THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 From the collection of 
 James Collins, 
 Drumcondra, Ireland. 
 Purchased, 1918. 
 
 OrSm 
 

 
MEMORIALS 
 
 OP THOSE WHO SUFFERED FOR THE CATHOLIC FAITH 
 
 IN IRELAND 
 
 IN THE 16th, 17ih, AND 18th CENTURIES. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/mennorialsofthose00orei_0 
 
MEMOEIALS 
 
 OF THOSE WHO SUFFERED FOR THE 
 CATHOLIC FAITH 
 
 IN 
 
 IRELAND 
 
 IN THE 16th, 17th, AND 18th CENTURIES. 
 
 COLLECTED AND EDITED FROM THE ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES 
 
 BY 
 
 MYLES O’REILLY, B.A. LL.D. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 BURNS, OATES, & CO., 
 
 17 & 18 PORTMAN STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, 
 AND 63 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1868. 
 
LONDON 
 
 WYMAN AND SONS, PEINTEES, GEEAT QUEEN STEEET, 
 LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS, W.C. 
 
 o'cstfy- 
 
. HAS' 
 
 ’I 
 
 Opv. *3 '"yw 
 
 i PREFACE. 
 
 The practice of preserving the records of the lives of great 
 men, which a Pagan historian declared no age, however dull, 
 had ever neglected, comes to the Christian recommended by a 
 deeper interest and a more pregnant use. The Pagan could 
 recommend the family and friends of the great departed only 
 to turn from weak regrets to admiring contemplation, and 
 suggest a timid hope that the object of their affection might 
 continue to exist in another sphere.* 
 
 Christians are told to remember that “ we have a great 
 cloud of witnesses over our head,” and are called on, laying 
 aside every weight of sin which surrounds us, to run by 
 patience to the fight proposed, strengthened by the example 
 of the saints,” and are reminded that “ the just seem to the eyes 
 of the foolish to die, but indeed are in peace.” Hence, from the 
 first ages of Christianity it was looked upon as a sacred duty 
 to preserve the memory of the lives and deaths of those who 
 had served Christ, and who ‘‘ had been deemed worthy to 
 suffer for His name,” — the memory of their deaths even more 
 than that of their lives, because, while death to the Pagan was 
 the final end (the limit to the labours and successes of great 
 men), to the Christian it was the very instrument of victory — 
 the moment of triumph : to the former it was the termination of 
 existence, to the latter it was the commencement of the real 
 
 * Tacit., Agric. 
 
 •\bsg50 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 life : for the former the cause fell with its defender, for the 
 latter the triumph of the truth was secured by the death of its 
 martyr. 
 
 In no country was this practice of preserving the memorials 
 of the saints more carefully observed than in Ireland. Our 
 earliest and most authentic records since the days of S. Patrick 
 are the lives of our saints; and from Jocelyn to Colgan to 
 record their deeds was a labour of love. It was a remarkable 
 fact that, in all these collections, up to the sixteenth century 
 one class of saints found no representatives. The Church of 
 Ireland had produced a “ glorious choir of apostles” who bore 
 the good tidings to many a distant land ; the “number of her 
 prophets who uttered praise” was not small; but she num- 
 bered in her calendar no representative of “ the white-robed 
 army of martyrs.” By a singular prerogative her conversion 
 had not cost the life of a single one of her teachers, and it 
 seemed probable that, were she left to herself, no blood of her 
 children, shed for the faith, w'ould ever stain her soil. But 
 the litany of her saints was to be completed, and He who 
 was the “ Master of her apostles,” the “ Teacher of her evan- 
 gelists,” the “ purity of her virgins,” w^as also to be the “ light 
 of her confessors,” and the “ strength of her martyrs ;” and 
 the Church, whose foundations had been laid in peace, was to 
 see her persecution-shaken walls cemented and rebuilt with the 
 blood of her martyr^ 
 
 The sixteenth century saw in Ireland the commencement of 
 a persecution which, gradually increasing in intensity, culmi- 
 nated in the middle of the seventeenth in what was probably 
 the most exterminating attack ever endured by a Christian 
 Church. The fanatical followers of Mahomet, in the seventh 
 century, propagated their faith by the sword ; but the hordes 
 of Cromwell abandoned the attempt to make the Irish con- 
 verts, and turned all their energies to blotting out Catho- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 licity in Ireland by the destruction of the Irish race : the Irish 
 were recognized as ineradicably Catholic, and were slain or 
 banished to wildernesses where it was believed they must 
 become extinct. Whilst this persecution was one mainly and 
 essentially of Catholicity,* it was embittered and prolonged by 
 every other element which could exacerbate and increase its 
 ferocity ; the differences of race, of conquest, of government, all 
 added their elements of bitterness to intensify and prolong the 
 strife. 
 
 England had conquered Ireland, but never absorbed its 
 identity in her own, and, although she nominally ruled it, her 
 rule up to 1600 was far from being consolidated. England 
 became Protestant, whilst Ireland remained Catholic, and 
 hence the persecution of Catholicity in Ireland was not only 
 the persecution of the believers in one faith by the adherents 
 of another, it was also (as was the case in the Netherlands) the 
 persecution of the conquered by the conquering race, of the 
 old government by the new, of the possessors of the land of 
 the country by those who sought to confiscate it for their own 
 advantage. How infinitely this has tended, for three hundred 
 years, to prevent all impartial and good government in Ireland 
 is patent to all. One incidental good, however, resulted from it : 
 the fire of persecution surely but slowly fused into a common 
 nationality all Irish Catholics of the various races which had 
 so long remained separated. Norman and Celt, Palesman and 
 ‘‘ mere Irish,” forgot their differences in their common Catho- 
 licity ; the laws which had sought to exclude men of Irish 
 descent from certain posts in the Church became obsolete when 
 the honours of the Church were the passport to martyrdom ; 
 and so also the dislike of the Irish outside the Pale to seeing 
 
 * English and Scotch Catholics, settled in the north of Ireland, 
 were as ruthlessly expelled in 1650 as those of Irish descent. — See 
 Curry’s Memoirs, referred to in note on next page. 
 
 h 2 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 bishops of English descent appointed to sees in their country 
 gradually faded away before the heat of a common persecution. 
 Dr. MacMahon, a pure Irishman, became Archbishop of 
 Dublin , a see which had been occupied uninterruptedly by 
 Englishmen since the time of S. Laurence O^Toole ; the see of 
 Tuam was filled by Archbishops Bodkin and Skerritt ; and the 
 sainted Oliver Plunket, the “ Palesman,” was welcomed enthu- 
 siastically by the Irish of Armagh. Out of the furnace of 
 persecution there arose a new nationality for Ireland, composed 
 of Irish Catholics; whether of Irish, of English, or of Scotch 
 descent,^ it has continued to our day, and we may hope will 
 endure to the end. And it is a nationality of which we may 
 well be proud, and which may console us for the sad defi- 
 ciencies of our secular history. 
 
 The natural development of political society in Ireland was 
 arrested at the end of the twelfth century by the English inva- 
 sion, ere the country had been consolidated under one govern- 
 ment,t and for some four hundred years the English did not 
 succeed in reducing the whole island under one rule; thus, 
 since 1200, Ireland, as a whole, has never had a national 
 government J or national life; and, since 1600, even the local 
 Irish governments, or rules of the great chiefs, had disap- 
 
 * If my readers will glance down the list of names of those whose 
 memorials are here given, they will see mingled with such purely 
 Celtic names as O’Neill, O’Conor, O’Eeilly, O’Brien, those of Norman 
 and English race, as De Burgo, Nugent, Bathe, Barry; as Archer, 
 English, Bussell, Slingsby, Stapleton, Prendergast. Curry (“ Civil 
 Wars, ” Appendix, p. 623) gives instances of Catholics of English 
 and Scotch birth, resident in Ireland, slain for their religion. 
 
 t The, political state of Ireland in 1172 was analogous to that of 
 England under the Heptarchy, and of France before Charlemagne. 
 
 J Unless we except the brief rule of the Confederation of Kilkenny 
 from 1641 to 1647, or from 1788 to 1800, when Ireland was ruled by 
 an oligarchy, whilst the Catholics, the great majority of the people, 
 were outside the pale of the constitution. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 peared. Thus vve may say that since 1200 we have no great 
 consecutive national political history or national government, 
 to the gradual development of which we can look back with 
 pride and content ; but, on the other hand, we can trace with 
 unalloyed satisfaction the history of our Church alike in tem- 
 pest and in calm — her struggles in the dark and stormy ages of 
 persecution, and her renewed youth and vigour in the serener 
 atmosphere of our own days. Hence it is, I confess, that the 
 history of religion in Ireland has always had peculiar charms 
 for me ; and although I have ever felt the deepest interest in 
 the gallant, but gradually less and less successful, struggles for 
 independence of my own race, I have dwelt with still deeper 
 interest on the religious history of the same race, a history of 
 progress and development alike in prosperity and in adversity, 
 a history which links the past with the present and the future — 
 a past to which we can revert with well-grounded pride, a 
 present in which we recognize with gratitude the fruit of the 
 struggles and sufferings of our forefathers, whose example we 
 are called on to imitate, a future to which we may look for- 
 ward with humble but well-grounded hope. 
 
