insidious designs beyond the reach of all controversy, and the possibility of all doubt. I have already observed that they opposed the cessation with Inchiquin, alleging as a reason, that he was a heretic, and that too, whilst they were secretly treating with the Parliament !

Lord Clanricard had obtained a copy of this declaration, which they had signed privately at the Nuncio's house in Kilkenny, on the 27th of April, 1648, as stated above. It was subscribed by the following Bishops, and in the following order

Hugo Ardmach. Fr. Thomas Dublin. Thomas Cassel. Joannes Tuam. Electus, Franciscus Alladensis. Fr. Patri

cus Waterford et Lismor.
Clocher. Fr. Boetius Ross.
Fr. Antonius Cluanmacnois.
Fenuborensis. Fr. Arthurus

Edmundus Limeric. Emerus Robertus Corcagien et Clonen. Fr. Terentius Jmlacen. Andreas Dunen et Connoren.*

In this declaration, entitled "Per Archie

I have collated my MS. with another that I saw at S. Isidore's at Rome, amongst the papers of Father Wadding. Belling says rightly, that the Bishops who signed it were in number fourteen, but he refers it to the 23d of April; whereas, in the MSS. I have consulted, it is dated the 27th, and so it is in the Florentine MS. collated by Burke, as in his Supplement to Hibernia Dominicana, p. 889.

"piscopos et Episcopos Regni Hiberniæ congre

gatos coram Illmo, &c. D. J. B. Rinuccino "Nuntio Apostolico Extraordinario," &c. they expressly protest against the Cessation with Inchiquin, declaring it "iniquitous, and such as "no Catholic could in conscience subscribe."*

146. Lord Clanricard had also the Nuncio's excommunication, which was published May 28th following, and subscribed, with their consent, not only by the Nuncio, but by Emer Clogherensis, Boetius Rossensis, Robertus Clovanensis et Corcagiensis, Fr. Arthurus Dunensis.†--In addition to these documents, he had Owen Roe's treaty with Monk, which was concluded with the Nuncio's approbation; and he also knew that as soon as these acts of

* "Nos videntes ab ill. mis Dominis supremi concilii tractari de Armorum Cessatione cum D. Barone de Inchiquin concludenda, &c. conscientia moti, eandem Cessationem iniquam esse declaramus, ac nulli tutum in conscientia illam amplecti," &c.

+ Carve gives it at full length in his Lyra, p. 346.

I Epistola Generalis Eugenii O'Neilli ad Munckium, in qua perpetuum cum sacrilego Parliamento Anglico fædus mire cupivit; annuente quippe Nuncio." Lyra, p. 354.

their's were discovered, and the tide ran strong against them, they issued a declaration on the 23d of January, 1649, disavowing their above mentioned declaration of April 27, 1648; boldly asserting that they had never opposed a cessation with Inchiquin, "which experience, say they, has shewn to have been necessary, for the salvation of the Country!"

The Gentry's Appeal against the Nuncio, is amongst Wadding's MSS. at S. Isidore's in Rome; it was printed at Kilkenny in 1648, and is dated May 31, of that year. It shews that, of all persecutors, those who persecute persons of their own communion, with the spiritual sword, as they term it, are the most implacable.-The great seal of the Supreme Council is annexed to a Petition in the same MS. addressed by that Council to Urban VIII, entreating that he would name Father Wadding a Cardinal. The motto is " Pro Deo, Rege, et Patria, Hibernia unanimis.”

66

+ "Nos infra scripti testamur quod Declaratio 23 Aprilis, anno 1648, a quibusdam hujus Regni Episcopis subscripta, neque est neque nunquam fuit edita, (this is a vile subterfuge.

True-they did not publish it, but they left it in the Nuncio's hands, to be published by him whenever he thought fit,) contra Cessationem armorum, quæ postea inter fœderatos Hiberniæ Catholicos et D. Baronem de Inchiquin conclusa fuit, et publicata 21 Maii, anno 1648, verum contra certos quosdam Articulolos, ex iis qui exhibiti fuerant, dicto mense Aprili, quique postea mutati et emendati fuerant." Compare the original which they thus disavow, above, p. 411, note!

147. Having all these and many more documents of tergiversation, in his hands, and seeing that those Bishops unsaid one day what they had said on the day before, how could Clanricard receive any declaration from them without suspicion, how admit them to his Councils without mistrust!

With all their professions, they maintained the doctrine, which Bishops depending on the Roman Court maintain to this day, that censures, however unjust, are binding, until those who are censured submit to absolution; and that therefore, such of the Irish as resisted the Rinuccini censures, were an excommunicated people; a stigma which attached to the principal Nobility and Gentry of the kingdom, so

"Testamur quoque nunqam nobis in animo fuisse Cessationem armorum, cum dicto Barone de Inchiquin factam, improbare; cum evidenter nobis innotuisset eam necessariam fuisse, et vero innumera damna calamitatesque prope infinitæ quæ, ob ejus violationem, ubique per universum Regnum emerserunt, tantam ejus concludendæ servandæque necessitatem extitisse, liquidissime demonstrant. Datum Kilkenniæ, 23 Januarii, anno 1649." Then follow the subscriptions, Johannes Archiep. Tuamensis, Fr. Ep. Alladensis, Edmund. Ep. Limericensis. See Carve, p. 347!

strongly, that when their Appeal was presented to Pope Innocent X, in 1648, he rejected it as frivolous! Nor were they unconditionally absolved down to the year 1698; and those who pretend that Rinuccini was reprimanded for his

"Censuræ a D. Nuntio fulminatæ in suo robore permansere; enunvero Appellatio Supremi Concilii rejecta fuit tanquam frivola ab eodem Papa Innocentio X, ut testatur "Alexander VII in Bulla Absolutionis, anni 1665." Supplement. Hib. Dom. p. 896.

"Ex his perspicue patet Appellationem Supremi Faderatorum Catholicorum Concilii a D. Nuntio ad S. Pontificem Innocentium X. frivolam fuiss; fulminatas proinde ab eo censures in suo robore permanisse usque ad absolutionem, per novemdeu m annorum seriem.” Ib. p. 920. And again— tandem aliquando Alexander VII, P. M. Hibernos ab ea censura absolvit, imposita ipsis pænitentia salutari, anno 1665, ut diserte refert Wareus in Annalibus ad annum istum, non autem omnimode completa fuit absolutio ista usque ad annum 1698, quo completam obtinuit, post diurturnam sollicitationem. Ill. mus ac Rev. D. Fr. Dominicus De Burgo Eps. Elphin. anno 1698. Hib. Dom. p. 691.

"Adduci non possum ut redam, says he again, quod passim fertur, Papam Innocentium X, ei dixisse temerarie te gessisti. Si enim id verum esset, cito, et haud difficulter, ab Anathemate isto liberarentur Nostrates; cujus tamen contrarium patet. Anathema enim istud auferre recusavit Alexander VII, anno 1658, neque sustulit (etiam conditionate) usque ad annum 1665, sub conditione nempe, ut se subjicerent pænitentiæ salutari." ib. For the humilitating conditions of the absolution, see the first part of this Address, p. 103.