History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution - Volume 2 by James MacCaffrey (free e books to read online txt) 📖

removed from office in 1615, and was succeeded by Sir Oliver St. John, who came to Ireland determined to support the anti-Catholic campaign. In a short time more than eighty of the best citizens of Dublin were in prison because they refused the oath of supremacy, and throughout the country, jurors who refused to convict the Catholics were themselves held prisoners, so that the jails were soon full to overflowing. Immense sums were levied off both poor and rich for non- attendance at Protestant religious service. In the County Cavan, for example, the fines for one year amounted to about £8,000,[32] while large sums were paid by the Catholic noblemen for protection from the Protestant inquisitors. New plantations were undertaken, on the lines of the Ulster Plantation, in Wexford, Longford, King's County, and Leitrim, though, not having been carried out so thoroughly or so systematically as the former, they had not the same measure of success. All Catholic noblemen succeeding to property were obliged to take the oath of supremacy, though apparently they could procure exemption from this test by the payment of a fine, but the Court of Wards took care that minors should be entrusted to Protestant guardians, and should be sent if possible to Trinity College. By means such as these Elizabeth and James succeeded in Protestantising a certain number of the heirs to Irish estates. Proclamations were issued once more against the clergy, both secular and regular, and so violent was the persecution that the Bishops of Ireland addressed a petition to the Catholic rulers of Europe, and especially to the King of Spain, asking them to intercede with James on behalf of his Irish Catholic subjects (1617).[33]

The negotiations for the marriage of Prince Charles to a Spanish princess made it necessary for the king to be more guarded in his religious policy in Ireland. Oliver St. John, who had shown himself to be such a bitter enemy of the Catholics, was removed from office, and Lord Falkland was sent over as Deputy in 1622. Rumours were afloat on all sides that his policy was to be one of toleration. The Protestants were alarmed and at the installation of the new Deputy (Sept. 1622) James Ussher, then Protestant Bishop of Meath, taking as his text, "He beareth not the sword in vain," preached a violent sermon in favour of religious persecution. Primate Hampton wrote immediately to the preacher, reproving him for his imprudence, asking him to explain away what he had said about the sword, and advising him to spend more of his time in his own diocese of Meath, where matters were far from being satisfactory.[34] On the return of Charles from Spain a new proclamation was issued (1624) ordering all "titulary popish archbishops, bishops, vicars-general, abbots, priors, deans, Jesuits, friars, seminary priests, and others of that sect, made or ordained by authority derived from the See of Rome or other foreign parts to depart from the kingdom within forty days under pain of his Majesty's indignation and penalties. If any of these dared to remain, or if any persons dared to receive them, the offenders were to be lodged in prison, "to the end such further order may be taken for their punishment as by us shall be thought fit."[35]

A full account of the position of the Catholics of Ireland is given in a letter written from Dublin in 1623. Catholic minors were compelled to accept the oath of supremacy before they could get letters of freedom from the Court of Wards (established 1617); all mayors, magistrates, officials, etc., of corporate towns were commanded to take the oath under penalty of having their towns disenfranchised; priests were arrested and kept in prison; laymen were punished by sentences of excommunication and by fines for non-attendance at Protestant worship; they were summoned before the consistorial courts for having had their children baptised by the priests and were punished with the greatest indignities; Catholics were forbidden to teach school and Catholic parents were forbidden to send their children abroad; the Catholic inhabitants of Drogheda were indicted before a Protestant jury, and having been found guilty of recusancy, they stood in danger of having all their property forfeited; in Louth the juries were ordered to draw up a list of Recusants; when three Catholic jurors refused they were thrown into prison and obliged to give security to appear before the Dublin Star Chamber; and in Cavan proceedings of a similar kind were taken.[36]

Amongst the distinguished bishops of the Irish Church at this period were Peter Lombard, Archbishop of Armagh (1601-25), a native of Waterford, who studied at Oxford and Louvain, was appointed a professor at the latter seat of learning, took a very prominent part in the /Congregatio de Auxiliis/, published some theological treatises together with an ecclesiastical history of Ireland, entitled, /De Regno Hiberniae, Sanctorum insula, Commentarius/,[37] but who on account of the danger of stirring up still greater persecution never visited his diocese; Eugene Matthews or MacMahon, Bishop of Clogher (1609) and Archbishop of Dublin (1611) who did splendid work for the Irish Church by the decrees passed in the provincial synod at Kilkenny (1614) as well as by his successful efforts for the foundation of the Pastoral College at Louvain; David O'Kearney, appointed to Cashel (1603) as successor to the martyred Archbishop O'Hurley, who though hunted from place to place continued to fill the duties of his office till about the year 1618, when he went to Rome; and Florence Conry, Archbishop of Tuam, a Franciscan, who served with the army of the Northern Princes, and who was specially detested by the English government on account of his loyal defence of O'Neill. Not being allowed to return to Ireland, he devoted himself to the study of theology, and was the author of several very important works, some of which were not, however, free from the suspicion of something akin to Jansenism. By far the most useful book he composed was his celebrated Irish Catechism published at Louvain in 1626.[38]