 To others appertains the nobler task of writing the general 
 ecclesiastical history of Ireland, and if we have not yet 
 had a second Lanigan to continue the history of our 
 Church from the twelfth century, we are daily receiving 
 valuable additions to our historical knowledge of separate 
 portions of it from the pens of scholars like Dr. Renehan, 
 and his able editor Dr. McCarthy, Dr. Moran, and others. 
 I have undertaken the lesser work of collecting the bio- 
 graphies of those martyrs and confessors the tale of whose 
 sufferings make up so large a portion of the Church history 
 of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It 
 may, indeed, appear strange that there has not hitherto been 
 any complete collection of this sort. Ireland is a country 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 where the habit of preserving local histories and biographies 
 has flourished from before the Christian era, and from the days 
 of S. Patrick her hagiographers collected the lives of her 
 saints as carefully as her bards and genealogists collected the 
 descents and the battles of her warriors. But it is a singular 
 proof how nearly the devastation of the Cromwellian persecu- 
 tion annihilated the life of the Irish race that for nearly one 
 hundred years hardly an effort was made to preserve a re- 
 cord of the sufferings of her sons. This is not the case with 
 regard to the earlier and less sweeping persecutions under 
 Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and James. Then the custom which 
 had been practised by the early Christians under the Pagan 
 Emperors of recording the sufferings of the martyrs was 
 imitated by the Irish, and catalogues and biographies were 
 carefully collected by those who escaped in Ireland, or who 
 lived in the Irish colleges abroad. Numbers of these have 
 been lost, but we still have several, such as the “ Processus 
 Martyrialis ” of Dr. Rothe, published in 1619 ; Mooney’s 
 treatise, written in 1620; and portions at least of others copied 
 later by Bruodin and O’Heyn. But from 1650 the destruction 
 was so utter, the blow so crushing, the slaughter so immense, 
 that all idea of recording particular incidents seems to have 
 been abandoned in despair for nearly a century ;*and Bruodin, 
 who published in 1669, O’Heyn in 1706, and De Burgo still 
 later, were the first who resumed the interrupted task. Hence 
 there are immense deficiencies in the collection of the lives of 
 our Irish martyrs, and although I have collected as far as I 
 could all those recorded, they can be regarded only as speci- 
 mens, not as forming a complete enumeration, especially as 
 regards the period from 1640 to 1680. 
 
 I have undertaken to collect the biographies of those who 
 
 * With the exception of the small tract, Morison’s “ Threnodia,” 
 published at Innsbruck in 1659. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 suffered for the Catholic faith, not to write a contribution to 
 the political history of Ireland ; hence the scheme of my work 
 does not embrace the lives of those, however glorious their 
 career, however noble the cause for which they suffered, who 
 did not suffer directly for that faith. The same rule has been 
 observed by those who preceded me. Thus Bruodin says, 
 “ Neminem hie nomino in hello justissimo a Catholicis in 
 Hibernia, pro defensione fidei, regis et patriae incepto occisum, 
 inde eorum hie facio memoriam qui omni jure, nominari 
 merentur inter eos qui pro Christo certando occubuere ” 
 (p. 698).* 
 
 In the case of laymen I have thus been led to omit many 
 who no doubt were persecuted really on account of their reli- 
 gion, but nominally for political reasons; in the case of priests 
 there is much less difficulty. Bishop Heber MacMahon, 
 indeed, who fell at the head of his troops, although one of the 
 noblest characters of his age, is excluded by Bruodin’s rule ; 
 but priests who, although non-combatants, were put to death 
 in the discharge of their sacred duties when attending the 
 dying on the battle-field, or exceptionally slain after the sur- 
 render of towns because priests, are clearly to be enumerated 
 as martyrs. In the great majority of cases, however, there is 
 no question whatever : the priests and bishops were imprisoned 
 and put to death simply on account of their religion. Al- 
 though, as in England, they may have been tried for treason, 
 the treason consisted either of “ a second refusal to take the 
 oath acknowledging the Queen’s supremacy, or having a 
 second time defended the supremacy of the Boman See” (5 
 Eliz. cap. 1), or “obtaining any bull, or persuading any one 
 to be reconciled to the Church of Rome” (13 Eliz. cap. 2, and 
 23 Eliz. cap. 1, and 3 Jac. cap. 4), or, “having been conse- 
 
 * So also Morisou : “Non recenseo hie ullum in hello occisum, 
 quamvis fidei causa occideretur.” 
 
Xll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 crated priest abroad, entering or remaining in the kingdom, 
 or receiving, hiding, or assisting a priest” (27 Eliz. cap. 2). 
 And if my readers will turn to the lives of Archbishop 
 O’Hurley, Archbishop Creagh, or Archbishop Plunket, they 
 will see how little their deaths were due to anything save their 
 religion. As, however, a good deal of misapprehension exists 
 on this subject, it may be well briefly to trace the position of 
 the Irish bishops and priests in relation to the civil govern- 
 ment from the reign of Henry VIII. The Church had never 
 condemned, nay, had sanctioned the resistance of the Irish to 
 the English invaders ; but from the time that their power be- 
 came firmly established and was the only existing government 
 within the Pale, the ecclesiastics subject to their sway preached 
 obedience to what was henceforth, in those districts, the only 
 representative of authority. The case was very different in 
 those parts of the country which preserved their independence 
 for centuries later ; but, as I have before mentioned, there was 
 not from the thirteenth century a national government exer- 
 cising, or even claiming, supreme authority over the whole 
 kingdom. In the sixteenth century the suzerainty of the Eng- 
 lish king was pretty generally acknowledged; even the great 
 O’Neill, although preserving a virtual independence, did not 
 claim a perfectly independent sovereignty ; and from the reign 
 of Elizabeth the sovereign of England was acknowledged as 
 the only de facto ruler of Ireland. Hence bishops and 
 priests, in pursuance of their duty of obedience to the powers 
 that be, not only submitted themselves, but preached the duty 
 of submission to others. Thus Dr. Rothe under James 
 I. wrote, — 
 
 “ I kilow that the inhabitants of Ireland, the subjects of our 
 king, are contented with the present peace (as the subjects of 
 the Roman empire under Augustus) ; I know how they detest 
 the tumults of war, and desire to devote themselves to the arts 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xiii 
 
 of peace and enjoy its sweets ; I know they desire nothing 
 more than the happiness of the king and his offspring, and 
 that under their auspices may be firmly established the much- 
 desired peace and indulgence towards the Irish, both in respect 
 to other matters and especially in those matters which regard 
 religion, the divine worship, and the profession and practices 
 of the ancient faith.” 
 
 On the accession of Charles I. the Irish acknowledged him 
 as their legitimate king; and when his English subjects re- 
 belled against him, the Irish defended his cause with arms ; 
 and the Catholic synod of Kilkenny in 1641, presided over 
 by Hugh O’Reilly, Archbishop of Armagh, declared, — ^ 
 “ Whereas the war which now in Ireland the Catholics do 
 maintain against sectaries, and chiefly against Puritans, is for 
 the defence of the Catholic religion, for the maintenance of the 
 prerogative and royal rights of our gracious King Charles,” 
 and ordered the following oath to be taken by all : — ‘‘I, A. B., 
 do profess, swear, and protest, before God and His angels, that 
 I will, during my life, bear true faith and allegiance to my 
 Sovereign Lord Charles, by the grace of God King of Great 
 Britain, Prance, and Ireland, and to his heirs and lawful 
 successors.” The Confederates of Kilkenny, indeed, very 
 rightly sought at the same time to secure freedom for their 
 own religion, and the exercise of their own civil rights; but 
 it is essential to remember that the Confederation of Kilkenny 
 sought to maintain the rights of Ireland under the existing 
 dynasty and government (which, although alien and wrongful 
 in its introduction, could then claim to be established by 
 time), not to substitute by revolution a new government for 
 it. The scheme of making the Duke of Lorraine king of 
 Ireland found little favour, even when Charles was wholly 
 unable to afford that protection which is the correlative of 
 obedience. The Irish of the middle of the seventeenth 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 century were, indeed, called rebels, and treated as such, but 
 it was by those who were themselves really rebels against their 
 legitimate sovereign, the republicans of England; and the 
 Cromwellian persecution smote them alike for their fidelity to 
 their religion and to their king. 
 
 Under Charles II., also, the Irish Catholics were faithful 
 subjects; they were only too faithful to his brother James. 
 But from the time when the dynasty of Orange was 
 established on the throne it was obeyed by the Catholic 
 priests of Ireland, whose one rule was to mix as little 
 as might be in secular politics, and under those successive 
 and different governments, all alike alien in their origin, 
 to observe the Apostle’s precept to be subject to the powers 
 that be. This is well stated in the synodal decrees of the 
 province of Armagh given by Dr. Renehan.* “ All priests 
 are to take care not to mix themselves up, either publicly or 
 privately, with affairs of state or of temporal government, 
 nor to incur the enmity of the king’s majesty or of the 
 temporal governors, unless only it be by discharging their 
 duty to God and their flocks in the administration of 
 spirituals, leaving to Caesar what is Caesar^s, and to God 
 what is God’s.” 
 
