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

to bear any office within the realm." In addition such persons were to be deprived of all their property, both real and personal. Any magistrate, who suspected that a child had been sent away could summon the parents or guardians and question them under oath, but failing any proof the mere absence of the child was to be taken as sufficient evidence of guilt. Popish schoolmasters in Ireland were forbidden to teach school under threat of a penalty of £20 and imprisonment for three months. But lest the Catholics might object that they had no means of education, it was enacted that every Protestant minister should open a school in his parish, and every Protestant bishop should see that a "public Latin free-school" was maintained in his diocese. Having fortified Protestantism sufficiently on one flank, the members next proceeded to forbid Papists to keep "arms, armour, or ammunition," empowered magistrates to search the houses of all suspected persons, threatened severe penalties against all offenders, forbade the reception of Popish apprentices by manufacturers of war materials, prohibited all Catholics from having in their possession a horse over the value of £5, and empowered Protestant "discoverers" of infringements of this measure to become owners of their Catholic neighbour's horse by tendering him five pounds. Lest these laws might become a dead letter it was enacted that if any judge, mayor, magistrate, or bailiff neglected to enforce them he should pay a fine of £50, half of which was to go to the informer, and besides, he should be declared incapable of holding such an office for ever. To prevent any misconception it was explained that all persons, who, when called upon, refused to make the Declaration against Transubstantiation, should be regarded as Papists.[5]

For so far, however, the opportune moment for a formal rejection of the Limerick Treaty had not arrived. But when Parliament met in 1697 it was deemed prudent to carry out the instruction of the Bishop of Meath, that no faith should be kept with Catholics. The Articles of Limerick were confirmed with most of the important clauses omitted or altered. The first clause guaranteeing toleration was deemed unfit to be mentioned in the bill. It is clear that in the House of Lords grave difficulties were urged against such a wholesale neglect of the terms of the treaty, and that it was necessary to invoke the authority of the king and of the English privy council before the measure was passed. Seven of the lay lords, and six of the Protestant bishops lodged a solemn protest against what had been done. Amongst the reasons which they assigned for their disagreement with the majority were: "(1) Because we think the title of the Bill doth not agree with the body thereof, the title being, An Act for the Confirmation of Articles made at the Surrender of Limerick, whereas no one of the said articles is therein, as we conceive, fully confirmed; (2) because the said Articles were to be confirmed in favour of them, to whom they were granted, but the confirmation of them by the Bill is such, that it puts them in a worse condition than they were before, as we conceive; . . . (4) because several words are inserted in the bill, which are not in the Articles, and others omitted, which alter both the sense and meaning, as we conceive."[6]

The way was now clear for beginning the attack upon the clergy. An Act was passed ordering "all Popish archbishops, bishops, vicars-general, deans, Jesuits, monks, friars, and all other regular Popish clergy, and all Papists exercising any ecclesiastical jurisdiction" to depart from the kingdom before the 1st May 1698, under threat for those who remained beyond the specified time, of being arrested and kept in prison till they could be transported beyond the seas. They were commanded to assemble before the 1st May at the ports of Dublin, Cork, Kinsale, Youghal, Waterford, Wexford, Galway, or Carrickfergus, register themselves at the office of the mayor, and await till provision could be made for transporting them. All such ecclesiastics were forbidden to come into the kingdom after the 29th December 1697, under pain of imprisonment for twelve months, and if any such person ventured to return after having been transported he should be adjudged guilty of high treason. If any person knowingly harboured, relieved, concealed, or entertained any popish ecclesiastic after the dates mentioned he was to forfeit £20 for the first offence, £40 for the second, and all his lands and property for the third offence, half to go (if not exceeding £100) to the informer. Justices of the peace were empowered to summon all persons charged upon oath with having aided or received ecclesiastics and to levy these fines, or to commit the accused person to the county jail till the fines should be paid. All persons whatsoever were forbidden after the 29th December 1697, to bury any deceased person "in any suppressed monastery, abbey, or convent, that is not made use of for celebrating divine service, according to the liturgy of the Church of Ireland as by law established, or within the precincts thereof, under pain of forfeiting the sum of ten pounds," which sum might be recovered off any person attending a burial in such circumstances. Justices of the peace were empowered to issue warrants for the arrest of ecclesiastics who came into Ireland, or remained there in defiance of these statutes, and were commanded to give an account of their work in this respect at the next quarter sessions held in their counties. Finally, it was provided that any justice of the peace or mayor who neglected to enforce this law should pay a fine for every such offence of £100, half of which was to be paid to the informer, and should be disqualified for serving as a justice of the peace. An Act was also passed "to prevent Protestants intermarrying with Papists." If any Protestant woman, heir to real estate or to personal estate value £500 or upwards, married a husband without having first got "a certificate in writing under the hand of the minister of the parish, bishop of the diocese, and some justice of the peace," and attested by two witnesses that her intended husband was a Protestant, the estates or property devolved immediately on the next of kin if a Protestant; and if any man married without having got a similar certificate that the lady of his choice was a Protestant he became thereby disqualified to act as a guardian or executor, to sit in the House of Commons, or to hold any civil or military office, unless he could prove that within one year he had converted his wife to the Protestant religion. Any clergyman assisting at such marriages was liable to a penalty of £20, half of which was to be paid to the informer.[7]

