. Amongst 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.

e< Illustrious and very Reverend Lord, I was deeply grieved to learn that your Grace, on your arrival in Ireland, 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, f who, I doubt not, rejoiced at 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

* Dr. Creagh mentioned in his examination that he had known him at Rome.

f Michael Banis, President of the Pontifical College, Louvain.

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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.* Wishing your Grace health and peace,

" Your Grace's unworthy brother and servant,

" THOMAS GOLDWELL, Bishop of St, Asaph. " Milan, 20th June, 1565."

The answer which the Primate wrote to the Bishop of S. 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 Narvarchus,f of the Society of Jesus, to Father Florence Bonchortius, of the same society, and which is to be found amongst the Japanese^ letters printed at Louvain by Uvelphius (p. 290), and it may be con sidered fully trustworthy, as the 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 had an opportunity of seeing it : —

" To the Rev. Father in Christ Florence Bonchort, of the Society of Jesus, the Peace of Christ, fyc.

" It will not be ungrateful to you, dear Florence, if I briefly narrate for you what was lately told me by the Most Reverend

* Evidently Master Michael Banis, President of the Papal College, Louvain. See Note A, p. 90.

t Perhaps his name was Captain, and he an Englishman. J Letters from the Jesuit Missionaries in Japan.

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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 particulars 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 excite the faith and confidence in God of our fellow-soldiers of the faith, and encourage them to labour still more zealously in the vineyard of the Lord in its present dis tracted 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 constancy 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 this narrative. To begin, then, 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 inter rogated by the governor as to the primacy of the Church. He freely and ingenuously confessed the Catholic doctrine, and declared himself a Christian. Amongst 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

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for such a spoil to win at court, not only favour, 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 returning to the old idolatry. For as Catholics by study and inquiry 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 Melancthon, or by one who, meet ing 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 that 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 several interrogatories at Westminster. After having answered 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 Lon don, 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 (18th 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. Whilst 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 deliverance. He persevered continually in prayer, and on the third day following, which was Sunday, recited with all devotion the prayers of the Mass, as well as

* S. Peter's Chair at Antiocli, Feb. 22.

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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 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 insti tution from the Queen. To all these representations, 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 pre pare 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 neighbouring one, and the guardian of the prison 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

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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 indulgences 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 try to leave the prison and pass the gates. This idea so constantly 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 neighbouring passages, and perceived that all the doors, which were ordinarily securely barred, were open, and was astonished at so strange a case. Returning 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 were most for His divine honour. Hav ing 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 meaning 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

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for a butt under his arm. They then asked him who he was. He had prepared an answer to this question : reflecting that he was the servant of the servants of Christ, he answered truly enough that he was the servant 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 remained unmoved, and said he was ready to go anywhere. At length, God so disposing, they let him pass. Wandering for three days about London, amidst 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 or white from age), instead of a naturally fair beard (such as his), understood it to be white from age. Whilst wandering 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 stranger by the captain, who was a decided enemy of Catholics. Soon after wards the pursuivants came on board, and thrice inter rogated the sailors on oath if they knew anything of the bishop, whom they described as grey-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 archbishop, whom they believed was grey-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 himself not to idleness or pleasure,

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but to sacred meditation and returning thanks to God for His great mercies. From this wonderful instance of divine providence we clearly see 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 con secration, 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 conse crated 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 providence in regard to His own, since He restored the Bishop to the Catholics 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 his road to Ireland, and perceived him to be a man of good and pious manner) I found him very different in appearance. He had something pre-eminently holy about him, and was of such peculiar piety that many said God had worked wonders in his soul, and given him extraordinary 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. Fare well, Florence, my dear brother in Christ, and forget me not in your prayers.

" Your servant in the Lord,

"JAMES NAVARCHTJS ONDISCHOTHANUS,

"Louvain, on the Calends of October, 1565."

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After some time (how long I know not) he returned a 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. However 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 ecclesiastics,* and his offences against the rights and privileges of the churches, many of whose possessions he occupied, and, together with his follow ers, used much violence towards them. These injuries reached such a height that when the Primate found he could not, by advice or gentleness 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 pro claimed 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. t

In the meantime the Primate zealously fulfilled the duties 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 against O'Donnell, in the winter of 1566 or spring of 1567, hung a priest. On his return to Armagh he applied for absolution, which the Primate Cbuld 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 his assistance, June, 1567, his army having been defeated, and nearly annihilated, in a great battle a few miles from Letterkenny, on the 8th May, 1567.

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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 labours and much weariness in governing his flock in that troubled and afflicted kingdom ; and, the more to try his constancy 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 disputes between the Primate and the dynast, whom the former reproved for many excesses arid offences against the ecclesias tical jurisdiction arid 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 signature and the known handwriting of the forger. The accuser being therefore called upon to answer for his calumny, fled privately, and proceeding to England, abandoned the faith and became an apostate. And whilst the Primate 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 honours if he would take his advice, and, renouncing his obedience to and union with the Apostolic See, swear to the ecclesiastical supre macy of Elizabeth; but he answered the unblushing apostate with indignation, and ordered him to quit his presence.

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 * The infamous Meyler Magrath.

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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 accusa tion before twelve jurors at Westminster. His accusers poured forth all their malice against him. Alone and unde fended he so clearly proved the falsehood of their statements and his innocence, that the jurors pronounced him innocent, and all who were present openly declared him spotless. The girl herself, who had been schooled by her father to calum niate the Primate, openly confessed the falsehood and the subornation. Thus like another Athanasius did he confound his enemies.

His treatment in prison varied at different times, being at times less rigorous, at times more severe. When he was allowed a little more freedom, his delight was to assemble 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 sandpits of Home. In these meetings under his presi dency were discussed the controversies of faith, the duties of a Christian, and the steps to perfection 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 whilst in Ireland, and especially whilst a prisoner in Dublin, he delegated full powers, and by whose means he, whilst a prisoner, freely, as it were, fulfilled the duties of his office. It is also related by a trustworthy witness, that at one time, in the Tower of London, he was kept so strictly that he was loaded both with gives 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

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seemed to alleviate his suffering. 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 Hopton, Knight, the head guardian of the Tower, who is called lieu tenant, 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 unlawful 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 him to the oratory. This they did willingly, and forcibly held him down in the midst of the audience ; but when he heard the preacher thundering against the Pontiff, and all who pro fessed the faith of the Pontiff, blaspheming against the Saints and the Queen of Saints, and disseminating pesti lential 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 silent, but, boiling with zeal for the honour of God, he continued till the sectaries, crowding around him, violently compelled 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 everlastingly.

He was taken back to his prison, and as there seemed no hope of shaking his constancy in the faith, — whether it was that his gaolers 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 Culligius, an under- warder 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, eat 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

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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 neighbouring 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 fraternal 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 Armagh 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 leaving his earthly prison of stone rejoined the happy inhabitants of heaven." — Stanihurst, " Proemium ad Usserium," pp. 28, 29.

When he was in Rome he obtained from Gregory XIII. 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 several pious and learned men have already come to us. He exerted himself much to forward the mission of the Society 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 ' ' Britanno- machia" of his refusal to consecrate theinnovating bishops in England.

He wrote several little works; amongst which the following 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 perchance they exist in the Tower of London, where also he is buried.

So far Dr. Rothe.

I will now proceed to fill some omissions in the life given by Dr. Rothe, availing myself of the labours of the learned

* University of Pont-a-Mousson, on the Moselle, founded 1572.

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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 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 S. Patrick's day, 1664, 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 Rome 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 ser vants at the Pope's cost, paying for his house-room six crowns by the month ; he had apparel of three sorts, of blue and un- watered chamlet, and wore the same in Rome, having four or five servants waiting there on him ; in his household also, and supported at his own expense, were two or three poor scholars," These particulars, and many others too numerous

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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 Augsburg he was attacked by an ague which compelled him to accept for a week the kind hospitality of the Cardinal Bishop of Augsburg. Starting with restored health, he proceeded to Antwerp, where he met John Clement, tutor of the children of Sir Thomas More, and then an exile for the faith. Prevented from sailing immediately, he 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 publicly as Archbishop of Armagh. In memory of old times, he gave a grand banquet to the doctors of the University, " sitting with them in his archbishop's apparel of blue chamlet, 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 begging, 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 Bonner 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 absolute control of John O'Neill, a prince of great energy and not a few noble qualities, but

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who, though never faithless to the Catholic Church, regarded it, as it as 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 23 years of age, and he had sent to Rome for the purpose. But the Primate, it was known, would not consent to that nomination. More over, Terence Daniel, foster brother of O'Neill, and dean of Armagh, a court favourite during the reign of Edward VI., and one of those pliant ecclesiastics with whom some of the high places in the Church were cursed at that period, was strongly recommended to the Pope by O'Neill for the arch bishopric. 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 conge d'elire, the dean either could not or would not assemble them, so indignant were they at the intrusion of a heretic into the chair of S. Patrick. Loftus, however, after a considerable delay, was consecrated inMarch, 1563, and by the aid of English troops held his position for some time in the Louth or English por tion 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 prelates in the English pale in Queen Mary's time. The Pope had given him a letter to Shane O'Neill, and a pension on the see of Down for O'Neill's brother, which the Ulster priesthad applied for; but though he intended to go direct to Armagh he did not know if Shane would receive him. Not deterred, however, by these difficulties, he resolved, if he wrere received by the chapter, to inculcate 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 co-operation of the Crown. If

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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 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 religious order. Providence had, however, marked out a different fate for him.

Immediately after his arrival in Ireland, in the winter of 1564, 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 neigh bouring castle and brought before the warden. He told his rank and his object in coming over, and at the instigation 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 prisoner, and in pursu ance 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 18th January, 1565. On the 22nd February, the feast of S. Peter's Chair at Antiocli, he was interrogated at great length by Sir W. Cecil in Westminster Hall. He was again examined before the Re corder of London on the 17th of March, and a third time on the 23rd March. Soon after, that is on the octave of Easter, he escaped, as has been described by Rothe, 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, ex pecting to return to Ireland, 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 con vinced of his loyalty — and he was truly loyal— she would forgive his Catholicity. 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 month of August, 1566, he had an interview

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 113

at Irish-Darell, near Clondarell, in the county of Armagh, with Shane O'Neil, and he was accompanied by Myler M'Grath, lately appointed by the Pope bishop of Down. There attended also at this interview another powerful chief tain of the O'Neills, — Turlough Leynagh, to whom a letter had been sent by the Pope. He was meditating an attack on Carrickfergus, 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 Ley nagh, 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 honourably 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 promote peace, the Primate wrote the following letter to the lord deputy, Sir Henry Sidney : —

" Eight Honourable 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 we 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 from Rome such letters as were necessary for the aforesaid archbishop ric, whereby we were bound by our Catholic religion to come to Ireland ; wherein, being before the lord O'Neill's going to Tyrconnell, we desired him (according to the above- men-

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tioned 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 chided 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 lordship 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 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

* The reader must remember that at this date Loftus, the titular Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, was living in a lodging in London, and that there was not even the pretence of a Protestant congregation in the diocese of Armagh.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 115

doomed alike. Yet even Thomas More in his history has written that there was no persecution for religion until the close of Elizabeth's reign ; for what but his religion did the Queen's devoted subject Dr. Creagh suffer ?

To add to the Primate's troubles, Myler M'Grath, bishop of Down (who afterwards 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 disgrace him with the Pope. The forgery was however discovered. 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 Con- naught. Here, however, he was pursued by the malice of his English enemies and treacherously taken prisoner on the 30th April (a week before O'NeilPs defeat at Letterkenny), by O'Shaugnessy, who received a special letter of thanks from Elizabeth for his services. By order of the Queen dated 22nd July, 1567, he was tried in Dublin, but acquitted. This is the trial narrated in detail by Rothe, 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 gaoler. A proclamation was issued with a reward of £40 for his apprehension. He was taken by the retainers of Gerald, Earl of Kildare, under the com- mand of Myler Hussey, who, however, could not discover him until he had sworn and pledged the earl's honour that his life should be spared. On the 22nd December, 1567, Hussey petitioned the lords of the Privy Council to that effect, urging that if faith were not kept, 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 honour 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 off by poison, as Dr. Rothe relates, in 1585.

The original authorities for Dr. Creagh's life are Rothe, O'Sullivan, O'Daly, and the documents printed in the

i 2

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Shirley papers ; Sanders' History Eng. Reform ; Life of Sir John Perrot, &c. See Renehan's Bishops ; and the Rambler, April, 1854.

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 towards the sick, and rigorous in chastising his body. During the last fifteen years of his life he never touched beer or wine; he never eat meat during all the years of his profession. Almighty God, to reward the merits of Father Conor, suffered him, together with Father Malachy Kelly, a monk of the same monastery, 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 19th May, 1585. See a manuscript of the Irish College of Prague, and Henriquez's in Menologia Cister." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap, 20.

REV. MAURICE KINRECHTIN.

I GIVE his life from Dr. Rothe : —

" 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

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 117

orthodox profession ; if not begun for that reason, yet 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 amongst 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 yet 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 re turned). I know how they detest the tumult of war, and desire to devote themselves to the arts of peace, and enjoy its sweets. I know how ready they are to receive with warm affection and reverence the presence 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 established the much-desired peace and indulgence towards the Irish, both in respect to other matters of political administration, and especially in those matters of TroAn-aa 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, more over, been divinely infused into their minds, and divinely

* Although Dr. Rothe's book was printed in 1619, it would appear probable that this passage was written much earlier, in the reign of James I., when the Catholics had hopes of toleration from him — hopes soon so treacherously and bitterly disappointed.

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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 the 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 Killmallock, 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 obtained the rank of bachelor in theology, he was made chaplain and confessor to Gerald, Earl of Desmond; and when the 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 fto 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 him self 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

* 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 indifferent justice better than the Irish." How little they got of it from his master !

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 119

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, e 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 religion 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 neigh bour. 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 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, notwithstanding 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 sufferings 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, being bound in the Lord, was as one not bound, for his charity and

* " Suvinium," which I translate Sweeny.

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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 thy God's, 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 all 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 devotion, but by the ecclesiastical precept, to approach the Holy Communion, a certain eminent citizen of Clonmel sought to afford a paschal pleasure to the captive priest, and at the same to satisfy the piety of his neighbours, who desired above all things to make their Easter confession to the prisoner for Christ's sake, and to receive from him the Holy Communion. Victor White therefore went to the head gaoler, 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 gaoler 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 neighbourhood, 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 neighbourhood were

IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 121

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, whilst Maurice was yet hearing confessions, 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 house hold. Great was the terror of the assembled Catholics; the trembling women and children hid themselves 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 of 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 for4 the other. I will not here spea,k of David and Jonathan, or Orestes and Pylades : the neigh bouring Britain produced S. Alban, who, whilst yet a gentile, gave shelter to a Christian cleric, as did Ireland, Victor and Maurice. (Bede, lib. i. cap. 7.) But as the laurel of the martyr is more glorious than the reward of the con fessor, so was Alban more happy than his guest, as he received the crown which seemed prepared for the latter, and so Maurice by his triumph recovered the crown from Victor.

" When he heard, in the place of safety which he had reached, that Victor was in peril, he returned to the danger he had escaped to free his friend. An exchange was made of the prisoners; Victor was set free, and Maurice was

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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 the oath of the Queen's supremacy. But he chose 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. compendium 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 martyrdom/

" Others relate that after his head was cut off the Catholics, 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 faot 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 Martyrdoms/ it is rather

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 123

the sentence than the execution that is spoken of. But as sometimes, either through the mercy of the judge or the favour of the executioner, some part of the details of the sentence, though not of its essence, were 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 the different accounts given by different writers of the martyrdom of Sir Thomas More ; for some write that he was quartered (as Paulus Jovius), others that he was only hanged ; and the latter is the more correct .f But Jovius followed the tenor of the sentence pronounced upon 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 circum stance 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 colour 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 soldiers

* It was a common request to make of the executioner of those who were executed after the manner 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. — See instances in Challoner's " Mis sionary Priests," and Lingard, vol. v. p. 39.

t Henry commuted the sentence into decapitation, and More was beheaded. — Lingard, vol. v. p. 45.

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who were on guard, seeing this, sought to remove 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 martyr returned to the form of the cross. He departed to his crucified Lord the 30th April, in the year of our Lord 1585."

Copy 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 Kenrechtin, a pious priest, chaplain 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 gaoler permission for the priest to pass the night in his house ; this the gaoler 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 whilst hearing Mass in the house of Mr. White at daybreak ; 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 after escaped from the towji into the country. But the intrepid 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

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 125

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 presi dent upbraided 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 minister struck it in the face. Then the Catholics by prayers and bribes obtained of the executioners that they should not lacerate his body any further, and they buried it as honourably as they could. Farewell, and peace in the Lord, and be ye imitators — if occasion offers — of the courageous Maurice Kenrechtin, and till then prepare your souls for the trial. — Your devoted servant, — dated from the College of S. Anthony, 1586, 20th March, ROBERT ROCHFORT." — Rothe, " De Processu 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 fulfilled the duty of a good pastor, but, being taken prisoner by the heretics, was wounded, and bound with cord and carried to Dublin, where, overcome by human weakness and the torture

* Appointed in Consistory of April 27, 1582. — Moran, " Alps. Dublin" vol. i. p. 184.

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of the rack, he abjured the Catholic faith, and subscribed to the new religion of Elizabeth. On the fourth day afterwards he so repented of this grievous fault that, having first received absolution in the tribunal of penance, he coura- geouslyreturned 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 re nounced all the errors of Protestantism 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 they punished him not enough for the crime he had committed in denying the faith. At length, wearied and despairing of overcoming the con stancy of Peter, the officers left him bound in prison. The gaoler, 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. 20.

Rothe says, —

" Escaping from prison, he made his way to Rome, and, prostrate before the tribunal of the supreme judge, obtained 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 wicked Galilean sacristan), about 1587." — Rothe, " De Processu Martyriali."

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 127

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 permission of the Father (as is mentioned by the author of the Theatre) , before he had taken his vows. He had not long enjoyed his gentle native air when he was seized by the ungentle heretics in Dublin, and examined on the suspicion of holding corre spondence 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 young 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 desire of his parents, and that his object was not to excite rebellion, but only to satisfy his parents' request, and return 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 dragged from the court to the place of execution, and there hung, and cut in four parts, and so gloriously triumphed for Christ, 9th June, 1588."— Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.

Ho the, "De Processu Marty riali," mentions his death, and says he was a master of arts.

REV. PETER MILLER,

" of Wexford, and bachelor of theology, moved by charity for the Catholics, returned to Ireland from Spain. He 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. 20.

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PETER MEYLBR,

" 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 1588."— Philadelph.

REV. JOHN O'MOLLOY, CORNELIUS DOGHERTY, AND WALFRID FERRALL, O.S.F.,

" were Franciscans, and about 1588 fell victims to the malice of the heretics. They spent eight years in adminis tering the consolations of religion throughout the moun tainous districts of Leinster. Many families of Carlow, Wicklow, and Wexford, had been compelled to seek a refuge there from the fury of the English troops. The good Fran ciscans shared in all their perils ; travelling about from place to place by night, they visited the sick, consoled the dying, and offered up the sacred mysteries. Oftentimes the hard rock was their only bed; but they willingly embraced nakedness and hunger, and cold, to console their afflicted brethren. In a remote district of the Queen's County they were overtaken by a party of cavalry, bound hand and foot, and conducted with every species of insult to the garrison of Abbey leix. Here they were flogged, and then put on the rack ; at length being strangled, embowelled, and quar tered, they happily yielded their souls to their Creator." — Moran, "Abps. of Dublin" p. 143 ; Bruodin, and Mooney.

ANNO 1589.— -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.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH, 129

ANNO 1590.— CHRISTOPHER ROCHE.

" BORN of a respectable family in Wexford, he had nearly completed his studies at Louvain, when he was compelled by sickness to return home, but was arrested at Bristol, 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 December, 1590." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.

ANNO 1597.— REV. JOHN STEPHEN, WALTER

FERNAN, AND SEVERAL OTHERS.

HE is mentioned by Curry, " Civil Wars in Ireland," p. 6, who refers to "The Theatre of Catholic and Protestant Reli gion," 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 quartered 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 were slain in the monastery of Mogni- higan ; John O'Calyhor and Bryan O'Trevor, of the Order of S. Bernard, were slain in their own monastery, De Sancta Maria, in Ulster; as also Eelimy O'Hara, a lay brother; so was ^Eneas Penny, parish priest of Killagh, slain at the altar in his parish church there; Cahill M'Goran; Rory O'Don- nellan; Peter McQuillan; Patrick O'Kenna; George Power, Vicar-General of the diocese of Ossory; Andrew Stritch, of Limerick ; Bryan O'Murihirtagh, Vicar-General of the dio-

K

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cese of Clonfert ; 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 ^Eneas Penny, together with Walter Fernan, priest, died in the Castle of Dublin, either through hard usage and restraint or the violence of torture."

Of Andrew Stritch, Philadelphia says: " He was a priest of the diocese of Limerick. Educated for the Church in Paris, he went to Ireland to save souls, and laboured zealously 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, 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. Being then asked if he would take the oath of the Queen's supremacy, he answered, with constancy 'that he would rather die than swear that a woman, who, as S. 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 commend my spirit/ gave up his soul to his Creator, the 12th March, 1597." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.

IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 131

ANNO 1598.

MOST REV. EDWARD MAcGAURAN, ARCHBISHOP of

ARMAGH.

"EDWARD MACGAURAN was the immediate successor of Primate Creagh. In the year 1594 Pope Clement VIII. em ployed the prelate as his envoy to the Irish nation, with the view of animating them to persevere steadfastly 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 ejecting the bishops and priests from their dwellings, and hunting them into the woods, nor by punish ing by fines and confiscations both priests and people for not attending 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 18th 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 fre quently implored, during the last fifty years, the advice of the Roman Pontiff, and his interposition, either personally or through the French and 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 unsuc cessful war for the last five years, promised at length to send an effectual military aid to the Irish, and commissioned Primate MacGauran to give the Irish princes the most positive 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 beginning of 1594 with

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these two commissions. He lost no time in visiting the different princes of Ulster; he communicated to them his commissions,, and then took up his residence with Maguire, prince of Fermanagh,, on the confines of his diocese.

" Maguire,, before his arrival, had been in arms against England, and when the Lord-Deputy Sussex called on him to deliver 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, despatched Sir William Guelfort, with a body of troops, to oppose him. The two armies, on the 23rd June, met at a 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 himself through the surrounding officers with his sword, he pierced Guelfort through with his lance. The English, astonished at this daring bravery, and seeing their commander 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. Rothe says reconciling a dying heretic) . A party of the fugitive cavalry happened to come upon him while thus engaged, and transpierced 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

* Eenehan, Collec., p. 18, from O'Sullivan, Pet.* Lombard, and Philadelph., who puts his death at 1598, but Dr. Eenelian gives strong reasons to think this arises from a confusion between two battles of Maguire, and that the true date is 1593. Sir Richard Bingham, writing to the Privy Council on the 28th June, 1793, describes his death. — See Morctn, Hist. Alps. Dublin, vol. i. p. 290.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 133

at his death the headship of the Irish Church, with the title of Vice-Primate/ 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, who was a confessor, and almost a martyr. It then passed to Dr. Cornelius O'Doveney, who also laid down his life for Christ (anno 1612). Thus in thirty 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 confession 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." — PMladelph. 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, questioned 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 I6W."—PMladclph.

* Mooney thus explains the title of Vice-Primate :— " According to the custom of the province of Armagh, which is, that when the Primate is absent or the see of Armagh vacant, the oldest bishop of the pro vince 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).

134 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

ANNO 1601.

BIGHT REV. DR. RICHARD BRADY, BISHOP OF KILMORE, AND REV. BERNARD MORIARTY, AND COMPANIONS.

THE account which Father Mooney, who was one of the party, 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.

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 afterwards made Vicar- General of Dublin by Dr. Matthew de Oviedo, Archbishop of Dublin, and lived in the Franciscan convent of Multifarnham, on account of his great affection for the brethren. . . .

" The convent of Multifarnham, situated in a little village of the diocese of Meath, in the county of Westmeath, was founded by a Delmer, who in Irish is called Macherbert, and is believed to have been founded during the life of S. Francis. But the family of Nugent, which is the family 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 brethren 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 1st day of October, Sir Francis Shean, an 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 Moriarty, Dean of Ardagh, whom I have mentioned before. After he came to the convent he also arrested the father-guardian, who was there, Brother Neemias Gragan, a very religious man and much given to prayer, gentle in conversation, prudent in council, and whose whole life was worthy of praise. He

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 135

arrested Brother Hugh Me [the word is illegible], a priest;

Brother Lewis Ogy — [also illegible], a lay brother ; Torchseus 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 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, called Balmore, and kept us two days in the monastery prisoners, he staying there with his soldiers to look after plunder, of which there was not much, save a tolerable large store of provisions, which was the greater on account of the ap proaching festival of S. 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. Whilst we were kept prisoners in the monastery, I so arranged that the father-guardian and all the other brethren, except myself and one lay brother, deceived the watchfulness of their guards and escaped. And I myself remained 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 captive 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 afore said, and set fire to and destroyed the whole monastery, to the great grief of all who saw or heard of the destruction 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

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often said he would let me go, but that he could not do so, unless, putting oft' my habit, I would return to 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 pro tector, as he said I would be, would most likely be plundered and spoiled. And he urged me, saying, e 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 promise, 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 darkness of misery into His admirable light, and the society of His beloved Son, so strengthened my soul that not for a kingdom 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 1 was left with them, with my companion the lay brother ; and as the year of my noviceship was now fully completed, 1 spoke to the reverend father-provincial, humbly beseeching him that, as God had 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 S. Francis. The bishop, surprised, or rather wishing to try me, said, ' Hear me, my son, who art now in prison for the habit of S. 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, I 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 from the monastery, but preferred to come here, that I might make my profession in the hands of the father-

IN THE 11E1GN OF ELIZABETH. 137

minister. And 1 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 long as He wills. I prefer the freedom of His sons to that of His enemies/ At length, whilst 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 1 might perchance relax of my fervour, and, by my ingratitude losing grace, say or do something unbefitting the holy pro fession 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 assist ance 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 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. Every night I and Father

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Bernard were bound with an iron chain on our feet, for they feared us both much ; but occasionally it was omitted to be put on. At length, after we had devised 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 halfway 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 1 was unacquainted with the country. There 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 Bernard, 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 : by His providence I was preserved for further ills, when, if it had pleased the divine goodness, I might have also received the crown of martyrdom. . . . After this, Francis Shean determined to send to Dublin the priest and brother ; but the bishop, because he was of a noble * family, he gave to a neighbouring 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 year 1602. •

" The father-minister, with Brother James Hayn and the

* There is a word wanting here, which I have supplied at a guess. The text runs, " Episcopus qui genere erat, cuidam nobili vicino tra- didit."

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 139

aforesaid Father Bernard, were sent to Dublin ; and whilst 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 soldiers 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 unbroken ranks, retiring towards 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 others returned ; and from that day there were never wanting 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 strait ened, rather than elsewhere in comfort. Afterwards Father 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 McLoch- lain ; and when they had roofed a chapel, and some outer

* The Franciscans have never abandoned Multifarnham, and still own the old church (restored) and the site of the monastery, with some remains of the cloisters, a modern house, which is now the monastery, and a field.

1 tO MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

buildings, there came down the soldiers of another Sir Francis Ringtia, and they burnt down the monastery again, and carried oft' some of the brethren captive to Dublin. The bishop whom I mentioned 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 Brehnc- Graille. He studied civil and canon law ; afterwards, although he had great expectations in the world, despising its allurements, he entered the Order of S. 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 lie 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 23rd of January, 1576. Afterwards he resigned that bishopric, and was made Bishop of Kilmore. Afterwards, according to the custom of the province of Armagh, by which, when the Primate is absent or the see of Armagh vacant, the senior bishop of the province has the title of Vice-Primate, on the martyrdom of Dr. Edmund Gauran, who was Primate, Dr. Redmond, Bishop of Derry, held the office of Vice-Primate ; and at his mar tyrdom 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 men tion, lest this custom, by oblivion, might become obsolete.

"Dr. Richard was old when he was made bishop; throughout his life he was most religious, and never, except when the duties of his episcopal administration required it, lived anywhere save in some convent of his order, and generally in the convent of Multifarnham. He never had any garments but such as the brethren commonly wore, and always took his meals at the table of the community, unless

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH, 141

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 time he was ransomed, and gave great edification in his imprisonment ; the last time, as I have already told, being old and infirm, he was despised, stripped of his clothes, thrown amongst nettles, and left there. He lived for many 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, arid, with his hands tied behind his back like

142 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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. Mollony, filled with the spirit of God, answered courageously he was ready to obey the Queen's commands in all things not contrary to the laws of Jesus Christ, the 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, 1 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 ? ' ' By no means/ said Mollony ; ' a woman, who may not speak in the church, I cannot 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

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 143

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 afterwards he slept piously in the Lord, on the 24th April, anno 1601." — Bruodin} lib. iii. cap. 20.