 But if they were ever ready to obey in worldly matters 
 the various temporal rulers who governed Ireland, they were 
 inflexible in preserving their own and their people’s higher 
 spiritual allegiance to their Divine Ruler and His vicegerent 
 on earth, and to them we owe the preservation of our noblest and 
 most enduring nationality, our Catholicity. Of them it may 
 w’ell be said, “ They took care of their nation and delivered it 
 from destruction.^’ Rightly may we “praise these men of 
 renown and our fathers in their generation,” for they pre- 
 
 * Eenehan’s “Bishops,” p. 118. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XV 
 
 served for us the faith, through such a persecution as has 
 rarely, if ever, elsewhere been endured: “they had trials of 
 mockeries and stripes, of bands and prisons, they were stoned, 
 they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they w^ere put to 
 death by the sword, they wandered about in sheep-skins, in 
 goat-skins, being in want, distressed, of whom the world was 
 not worthy. But in all these things they overcame, because of 
 Him who loved us,” and by their sufferings has been pre- 
 served to Ireland, not only the faith, but also the spirit of 
 fidelity and sacrifice of which they have left such glorious 
 examples. The roll of those who suffered open violence for 
 the faith closes with 1745, but not then ended the tale of 
 those who were faithful even unto death. 
 
 For one hundred years more (until 1829) did Irish 
 Catholics submit to the privation of every worldly advantage 
 rather than abandon their faith,"^ “ accounting all things as 
 dross that they might gain Christ.” Nay, even at a later 
 date, when in 1847 famine and pestilence smote the land ; 
 when “our skin was burnt as in an oven by reason of the 
 violence of the famine ; when the tongue of the suckling child 
 stuck to the roof of his mouth for thirst ; when the little ones 
 asked for bread and there was none to break it to them, and 
 they breathed out their souls on the breasts of their mothers ; ” 
 when it might truly be said “ it was better with them that were 
 slain by the sword than with them that died with hunger;” 
 and when the generous people of England, of France, of 
 Italy, and of every other Christian land sent abundant alms 
 to our famishing people, there were found in some districts of 
 Ireland men base enough to use hunger as an instrument of 
 torture to make the poor forswear their religion, who offered 
 food and clothing as the price of apostacy, and tempted our 
 
 * “ Manum siiam misit hostis ad omnia desiderabilia ejus.” 
 
XVI 
 
 TREFACE. 
 
 Starving peasants to barter, like Esau, their birthright of faith 
 for a mess of potage. And there were found hundreds, I 
 might say thousands, — old men, and weak women, and tender 
 children, whose names, unrecorded here, are registered in 
 heaven, — who spurned the temptation, as their ancestors had 
 done before them, turned fainting from the food that was the 
 wages of sin, and purchased an eternal kingdom by a death of 
 hunger, imitating him who “chose rather to be afflicted with 
 the people of God than to have the pleasure of sin for a 
 time,” because like him “ they looked to the reward.” And 
 others there were who, when called upon by the representatives 
 of that alien Church, which for three centuries had sought in 
 vain to bring them into its fold, either to send their children 
 to schools of error or to abandon the occupation of the land 
 on which they lived, hesitated not, but left home and country 
 and all that made life dear, and became dwellers in a strange 
 land. Truly they remembered “ that we have not here a 
 lasting city, but we seek one that is to come ; for they that do 
 these things signify that they seek a country, and that they 
 desire a better — that is to say, a heavenly country.” 
 
 It cannot then be doubtful that the brief record of those 
 who suffered for the Catholic faith in Ireland will be welcome 
 to their descendants ; nor will they be without interest even 
 for strangers and members of another Church. The age of 
 strife and religious persecution is past : the descendants of the 
 persecutors and the persecuted are now citizens of a common 
 country, and can respect the noble deeds of all her former 
 children. The valour and endurance of her martial sons are 
 a subject of pride, whether displayed in the defence of Lon- 
 donderry or of Limerick, at Clontarf or Benburb. Ear more 
 does the record of undeserved sufferings heroically endured 
 for conscience’ sake claim the respect of all ; to none can it be 
 ungrateful, save to those, if any such there be, who would 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XVll 
 
 renew the persecutions which caused them. Of course these 
 Memorials have a deeper interest for those who are of the 
 household of the faith, — for the sons of those who for the 
 faith 
 
 Spared neither land nor gold, 
 
 Nor son, nor wife, nor limb, nor life. 
 
 In the brave days of old,” — 
 
 for those who now fill the posts in the Church once occupied 
 by martyrs. To them, and to their predecessors, may I apply 
 the words addressed after the French Revolution to the 
 glorious clergy of France : — 
 
 “ Hail, venerable priests of the Roman Catholic Church! 
 You have, indeed, suffered much, but you have not yet come 
 to the city of the living God and the company of the angels, 
 where the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has glorified 
 those whom He called in persecution and justified by 
 the shedding of blood for the faith. Let us strew a few 
 flowers on the tombs of our martyrs. Hail, you who were 
 miglity in war, and fought with the old serpent ! O 
 glorious confessors of our God and His Christ, to whom 
 it was given not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for 
 Him, — you who endured so much ignominy, who as exiles 
 trod the narrow way of the cross amidst the applause of 
 heaven and the wonder of the earth, — behold me at your feet ! 
 How beautiful are the feet of those who were witnesses to 
 God even unto the ends of the earth ! And you, who, con- 
 temning the tempest and the swelling waves, ceased not in- 
 trepidly to cast your nets, — you who, placed, as it were, 
 in the fiery furnace, continued to bless God, to do good to 
 men, to guard your flocks, — you, burning and shining lights, 
 who, when you might no longer be as a light placed on a 
 candlestick to shine to all in the house, sought to gather as 
 
XVlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 many as you might under the bushel where you were hidden, 
 as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, — sacred 
 leaven which preserved the whole body from perversion, — you 
 blessed priests, to whom the Lord gave the spirit of heroic 
 endurance in the midst of dangers, — hail ! true soldiers of 
 Christ ! Hail ! holy priests, worthy of double honour ! 
 Praise be to God who gave to you this victory, through Christ 
 our Lord. Happy persecution which brought you such a 
 reward ! Happy prisons through which you reached the 
 heavenly palaces ! Happy death which gave you eternal life ! 
 Holy fathers, glorious brothers, who now joyfully stand 
 around the throne of the Lamb, look down from heaven 
 and bring help to your brethren, your flocks, your country- 
 men. We are still in the strife, whilst you have attained the 
 happy rest. Aid us by your prayers.’^* 
 
 Arvisenet, Manual. Sacer. 
 
IXDEX OF PEIXCIPAL WOEKS EEFEEEED TO. 
 
 I HAVE thought that some of my younger readers would like to 
 have a short account of the principal works of old authors here 
 quoted, with a note of where they may be found. I may here 
 point out that the plan I have observed is to give wherever 
 possible the “Memorials'” in the exact words of the original 
 writers from whom they are derived. This plan has the ad- 
 vantage, not only of enabling the reader to judge for himself, 
 but of presenting a more lively and truthful picture than any 
 modern resumt could give ; it tells the reader, not only the 
 facts, but how those facts affected contemporaries, and how 
 they judged them, and thus furnishes a lively picture of the 
 times — a record not only of the actions, but of the thoughts 
 and feelings of the men of those days. I need hardly point out 
 that the language of those old writers is not always that which 
 we should use : thus they designate as sectaries and heretics 
 those whom we are accustomed to call “ our dissentino* 
 brethren but it would be absurd to make those who were 
 fleeing into the wilderness before the exterminating sword of 
 the Cromwellians speak of them as “ erring brethren.” 
 Time heals wounds and obliterates animosities. I have let 
 the men of old speak their own thoughts in their own lan- 
 guage, as we do ours. 
 
XX 
 
 INDEX OF PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO. 
 
 Annales Ordinis Minorum. Auctore LucaWaddingo. Eom8e,1731. 
 Wadding’s well-knovrn annals of his own order. This work is to be 
 found in all our great libraries, as the British Museum, Trinity 
 College, Maynooth College, &c. 
 
 Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, quibus accessit syllabus eorum qui ex 
 eodem ordine pro fide Christ! fortiter occubuerunt. Eomse, 1806. This 
 is the revised and continued edition, by Thisboralea, of the work by 
 Wadding. It is in Trinity College, &c. 
 
 Acta Sanctorum. Colgan. Lovanii, 1645. The preface gives an 
 account of the death of Fathers Fleming and Ward, two of the com- 
 pilers. It is in the British Museum, Trinity College, &c. 
 
 Hibernia Dominicana. De Burgo. Col Agrippinse, 1762. This 
 well-known work is in all our public and many of our private libraries. 
 
 Monumenta Dominicana. Fonseca. Eomse, 1665. This is not an 
 uncommon work ; I have myself a copy. 
 
 Historise CatholicsB Compendium. Auctore O’Sullevano Bearro. 
 Ulissiponi, 1621. The original is in the British Museum, Trinity 
 College, &c. The reprint of 1850 is to be had easily. 
 
 Eelatio Persecutionis Hiberniae. Auctore Dominico a Eosario 
 (O’Dalj). And Hist. Gerald. Ulissip., 1655. Is in the British 
 Museum, Trinity Library, &c. A translation of it by Father Meehan 
 was published by Dufiy in 1847. 
 
 Propugnaculum CatholicsB Veritatis, etc. Auctore E. P. F. Antonio 
 Bruodino. Pragae, 1669. Is in Maynooth library. 
 
 De Eegno Hiberniae, a Petro Lombardo. Lovanii, 1632. Is in the 
 British Museum, &c. 
 
 Lyra sive Anacephalosis Hibern. Auctore T. Carve. Sulzbaci, 
 1666. Is in the British Museum, &c. 
 
 Eelatio Viridica Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Minorum. Auctore 
 E. P. le Marchant, 1651. I have seen this very curious account of the 
 Franciscan province of Ireland at that time only in the Bollandists' 
 library, Brussels. 
 