In order to secure that none of the bishops or regular clergy should escape, the revenue officers in the different districts were instructed to make a return of the names and abodes of all priests on the 27th July 1697. According to the digest compiled from these returns there were then in Ireland eight hundred and ninety-two secular priests and four hundred and ninety-five regulars. The houses of the regular clergy were broken up; their property was disposed of or handed over in trust to some reliable neighbour, and the priests prepared to go into exile. During the year 1698 four hundred and forty-four of them were shipped from various Irish ports, several others were arrested and thrown into prison, and a few escaped by passing as secular priests. Many of the unfortunate exiles made their way to Paris, where they were dependent upon the charity of the French people and of the Pope. Similar vigorous action was taken to secure the banishment of the bishops and vicars, in the hope that if these could be driven from the country the whole machinery of the Catholic Church in Ireland would become so disorganised that its total disappearance in a short time might be expected. Several of the bishops had been declared traitors for having supported the cause of James I., and had been obliged to flee to the Continent. Two others were shipped in accordance with the law of 1697; three were discovered by the revenue officials, of whom the Bishop of Clonfert was arrested, rescued, and died; the Bishop of Waterford made his escape after a few years of hiding, and the Bishop of Cork was arrested and transported (1703). So that there remained in Ireland only the Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishop of Dromore. News of what was taking place in Ireland was conveyed to the Emperor, who instructed his ambassador to lodge a strong protest, but the ambassador was put off with empty promises or with a bold denial of the truth of his information. Nor were these acts allowed to remain a dead letter. The revenue officials, the magistrates, sheriffs, judges, Protestant bishops, and Protestant ministers joined in the hunt for regulars, bishops, vicars, deans, etc., and generous rewards were offered to all informers.[8]

The accession of Queen Anne (1702-14) led only to a still more violent persecution. Parliament met in September 1703, and proceeded almost immediately to attack both priests and lay Catholics. Most of the bishops were dead or had been driven from the country. The regulars, it was thought, could not survive. It was determined, therefore, to attack the remaining secular clergy in two ways, first by enforcing strictly the laws against Catholic education in Ireland, and by making more severe the laws against going to colleges abroad,[9] as well as by enacting that any priest who entered Ireland after 1st January 1704 should be punished in accordance with the terms of the law laid down previously against bishops and regulars,[10] so that by these means the supply of clergy might be cut off; and second, by obliging all the priests in Ireland to register themselves so that the government could lay hold of them whenever it wished to do so. According to this latter measure all priests were commanded to give an account to the clerks of the peace of their district, of their place of abode, their parishes, together with the time and place of their ordination, and were to provide two securities of £50 for their future good behaviour; those who neglected to make this return were to be imprisoned and transported; and it was provided later on that no parish priest could have an assistant or curate.[11] To crush the Catholic laymen it was enacted that in case the eldest son became a Protestant his father could not sell, mortgage, or otherwise dispose of the family property; that no Catholic could act as guardian to orphans or minors, but that these should be handed over to the custody of some Protestant who was required to bring them up in the Protestant religion; that no Catholic could purchase any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any profits or rents from such possessions, or acquire leases for a term exceeding thirty-one years or inherit as nearest of kin to any Protestant; the estates of a Catholic landowner dying without a Protestant heir were to be divided equally among his sons; no person could hold any office, civil or military, without subscribing to the Declaration against Transubstantiation, and the oath of abjuration, and receiving the sacrament; no Catholics, unless under very exceptional circumstances, could be allowed to live in Galway and Limerick, and no person could vote at any election without taking the oaths of allegiance and abjuration. Sir Theobald Butler appeared at the bar of the House of Commons to plead against these measures, and to point out that as no laws of the king were in force in the days of Charles II. the proposed bill was in direct opposition to the terms of the