REV. JOHN O'KELLY,

" a priest of Connaught, of an illustrious race, endured many torments for the Catholic religion, and, worn out by sufferings and the squalor of prison, he yielded his soul to God in prison in Dublin, 15th May, 1601."— Bruodin, ibid.

RIGHT REV. MALACHY O'MOLLONY, BISHOP OF

KlLLALOE.

" MALACHY O'MOLLONY, of Thomond, Bishop of Killaloe, a pastor unweared in labour, full of learning and apostolic 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 constancy in the faith was firm as gold tried in the fire. As his constancy remained unshaken by his sufferings, he was brought before the tribu nal and asked whether, as became a subject, he would sub scribe to the Queen's decrees in matters of faith. Malachy answered that it was not competent for Elizabeth to rule the Church, and that therefore he recognized her authority in temporals, but not in spirituals. Then the chief judge, without any further examination, 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, returning to his own people in Thomond,

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lie changed his dress, and, disguised as a labourer, and hiding from the heretics for the most part in woods and morasses, he discharged 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 honourable man, Cornelius Bruodin, lord of Moyne (commonly called Mac- Bruodin), the 20th July, 1603,"— ftruodhi, lib. iii. cap. 20.

ANNO 1602. FORTY-TWO PRIESTS.

" IT was intimated in many districts of the southern province in 160.2 that such of the clergy as presented 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 secular priests, availed themselves of the Government proposal. They were ordered to assemble at the island of Inniscattery, in the vicinity of Limerick, and 011 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 thrown 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 sacri legiously slain by them ; and some of the descendants of these men yet live in Ireland."^ — Hib. Dom.} p. 595, who quotes O'Heyn, Epilogus Chrono/., p. 18.

* De Burgo says, "Forty-two monks, under the name of Ber- nardins, two fathers of ours, seven clerics of ours also, came then from the convents of Limerick and TCillmallock."

t Incredible as this atrocity might appear, the reader who will look in this work to the year 1644 will see that in that year another captain received the thanks of Parliament for a similar act.

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 145

REV. EUGENE MAC EGAN.

" 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 Mac Egan, a priest,* who whilst he was officiating with the army of the Catholics in 1602 was mortally wounded 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 de clared on oath that they perceived in the place, whilst 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 Philadelphus.

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 parents in Ireland, lords of a town called Labranche.f His name whilst living in the world was O'Calanus (it is the custom in Ire land to prefix the letter to a name as a sign of nobility), but when he entered religion he changed it through humility to Collins. J When he had attained to manhood under the

* " Doctor in theology, and vicar apostolic of the diocese of Ross." — Philadelph.

t Philadelphus calls him " Yoghelensis," an inhabitant of Youghal, as does O'Sullivan, p. 239.

J Philadelphus gives his name as Cullen ; it would seem, therefore, doubtful whether his family name was O'Cullen or O'Callaghan ; pro bably the latter.

L

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training of his pious parents he crossed into France, and, inspired by the generous ardour 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 sec taries who had taken up arms against their religion and their King, and obtained the command 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 suitable to his birth and services. He served here eight years, mostly in peace, but turned his attention from external to internal enemies, and sought, by the constant use of the sacraments, by meditation and prayer, to overcome the interior enemies of his soul, and to overcome his body by mortification. His piety thus daily increasing, he began by degrees to conceive a desire for a more perfect life, and to view in another light the goods of this world. Having determined 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 Discalced 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 recommended the matter to God, he de termined to enter the humble Society of Jesus, and to con tinue in it in the humble 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 fathers judged him unable to undergo the labours and duties 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.

" Ashe perceived the common opinion in their countenance,

IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 147

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 changed his secular dress, for three whole months he most sedulously attended on the sick, and sought to be employed in the lowest and most painful services with as much eagerness as he had formerly courted rank and dignities. 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 ac company 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 exhortingthem 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 practising continual mortifications both at sea and after his landing in Ireland, as if he had no labours 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 landing, he was taken prisoner in the fort of Beerhaven by the heretics,"* and, contrary to the law of nations and in violation 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 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 .f His hands were tied behind his back, and he was brought to Cork

* Beerliaven is given by Philadelphia. Tanner has "via arce Dombu- gensi ;" but he constantly makes mistakes in the orthography of Irish names.

t Philadelphia says Beerhaven was taken by Sir George Carew, then commanding in Munster.

L 2

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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 their 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 angered at this calmness of the man of God, and, that the days which were to precede his execution might be full of suffering, he ordered him to be tortured, which was contrary to law. The most severe torments he bore as if they were pleasures and favours of Heaven, and the heretics, provoked at his patience, hastened the day of his death. 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, reflecting on Christ bearing His cross. When he arrived at the foot of the gallows, he fell on his knees and kissed it, commending 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 countenance ascended the ladder. Turning round

IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 149

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 heaven, 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 contempt he had shown for the goods of fortune, and the position in which he stood, were most powerful in encouraging 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, whilst 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 save the Queen/ Thus this last victim to God in Ireland in her reign pre ceded the Queen, guilty of so much innocent blood, to the judgment-seat of God.* On the following 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 Philadelphus, and Bur- gundian MS. Martyr ol. Soc. Jesu, and O} Sullivan, Hist. Cath., p. 239, edition of 1850.

* Queen Elizabeth died on the 24th March, 1603 ; but her death brought no relaxation of the persecution.

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ANNO 1604.

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 were wandering about the country, and by them pierced with many wounds, whereof he died, in the year of our 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 opposed 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 1605.— REV. BERNARD KEROLAN.

" THIS Bernard, or, as some have it, Barnabas Kerolan, appears to be the same whom the holy martyr Cornelius, 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.

* See Renehan's Collec., p. 274.

t The celebrated Black Abbey of Kilkenny. It was again restored to the Dominicans, and the church repaired, 1864.

J Mooney says he perished in 1601, on the 8th March, "at a very advanced age, being, as was supposed, the oldest bishop from his ordi nation in Europe." (Mooney, sub init.) 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, the old style was observed in some parts of Ireland, the Gregorian calendar in others.

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 151

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 Asseroe, 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 1606." — Philadelph.

Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20, 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 according to the Roman rite, and, without any more trial, was hung and quartered at Dublin on the 25th January, 1606." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.

ANNO 1607. REV. NIGEL O'BOYLE, O.S.F.

" NIGEL O'BoYLE, of the Order of S. Francis, was be headed by the heretics and buried in a monastery of his 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 22nd 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

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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 assented ; and interpreting the preceding declaration as merely regard ing 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 ac knowledgment 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 Pr&munire* tried, and found guilty. During the trial the judge reproached him with having denied the doctrine which he had by his signature acknow ledged 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 acknow ledged the King's supremacy 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. — Moran, Hist. Abps. 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.

* Which made the introduction of bulls, or holding communication with Rome, a capital felony

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 153

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 Malphseus, Prior of Brussels." — Hib. Dom. p. 559, and Dom. a Rosario, cap. 9.

ANNO 1610. SIR JOHN BURKE, OR DE BURGO.

I GIVE his life from Rothe, " De Processu Martyriali." Sir John Burke was of noble birth, and had inherited, together with the lordship of Brittas (De Bretasio)/* several other estates in the same neighbourhood. His wealth and position induced Sir George Thornton, an Englishman, to give him in marriage his daughter, a young lady of excellent 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 considered the journey thither easier than elsewhere, or that he thought he would find there more facilities either for further 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 splendour of the divine worship and the liberty and perpetual peace which the Catholics enjoyed in Spain; and how that nation fa voured 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 profession of the same common faith.

* Bruodin (lib. iii. cap. 20) says he was the second son of the Baron of Castle Connell, in the county Limerick.

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Whilst John was thus moved by these reasons, and was privately preparing money and getting letters of introduction, his servants, guessing his intention, desired to impede his plan j and his father-in-law, having heard from others some hints of his intended journey, made use of all his authority, 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 punished severely what he called his daring attempt. He and Sir Charles Wilmot were joined in the government of the pro vince 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 at tended Mass openly, and assisted at sermons in company with his neighbours, either at his own house, when there was an opportunity of having a priest there, or in the neigh bouring 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 entrusted most of his domestic affairs to his wife, and gave his whole time to works of charity, and especially to escorting on their road and forwarding priests, more particularly those of the Order of S. 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 Catholics 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 be fore 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

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 155

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 successor, King James — whether he would imitate the example 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 deemed themselves free to come out of their hiding- places, and 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 fervour of their piety, not to any malignity or spirit of revolt.

Bat 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 become bound in any bail for him ; but all their entreaties were rejected, until that plague was raging in Dublin which afterwards 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 amongst these Sir John, were set free.

Whilst 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 meditation, 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

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omitted through forgetfulness any of his accustomed 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 perfec tion continually increased ; he became a great friend of 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 confraternity, both as to reciting the rosary, frequenting the sacraments of con fession and communion monthly, and other duties ; and his fervour so grew that his whole pleasure was in the society of ecclesiastics and pious conversation.

The fame of his piety spread through all the neighbour hood, and came to the ears of Henry Bronkard, President 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 himself indeed willing enough, to have him arrested. Theobald Burke, baron, and Edmund Walsh, knight, who was then vice-lieutenant* of that district of Limerick, by letter accused Sir John of being a harbourer 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 uncertain ; "but the Most High is a patient rewarder." (Eccles. v. 4.)

It is true that Sir John had erected an altar in the largest 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

* " Yicecomes," which generally means viscount, is here apparently used for vice-lieutenant of the county, he who is second in authority to the lieutenant.

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 157

members of the sodality who would come to receive the Holy Communion ; for, according to the rule of their insti tute, 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 (Clansseus), 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 to him.* Sir John gave him no answer but that if he

* Evidently the captain offered safety to Burke, but said nothing as to what would be done with the priest ; and the former, well knowing what would be his chaplain's fate, refused the proffered terms. This is also shown by 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 from the Protestants. 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 com panions, John O'Holloghan, he escaped with the other four. He was, however, taken prisoner by the Protestants 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, from the darkness and filth of his dungeon, and, as he constantly refused to hear the Protestant preacher, even stopping his ears with his fingers, and preferred the Catholic religion to the title of baron and other rewards, and even to his life, he finally suffered death. It is said that

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desired to enter there he should go to confession and become a Catholic; if not, there could be no communication between Christ and Belial ; for " without are dogs and sorcerers, unchaste and murderers, and servers of idols, 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-lieutenant, 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 neighbouring stream, having first sent off the chaplain to a safe place, and agreed with his followers on a trystiug-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.

two women, who were accused, the one at Carrick, the other at Water- ford, of having concealed him, were burnt alive. It is also related that two other women were burnt at Limerick, the one for having said that the King's laws were unjust, the other for having concealed a priest."

IN THE REIGN OP JAMES I. 159

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 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 honour 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 S. 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 sodality (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 gaol 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

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faith, or to abandon the path of duty in which he had been brought up, he was condemned to death.

What was very remarkable about this matter was, that 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 towards 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 unhesitatingly 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 honour due to both, far from deserving to be obeyed, deserved neither honour 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 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.

* " Antecessor in Curia Comnmnium Placitorum regni." I do not know if I have rightly translated " antecessor."

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 161

And S. 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 counte nance, 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 fervour, and showed as much consolation and alacrity as if he were going to a feast. Truly may 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 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 corrected, either here or hereafter.

One day judges another, but the last judges all. When Sir John was hung, some noblemen, amongst others Sir Thomas Broune, entreated the president that when taken

* He uses the Persian word parasang, an uncertain measure.

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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 S. 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 Rothe and O'Sullivan. Bruodin (lib. iii. cap. 20) gives a long life of him, substantially agreeing with that of Rothe, which he says he took from a manuscript life of Sir John, in his possession, written by Father Matthew Crahy, his confessor, afterwards Yicar- 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 of 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 right hand to be burned ; but, wonderful to relate, the hand was burnt, but those three fingers remained uninjured." — 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 conscious

IN THE REIGN OP JAMES I. 163

of no crime, and fearing lest the vengeance of the Govern ment might fall on the Catholics of Drogheda, surrendered himself voluntarily, and, being conducted to Dublin, was arraigned in his habit before the Lord Chancellor, the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. The captain of the escort interposed on 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. Notwithstanding this inter position, 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. Abps. Dublin, vol. i. p. 246 ; also Wadding, Annals.

REV. JOHN LUNE,

" 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. 20.

ANNO 1612.— RIGHT REV. CORNELIUS O'DOVANY, BISHOP OF DOWN AND CONNOR, AND REV. PATRICK LOCHERAN, PRIEST, HIS COMPANION, O.S.F.

I GIVE first his life from Rothe, as it is not to be had 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 the torments, but rather the torments yielded to you/ (S. 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 in 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 commemorate on one day the birth to a heavenly life of those on whom Christ our Lord bestowed in one day, and under the same

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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 1611, on the 1st 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 martyrdom. Sixtus forewarned Laurence of his more grievous sufferings. Patrick was pressed to apostatize by Secretary 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.

" Cornelius, having embraced the rule of S. Francis from his youth, almost before he had attained his twentieth year, was a pattern of piety and patience, and having been raised to the episcopal dignity, "^ laboured strenuously to fulfil its duties. At length he was taken prisoner and thrown into prison, in Dublin Castle, f and was there kept for about three

* Appointed to the united sees of Down and Connor 26th April, 1582. — Ada Consistorialia.

t Two unpublished manuscripts in the Burgundian Library, Brussels, contain much valuable information relating to the martyrdom of Bishop Cornelius. The one is entitled " Compendium of the Martyrdom of the Eight Rev. Father Cornelius O'Doveany, of the order of Friars Minors, Bishop of Down and Connor, and of "his 'Chaplain, extracted from the letters sent from Ireland to the Irish Friars Minors in Louvain." It is numbered 2,167, 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 2,167, pp. 415. These two contemporary ac-

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 165

years. What he suffered there can hardly be told, being almost without clothing, and in danger of perishing of hunger

counts fully confirm the statements of Eothe 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-cap tives in his prayer to break out into these words : ' O Lord God, 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 confession of Thy name either by the sword of the heretic or in this prison.' He often said to noble Catholics who visited him that he would prefer life in prison to freedom, were it 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-coloured nor his counte nance 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, getting down from the cart at the foot of the hill, knelt down and prayed fervently. Then, to the admira tion of all, the old man, with strong and eager steps, walked up to the gallows and embraced and kissed its beams, as did the priest. 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 pastoral care for his companion), but it was refused, and the priest said, ' Go then before me, reverend 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 and willingly forgave it. So also did the priest. Then the

a I have seen such sacred vessels, &c., myself in Ireland : small chalices, which unscrewed into two parts, and could be carried in the pockets, and thin vestments, which rolled up in a small space. — M. O'R.

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and thirst, had not necessity taught him a mode of obtaining relief. There were confined in the castle prison at that time

bishop, taking for his text the words of S. Paul, ' Though an angel from heaven should preach to you another gospel than you have heard from 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 cord, 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 Eight Rev. Cornelius O'Dovany, who afterwards 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 soldiers to the cart in which the holy old man lay to ask for a bit of his girdle,a to whom he willingly gave the whole. The insolent 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 honour to be put in the cart with so holy a man. ... A number of ministers accompanied the procession, amongst whom was one Challoner, 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 I 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 the 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 referring 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

a " Although forbidden to wear it openly, he always wore the habit and girdle of S. Francis under his other clothes." — Compendium.

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other prisoners for civil offences, 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 succour 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

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 labours. Where I am stationed there is an abundant harvest, for I have to travel through all Ulster. However, by special order, I have preached here the whole Lent, all Sundays and holydays, in a house prepared for the purpose, and which is capable of holding six hundred persons, and it is wonderful how ready the people are to receive the seed. During the week I have frequently made excursions to the neighbouring villages, of which you may judge the fruit by one example. After one sermon on the right way of confessing, and after I had published the indul gences 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 them to remember me in their prayers. My best salutation to Master Lossius, the royal prefect, to Peter, to Yising, and Smith of the Cross.

" The Convent of Dundalk, 15th April (old style ; new style 25th), 1612. — Your devoted servant, " THOMAS FLEMING."

* The following letter in the kState Paper Office throws much light on the bishop's arrest, and shows clearly that his only crime was his religion : —

" Fytzwylliam to Burghley, October 26, 1588. Dublin.

" IT may please your Lordship : there is a prisoner in the castle, one Cornelius, Bishop of Down and Connor, who, having lately escaped,

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Jeremias, who was let down by a cord into a dungeon wherein there was no water, but mire, that he might die of hunger; arid 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 dan-

had upon his apprehension found about him a commission — the copy whereof your Lordship shall receive enclosed — sent from the Bishop of Derry, authorizing him, as his vice-primate, to grant pardons and in dulgences, who, albeit a most pestilent and dangerous member, and fit to be cut off, yet, being informed that we cannot here otherwise proceed against him than in the course of Prsemunire, I humbly beseech your 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.)

" -N"osB,edmundus,Dei et Apostolicse Sedis gratia Deren. Episcopus ac totius Hiberniee Vice-Primas, Revndo Dno confratriN™ Cornelio, Dunen. et Coneren. Episcopo. — Quoniam propter imminentia pericula ac discri- mina interitus vita3, personaliter terras illas visitare nequimus, ad dis- pensandum cum omnibus cum quibus si presentes essemus Brevis Apostolici auctoritate ac primitialis dignitatis vices nostras ad annum integrum a tempore et (sic) presentium tenore hujus scripture, com- mittimus ac potestatem absolvendi omnes ac singulos a3 se concur- rentes a casibus tarn episcopalibus quam papalibus in foro saltern conscientise, injuncta eisdem pro modo culpse salutari penitentia, ad predictum tempus concedimus et indulgemus. — Dat. in ecclesia paro- chiali de Tarnlar, 2 Julii, 1588. Redmundus Deren. Episcopus ac Yice-Primas."

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gerous 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' labours, he at length fell into the hands of those who deemed they would do the King a great service by apprehending him.

"He was seized in the month of June,* whilst 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 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. t Both were sentenced to death, but I will relate more at length the manner of their sentence.

" The bishop was accused that in the last warlike rising caused by the Earl of Tyrone J he had followed the earl,

* O'Sullivan says he was arrested June, 1611, and executed April, 1612 ; and this is probably correct, although Dr. Rothe, in this work, puts his death in 1611, because he himself addressed a letter to him, as in prison, on the 17th December, 1611, and had he been executed eight months before, he would have heard of it. (Epistola Parsenetica ad Episcopum Dunensem, in "Analecta Sacra et Nova.") Carve puts his death at 1614 ; but he is often inaccurate. Father Fleming writes of it as recent (on 25th April, 1612). Mooney also, who is very accurate, puts his death at 1612.

t He was less rigorously confined, and was even able to say Mass by stealth.— See p. 165.

I 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, of course, could not take the oath of supremacy. — O'Sullivan.

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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 endeavoured with valid reasons to answer the principal heads of accusation, and to the first he answered that he was consecrated a bishop to labour for the salvation of the flock entrusted to him, and, as his bishopric of Down and Connor lay in that part of Ulster which Earl Hugh held by force of arms, it was his duty to labour as best he could to direct the inhabitants in the way of salvation ; that as to warlike matters he neither desired to know or knew any thing ; 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 laboured 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 himself by reminding them that when King James ascended 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 alleged 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 clearly 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, accused the bishop before the tribunal of having beeji with Earl Hugh shortly before his flight, and having consulted with

* I have omitted here a long paragraph, in which, in the style of the period, and with classic illustrations, Dr. Eothe enlarges on this, and later also, one or two other lengthy illustrations.

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him as to the road and manner of his flight and the prepara tion 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 prisoners, he would probably have accompanied them in their exile.

" Had he, however, even known of their departure, and given them food and assistance, how should this be considered 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 from the English Court with the favour 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 sacra ments, preached the Word of God, and bore the habit of S. 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 imperial 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 chal lenges to the jurors. The questions of fact are to be deter mined by the jurors;* but only strangers to this country,

* According to the old English law, the jurors were to decide from tlieir own knowledge, aided by the evidence, and the writ directed the

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English and Scotch,* to whom the accused was unknown, and by whom the circumstances of the case could not be under stood, 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 was for acquitting the innocent, was not listened to, and might deem himself happy not to be punished for upholding the truth.

e( As soon as the jury, with one exception, had pronounced their unjust verdict, the judge pronounced the sentence that ' Cornelius Dovany, Bishop of Down and Connor, 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 whilst alive, embowelled, and his heart and bowels burnt, his head cut off, and his body divided into four parts.'f

" 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 acknow ledgment ; for as the heretics loudly upbraided him with having been condemned, not for the faith, but for treason,

sheriff " to summon a jury of twelve men from the neighbourhood who best may know the facts." The bishop also challenged the jurors as being aliens, and not freeholders, as required by law, but the chal lenges were all disallowed — O' Sullivan.

* And " men not one of whom was worth twentypence of revenue." t A certain pious woman, who used to carry food to the bishop and the priest, which was supplied by the Catholics, after his sentence asked the bishop how he was in health. " I have not been better," said he, " these ten years, either in mind or body. My only wish now is that God will vouchsafe to take me to His heavenly kingdom now, by martyrdom, rather than permit me to be worn out in prison of old age. You, daughter, have done me many services, for which I thank you, as I 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 Franciscan habit). I value more this frock, which I put on when I was young, than the insignia of a bishop." — 0' Sullivan, ibid.

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he by an ingenious artifice preserved, not his life, but his honour.

" 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.

" When Saul pursued the Royal Prophet with deadly hatred (1 Kings xxii.), and he, flying from the wrath of the king, turned aside to the priest Achimelech, and was refreshed 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 traitor 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 honourable 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 clemency ; but if they desired his death, he besought them at least to spare his honour, 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 there openly offered him life if, abandoning the Roman Catholic religion, he would embrace their sect. When the bishop

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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 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 troubles, and in watching and prayer he awaited 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 mountain 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 kissing 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. f

"Doeg the Idumean may come with his emissaries, and

* " The Viceroy sent, several times, councillors and others to offer the condemned life and reward, and especially to the bishop his bishopric, and to the priest a good living, if they would renounce the Catholic Church and the authority of the Homan Pontiff, and acknow ledge 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 incur eternal punishment, than to have advised the aged Eleazer, in order to avoid death, to eat swine's flesh. So also spoke the priest."

•f* " Having crossed the river which washes the city, they came to the foot of the hillock on which stood the gallows." — O' Sullivan.

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES 1. 175

slay the priest of the Lord ; the priesthood they cannot slay ; our religion they cannot take away, our faith they cannot uproot, our constancy they cannot weary : the more of us are slain, the more numerous we are. As Tertullian says (Apolog. c. 50), 'The battle to which we are challenged 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 the spoil of eternal life. Your cruelty profits nothing, but is rather an incentive; we become the more numerous the more we are decimated ; our seed is the blood of Christians.' This was well proved in the martyrdom of the bishop ; 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 harbour 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 Vice roy, fell on their knees. Men of the first rank, and the inhabitants of all the neighbouring 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 lamented the death of the bishop, and as they perceived several of the King's council accom panying the procession and showing their hostility, they boldly exclaimed in their hearing that it ill became the King's councillors to turn executioners.

" 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 Lemuel, ' Give strong drink to them that are sad, and wine to them that are grieved in mind : let them drink, and

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forget their want, and remember their sorrow no more. (Proverbs xxxi. 6.)

" But Cornelius, because he grieved not, but rather exulted 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 fervour 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, nor things 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 3,000 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 grey hairs of the bishop, and prayed his pardon, and with trembling hands adjusted the noose. The moment the

* " The regular executioner, who was an Irishman, had fled." — O' Sullivan.

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 177

bishop mounted the first step of the ladder, and his head was seen above 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 religion ye suffer/ To these unjust words the bishop answered, ' 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 prevari cation of which you accuse us, for but a few hours ago, sent as you said by the Viceroy, you offered us life and free dom 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 Dub lin, 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 these tribulations should come to an end :* the blood of our Abel

* Alas ! the good Bishop Bothe's anticipations were fallacious. The sword of the Lord was not sheathed for one hundred years more, and Bishop Dovany and ]ais pompanion were followed by luijidrecls of Otk?T

N

178 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

cries from the earth, not for vengeance, but mercy. 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 all struggled to carry away some relic, either a scrap of his 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 pre cious stones.* 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 the bodies which have taught us to despise death for the faith. S. Gregory teaches us (lib. vi. indict. 15, epist. 23) that the Chris tians of old held as a great and sacred gift, not only a cloth stained with the martyrs' blood, but even one that had

martyrs ; but as the seed was abundant, so lias been the harvest. The blood-rain of martyrs' blood lias made the spiritual harvest in Ireland abundant.

* " The bishop's Lead 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 silver. The Catholics gathered up his blood, and contended for his garments, despite the re sistance of the soldiery. The priest Patrick followed the same road, singing, as he mounted the ladder, the canticle of Simeon : ' Now, O Lord, dismiss thy servant in peace,' and, after the example of the bishop, lie 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 pieces. The soldiers, warned by the loss of the bishop's head, resisted the unarmed crowd, who strove to catch the martyr's blood, and oj;her 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 denied by heretical worship." — O' Sullivan.

Mooney says, " Their remains are deposited in the cemetery of S, James, together with those of many others whom I shall mention later, because all the churches of the city are denied."

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 179

been laid on their tomb ; and the same Gregory sent to King Richard a little key in which was a small portion of the iron of S. 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. 5, 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 martyrdom may bring you the grace of forgiveness/ Far different from the sectaries of this age, who, that they only may be honoured 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 S. 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 re mark 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 1611, was the day on which was born to a better life the blessed martyr Dovany, Bishop of Down and Connor, of the Order of S. 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 persecution by D. Sibthorpe/* and by martyrdom passed to his rest.

"The same day and year the blessed martyr Patrick Locheran, priest, under the same Viceroy, Arthur Chich ester,

* O'Sullivan says, Dominick Sarsfield was the judge, " one most cruel to priests and Catholics," and that his colleague, though a Pro testant, feigned illness, not to take part in the condemnation of the bishop, who was innocent.

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180 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

and D. Sarcevilius, judge, suffered death. Each might have secured his life if he would abandon the Catholic 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, flf you blush not to imitate Pilate, it irks not me to imitate Christ, for He is the way, the truth, and the life.' "

ANNIS 1613, 1614, AND 1617. REV. BERNARD GRAGAN AND OTHERS, O.S.F.

FATHER MOONEY, continuing his account of the monastery of Multifarnham, part of which is given under the year 1601, gives the following account of others who there suf fered 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 Tir-

* Father Patrick Locheran was accused of having "traitorously gone to Belgium in the same ship with the fugitives Earls O'Neile and O'Donnell." He answered that he had crossed to Belgium to study, in the same ship, but before O'Neile 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 they were Pro testants, they 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 proceeded to pronounce sentence. — 0' Sullivan, torn, iv, cap, 18,

IN THE REIGN OF JAIViES 1. 181

connell, 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 favour, 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 Chancellor, 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 Macanaspie, 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 Baleathbeg ; 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 convent, 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 B/heims, in Brittany, partly from the fatigue of the journey and the sea, partly from infirmities contracted in prison.

" In the year 1614 Sir Oliver Lambert took prisoner Brother James MacGrollen, a holy priest of the same convent, 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, 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.

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" In 1617 there was taken prisoner, whilst he was collect ing alms for the convent,, by a certain local tyrant whose name was Daniel/* another brother of the same convent, whose name was Charles Crossan, a priest. So also in like manner was taken in the year Brother Didacus Conor, a priest, whilst, through obedience, he was collecting alms. These two are yet in prison. f So much for this theatre of per secution and unarmed and innocent endurance." — Mooney, p. 77.

WILLIAM MEDE

" was a citizen of Cork, distinguished for his learning and wealth, and was patron and protector of the rights and im munities of that city 4 He persuaded his fellow- citizens, during the time between the death of Queen Elizabeth 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 per secution on the part of the heretics. He was put upon his trial for treason, but the twelve jurors acquitted him ; and, to punish them for thus refusing to condemn the innocent, they were tormented in all sorts of ways, publicly paraded through the city with an inscription on their foreheads 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 was compelled, through regard for his life, to go into a voluntary exile, where, after several years, he piously slept in the Lord at Naples, in 1614." — Philadelph.

* There is a word before Daniel which is illegible.

t Mooney wrote in 1624.

% Our author probably means he was mayor.

IN THE KEIGN OF JAMES I. 183

ANNO 1615.— SIRS BERNARD AND ARTHUR O'NEILL, RODERICK AND GODFREY O'KAHAN, ALEX ANDER MAcSORLEY, KNIGHTS, AND REV. LEWIS OLABERTAG.

" SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER devised this plan to entrap some of the inhabitants of Ulster who were most remarkable 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'NeilPs, 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 MacSorley, 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 character was not enough to convict them. They were tortured, but confessed nothing. But as they were tried by twelve English and Scotch Protestants, who had also received land in Ulster, and did not wish to have Catholic neighbours, they were at once found guilty. The Viceroy referred the sentence to the King, who sent back for answer 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

18 i MARTYRS AND CONFESS0113

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' Sullivan, p. 260.

ANNO 1617.

KEY. 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, suf fered 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,j 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 surprise and indignation of the heretics, who yet could not prevent the devotion of the people ; and at length his remains were laid in the same cemetery (that of S. James), near those of the bishop (Dr. O'Dovany)." — Mooney, p. 68, and Phila- delph. and Bruodin, lib. iii. 20.