 Analecta Sacra Hova et Mira de Eebus Catholicorum in Hibernia 
 pro" Fide etEeligione gestis. Auctore N.Philadelpho (Dr. David Eothe, 
 Bishop of Ossorj). Coloniae, 1617. And Processus Martyrialis, etc., 
 by the same author. The first printed in 1617, the second in 1619. The 
 first is a general account of the history of the time ; the second con- 
 tains a catalogue and lives of those who up to that date had suflfered 
 for the faith. The first exists in the Bollandists’, Louvain, and 
 
INDEX OF PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO. 
 
 XXI 
 
 Antwerp libraries, and a copy is in tbe possession of his Eminence 
 Cardinal Cullen. Of the second I only know three copies — one in the 
 Bollandists’ library, one in the library of Louvain university, and the 
 third in MS. in my possession, for which I am indebted to the kind- 
 ness of the Eev. T. O’Hea. 
 
 Societas Jesu usque ad Sanguinem, etc. Tanner. Pragse, 1675. Tlds 
 volume of lives of the Jesuits of these countries who suffered for the 
 faith is to be found in the British Museum and some of our other 
 libraries. 
 
 Collections towards illustrating the Biography of Members of the 
 Society of Jesus. Exeter, 1838. By Dr. Oliver. This work is to be 
 found in most libraries. 
 
 Persecutio Hiberniae. By the Irish Seminary of Seville. Printed 
 1619. I am indebted for my knowledge of this work, which is in the 
 library of S. Isidore’s, Borne, to Dr. Moran. 
 
 Sanctorale Cisterciensum. Valladolid, 1613. Eor references to 
 this, which is to be found in the private library of Propaganda, Borne, 
 I am also indebted to Dr. Moran. 
 
 Historical Beview of the Civil Wars in Ireland. Curry. Dublin, 
 1775. Is in all our libraries. 
 
 Noticias Historicas de las tres florentissimas Provincias del Celeste 
 Orden de la Sma. Trinidad. A Fr. Domingo Lopez, &c. Madrid, 
 1714. This curious, but I fear apochryphal work, is to be found in 
 the library of Maynooth College, and in the private library of 
 Propaganda. 
 
 Theologia Tripartita. Ardsdekin. Antverpiee, 1686. At the end is 
 an account of Dr. Talbot, Dr. Plunket, and some others. It is a 
 common book, and in all our libraries. 
 
 Pii Antistitis Icon, sive de Vita et Morte Beverendi D. Erancisci 
 Kirwan, Alladensis Episcopi. Authore loanne Lynchaeo, Archidiacono 
 Tuamensi. Maclovii, 1649. The copy in the Grenville Library, in the 
 British Museum, is the only one known to exist. On the fly-leaf is 
 written by B. Heber, to whom the book belonged, “ I believe this to be 
 the rarest volume in existence connected with the history of Ireland, 
 and the portrait of Bishop Kirwan prefixed is totally unknown.” The 
 biographer, John Lynch, titular Archdeacon of Tuam, fled out of 
 Ireland into France after the surrender of Galway to Cromwell, and is 
 the author of the scarce and well-known work, “ Cambrensis Eversus.” 
 A translation by Father Meehan was printed by Duffy in 1848. 
 
 c 
 
XXll INDEX OF PRINCIPAL WORKS REFERRED TO. 
 
 Epilcgus ChronologisB exponens succincte conventus et fundationes 
 Sacri Ordinis Predicatorum in Pegno Hibernise. Lovanii, 1706. Fr. 
 loanne O’Heyn, O.P. It gives a very short account of each convent, 
 and its most remarkable alumni. The book is scarce ; the only copy I 
 know of in Ireland is in the library of the Dominican convent, Galway. 
 
 Threnodia Hiberno-Catholica, sive Planctus Universalis totius Cleri 
 et PopuliEegni Hibernise, per F. M. Morisonum, Ord. Min. Strict. Obs. 
 (Eniponti, 1659. Exists in the Grenville Library, British Museum. 
 I do not know of any other copy. 
 
 I need hardly mention here, as they are so well known, — 
 
 Dr. Eenehan’s Collections on Church History, edited by Eev. D. 
 McCarthy. Dublin, 1861. 
 
 Dr. Moran’s Lives of Archbishops of Dublin, Life of Dr. Plunket, 
 History of Persecutions, &c. 
 
 Father Meehan’s valuable translation of O’Sullivan Lynch and 
 others, and his last work. Flight of the Earls. 
 
 Father Cogan’s Diocese of Meath. 
 
 The various calendars of State Papers published by the Eecord 
 Office. 
 
Hitnramjts in §ni:pnMan f itarj, §ots{1s. 
 
 Ko. 2307. A Catalogue of the Martyrs, &c., of the Society of Jesus, 
 quoted as “Catalog. Soc. Jesu.” It is a catalogue of all those of the 
 society who had recently (about 1700) suffered for the faith. 
 
 No. 2159. Magna Supplicia a Persecutoribus aliquot Catholicorum 
 in Ibernia sumpta. Written about 1600. A very curious collection of 
 contempory anecdotes. 
 
 No. 2167. Compendium Martyrii Reverendi Cornelii O’Dovanii. 
 An account of the martyrdom of Bishop Dovany in 1612, written by a 
 contemporary. Bound up with the same is a curious letter, dated 15th 
 April, 1612, from the Eev. Father Fleming, of the order of S. Dominick, 
 dated from the convent of Dundalk. This is curious, as showing that at 
 that date the Dominican convent of Carlingford had been transferred 
 to Dundalk. 
 
 No. 3195. De Provincia Hibernisc Ordinis Sancti Francisci Tractatus 
 a Eev. Donato Money. Anno 1627. This account of the Franciscan 
 province of Ireland has been frequently referred to, and a good part of 
 it published in Duffi/s Magazine by Father Meehan. 
 
 No. 3824. Lettres des Jesuites Anglais, or Correspondance des 
 Peres Jesuites Irlandais. This is the collection of letters from Irish 
 Jesuits and others, giving the life of Henry Slingsby, which my readers 
 will find under the year 1641. 
 
Hlavtnrs jmtr C0itfessors 
 
 IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 Anno 1530. 
 
 It had frequently been remarked as extraordinary that the 
 early annals of the Irish Chureh did not reeord a single 
 martyr : such was the gentleness and docility of the pagans 
 of Ireland of the time of S. Patrick that their conversion 
 was effected without provoking any violence^ or the death of 
 a single missionary. But the history of the Irish Church 
 was not to be as peaceable to the end. Heresy smote where 
 paganism had spared, and the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries saw the Church of Ireland purpled in the blood 
 of her martyrs. 
 
 King Henry VIII. having plunged England into the guilt 
 of heresy and schism, resolved to make Ireland a sharer in 
 the same fate. 
 
 According!}^, the death of Archbishop Allen in 1534 having 
 caused a vacancy in the see of Dublin, Henry appointed, in 
 March, ] 535, Doctor George Browne, an English Augustinian 
 friar, to the vacant bishopric ; and, without any confirmation 
 from Rome, he was consecrated by Cranmer, and received 
 from him, in compliance with the schismatical Act lately 
 passed in the English Parliament, the pallium and other 
 insignia of his dignity. 
 
 This schismatical intruder into the see of Dublin found a 
 zealous coadjutor in the then Bishop of Meath, Doctor Edward 
 Staples, an Englishman, who had been appointed to the see 
 
2 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 of Meath* in 1530 by Pope Clement VII., at the request of 
 Henry VIII. By their advice a Parliament was convened in 
 1536, which, after the spiritual proctors had been illegally 
 deprived of the right of voting, and great menaces on the 
 part of the King had been used, at length passed an Act 
 vesting the supremacy of the Church in the King. As Henry 
 was thus proclaimed head of the Church, it was deemed 
 necessary to secure him a tribute from the ecclesiastical 
 property. Hence an Act was passed giving him the first- 
 fruits of every benefice and the twentieth part of the profits 
 of all spiritual benefices. 
 
