Hence the Irish Remonstrance is intitled the complaint, not of the Gentry and Clergy, but of the Gentry alone, "Quærimonia Magnatum;" and hence also the Gentry complain of their Ultramontane Clergy, as vile betrayers of the interests of their Country. They add that no sincere peace can exist between them and their invaders, because they entertain for each other reciprocal contempt, and malignity, descending from father to son, and spreading from generation to generation. "Who can condemn us if

All the chief benefices of the English Church, were conferred on Italians. The English Agents at the Council of Lyons in 1245, complained that the benefices of the Italian Clergy in England, amounted to 60,000 Marks per an. a sum which exceeded the annual Revenue of the Crown! M. Paris, p. 451, and 472.-An evasive answer to those Agents, was accompanied with a Nota bene from the Pope," that the Crowns of England and Ireland, were held in feudal subjection to the Holy See."-After the Council was dissolved, Innocent exacted the Revenues of all vacant benefices, the twentieth of all Ecclesiastical Revenues, without exception, the third of such as exceeded 100 Marks per an. the half of such as were possessed by non-residents, the goods of all intestate Clergymen, &c. and when the King, contrary to his usual practice, prohibited these exactions, the Pope threatened to excommunicate him, as he did the Emperor Ferdinand! M. Paris, P. 474.

"we endeavour to preserve our lives and pro"perties, against murderers and usurpers? So "far from thinking it unlawful, we hold it to "be meritorious; nor can we be accused of perjury or rebellion, since neither our fathers "nor we, did, at any time, bind ourselves by

any oath of allegiance, to their fathers or to "them."

They proceed then to state their grievances, in detail, offering to prove them Juridically before twelve or more Bishops, "not like the "English, who, if they enjoyed prosperity, "would not recur for protection to Rome, against Ireland, as they now do, but would "crush all surrounding nations, despising all "laws human and divine."

§ XVIII. That there were not wanting in Ireland, even at the worst of times, Bishops who sided with the second order of the Clergy, in resisting those abuses;-and that unjust excommunications are not to be obeyed.

1. When the Apostles were threatened with excommunication by the Synagogue, they an

swered that it was their duty to obey God rather than men; and when the Irish were excommunicated for concluding an Amnesty and peace with Protestant Lieutenants, with Ormond and Inchiquin, Lynch replied," that an un"just excommunication recoils on those who

denounce it; that even though it were pro"claimed by the Pope and Cardinals, it is in

valid, and ought to be despised, unless it is "Canonically incurred.-Si quisquam fidelium "fuerit anathematizatus injuste, says S. Au"gustin, potius ei oberit qui fecit, quam qui "hanc patitur injuriam.”

Lynch cannot be suspected of malice to the Nuncio, for whom he professed, in private life, the most sincere respect, and even veneration, until his spiritual pride began to manifest itself, in the prosecution of the war.* The

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"D. Nuntium Rinucinium et vivum summe colui, et

mortuum maxime veneror...At id certe liquido constat, pri

mam mali nostri labem, et initium ruina, a censuris promanasse. "Hoc fonte derivata clades, in patriam populumque fluxit. "Ut illius diei, quo primum evibratæ sunt, memoria in bene"dictione non sit; ut quæ Hibernis funestissima fuerit, ac "proinde carbone notanda, et in dies nefastos referenda, vel

character that Lynch ever maintained in public, as in private life, the steadiness of his attachment to the Catholic faith, the learning which he displays in all his writings, and the unbounded veneration, with which his memory is regarded by his Countrymen, place him beyond the reach of all vile imputations; and he bitterly laments, that the Mass of his Countrymen were misled by the Ultramontane principles of the Court of Rome.*

"iis diris devovenda, quibus nativitatis suæ diem Iobus exe"cratus est. Complures integerrimi Doctissimique viri cen

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suras illas omni vi ac justitia caruisse censuerunt.....ita ut "cum D. Hieronymo dicere potuerint Magnates Hiberni, 66 quod nos damnarunt Episcopi, non est ratio sed conjuratio. "Nulla excommunicatio incurritur sine peccato mortali; ac

proinde censuras a D. Nuncio, ob leviorem, vel potius nul"lam culpam emissas, casso ictu stringi, et vis omnis expertes "esse patet; cum ea duntaxat earum emittendarum causa "fuerit, quod Fœderati Catholici sex mensium Inducias cum "Hæretico pacti fuerint." Lynch's Reply to O'Ferral's Memoir, intitled Alithinologia, t. 1, p. 74, 78, 71, printed at S. Maloes, 1664. Also his Supplement, ib. p. 72, 103. &c.

*

"Supremo Catholicorum Hiberniæ Concilio, Nuncii "Apostolici Censuris obsequium, anno D. 1641, deneganti, "pauciores Hibernorum adhæserunt, longe vero plures a "Nuncii partibus steterunt. Vulgus ipsum tam ardenti Pon"tificis colendi studio flagrabat, ut Ministri ejus imperata non

2. This venerable man, who was an eye witness of the transactions he relates, and whose name must ever be dear to Ireland, bestowes one chapter of his reply to O'Ferrall, on the question, whether such excommunications, being uncanonical and unjust, ought not to be rejected with holy indignation and disdain? and here he shews that obedience to such excommunications, whether issued by a Bishop, or an Archbishop, by a Pope, or by an exclusive Synod of Ultramontanists, such as those of Waterford, Jamestown, Armagh, and Kilkenny, would in the eye of God, be sinful prevarication;* that

"facere nefas inexpiabile putaverit. Hinc crebri tumultus "alicubi torrentis instar erumpebant, et contentiones tam pri"vatæ quam publicæ sæpius exoriebantur."-He then adds, that even the Supreme Council of Kilkenny, finding the Mass of the people thus inclined, were themselves at last under the necessity of surrendering all their Patriotic feelings of Independence, to the will of the Pope. "Supremus etiam Fœde"ratorum Catholicorum Magistratus ad Pontificem, provoca"tione facta, causam integram retulerunt!" Cambr. Evers. p. 206.

* Davidis Rothi et alior. Theologor. ad Supremi Concilii quæsita Responsio, &c. Donati Renuilii Libellus de Iure Canonico,-in Lynch's Alithinol. p. 88.