REV. WILLIAM DONATUS (OR DONAGH).

HE is mentioned in a letter preserved in Stoneyhurst 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 Dublin, as Archbishop Matthews was supposed to be there. The letter continues, fBut the archbishop, by God's will, was out of their way; but in the search many others were apprehended and cast into prison, both ecclesiastics and others. One regular, and another secular priest, by name

* " Omurius/'

f Philadelphia says he was several times imprisoned.

J Philadelphia says the 12th of July.

IN THE KElGN OF JAMES 1. 185

William Donatus, who, though lying ill in bed, because he was thought to be the chaplain of the archbishop, was com pelled to get up and accompany the others to prison, where he yet lies.' " — Renchan, 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 amongst the strict observers of evangelical poverty — the Franciscans — as a no vice 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 afflicting his body with the discipline.

" Having made his profession, by order of his superiors he proceeded to Spain, and there, among the sons of the pro vince of S. 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 island of S. Sinnanus, called

* It is to be remembered that he dwelt in Clare, a remote district, inhabited exclusively by Catholics, and whither the Queen's soldiers rarely penetrated.

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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 labours amongst his friends and relatives (and then, as now, there were as many Catholics as Bruodins), and laboured with such zeal, where before they had been suffering from a dearth of pastors, that the Catholics in all the baronies of Clare were provided with spiritual food. Dermid had thus laboured for many years in the vineyard of the Lord, when the enemy of human salvation sought, by means of the satellites of Elizabeth, to put a stop to his zealous efforts. Divers 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.

" Whilst the search was most eager Dermid was employed preaching and catechizing not far from Limerick, in a place, however, which was mountainous, and generally safe from the excursions of the heretics. However, his presence there came to the knowledgeof the commander of the garrison inLimerick, 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, Dermid boldly answered that his dress showed he was a Catholic and a Franciscan; that as to his name, profession, labours, 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 Catholic faith. 'Well/

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 187

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. Whilst he was thus tortured he was asked by a certain petulant preacher whether he felt pain ? He answered, ' 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 threatened him. With this view, the earl persuaded the judges that Dermid was a fool, with whom he often amused 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 England and Ireland. The judges, either persuaded, or, as I think, not wishing to offend the powerful earl (whose fidelity and services to the Crown were well known), set Dermid at liberty, who was indeed nearly worn out with tortures and suffering. Dermid, thus set free as a fool for Christ, returned to his native district and prudently resumed his labours in Clare. Pro tected everywhere by being known as the mad monk, and favoured by Earl O'Brien (a man nominally a heretic, but a Catholic in his heart), he passed safely through the perse cuting 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

* The Franciscan convent of Inish, or Inis-Cluan-ruada, founded, according to Ware, by Donagli Carbrac O'Brian in the year 1210, for Minorites, by the river Forgy.

188 MARTVllS AND CONFESSORS

honour of Christ. At length, weighed down with years, and worn out with labours, Bruodin, fortified with the sacra ments of the Church, slept in the Lord, in his Franciscan convent of Inish, the 9th August, 1617. 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. 20.

As this is the last date given in Philadelphus, I shall here insert all those martyrs to whose triumph, being uncertain of the year, he does not give any date.

REV. NICHOLAS YOUNG,

" a priest from the village of Newton, near Trim, a vener able old man, for hatred of his religion was cast a 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 because he harboured 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 patient endur ance, the enemies of the faith let him go for a time, when he returned home, and peaceably died there about the year "

IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 189

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 favours obtained there."

PATRICK BROWNE,

"a distinguished citizen 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 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 convent, and several of them suffered martyrdom at the hands of the

* So printed in the original, in the margin. It is Exeter, as given in the text, "Exoniensi." Bruodin gives the date of his death as 20th September, 1600,

190 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 interred in the chapter-house of the convent." — Mooney, p. 46.

ANNO 1618. REV. JOHN O'HONAN, O.S.F.

11 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 honours and rewards which were offered to him in the name of the king if he would renounce his faith, he was first cruelly tortured, and then hung and cut in four parts, and so gloriously triumphed on the 14th October, 1618." — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20.

REV. PATRICK O'DYRY.

" HE was a native of Ulster, and a priest, and received the crown of martyrdom at Derry, of S. 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, 1618, and, as we may piously trust, enjoys a crown of glory with the saints." — Bruodin, ut supra.

* That making it treason for monks and priests to, re-enter the kingdom.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 191

ANNO 1632.— FATHER EDMUND DE BURGO, O.P.P.

" FATHER EDMUND DE BURGO departed to Christ in the year 1632.* He was an Irishman, of a 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 opponent 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 influence of his family, they after a time set at liberty." — Mon. 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 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 devo* tion for the rosary of the Blessed Virgin, and at the striking of every hour knelt down in prayer. — Ada Capituli Generalis Roma, 1656, ap. Hib. Dom.

ANNO 1633.— BEV. ARTHUR MAcGEOGHEGAN, O.P.P.

" THE venerable Father Arthur MacGeoghegan, after he had completed his studies in Spain,f and transacted with much prudence the business of the order intrusted to him, sailed (from Lisbon, where he had remained for some time in

* Hib. Dom. giyes the date as 1633 ; but in the " Monumenta Domini- cana" it is printed 1632. He was a monk, but not a priest, f He was an alumnus of the convent of Mullingar.

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the Dominican convent of our Blessed Lady of the Rosary)* to return to his own country, but, being taken on his road by the heretics and thrown into prison in London, was tried, as was usual, for high treason,f 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, having publicly proclaimed his faith, and that he was a Dominican, he was hung, and cut down whilst yet alive, his heart and entrails cut out and cast into the fire, and his body quartered ; and thus gloriously completed his con 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 College of Lisbon, which had been founded a few years before, viz., 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 to the college from whence he came, so that it began from that date to flourish, and became a celebrated seminary 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, JEneas Ambrose O'Cahill, Michael O'Clery, Gerald Bagot, and Thaddseus Moriarty. — Hib. Dom., p. 419.

* Dom. a Rosario.

f " For returning, having been ordained beyond the seas."

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 193

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 hav ing 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 par ticulars from a letter to the archbishop himself, addressed to Dr. Dwyer, in Rome, on 24th October, 1637, in which he further states that as yet his health had hardly recovered from the severe shock it received in the damp dungeon of the castle. — Moran, Abps. Dublin, vol. i. p. 402.

For a full account of the great deeds of this noble bishop, 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. Renehan'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 tribunal. Here he despised alike the rewards which were offered to him and the torments with which he was threatened, 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 humpbacked, showing clearly he lacked not the will, but the chance to be a martyr." — Ex Act. Cap. Gen., Rome, 1656, ap. Mon. Dom.

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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 Catholic faith and the authority of the Roman Pontiff, which he preached, was by them beheaded." — Ex Relat. ad Sac. Cong, dat.j ap. Mon. Dom.

ANNO 1641.

ALTHOUGH it is foreign to the purpose of this book to enter into the general history of Ireland, or even of the persecu tions, my intention being only to give a brief account of the separate sufferings of those martyrs and confessors whose names have been preserved, yet it appears desirable before entering on a new and different era of persecution 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 inter mittent, and a distinction might, with some show of reason, be drawn between the wars in which the Irish were engaged in defence of their independence against Elizabeth and purely religious wars, although in truth all through these wars hatred and love of the Catholic religion were the mainsprings of action. But with 1648 began a new era. The Parlia ment of England declared war against the King, and Ireland was pressed by the two belligerents. 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 Parliament arian Puritans. For eight years these bloody wars went on, accompanied by most sanguinary persecutions of the Catholics, till Charles I/s execution, on the 30th January, 1649. In

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 195

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 Doctor 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 foun dations as were inconsistent with any toleration of the Roman Catholic religion, and even with any humanity to the Irish nation — and more especially to those of the old native ex traction, 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 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 Parliament were excellently well exe cuted." (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 im possible to estimate 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 the 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 number at 60,000; as late as 1666 there were 12,000 Irish slaves scattered amongst the West Indian Islands. (Letter 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

o 2

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a word, as Sir W. Petty writes, the population of Ireland in 1641 was 1,466,000; of whom Catholics were 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 1659.)

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 collect and communicate information, and several writers collected 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 Catholics, in the Cromwellian persecution, that no such collections could be made, and hence we have only scattered notices of a com paratively few cases, and no such collected accounts as Dr. Rothe's " De Processu 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

ft BEFORE the close of 1641 a proclamation was published interdicting the exercise of the Catholic religion ; a rigor ous search was made to discover the priests and religious, and no fewer than forty of them being arrested, they were for some time treated with great rigour in prison, and then transported to the Continent. An extract from a letter ad dressed 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 de stroyed by fire and sword ; none are spared, not even the

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 197

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 beautifully orna mented chapel, in which we publicly, and in our habit, per formed 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, amongst whom my self 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, re ceived 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 ! " — Moron, Per sec., p. 11, and letter of Father Nicholas, superior of the Capuchins of Dublin, from Poitiers, 12th July, 1642, quoted by him.

REV. PETER HIGGINS, O.P.P.,

"an alumnus of the Dublin convent, at the commencement of the war was taken prisoner by the heretics, and although not accused of any crime, but, on the contrary, many of the heretics proclaimed his innocence, yet 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 innocence and his firm adherence to the Catholic faith and our holy order, he was hung in the public place of Dublin, on the 23rd 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 rather excited the fury of others who vented ,

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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 Generates Roma, 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 Borlase), charged with dogmatizing, or, in other words, seducing 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 expect 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 execu tion the messenger came to his prison with the terms pro posed 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 own handwriting an instrument leaving life and death to my own option ; so that if I shall have renounced the Roman Catholic religion in presence of the gibbet, the terrible circumstance in which I have been placed may extenuate 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 executioner. He bowed courteously on. receiving it, and loud was the exultation 01 ihe heretic mob, who thought they were about to catch ' a convert/ Now, when he stood exposed 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

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 199

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, offering 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 executioner 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 Meehan's translation^ p. 199.*

* Borlase, the Protestant historian, gives the following account of his arrest : — " In this expedition to the county of Kildare the soldiers found a priest, one Mr. Higgins, at Naas, who might, if he pleased, have 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 that his residence was in the town, from whence he refused to fly away with those that were guilty,* because he not only knew himself very innocent, but believed that he could not be without ample testimony of it, having, by his sole charity and power, pre served many of the English from the rage and fury of the Irish ; and, therefore, he only besought his lordship to preserve him from 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

a Guilty, that is, of the rising of 1641.

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For an account of the wholesale massacres of Irish, and even English and Scotch Catholics in Ireland, on account of

soldiers that he was a Papist the officer in whose custody he was intrusted was assaulted by them, and it was as much as the earl could do to compose the meeting. When his lordship came to Dublin he informed the 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 credit from entering into rebellion, and of many charitable offices he had performed, 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, who was 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 pro ceeding 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 (nor in office), and is said to have confessed to Ms 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 S. Sixtus, two of our fathers whose names were Michael MacDonogh, one professor of theology, and raised at that very time to the bishopric of Kilmore, the other a student of theology. Lately there were two Thomas de Burgos, both alumni of the con vent of Athenry, both of whom were presented for their degree in theo logy, and one of whom lately perished in the earthquake at Lisbon, not to speak of the third Thomas de Burgo who writes this. At this moment there are in this metropolis of Dublin four priests of the name of Peter Talbot, two secular and two regular, of the order of Hermits of S. Augustine. It is also to be remarked that the latter Peter is called

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 201

their religion, I must refer my readers to Curry's " Civil 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 23rd 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 per secuted and dispersed, and despoiled of all our goods ; some too, were cast into prison, and others were sent into exile. Amongst the fathers of the society was Father Henry Cagh- well, renowned for his zeal and learning. Being confined to his bed by sickness, he was apprehended by the soldiers, and hurried to the public 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. Hib., Romce, ap. Moran.

A manuscript in the Burgundian Library at Brussels fixes the date of this event in 1642. It says, "To omit many others, his master (Slingsby's), Father Henry Caghwell, under whom he learned a part of his philosophy, in the course of last year (1642), gave to the citizens of Dublin a noble

O'Higgins ; the first, Higgins, without the letter O ; because in Dublin, an almost English city, many Irish names lose the 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 con stantly meet with this identity of names, and, as little is known of many martyrs save the date of their death, might think that some were identical.

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example of patience for the faith, for, being dragged from the house where he lay a paralytic, he was scourged 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. 3,824, Correspondence des Peres Jesuit es Irlandais.

We learn from Oliver that he was landed at Rochelle, where the Rector of the Jesuits' College paid him every chari table attention, and by great care and the best medical advice gradually succeeded in restoring him to a state of convales cence. As soon as he could, the reverend father hastened back to the scene of his former labours, but within a few days after his return, early in 1643, fell a victim to his zeal and charity. F. G. Dillon says, in a letter of 3 Aug. 1643, that he had encountered a storm on his passage back which lasted twenty- one days. Sic verus Christi confessor obiit. — Oliver.

REV. FATHER FERGAL WARD, O.S.F., AND CORNELIUS O'BRIEN.

" FATHER FERGAL WARD was a native of Ulster, and a mem ber of the Order of the Strict Observance of S. 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 fidei, in the very centre of the Shannon, where the pirate then lay in wait for some prey, about the end" of October, 1642."— Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 14.

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.

IN THE EEIGN OF CHAELES I. 203

" 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 subsequently, at full tide, the ropes being cut, their bodies were cast into the river." — Ibid.

REV. FATHER JAMES LATIN, S.J.

DE. OLIVER says, —

" All that I can gather concerning this zealous father is from two letters, one dated Waterford, 10 October, 1642; the other from Galway, 3 Aug. 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 indefatigable 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 apprehen sion and commitment to gaol. The second letter states that he was still a prisoner, and that he had been apprehended in the street in the act of proceeding to administer the sacra ments 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,—

204' MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

"Last week the President of Ulster, having received reinforcements, 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 S. 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 Franciscan order. In more advanced age he was provincial minister of Ireland, and twice general visitor, and finally guardian of the college of S. 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 afterwards he was brought up for examination, when he confessed 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, especially 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.) Whilst 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 blessed 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

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 205

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 execution as to a feast ; and, having exhorted the people, joyfully 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 forenoon 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 request, 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, whilst the Catholics who crowded the house were devoutly praying, Father 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 Father 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 Francis, ' my soul, which had left my body, returns by the will of God, who desires the salva tion of all in error; call therefore 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 an swered, ' 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/

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" The Catholics, compelled by his commands, sent to the governor to inform him that Father Matthews 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 executioners, 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 immediately fastened his Francis can 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 hanging there all night under a guard of Puritan soldiers.

" 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 lasting ignominy. On the next day the body of the deceased was reverently taken down by the Catholics andburied in the church of the Friars Minors, anno 1642."* — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

* Bruodin evidently considered the revival of Father Francis mira culous, but it was not necessarily so. Many extraordinary cases of suspended animation from hanging, when, as in those times, from the execution not being carried out with a violent fall, the neck vras not broken, are recorded. Amongst the papers left by a distinguished surgeon who lived in Dublin at the close of the last century was an ac count 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 remained concealed in the surgeon's house for some days, and lived long afterwards. An illustration of another part of Bruodin's account may be drawn from the same period of 1798.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 207

REV. FATHER RAYMUND KEOGHY, BROTHER RAY MUND KEOGH, REVEREND FATHER STEPHEN PETTIT, AND BROTHER CORMAC EGAN, O.P.P.

"!N the following year (1642) Father Raymund Keoghy, of the convent of Roscommon, was seized by the heretics, and, being slain for the faith, found in death eternal life." — Capit. Gen. Roma, 1656.

"In the year 1642 Father Stephen Pettit, sub-prior of the convent of Mullingar, whilst hearing the confession of a soldier in a fight near Ballynacurry, was recognized to be a priest by a neighbouring advanced post of heretical soldiers, who aimed at him, and, being hit by a bullet, he received the sacraments of the Church, and died the next day." — Cap. Gen. jRomce, 1644, and Dom. a Rosario, p. 360 (216).

" Brother Raymund Keogh was slain by the heretics in hatred of the faith."— Capit. Gen. Roma, 1644.

" Brother Cormac Egan was hung by the heretics about the year 1642.— v4;?. Gen. Roma, 1644.

All these are from " Hibernica Dominicana," p. 562, where De Burgo gives reasons to show the two Keoghs are different, 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

A well-known major of yeomanry, of very tall stature, was known by the sobriquet of the 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 from the ground. In this mode of execution the neck was not broken, and so life might linger a long time.

208 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 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, Castille, and Andalusia, embarked for Ireland, but their ship fell into the hands of a cruel heretical pirate

* 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 VIIL, in a survey of the manor of Adare, dated 6th November, 1559 (2nd 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 foundation of tlie earl's ancestors, as the minister (i.e. the father minister) did shew, which hath, &c. — And the said minister hath in Adare a small acre, with certen gardens." &c. 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 1566 Elizabeth demised the Trinitarian Abbey to Sir Warham St. Leger, yet, about 1640, " Father Cornelius had a lawsuit with some heretics about the recovery of the convent of Adare," as is stated in the letter of Father Burgatt, in Lopez. — See Manor of Adare, by Lord Dunraven, 1866.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 209

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 Burgat, of the convent of Kilmallock, written in Spain in 1648, and some other contemporary authorities.)

ANNO 1644.* REV. CHRISTOPHER ULTAN (OR DONLEVINS), O.S.F.

" THIS father of the Order of S. Francis, after completing his studies in Spain, for many years preached with great fervour the sacred truths of the Gospel in the province of Ulster. He was concealed with Father Ward (see Anno 1642) at the time of his arrest, and shared his captivity. 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 con stitution yielded to the severity of the prison, and he expired, before being led to the scaffold, in the year 1644. — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

REV. FATHER FRANCIS MATTHEWS, O.S.F.

" FRANCIS MATTHEWS, of Cork, a theologian, and learned 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 labour in the persecution, was cruelly slain, with many torments, by the heretical Puritans, in the year 1644." — Wadding, Scriptores, p. 123.

* Fontana, Mon. Dom., mentions that in this year "in the general chapter of the Dominican order held at Rome, the Irish provincial, Father Terence Albert O'Brien (afterwards the martyred Bishop of Emlj) stated that there were in the Irish province about six hundred brethren of the order, of whom the greater part perished in the Crom- wellian 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 slain in their own convents, many en during a lengthened death in the new hemisphere, and all these, being

P

210 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

ANNO 1645.

REV. FATHERS PETER COSTELLO AND GERALD DILLON, O.P.P.

" IN this year (1645) Dominican blood still 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, whilst 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 knowledge 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." — Mon. Dom.j 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 THADD^EUS O'CONNEL.

MALACHY QU^ILY 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 con- approved by the testimony of faith, were found in our Lord Jesus Christ."

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 211

temporary 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 Cootefrom the north, with reinforcements of Scotch, the Irish were defeated ; their horse fled from a party of the enemy on the 25th October, 1645, and 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." — Renelian, Collect., p. 402 ; and Moran, Persecut., p. 206, from Bruodin. Hardiman's Galway, and Archives of St. Isidore, Rome.

"Father Thaddseus O'Connel, of the Canons of S. Augus tine, 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 right 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, whilst hearing confes sions 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 Rathconnell, in the year 1645/'* — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

* I have put the death of Father White at 1645, as that is the date given by Bruodin ; but the true date is, I think, 1641, or early in 1642, when Sir Charles Coote was ravaging the country. 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 llathcori- nell are two villages in the county Westmeath.

p 2

212 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

ANNO 1646.

REV. FATHER DOMINICK NEAGREN, O.P.P. "As Father* 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 Cap. Gen. 1650. Hib. Dom. puts him " about 1648."

REV. FATHER JOHN OLU1N (OR O'LAIGHIN), O.P.P. "REV. FATHEK JOHN OLUIN, Prior of Derry, who was 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 sufferings in prison, rejecting great offers from the heretics if he would abandon the Roman faith, he preferred death to dishonour. 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., eoc Actis Cap. Gen. 1650. Hib. Dom. after O'Heyn, puts his death about 1657 ; but this is impossible, as Fontana refers to the general chapter of 1650.

ANNO 1647.

REV. FATHER RICHARD BARRY, O.P.P.; WILLIAM 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

•"' " Couversus," a monk, but not a priest.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 213

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 offer of conditions from Inchiquin, and opened its gates. The garrison, about 300 in number, together 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 S. Patrick. The enemy having taken possession of the city, and in part destroyed it by fire, assailed the cathedral with all their forces, but were heroically repulsed by our troops. After a long combat, the general of the enemy suspended the fight, and, demanding a surrender, offered permission to the garrison to depart with their arms and ammunition, and all the honours of war, requiring, however, that the citizens and clergy should be abandoned to his mercy. It was then that the true heroism of the Catholic soldiers was seen. They refused to listen to any conditions unless the citizens and clergy, whom they had undertaken to defend, should be sharers in them ; and they added that they chose rather to consecrate their lives to God on that Rock of S. Patrick than to allow that sanctuary to be profaned by dogs. The assault was then renewed with extreme ferocity ; the enemy, being 7,000 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

* His name was Morrougli O'Brien.

214 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 blood ; whilst 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 bodies were to be seen, which for some days remained uninterred. 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, fyc., written by the Irish Superior of the Jesuits, ap. Moran, Persec.j p. 27.

One of the priests who had taken refuge in the cathedral, Father Theobald Stapleton, was remarkable for his piety : clothed with surplice and stole, and holding a crucifix 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 Boyton, the Jesuit, we read : —

" As the enemy forced their way in, he exhorted all, with great fervour, to endure death with constancy for the Catholic 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 garrison-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,

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES 1. 215

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 overtaken him, he expired." — Tanner, Soc. Jesu.

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 appear ance (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 colours, which excite not our favour, but our rage/f The father answered, ' My dress is the emblem of Christ and His passion, and the banner of my warfare. I have borne it from my youth, and will not pat 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/ 1 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,J they applied a slow fire from the soles of his feet to his thighs for about two hours, until, whilst he looked up to heaven and the blood bubbled from his pores, the officer ordered his death to be hastened by driving a sword through him. The soldiers remained there three days plundering, for they did not think the place strong enough

* He was a native of Cork, and Prior of Cashel, and had desired all his brethren to seek their safety by flight, but himself refused to leave his flock.

t It must be observed that putting off the religious habit was often looked upon as a sort of tacit apostasy.

J The acts of the general chapter say, " to a column."

216 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

for a permanent garrison. During this time a certain pious woman, who was of the third order of S. Dominick,* sought out his body amongst 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'Cullenan, who yet lives (anno 1655), and has home 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 Te Deum, they laid it. The day of his death was the 15th t September, 1647."— Dow. a Eos., 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, amongst others, more than twenty priests and religious men killed. "{

The Nuncio Rinuccini adds, " They slew in it (the church of S. Patrick) the priests, and the women who clung to the statue of the saint." §

The rest of the conduct of Inchiquin's soldiers is thus described in the " Relatio " referred to before : —

* Third order of S. Dominick : those who lived in the world.

f Tanner says the 13th. Probably the town was taken the 13th, the rock the 15th. Fontana, Mon. Dom., gives rather a different ac count 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, he exhorted the faithful to meet death bravely for their holy religion. Afterwards, being taken whilst 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." Fontaua refers to the acts of the general chapter held at Rome 1650, 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 in actual warfare.

J Memoirs of Earl of Castlehaven, by himself. London, 1681.

§ Rinuccini, Nunziatura, Florence, 18-14, p. 416.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 217

" The heretics set to work at once to destroy all the sacred things which had been stored in the cathedral of S. Patrick. The altars were overturned, the images that were painted on wood were consigned to the flames, those on 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 mitre, and boast that he was now not only governor and lieutenant of Minister, 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, whilst 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 pro vince (Ireland) and commissary visitor, who was a confessor of Christ in many prisons, being at length delivered after a five years' imprisonment amongst the Scotch, wrote to me from the Convent of the Desert, a little before his death, a

218 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

letter dated the 18th June, 1467."— Le Mar chant, Eelatio Viridica.

Here it may not be amiss to give a short acount of the mission in the Hebrides amongst the Scotch, where Father Hegerty so long laboured ; and for this purpose I shall have recourse to the pages of Doctor Moran.

In the month of December, 1618, 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 S. Francis now received it in special charge ; and on the 4th January, 1619, Fathers Edmund Cana* and Patrick Brady, with the lay brother John Stewart,t set out from the convent of Louvain to brave the perils of persecution in that necessitous mission. After two years' incessant labour, 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 labour of love till, in 1623, a new dawn arose for that mission ; and whilst Dr. Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, was appointed its immediate superior, three new missionaries, selected by him — viz. Cornelius Ward, James O'Neill, and Patrick Hegerty — were sent thither with most ample authority and

* 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 brother with the 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 attempts were made to seduce him from the Catholic faith. He was released about 1617, and sent into Belgium.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 219

privileges from the Holy See ; and at the same time the 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 Dublin on the 17th November, 1624, " God has already performed great things in Scotland, through the labours 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 labours were chiefly in the Hebrides and northern parts. Many interesting particulars are contained in a narrative which was drawn up for the Sacred Congrega tion of Propaganda in 1637 by Father Ward. He had in the interim visited the Eternal City, and on his return, having received the benediction of the Bishop of Down and Connor, hastened in November, 1635, to resume his missionary labour in the Hebrides. Before two months had elapsed he had restored fifty heretics to the saving fold in the island of Sgiahanach. During the following year (1636), in twenty- two villages of the islands of Eustia and Benimhaola, two hundred and three heretics were converted, whilst 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 conse quence he was obliged to fly to the mainland of Scotland. There, on the mountains of Muidheart and Arasoig, during two months, the conversion of two hundred and six heretics was his reward. He adds, " The missionary labour 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, their whole food consists of milk, and in summer they seldom have bread. In the Hebrides, and in the moun tainous districts of Scotland, there is no city, nor town,

220 MARTYRS AND CON LESSORS

nor school, neither is there anything like education ; and none can be found to read, except a few who received edu cation in distant parts." Father Ward continued on those mountains until his store of altar breads and wine for the Holy Sacrifice was exhausted; he then set out on foot for Edinburgh, 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, between the 8th September and Christmas, through the districts of Locheabar, Muiduirt, Sliebhte, and Glean- silge, received back one hundred and thirty-nine heretics into the bosom of the Catholic Church. Overcome by his labours, Father Ward was soon obliged to return to the comparative repose of his Irish convent, and Father Patrick Hegerty, who had been for eight years guardian of the convent 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 labours 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.

ANNO 1648.— KEY. FATHER GERALD GERALDINE AND FATHER DAVID FOX, O.P.P.

" ON a certain stormy night the heretical troops suddenly burst into the monastery of our order at Kilmalloc, which lies beyond the bridge outside the walls, hoping, no doubt, to slay many of the brethren ; but the others escaped, 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,

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 221

and carried away the spoils of the monastery." — Mon. Dom., Hib. Dom., p. 565, and a Rosario.

Father Geraldine was a priest, Father Fox a simple monk.

ANNO 1649.

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 amongst his fellow-Puritans by the extermination of the Irish Papists. On his arrival in Dublin 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 3,000 good troops, commanded by Sir Arthur Ashton, a Catholic. Three times did they repel the assaults of their 10,000 besiegers. At length, seeing further resistance useless, they surrendered on terms. Cromwell, writing to the Parliament, makes it a boast that, despite the promised quarter, he him self 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 ; 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 ever heard of, in breach of faith and bloody inhumanity ; " and the Parliamentarian General Ludlow speaks of it as an extraordinary severity. The church of S. Peter, within the

* " Our men were ordered by me to put them all to the sword." — Cromwell's Better to Lenthul, ap. Lingard, vol. iv. p. 034.

2.22 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

city, had been for centuries a place of popular devotion ; a little while before the siege the Catholics had reobtained possession of it, and dedicated it anew to the service of God, and the Holy Sacrifice was once more celebrated there with 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 respected no sanctuary of religion. " In this very place" writes Cromwell, " near one thousand of them were put to the sword. I believe all the friars * were killed but two, the one of whicli 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 : lie confessed 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 steeple of S. Peter's ; at the same time the most respectable of the inhabitants sheltered themselves within the church. Here Cromwell advanced, and, after some deliberation, concluded 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, changing his resolution, he set fire to the steeple, and as the garrison rushed out to avoid the flames they were slaughtered. After this he ordered the inhabitants in the church to be put to the sword, among whom many of the Carmelites fell a sacri fice. He then plundered the building and defaced its prin cipal ornaments."

Thomas Wood, one of the Puritan officers engaged in the massacre, relates that a multitude of the most? defenceless 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

* They were Carmelites.

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mercy shown. Lord Clarendon also records that during the five days, whilst 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 tliese, he adds, are in safe custody for the Barbadoes.

The manuscript written in 1651,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, 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 fury. 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

•- Down to the present century the street leading to S. Peter'8 Street retained the name of Bloody Street. It is the tradition of the place that the blood of those slain in the church formed a regular torrent down this street.

t Relatio Rerum, etc.