During the opening years of the reign of Charles I. (1625-49) the persecution was much less violent, and as Charles was married to a French Catholic princess and as he had promised solemnly not to enforce the laws against Catholics, it was hoped that at long last they might expect toleration. The distinguished Franciscan Thomas Fleming, son of the Baron of Slane, who had received his education in the Irish Franciscan College at Louvain, was appointed Archbishop of Dublin (1623), and arrived in Ireland two years later. He was able to report that the conduct of the Catholics not only in Dublin but throughout Ireland was worthy of every praise, and to point to the fact that many who made the pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg were obliged to return without satisfying their pious desires because the island was so crowded that there was no room for them to land. Chapels were opened in some of the less pretentious streets in Dublin; communities of religious orders took up fixed residences in the capital; and the Jesuits summoned home some of their ablest teachers to man a Catholic University which they opened in Back Lane (1627). The government stood in need of money to equip and support a new army, then considered necessary on account of the threatening attitude of France, and in order to obtain funds a large body both of the Protestant and Catholic nobility were invited to come to Dublin for discussion. They were offered certain concessions or "Graces" in return for a subsidy, and to placate the Catholic peers it was said that the fines for non-attendance at church would not be levied, and that they might expect tacit toleration.

The very mention of toleration filled the Protestant bishops with alarm, and, considering the fact that they were dependent upon coercion for whatever congregations they had, their rage is not unintelligible. James Ussher, who had become Protestant Primate of Armagh, convoked an assembly of the bishops. They declared that: "The religion of the Papists is superstitious and idolatrous, their church in respect of both, apostatical. To give them, therefore, a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion, and profess their faith and doctrine is a grievous sin, and that in two respects. For it is to make ourselves accessory, not only to their superstitions, idolatries, and heresies, and in a word, to all the abominations of Popery; but also, which is a consequent of the former, to the perdition of the seduced people, which perish in the deluge of Catholic apostacy. To grant them toleration, in respect of any money to be given, or contribution to be made by them, is to set religion to sale, and with it, the souls of the people, whom Christ our Saviour hath redeemed with His most precious blood."[39] The Irish deputies arrived in London to seek a confirmation of the "Graces" at the very time that the third Parliament of Charles (1627) was petitioning him to put in force the laws against the Recusants. The members of the English House of Commons complained that religious communities of men and women had been set up in Dublin and in several of the larger cities, that Ireland was swarming with Jesuits, friars, and priests, that the people who attended formerly the Protestant service had ceased to attend, that in Dublin there were thirteen mass- houses, and that Papists were allowed to act as army officers, and Papists were being trained as soldiers."[40] In these circumstances the Catholic members of the deputation consented to abandon their claims for full toleration, though it was understood that the fines levied on account of absence from Protestant service would not be enforced, but they were promised that Catholic lawyers would be allowed to practise without being obliged to take the oath of supremacy. In return for the promised "Graces," which were to be ratified immediately in Parliament, the Irish nobles promised to pay a sum of £120,000 for the support of the new army.

The promised Parliament was not held, nor were the "Graces" conceded either to the Irish generally or to the Catholics. Still, there was no active persecution for some time. The provincial of the Carmelites in Dublin was able to report to the Propaganda (1629) that "all the ecclesiastics now publicly perform their sacred functions, and prepare suitable places for offering the holy sacrifice, and that with open doors; they now preach to the people, say Mass, and discharge all their other duties without being molested by any one." The Carmelites, he wrote, "had a large church, but not sufficient to contain one-sixth of the congregation; the people flocked in crowds to Confession, and Holy Communion; the Franciscans, Dominicans, Capuchins, and Jesuits were hard at work; and the parishes were supplied with parish priests who resided in their districts and were supported by the voluntary offerings of the people."[41] From a report of the year 1627, it is clear that the Dominicans had over fifty priests of their Order in Ireland, together with several novices and students.[42]

But already the enemies of the Catholic religion were at work, and, as a result, a proclamation was issued by Lord Falkland in 1629 commanding that all monasteries, convents, colleges, and religious houses should be dissolved, that all religious and priests should cease to teach or to perform any religious service in any public chapel or oratory, or to teach in any place whatsoever in the kingdom, and that all owners of religious houses and schools should apply them to other uses without delay (1629). At first no notice was taken of this proclamation in Dublin or in any of the cities of Ireland. Ussher wrote to complain of the "unreverend manner" in which the proclamation was made in Drogheda. "It was done in scornful and contemptuous sort, a drunken soldier being first set up