 The same Parliament, which thus at the dictation of the 
 King waged war against our faith, also waged war against our 
 national usages, and even against our existence as a people. 
 Thus we find one Act passed for encouraging “ the English 
 order, habit, and language,^^ whilst it prescribed that spiritual 
 preferment should be given ^‘'only to such as could speak 
 English, unless after four proclamations in the next market 
 town such could not be found.^^ Should any Irishman per- 
 chance be promoted to any benefice, there was an oath im- 
 posed, that he would endeavour to learn and teach the 
 English tongue to all and every being under his rule, and to 
 bid the beads in the English tongue, and preach the word of 
 God in English, if he can preach.^^ These legislators 
 evidently believed it impossible to make the Irish embrace 
 heresy unless they could make them cease to be Irish.f But 
 it was one thing to have laws passed by a timorous Parlia- 
 ment, it was another to enforce their observance. In a 
 large part of Ireland, inhabited by the original Irish, the 
 authority of Parliament was little respected, and even in the 
 pale the clergy and people appear to have very little regarded 
 the Parliamentary decrees which transferred the supremacy 
 
 * Staples really was Bishop of Meath, having been duly appointed 
 and consecrated, although he afterwards apostatized ; but Browne 
 never was Archbishop of Dublin, never having been lawfully elected or 
 consecrated. He was, as he himself said, “made (archbishop) by the 
 Kincj." See his letter quoted in Dr. Moran’s “ Archbishops of Dublin,” 
 p. 4. t See Dr. Moran, chap. I. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 3 
 
 from the Pope to the King. Except Browne and Staples, no 
 bishops appear to have leaned towards the new opinions^ as 
 they were called ; and in 1538 we find Browne writing to 
 Cromwell that not even in the diocese of Dublin can I 
 persuade or induce onye, either religious or secular, sithens 
 my comyng over, ons to preache the word of God, or the just 
 title of our moste illustrious prince.^^* But the most urgent 
 desire of Henry was not the change of the religious opinions 
 of the people, but the plunder of the wealth of the Church. In 
 1536 the first grant of religious houses was made to the 
 King by the authority of the Irish Parliament. This grant 
 comprised three hundred and seventy monasteries. In the 
 following year, by virtue of a commission under the Great 
 Seal of England, eight abbeys were suppressed, and in 1538 
 a further order was issued for the suppression of all the 
 monasteries and abbeys. In some cases the superiors of these 
 religious houses surrendered without opposition the charge 
 entrusted unto them ; but whenever they could not be induced 
 by threats or promises to resign their monasteries to the Crown, 
 severer measures were resorted to; and oneinstance is especially 
 recorded of Manus O^Fihily, the last Abbot of S. Mary^s,' 
 Thurles, who, on a refusal to comply with the wishes of the 
 Crown, was carried a prisoner to Dublin, and subjected to a 
 long and painful imprisonment.f 
 
 I cannot better describe the persecution of the Catholics 
 than inthewwds of the Four Masters (ad an. 1537) : — 
 heresy and a new error broke out in England, the eflPects of 
 pride, vain-glory, avarice, sensual desire, and the prevalence 
 of a variety of scientific and philosophical speculations, so that 
 the people of England went into opposition to the Pope and 
 to Rome. At the same time they followed a variety of 
 opinions, and, adopting the old law of Moses, after the 
 manner of the Jewish people, they gave the title of head of 
 the Church of God, during his reign, to the King. There 
 were enacted by the King and Council new laws and statutes 
 after their own will. They ruined the orders who were por- 
 
 * “Diocese of Meath,” p. 90. 
 
 t Grose’s “ Irish Antiquities,” ii. 85, quoted by Dr. Moran. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 mitted to hold worldly possessions — viz.^ monks, canons 
 regular, nuns, and Brethren of the Cross ; and also the four 
 mendicant orders — the Franciscans, the Preachers, the Car- 
 melites, and the Augustinians. The possessions and livings of 
 all these were taken up for the King. They broke into the 
 monasteries ; they sold their roofs and bells, so there was not 
 a monastery from Arann of the Saints to the Iccian Sea that 
 was not broken and scattered, except only a few in Ireland, 
 which escaped the notice and attention of the English. They 
 further burned and broke the famous images, shrines, and 
 relics of Ireland and England. After that they burned, in 
 like manner, the celebrated image of Mary, which was at 
 Ath-Trium, which used to perform wonders and miracles, and 
 at which were healed the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the 
 sufferers from all diseases ; and the staflP of Jesus, which was 
 in Dublin, performing miracles from the days of S. Patrick 
 down to that time, and which was in the hands of Christ 
 whilst He was among men. They also made archbishops and 
 bishops for themselves, and, although great was the persecution 
 of the Homan emperors against the Church, it is not probable 
 that so great a persecution as this ever came upon the world ; 
 so it is impossible to tell or narrate its description, unless it 
 should be told by him who saw it."’^ Under the year 1540 we 
 shall meet with a particular instance, recorded by the same 
 annalist, of the martyrdom of some of their own order. 
 
 Anno 1539. 
 
 The Spanish writer Lopez gives under this year and 1545 
 the martyrdom of a large number of Trinitarian fathers, but 
 as there is great doubt as to the accuracy of those accounts 
 in Lopez, I shall not here insert them. 
 
 Anno 1540.— FBANCIS CAN FATHERS OF THE 
 MONASTERY OF MONAGHAN. 
 
 ^^The English, in every place throughout Ireland Avhere 
 they established their power, persecuted and banished the 
 
IN THE IIEIGN OP ELIZABETH. 
 
 5 
 
 nine religious orders, and particularly they destroyed the 
 monastery of Monaghan, and beheaded the guardian and a 
 number of the friars.^^ — Armais of Four Masters at this year. 
 
 Anno 1560. — WILLIAM WALSH, Bishop op Meath^ 
 Confessor. 
 
 During the reign of Henry VIII. Meath had been dis- 
 graced by an apostate bishop. Dr. Edward Staples, an 
 Englishman, had been appointed in 1530, at the request of 
 Henry VIII., Bishop of Meath. As to the early years of his 
 episcopate little is known. In 1534 he fled to England, in 
 order to escape the anger of Silken Thomas, then in rebellion, 
 to whom he had made himself obnoxious. In 1535 he re- 
 turned to the diocese of Meath, deeply infected with the 
 principles of the Reformation, and from that time he was a 
 willing assistant of Dr. Browne, the intruder into the see of 
 Dublin, in the work of despoiling the monasteries and endea- 
 vouring to force the new heresy on the Irish people. 
 
 Mary ascended the throne in 1553, and in April, 1554, Dr. 
 Dowdall, Archbishop of Armagh, lately returned from banish- 
 ment, and Dr. W^illiam Walsh, received a eommission to pro- 
 ceed against immoral ecclesiastics, and to depose such as were 
 married and impenitent. By their authority, Edward Staples 
 was, in June of the same year, removed from the diocese of 
 Meath, deprived of his beneflce, and suspended from all 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and this Dr. William Walsh was 
 afterw'ards duly appointed Bishop of Meath. 
 
 Sir James Ware says that he was a native of Waterford, 
 but another authority, who certainly had better opportunities 
 of information, namely, John alias Malachy Hortrey, a 
 Cistereian monk of the Abbey of Holy Cross, in a manu- 
 seript treatise entitled De Cistertiensium Hibernorum Viris 
 Illustribus, states that William Walsh was born at Dunboyne. 
 county Meath, joined the Cistercian order, and lived in the 
 Abbey of Bective, previous to its suppression. Whatever 
 doubt there may be about the place of Jjis birth and his 
 
6 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 early history, there is none whatever as to his eminent 
 virtues, distinguished abilities, and the heroic fortitude with 
 which he bore numerous and prolonged sufferings for the 
 faith. His unbending orthodoxy and opposition to the inno- 
 vations of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. marked him out for 
 promotion after the accession of Mary, and accordingly we 
 find him associated with the zealous Primate, Dr. Dowdall, in 
 the commission to drive from the sanctuary all such as were 
 faithless to their trust. A conge d’elire was issued to the 
 Archdeacon and clergy of Meath for the election of Dr. 
 Walsh, and, after having received the royal assent and the 
 confirmation of the Holy See, he addressed the following 
 petition to Mary and Philip : — 
 
 Petition of William Walsh, stating that he was elected 
 bishop by the chapter and clergy of the bishopric of Meath, 
 and had for his consecration their Graces’ letters patent; 
 but, not having his lawful consecration from the Universal 
 Catholic 'Church like other bishops, he could not with good 
 conscience be consecrated ; and stating that he was sent into 
 Ireland at his own cost, by commission, to deprive certain 
 married bishops and priests, and was so occupied in execution 
 of this office that he could not attend to his consecration. 
 He therefore prays a grant of the temporalities of the see 
 from the date of the deprivation of the late incumbent, which 
 was the feast of SS. Peter and Paul last past.” 
 
 On the receipt of this petition the King and Queen wrote 
 to the Lord Deputy, the Chancellor, and the Council of Ire- 
 land, thus : — 
 
 ‘^^We send you herein enclosed a supplication exhibited to 
 us by our loving subject Dr. Walsh, Bishop of Meath elect. 
 He desires the temporalities of the bishopric from the time 
 of- the deprivation of the late incumbent. Our pleasure is 
 that you shall give order to make forth an utterlemagne under 
 our Great Seal, whereby he may enjoy the whole temporalities 
 of the bishopric from the time of the amotion or deprivation 
 of the late incumbent.” — Oct. I8th, and 2nd Mary and 
 
 Philip. 
 
 Dr. Walsh was consecrated about the close of 1554, and 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 7 
 
 immediately applied himself with zeal and energy to reform 
 abuses^ and to heal the wounds which during the last two 
 reigns had been inflicted on faith, morals, and discipline. The 
 period of his usefulness was, however, destined to be brief, and 
 he had time merely to stimulate his priests and to fortify his 
 diocese when the gathering storm burst over the Irish 
 Church, and sacrificed the Bishop of Meath amongst its first 
 and noblest victims. Queen Mary died in 1558, and was 
 succeeded by Elizabeth, who at once publicly embraced the 
 reformed tenets, and proceeded to have them enforced on all. 
 In 1560 an Act was passed, under the deputy ship of the 
 Earl of Suffolk, which ordered all ecclesiastical persons, 
 judges, officers, justices, mayors, and all other the Queen^s 
 officers, to take the oath of supremacy under penalty of for- 
 feiture, and also enacted that if any person should, by writ- 
 ing, printing, teaching, preaching, by express words, deed, or 
 act, maintain any foreign spiritual jurisdiction, he should for 
 the first offence forfeit all his goods and suffer one yearns 
 imprisonment, for the second offence should incur the 
 penalty of praemunire, and for the third be deemed guilty of 
 high treason, i^nd Eliz, cap. i.) 
 