224 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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. Dom. ad an.*

" This same year and day, Father Peter Costello, sub-prior of the convent of S trade, was slain there for the faith. " — Mon. Dom.-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 learn 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 his 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 S. 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.

* O'Heyn, " with Father Richard Oveton, the Sub-Prior of 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 S trade, as De Burgo tells us (Hib. Dom., p. 249), is a little village in the county Mayo, two miles from Athlethan or Bally- lehan. Straid, he tells us, was in 1760 celebrated for its fairs, which are still held,

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 225

REV. FATHER RAYMOND STAFFORD, AND Six OTHERS, O.S.F.

IT was on the llth October that CromwelFs soldier 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 execution on the enemy ; " he estimates in this letter the number of the garrison butchered at 2,000. Father Francis Stafford, in a letter written at the time, says, " On the llth of October, 1649, seven friars of our order (Franciscans), all men of extraordinary merit, and natives of the town, perished by the sword of the heretics. Some of them were killed kneeling before the altar, and others whilst 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 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 pos sessed ; it was the llth 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 Cromwell, 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 ; others were hanged ; some were arrested 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

* See the Letter in Duffy 's Magazine, May, 1847,

226 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 T caused to remain behind me at home, was pierced with six mortal wounds.

"These things were perpetrated in open day by the impious 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 or bed-clothes. At length the wood in which I lay concealed was surrounded by nume rous 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 swiftness of my 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, doing 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 instinctively press towards it to escape from the swords of the enemy. But as far as regards the atrocity of the thing, it makes little differ ence on what particular spot they were murdered."* — Lin- yard, vol. ix. note D.

* Captain Wood, at the storming of Drogheda, a subaltern in Ingoldsby's regiment, describing the massacre in S. Peter's church, Drogheda, at which he was himself present, says, " When they (the soldiers) were to make their way up to the lofts and galleries, and up to the tower of the church, each of the assailants would take up a child

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 227

KEYS. JAMES LYNCH AND RICHARD NUGENT.

REV. JAMES LYNCH was parish priest of Kells, and Richard 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 venerable old man, nearly eighty years of age, and was massacred in his bed, to which, through infirmity, he had been a long time confined. Father Nugent was sent under an escort to Drogheda, and, a gibbet having been erected within sight of the walls, he ended his course with such serenity and firm ness as confounded his enemies, and drew forth the tears and benedictions of the faithful inhabitants of that ancient city. — Moran, Persec., p. 193, from Bruodin.

ANNO 1650. 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 dis covered and the agent executed, and the custody of the city and adjacent country was intrusted to Lord Castlehaven, 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 favour able conditions ; but no sooner had the enemy possession of the city than these were violated. The Puritans profaned the churches, overturned the altars, destroyed the paintings and crosses, and profaned all things sacred. The vestments,

and use it as a buckler of defence, 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 massacre of all the women there. — Lingard, vol. ix. note D.

Q 2

228 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 either destroyed by fire or brought away as booty. The holy bishop, Dr. David Rooth, vener able 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 loathsome dungeon, where, after a prolonged martyr dom, he expired, in the month of April, 1650.

Whilst 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 administered to the poor even in the most loathsome duties, and some times too he was seen digging graves and bearing on his shoulders to interment the bodies of those who were aban doned. It was whilst 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 Kilkenny. — Moran, Persec.j p. 50, who quotes a MS. in his possession, written in 1667, and entitled " Brevis Relatio de Prcesenti in Hiber- nia Fidei et Ecclesice 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 lain hidden for months, in order to visit some distant and abandoned parts of his diocese, when, on his return to his lonely hiding-place, he was over taken by a troop of horse under the command of Lord

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 229

Broghill, who was hastening to assist Cromwell 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 surrender. For this pur pose he was conducted to the fort, but the gallant captive, unshaken by the fear of death, exhorted the garrison to main tain their post resolutely against the enemies of the King, their country, and their religion, and instantly resigned him self to execution. "* Bruodin adds that he was offered pardon and rewards if he would deny his faith and join the Parlia mentarians, 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 neighbouring tree, and, being hanged from one of its branches by the reins of his own horse, happily con summated 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 Kilkenny College in 1649, and was then reported by the visitor, Father Verdier, as a truly good and religious man. I believe he made his debut as a minister of religion at Waterford, whence he was sent to Ross to attend Father Gregory Dow- dal 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 neighbourhood. No dangers that threatened him from the Cromwellian party, who filled every place with blood and terror, could deter this genuine hero from doing his duty; no weather, no pesti lential fever, no difficulties, could hold him back from visiting

* Leland, vol. iii. p. 362. He refers to Cox.

t The compiler of the Supplement to Wadding's Scriptores says Dr. Egan was a member of the third Order of S. Francis, and that thirteen other members of the same institute suffered with him (I pre sume he means about the same time), and he refers to a contemporary writer, F. Bordonus, as his authority.

230 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 proclamation to his troops (and they were in the hahit 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 formerly received (so little value was attached to a priest's life), nevertheless Father Gelosse managed every day to offer up the unbloody Sacrifice of the altar. His extraordinary escapes from the clutches of his pursuers bordered on the miraculous. He assumed every shape and character : he personated a dealer in faggots, a servant, a thatcher, 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, &c.; thus becom ing all to all, in order to gain all to Christ. However, he was four times apprehended, as he told Father Stephen Rice; but his presence of mind never forsook him, and he in geniously contrived to extricate himself without much diffi culty. 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 favourite pursuit. He was still living in the summer of 1675, when I regret to part company with him." — Oliver.

REV. NICHOLAS MULCAHY

was parish priest of Ardfinnan, in the county Tipperary, and was famed for his zeal and apostolic labours. He had been

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 231

frequently advised to fly from the storm, but 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 CromwelPs cavalry. Immediately 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 whilst he knelt in prayer for his faithful people and asked forgive ness for his enemies. — Moran, from Bruodin.

FATHERS JAMES MOHAN,* 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 MAG RATH, O.P.P.,

"a son of the convent of S. 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 heretics. He was seized just after he had finished Mass, whilst administer ing the Blessed Eucharist to a dying man, and with the sacred pix in his hands, and was instantly led off to execution. He prayed fervently with the people, and amidst their tears and admiration he was hung." — A Rosario, p. 354 (211) ; also Hib. Dom,, p. 566, and Mon. Dom.

* Of Father Moran it is said lie 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 they were not in holy orders. Fontana puts their martyrdom in 1650 ; De Burgo, in 1651.

232 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

KEY. 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 free dom, because, being a near relative of the Lord of Kerry, no one dared to molest him."— O'Heyn, Epilogus, p. 21.

ANNO 1651.

RIGHT REV. TERENCE ALBERT O'BRIEN, O.P.P.,BisHor OF EMLY; REVS. JOHN COLLINS, JAMES WOLF, AND DAVID ROCHE, O.P.P. ; ALSO REVS. BRIEN, BARRY, AND LEE, OF THE CONGREGATION OF S. 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 Limerick, 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 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 communica tion with his uncle, Maurice 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 S. Saviour, founded in the thirteenth century by Donat O'Brien, had

* Duffy's Hibernian Magazine, April, 1864.

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 233

long since shared the fate of other religious houses in Ireland. Having been received into the order, young O'Brien was sent to the convent of S. 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 Dominican school of Toledo was then one of the most renowned 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 community 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 Government 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 years in the quiet performance of the duties which belonged to his calling. Fifteen years did he labour in Ireland, during which time he was twice elected prior of his native convent of Limerick, and once of that of Lorragh.*

In 1643 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 confederates, and we may readily imagine with what feelings of devoted grati tude 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 honour of God, and as a last resting-place for himself,

* Situated in the barony of Lower Ormond, and founded by Walter de Burgo in 1269.

234 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

some few years before he closed his mortal warfare.1* Towards the end of 1643 Father O'Brien was called to Rome to assist at a general chapter of the Dominicans, 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,f 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 pro per provision should be made in that province (Ireland) for literary studies/'' ordered that " five universities, or houses of general 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 another convent for such time.j;J 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 bound aries of the Dominican convents in Munster.§

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 engaged on his " History of the Geraldines."|| About the middle of July, 1644, while O'Brien was still at Lisbon, intelligence from Rome led his friends to suppose that it was the intention of Urban VIII. to advance him to the coadjutorship of Emly,

* The Black Abbey of Kilkenny.

t Hib. Dom., p. 115.

$ There were in 1646 in Ireland forty -three Dominican convents, witli about 600 monks.

§ A convent, once founded, was always held to exist, and to preserve its ecclesiastical privileges, as long as any brethren remained, although the original building might be confiscated. Thus the Dominican fathers, residing in a lodging in Limerick, were " the Convent of Limerick."

|| A Eosario, Persec., p. 204.

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 235

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 consecrated 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 convent of Limerick, where, as provincial and prior, he exerted himself indefatigably for the interests of his order, which had lately received a large accession to its members from Rome, Louvain, and other places on the Continent.

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 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 favour." 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 con secrated in November, 1647.

Dr. O'Brien lost no time in taking possession of his see,

* Nunziatura, pp. 84, 152.

J236 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

but he found it in a deplorable state. The victory of Conoe- 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 excommuni cation ; and when the nuncio was at Galway, before his departure, he hastened thither to see him. When, however, he had reached a village within three miles of Galway (pro bably 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 Crom- wellians compelled him to return to Galway.

In August, 1650, Dr. O'Brien acted with those prelates who, after discarding Lord Ormond, and insisting on the appointment of Clanricarde as Viceroy, offered the Pro tectorate of Ireland to the Duke of Lorraine. He then returned 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 1651, but it was not till July that the investment of the place was complete. I need not recapitu late 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 mission ers of S. Vincent of Paul, who were in the city, made the memory 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 treachery of Colonel Fennell enabled Ireton to compel the surrender of the city.f Twenty-four persons were excepted from quarter by the

* He was the only one of the twenty -four to whom quarter was denied by Ireton who escaped. — Borlase and Ludlow,ap. Leland, vol. iii. p. 387.

f Moran, Persecutions, p. 61 ; Haverty's History of Ireland, p. 591 ; Hibernian Magazine, p. 256.

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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 required was his confessor. This boon was granted, and Father Hanrahan, a member of his own order, was suffered 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 joyfully to the place as to a feast. His contem porary, De Marinis, relates his execution thus : — " He went with joy to the place of execution, and then, with a serene countenance, turning to his Catholic friends, who stood in the crowd inconsolable and weeping, he said to them, ' Hold 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 firmness and con stancy, 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 un changed in aspect, flesh, or hair — a tribute, 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, 1651. De Marinis and A Rosariof relate that the holy bishop summoned Ireton to the judgment-seat of God to answer for his crimes; and on the 18th day after wards that bloody persecutor was seized with the plague, and, after sixteen days, expired in great torments. Dr. Moraii mentions that the spot where this holy bishop was martyred

* Hib. Dom., p. 489.

f Jn Hib. Pom., loc. nit.; and A Rosario, Persec., p. 207.

238 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

is yet pointed out and venerated by the Catholics of Limerick.*

With Bishop O'Brien perished another Dominican, Father John Collins. He had made himself peculiarly obnoxious 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 siege for his courage, and was in consequence excepted by Ireton from the capitulation. He was sought out after the sur render, and, being found, was at once put to death.f

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. 150 :— J

" 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 whilst offering the Mass, and in a few hours afterwards was sentenced to be hung, and brought out into the market square, where he made a public profession of his faith, and exhorted the Catholics to constancy in the religion of their ancestors, and that with so much ardour 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.3 Having said this, he was hung, and so went to his crown."

O'Daly adds that he had been absent from the city during 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

* Moran, Persec., p. 180. f A Rosario, Persec., p. 17.

I Hib. Dom., p. 568. § A Rosario, Persec., p. 217.

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 239

in the acts of the chapter, that he was taken whilst 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.*

Here also we may commemorate the virtues and sufferings of the fathers of S. Vincent in Limerick. S. 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 favour of the ecclesiastics 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 untiring efforts of the saint to provide a home and a refuge for the mul titude 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 S. Patrick and S. Malachy in earlier ages, so Father Vincent was raised up by God, in this period of persecution, to be the salvation 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 labours. The happy fruits of their zeal were soon visible to all ; and it is recorded, as a striking fact, that none of the clergy of any mission which they visited were found to abandon their spiritual charges : " all remained with the flocks intrusted 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."t

* Hib. Dom., p. 571.

t Abelly's "Vie de Saint- Vincent," lib. iv. chap, viii., in Dr. Moran, Persec., p. 7, to whom I am indebted for all this account of the Vincentians.

240 MAUTYllS AND CONFESSORS

As early as 1648 the Archbishop of Cashel wrote to S. Vincent that, through the zeal of his good fathers, "the people had been excited to piety, which was increasing every day ; and although these admirable priests have 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 they 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 labours were incessant, and an abundant spiritual harvest was their reward. At that time there were 20,000 communicants 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, S. Vincent wrote to the superior of the order, encouraging them to meet courageously the dangers which then threatened them. In his letter he says, —

" You have given yourselves to God, to remain immovably 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 neighbours. You have acted as true children of our most admirable Father, to- whom I re turn 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 in all cases and everywhere, you may pour it forth into the hearts of those who want it, seeing that your companions are in the

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 241

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 too 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 laboured in Limerick during the siege escaped the fury of Ireton on its surren der, one of them resolved to remain in the city to assist with his sacred ministry the remnant of its Catholic citizens, and after a while 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 capi tulation 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 towards his native district in company with the Vicar-General of Cashel, whilst Father Barry went towards the mountains, where a charitable lady received him, and concealed him for two months. A barque freighted for France appearing on the coast, he availed himself of the opportunity thus presented, embarked in the vessel, and happily landed in Nantes. This caused indescribable joy to S. 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 congregation paid its tribute to the

R

242 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

persecution, and a lay brother 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 S. 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 whilst attending the sick in this disastrous year.

Of these there are enumerated by De Bur go, of the Do minican order alone, in the year 1651 — Fathers Michael O'Clery,Priorof Waterford, at Waterford, and Gerald Bagot; Thaddseus O'Caholy,f William Geraldine, and John Geral- dine, of Limerick ; and Donald O'Brien, in county Clare; and of the Jesuits, Father Francis White, at Waterford.

My readers will, I am sure, be glad here to read the ac count of their noble devotion given by O'Daly :J —

"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 accept able to God it would be to devote themselves to administer

* Acts of the order, and a letter of S. Vincent, ap. Moran. t Or O'Cahasi.

J A Eosario, Persec., p. 222, in Father Meeban's translation ; but be bas abridged it. See p. 307 of original, and ap. Eib. Dom., p. 570.

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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 S. 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 labours in the pest-house, where they diligently discharged the duty of physicians of souls. After having heard the confessions of almost all, they were themselves seized with the disease and perished together.

" The second was Father Gerald Bagot, also of our college 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 father immediately consented, and purchased the man's salvation with his life, for no sooner had he completed that work of charity than he felt himself attacked, and, not daring to enter the city, in three days after, having made his confession and commu nion he died outside the walls.

" 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 attending to the hospital of the soldiers, which was near our convent, 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 sacraments, lie died on the fifth day. Father John William Gerald ine, having gone to hear his confession, took the disease and died on the third day. He was a very religious and learned man, a preacher-general,* and had been prior of several convents. * Prsedicator generalis ord.

n 9

244 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

" 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 Eeverend 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 O'FERRALL AND BERNARD O'FERRALL, O.P.P.

THESE two appear to have been brothers of the ancient family of O'Ferrall. Of Father Laurence, Dominick aRosario says he studied in the college of Lisbon, aud 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 he and Fontana give the following account of their martyrdom : —

" They were seized at early dawn, whilst 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 overwhelmed by the persecutors with more than four-and- twenty deadly wounds, whereof he expired, yet lingered long enough to re ceive the last sacraments from another of our fathers before he expired; and this he had himself foretold. Brother Lau rence they dragged, wounded, before 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 inter cession 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 prayers and tears, beseech-

* A Rosario says his captors discovered some letters from the apostolic nuncio sewed up in his inner garments. — A Rosario, p. 212.

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ing God not to suffer him to lose the palm of martyrdom At length he obtained his desire, and from the top of the ladder 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 scapu lar, submitted himself to the executioner. When the execu tioner, after placing the cord round his throat, pushed him off the ladder, whilst 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 governor 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 otherwise there might be tumults." — Hib. Dow., p. 569, and Mon. Dom.

REV. FATHER ^NEAS 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 whilst 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 whilst ad minis-

246 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

tering 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, received his crown." — Hib. Dom. and A Rosario.

A Eosario adds in a note to this work : —

" 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, proceeded 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 until he died of hardship and hunger, in 1651."— A Eosario, p. 359 (216), and Mon. Dom.

REV. FATHER STEPHEN PETIT, O.P.P.

"FATHER STEPHEN PETIT, of the convent of Athenry, whilst 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. Romcv, 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.

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 247

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 generous man, and of surpassing hospitality. After the Protestants had plighted to them 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 coura geous martyr, in Thomond,A.D.1651." — Hanson' sThrenodia, ap. 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 of 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 devoured 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 persecution of Cromwell it not only shared with Clogher the glory won for the Irish Church by the heroism and fortitude of Heber McMahon, but merited, moreover, to have its own chief

248 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

pastor put to death for his unflinching attachment to the Catholic faith. This was Dr. Arthur Magennis, a member of the Order of S. 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 peculiar art the per secutors 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 terror that it excited in the aged bishop that he instantly expired/' — Moran, Per- sec., p. 209.

REV. DENIS NELAN, O.S.F.

" HE was a priest of the Order of S. Francis, and descended from noble parents in the county Limerick. Before en tering the Franciscan order he was for many years parish priest of Kilragty, and his labours produced an abundant spiritual harvest. From 1642 to 1651 these labours 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 S. 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 interrogated by the commander whether, renouncing the doctrines of Rome, he would sub scribe to the Puritan tenets, he courageously replied that he

* Hib. Dom., p. 490, where he gives Dr. French's catalogue.

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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^IUS CARIGHY, O.S.F. " HE made his solemn profession amongst the religious of the Franciscan convent of Inish, and filled the whole district of Thomond with the odour of his virtues. In 1651 he was arrested by the Cromwellians in the neighbourhood 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. 15.

REV. HUGH MACKEON, O.S.F.

" ULSTER, amongst 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 (Allonia), where, overcome by the squalor of the place, he died, in the year 1651."*— Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

* 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 ; amongst others the Eev. 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.

250 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

REV. ROGER MACNAMARA, O.S.F.

family of Macnamara is an ancient and illustrious one in Clare, and of it was Father Roger, son of Donald Mac namara and Marina Mahony. He made his profession in the convent of Quenhy* (built magnificently of black marble by his ancestors), and was ever a model of a simple and pious religious. From the time he was ordained priest he daily offered the Divine Sacrifice of our redemption with great de votion. 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 1651." — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

DANIEL CLANCHY AND JEREMIAS NERIHING,

O.S.F.

"HE was born of a respectable family at Tradria, in Tho- mond, and became a lay brother in the Franciscan convent of Quenhy in 1640, where he lived as became a worthy disciple of S. Francis until 1651, when he was taken by the heretics and hung in hatred of the faith.

" Jeremias Nerihing was the son of wealthy parents (who were well known to me) . Despising the vanities of this world, he, in 1640, became a lay brother in the same convent 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. Brother Jeremias answered that out of the holy Roman Church there is no salvation, and was immediately hung, the same year." — Bruodin.

* Convent of Quenhy, or Quenchy. See page 257.

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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, became 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 afterwards/' — Bruodin.

REVS. DONATUS O'KENEDY, DONATUS SCKENAN, FULGENTIUS JORDAN, ROMANDUS O'MALY, THOMAS TULLY, AND THOMAS DEIR, OF THE ORDER OF HERMITS OF S. 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 " Sanguined Eremo Mar- tyrum Hibernice Ord. Eremit. S. P. Augustini" The writer did not give the exact dates of their martyrdom.

Father Donatus O'Kenedy was of a noble family in Or- mond, a monk of the order of the Hermits of S. Augustine, and was hanged in hatred of the faith. Of the same order were Fathers Donald Screnan and Fulgentius Jordan, slain in like manner; also Father Romand O'Maly, of a Gal- way family, and Father Thomas Tully, and Brother Thomas Deir. — Bruodin.

252 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 intrusted to him as well as he could till the year 1651, when the rebels prevailed in Munster. Father Francis, the provincial, remained in Kerry whilst 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, 1651." — Bruodin.

BROTHER ANTONY BROKER 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 Antony Broder was a member of this family and an ornament to the Franciscan order. When the persecution of the rebels laid waste the country, Antony, who was then only a deacon, had, like other ecclesiastics, to seek a hiding-place. He sought and, as he thought, found one in the castle of Turlevachan, in the county of Galway. It proved, however, an unsafe retreat, for Charles Coote, alike a barbarous 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.

* I cannot identify this lake.

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 253

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 men dicant orders, and was taken prisoner on the road by that cruel tyrant Charles Coote, carried to Castle Coote, and there hanged."* — Bruodin.

ANNO 1652.

RIGHT REV. FRANCIS KIRWAN, BISHOP OP KILLALA; DR. JAMES FALLON, VICAR-APOSTOLIC OF ACHONRY; AND MANY OTHERS.

THE town of Gal way, 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 townspeople quitted their habitations and removed their cattle, unable to endure it. The tax for the support of the soldiery was col- lected 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

* Bruodin puts his death at 1642, but I think that must be a mis take for 1652. In 1642 Sir Charles Coote was in Dublin and its neigh bourhood, at Naas and Trim, and was killed at the latter place on the 7th May in that year. His son was appointed Provost-Marshal of Connaught, and persecuted there in 1652, when he might well have taken Father Conry near Elphin. 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 several others who suffered in 1652, so that 1642 would seem to be a clerical error.

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with terror, like the trumpet of the day of judgment. On the 23rd July, 1655, all the Irish were directed to quit the town by the 1st November following, the owners of houses, however, to receive compensation at eight years' purchase ; in default, the soldiers were to drive them out. On the 30th October this order was executed. All the inhabitants, except the sick and bed- rid, 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, under the pretence of taking up vagrants and idle persons, made frequent nightly excursions with armed troops into the country, and seized upwards of a thousand people, often without discrimination of rank or condition, whom he transported to the West Indies, and there sold as slaves. Up wards 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 allowed only twopence a day each for their support, they were nearly famished. f

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 nar row room, which, besides two beds for himself and his chap lain, was barely able to contain a chest. This served for an altar, and whilst 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 hiding-place. On one occasion he was carried out wrapped in a sheet, whilst 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 peried to those of the early pastors of the Catholic Church. When the bishop deemed it more secure to enter the town, he was

* Prendergaat, Cromwellian Settlement, p. 146. t See Anno 1657.

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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. Sometimes, too, he was forced to go out on the roof, and, when the pursuers approached, to descend into a neighbouring house by the dormer window. When at length the good bishop, finding it impossible to remain con cealed any longer, surrendered, he and several other eccle siastics were treated as galley-slaves; they were marched along in bodies, surrounded by soldiers, drums beating and bugles sounding, 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 imprisonment the holy man found occasion frequently to celebrate the sacred mys teries, 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 companions were thus engaged in conferring spiritual blessings on the Catholics than their banishment was resolved on. The confessors of Christ were suddenly carried off to a ship, and on their way were surrounded by a terrible escort, nor had they any previous notice of the decree of banishment, lest their friends might succour them with some viaticum.

For further particulars see under 1655, notice of Dr. Burke.

Throughout the whole province of Connaught the persecu tion 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, he 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 obliged to seek elsewhere a place of refuge. — Moran, Persec., p. 72, and Life of Dr. Kirwan, by Lynch.

256 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 S. Francis, in 1635, and carefully observed it until 1652, when, with Thaddseus Conor, lord of Bealnamilly, he was hung, in hatred of the faith." — BruodiUj lib. iv. cap. 15.

REV. ANTONY O'FERRALL, O.S.F.,

" was taken whilst preaching, by the Cromwellians, at Tulsk, in Roscommon, in the castle of Sir Ulysses de Burgo, and immediately hung, anno 1652." — Bruodin.

REV. JOHN CAROLAN, SJ.

" IN 1649 he 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 entered the Order of S. Francis of the Strict Observance, in the con vent of Inish, in the sixteenth year of his age^ and there made great progress in religion. He made his profession about the year 1628, and by order of the heads of the Irish province proceeded to Rome, and there, in the celebrated college of S. Isidore, under the great men who then presided over it, Fathers Luke Wadding, Antony Hickey, James

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 257

Bridges, and Thaddseus Daly (whose memory is in benedic tion), 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 amongst the Fathers Minorites. Anxious to serve his country, he obtained leave of the father- general to proceed to Ireland, and sailed for that country in the year 1641, and devoted himself to missionary labours. 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 Thadda3us 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 (amongst 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 overrun ning the country, in the year 1651, and grievously scourged. Father Eugene, more solicitous of saving souls than of pre serving 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 1651." — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

REVS. ROGER ORMILY AND HUGH CARIGHY.

"THE Rev. Roger Ormily was a native of Clare, and a secular

* Or Quinchy, according to Ware, where was a convent of Friars Minors, founded in 1433 by Macon Macnemarra.

s

258 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

priest, who for thirty years was parish priest of Brentire. When he was upwards of sixty years of age he fell into the hands of the Crornwellians, then ravaging Clare, and, without any form of trial, when he confessed himself a priest, was hung, and so gained everlasting life, on the 12th October, 1652. In the same year, day, and place, and by the same death, Father Hugh Carighy obtained the crown of martyr dom. He was a parish priest of Clare, and in the seventy- sixth year of his age, and the forty-fourth of his priest hood." — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

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 prisoner (I know not by what chance) by the soldiers of Londonderry, and dragged to that town, with his hands tied behind his back, like a robber. After he had endured tortures, the governor ordered him to be brought before him, and offered him a wife and a good benefice if he would apostatize. Nielan, with an angelic courage replied that he had, following the example of S. 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."— Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

LADY ROCHE AND LADY BRIDGET FITZPATRICK.

THE latter of these two noble and pious ladies was executed

in this year, the former in 1654, but as the account of their

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 259

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 ungrateful English maid- servant (whom she had compassionately taken when a desolate orphan, and supported and educated), was hanged in Cork, in 1654, although stricken in years, and des tined 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 Pro testants, at Dublin, in 1652, without the form of law or j ustice.

" 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 moun tains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth. And all these, being approved by the testimony of the faith, without doubt received the promise." — Morison Threnodiap. 72, ap. Moran, Per sec., p. 197, and Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

DANIEL CONNERY AND DANIEL MOLLONY.

MORISON gives two other striking examples of the practical working of the laws against Catholics. He says, —

" I myself saw this iniquitous law (against harbouring a priest, 27 Eliz. cap. 2) put in execution in the city of Lim-

s 2

260 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

erick by Henry Ingoldsby, the governor of that city. A gentleman of Thomond, named Daniel Connery, was accused of harbouring in his house a priest, and, being convicted 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 confis cation of all his goods and imprisonment, afterwards com muted 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 hand some 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, are either dead of hunger, or live miserably under the yoke of their enemies.

" I also saw the second part of this law (as to denouncing a priest) put in force in the same Limerick, under the same governor, in the year 1652, against a noble and honest Catholic of the name of Daniel Mollony, of Thomond, who, coming to Limerick on account of some business, chanced to meet in an heretic inn a priest, a relative of his, named David Mol lony. The priest was afterwards betrayed 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 denounce a priest, although there was one not to har bour or feed one (and this was the truth, for the law was not passed till three years later). But, notwithstanding this pru dent answer, the governor ordered his ears to be cut off by the executioner, which was done. I could give a thousand such examples.' ' — Morisoti's Threnodia.

REV. FATHERS JOHN O'CUILLIN AND EDMUND CTBERN, O.P.P.

" FATHER O'CUILLIN, of the convent of Athenry, a living example of religion and observance of the rule, most given to prayer and (though of delicate health) to fasting, ever con-

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 261

tent with a poor habit, yet of so excellent a genius that with out 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 heretics 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 Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

ANXO 1653. REV. FATHER THADDJEUS 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 labours, nor suffer ings, nor imprisonment, nor death itself, could break his courage.

When the Cromwellian persecution was raging, an oppor tunity 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 dearth of priests to administer the sacra ments. 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 pre serve 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 admiration, and saying, " If ever a Papist were a martyr, he was one." — Mon. Dom.^ e<v Act. Cap* Gen. 1656.

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He suffered on the 15th 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 laboured much in the same district, where he died." — Hib. Dom., p. 573 ; Dom. a Rosario, p. 355.

FATHER BERNARD CTKELLY, O.P.P.,

" a Dominican of the convent of Roscommon, lay long in 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 Galway he was condemned to death for having exhorted some Catholic women to constancy in the faith, and, meeting a glorious death by the gallows, departed to heaven." — Man. Dom.9 ut supra.

SEVERAL JESUIT FATHERS.

ON the 6th January, 1653, a proclamation was published against the Catholic clergy. By it all ecclesiastics, secular and regular, were commanded, under penalty of being judged guilty of treason, to depart from the kingdom within 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 the 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 remain 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

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 263

quit every inch of Ireland. The sick man was forthwith seized in bed, hurried along for about seventy 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 contemporary 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, afterwards 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 metropolitans. In each cathedral there were dignitaries and canons ; each parish had its pastors ; there were, moreover, 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, amongst whom were three bishops ; more than a thousand were sent into exile, and amongst these all the surviving bishops, with one only excep tion, 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 received the light of Catholic faith."— Moran, loc. cit.

