Catholic confederation of 1641-1651.* His life is one of the most inspiring in all the annals of his country. The Puritan legislation was as merciless as the Puritan army. It extends in time from the dispersion of the last Catholic council, in 1651, till the restoration of King Charles, nine years later. After "the peace," the Puritan officers met, in their usual fashion, to consider how the soldiers of the Parliament, and the adventurers of money to carry on the war, were to be indemnified. "Lord Broghill proposed," at this council, "that the whole kingdom might be surveyed, and the number of acres taken, with the quality of them; and then all the soldiers to bring in their arrears, and so to give every man, by lot, as many acres of ground as might answer the value of his arrears. This was agreed on; and all Ireland being surveyed, and the value of acres given in, the highest was valued at only four shillings the acre, and some only at a penny. Accordingly they took the names of all that were in arrear, who drew lots in which part of the kingdom their portion should be; and in this manner the whole kingdom was divided among the conquerors and adventurers of money."† Finding this scheme impracticable, an alternative was opened to the Catholic population. A large part of the province of Connaught and county of Clare had become depopulated during the war, and to Connaught, or Barbadoes, was the alternative offered to the vanquished. Twenty thousand were transported beyond seas to the West India colonies and the tobacco plantations; "thousands, principally females, to the colonies in America." Hundreds of thousands more were crowded over the Shannon. A tribunal "to ascertain and settle claims to lands and houses in Ireland," in the years 1655, 6, and 7, was daily employed in parcelling out the island, while the most horrid restrictions were imposed on the remnant of the dispossessed natives. If a Catholic moved out of his district without a license, he was to be shot; to keep a musket, * Dublin, reprinted by James Duffy, 1847, (two volumes.) sword, or any other weapon, was punishable with death; no Catholic could reside in certain chief towns, nor within three miles of their walls; to receive or harbor a priest was present death." Most rigorously was this barbarous code executed, in every detail. The population sunk below what it had been even after the Danish wars, and the spirit of the nation decayed quicker than the numbers. The ruin of the Catholic gentry was absolute, and by all human calculations the Catholic religion was at the very point of expiration. Upon the dewy pastures of Erin Puritan cattle fatten, while in the swamps of Barbadoes the Irish cry goes up to Heaven. But all do not live to reach Barbadoes. Thousands perished at sea. Emir McMahon, Bishop of Clogher, was beheaded and embowelled at Enniskillen; Arthur Maginnis, Bishop of Down, died at sea, flying into exile; the Archbishop of Cashel, and the Bishop of Leighlin, were fugitives in Spain; the Bishops of Limerick, Raphoe, and Ferns, in the Netherlands; the Archbishop of Tuam, the Bishops of Cork, Cloyne, Ross, Waterford, Killalo, and Kilfenora, in different parts of France. The Bishop of Kilmacduah was concealed among his friends in England. Of the twenty-six Irish prelates, only three were suffered in Ireland, the Primate O'Reilly, McGeoghegan, Bishop of Meath, and the bedrid Bishop of Kilmore. Of the bishops, who, in the victorious days of the confederation, filled their sees, administering orders and governing the churches, twelve died in exile, and four suffered martyrdom. The sufferings of those who lay in concealment year after year were almost beyond the endurance of fortitude even such as theirs. The adventures of one the Bishop of Killalo―is illustrative of those of all his contemporaries. His biographer says: "He then proceeded, by short marches, to Galway, "and finally entered the city about eventide, in disguise. "Here he remained safe for a long time, protected by his "friends; but a rumor was soon spread that he was con *Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 116. Laws of the Protectorate, A. D. 1655 and 6. Mr. Carlyle, with his usual fanaticism, attempts to justify this wholesale plunder. — Life and Letters of Cromwell, vol. i. "cealed in the city; whereon the soldiers of the garrison "expended and squandered much time searching for "him. They had been certified by informers of the "houses which the bishop was wont to frequent, and then "searched their inmost recesses; but as the search was "instituted, generally speaking, about three days after "the bishop had retired thence, they did not arrest him. "So keen, however, was their pursuit of him, that he was "obliged to take refuge in the topmost stories of the "houses, aneath the tiles, and this, too, at midwinter "without a spark of fire. Sometimes he was forced to "go out on the roof, and, whilst his pursuers were gaining "on him, to descend into a neighboring house by the "dormant window. For, as most of the houses in Gal"way are connected, a person can safely walk on the "roofs, and thus pass from one house to another; and, as the interior walls support the roof, parapets rise on "the outside, under cover of which it is easy to find "shelter. 