his services so unequivocally to the King, that Ormond resolved to comply.

But now, the wise Bishops, whose object in advising a cessation with Inchiquin, was only to gain time for Owen Roe's advance into Munster, as soon as they discovered this intelligence between Ormond and Inchiquin, determined rather to join with the Parliament General Jones, hoping that, if they could agree with Jones, they should gain time for O'Nial's army to crush both Inchiquin and Taafe. These they wished to subdue, "for no "other reason, says Colonel Barry, so much as "for fear that they should join Ormond, and "unite all the well-affected under his com"mand," which would destroy their own.*

107. Three weeks had scarcely elapsed, since

• Colonel Barry's Letter to Ormond, April 16, 1648. No one was better qualified than Barry to know the truth, and no one less disposed to disguise it. He was the person employed by Inchiquin to conclude a cessation at Kilkenny, where he remained a whole week, daily attending the Council with propositions on that subject. He is supported by Walsh, and by the Nuncio's remonstrance against the cessation, published by Carve in his Lyra, p. 334.

they had proposed this cessation themselves, But now they argued that it was unlawful to make a truce with heretics;* and when the Council desired that they would shew why a truce was unlawful with the heretic Inchiquin, and lawful with the heretick Jones, who was the worst of the two, they declined any answer.

Disgusted by their equivocations, the assembly, after an interval of one month from the first proposal of a truce, concluded a cessation for six months with Inchiquin, May 22, 1648.

108. The Nuncio now caused the declaration, which the Bishops had privately signed, on the 27th of April, to be publicly divulged; he had it affixed to the door of the Cathedral of Kilkenny; he even published another paper, privately signed by them, on the 2d of May, by which they delegated to him power to issue censures, against all who would adhere to

• They had actually proposed to the Council a truce with Jones, Nuncio's Memoirs, fol. 1921-2002. Carte, v. 2, p. 25, 33, and the original Documents, v. 3, No. DLXIX, with Carve's Lyra, and Rushworth's 4th and last part of v. 2, Lond. 1701, p. 947.

the cessation; and, in consequence of these private declarations, and the power thus privately delegated to him, he issued an excommunication on the 27th, interdicting all cities, towns, and villages, from Divine Service, Sacraments, and Christian rites, if they should adhere to, or favour the truce! He hoped that these censures would be obeyed, with the same servile submission, as those of Waterford and Kilkenny were in 1646.

109. But the Catholics were now in want of money; the provinces were wasted; the fear of an impending famine was terrible; and to oppose a cessation with Inchiquin, who had declared for the royal cause, was contrary to their duty of allegiance, and even to the oath of association, which had been framed by themselves! These new censures therefore excited

the greatest alarm. All the Nobility and Gentry of Munster rose in a body against them; Doctor Fennel tore down the Episcopal Declaration with his own hands; and the Nuncio had no resource remaining but with the Ulster Creachts and Owen Roe.

110. Many of the Bishops, ashamed of what they had done in private, and fearful of what they were proceeding to do in public, now began to disown their own work. Cunning was, as usual, substituted in the place of honesty; they said that what they had condemned, was not a cessation absolute et simpliciter, but a cessation secundum quid !—Some of them declared, even by a public document, that the paper which they had privately signed at the Nuncio's house, on the 27th of April, was not intended against the cessation now made with Inchiquin, but against a cessation to be made, as represented by the Nuncio; and, finding the torrent still strong against them, they veered round completely, publishing a condemnation of their own private proceedings, by a new instrument in favour of the truce, and joining with the Council of the Nobility and Gentry in a formal appeal against the Nuncio to Rome!*

This appeal is dated May 31. An extract is given by Clarendon, p. 86. The original is given by Carve. Clarendon

111. An old adage says-" nunquam sera est "ad bonos mores via." Reformation is never too late; and certainly if this change in the conduct of the Bishops, had been a penitential, instead of a political change, I should refrain from censure; I should rather impute their Ecclesiastical censures to ignorance, and error of judgment, than to ambition and the lust of command. But the whole tenor of their subsequent conduct, would give the lie to such flimsy apologies.

Taafe had at this time new-modelled his army, so as to render his Officers excommunication-proof; Clanricard's army of 3000 men were of the same temper; fatal experience had taught Preston and his army of 3000 foot and 300 horse to follow their example; the Nuncio had tampered with him by his emissary Father Anhaman, to declare for the censures, but

says, that the Irish Agent who presented this appeal, complained to the Pope that, at that very time, the continuation of Baronius's Annals by Ordericus Vitalis, was sanctioned by the Court of Rome, with a view to establish the Pope's pretensions to the supreme sovereignty of the British Islands!