finesse, the Nuncio now began to think how he could strengthen a party of vile Conspirators, who were thus obsequious to his will; and how he could render them more formidable by further intrigues. For this purpose he violated his own solemn engagement to the Council, that none should be appointed to Bishopricks, but through their recommendation; and he privately recommended for promotion, not only without any nomination from the Council, but even against their expressed desire, several persons, on whose sentiments, servile obsequiousness, and acquiescence he could most firmly rely; and he thus filled also some Sees, which the Supreme. Council, who "before" had the nomination of them, had kept vacant, for fear of strengthening the party of the Clergy who opposed the peace. 7. His next step was to calumniate all the Members who composed the supreme council, and their adherents; by asserting that they were not sincere in the cause; that many of them were connected by intermarriage with Protestants; that being of English origin they 潮 were secretly attached to England rather than to Ireland; that they held private correspondence with Ormond; that they were secret favourers of Heresy; and that there were no true Catholics but the ancient Milesian families, most of whom were blindly devoted to his will! 8. Ormond believed, and not without reason, that Rinucini's grand design was to confer the Crown of Ireland on a foreign power.* I say not without reason, for this appears from the Nuncio's own letters, and from the whole tenor of his proceedings.† * So Belling says, who was personally acquainted with both. Philopater Irenæus, 1. 1. p. 45. Carte says that Henrietta Maria endeavoured to stop Rinucini at Paris, on his way to Ireland, and that Rinucini believed she suspected him of that intention. Carte Orm. vol. 1. p. 559. + The Nuncio's pretences for opposing the peace in Carte's Orm. vol. 1, p. 563. "He did not fail to urge to the Council of Kilkenny, that it did not become a true son of the Church, to put his own peace in competition with one of the Pope's making, and that therefore they ought to wait, &c. Ib. and Nuncio's Memoirs, fol. $45, 1054, 1063, 1066, with Cox's Appendix xxvi.-G. Leyburn, an English Priest, who was then at Kilkenny, openly maintained that the Nuncio had slandered Henrietta Maria, and imposed upon the Irish; adding that his story of a treaty, in agitation between the Pope and the Queen, was a fable, invented by the Nuncio to ruin the In the interval between the signing of the Excommunication at Waterford, Aug. 12, 1646, and his proceeding to take possession of Kilkenny, where he solemnly read the excommunication, October 5, the Supreme Council. endeavoured to mollify him, by sending Ni-, cholas Plunket and Pat Darcy to reason with him on the danger of such proceedings.* They represented to him, that the Civil or temporal advantages obtained by the peace, were perfectly satisfactory; that their estates and rents were secured, their Parliamentary privileges provided for, and the Nobility and Gentry satisfied; and that, as to religious freedom, all was King, and to prevent the peace of the Kingdom. The Nuncio, highly incensed at this, endeavoured to have Leyburn taken up, but could not succeed. Nuncio's Memoirs, fol. 898, 1089.-Writing to the Pope on O'Nial's Victory at Benburb, June 5, 1646, he says-" Your Holiness's Arms have obtained a signal victory," &c. Nuncio's Memoirs, and Bruodin, p. 88, and hereafter pag. 191, &c. The evidence of his intention which I am proceeding to unfold is decisive. * Lord Castlehaven also was sent to dissuade him and his Bishops from their excommunications. But he obstinately persevered; and uttered expressions "relative to blood, not becoming a Churchman." Castlehaven's Memoirs. granted, save parade and ostentation, which belonged not to the spirit, or the humility of the gospel. In vain-To all this the Nuncio, whose designs would have been frustrated by a peace, replied haughtily, that until the external forms of Religion were as uncontrouled in Ireland, as at the Vatican, he would never agree to any peace, however advantageous in other respects.. 9. The truth is, that he had other designs; and that he felt exceedingly hurt, because the peace had been secretly signed by Lord Muskerry and the Catholic Commissioners in Dublin, on the 28th of March 1646, without his consent. It appears from his Memoirs fol. 1160, that he knew nothing of that peace until the May following. The Supreme Council had moved from Kilkenny to Limerick, April 18, and the Nuncio remained at Kilkenny to May 12. Then he proceeded to Cashel, where he seems to have had the first intelligence of a peace, and even then only obscure and dubious; for he set out from Cashel for Limerick May 18, to prevent a peace on any terms with Ormond, as in his Memoirs, fol. 1164; and as soon as he discovered that the peace was actually signed, he convened the Waterford Synod, the first Session of which was held August 6, as in his Memoirs, fol. 1261, 1290; and then excommunicating the peace makers, he had himself declared Commander in Chief of all Ireland, under the Sovereignty of the Pope.* 10. It is true that he professed the greatest attachment to the Royal Family, and that he swore, in the presence of the Catholic Council, that he would never, directly or indirectly, Confederate against them. But it is equally true that he wrote to Cardinal Pamfili that, in Curry's Review, 4to. p. 209-212, Carte's Orm. vol. 1, p. 570.-It appears from Ormond's Declaration of June 2, 1646, forwarded to the Supreme Council by Sir G. Hamilton and Col. Barry, that he wished for Protestant ascendancy over Catholics aud Puritans. The joint letter of the Catholic Bishops of Dublin, Cashel, and Elphin, to Henrietta Maria, Aug. 15, in Cox, vol. 2, p. 190, proves that they desired equality with Protestants, and the expulsion of the Puritans. But the Nuncio's party wished to establish the Ascendancy of the Pope. This is the true key to the Secret History of those times. |