 It was now the fidelity of Dr. Walsh was tested to the 
 utmost. Had he, like a few of his contemporaries, sacrificed 
 conscience to expediency, worldly comfort and ephemeral 
 honour were soon to have been his portion. But he felt he 
 had a higher authority to obey than Queen Elizabeth, and ' 
 hence he repudiated her pretensions to rule the Church, and 
 guarded his flock, even at the peril of his life, against her par- 
 liamentary creed. Ware thus narrates the event : — 
 
 After the return of the Earl of Sussex to Ireland, letters 
 came from her Majesty signifying her pleasure for a general 
 meeting of the clergy of Ireland, and the establishment of 
 the Protestant religion through the several dioceses of this 
 kingdom. Among the bishops, the Bishop of Meath was 
 very zealous for the Bomish Church ; not content with what 
 offers her Majesty had proposed, but very much enraged 
 (after the assembly had dispersed themselves), he fell to preach 
 against the Common Prayer in his diocese at Trim, which was 
 
8 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 newly come over and ordered to be observed, for winch the 
 Lord Lieutenant confined him till he acquainted her Majesty 
 with it, who sent over her orders to clap him up in prison. 
 Within a few months after, persisting in the same mind, he 
 was deposed, and the bishopric of Meath was about two years 
 vacant, till, by her Majesty^s provision, Hugh Brady became 
 WalsVs successor. 
 
 On the 16th July, 1565, Adam Loftus, Protestant Arch- 
 bishop of Armagh, writes to Sir William Cecil : — 
 
 The Xllltbof this monthe by vertu of our commission for 
 cawsis ecclesiastycall, we committed to the castell of Dublyn, 
 doctor Welcke, late byssippe of Methe, there, to remayne 
 iintill the queenes majesties pleasure were knowne. He 
 refused the othe and to answer such articles as we required 
 of him ; and besides that, ever sithens the last parliament, he 
 hath manifestly contemned and openly showed himself to be 
 a mislyker of all the queenes majesties proceedings ; he openly 
 protested before all the people the same day he was before 
 us, that he would never communicate or be present (by his 
 will) where the service should be ministrid, for it was against 
 his conscience and (as he thought) against God^s woord. If 
 it shall seeme good to your honour and the rest of her 
 majesties most honourable counseyle, in myne opinion, it wer 
 fit he showld be sent to England, and peradventure by con- 
 ferringe with the lerned bishoppes there, he might be brought 
 to sum conformitie ; he is one of great creadit amongst his 
 countrimen, and uppon whome (as tutchinge cawsis of re- 
 ligion) thay wholy depend.^^t 
 
 As no pretext could be devised for leading him to the 
 'scaffold, he once more received the culpriPs chains (he bore 
 
 * “ Ware’s Annals,” 1560. I need hardly say it was only the tempo- 
 ralities of the see of Meath which were given to Brady. William 
 Walsh continued lawful Bishop of Meath till his death. 
 
 t All his biographers agree that Dr. Walsh passed between twelve 
 and thirteen years in prison ; and he escaped about Christmas, 1572. 
 He would therefore appear to have been imprisoned a first time in 
 1560, and more definitely consigned to prison in 1565. — See Henriquez 
 and his .Epitaph ap. Moran and Cogan. 
 
IN THE reign of ELIZABETH. 
 
 9 
 
 the scars of them to his tomb), and was reconductcd to his 
 former prison ; this was ^^a subterraneous dungeon, damp and 
 noisome, — not a ray of light penetrated thither; and for thir- 
 teen years this was his unvarying abode.^^ During all that 
 time his food was of the coarsest kind, and, with the exception 
 of rare intervals, when the intercession of some influential 
 friends obtained a momentary relaxation, he was allowed no 
 occupation that could cheer the tedium of his imprisonment. 
 In all this lengthened martyrdom prayer was his resource, 
 and, as he himself subsequently avowed, he oftentimes passed 
 whole days and nights overwhelmed with heavenly consola- 
 tions, so that his dungeon seemed transformed into a paradise 
 of delights. To preclude the possibility of idleness, he pro- 
 cured ^a bed made of twisted cords, and whensoever his mind 
 was fatigued ^ith prayer, he 'applied himself to untie those 
 cords, and often was he well wearied with the exertion before 
 he could reunite them to compose himself to sleep. 
 
 His persecutors, overcome by his constancy, and finding 
 his fervour in spiritual contemplation a continual reproach 
 to their own wickedness, at length, about Christmas, 1572, 
 connived at his escape. Sailing from our shores, his only 
 regret was to abandon the field of his spiritual labours, and 
 to leave his flock defenceless amidst the many enemies that 
 now compassed its destruction. He says himself (letter of 
 5th July, 1573), I was snatched from that place by the 
 liberality and care of my friends, and having met with the 
 opportunity of a ship of Brittany, I threw myself into it, not 
 heeding my age, which was above sixty years, or my state of 
 health, deeming it safer to trust my life to the danger of the 
 sea than again to experience the cruelty of the enemies of the 
 Catholic religion.^^ Dor sixteen days he was tossed on the 
 waves by a violent storm, and was at length driven in ship- 
 wreck on the coast of France. Weighed down with the in- 
 firmities which he had contracted in prison, and with the 
 burthen of more than sixty years, he was compelled to remain 
 for six months unknown and abandoned in Nantes. At 
 length, receiving aid from the nuneio, he proceeded to Paris, 
 and thence to Spain. The closing years of his life were spent 
 
10 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 in Alcala.* A noble Spanish lady received him into her 
 house^ and attended him as though he were an angel from 
 heaven. The sores which yet remained from his dungeon 
 chains she kissed as the trophies of his martyrdom. She 
 would allow none but herself to wait on him^ and on her 
 knees she usually dressed his wounds and ministered to his 
 wants. From this asylum of charity, thus providentially pre- 
 pared for him, he passed to the convent of the Cistercian 
 fathers in the same city, and there, on the 4th of January, 
 1577, he happily closed his earthly life, which, as many 
 attested, he had never sullied by any stain of mortal sin.f 
 His remains were placed in the Collegiate Church of Saint 
 Secundinus, and a monument erected over them by the 
 Bishop of Grenada, with the following inscription : — 
 
 “ Here lieth William Walsh, a Cistercian monk, and Bishop 
 of Meath, who, after thirteen years’ imprisonment, and many 
 labours for the Catholic faith, at last died in exile at Alcala, 
 on the day before the nones of January, 1577.” 
 
 He is held in veneration by his Cistercian brothers as a 
 holy martyr in the cause of the Catholic faith, and his 
 memory lives in benediction in the diocese he adorned. { 
 
 Anno 1565.— CONOR MacCARTHY, ROGER Mac- 
 
 CONGATL, AND FERGAL WARD, Franciscan 
 Friars. § 
 
 The occurrence in which these confessors suffered is un- 
 doubted, but there is a slight confusion as to the name of the 
 second. In this year the heretical soldiers attacked the 
 
 * Alcala, called by the Romans Complutum. It was here Cardinal 
 Ximenes had the Complutensian Polyglot, as it was called, printed. 
 
 t “ Con grandissima ragione fu questo stimato martire e ricevuto 
 per santo come quello che in tutto il decorso di sna vita mai con pec- 
 cato grave aveva macchiata I’innocenza battessimale.” — Martyrolog. 
 Cisterc. MS. ap. Moran. 
 
 X The life of Dr. Walsh I have taken entirely from his two learned 
 modern biographers, Dr. Moran, in his introduction to the “History 
 of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin,” and Rev. A. Cogan, diocese of 
 ]\Icath, where the reader will find the original authorities referred to. 
 
 § The only notices I have found of these confessors is in Luke Wad- 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 11 
 
 convent of the Franciscans in Armagh, and called upon such 
 of the brethren as had not effected their escape to renounce 
 the Catholic religion, and acknowledge the Queen^s supre- 
 macy. Upon their refusal, they were bound and most cruelly 
 flogged to make them abjure, but in vain, and the soldiers at 
 length left them half dead.^^ This is the first instance of 
 military floggings for religion’s sake ; but from this date they 
 never ceased in Ireland until the present century, many inno- 
 cent Catholics having been flogged to death in 1798 : amongst 
 others, two who died under the stripes in the barrack of 
 Dundalk. 
 
 Anno 1568.— Rev. DAVID WOLF, S.J. 
 
 The life of this remarkable confessor has been so well and 
 ably written by Dr. Moran that, with the kind permission of 
 the author, we give it in his words. Father Wolf is enu- 
 merated in the catalogue of martyrs and confessors given by 
 Dr. Routh in his Analecta.” 
 
 One of the most remarkable men who, during the first 
 years of Elizabeth’s reign, laboured in our Irish Church to 
 gather together the scattered stones of the sanctuary was 
 Father David Wolf, a member of the Order of S. Ignatius. 
 A native of Limerick, he spent seven years in Rome, im- 
 bibing the full spirit of his order, under the immediate 
 guidance of its holy founder and S. Francis Borgia ; and in 
 August, 1560, he was sent by the Holy See, with all the 
 privileges of apostolic commissary, to confirm his country- 
 men in the faith, amidst the impending persecutions of 
 
 ding’s “Scriptores Ordinis Minorum,”and his “Annales Ordinis Min.,” 
 ii. 1291. In the first passage their names are given as Conacius 
 Macuarta, Eogerus MacCongail, and Fergallus Bardens. In the 
 second passage Macuarta and MacCongail are not mentioned ; but the 
 sufferings of Fergallus Yardoeus and Henricus Femlamaidh are com- 
 memorated. Probably there were four who suffered. Apparently 
 Wadding has confounded Fergial Ward, who was hanged in 1577, 
 with the others, who wore thus scourged in 1565. See later, at the 
 year 1577. 
 
