4. My old friend Doctor Curry, who cannot be suspected of the least inclination towards a Protestant Hierarchy, or Protestant influence in the appointment of our Bishops, mentions the Irish Remonstrance, for which our Ancestors. were thus excommunicated, in the following words.*

"lantis Hydræ, continere Propositiones convenientes cum "aliis a Sede Apostolica olim reprobatis, signanter a felicis "memoriæ Paulo V, per constitutionem in forma Brevis; et

nuper anno 1648 in congregatione specialiter commissa ab "Innocentio X." This whole Epistle from De Vecchi is "given at full length by our excellent Caron in his "Remon"strantia Hibernorum, contra Lovanienses Ultramontanasque

censuras, de incommutabili Regum Imperio, Subditorumque fidelitate, &c. vindicata; cum duplici Appendice, una "de Libertate Gallicana, altera contra Infallibilitatem R. "Pontificis." folio 1665.

*This Chapter of Curry's Civil Wars is intitled-" Loyalty "of the Catholic Nobility and Gentry of Ireland at this junc"ture."-If I have distinguished the Catholic Nobility and Gentry of Ireland, headed by its Clanrickards, Muskerrys, Fingals, Kenmares, Prestons, from the Ultramontanists, and the Rabble, be it remembered that Dr. Curry, and my late Grandfather, Charles O'Conor of Balangare, the founders and fathers of the Catholic Committee, have made the same distinction; and be it also remembered, that history shews in large letters, that it is a distinction with a difference.

"On account of a severe persecution, at this "time raised against them, and in hopes of re"moving all future pretence for the same, the "Catholics of Ireland agreed upon a Remon"strance, and Protestation of their Loyalty, "which was couched in the strongest and "most explicit terms, (as in Walsh's Remon"strance, fol. 9,) sent it by the Earl of Fingal "to Mr. Walsh, an Irish Franciscan then at "London, who was an humble confident of "the D. of Ormond, by whom it was im'mediately presented to his Majesty, and most graciously received. Walsh having soon after come to Ireland, in order to get this Remonstrance signed by all the Roman “ Catholic Clergy, Nobility, and Gentry of the 'kingdom, (as many of them as were at Lon'don, when it was presented, having signed it "there,) succeeded so well, as to obtain in a "short time, the signatures of sixty-nine of “ the Clergy, secular and regular, five Earls,

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“ sir Viscounts, two Barons, twenty-four Colo"nels and Baronets, and sixty Esquires and

"Gentlemen. But the D. of Ormond affected "to believe that there could be no reliance on "any declaration of loyalty from the Catholic

Body, until the whole body of their Clergy "had first unanimously subscribed it. He "therefore wrote a letter to Walsh, signifying "his desire to know who had subscribed, and "who had refused to subscribe.

"His Grace already knew that, as this Pro"testation had been censured by some Minis"ters of the Court of Rome, on account of its "somewhat entrenching on the Pope's Spiritual "authority, it would be hardly possible to pre"vail on such of the Irish Clergy, as had ex"pectations from that Court, to subscribe it, "in the same offensive terms, in which it was "conceived-yet from 1661 till this present, "i. e. the end of 1666, says Walsh, in his Remonstr. fol. 42, there was not among such "a number of pretences and excuses, any one "alleged, by any at all, of unlawfulness, uncon"scionableness, or uncatholickness, in point of "faith, religion, or morality in the subscription "of that Remonstrance."-In fact, the whole

scrupulosity turned upon fear of the Court of Rome.*

"But the Nobility and Gentry were not "quite so scrupulous in this respect; for, in "order to convince the D. of Ormond, that "the refusal of any number of their Clergy "should be no hinderance to their subscribing "in terminis to the Remonstrance, they assem"bled at Lord Clanrickard's house in Dublin; "and as many Noblemen and Gentlemen as "were then present, and had not subscribed at 'London, in number thirty-three, put their

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names to it, who with the London sub"scribers made in all one hundred and twenty

* See hereafter pag. 109, &c. and Alithinol. from p. 75 to 85. The Irish Ultramontain Bishops have endeavoured to calumniate Walsh, Caron, Copinger, and other Irish Priests, who were active in promoting the Remonstrance against the flatterers of the Court of Rome; alleging that they were favourers of Protestantism! But Doctor Curry refutes these calumnies, in his Civil Wars, 4to, p. 291, not. a, and this refutation, though satisfactory, is quite trifling when compared with Walsh's unanswerable justification, intitled "Causa Va"lesiana, Londini 1684,"

st one, whereof twenty-one were Earls, Viscounts,

"and Barons."*

5. Now this is that identical Remonstrance, for the adoption of which, our Nobility, our Gentry, and the second order of our Clergy who signed it, were, in virtue of Spiritual Jurisdiction, ordered by Pope Alexander VII. to be whipt on their bare backs, before they could be absolved from the excommunicatio Major Late Sententia, which they had, forsooth, incurred by adopting it!!-The twenty-four Irish Priests who signed it in London, were deprived of their livings; disqualified from all Priestly functions; denied the benefit of Christian Sacraments living; forewarned that they should be denied Christian burial when dead; and summoned to

* Curry Hist. of Civil Wars, ibid.

One of the crimes imputed to the English Catholics, by the Court of Rome, was their having adopted the Oath of Allegiance proposed by James I, which was published by him in Latin and English in 1609, in his book intitled " Triplici nodo "triplex Cuneus," sive Apologia pro juramento Fidelitatis." -This oath was condemned by Pope Paul V, but approved of by the Sorbonne in 1680; and invincibly defended by the celebrated Arnald! See the Appendix.