REV. M. MORISON, O. Mm.

PROBABLY to about this year may be referred the imprison ment of Father Mori son. Writing in 1659, he says, —

" I myself, the least and most unworthy of all (absit gloriari 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.

264 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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." — Morison's Threnodia.

THE LADY HONORIA DE BURGO AND HONORIA MAGAEN.

" THE same year Sister Honoria de Burgo proved her devo tion to her heavenly Spouse by uniting to the lilies of virginity the purple of martyrdom. She was the daughter of Richard, dynast, of the De Burgos in Connaught, and in her four teenth year received the habit of the third order of S. Domi- nick, at the hands of Father Thady Dunne, the then pro vincial of Ireland, and lived piously in a house which she caused to be erected near our convent and church of Buri- shool.* Here she continued in works 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 hun ger, 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 Cromwellian persecution, when the religious were everywhere dispersed, the pious virgin, taking with her a little food, fled, with the com panion already mentioned and one handmaiden, to a certain island (called Holy Island) ; here, however, she w.as followed by the enemies and taken prisoner, spoiled of everything, and, though it was the depth of winter, stripped almost naked and led away, and the barbarians flung her violently,

* Burisliool (in Irish, Buresuail— that is, the place of apples), in the county Mayo.

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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, however, she expired, the servant carried her to our church of Burishool, and laid her before the altar of the Blessed Virgin. 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 Honoria on her knees as if praying, she calmly sleeping in the Lord.

4f Sister Honoria Magaen, also a professed sister of our third order, and inseparable from Sister Honoria de Burgo, whose labours and troubles she shared, joined to her in life, in death too she was not divided, but shared her tomb and fol lowed 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 neighbouring wood, where she hid her self in the trunk of a hollow tree, where the next day she was found by the servant of her friend Honoria, 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. Dom., e,v Act. Cap. Gen. 1656.

ANNO 1654. REV. FATHER HUGH MAcGOILLY, O.P.P.

IN the year 1654 the shedding 6f 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 towards the Holy Roman Church, and its visible head the Pope. He was taken

* Eathbran, in the barony of Tyrawly, county of Mayo.

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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. The Catholics buried his venerable body with what honour they might. — Mon. Dom.) ex Act. Cap. Gen. 1656.

REVS. JOHN CAROLAN AND CHRISTOPHER NETTERVILLE.

THEIR fate is told in the MS. given by Dr. Moran : — " We lived for the most part in the mountains and forests, and often too in the midst of bogs, to escape the cavalry 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 discovered, that he died of starvation. Another, Father Christopher Netterville, like S. 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 incommo dious retreat. One was concealed in a deep pit, from which he at intervals went forth on some mission of charity. The heretics having received information as to his hiding-place, rushed to it, and, throwing down immense blocks of rock, exulted in his destruction ; but Providence watched over the good father, and he was absent, engaged in some pious work of his ministry, 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 sufficient 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^-f-Status Rei Cath. in Hib. hoc anno 1654, ap. Moran, Persec., p. 120.

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KEVS. 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 miserable con dition," after nine months1 imprisonment ; but two conditions were added — viz., that within four months he should trans port 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 crutches ;" 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 Connaught 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 ; Prendergast, Cromivellian Settlement, p. 159 ; Letter in S. C. de Prop. Fid., Uth March, 1656.

REV. BRYAN KILKENNY, O.S.F.

I FIND the following notice of him in Curry : — " A barbarous murder was committed by one Ed ward Alta, an irreligious, profane fellow, of the county of Mayo, and his accomplices, on some Protestants at Shruel, a place meet ing Galway, on about thirty persons ; and the pamphleteer might well remember that the neighbouring 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 wife and children, with most part of the said Protestants ; and Bryan Kilkenny, a

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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 to 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 nothing he could afford them for several weeks : the like being done by several other neighbouring 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, a-11 the war-time, several Protestant ministers had their Protestant flocks and meetings without interruption, living amongst the Irish." — Extract of a collection of some of the massacres and murders committed on the Irish in Ireland since the SSrd October, 1642. (London, 1662), ap. Curry's Civil Wars, Appendiv, 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 provincial minister, of visitor-general, and guardian of the college of S. 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 their God and their King, aud was sent to the 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 dun geon there, from the Calvinists, during two years. At length he was taken to Galway for execution, but before the sentence was carried out he gave his soul to God in prison, in the year 1654." — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15.

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 2G9

ANNO 1655. MOST REV. JOHN DE BURGO, ARCHBISHOP OF TUAM,

was consecrated Bishop of Clonfert in 1639, and transferred to Tuam in 1647. It 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 Supplex," 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 llth 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, arid 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 S. Malo, and landed in Dublin about October or November. To the reproaches of the emis saries of Ormond he answered that he had returned to die at home — " to lie down at rest in his grave and native soil.*" He had hoped to pass through Dublin unnoticed, when the Lord- Lieutenant was absent, that his past loyalty had been proved ; for the future no pledge was necessary, and he asked permis sion 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 expected."

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- harfs Bishops. For life of Kirwan, Lynches Alethinologia ; Walsh's Remonstrance, etc.

270 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 amongst 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 ransom* having been paid for him by the Lords Constantine and Felix O'Neill, and Hugh O'Rorke, he was sent to Spain, whence he proceeded to Rome, and, having visited the most celebrated shrines in Italy, he ended his course, and departed to eternal life," — Mon. Dom., ex Act. Cap. Gen. 1656.

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 illus trious Earl of Westmeath 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

* Those sent to Barbadoes were publicly sold.

t MOD. Dom. gives his name as Cnegan ; Hib. Dom. as Creidegain.

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 271

once, having publicly exposed himself to preserve the honour of a noble Catholic matron assaulted by heretics, he received a fearful 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 laboured assiduously in consoling the Catholics ; and, worn out with age and labours, he calmly slept in the Lord. — Mon. Dom., ut sup.

REV. FATHER DAVID ROCHE, O.P.P., AND OTHER PRIESTS.

OF the many thousands of Irish men, women, and children who were sold into slavery in the West Indies, the names of very few have been preserved. Amongst these was Father David Roche,* Dominican. Full details of this infamous traffic are given by Prendergast, " Cromwellian Settlement.1'' Thus, a Government order, published on March 4th, 1655, states that in the four preceding years 6,400 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 commissioners, by which a supply was granted to them of 250 women and 300 men of the Irish nation, to be found within twenty miles of Cork, Youghal, Kinsale, Waterford, and Wexford. Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill (afterwards 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 Lackagh, county of Kildare, were seized on by the agents

* Hib. Dom., p. 571.

272 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

of 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 commis sioners to the Governor of Barbadoes, " advising him of the approach of a ship with a cargo of proprietors, deprived of their lands, and seized for not transplanting" They add that amongst them were three priests, and the commissioners particularly desire that these may be so employed as 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 appurtenances, in the house of one Owen Byrne, of Cool-ne-Kishin, near old Leighlin, in the county Carlow, which said priest, together with Byrne, the man of the house, were brought prisoners to Dublin.'''1 On the 8th January, Richard and Thomas Tinte, Edmund and George Barnewall, and William Fitzsimons, held the castle of Bal- trasna, in 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 declara tion of the State on that behalf." — Hib. Dom.; Moran, Persec.) pp. 106, 151 ; Prendergast, Cromivellian Settle ment, p. 159, &c.

Axxo 1656. REV. FATHER JOHN FLAVERTY, O.P.P.

" HE was prior of the convent of Coleraine, and was stoned to death by the soldiers, and thrown into the river, and so gave his life for the faith in the Cromwellian persecution, about the year 1656."— Hib. Dom., p. 574; O'Heyn, p. 4.

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 273

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, as I have mentioned before.51— Hib. Dom., p. 574 ; 0"Heyn, p. 4.

REV. FATHER NICHOLAS NUGENT, S.J. ; REV. PAUL CUSHIN; AND OTHERS.

THE only record of the first that I find is in Dr. Oliver, " Collections," &c. He says, after an imprisonment in Dublin of four years, he died on the 2nd November in this year. Dr. Oliver refers to " Synopsis Annalium Soc. Jesu 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 Ordinances " 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 subsistence," commands all such persons " to transplant, or be transported to the English plantations in America.""

On the 3rd of May, 1656, the governors of the various prisons received orders to convey their prisoners to Carrick- fergus, " 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 mission in Mary borough, and was amongst those then hurried off towards Carrickfergus. On the way he fell dangerously ill, at Philips- town, and a petition being sent in his name to the commis sioners to be allowed to remain, they replied by an order of the 27th August, 1656, allowing him sixpence 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."

£74 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

ANNO 1657. REV. FATHER JOHN O'LAIGHLIN, O.P.P.

" HE was Prior of Derry, and suffered a long imprisonment 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 HA- GERTY, 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 labour untiringly and fearlessly in the vineyard of the Lord."f

This year Mr. Prendergast gives us the following as in stances of similar orders :— " 10th August, £5, on the certifi cate of Major Stanley, to Thomas Gregson, Evan Powel, and Samuel Ally, being three soldiers of Colonel Abbott's regi ment of dragoons, for the arrest of Donogh Hagerty, a Popish priest, by them taken, and now secured in the county gaol of Clonmel. To Arthur Spunner, Robert Pierce, and John

* This evidently refers to the sentence for treason, f MS. Eelatio Visitationis Dioc. Elphin., facta anno 1668, ab Edmundo Tiege, ap. Moran, "Persec.," p. 125.

DUKING THE COMMONWEALTH. 275

Bruen, 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 13th April, 1657, to Sergeant Humphrey Gibbs arid Cor poral Thomas Hill, ten pounds, for apprehending two Popish priests — viz., Maurice Prendergast and Edmund Fahy, who were secured in the gaol of Waterford, and, being afterwards arraigned, were both of them adjudged to be and were accord ingly 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 transported to the island of Inisbofin, in the diocese of Tuam, where they were compelled to subsist on herbs and water." Mr. Prendergast has pub lished some further details connected with this new place of imprisonment. On the 27th February, 1657, the commis sioners 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 of the bay of Galway, and the isle of Inisbofin, off the coast of Connemara."

In these storm-beaten islands they lived during the remain ing years of the Commonwealth ; and from a Treasury war rant dated the 3rd July, 1657, we learn that cabins were ordered to be built for them on these islands, and that the Governor of Galway, Colonel Thomas Sadleir, was commis sioned 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

* Prendergast, Cromwellian Settlement, pp. 153-8. t Prendergast, p. 162.

276 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

flocks, and all possibility of administering spiritual assistance to the Catholics. Hence, out of fifty-two priests who were in custody, thirty-six were lately sent to the islands of Inisbofm 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.'1*

One instance will give an idea of the share the laity had in these sufferings. In 1657 a gentleman of Clare, named Daniel Connery, was sentenced to banishment, by Colonel Henry Ingoldsby, for harbouring a priest. The wife of the gentleman fell sick and died, and three of his daughters — most beautiful girls— were transported to the West Indies, to an island called the Barbadoes, and there, if they are alive, they are in miserable slavery. — Morison's Threnodia, p. 287. See Moran, Persec., pp. 104-5, 123, 154.

Amongst the priests sent to the island of Inisbofm about this time were two Dominican fathers, as we learn from the Hib. Dom., 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 afterwards master of studies. These offices he filled well, and preached 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 vener able man Father Bernard MacGhiolla Cluinne, provincial of the Franciscans, who there died happily for the glory of God. Round 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 laboured by word and example in the vine yard of the Lord, until, in advanced age, borne down by the weight of the persecution which had then again sprung up,

* Ex Archiv. Soc. Jesu in Rome.

DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 2/7

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 confined as prisoners in the island of Bofm or shut up in the gaols 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. McLeighlin Conry, secular priest ; Rev. Anthony Geoghegan, abbot ; Rev. John Dillon, Dominican ; Rev. Thomas Me Kern an, Franciscan ; Rev. Edward Delamar, secular priest ; Rev. Terlagh Gavan, secular priest; Rev. John Russell, V.G. ; Rev. W. Henessy, se cular priest ; Rev. William Farrell, secular priest ; Rev. Redmond Roche, secular priest ; Rev. Conner Keilly, secular priest ; Rev. Denis Horgan, secular priest ; Rev. Henry Burgat, Dominican ; 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. Thomas Burke, Rev. Francis Horan, Rev. Thomas McKer- nan, Rev, Terence Gavan, Rev. Hugh McKeon, secular priests. — Ex Libro Archimi Provincialis Collegii Lovaniensis Sancti Antonii de Padua Fi\ Min* Hibernorum.

ANNO 1658.— REVS. THOMAS McKERNAN, TUR-

LOGH CTGOWAN, HUGH McGEOWN, 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-

278 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

five pounds for five priests and friars by him apprehended — viz., 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 persecution of Crom well 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 excep tion of a stranger residing in our island, who had acquired large possessions, and, being afraid of losing them, and at the same time being ashamed of the other Catholics, undertook a journey of more than two hundred miles to present himself to one of CromwelPs 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, 1658, that even then, whilst the persecution raged with its greatest violence, there were one hundred and fifty priests in his pro vince, 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, 126, 157.

* In 1659 there was in Connaught no Scotch, 7,673 English, and 79,680 Irish (the last may be taken as Catholics), and 150 priests ; or Catholics to Protestants 10 to 1, and 1 priest to every 53*4 Catholics. In 1861 there were 46,326 Protestants, 866,023 Catholics, and 408 priests ; or Catholics to Protestants nearly 18 to 1, and 1 priest to every 2,165 Catholics. In 1864 the total number of priests in Ireland was 3,097. The Catholic population of Ireland in 1861 was 4,505,265. This would give a proportion of one priest to 1,454 Catholics.— Census of 1659, by Ear ding e ; Census 0/1861; and Catholic Directory, 1864.'

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 279

ANNO 1664.— REV. FATHERS CHRISTOPHER OTER- RALL, JOHN O'HART, 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 descent in Ireland, which therefore must have been the maximum 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 illus trious, 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 Louvain, whence he returned to Dublin, where he became prior, and was remarkable as a pious, diligent, and prudent confessor. Together with the provincial, Father John O'Hart, he was thrown into prison in Dublin * for the defence 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 Dublin, was confined in Dublin for the same cause. Afterwards he was procurator for Ireland, and died at Seville after 1664.*"*— Hib. Dom., p. 575, and O'Heyn, p. 7.

* It would appear from another entry that Father O'Hart was thrown into prison in 1660.— Hib. Dom>, p. 525*

280 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

ANNO 1665.— 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, enduring the same suffer ings; but at the close of the third year this glorious, learned, and courageous man died for the honour 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. — Hib. Dom., p. 575, and O'Heyn, P. 7.

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 then 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 \yall 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 authority,* if many of the

* The work of Walsh from which the facts here recorded are principally taken is his " History of the Irish Kemons trance*" t

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 281

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 additional 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 completed 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.* 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 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 anxiously awaited an oppor tunity of resigning his parish, and proceeding to some foreign university, in order to extend his information, and qualify himself more perfectly for the discharge of his arduous duties. His archbishop, Dr. Fleming, saw that his strong natural talents deserved cultivation ; for he was at this time, to use the words of Dr. O. Plunkett, " a man of a good mother-wit, but no extraordinary learning/1 f

Obtaining at length his superior's permission, he repaired to the University of Louvain, about the year 1633; f and, residing in the Irish secular college, he devoted himself 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 su periors, who, after some time, convinced also of his prudence and zeal for collegiate discipline, appointed him prefect of the

* Walsh's Hist, of Remonstrance, p. 608. The year of his nativity is deduced only by inference from Columbanus.

f Jus Primatiale, p. 30.

J Columbanus's Hist. Address, p. 1. Walsh's Hist, of Kern*, p. 608, says he was in 1636 " somewhat elderly/'

282 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

college of Irish secular ecclesiastics, wherein he resided. But he was honoured 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 S. 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 Fran ciscan. But they were men of opposite dispositions, not likely to coalesce, — 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 amongst all classes of Christians ; the other, a professed Jansenist, the confidant of Jansenius, to whom Walsh dedicated his philosophical theses, and whose famous " Augustinus " Walsh boasts of being the first to have read in albis, as it came from the press.* In these circumstances, 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 descrip tion 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 recommended to his Grace's esteem and protection the piety and abilities of his subject O'Reilly. He again zealously applied himself to the laborious functions of a parish priest in the salvation of souls, and was in a few months appointed by Dr. Fleming vicar- general of the diocese.t The labour and responsibility of his new dignity were increased the following year, "1642, when the Archbishop of Dublin being appointed a member of the supreme council, and fixing his residence on that account at Kilkenny, the administration of the diocese, in spirituals and

* Walsh's Hist, of Kem., treatise iv. p. 75.

t Walsh, &c. Columbanus's Hist. Address, p. 14.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 283

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 office of vicar- general, if we may credit Peter Walsh, who boasts of having 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 council of Kilkenny had grossly neglected the interests of religion in the articles of cessation of arms with Inchiquin, and the nuncio had there upon fulminated sentence of excommunication 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 de pendents and expectants of the court, and the Anglo-Irish, on the other. The famous 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 laboured to diminish the influence which O'NeaFs military bravery and repeated victories had procured him with the people, feeling 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 letter 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 con tended it was in his handwriting. The Archbishop of Dublin was then lodging in the Franciscan convent of Kilkenny, " which, as well as the Dominican, observed the censures." Walsh resided in the Duke of Ormond'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

284 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

his commissions from Dr. O'Reilly, and appointed Dr. Lau rence Archibald, P.P., of Maynooth, vicar-general in his place.

The malignity of his enemies was not, however, yet satisfied. The following year he was waylaid in the neigh bourhood of Dublin, on his return to his own house, by an armed party, " with one Scurtog at their head, and narrowly escaped assassination /' *~

In the beginning of the year 1650 Archbishop Fleming restored him to the office of vicar-general, thereby declaring 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 " whisperings " of Ormond, or mere "hear-say reports/7 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, &c., 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 innocence. And it is clear that if such serious charges were but partially believed, or even reported, beyond the purlieus 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 re-establishment 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 excommunicated by the synod, and denounced for errors in doctrine, schism, 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 of their dissensions, a rebel to the

* Walsh's Hist., p. 609.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 285

Church, and a traitor to his country. Dr. O'Reilly, having learned his design, generously forgot past injuries, exerted every means of changing 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 Colonel Luke O'Toole from his design, and thus saved my life." The following year (1653) Dr. O'Reilly was himself apprehended as a Popish priest ; for, having been summoned as a witness to one of the courts in Dublin, one of the parties, feeling that his cause would be injured by his testimony, 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 witli 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 proclamation of the Cromvvel- lian Government, dated the preceding feast of the Epiphany, which commanded all priests, bishops, &c., to quit the king dom within twenty days, under pain of high treason. •(• 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 constancy, had appointed him to the prima- tial see of Armagh. I have not met with the precise date of this promotion, but think it must have been towards 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 January, 1655. Knowing that the Irish colleges in Flanders were beset with English spies, and feeling how much

* Hisfc. of Bern., p. 609.

f Hib. Dominicana, pp. 704, 5.

J Walsh says lie was seized in 1653 (the beginning of which lie counts from the 25th March), hurried to prison, suffered much, and was at length either banished or licensed to depart to Flanders.

§ Morison, Thren., p. 12 ; Jus Prim. Armacanum, p. 190.

|| Prim. Dublin, p. 59,

286 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

his future safety would be endangered by there being any legal proof of his consecration. Dr. (TB,eilly departed privately for Brussels, and was there consecrated, in the vestry 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 Morrison, "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 Ireland ; never did any reli gion, in any country, survive so bloody a persecution, or with stand such infernal machinery, 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 kingdon, or return to it again, after the 1st 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 publicly burned. A price was set upon their heads (it was the price of a wolfs), 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 expounding the boasted English law a century afterwards.* To harbour a priest, o speak to him, not to betray him, nay, to exercise, no matter how privately, the Catholic religion, was each a capital crime, for which the laity were to be punished with death, and total confiscation of property.f 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 sacraments, and religion so nearly extirpated from the island that the despairing tongue faltered while it said, " If God be

* See his speech on the trial of Mr. Webb, June, 1768, in the Life ot Eight Eev. Dr. Challoner, p. 145. f Hib. Dom., p. 607; Carte, vol. ii. ; Leland, vol. ii.j M'Geoghegan.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 287

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 period 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 unceasing peals the canticle of praise and benediction to the Lord. The prelacy consisted of four archbishops and twenty-three suffragans — viz., 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 per formed 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 remnant of their ancient inheritance; and the peace of 1648 with Ormond and the King stipulated that the Catholic Church should per manently enjoy at least what it then possessed.-)- Such was the state of the Church in 1649- The Catholic religion was not only what it always continued, the religion of the nation, but also what it, on that account, ought ever to have been, the national, the established religion. But how reversed was the scene in 1654, when Dr. O'Reilly was consecrated ! Three of the bishops, and more than three hundred of the clergy, had already been put to death for the faith. All the surviving bishops but one, and upwards of one thousand priests, were banished for ever from their country ; some were allowed to seek exile in the kingdoms of Europe, but many hundreds were stowed in crazy ships, treated with ignominious cruelty, and transported to Barbadoes, and other isles of the West Indies-^ The friars were expelled from their convents,

* MS. Memoir of the State of the Irish Church, written in 1667, penes me, Dr. French, in Hib. Dom., p. 499. . f Philopater, lib. i. p. 165 ; Hib. Dom., p. 686. I MS. Memoir of the Irish Church, Hib. Dom.

288 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

and obliged to fly ; of six hundred Dominicans scarcely one remained ;* the more numerous Franciscans, the Augustinians, &c., 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 where 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 resto ration 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 gaol, 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 Archbishop of Tuam returned in 1662, to die along with him, being then eighty years of age, and disabled by repeated attacks 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 confirmation nor of holy orders was conferred in Ireland, yet there were in the latter year about 1,100 secular priests on the Irish mis sion^ but, the Bishop of Ardagh having returned 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.

* Hib. Dom., pp. 525, 116, &c. t MS. Mem.; Walsh's Hist, of Kern., passim. J Fasti Dublinenses, in Whitelaw and Walsh's Hist. Dub., vol. i. § Walsh's Hist. Bern., pp. 574, 5, &c. ; also the MS. Memoir cited before.

IN THE REION OF CHARLES IT, 289

(TReilly's death, the Irish prelacy could only count three bishops in Ireland, and three in involuntary exile.

Violent as was the fury of the Cromwelli an 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 favourable 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 pecuniary aid, and pro cured 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 protection 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 administerd confirma tion and the other sacraments to a multitude of Irishmen then in London, having previously obtained the necessary per mission of the English archpriest, Dr. Knightley.* After about six weeks1 stay in London, he met the schismatical friar P. Walsh. The Primate, supposing that ho 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 re peated, 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

* \Yalsh, &c.s pp, 609, 610, f Ibicj,

V

290 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

of him. This clumsy and slanderous fabrication was, how ever, 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 straightfor wardness, the extreme improbability 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 remained 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. CTReilly soon felt to his cost that Walsh had not more influence formerly with the ministers of 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 de cipher. 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 dissatisfac tion and an almost total separation. Soon after, however, the bishop having learned, by some accident, the cause of discon tent, and an explanation having been obtained, he at once fully convinced 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 without foun dation. Finding that they had been maliciously imposed upon, the Primate and his companions became grievously dissatis fied, and " quarrelled with Walsh" — no obscure indication that he was the incendiary between them. But he soon took ample revenge. While the Primate and his friends were preparing to continue their journey to Ireland, and their minds filled

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 291

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 Machiavellian intrigue with the minister, should in the same page charge O'Reilly with being the friend of Cromwell and the enemy of Cromwell's rival ? While the tyrant reigned, Walsh represented O'Reilly as the friend, 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 wards 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 laboured 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 Walshf (who, most probably, was himself that person), wrote secretly to the English court of Charles II., then in the Low Countries, representing Dr. O'Reilly as ad vocating the interests of Cromwell, and animating the Protest ants of Ireland to oppose the restoration of Charles II. y promising them the full co-operation 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

* Walsh's Hist, of Remons., p. 610. t Ibid.

29.2 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

his Holiness, in the King's name, to order the Primate to with draw from Ireland. The application was made immediately before the King left Holland for England ; the requested order was received in England the following autumn.*

In the mean time Dr. O'Reilly, who knew nothing of the storm excited, and now ready to burst upon him, was labouring 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 excessive 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 pro voked the usurper's greater severity, so would now be rewarded with proportionate favour. An address of loyalty and con gratulation 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 docu ment 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, therefore, 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 testimony of all who knew him, and to public notoriety. He was compelled a third time to quit his country. After arriving in France he again wrote from Rouen to Walsh, beseeching him to efface the slanderous impression made on the minds of the ministers, and multiplying the pro testations 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's Hist. Bemons., p. Oil ; Dr. Plunket's Jus Primatiale, p. 31; MS., ut supra.

t "Wait there for three years " was the answer lijs Grace rereivec] froni the impudent, luxurious friar.

IX 'fHE RfclGN Ot1 CHARLES II. ~93

Walsh, and on August 31st to the Lord-Lieutenant Orinond, 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 frag ments.* 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-four of whom were friars,— it was deemed a matter of the utmost importance to the views both of Orinond and his pensioner to enlist the support and influence of the Primate in its favour. A national synod of the clergy was summoned to meet in Dublin, June llth, 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 jour ney could not shake the fortitude of the archbishop. The safest route appeared to be through Flanders. But the Inter- nuncio 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 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

* Ormond himself explains bis motive and object in a letter to bis son, Lord Arran, dated Deccember 29tb, 1680. " My aim," says be, " was to work a division amongst tbe Eomisb clergy, and I believe I bad compassed it, to tbe great security of tbe Government and tbe Protestants." — tiee CartC) vol. iii. ; Plow den, vol. i. p. 34.

294 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

England, and immediately despatched an express to Ormoncl, informing him that O'Reilly was travelling incognito to Ire land, 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,'1 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 re sembling 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 preroga tives 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,1' 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, therefore, 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 doctrines imputed to Catholics, but abstained from pronouncing on dubious and disputed opinions which had no connection with their political relation to the King, or their civil relation to their Protestant fellow- subjectSj such as the superiority of councils over the Pope, &c.

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 be-

* Walsh's Hist,, &c., p. G12.

IN THE REIGN OF CHAKLES 11. 295

fore the Lord-Lieutenant. Here all the artifices of that crafty and intriguing statesman were exhausted in endeavouring to seduce O'Reilly, or at least silence his opposition. In an address of considerable ingenuity he at first sharply rebuked the Primate, then threw before his imagination vague insinu ations about secret accusations, grievous offences against the State privately informed of, and terrific innuendoes about their punishment ; bid him, however, to speculate upon the favour, and to merit by loyal compliance the gracious bounty, of the Crown, but again reminded him of the power of the Govern- ment, and the rigorous severity of the laws, in case he should persist in undutiful opposition. But the Primate's conscience reproached him with no offence that merited punishment ; and as to the sham plots and unjust persecution then so prevalent, he dreaded them as little as he courted the corrupting bounty of the Crown. He therefore returned the day after to the national congregation, and firmly resisted every attempt to cor rupt the faith or discipline of the Irish Church.

The national congregation, after having unanimously re jected the Valesian Remonstrance, was dissolved on Monday, the 25th of June, 1666 ; and on that very day the Duke of Ormond gave an order from the castle for arresting all the bishops that had attended its sessions. The prelates had all been invited and pressed to this assembly by Ormond 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 determination 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 return ing therefrom. The Bishop of Kilfenora, placing no great reliance on the veracity 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 honour or had less knowledge of his character, remained in town, and were laid under arrest that very evening.*

* Walsh's Hist., &c., p. 744

296 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

It was, however, deemed advisable to find some 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 months* 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, hireling 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 imprisonment, always avoided the snare. This scheme having failed, a plot that would disgrace Machiavelli 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 of 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 him self 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 his secre tary, 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 passed through Galiicia to Madrid, Nicholas French, of Ferns, told him that Edmond

* From 25th June to 27th September. Walsh says it was but a fen- weeks, and insinuates that it was not more than four or five ; but the date of his arrest is attested by Walsh himself, and the date of his banishment by Ware, Whitelaw, and Walsh's Fasti Dub., Carte, &c.

IN THE 11E1GN OF CHARLES 11. -97

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 indiffer ence may appear, considering the importance of the charge and the part he was to act, stranger still is the conduct pursued towards the detected traitor and rebel. Ormond commanded Walsh to inform O'Reilly that his rebellious con spiracy was discovered, and the channel through which the information came, and that, in consequence, he must be imme diately put under a guard of soldiers. Still the Primate was allowed 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, however, 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 con vinced that O'Reilly must be charged with some grievous offence. In the mean time 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 persecu tion which would appear to emanate only from the Council, and at all events would secure him from any inconvenient inquiry about the accusation, 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 unfortunate 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

298 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

spirit of persecution and despotic tyranny5 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 shipping for Calais.