12 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Elizabeth. His chief care was to propose learned and 
 zealous men to fill the vacant sees of our island; and the 
 names of Richard Creagh of Armagh, Donald McConghail 
 of Raphoe, Eugene O’ Hart of Achonry, Maurice McBrian 
 of Emly, to omit many others, are a sure guarantee of the 
 fidelity with which he fulfilled this charge. 
 
 Father Wolf resided, for the most part, in his native 
 diocese; but his jurisdiction extended to the whole island, 
 and we find him incidentally referred to in contemporary 
 records as visiting the district of Tyrone, and again as 
 travelling through various dioceses, of Connaught and Ulster. 
 The English agents were filled with alarm at the presence in 
 the country of one who, by public acclamation, received the 
 title of papal nuncio ; and when, in 1561, Pope Pius IV. 
 invited Queen Elizabeth to send her representatives to the 
 Council of Trent, she absolutely refused, assigning as one of 
 the chief reasons for her displeasure that “ an Irishman 
 (Father Wolf) had been sent from Rome to Ireland to ex- 
 cite there disaffection against her crown.” So watchful were 
 the agents of the English government in pursuit of the Jesuit 
 father that he was for several years unable to enter within 
 the limits of the pale ; and we find him, when delegating his 
 jurisdiction for Dublin and its vicinity to Father Newman, in 
 1563, affirming that so many were the dangers which beset 
 his journey thither that he feared to visit that district. 
 
 Amongst the papers of the secret archives of the Vatican 
 there is one which was presented in 1560 to the Cardinal 
 Protector of Ireland, and which sketches the course to be 
 pursued by the agents of the Holy See whilst performing the 
 visitation of our island. A few extracts will suffice to prove 
 how full of responsibility and peril was the mission entrusted 
 to the disciple of S. Ignatius. His first care shall be to 
 visit the' Catholic leaders, and especially the four chief princes 
 of the kingdom, to commend, in the name of his Holiness, 
 their unflinching constancy and zeal, and to encourage them 
 to persevere in the defence of the Catholic faith.” The 
 bishops also were to be visited, “ to see if they resided in 
 their dioceses and instructed their flocks, if they were atten- 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 13 
 
 live to tlie due decorum of the sacred edifices, and vigilant in 
 selecting zealous and worthy ministers for the altar. As to 
 the clergy, he was to inquire into their manner of adminis- 
 tering the sacraments, and to afford them every aid, espe- 
 cially in administering the holy sacraments of confession and 
 \Communion, in preaching the word of truth, and in exhort- 
 ing their Catholic flocks to lead holy and Christian lives. 
 Should any heretical minister be found, the agent of Rome 
 was to guard the people against the contagion of his errors, 
 and, above all, to seek, in the spirit of charity, to bring him 
 back to the paths of truthr ^ He must also seek to establish 
 grammar-schools, supplying them with Catholic masters, and 
 thus remedy the great ignorance of the natives; admonishing 
 the parents to send their children to the schools, that thus 
 they may be instructed in literature and morality, and at the 
 same time acquire a meet knowledge of the saving truths of 
 faith.^^ If possible, some monasteries were to be established, 
 and exact discipline maintained ; hospitals, too, were to be 
 founded, and other places of refuge and succour for the 
 poor. 
 
 For these things, and for whatsoever else might be done, 
 no reward or recompense, even in the name of alms, was to 
 be received ; the salvation of souls alone was to be the moving 
 spring, and the reward of every fatigue. Should the glory of 
 God and the interest of religion require it, life itself was to 
 be risked ; but in this the laws of Christian prudence were to 
 be observed, and all undue temerity to be shunned. In fine, 
 the Holy See was to be made acquainted with the real state 
 of the Irish Church, the losses sustained by the Catholic 
 ^ faith, the perils to which religion was exposed, and the most 
 ‘ opportune aid and succours were to be pointed out that could 
 be granted to sustain the faithful in the dangers to which 
 they were exposed. 
 
 The course traced out in these instructions was exactly 
 pursued by Father Wolf, and before the close of this chapter 
 we shall have occasion to cite some of his letters, which, 
 whilst they disclose precious details regarding the condition 
 of our island, clearly demonstrate how indefatigable he was 
 
14 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 in his labours^ and how unceasingly he struggled to restore 
 our suffering Church to its primitive comeliness and fervour. 
 
 One of the chief wants of Ireland at this period was a place 
 of untainted instruction for Catholic youth. The monastic 
 schools had been swept away by the persecution of 
 Henry VIII.^ and now, in such districts as were accessible to 
 the English arms, no mere Irishman or Catholic could, with- 
 out risking liberty or life, seek to instruct his fellow-country- 
 men in the rudiments of literature and religion. To meet 
 this want, a brief was addressed by the Holy Father on 
 the 31st of May, 1564, to the newly-consecrated Primate, 
 Dr. Richard Creagh, and to Father David Wolf, empowering 
 them to erect schools wheresoever they should deem fit 
 throughout the kingdom of Ireland, and communicating to 
 such schools all the privileges of an university ; whilst, at the 
 same time, it was declared that these schools were necessary 
 for the establishment of due order, and for the maintenance 
 of the Catholic faith. Neither Dr. Creagh, however, nor 
 Father Wolf was allowed sufficient time to carry into effect 
 the wise designs of Rome. The history of Dr. Creagh’s im- 
 prisonment is well known. Father Wolf shared his suffer- 
 ings, being loaded with chains, and thrown into the dungeons 
 of Dublin Castle. On the 13th of March, 1568, a letter was 
 despatched from Rome to the nuncio in Madrid, instructing 
 him to employ all the Papal influence at that Court to pro- 
 cure, through the mediation of the Spanish monarch, the 
 liberation of these two ecclesiastics, whose labours in the 
 sacred cause of religion had already won for them the applause 
 of the whole Christian world. 
 
 We have been informed,^^ thus writes the sainted pontiff 
 Pius V., ^^that our venerable brother the Archbishop of 
 Armagh, who, as you are aware, is Primate of Ireland, has 
 been arrested by the English, and cast into prison in the 
 Tower of London ; and that our beloved son David, of the 
 Society of Jesus, is also closely confined by the same English 
 in the city of Dublin, both of them being treated with the 
 greatest severity. Their sufferings overwhelm us with afflic- 
 tion on account of their singular merits, and of their zeal for the 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 15 
 
 Catholic faith. And as it is our desire and our duty to suc- 
 cour them as far as is in our power, we know of no other 
 means for doing so than that our dearest son, his Catholic 
 Majesty, should employ his authority with the English Queen 
 in their behalf. You, therefore, will use every endeavour 
 with his Majesty to this effect, and you will urge, and request, 
 and solicit, in our name, his letters to his ambassador and to 
 the Queen, to obtain the liberation of these prisoners. Than 
 which favour none other could be at present more acceptable 
 to us. Given in Rome, at St. Peter^s, under the seal of the 
 Fisherman, this 13th day of March, 1568.^^ 
 
 The mediation of the Spanish Court, however, was without 
 effect ; and Father David was detained in the closest custody 
 till 1572, when he happily made his escape from Dublin 
 Castle, and, accompanied by Sir Eice Corbally and the son 
 of James Fitzmaurice, took refuge in Spain. Sir Peter 
 Carew, writing to the Privy Council in England, on 6th 
 February, 1573, characteristically remarks, James Fitz- 
 maurice hath sent his son with one David Wolf, an arrant 
 traitor, into Spain, to practise his old devices.^^ He soon, 
 however, returned to the former fields of his labours, and in 
 1575 we find him engaged once more in visiting and con- 
 soling the Catholics of Ireland. We shall conclude our 
 notice of this indefatigable and holy man with the words of 
 the author of ^^Cambrensis Eversus:^^ — I saw a dispensation 
 granted by David Wolf, of Limerick, to Eichard Lynch, a 
 citizen of Galway, grandfather to Nicholas Lynch, provincial 
 of the Irish Dominicans, who died at Eome about twenty 
 years ago, deeply regretted by his friends. The dispensation 
 was signed David Wolf, Apostolic Nuncio.^^* Orlandini 
 speaks of him in his History of the Society of Jesus I 
 have learned that he was a man of extraordinary piety, who 
 fearlessly denounced crime whenever it was committed. 
 
 * Nuncio. Perhaps when returning a second time to Ireland lie re- 
 ceived the title of nuncio ; it is probable, however, that he was only 
 commissary. He was commonly styled nuncio, even on his first 
 arrival, tliough he was certainly at that time only commissary apo- 
 stolic. 
 
16 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 When the whole eountry was embroiled in war, he took 
 refuge in the eastle of Chunoan,* on the borders of Thomond, 
 and of the county of Galway ; but when he heard that its 
 occupants lived by plunder, he scrupled any nourishment 
 from them, and soon after sickened and died/^ 
 
 We have no precise record of the year in which he died ; 
 but it seems to have been in 1578, as no mention is made 
 of him in the detailed correspondence of 1579 and the fol- 
 lowing years, during the eventful period of the second 
 Desmond War. The name David Wolf, sacerdos Hibernus, 
 occurs for the last time in a list transmitted by the Spanish 
 nuncio to Rome, on 3rd of June, 1578; and from this list 
 we learn that he was then living in Lisbon, supported by the 
 generous contributions of the Holy See. 
 
