Of the Clamour raised about the Act of Supremacy in 1606.

74. It may be objected that Lalor, VicarGeneral of Dublin, was persecuted for exercising his functions in 1606?

Countrymen, beware-These are loose assertions. Inquire into facts, and you will find that Lalor was justly prosecuted, not persecuted, on the Catholic Statute of Pramunire, enacted in the Catholic reign of Richard IId. for the security of a Catholic State.

He was prosecuted on that Act, for exercising foreign Jurisdiction within the realm of Ireland, "in order to convince the Irish, 66 says Sir J. Davis, that even Popish Kings "and Parliaments, deemed the Pope an Usurper· "of those exorbitant jurisdictions which he "claimed, and thought them inconsistent with "the loyalty of the subject, and the indepen"dence of the State.*

Reports, 85. Davis's contemporary, Abraham 'Bzovius," wrote at this time his work de Romano Pontifice, to prove

the

He was convicted, and sentenced accordingly. But, though this occurred the very next year after the discovery of the Gunpowder plot, yet such was James's moderation, that the sentence was never executed; and, to shew the Irish that no persecution of their Religion was meant, the King issued, in the course of that very year, a Commission of several Graces,*

Pope's Deposing Power, in which he gives a Catalogue of 30 Kings and Princes so deposed, and cites 100 Catholic Authors for that doctrine; adding that " innumerable English Martyrs "follow their leader Father Campian in maintaining it." These Martyrs were the Gunpowder Plot men, whom he extols, c. 46, p. 621.

* These were, I.—a Suspension of the Statute for levying 12d. Irish, i. e. 9d. English, on Recusants from Church.

II. An inhibition to the Clergy from enacting undue Fees of Recusants, for Marriages, Christenings, Burials.

III. A General Pardon to all who will sue it out, and to save charges, that 20 persons be comprized in each Patent for one fee.

IV. Ease in regard to proceedings in the Court of Wards. V. Liveries to be sued without taking the oath of Supremacy.

VI. That when the great work is settled for the defence of the Kingdom, the King promises to call a Parliament in Ireland, for settling men's estates, and easing them by Acts of Grace, &c. College MS. No. 4, p. 32.-Fiction unmasked, p. 47.

one of which was to secure all Irish estates by new Patents against all the claims of the Crown,

71. Ay-but Lalor was first prosecuted on the Act of Supremacy. Granted, and there upon he humbled himself to the Court, and, by oath, on the 22d of December, 1606, made the following Recognition,

I. "That he is not lawful Vicar General in the Diocese of "Dublin, Kildare, and Fernes; and thinks in his conscience "that he cannot lawfully take upon him the said office.

II. That K. James is his Lawful Chief, and Supreme "Governor in all causes, as well Ecclesiastical as Civil, and "that he is bound in conscience to obey him in all the said

causes, and that neither the Pope nor any foreign Prelate "Prince or Potentate hath any power to control the King in any cause Ecclesiastical or Civil, within this kingdom, or any of his Majesty's dominions.

III. "That all Bishops ordained and made by the King's 46 authority, within any of his dominions, are lawful Bishops; " and that no Bishop made by the Pope, or by any authority "derived from the Pope, within the King's dominions, hath any power or authority to impugn, disannul, or controul "any act done by any Bishop made by his Majesty's authority aforesaid."

Upon this Recognition, he would have been enlarged; but finding an outcry raised against him, that he had renounced the Pope's Supremacy, he declared that he meant only to

acknowledge the King's authority in mere temporals, without any reference to the Church.

A religious cry was now raised against the Government; Lalor was extolled as a confessor who was persecuted for Religion; and therefore, to satisfy the Irish how grossly their credulity was imposed upon, the prosecution on the Statute 2d of Elizabeth was quashed, and a new prosecution was instituted on the Catholic Act of Præmunire.*

72. Never did man incur the penalty of the Law more deservedly than Lalor-Was he one of those bold and manly heroes of Christianity, who having first taken a decided part, founded upon steady principles, prefers his ragged independence, "splendidam pauperiem," with the dignity of truth, and the consciousness of duty, before any advantage that may be offered by wealth, and in defiance of any difficulties that may stand in his way?-No-when he found that the Catholics were scandalized by his concessions, he privately denied them; and

• Davis's Reports, ibid.

when he found that his lie was detected by Government, he defended it by the meanest equivocation." Yes-said he-I have told my friends that I never acknowledged the King's Supremacy in Spirituals. Look to

my Recognition, and you will find that the "word is not Spiritual but Ecclesiastical."

73. He who is called upon by his duty to the performance of any engagement, must not be intimidated by difficulties. It is his business first to satisfy himself of the truth of his principles, and then to resolve: for the engagements of virtue are a fight and a warfare in which we must be content to struggle with much opposition. He who would spill the last drop of his blood to-day, in opposition to that which he himself was the first to propose yesterday, cannot be qualified to fight the battles of Religion. A person of this cast, whether he is a Lalor or a Castabala, is not possesed of that uniformity of conduct, that firmness of principle, of which the Poet says, "Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient "ruinæ." Such a person can never attain to