Thus banished for ever from his diocese and his country, he studied how he might best provide for the interests of reli gion and the spiritual instruction of fhis people. His first care was to revisit the Irish colleges in Belgium. He passed, therefore, from Calais to Lou vain, •)* and thence to the other seminaries, and in the beginning of 1667 reached Brussels, where he ordained several priests for the Irish mission. J

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 ordi nations, the last of which, that I find any mention of, took place at Paris in January, 1669* It was probably the ex cessive 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 1669. ||

* Fasti Dublinenses, in Whitelaw's Hist, of Dublin ; Ware's Gesta Hibernorum, &c., ut supra.

t Walsh's Hist, of Eem., part ii. p. 744, &o. Walsh knew nothing of his Grace's history after his arrival in Louvain.

{ See the registry of the priests of Ireland, taken by Government in 1704, passim.

§ " Perpetuo damnatus exilio, in Belgium venit, inde Lutetiam ante aliquot menses," says the MS. Memoir to which I have so often re ferred, and which was copied by the present Lord Arundel from the original MS. paper, written in 1667, and preserved in the convent of S. Isidore at Home.

II So I learn from a MS, note in Plunket's Jus Prim., p. 31, and

IN THE 11E1GN OF CHARLES II. 299

ANNO 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 little the sufferings of the Catholics had been diminished by the restoration of Charles II. A certain wicked apostate Augus- tinian monk, named Martin French, who had been repri manded 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 archbishop 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, 1671, 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 Praemunire — 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 kingdom, and the only defender that the poor ecclesiastics have in such circumstances, writes that he should appeal from the courts of Galway to the

from date of Plunkett's consecration. (He wrote in 1669 from Paris to P. Walsh. See E. 612.)

With. Dr. O'Eeilly was confined the venerable Dr. Patrick Plunkett, Bishop of Meath. He was the second son of Christopher, ninth Lord Killeen, joined the Cistercians, became abbot of S.Mary's, Dublin, and, on the recommendation of the nuncio, was promoted in 1647 to the see of Ardagh. During the bloody days of Cromwell he fled to the Continent, and about 1665 was permitted to return to his flock. In 1666 he was imprisoned in Dublin along with Dr. O'Eeilly, and kept in close confinement for several months. Apparently he escaped from prison, for in November, 1667, Dr. French, Bishop of Ferns, in his " Elenchus," presented to Pope Clement IX., says that Dr. Plunkett 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 of Killecn. — Cogans Diocese of Meath, p. 358.

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supreme jurisdiction of Dublin, in which there is greater

equity."

On the trial being sent to Dublin, French did not appear to prosecute, and soon afterwards, touched with repentance, 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 testi fied his horror for the course of crime he had pursued, ab solved him, in the name of the Holy See, from the censures he had incurred, and wrote most pressing letters to the Arch bishop 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 September, 1671, 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 cen sures or irregularities, and that we would cast every fault, if there were any, upon his own shoulders, and to this testimony we have given every credence.1' — Morans Life of Archbishop Plunket, p. 89.

ANNO 1674,— RIGHT REV. DR. JOHN DE BURGO,

VICAR-APOSTOLIC OF KlLL ALA.

FEW, even amongst 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 labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, 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 wilderness, 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,

IX THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 301

lie 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 we find him three years later arrested by Cromwell, and sent, in company with eighteen other priests, into banishment. For some years he dedicated himself to the sacred ministry in France and Italy, till 1671, when he received a brief from Rome appointing him Vicar-Apostolic of the ancient see of Killala. Towards the close of 1672 he reached Ireland ; but in the mean time the Archbishop of Tuam, as metropolitan, had appointed a vicar-general for the diocese, and, the matter having been referred to Rome, the appoint ment 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," &c. For two years he was detained in prison with irons on his hands and feet. At the assizes he publicly de clared 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 being promoted to a Protestant bishopric, should he conform to the Established Church. Con ducted 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 £80 sterling (an enormous sum for those days) within one month, and retire to the Continent.

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 lie 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 Venice and

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Home, and, receiving frequent aid from the Sacred Congre gation, 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 Moron's Life of Archbishop Plunket, p. 200.

ANNO 1678.— MOST REV. PETER TALBOT, ARCH BISHOP 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, &c., &c. His father, Sir William Talbot, lived at Malahide, and was the ancestor of the present Lord Talbot of Malahide. Colonel Richard Talbot, 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 honours of the world at the foot of the cross, and to embrace the poverty, the persecutions, and the sacred ministry of Jesus. He was accordingly sent over to Portugal, to be trained up in the spirit and 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

* Carte's Ormond, vol. ii. p. 384.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. .303

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.*

<f 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 banishment 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 par ticularly with the Count de Fonsaldagna, 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 ambassador 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 in calculable service to Charles in the days of his distress. He frequently visited his Majesty at Cologne, and was always honoured with the most gracious and friendly reception. Conversation, after some acquaintance, often turned on the respective merits of the Catholic and Protestant religions. If the King was willing to learn, Talbot was able 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 his closet for several days, till his conviction 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

•" Life in Bibliotlieca Patruin S.J.

SOt MARTYRS AND CONPESSOKS

spirit of bigotry against the Catholic Church ; he knew the character of Ormond and the others that surrounded his person ; he probably saw that those calculating royalists might believe that his conversion would mar their projects for the settlement and partition of Ireland ; and he therefore determined to be received into the bosom of the Catholic Church as secretly as possible, and afterwards, and then only, to absent himself from Protestant communion, but to make no declarations 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 profes sion 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 afterwards his absence from Protestant service had been jealously remarked by his ministers, and the secret of his con version was not only whispered on the Continent, but reported in England, when the boasted and amply rewarded 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 heart with the same readiness as he pledged his honour or his oath, at different times, to support and to repudiate the Irish peace, the Scotch Covenant, and the English Church. Talbot's labour, however, was not lost either to the country or to the unhappy King. His Majesty, though a weak and ambitious man, 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 him again into the Church, and to prepare him for eternity. He needed but little instruction ; Talbot had supplied that want. His repentance had every appearance of being intense and fervent ; he received the last sacraments with piety, and died a Catholic.

•X- #• # -X- -fc -K-

^ Various causes combined, aboiit the year IfifiS, to induce

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 305

the Government to connive at the appointment of a few bishops to some of the many vacanct 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 re-enter the society, if they deemed that course more conducive to the interests of religion, But these fathers, considering the invaluable services a person of his talents, information, and family influence was likely to render the Catholic cause in Ireland, not only renounced their claim upon him, but used all their influence to forward his promotion 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, and was consecrated at Ghent, near Lou vain, on the 2nd May, 1669.

•* •* * x * *

" Dr. Talbot lost no time, after his consecration, in visiting 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 succour during the last seven 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 in gratitude of the restored King, and the legalized spoliation ot the Act of Settlement, presented 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-apo stolic, who had provided for its administration during the

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vacancy, had been necessitated to admit persons of inferior literary qualifications 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 instantly deprived thereof. He also commanded that each clergyman 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 attempt to marry a Jew or infidel, under pain of excommuni cation), that the banns should be solemnly published before marriage, and that any of the faithful who dies without receiving 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 Re monstrants, and his zealous discharge of his sacred duties exposed 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 beyond measure at the thought of losing their ill-got possessions, and they appealed to the English Parliament for protection.

" An address was accordingly presented to the King, requiring, among other things, that ' Peter- Talbot, pre tended Archbishop of Dublin, for his notorious disloyalty and disobedience and contempt of the laws, be commanded by proclamation to depart forthwith out of Ireland and all

i, * Statuta Dublinensia (1770), pp. 80, 81.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 307

his Majesty's dominions, or otherwise to be prosecuted accord ing to law,' &c. In consequence of this edict, Dr. Talbot was banished the kingdom, about the beginning of 1673. ###•*##

" Dr. Talbot returned to England in 1675, where he resided for the next two years in Poole Hall, Cheshire.* 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, 6 in his own country.' Before obtaining this leave, he had to promise to live quietly with his own 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 him of the discovery of the 6 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 insurrection, and Peter Talbot in a dying way. He signed, however, a warrant on the 8th (Oct. 1678) and despatched an officer to secure his person. f

" Dr. Talbot was arrested in his father's house at Cartown, near Maynooth ; his papers, containing nothing but disserta tions 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 condition, the violence of his distemper being scarce supportable, and threatening his death at every moment.' J Harris adds ' that nothing appeared against him from his examination, nor from those of others.§

* Carte, ii. p. 477 ; Harris's Writers, p. 193.

t Carte, ii. p. 478. J Carte, ibid.

§ P. Walsh, far the most unscrupulous of his accusers, charges him

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Yet he was continued in the castle about two years, and died in confinement in the 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 favourable 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 gaol 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 lite rally 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 laboured 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 in-

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, trea son, &c., 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 won't mention ; and in the same page, and with this admission before him, he asserts also they were mainly instrumental in procuring his promotion to the see of Dublin to serve their own interests.— Hist. Remons., pp. 258-30.

* Harris's Writers, book i. p. 193.

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censed at his zeal, and jealous of his influence with the people ; and, as is usually the case, they resolved to destroy what they feared. Secret accusations were made before a heretical tribunal, suspicions created, all the other 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 length the excellent prelate, always supported by the testimony of a good con science, 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 animated the true pastor, and made him more careful of the salvation of others than of his own life. Whilst he patiently 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 immured 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 exam pie.1*

* Theologia Tripartita Kichardi Arsdekin, S.J. ; Prosecutio Dec!., torn, i., edit, quinta, Antverpiro, anno 1682. Arsdekin entered the

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" Some recent writers have, quite erroneously, fixed the date of Dr. Talbot's death in 1681, against the unanimous tes timony 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, Dec. 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'lbernia) ; 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.1 "*

ANNO 1679.— RIGHT REV. Du. FORSTALL,

BlSHOP OF KlLDARE.

"DR. FORSTALL was a prelate of great virtue and learning, and before his appointment to the see of Kildare he had held high ecclesiastical offices in Vienna, in which he won for him self the esteem and favour of the Imperial court. He was a member of the Order of S. Augustine, all 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 adminis tration of the diocese of Leighlin, which had also fifteen or sixteen priests, and a revenue of only fifty or sixty scudi.

society in 1642, being then twenty-three years of age, and was conse quently only about one year older than Dr. Talbot. — See Hib. Dom., pp. 131, 815.

* Extract from original documents of Padre Theiner, by L. F. E.

t Dr. Plunket also says the diocese had only fifteen priests.

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*' Towards the close of the year 1679 Dr. Forstall was cast into prison ; and even after his liberation the fury of persecu tion compelled him to seek for safety in the woods and mountains, until, in 1683, he closed his earthly career, an exile in the diocese of Cashel." — Moran's Life of Dr.

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 con stancy 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 S. 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 favour 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 eat 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 har boured 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 insisted that he should not again expose himself to the dangers of the

* In the times of persecution aspirants to the religious life generally were received into the order and clothed in Ireland, and then pro ceeded abroad to pass their noviceship in one of the Irish monasteries on the Continent.

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sea. His determination, however, prevailed ; and, having obtained from his mother fresh supplies for his journey, he embarked at Gal way, 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 Crom- wellian 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 consi deration by the illustrious Father Julius Vincent Gentili, who was twice provincial of the province of Lombardy, and afterwards 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 sacred office.

" It were long to tell all he suffered in the bitter persecution 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 Council, for which reason he always travelled by night whilst that persecution lasted. For four months he lay hid in a solitary 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 aided 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 first of July, 1681. In the war of rebellion against our King James II. he was compelled to take refuge in the city of

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 313

Galway, out of his own diocese. King James and his Queen esteemed him much. When he was driven into exile. King Lewis 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, and 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 labours for religion, having made his confession and received the Holy Communion and extreme 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, beside the high altar."— -Hib. Dom. p. 496; O'Heyn, p. 33; De Jonghe, 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 an heretical minister. He showed that the 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 observing a religious gravity. He suffered much in the persecution which sprang up in 1680. He lay for a whole year in prison, in close con finement, which he bore with such equanimity and cheerfulness as to astonish the heretics who spoke with him. After his deliverance from prison he lived until the year 1686, when, fortified with the sacraments of the Church, he calmly departed to our Lord."—O'Heyn, p. 24.

* Lynze. This name is probably the same as Lynch.

314 MAETYRS AND CONFESSORS

ANNO 1681. -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 apprehension.

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 Ardagh 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 intrusted to his relative, Dr. Patrick Plunket, then titular Abbot of S. Mary's, Dublin, until the age of sixteen, when he proceeded 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 was ordained priest, but, it being impossible at that date for him to proceed to Ireland, he took up his residence with the Jesuit fathers of S. Girolamo della Carita. 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 prudent that he should be consecrated in Brussels, which was done on the

* Life of Archbishop Plunket, by Eev. P. Moran, D.D. Dublin, 1865.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 315

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 favourable 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 four 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 Waterforcl, were con cealed 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 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 illustrious 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 inter-

316 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

cession 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 diocese, 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 discovered 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 remaining 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 he had been imprisoned only for being a Catholic bishop, and for not having abandoned the flock of our Lord in obedience to the edict published by Parliament, I was somewhat consoled, it being his and our glory that he should suffer 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 treason 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 amongst these was a friar named Mac Moyer, 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

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 317

to the grand jury of the county of Dublin, and supported by the evidence of this Mac Moyer and others, but the grand jury would not find the bill.

The Protestant bishop Burnet gives the following account 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 themselves well qualified 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 the Earl of Shaftesbury cherished them much, they were examined by the Parliament at Westminster, and what they said was believed. Upon that encouragement it was reckoned 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 interest from the two Talbots, the one of these being the titular Archbishop of Dublin, and the other raised afterwards 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 ap peared 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 another 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 corrrespondence 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 decently 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 witnesses had fully arranged their plans. Armed with commendatory letters from the English court, they now returned to Ireland

318 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

assured of success. Amongst the many precautions taken by the apostate friar Mac Moyer, 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 Primate 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.1' Dr. Plunket did not object to this arrange ment, though in itself most unjust, so conscious was he of his own innocence, and of the known character of his accusers ; 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.'1

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 procured there of their malignity and evil designs and perjuries. Dr. Flunket, writing to the internuncio on the 25th 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 tribula tions and miseries. The friar Mac Moyer, as well in the criminal sessions of Dundalk, as after these sessions, presented a memorial that the trial should not be held in Dundalk, where he was too well known, and that it should be deferred till Sep tember or March next, but the Viceroy refused.

"I was brought with a guard to Dundalk on the 21st of July. Dundalk is thirty-six miles from Dublin. I was there con signed to the King's lieutenant in that district, who treated me with great courtesy ; on the 23rd and 24th of July I was presented for trial. A long process was read, but on the 24th Mac Moyer did not appear to confirm his depositions and hear my defence. I had thirty-two witnesses, priests, friars, and

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 319

seculars, prepared to falsify all that the friar had sworn, for sooth that / had seventy thousand Catholics prepared to murder all the Protestants, and to establish here the Romish religion and Popish superstition ; that I had sent numerous agents to different kingdoms to obtain aid ; that I had visited and explored all the fortresses and maritime 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 Plunket, 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 Mac Moyer alleged that he himself could not appear, as he awaited the return of Murphy ; and so these sessions terminated, 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 recommended me to present a memorial to have the cause adjudged 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 person accused knows nothing of the accusations 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 administer 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, how ever, the shortness of the time spent in Dundalk, it was still more expensive, as I had to bring thirty-two witnesses from dif ferent parts and maintain them for four days in Dundalk, and amongst the guards and servants of the lieutenant I distributed forty crowns. Although the two chief judges are appointed by the Crown, the jury is chosen by the lieutenant of the district of Dundalk. As there are more Catholics than Pro testants in the county Louth, Mac Moyer, foreseeing that

320 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 oppo sition, knowing well that all the Protestants of my district looked upon Mac Moyer 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 Mac Moyer against me ; and, moreover, his dissolute life was notorious, and he was always half drunk when he appeared before the tribunals. 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 afterwards appear against me ; not to accuse me in crimine Icesce majestatis (of treason), but of exercising Papal jurisdic tion in this kingdom. Another witness, Callaghan, accuses me in like manner, and it is an accusation which I deem most glorious. It is more than two years since Mac Mover commenced his accusations 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 £1 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 non mentior; and although you well know I have not now received one halfpenny from my masters, yet Catholics here, as well as Protestants, can 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 Catholics, who are reduced to such poverty, especially in my districts, that it is difficult for the parish priests to find the means of sub sistence. So many, between bandits and soldiery, are con tinually in pursuit of them, that in my district the greater

IN THE REIGN OF CHAELES II. 321

part left their holdings ; in fact, all the military are main tained 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 arch bishop written on this occasion, one on the 21st 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 against 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 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

y

322 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 absent and unheard.

" I request you to communicate this intelligence to Mon- signor Cybo, or to send him this letter. There are many of the Irish nobility and gentry here accused of this Utopian con spiracy, as my Lord Poer, now Earl of Tuam ; my Lord Brittas, &c. I recommend myself to the Sacrifices and prayers of all.

« 21st October, 1680."

I will now give his trial, from the account printed in 1681 :—

" On the 3rd of May, 1681, in Easter term, Dr. Oliver Plunket was arraigned at the King's Bench bar for high treason, and for endeavouring 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 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 ar raignment there (he being never tried on it) was not sufficient to exempt him from being tried here.* He then desired time

* 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 to 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 favour, no evidence of his innocence. — Moran, p. 322.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 323

for his witnesses, which they told him he could not do till after 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 weeks1 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 :* —

" Clerk of Croivn. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand. These good men which thou shalt hear called and personally appear are to pass between, &c.

" Plunket. May it please your lordship : I have been 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 express mention made of Ireland in them : so that none were received there

* 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 the seventeenth century (and indeed the same law was in force till a very late period), no person accused of treason was allowed 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 cause before judges who seemed to vie with each other in their partiality for the perjured witnesses, and in their animosity against the accused, whilst at the same time the jury had nought to guide them in their decision but the long- concocted, and nevertheless occasionally conflicting, evidence of these perjurers. One instance will show the bias of the judges. When at the close of the first witness's evidence Dr. Plunket asked him, why, if all he had said were true, he had never during the past seven years given any notice to the Government of the plot, 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 discover the plot." — Moran, p. 324.

324 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

but such as were before Poyning's Act. So I came with that persuasion that I could not be tried here, till, at my arraign ment, 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 tes tify, I have not despatched only one, but two, to Ireland, into the counties of Armagh, Dublin, &c., 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 in struct me some way or other how I can get over them that are most material for my defence. The servants that I sent hence, and took shipping for Ireland, were two days at sea, and cast back again, and from thence were forced to go to Holyhead, and from 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

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 3.25

brought into very ill condition ; so they sent one over that made affidavit.

" Lord Chief Justice. It was the affidavit was read here yesterday.

" Plunket. 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 pacquet-boat, and they wrote over to the captain after they were landed ; so that I depended upon the wind and weather for my wit nesses, 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 examination here might be compared with it. So I humbly beg your lordship's favour ; the case is rare, and scarce happens in five hundred years, that one should be in my circumstances. I am come here, where no jury knows me nor the quality of my adver saries. 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 Catholic should be upon the jury, and so it was in both the grand and other jury, yet then when I came to my trial, after I was arraigned, not one appeared. This is manifest upon the record, 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 of the neighbourhood 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

* The writ for summoning a jury runs, "shall summon twelve men of the neighbourhood who best may know and judge."

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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 wit nesses. 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 without 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 divinity, for that he, as a false traitor against the most illustrious 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 unknown, traitor ously did compass the death of the King. 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 the religion

of the Romish Church into the kingdom of Ireland aforesaid to introduce and establish , &c.

" Mr. Attorney-General. May it please your lordship, and you gentlemen of the jury, the character this gentleman bears, as Primate under a foreign and usurped jurisdiction, 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 punished, 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 labours of his episcopate, and could

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 327

not obtain for himself a revenue of even near ^840 a year, and frequently received only £25), raised annually large sums for the support of a French army,* was to raise himself 70,000 men, and spent his time surveying 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 Armagh. 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 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 j£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 £50. On which the Chief Justice said, " Look you, Mr. Plunket, consider with yourself, £50 or £500 in this case is not five farthings 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 corrobora tive evidence produced. Moyer, indeed, produced what he called a translation 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

* They swore that for this purpose he raised forty shillings and fifty shillings a year from each priest, besides other sums, whereas in reality they were never able to pay the twenty shillings which they were bound to contribute for the archbishop's own support.

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of that day, if only it were related of papists.* Dr. Plunket's answer to these absurd charges could only consist, besides their own internal inconsistencies and extravagance, in proving the bad character of the witnesses. But this he was not allowed to do. We have seen already how the Chief Justice met the natural question of why they did not reveal his pretended treason for so many years, or whilst 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 anything. 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 Moyer with himself), I would ask him if he was indicted of any crime and found guilty by a jury ?

" Moyer. 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.f

" Mr. Serjeant 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 himself, 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 J to answer such a

* 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 the great plot in which they were supposed to be engaged.

t The judges had judicial knowledge that the Irish courts had re fused to give copies of any such records without an express order from themselves (the Court of King's Bench in England), and they had not given any such order. — Trial, p. 62.

J This was not only manifestly unjust, but wholly illegal. A witness

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 329

question. Look you, Mr. Plunket, don't misspend your own time ; for the more you trifle in these things the 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 ?

" 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 received a farthing of money out of my own district ; and, but for my own liveli hood — and that I can prove by those that have received it for me — that I never received over threescore 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 own district, some twenty shillings, some thirty shillings, and I never got so much in my life as to maintain a servant, and this was attested before the Council in Ireland ; . . . . 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 thafs for the money

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' convictions, nor allow them to be asked whether they had been convicted.

330 MAilTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 sent by the post and did all that I could, and what can I say when I have not my wit nesses 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 witnesses, 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 pro vincial, and that he hath taken and endeavoured 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 Crown. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand. How say you, is he guilty of high treason whereof 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 judgment against the prisoner Oliver Plunket.

" Clerk of the Crown. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand ;

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 331

thou hast been indicted of high treason, thou hast been there upon arraigned, thou hast thereunto pleaded not guilty, and for thy trial hast put thyself upon God and the country, 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 ?

" Pluriket. My lord, may it please your lordship, I have something to say, which, if your lordship will consider seriously, 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 evidently, they ab sented themselves. On the day of 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 cir cumstances 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 impossible they should know it. I have been accused chiefly 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 favourable 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 Christian was permitted to come at me, nor did I know anything how things stood in the world. I was brought here

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the 3rd of May, to be arraigned, and I did petition your lord ship 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 petitioned, the 8th of this month, that I might have time for 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 morning, and they will be here in a few days ; and so, for want of time to defend myself in, I was exposed to my adversaries, 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 Prcemunire, and no treason. So that, my lord, I was exposed defenceless to my enemies, whereas now my witnesses are come that could make all appear. And, my lord, for those depositions of the 70,000 men, and the moneys that are col lected of the clergy in Ireland, they cannot be true, for they are a poor clergy, that have no revenue nor land ; they live as the Presbyterians do here. There is not a priest in all Ireland that hath, certainly or 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 Carlingford, if it had been brought before a jury in Ireland it would have been thought a mere romance. , If they had accused me of a Prcemunire for the exercise of my episcopal function, perhaps they had said something that might have been believed ; but, my lord, as I am a dying man, and hope for salvation by my 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 concerning my good be-

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 333

haviour 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 otherwise 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 afterwards 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 circumstances 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 dishonour 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 dishonourable and derogatory to God and His glory of all religions or pretended religions whatsoever, for it undertakes to dispense with God's laws, and to pardon the breach of them. So that, certainly, a greater crime there cannot be committed against God than for a man to endeavour the pro pagation of that religion

" Plunliet. 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 petition ? 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 records 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 endeavoured to correct this seven years, and they were renegades from our religion, and declared apostates

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" May it please your lordship to give me leave to speak one word. If I were a man that had no care of my conscience in this matter, and did not think of God Almighty, or con science, 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 wrongfully accuse any body. 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 Justice. I am sorry to see you persist in the principles of that religion.

" Plunket. They 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. 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 before you are dead, your bowels shall be taken out arid burnt before your face, your head shall be cut off, and your body be divided into four quarters, to be disposed of as his Majesty 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 tinje ; 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 1st of July, he was executed according to the sentence.1'

I shall now give the account of his execution from Dr. Moran : —

IN THE EEIGN OF CHARLES II. 335

Friday, the llth 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 whilst awaiting in prison the carrying 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 narrative presented the same year to the Sacred Congregation, and which was not impro bably written by Father Teyling, a distinguished member of the Society of Jesus. It is entitled " A brief narrative of the imprisonment, accusations, and death of Monsignor Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland, executed at Tyburn, in London, the llth* of July, 1681." Many of the facts, however, which it contains have already been comme morated from other sources, wherefore we shall be content with presenting those passages which add new circumstances con nected 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 constancy with which he supported his atrocious penalty, has awakened in many a devout curiosity to learn its circumstances, and especially in those who will remember to have known and con versed with him in this city of Rome, where he lived for so many years, at first as student of the Irish College, and after wards as professor of theology for many years in the College of the Propaganda. Wherefore, not to defraud so holy a desire, whilst we await a more complete 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 the sentence of death being passed, Fitzharris, by the terror of his looks, his trembling, and the complete failure of

* New style in England, they still observed old style.

336 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

strength, showed that his heart was not less feeble than guilty. On the contrary, the Primate, 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 de portment, that all were able to perceive, not only his perfect innocence, but, moreover, his singular virtue, which was master and superior to every emotion of passion. And con cerning all this the Catholics who were present wrote endless praises, attesting that none could wish for a deportment more noble, more amiable, more worthy of Him whom he there represented. Having heard the sentence (turning his thoughts to his soul, and nowise solicitous as to the sufferings destined for his body), he asked as a favour from the judge to be allowed to treat of spiritual matters with a Catholic priest. " You will have,1' replied the judge, " a minister of the Church of England." But he answered, " I am obliged for your good intentions, but such a favour would be wholly useless to me." The Primate being re-conducted to prison after this public and so glorious trial, there arose between the Catholics and the Protestants an eager strife who would visit him and converse withhim — 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 exceedingly contented with his deportment, but also rendered more affectionate towards 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 sufferings of prison, to the afflicting journeys so patiently borne by him, to the gene rous and repeated pardon which he so often breathed for his

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 337

enemies in exchange for their many outrages, he added, more over, many voluntary penances, and especially a rigorous fast on bread and water three times each week during the whole time that he was in prison 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 llth 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 courage 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, whilst, nevertheless, he was of an ardent and delicate temperament. In a little while the announcement was made that everything was in order, wherefore he was taken from prison, 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 multitude 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 itself, being ever serene and tranquil even to his last breath ; so that he universally excited that esteem and sympathy which is invariably evoked by an heroic virtue oppressed by an extreme rigour, so that few could be found even amongst the Protestants to entertain a doubt as to his innocence.

On the scaffold he delivered a short discourse, in which, after protesting his innocence as to the charges of conspiracy 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

z

338 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 remarked by the spec tators, 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 discourse, the sen tence 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 exe cuted, and to the last the contrast of his manner and actions displayed in brighter light the happy lot of the Primate ; and whilst Dr. Plunket excited compassion on account 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 permission 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 S. Giles ; and we cannot but remark the devotion and great esteem which the English Catholics displayed for this sacred deposit; and together with it they interred 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 hanged at Tyburn, and his bowels being taken out and cast into the fire, suffered martyrdom with constancy, in the reign of Charles the Second, King of Great Britain, on the 1st day of July, 1681."

Here we may remark that, by referring to this inscription,

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 339

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 llth 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.

1st. 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 nor the ad vancement of any other cause could be put forward as the scope of the pretended Irish conspiracy, but only the esta blishment of the faith.

2nd. 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 him a man full of zeal for the public peace — nay, one of the most efficacious in Ireland in appeasing seditious movements.

3rd. It is certain that, 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.

4th. 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.

5th. All write, with one accord, that this innocent victim lias done and yet performs great good in England, not only

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by the edification he gave to the Catholics, but, moreover, by the change of ideas and sentiments which he occasioned 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 had experienced in the Eng lish 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, professes an unspeakable love for those so bounteous benefactors, and we may hope that as he has whilst living done so much by his example, so now he will be effica cious in 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 amongst 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 scarce find words to express their admiration and esteem. Even amongst subse quent 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 re corded 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 testimonies of some few other. Thus, for instance, Echard, in his " History of England," after stating that Dr. Plunket had an attestation of his inno cence under the hands of the two Viceroys Essex and Berkeley, adds that he himself was —

" Assured, by an unquestionable hand, that the Earl of

IN THIS 11EIGN OF CHARLES II.

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, c Why did you not attest this at his trial ? It might have done him good then. I dare not pardon any one.' And so concluded with the same kind of answer he had given another person formerly, £His blood be upon your head, not upon mine.1 v

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 of the perjured witnesses, and the accusations which they brought against the Primate.