66 66 "At length, after the bishop had eluded the various snares set for him, he was joyously received by a cer"tain friend who was not very rich. Little did this man 66 care for the loss of his property, which was inconsidera"ble, but greatly was he concerned for the safety of his "prelate. Here, in midwinter, on the floor, right under "the roof, without a fire, was he obliged to lurk as long 66 as his health permitted him, nor did he descend to the "lower chamber till nighttime, when he required sleep. "Owing to this irksome, sedentary habit and unhealthy position, together with all his former sufferings, he was "seized with a most grievous malady, and compelled to "betake him to his bed, nor could he much longer escape "the soldiers, who licentiously visited every house; where"fore, to protect him from their ruffian assaults, he was "advised by some friends' to surrender himself to the "governor, who, seeing that the virulence of his disease "was killing him, forbade the soldiers to give him any. 56 trouble, as soon as some of the richer citizens had en"tered into security for his appearance in the governor's "court, provided he survived." At home the priesthood fared full worse. In 1652, the Puritan commissioner proclaimed the 27th of Elizabeth to be "the law of the commonwealth," as to priests and Jesuits. Twenty-eight days only were given all such persons to depart the kingdom. A great number emigrated, but about an equal number remained. A thousand victims dared to remain to be captured and executed, and the cruel perseverance with which they were hunted down resembles more the revengeful horrors of romance than the truths of history. "Some of them were burned before a slow fire; some were put on the rack, and tortured to death; whilst others, like Ambrose Cahill and James O'Reilly, were not only slain with the greatest cruelty, but their inanimate bodies were torn into fragments, and scattered before the wind." The Dominican order counts thirty Irish martyrs within its decade; the Augustinians an equal number; the Franciscans still more; the losses of the Jesuits must have been great. Of the destruction of the secular clergy there is no record, but of near a thousand who remained in Ireland after the proclamation of 1652, it is certain not one half outlived Oliver Cromwell. Fearful as was the persecution of the clergy, nobles, and peasants, the afflictions of those who lived in garrisoned districts were scarce less. Upon these the soldiery were billeted at free quarters, and from them their pay was collected weekly. "Along with the three scourges of God," says an eye-witness," famine, plague, and war, there was "another, which some called the fourth scourge, to wit, "the weekly exaction of the soldiers' pay, which was "extorted, with incredible atrocity, each Saturday,"bugles sounding and drums beating. On these occa"sions the soldiers entered the various houses, and "pointing their muskets to the breasts of men and "women, threatened them with instant death if the 66 sum demanded was not immediately given. Should it *Croly's Life of Archbishop Plunket, Dublin, 1850, O'Daly's Geraldine, Dr. French's Tracts, and Peter Walsh's History of the Remonstrance, are the best contemporary authorities. "have so happened, that the continual payment of "these pensions had exhausted the means of the people, "bed, bedding, sheets, table cloths, dishes, and every "description of furniture, nay, the very garments of the "women, torn off their persons, were carried to the 66 market-place and sold for a small sum; so much so, "that each recurring Saturday bore a resemblance to "the day of judgment, and the clangor of the trumpet "smote the people with terror almost equal to that of "doomsday." Domiciliary visits were made at all hours of the night and day, and the godly soldiers of the Covenant, like other rigid theorists, showed, by the licentiousness of their lives, how very far an affected austerity is from real piety and purity. Moreover, the "navigation act," passed by the Protector ostensibly against the Dutch, struck still more severely at the Irish seaports. From them, nominally under the same government, all direct trade with the colonies was cut off. By securing the monopoly of the "carrying trade" to "British bottoms," Ireland was ordered off the ocean as a trespasser; nor has she ever yet recovered what she lost during the long continuance of that most partial and unjust statute.t This and other laws of the commonwealth were enacted in London, the two kingdoms being placed by the Protector under one general legislature. Oliver died in September, 1658, to the great delight of the Catholics. Immediately a presentiment of King Charles's return filled the minds of men. Though Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Protector, at London and Dublin, no one expected him to hold power. Imitating the adroit policy of General Monk, Broghill Coote, Inchiquin, and other Irish Puritans, besieged Athlone, Limerick, Clonmel, and Waterford, and de *Lynch's Life of Bishop Kirwan. + Cromwell's navigation act, the basis of the maritime code of England, was reenacted by Charles II.'s first Parliament; repealed by the Irish Parliament in 1779, after operating above a century. It has been finally abolished in England, in 1849. |