"In the mean time," he writes/' came on the trial of Dr. Oliver Plunket, Popish titular Archbishop of Armagh, who called him self 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 subsist on but the contribu tions 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 contentedly, meddling with nothing but the con cerns of his function, 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 nation, 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 amongst 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 seventy thousand Irish to be

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ready to join with the French to destroy the Protestant reli gion, and to get Dublin, Londonderry, and all the seaports into their hands ; and that, beside 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 poor that he himself, who was the head of the whole province, lived in a little thatched house, with only one servant, having never above sixty pounds a year income, so that neither 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 themselves that it was im possible for them to be true. But the King answered, in a passion, 4 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, 6 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 labours. 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 favour and chanty of the 20th, and for all your former benevolence ; and whereas I can not 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

IN THE REtGN OP CHARLES It. 343

the high bench where no false witnesses can have an audience. But as for the bench yesterday, I am not guilty of any crime there objected to me. I would I could be so clear at the bench of the All-powerful. However, there is one comfort, that He cannot be deceived, because He is omniscient, and knows all secrets, even of hearts ; and cannot deceive, because all goodness : so that I may be sure of a fair trial, and will get time sufficient to call witnesses— nay, the Judge will bring them in a moment, if there be need of any. Your and your comrade'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, percha'nce, 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.1 "

In addition to the particulars of the closing scene of Tyburn, which we have already presented from the anonymous narrative, we learn many further circumstances connected with Dr. Plunket's execution from the letter of the Archbishop of Cashel : —

"The 1st of July (i.e. the llth), 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, well as by a multitude of spectators and royal officers ; and

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to all lie gave occasion of surprise and edification, because he displayed such a serenity of countenance, such a tranquillity of mind and elevation of soul, that he seemed rather a spouse hastening to 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 dis course which lasted an hour, clearing himself of the accusa tions 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 laboured 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 compassion 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. *f 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 pro nounced 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 honour, whilst they knew his accusers to be wicked men, and their accusations incredible."

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 compas sion ; and surely no one even nowadays can read without emotion even the dead letters of the discourse, especially the concluding passages, in which he prays forgiveness to all his enemies, and supplicates from the Almighty pardon for his

IN THE REIGN OK CHARLES II. 345

own faults, and eternal rest in heaven. Dr. Plunket composed tins discourse in prison, and left it to his friends, written with his own hand, for he feared lest his dying words 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'1 bench, and appear before a Judge who cannot be deceived by false witnesses or corrupt allegations, for He knoweth the secrets of hearts ; neither can He deceive any, or give an unjust sentence, or be misled by respect of persons. He, being all goodness, and a most just Judge, will infallibly decree an eternal reward for all good works, and condign punishment for the smallest transgression against His 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, after which there is no reprieve or hope of pardon. I will, therefore, con fess the truth without any equivocation, and make use of the words according to their accustomed signification, assuring you, moreover, that I am of that certain persuasion that no power, not only upon earth, but also in heaven, can dispense with me, or give me leave to make a false protestation ; and I protest, upon the word of a dying man, that, as I hope for salvation at the hands of the Supreme Judge, I will declare the naked truth with all candour 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 pro fligate lives) perceiving 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

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hither to my trial. Here, after six months'* close imprisonment (or thereabouts), I was brought to the bar the 3rd 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 counties 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 therefore begged for twelve days more, that I might be in a readiness for my trial, which the Lord Chief Justice denied, and so I was brought to my trial, and exposed, as it were, with my hands tied to those merciless 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 succour.

" Thirdly. 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 Duffy to make a list of 250 men in the parish of Foghart, in the county of Louth.

u Fifthly. To have surveyed all the forts and harbours in Ireland, and to have fixed upon Carlingford as a fit harbour 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 Monaghan

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES ll. 347

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 Mac Moyer is a mere invention of his, and never penned by me, or its original, in English, Latin, Italian, or any other language. I affirm, moreover, that I never wrote letter or letters to Cardinal Bouillon, or any of the French king's ministers, neither did any one who was in that court either speak to me or write to me, directly or indirectly, of any plot or conspiracy 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 Govern ment is not of Koman Catholics) are commanded by Rome not to write to Rome concerning any civil or temporal affairs. And I do aver that I never received letter or letters from the Pope, or from any of his ministers, making the least mention of any such matters, so that the friars Mac Moyer 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 Mac Meyer'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 clergyman

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in Ireland but what was due to me, by ancient custom, for my maintenance, and what my predecessors these hundred years were wont to receive ; nay, I received less than many of them. And if all that the Catholic clergy of Ireland get in the year were put in one purse, it would signify little or nothing to introduce the French, or to raise an army of 70,000 men, which I had enlisted, and ready, as Friar Mac Moyer most falsely deposed. Neither is it less untrue what Friar Duffy attested — viz., 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 harbours 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, Dungannon, or Wexford. As for Carlingford, I never was in it but once, and stayed not in it above half an hour ; neither did I consider the port or haven ; neither had I it in my thoughts or ima gination 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 collecting of money for a plot or conspiracy ; and it is well known that the Catholic clergy of Ireland, who have neither 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 meeting 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 Catholics who had estates or lost estates by the late rebellion ; and, as it is well known, all my

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 349

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 notorious or proclaimed (commonly called Tories), whom I did endeavour 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 myself) 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 main tenance, and to have proposed Carlingford 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, pos sessed by his Majesty's subjects, are scarce 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 arc- 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, &c., had been sworn before any Pro testant jury in Ireland, arid 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 Holy head.

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" 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, 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 toleration, and by preaching, and teaching, and statutes to have en deavoured 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 would not amend, had a prejudice for me, and especially my accusers, to whom I did endeavour to do good — I mean the clergyman (as for the four laymen who appeared against me, viz. Florence Mac Moyer, the two Neales, 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 S. 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 amongst 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 S. Stephen did, 4 Lord, lay not this sin to them/ I do heartily forgive them, and also the judges who (by denying me suffi cient 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

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 351

trial. I do, finally, forgive all who did concur, directly or indirectly, to take away my life ; and I ask forgiveness of all those whom I ever offended by 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 sufficiently (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 intercession of His blessed Mother and all the holy angels and saints, to forgive me my sins, and to grant my soul eternal rest. Miserere mei Deus, &c. Parce animae, &c. In manus tuas, &c.

" OLIVER PLUNKET.

" To the final satisfaction of all persons who have the charity to believe the words of a dying man, I again declare 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 whatever, taking the words in their usual sense and meaning, as Protestants do when they discourse with all candour and sincerity. To all which I have here subscribed my hand.

" OLIVER PLUNKET."

Having concluded his discourse on the scaffold, the arch bishop knelt in prayer, and, with eyes raised towards heaven, recited the psalm "Miserere mei Deus," and many other de vout prayers; and, having breathed the aspiration " In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum," " into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," the cart was drawn away, and whilst at the hands of the executioner he received the dis-

35.2 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

graceful punishment of a traitor, he yielded his happy soul into the hands of his Creator.

Dr. Plunket was the last victim to the anti-Catholic fury with which the English nation was then inflamed ; and the next day, which witnessed the fall of Shaftesbury, and saw that 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 formalities 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 shedding their blood to destroy the faith, but they forgot that the 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 remulti plied.

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 grand-nephew 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 1585. In his youth our Pierse went to Poitiers, in France, where he was most carefully educated by his uncle, the Rev. Father Pierse Creagh, 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 honours 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

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 353

studies in Rome he received the order of priesthood, and then prepared 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 labour in confirming the Catho lics in their faith, and in reclaiming to the Church those whom interest and persecution had induced to abandon 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 reform ing 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 Gates laid the foundation of his pretended plot, which occasioned so much bloodshed in England.* But that the Protestants of Ireland may not be

* Gates did not implicate Dr. Creagh in the alleged traitorous con spiracy. 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 with 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 overthrow of the Govern ment. Other reprobates started first in Ulster to accuse Oliver Plunket and Bishop 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 of 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

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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 for shelter the woods and mountains. In these lonesome places he fre quently 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 neighbouring Protestant, who informed the Protestant bishop thereof. Immediately a guard of soldiers surrounded the house ; they burst open the door and led the bishop prisoner to Limerick, where he was lodged in gaol. " He there continued for three months, and then an order

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 sufficient, to have any story of rebellion believed by the furious bigotry of that day, that Popish bishops and priests should be the principal actors and contrivers. He therefore swore that he knew them to be hatching a conspiracy since 1652, and says, " About 1676 I saw Dr. Creagh, titular Bishop of Cork, who, as Dr. Stritch told me, was then newly come from France and Borne. 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 Eathkeale, 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. Hetherman, V.G. of Limerick, whom they despatched as their agent to France on that rebellious design.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 355

came from the English Parliament that he should be trans mitted to London, along with the Rev. Oliver Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh. He was conveyed to Dublin for that purpose, bul, being there seized with a violent fit of sickness, occasioned by the hardships he suffered in gaol, 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 grand-uncle, Richard Creagh, of Armagh, received 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 II. began to be opened : he put to death many of those who before accused innocent Catholics ; he committed Gates to perpetual imprisonment, and restored to liberty the imprisoned Catholics, both priests and prelates.

" Yet this could not be done without acquitting them accord ing 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 witnesses 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 listening to many lies and calum nies which the wicked fellow 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 rogue was crushed to death in the ruins. The other false witnesses who were at hand immediately fled, and none escaped falling down with the floor except the judge, whose seat was supported by an iron bar, and our prelate, whose chair hap pened 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 dis missed him with great honours. But, that perjured villains should not go unpunished, the judge next day got them appre-

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bended, and was going to put the penal laws in force against them for their perjury ; but our holy bishop prostrated him self on his knees before him, and, with tears in his eyes, begged the judge to pardon them ; and it was with great difficulty that the judge, who was greatly incensed against them, con descended 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 him self in establishing the Catholic faith, in erecting 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 archbishopric of Dublin, but would not permit him to come to Ireland or quit his own person. The Bishop of Strasbourg having a particular regard and liking for him, begged of King James to suffer him to go with him to Strasbourg, in order to assist him in his diocese.* The King

* August 20th, 1703. The nuncio in Paris writes to Cardinal Paulucci at Home, saying that the Archbishop of Dublin had arrived at Paris, and requested him to transmit the annexed memorial to the Holy See; that he learned from the Queen tliat 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 hav ing laboured more than twenty years in the Irish mission, was obliged, like other prelates, to fly to France, where he 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 1,500 livres in the Benedictine Abbey of Mormontier. But as that abbey requires no bulls of provision, being

IN THE REIGN Of WILLIAM III. 357

condescended to his request, and our holy prelate continued 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 monument 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 par ticulars of the life of this holy prelate." — (Thus Rev. James White) ; Renehan, Bishops, p. 238.

ANNO 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 1691."*— O'Heyn, p. 18.

ANNO 1692.— 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 labours as a priest we know hardly anything beyond what may be learned by conjecture

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 character, his sufferings, feeble health, and destitute condition, to enjoy that pension, which his conscience could not allow him to accept merely by virtue of a decree in council, as others do in France, when bulls are refused. — Theiner MSS.

* This must have been a roving party of Williamite horse who met the good priest,

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and our general acquaintance with the times and his sub sequent career.

Dr. Russell was elected Archbishop of Dublin on the 2nd August, 1683. He had to endure at first all the hostility of the bigoted faction that deprived his predecessor, 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. Notwith standing 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 occasions the archbishop generally retired for a while to his native parish, and lay concealed there in the house of a kinsman, Geoffrey Russell, until the storm that threatened 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 splendour. After Charles II. had given the strongest proof of the sincerity of his early conversion, by dying in communion with the Church, and his brother, 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 they still remained 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 legisla tion. Dr. Russell availed himself at once of this favourable

IN THE BEIGN OF WILLIAM III. 859

opportunity, and convened a provincial synod on the 24th of July, 1685, 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 holy day of strict obligation.

Another provincial synod was held on the 1st of August, 1688, at which Dr. Russell and Dr. Phelan 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 10th, 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 knowledge of the require ment of Church discipline worthy of better times. Although this close attention to the religious 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 21st, 1685, praying him to confer on Tyrcon- nell the necessary authority for protecting them in the free exercise of their ministry ; and he took a most active part in convening the assembly in which the Primate, Dr. Maguire, and Patrick Tyrrell, Bishop of Clogher, were appointed dele gates to wait on His Majesty, and to suggest the best means of securing religious freedom. King James received the pre lates most graciously, and ordered the Earl of Sunderland, Chief Secretary of State, to write to Lord Clarendon, the Vice roy, 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.1' The King

3GO MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 religion, 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 pomp and splendour : King James, who had only a few months before arrived in Ireland, attended with his court, and a vast con course, 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 Athlone, 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 honour 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

IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III. 361

from Ireland, amounting to about 15,000, of whom about 700 were women and 400 or 500 children. Among the exiles are the Archbishops 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 gaol"

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 Pro paganda, and dated Paris, October 28th, 1692. Since his de parture from Ireland, he says, many pious ecclesiastics, 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 remained 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 wandered through the woods and mountains. He was at length detected, conveyed to Dublin, and cast into a loathsome prison, where he endured repeated insults, much misery 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 repeated again ; guards were set to watch him in a filthy underground prison cell, until, worn out with heavy afflictions, this faithful servant was called to his Master, to enjoy the reward of so much labour. The Archbishop of Dublin is now two months dead. God grant he may have a successor who will imitate his piety, and show the same zeal in his ministry.1'

By the " two months " Dr. Lynch may have understood the interval from the end 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 intelli gence 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. — Renehan's Collections.

362 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

ANNO 1698.

THE surrender of Limerick left William the acknowledged king of Great Britain and Ireland, but the terms of capitu lation, or treaty of Limerick, guaranteed to the Irish Catho lics, 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 Ilyswick had freed William from the embarrassment of a continental war. In this year an Act was passed " for banishing all Papists exercising any ecclesiastical jurisdiction whatever in Ireland before the 1st May, 1798, and if found there after that date to be imprisoned during pleasure without bail, and then transported for life ; that in the mean time no archbishop, bishop, vicar, &c., should ever land in Ireland from abroad, after the 29th December, 1797, under pain of a year's incar ceration and then perpetual banishment; and that if any arch bishop, &c., should in either case return from banishment he should be judged guilty of high treason, and die the death of a traitor." Moreover, harbouring or concealing them was punishable by a fine of £20 for the first offence, £40 for the second, and confiscation 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 these inhuman laws, nearly every bishop, and most of the regular clergy in Ireland, were either deported out of the country or obliged to seek safety in flight. Amongst 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 employed in Ireland, 424 were shipped off this year— viz., 153 from Dublin, 190 from Gal way, 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. Comerford, courageously braved the terrors of death rather than leave the whole Irish Church without a

IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III. 363

bishop. In 1701 Dr. Comerford tells the Secretary of Propa ganda there were only three or four bishops still in Ireland. These were Dr. Comerford himself (etait fort age). Dr. Donelly, of Dromore (etait en prison), and, perhaps, the Bishop of Clonfert. — Renehan's Collections) pp. 84, 301 ; Dalian's Archbishops of Dublin, p. 458.

REV. FATHER JAMES O'F^ELAIN (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 con fraternity 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 hard ships 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 Vcndome, in the year 1705."— O'Heyn, p. 7.

REV. FATHERS DANIEL MAcDONEL AND FLEMING,

O.P.P.

" IN the same convent of Uilar, in the county Mayo, there lived Father Daniel MacDonel, who had studied in Portugal, and on his return to his native land lived continually in his

3G4 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

convent until the late expulsion of priests. He returned to Ireland out of France, and being detected as a religious in the ship, whilst 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 Galway, 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.r.,

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,4" and landed in France. After a year he returned to Ireland, 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 on 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." — Hlb. Dom., p. 504.

ANNO 1702.— REV. JOHN MORROGH, O.P.P.

" THERE died in this year, after the last exile, Father John CTMoraghuadh (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 detained four years, for he was unable from gout to fly." — O*Heyn> p. 13.

* In 1698 Father O'Heyn, the writer, was, on the 17tk June, forced to embark, with 126 other religious, on board a ship at Galway, and sent out of the kingdom.

IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. 365

ANNO 1704.— REV, CLEMENT CTCOLGAN, O.P.P.

" HE studied with credit in Spain. Returning to his native land, he lived piously in his convent of Berry, and preached fervently and well until the conquest of the kingdom in the year 16915 when he crossed into France. Hence he proceeded to Rome, and taught philosophy in the convent of S. Sixtus, and afterwards 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 lain in prison at Limerick for ten years on account of the con version of a heretic to the faith.

" There yet live (1706), of the fathers of the convent of Gal- way, 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 Gal way for his residence, where he dwelt amongst his relatives and fellow- citizens, esteemed for his piety and observance of 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 extra ordinary pains this year in hunting down the religious.

" 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 of 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 lie lay for a year and a half; but at

366 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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." — O'Heyn, pp. 27, 36.

REV. LAURENCE OTERRALL, 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 SS. Sixtus and Clement, and theology with the English Dominicans in the house of SS. John and Paul. He thence proceeded to England, and whilst 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 favour of God he was set free, and proceeded to Belgium, where he patiently 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, after wards 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."— .Eftfe. Dom., p. 586.

ANNO 1710.

IN 1704 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 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 1710 the real object of the Registration Act of 1704 was made manifest, for it was enacted that before the 25th March, 1710, every registered priest should present

IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. 367

himself at the quarter sessions and take the oath of abjura tion, under the penalty of transportation 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 30Z. a year for life was offered to any priest who would apos tatize. 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 towards 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 the horror in which priest- catchers were held by the people. 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 execration."^

Instances of this persecution will be given under the years 171 8 and 1737.

* Cogan, Diocese of Meath, vol. i. p. 266.

3G8 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

ANNO 1712.— THE FRANCISCAN NUNS OF GALWAY.

IN 1712, when Edward Eyre, Mayor of Gal way, 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 Jus tices received information of their arrival, and immediately issued orders for their apprehension, in consequence of which several were taken in their conventual habits. A proclama tion 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 alarms caused by the arrival of a few weak women in the capital, as if the circumstance had been sufficient to overturn the Government, or to shake the foundations of the Established Church." — Hardiman's History of Galway, p. 275.

In 1717 the Dominican nuns were driven from Galway, as the Franciscans had been a few years previously.

ANNO 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 Por tuguese Jew named Gorsia, who pretended to be a priest, in

IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II. 3G9

order to discover the true priests. Among them were Father Antony Maguire, Irish provincial of the Dominicans, 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 returned under feigned names, and escaped detection." — Hib. Dorn^ p. 160,

ANNO 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 Liscartan.1 He was ordained in 1680, at Dunadea, county Kildare, by Dr. Mark Foristall, Bishop of Kildare, lived at 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 subsequently, 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 persecution ; and neither his illustrious birth, his distinguished relatives, his fine manly figure, nor his piety, charity, learning, 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

2 B

370 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

the other in the valley, beneath the old church of Rathboyne or Cor town. 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 celebrated 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 mean time, 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 assist at the Holy Sacrifice, and the most active of the flock would keep vigil, to protect the sacred ceremonies from profanation, and the unfortunate priest from the dread penalties of the law.

" There lived at that time on the banks of the Blackwater, at a place called Oldtown, near Kilmainham-Hertford, a notorious priest-hunter, named Sir Richard Barker. In order to accom plish 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 Father 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

IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II. 371

time, at Allenstown House, a kind-hearted Protestant gentle man, 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, how ever, to proceed with extreme caution, as the Act of Parlia ment expressly stated c that the prosecuting and informing against Papists was an honourable service,1 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 BarnewalPs ' hiding-place,' and to tell him that Mr. Waller wanted him in all haste, as he had information of the greatest importance to communicate. The priest lost no time in hastening 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 gaol. The charges advanced against him were that he was a Popish priest, living in the country in defiance of the statute, that he refused the oath of abjuration, and that he practised ' the damnable and idolatrous superstitions of the Church of Rome/ The penalty for each of these offences was transportation for life, and, if he returned, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. In the mean time 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 dimly conceive the sufferings of the Irish priesthood, the incessant privations, humiliations, and persecutions to which they were exposed. The penal laws could be enforced at any moment at the whim of every bigot. The clergy were clad in frieze like

2 B£

37.2 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

the peasantry, in order to conceal their ecclesiastical dignity; and they usually travelled with a wallet, or linen bag, across their shoulders, in each end of which, equally balanced, were stowed the vestments and altar linen for the Holy Sacrifice. They had no fixed residence, but journeyed from cabin to cabin, distributing graces, instructing 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 vestments in a satchel across his shoulder, a stick in his right hand, and in his left a small silver chalice, un screwed so as to fit in a little chamois cover. On the roadside Mr. Waller was speaking to a notorious priest-hunter, named Pilot, who was out that very morning searching for informa tion about Father Barnewall. A glance of friendly recogni tion passed between Waller and the priest, and each knew it would be unsafe to hazard more. The priest-hunter, half suspecting the disguised traveller, said ' Good morning, sir.' 6 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 advice for Pilot ; for if he had assailed the priest single-handed he would have met with a rather unpleasant reception.

"At one time, during which the penal laws against the priest hood were enforced with more than usual rigour, Waller 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 Allenstown, pass round the house so as to attract attention, and when Mr. Waller inquired the cause of uneasiness, the reply 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 of charity, and, having discharged

IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE 11. 373

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 his reward was near at hand ; the martyrs" crown was soon to recompense him for years of labour 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 triumph to Navan, and lodged in the bridewell. After a fortnight's confinement, he was sent a prisoner to Dublin Castle,* whence he never returned to his

* The late Willian Forde, Esq., town clerk to the corporation of Dublin, -who was born in this parish, told the writer that Father Barnewall was arrested about the year 1737, was conveyed 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 port in England, Father Barnewall was pointed out as a Popish priest from Ireland, was dragged from the ship, and hung in the streets. All accounts concur that he suffered martyrdom for the faith.

374 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

faithful people. The traditions of the parish are most specific in representing him as having been put to death for the faith ; but whether in England, as some say, or in Dublin, there is no authentic account. Whether he died violently, or by slow torturing imprisonment, he is equally entitled to the distinc tion of having been one of the martyred priests of Ireland." — Cogaris "Diocese of Heath," vol. ii. 263.

ANNO 1744.— REVS. NICHOLAS ENGLISH, DOMI- NICK 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 rigour of persecution against ecclesiastics had slackened. The penal laws were, indeed, in all their malignant force, and their edge was yearly sharpened,* but priests were no longer put to death, and even their imprisonment had become compara tively rare. In the year 1743, under the administration of the I)uke 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 should dare to conceal them or receive them into their houses. Nor was this an idle threat. On Saturday, the 17th February, 1744, a certain alderman named William Aldrich went secretly to the Catholic parish church of S. Paul, in the north part of Dublin, and finding there a secular priest

* The first relaxation of the penal laws was in 1765.

IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II. 375

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 Ros- common, and Thomas Nolan, of Gaula, in the county Fer managh — sent them in another car to the same prison.*

" All the other priests, both secular and regular, immediately changed their places of abode and concealed themselves. The same Alderman Aldrich contrived, however, to arrest a Minorite named Michael Lynch, whilst he was deliberating about chang ing 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 congregation 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 than that the citizens should be thus miserably cut off. All the chapels in Dublin were therefore opened on S. Patrick's Day, the 17th March, 1745, and have remained open even to this day," viz., 1762. — Hib. Dom,, pp. 175, 717.

I have now come to an end of these Memorials. From 1744 the Catholics of Ireland heard Mass and received the

* Father Thomas do Burgo, the writer, was, lie, tells us, himself attached to the church of S. Paul, and said Mass there at nine o'clock every day, whilst 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.

376 MAllTYRS AND CONFESSORS.

sacraments in safety. Gradually the severity of the penal laws was relaxed, the axe had become blunted with use, and although eighty-five years more passed away before Catholic emancipation became law, they were years of comparative peace. Since then our progress has been rapid. The walls of Jerusalem have been built up, and our Church has not wanted saintly bishops, worthy successors of the martyrs of old. Of the latter it may be said that c they delivered their nation, and preserved the deposit of the faith ; ' of the former, that ( they propped up the house and enlarged the temple.1 And the Catholics of Ireland may well return thanks to our God as did the Jews when returned out of captivity: — " We will praise Thy name continually, and will praise it with thanks giving. Thou hast saved us from destruction, and hast delivered us from an evil time."

This "Memorial" which was accidentally omitted at its proper place, 1634, is given here.

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 York shire, and his father was a privy councillor in Ireland.* The family were all Protestants. He was born towards the end of the year 1611 or the beginning of 1612, and was brought up in Ireland under the care of his parents 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, further than that he spent a part

* See the statement lie gave when entering the English College in Rome (Appendix). Sir Francis Slingsby, of Scrivin and Redhouse, in the West Hiding of Yorkshire, who died in 1600, married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Percy, brother of the Earl of Northumber land. By her he had many children. His eldest son, Sir Henry Slingsby, succeeded him in his English estates. The father of the subject of our memoir would appear to have been a younger son of this Sir Francis. He says in the statement his maternal grand mother was " soror " of the Earl of Northumberland. He must either have made a mistake, or used " soror " in the sense of first cousin.-*— Sec "Life of Sir II. Slingsby " printed, Edinburgh, 1800,

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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 con version was certainly completed in Rome, as we gather from several passages, and that when he was in his twenty-second year, but whether it was commenced in that city is not stated.

His intimate friend Father Spreul, whom he had himself 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 attention 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 honours and dignity, and the indignation and loss of friendship of his friends. He was no sooner received into the Church in Home than he went through a course of the spiritual exercises of S. Ignatius, and at their conclusion, in obedience to the divine inspiration, he determined to renounce the inheritance of his father, and embrace the in stitute of the society, in which to live ; and this resolution he adhered to unshaken, notwithstanding the greatest difficulties, during eight years that he remained in the world, and by a remarkable force of mind he strove after religious perfection by a most exact observance of our rules whilst living with laics and heretics at court and at home."" — Letter of Father Spreul.

His friends were naturally much annoyed at his conversion, which he did not conceal ; indeed, he ever most openly pro fessed his faith and returned thanks to God for the grace he had received, as father Spreul mentions: — "Our generous athlete so boldly overcame al] these difficulties that he not only openly professed the Catholic religion, 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

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 370

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 prospects, 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 apparently considering him self 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 converting 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 your body ; and if you do not think I have given you sufficient motives for your return, wherein you may do your parents so good service; in your first you judge uncharitably of me, 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 endeavours 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 persuasions ; yet those might be sufficient to give you a sensible reason not to disregard my loving advice.

* " How promptly and with what 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 Home by the letter of the general ! and what an heroic act of obedience he then made, in fulfilment of the vow he had made in Borne, at the tomb of the blessed Aloysius, after his conversion ! " — Letter of Father Spreul.

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" 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, travail, and cost. My time by course of nature cannot continue long, and will you shorten it by an unkind requital ? Take but this for your therne, 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 dis- esteemed or derided. I have said enough if it prevail ; 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 con trary, 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 sickness, especially your long one of two sheets of paper, signed 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 favour, howsoever you may be misled. 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 better may you bear that than we your longer absence, which I assure myself would bring us both with sorrow to our 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

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 381

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 uplifted 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 com forted in the confidence of it, and so are all your sisters. Your sister Willotighby is the mother of three children, and your sister Betty married ; but in all this I can take no true con tentment 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. Farewell, 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 of his journey.

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 1 4th 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 Went- worth, as we learn from Father Spreul : —

" He called on the Lord-Deputy, Viscount Wentvvorth (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 articles 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 kingdom,

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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 of honour or dignity. But he found that he produced no impression, although he held out good hopes of his being made a privy councillor (which is the highest honour) ; 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 theApostle, he held all but asdirt that he might gain Christ, and that the only way to influence him 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 Arch bishop and Primate of all the kingdom, who was considered and really was by far the most learned man amongst the sec taries, and who had acquired great authority by writing books against the Catholics. Whilst 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 sudden mental darkness. In this anguish he raised his whole mind to God, begging His assistance and direction, when sud denly 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 arch bishop and asked if would do as much for his faith ; but he hastily drew back, declaring Father Francis was not in his

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 383

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 in tentionally 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 different effects, for the Lord-Deputy and the archbishop 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,* S. J., 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 withdrawn 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 probability 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,}; and

* Father Thomas Roberta's real name was Joseph Gerrard. Father F. Slingsby signs this letter, and also several others, Lewis Newman. In other places he uses the name of Francis Peraus, or Perry. Priests and Catholics at this time constantly wrote under feigned names, to elude their enemies.

t The other two are lost.

£ I may here mention that Scsevola is the name always used for Father Muzio Yitelleschi, general of the Jesuits. The name after Southwell is difficult to decipher.

384 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

my dearest love and respect to Mr. Fitzherbert, Mr. South well, 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 — 1. That he had spoken con- tumeliously of the Protestant religion ; namely, that it came out of the teachers of Henry VIII. 2. That he had en deavoured to bring others to the Catholic faith, which by law was made treason. To the first he answered 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 an swered, ' If that be so, I cannot deny I have done it, nor undo what I have done.1 He was then taken back to prison.

" Such was his calmness of mind, his modesty, and his gen tleness whilst 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 pro fessing 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. Whilst 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 controversy 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 dis-

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 385

pute, 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 noble man (who was also a heretic) by whom I 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 hap pened 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 religion on this occasion may be gathered from this, that when I in quired 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 endeavoured to slur over the whole matter, which he surely would not have done had he had the least chance of boasting.

"Father Francis, too, afterwards 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 punish him by a lengthened imprisonment." — Letter of Father SpreuL

" As soon as it was known in Rome that he was in prison 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 influence with her sister the Queen to obtain Francis's liberty. At length he ob tained, by his entreaties, that the Queen of England caused her confessor to write to Francis to say she would try to obtain what was sought. Thus, as it is thought, it came to

* Jlenrietta Maria of France,

2 c

38G MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

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 de tained in custody, and at length set free.'"1 — Letter of another Jesuit, name lost.

On the 12th 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 laboureth 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 indignation at the conversion of his brother, and his mother's tendencies towards Catholicity (see letter of 21st January), 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 Kildare. 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, —

" His father was now advanced in years, and usually dwelt in Dublin. Although he avoided as much as pos sible showing peculiar favour to his son, and would not

' The superior of the Jesuits in Ireland was Father Eobert Nugent. See the MS. " Eelatio Brevis," &c., by Father Maurice Ward. Written 1643.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 387

allow him to dwell in the same house with him, fearing lest he should be supposed to he 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.

Ci 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.1'

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 fervour 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 servant, and led a life which might shame many in the cloister, for no novice in the noviceship could be more exact in ob serving 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, &c., which, through obedience, he observed exactly. Every morning he devoted an hour to mental prayer, on his bare knees ; then studied. During meals he listened to some

* They were all violently exiled in 1642. See that year. 2 c 2

388 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

pious book read by his servant ; he examined his conscience before dinner; he had a fixed hour for recreation, during which he entered into conversation 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 recrea tion 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 afflicted 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 tenour 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 living as his own master in the world. And he was assiduous in reading the rules over and over again, that, like another Berckmans, he always carried them about with him, and that so secretly that, although continually amongst 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 station of his parents, yet he could not prevent the odour of his virtues being diffused abroad ; the more so as there was none, not only amongst the heretics, but even amongst the Catholics, who led such a life, and the praise of his virtues became a common subject of conversa tion. As it is the custom in our country for the sons of nobles, and especially their heirs, to live in great splendour, 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 whilst a heretic in the midst of luxury, laying aside all these pleasures, although in themselves lawful, and cheerfully embracing a life altogether

IN THE REIGN Of CHARLES I. 389

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 Francis, and called him a saint ; and of this I am an eye-witness. It was by a singular pro vidence of God that so public a theatre was assigned to him ; for many Catholics, by the example of his life, were con firmed in the Catholic faith, and others recalled to virtue. Many heretics, too, were converted by his means, amongst whom was myself, who write this, although unworthy of such a blessing. For I can sincerely declare that, though I laboured much in examining into the truth, I found no motive so efficacious in inducing me to embrace the Catholic faith as the sanctity of life I perceived in Father Francis. And, amongst many others converted by him to the faith, his younger brother, a youth of much promise, ingenuously con fessed to me that his chief est motive for abjuring his heresy was the religious regularity in prayer, sacred reading, and examination of conscience which he saw in Father Francis. Nor did he make converts only by this holiness of life, for 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 possible, and only to serve God in the aforementioned exercises, 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 labour 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, brother, sister,* and many others, to the number of not less than twenty, whilst 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

" It appears by a letter from Father Malone that one died in 1635.

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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 con version of his sister ;* but he had long meditated proceeding 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 disinherited ; and Father Robert Nugent, the superior of the Jesuits in Ireland, was anxious to retain him, on account of the good he was doing. The latter wrote from Ireland to Father Thompson in Rome on the 1st of March, 1636, offering to allow Mr. Slingsby to return to Rome, but recommending 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 for him to neglect all worldly considerations, and come at once to Rome. Whilst, however, 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 mention an 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 rejoiced at, from the great desire he had to abandon the world. He bought for himself in London a poor and simple 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 fervour as the blessed Stanislaus, had it not

* " He fled from the persecution raised against him by his relations on account of the conversion of his sister." — Father Spreul.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 391

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 example 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 young nobleman whilst travelling with Francis ; for it is commonly said those who travel rarely advance in virtue, and most gentlemen whilst travelling attend to any thing rather than virtue. After they had examined such 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 attained to man's estate. He remained in France with the earl a considerable time,* when, on receiving a letter from the father-general, Mutius Vitel- leschi, he prepared to proceed to Rome, although the earl sought by a 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 Roberts (vere Jos. Gerard), from Rome, dated 16th of May, 1637, written by order of the general to Slingsby : —

" He (' Scsevola/ that is the general) read both yours and

* " Pcrc biermiurn." But this is a mistake, as the reader will see*

392 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

Mr. N agent's with great attention; and having well con sidered 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 Scacvola 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 certainly follow of it) you might gain. But Scoevola 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 measure 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 Home, 23rd 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 Home 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 Thompson, 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, altogether abandoning your journey ; and that I do not consider those reasons to be of sufficient weight, but that rather, casting aside all those impediments, you should fly hither to take up the cross of Christ, and, leaving your father's house, and all human relations, give yourself wholly to your Creator.

" Having weighed the whole matter in God, I am altogether

IX THE REIGN OF CHARLES 1. 393

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.1'

After Father SpreuFs conversion in Ireland, by the advice of Francis, he had gone through a course of the spiritual exercises of S. 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 this in a letter dated Home, 12th 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 journey 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 SpreuFs letters : —

" When his brother Henry, whom he had converted to the Catholic faith, and who by his example attained to a high degree of Christian perfection, whilst 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 inheritance 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 afford some protection to the poor and oppressed Catholics, and he urged for this

394 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

purpose he would need the paternal inheritance. Francis would rather that they both 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 religion, who, returning to their own country, would there preserve the faith, and he 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 disembark 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 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, hinting broadly that we 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 S. Catherine of Genoa, whose body we intended to visit. We had hardly ended our prayer, when leave arrived from the magistrate for us all to land without any such previous examination as was at first pre tended.

" When we were about to sail from Genoa to Leghorn a certain religious of the Order of S. Francis wished to

* See letter of Francis, and Iris brother later.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 395

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. On 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 himself 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 cardinal pro posed that he should have a separate room and a servant, and that he, as protector of the college, would give him a dispen sation 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), because such was the ancient rule. It would appear from the document already referred to that he entered the English College about the middle of February, 1639, and there studied philosophy (and we may presume theology also) for two years.

He was no sooner settled in Rome than he reverted to 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 explain : 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 brother, all ye rights that God hath given me unto my father and mother's estate, and doe utterly disenable myself of pretending anything thereunto, that those conditions be observed."

396 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

He retained a portion of land value £100 a year to endow a college.

His brother answered from " Kilkenny, this S. Joseph's (19th March), 1640. When I become master of my father's estate I will bestow JSIOO 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 £%5 per annum for yourself, to be paid to you wherever you shall demande it, — H. SLINGSLY."

About this same date he wrote the following letter to his father ; it is a copy in his own hand, but not dated : —

"MOST HONOURED 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 member 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 prose cution 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 humbly crave your pardon, if at any time, in the heat of discourse about matters of religion, I have forgot the duty 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 had in my possession all your estate, wherein God and nature 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 afflictions and wants you can make me suffer, nay,

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 397

your refusing to love me (which to me is more than all the rest), are not able to blot out my love towards you. For when I consider how good a father you ever have been, how careful of my education, how tender in your affection, how liberal towards me for my expenses, these former benefits do prevail ; and if I put them in the balance with your latter unkindnesses, 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 Home 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, we had it for the most part gratis at my Lord Falkland's. When I came into France, my Lord of Castlehaven maintained me in all things gratis for the space of a year, wherein 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 Bar- berini, hearing thereof, had given orders, before my arrival at Home, that lodgings should be provided for me in his palace, but 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 privi lege of keeping a servant, which I refused. Thus I may truly say, ' Pater meus et amici mei dereliquerunt me, sed Dominus suscepit me.1 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 whilst 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

398 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS

father, give me a blessing ; you know what my heart would say. Sapienti pauca. My brother hath refused certain main tenance 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 suffering 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 favour of Him of whose favour we shall one day stand so much in need, reject not my mother, since He commands you to receive her, and assures you by His own mouth that unless you forgive you cannot be forgiven."

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, amongst our students, where he always conducted himself as one of them, and showed an example of humility by always washing 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 fervour, and on the day of

July, 1641, he was made priest, and ever recited the divine office and said Mass with the greatest attention and reverence. He chose the feast of the blessed Francis Borgia for his entrance into the noviciate ; 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 S. 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 dis cover ; probably before he had completed his noviceship.

IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 399

Father Spreul say, " It chanced that I \vas 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 uncertainty of life, he told them of the death of Father Francis,, and desired them to say the rosaries said in the society for a deceased 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 example 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.'1

ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF MEMOBIALS.

The figures after the name give the year in which the life will be found.

YEAR

ARCHER, WALTER 1604

Athy, Rev. — 1649

BARNEWALL, REV. JOHN ... 1737 Barnewall, Dame Margery 1583 Barnewall, Revs. Edmund

and George 1655

Barry, Rev. Richard 1 647

Barry, Rev. — 1651

Bagot, Rev. Gerald 1651

Bathe, Rev. John 1649

Birmingham, Dame Eleanor 1584 Birmingham, Rev. Thomas 1655

Begs, Rev. Roger 1654

Black, Rev. Dominick, or

Donatus 1650

Blake, Rev. Nicholas 1706

Boyton, Rev. William 1647

Brady, Right Rev. Bishop

Richard 1G01

Brien, Rev.— 1651

Broder (or O'Broder), Rev.

Antony 1651

Bruodin, Rev. Dermitius ... 1617 Burke,* Most Rev. Arch bishop John 1655

Burke, Rev. Thomas 1657

Browne, Patrick 1617

CANA, REV. EDMUND 1647

YEAR

Canavan, Rev. Patrick 1581

Coghlin, Rev. Oge 1613

Caghwell, Rev. Henry 1642

Carighy, Rev. Thaddseus ... 1651

Carolan, Rev. John 1654

Carighy, Rev. Hugh 1652

Cheevers, Rev. Edward ... 1581

Clancy, Rev. John 1642

Clanchy, Rev. Daniel 1651

Cluaine, Rev. Philip 1613

Cluinne, Rev. MacGhiolla... 1657

Collins, Rev. Dominick 1602

Costello, Rev. Peter 1 645

Costello, Rev. Peter 1649

Collins, Rev. John 1651

Connery, Daniel 1652

Connery, Rev. Daniel 1657

Conry, Rev. Hilary 1651

Corny, Rev. Brien 1657

Commin, Rev. Roger 1657

Conry, Rev. McLeighlin ... 1657

Comins, Rev. Bernard 1657

Connor, Rev. Bernard 1654

Cornelius, Brother 1617

Courcy, Rev. Thomas 1577

Creagh, Most Rev. Arch bishop Richard 1585

Creagh, Right Rev. Bishop

Peter 1681

Creidegain, Rev. Daniel ... 1655

* For Burkes see also De Burgo. 2 D

402

INDEX.

YEAR

Crossan, Rev. Charles 1613

Cregan, Rev. Daniel 1655

Crone, Rev. Eugene 1580

Cushin, Rev. Paul 1656

DAVOCK, REV. GERALD ... 1657

Daly, Rev. Thaddjeus 1576

Dant, Rev. Bonaventure ... 1657

Daly, Rev. Eugene 1643

De Burgo, Most Rev. Arch bishop John 1655

De Burgo, Right Rev. John 1674

De Burgo, Sir John 1610

De Burgo, Rev. Edmund ... 1632 De Burgo, Lady Honoria... 1653 De Burgo, Right Rev. Bishop

Dominick 1680

De Burgo, Rev. Bonaventure 1 652

Delamar, Rev. Edward 1657

Deir, Rev. Thomas 1651

Dillon, Rev. John 1657

Dillon, Rev. Dominick 1 649

Dillon, Rev. Vincent Gerald 1651 Donnelly, Rev. Edmund ... 1580

Dillon, Rev. Gerald 1645

Donald, Rev. Thaddeus 1580

Donatus (or Donagh), Rev.

William 1617

Donatus, Rev. Edmund 1580

Donnellan, Rev. Roger 1582

Dogherty, Rev. Cornelius... 1588 Donlevin or Ultan, Rev.

Christopher 1644

Donovan, Rev. Timothy ... 1657

Duin, Rev. Edmund 1657

Dowdall James (two of the name) 1617

EGAN, REV. CORMAC 1642

Egan, Right Rev. Bishop

Boetius 1650

English, Rev. Nicholas 1744

Eustace, Rev. Maurice 1588

YEAR

FALLON, REV. JAMES 1652

Farrell, Rev. William 1657

Ferrall, Rev. Walfrid 1588

Fahy, Rev. Edmund 1657

Fernan, Rev. Walter 1597

Finaghty, Rev. James 1657

Fitzgibhon, Most Rev. Arch- -

bishop (or Gibbon) ..;... 1578 Fitzsimons, Rev. Michael... 1592 Fitzsimons, Rev. William 1655 Fitzpatrick, Lady Bridget . 1652 Fitzpatrick, Rev. Bernard 1651 Fitzsymons, Rev. Turlogh... 1658

Fleming, Rev. Walter 1701

Flaverty, Rev. John 1656

Fleming, Rev. — 1698

Forstall, Right Rev. Bishop 1679

Fox, Rev. David 1648

French, Rev. Richard 1581

French, Rev. Gregory 1706

Fullam, Rev. John 1705

Furlong, Rev. Peter 1706

'GATJRAN (or MACGAURAN),

MOST REV. ARCHBISHOP 1593

Gavan, Rev. Terlagh 1657

Geoghegan, Rev. Arthur ... 1633

Geraldine, Rev. Gerald 1 648

Geraldine, Rev. Thomas ... 1617

Geraldine, Rev. William ... 1651

Geraldine, Rev. John 1651

Geraldine, Rev. John 1744

Geoghegan, Rev. Anthony 1657

Gelosse, Rev. Stephen 1650

Gibbon (orFitzgibbon), Most

Rev. Archbishop 1578

Gibbon, Rev. Gerald 1691

Goran, Rev. Charles 1582

Graves, Rev. John 1610

Gragan, Rev. Bernard 1613

Gragan, Rev. John 1613

Grady, Rev. Thomas 1657

HANLY, REV. JOHN 1580

INDEX.

403

YEAR

Hayes, Rev. Patrick 1581

Hagerty, Rev. Donald 1657

Hegerty, Rev. Patrick 1647

Hely, Right Rev. Bishop

Patrick 1578

Helan, Rev. Francis 1610

Heinrechan, Rev. Donatus 1582

Henessy, Rev. William 1657

Higgins, Rev. Peter 1641

Hore, Rev. Edmund 1642

Horgan, Rev. Denis 1657

Horan, Rev. Francis 1 657

Humbert, Rev. Patrick 1539

Hurly,* Rev. Connor 1657

JOKDAN, REV. FULGENTIUS 1651

KELLY, REV. JOHN 1657

Kelly, Rev. Dominick 1744

Keilly, Rev. Connor 1657

Keogh, Rev. Raymond 1640

Keogh, Brother Raymund... 1642 Keoghy, Rev. Raymund ... 1642

Kennan, Rev. Patrick 1582

Kerolan, Rev. Bernard 1605

Kirwan, Right Rev. Bishop

Francis 1652

Kilkenny, Rev. Bryan 1654

Kinrechtin, Rev. Maurice... 1585 Kinrehan, Rev. Maurice ... 1580 Knoles, Rev. Anthony 1714

LACY, RIGHT REV. BISHOP

HUGH 1580

Lalor, Rev. Robert 1607

Latin, Rev. James 1 642

Layhode, Rev. Henry 1582

Lamport, Rev. Matthew ... 1581

Lee, Rev.— 1651

Leverous, Right Rev. Bishop

Thomas 1577

Locheran, Rev. Patrick ... 1612

YEAR

Locheran, Rev. Nielan 1652

Lune, Rev. John 1610

Lynch, Most Rev. Arch bishop James 1671

Lynch, Rev. James 1649

Lynch, Rev. William 1651

Lynze, Rev. Dominick 1680

Lynch, Rev. Michael 1744

MACANASPIE, REV. TE RENCE 1613

MacCongail, Rev. Roger ... 1565

MacCuil, Rev. Charles 1652

MacCarthy, Rev. Conor ...1565

MacDonel, Rev. Daniel 1698

MacEgan, Rev. Eugene 1602

MacEgan, Rev. Dominick 1713 MacGeoghegan, Rev. Arthur 1633 MacGrollen, Rev. James ... 1613

MacGoilly, Rev. Hugh 1654

MacGhiolla Cluinne, Rev.

Bernard 1657

McGeown, Rev. Hugh 1658

McKernan, Rev. Thomas... 1658

Mackeon, Rev. Hugh 1651

Macnamara, Rev. Roger ... 1651 MacSorley, Sir Alexander... 1615 MacGauran, Most Rev.

Archbishop Edward 1598

Magrath, Rev. Miler 1650

Magennis, Right Rev. Bishop

Arthur ... 1651

Magaen, Honoria 1653

Maglainn, Rev. John 1706

Maguire, Rev. Antony 1718

Manus, O'Fidy 1613

Mannin, Rev. Timothy 1657

Matthews, Rev. Francis ... 1644

Maurice Rev 1589

Mede, William 1614

Meyler, Rev. Robert 1581

Meyler, Peter 1588

See also 0' Hurley.

404

INDEX.

YEAR

Miller, Rev. Peter 1588

Mollony, Daniel 1652

Moran, Rev. James 1G50

Moriarty, Rev. Bernard ... 1601 Moriarty, Rev. Thaddeeus... 1653

Moore, Rev. Raymund 1665

Morrogh, Rev. John 1702

Moore, Rev. Laurence 1580

Morison, Rev. M 1653

Mulcahy, Rev. Nicholas ... 1650 Mulroney, Rev. Dermod ... 1570

NEAGREN, REV. DOMINICK 1646

Nelan, Rev. Denis 1651

Nerihing, Rev. Jeremias ... 1651 Netterville, Rev. Robert ... 1649 Netterville, Rev. Christopher 1654

Nolan, Rev. Thomas 1744

Nugent, Rev. Richard 1641)

Nugent, Rev. Nicholas 1656

O'BOYLE, REV. NIGEL 1607

O'Boyle, Rev. Glaby 1589

O'Brien, Right Rev. Bishop

Terence Albert 1651

O'Brien, Rev. Donatus 1651

O'Brien, Right Rev. Bishop

Murtagh 1585

O'Brien, Rev. Cornelius ... 1642

O'Bern, Rev. Edmund 1652

O'Coyn, Rev. Matthew 1599

O'Connel, Rev. Thaddseus 1645

O'Conor, Rev. William 1651

0' Conor, Rev. Cornelius ... 1643

O'Conor, Rev. Patrick 1585

O'Cuillin, Rev. John 1652

O'Cahill, Rev. Thaddseus... ]651 O'Colgan, Rev. Clement ... 1704 O'Cahill, Rev. JEneas Am brose 1G51

O'Cuiffe, Rev. Arthur 1650

O'Clary, Rev. Michael 1651

O'Caholy (or O'Cahosi) ...1651 O'Charnel, Rev. Bernard... 1606

YEAR

O'Cahan, Rev. Eugene 1652

O'Dunne, Rev. Thaddeeus... 1608 O'Dovany, Right Rev.

Bishop Cornelius 1612

O'Duillian, Rev. Daniel ... 1569

O'Dowd, Rev. — 1577

O'Dyry, Rev. Patrick 1618

O'Ferrall, Rev. Laurence... 1651 O'Eerrall, Rev. Christopher 1664 O'Ferrall, Rev. Laurence... 1708 O'Ferrall, Rev. Bernard ... 1651 O'Ferrall, Rev. Antony ... 1652

O'Flaherty, Rev. John 1645

O'Feus, Rev. Philip 1582

O'Ficlain (or Fullam) Rev.

James 1698

O'Gallagher, Right Rev.

Bishop Redmond 1604

O'Galleher, Rev. Eugene ... 1606 O'Gabhun, Rev. Cormac ... 1613 O'Gowan, Rev. Turlogh ... 1658

O'Hanlon, Rev. Roger 1582

O'Higgins, Very Rev. Peter 1641 O'Higgins, Rev. Thomas ... 1651 O'Herlaghy, Right Rev.

Bishop Thomas 1579

O'Hurley, Most Rev. Arch-

bishop Dermod 1584

O'Hara, Rev. Felix 1582

O'Hara, Rev. Phelim 1578

O'Hely, Right Rev. Bishop

Patrick 1578

O'Hart, Rev. John 1664

O'Hanrichan, Rev. Daniel... 1580

O'Honan, Rev. John 1618

O'Kahan, Sirs Roderick

and Godfrey 1615

O'Kienan, Conor 1615

O'Kleryn, Rev. Michael ... 1651

O'Kelly, Rev. John 1601

O'Kelly, Rev. Malachy 1585

O'Kelly, Rev. Bernard 1653

O'Kenedy, Rev. Donatus ... 1651 Oluin, Rev. William 1607

INDEX.

405

YEAR

Oluin, Rev. Donatus 1608

Olabertag, Rev. Lewis 1615

Oluin (or O'Laighin), Rev.

John 1646

O'Laighlin, Rev. John 1657

O'Lochan, Rev. John 1578

Omurry, Rev. Patrick 1615

O'Mannin, Rev. John 3637

O'Melkeran, Rev. Hugh ....1580 O'Mollony, Right Rev.

Bishop Malachy 1601

O'Mollony, Donatus 1601

O'Mahony, Rev. Francis ... 1642 O'Maly, Rev. Romandus ... 1651 O'Meran, Rev. Thaddajus... 1582

O'Molloy, Rev. John 1588

O'Neill, Sirs Bernard and

Arthur 1615

O'Nielan, Rev. Daniel 1580

O'Neaghton, Rev. Dominick 1646 O'Queely, Most Rev. Arch bishop Malachy 1645

O'Quillenan, Rev. Gelasius 1580

O'Reilly, Rev. James 1649

O'Reilly, Rev. James 1656

O'Reilly, Most Rev. Arch bishop Edmund 1666

O'Reilly, Most Rev. Arch bishop Hugh 1637

O'Riedy, Rev. Donatus 1582

O'Rorke, Rev. Cornelius ... 1578

O'Rorke, Rev. Donat 1578

Ormily, Rev. Roger 1652

O'Shea, Rev. Philip 1580

O'Scallan, Rev. Maurice ... 1582

0' Tern an, Rev. Eugene 1651

OTruory, Rev. Bernard ... 1606

Ovedon, Rev. Richard 1650

Oveton, Rev. Richard 1649

PANTT, REV. ARTHUR 1664

Penny, Rev. JEneas 1582

Petit, Rev. Stephen 1651

Pettit, Rev. Stephen 1642

TEAR

Philbin, Rev. Thomas 1652

Pilan, Rev. John 1582

Power, Rev. George 1599

Power, Right Rev. Bishop

Peter 1588

Plunket, Right Rev. Bishop

Patrick 1666

Plunket, Most Rev. Arch bishop Peter 1678

Plunket, Most Rev. Arch bishop Oliver 1681

Prendergast, Rev. Maurice 1657

•

READ, MRS. ALISON 1642

Roche, Lady 1652

Roche, Rev. David 1651

Roche, Rev. David 1655

Roche, Rev. Redmond 1657

Roche, Rev. Christopher ... 1590 Rooth, Right Rev. Bishop

David 1650

Roony, Rev. Thomas 1657

Russell, Most Rev. Arch bishop Patrick 1692

Russell, Rev. John 1657

SCANLAN, REV. MAURICE... 1580

Scanlan, Rev. Connor 1657

Screnan, Rev. Donatus 1651

Shiel, Rev. William 1654

Slevin, Rev. James 1657

Slingsby, Francis 1634

Simmons, Rev. Edmund ... 1578 Skerrett, Most Rev. Arch bishop Nicholas 1583

Stapleton, Rev. Theobald ... 1647 Stafford, Rev. Raymond ... 1649

Stritch, Thomas 1651

Stephen, Rev. John 1597

Stewart, Rev. John 1647

Sulivan, Rev. Francis 1651

TALBOT, MOST REV. ARCH BISHOP PETER . .... 1678

406

INDEX.

YEAR

Tanner, Right Rev.

Bishop Edmund 1578

Tobin, Rev. — 1654

Trevor, Rev. Patrick 1657

Tinte, Revs. Richard and

Thomas 1655

Tully, Rev. Miles 1657

Tully, Rev. Thomas 1651

Tynzbi, Rev. William 3629

ULTAN (orDoNLEYixs), REV. CHRISTOPHER 1644

WALSH, RIGHT REV.

BISHOP WILLIAM .. . 1560

YEAR

Walsh, Rev. Philip 1657

Walsh, Rev. John 1600

Wallis, Rev. John 1582

Ward, Rev. Fergal 1565

Ward, Rev. Fergal 1577

Ward, Rev. Fergal 1642

White, Rev. Henry 1645

White, Patrick 1651

White, Francis 1651

Wolf, Rev. James 1651

Wolf, Rev. David 1568

YOUNG, REV. NICHOLAS ... 1617

INDEX OF PLACES.

The number refers to

Abbeyleix, 128

Adare, Convent of, 208

Armagh, Convent of, 11, 20, 249,

258

Arran, Isles of, 275 Askeaton, or Asketin, Convent of,

30, 189

Asseroe, Convent of, 151 Athboy, 188 Athenry, Convent of, 231, 246,

260, 276, 366 Athlone, 249

Ballymohun, 46

Ballynacargy, 211

Baltrasna, 272

Bantry, Convent of, 42

Beerhaven, 147

Boyle, Monastery of, 40

Brentire, 258

Brittas, 153

Bunargy, Convent of, 220

Burishool, Convent of, 191, 264

Carrickfergus, 273

Carton, 270

Cashel, 213

Castlehackett, 268

Chester, 133

Clare, 250, 301

Clonmel, Convent of, 30, 44, 118,

128, 224, 231, 245, 273 Coleraine, Convent of, 272, 273

Coolrah, 50

Cork, 45, 148, 182, 204, 209, 245, 259, 276, 364

Derry, Monastery of, 153, 190,

193, 212, 274, 365 Donegal, Convent of, 151, 251 Down, Convent of, 32 Drogheda, 162, 189, 221, 227 Dublin, 49, 50, 63, 84, 85, 88, 97,

151, 163, 184, 190, 193, 196,

201, 259, 279, 280, 307, 316,

363, 374 Dungarvan, 204 Dundalk, 164, 318 Dunshaughlin, 207

Elphin, Convent of, 31, 253, 311 Enniscorthy, Convent of, 49 Exeter, 189

Galbally, 18

Galvaise-Aharlagh, Convent of, 18

Galway, 128, 253, 256, 268, 269,

365, 368 Golden Fort, 39

Hebrides, Islands of, 218 Holy Cross, Abbey of, 62

Inisbofin, Island of, 268, 275 Inish, or Inisheen, Convent of, 185, 188, 249, 256

408

Inniscattery, Island of, 144

Kells, 225

Kilchree, Convent of, 38

Kilkenny, 150, 227, 229

Killeen, 299

Killetra, 49

Kilmallock, 29, 118, 220, 357

Kilragty, 248

Kinsale, 311

Lackagh, 271

Leighlin, 272

Limerick, 88, 159, 186, 232, 236,

248, 259, 260

Lislaghtin, Convent of, 43, 49 Longford, Convent of, 244, 366 London, 95, 129, 192, 209, 322, 366 Londonderry, 258 Lorragh, Convent of, 233 Loughcrew, 314 Lycodoon, 55

Maryborough, 273 Mohoriack, Village of, 46 Monaghan, Convent of, 5 Moyne, Convent of, 21 Mullinahone, 44 Mullingar, Convent of, 192, 207 Multifarnham, Convent of, 180, 220

Naas, 198

Nenay, or De Maggio, Convent of,

46 Newry, Abbey of, 57, 210, 223, 365

Orlar,or De Urio, Convent of, 210, 223, 368

INDEX OF PLACES.

Poolehall, Cheshire, 307

Quenhi, or Quenchy, Convent of, 250, 257, 268

Rathbran Convent of, 265

Rathconneli, 211

Ratoath, 225

Roscommon, Convent of, 207, 212,

261, 262

Roscrea, Convent of, 19 Ross, 230, Abbey of, 268 Rush, 357

S. Giles, Church of, London, 338

S. Kevin, Church of, Dublin, 68

S. Malo, 52

Shruel, 267

Slane, 60

Strade, Convent of, 227

Thurles, S. Mary's Convent of, 3 Timoleague, Convent of, 145 Tralee, Convent of, 232, 261 Trim, 150, 188, 369 Tulsk, 256

Urlar, Convent of, in county Mayo, 363

Viretin, Island of, 20

Waterford, 243, 275 Wexford, 127, 163, 225 Worcester, 50

Youghal, 16, 43, 145

WYHAN AND SONS, PBIMTI.ES, GEEAT QUEEN 8TBEET, LONDON, W.C.

BX 1505 .IWl 1868 SMC

O'Reilly. Myles Memorials

suffered faith in AKH-4866

William P of those who for the Catholic Ireland in the (sk)

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