 Anno 1569. — DANIEL O’DUILLIAN, Eranctscan. 
 
 This martyr’s sufferings and triumph are related by Father 
 Mooney, in his ^^Provincise Hiberniie Descriptio,” in the 
 following words:— - 
 
 In the year 1569 (if I bo rightly informed as to the 
 datet) ^ certain brother Daniel O’Duillian, of the convent 
 of Youghal, very bravely overcame the tormentor. For 
 when one Captain Dudal (probably Dowdall) with his troop 
 were torturing him, by order of Lord Arthur Grey, the 
 Viceroy, first they took him to the gate which is called 
 Trinity Gate, and tied his hands behind his back, and, having 
 fastened heavy stones to his feet, thrice pulled him up with 
 
 ^ Now Cluain Dubhain or Clonoan, an old castle close to the boun- 
 dary of the county Galway, and not far from Rockvale, in the parish 
 of Kilkeedy, barony of Inchiquin, county Clare. 
 
 t In this and many other instances there was a difficulty in ascer- 
 taining the exact date, the witnesses who narrated the events a few 
 years afterwards recollecting the circumstances well enough, but in the 
 absence of all almanacks finding it difficult to state with precision the 
 year. Thus, even as to such public and notorious events as the death 
 of Archbishop O’Brien and the execution of Archbishop O’Hurlcy 
 the year is dififerently stated by different writers. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH, 
 
 17 
 
 ropes from the earth to the top of the tower, and left him 
 hanging there for a space. At length, after many insults 
 and tortures, he was hung with his head down and his feet 
 in the air, at the mill near the monastery; and, hanging 
 there a long time, whilst he lived he never uttered an 
 impatient word, but, like a good Christian, incessantly re- 
 peated prayers, now aloud, now in a low voice. At length 
 the soldiers were ordered to shoot at him, as though he were 
 a target ; but yet, that his sufferings might be the longer 
 and more cruel, they might not aim at his head or heart, 
 but as much as they pleased at any other part of his body. 
 After he had received many balls, one, with a cruel mercy, 
 loaded his gun with two balls, and shot him through the heart. 
 Thus did he receive the glorious crown of martyrdom the 
 22nd of April in the year aforesaid.^^ — Mooney, p. 53. 
 
 As this is the first recorded martyr of the host that the 
 Order of S. Francis has produced in Ireland, it may not be 
 out of place to give here the welh deserved praise which Father 
 Mooney bestows on his order, writing in the year 1624. 
 
 ‘^When Queen Elizabeth strove to make all in Ireland 
 fall away from the Catholic faith, and a law was passed 
 proscribing all the members of the religious orders, and 
 giving their monasteries and possessions to the Treasury, 
 whilst all the others either took to flight, or at least quitted 
 their monasteries, and, for safety sake, lived privately and 
 singly amongst their friends, and receiving no novices, the 
 Order of S. Francis alone ever remained, as it were, un- 
 shaken. For though they were violently driven out of some 
 convents in the great towns, and the convents profanely 
 turned into dwellings for seculars, and some of the fathers 
 suflpered violence and even death, yet in the country and 
 other remote places they ever remained in the convents, 
 celebrating the Divine Office according to the custom of 
 religious, their preachers preaching to the people, and ful- 
 filling their other functions, training up novices, and pre- 
 serving the conventual buildings, holding it sinful to lay 
 aside or even hide their religious habit, though for an hour, 
 through any human fear. And every three years they held 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 their regular provincial chapters,* and observed the rule as 
 it is kept in provinces that are in peace/^ — Mooney, p. 3. 
 
 Anno 1570. — DERMOD MULRONEY and two other 
 FRANCISCANS. t 
 
 Under the heading of Convent of Gallvaise, Aharlagh,^^ J 
 Mooney says, — 
 
 This convent is situated in a small rural town of the 
 diocese of Emly. I could hear nothing of its foundation or 
 history ; but I found, in the year 1570, whilst Henry Sydney, 
 who was then Viceroy, was making excursions in those parts, 
 three brothers suffered martyrdom in that convent : the 
 names of two I could not learn, the third was called Dermod 
 O’Mulroney, a priest. He fled with his comrades from that 
 rural monastery to the town of Clonmel to avoid the persecu- 
 tion, which was then vehement ; but when he had remained 
 there some time he resolved to return to his monastery, God 
 perchance so disposing it, that he might obtain the crown of 
 martyrdom. When, therefore, they thought all was safe he 
 returned to the monastery and dwelt there ; but on a certain 
 day the English soldiers suddenly came and surrounded the 
 place, so that there was no way for the brethren to escape. 
 The holy man mounted up into the bell-tower of the church 
 with his two companions, that they might hide there, and 
 drew up the portable ladder which was there. The soldiers 
 made a fire to burn the church and tower ; then the holy 
 man, that he might save the church, freely descended, and 
 liaving let down the ladder, as he put his foot on the first 
 step, signed himself with the sign of the cross, and repeated 
 the psalm, ^ Have mercy on me, O Lord.^ The soldiers, 
 
 * These chapters were generally held in woods, as Mooney relates 
 at the respective years. 
 
 t From Mooney MS., p. 54, and Rothe’s “ Analecta Mira et Nova,” 
 2nd part. See also Wadding’s “ Scriptores ” and “ Annales.” 
 
 X Rothe calls it “ Monastery of Gallbally, in the mountains of Ahar- 
 lagh, near Tipperary.” The town of Gallbally is in the county Tippe- 
 rary, in the glen of Aharlow, at the foot of the Galty mountains. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 19 
 
 nothing softened, loaded him with blows and wounds, and at 
 length struck off his head. Then a marvel was seen ; for 
 when his head was cut off no drop of blood flowed from his 
 body, which the soldiers seeing, cut up his body in pieces, 
 yet did not blood flow. Of the two others the memory of 
 the place retained nothing but the fact of their death. This 
 have I to tell of this convent, which is now wholly destroyed 
 save the Mooney, p. 54. 
 
 Anno 1576. — THADD^US DALY, Franciscan.* 
 
 The following is the account of his martyrdom given by 
 Father Mooney t under the head ^‘Convent of Koscrea^^ : — 
 The roof of the whole convent has fallen in (this was 
 in 1625), yet the walls and windows, with some glass in them, 
 yet remain. There still lives there one of the professed 
 brothers. There were six conventuals there before the 
 destruction, and some among them fell away ; but one of 
 them, by name Thady Daly, fled to Limerick, and was there 
 taken whilst he sought to escape beyond the seas ; and, con- 
 stant in the confession of the faith, he rejected the offer of 
 life and rewards if he would join the heretics, choosing 
 rather a glorious death; and, thus ^perfected in a short time, 
 he filled a long life,^ but under whom, or in what year,J I 
 could not learn from that brother. This brother was the 
 companion of this holy martyr both in his flight and his 
 
 captivity, but he was [the word is illegible in the MS.] 
 
 and very simple, and when danger presented itself he aban- 
 doned his rule, and, having received some gifts, he deserted 
 liis order and obtained his temporal liberty, and, returning to 
 his own part of the country, which was not far distant from 
 that convent, he then led a secular life until 1611. At that 
 
 '* From Mooney, p. 55, and Wadding’s “ Scriptores ” and “ Annales,” 
 vol. xxi. p. 64. 
 
 t Eothe’s “ Analecta ” mentions Father Daly under the year 1579, 
 and says he came from the convent of Asketin ; but Mooney is clearly 
 the better authority. 
 
 X The “Annals ” say on the 1st of January, about the year 1570. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 MAKTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 time I was vicar of the province^ and preached the Lent in 
 those parts ; and I frequently went to a place of devout 
 pilgrimage about a mile distant from the convent^ called the 
 Island of Viretin, that as far as in me lay I might exhort 
 to penance the people who flocked there in pilgrimage. On 
 a certain day this brother, who was then old, came to me, 
 who knew him not even by sight, told me the whole history 
 of his life, and humbly begged that I would again receive 
 him into the bosom of the order. When on inquiry 1 
 found the matter to be as he said, being touched with pity 
 for him, I appointed him a day to come to me ; and when he 
 had dwelt with me some days I sent him to a certain convent 
 of our order, there to lead a penitential life. He yet lives, 
 and I hope better than before.’^ — Mooney, p. 55. 
 
 Anno 1577. 
 
 Father FERGAL WARD, Franciscan.*^ 
 
 Dr. Moran thus relates his martyrdom : — 
 
 Whilst Drury was Lord-Deputy, about 1577, Fergal 
 Ward, a Franciscan, and a native of Donegal, was put to 
 death in Armagh. He was venerated by the people for the 
 simplicity of his life and his zeal for the salvation of souls. 
 He travelled at intervals throughout the whole province of 
 Armagh, visiting the scattered families who, in the moun- 
 tainous districts, lived without the comforts of the Holy 
 Sacrifice, or the strengthening grace of the sacraments. On 
 one of these excursions he fell into the hands of the soldiery, 
 and, being scourged with great barbarity, was hanged from 
 the branches of a tree with the cincture of his own religious 
 habit.^^^ 
 
 * From Dr. Moran’s “ History of the Archbishops of Dublin,” in- 
 troduction, p. 141, where he quotes “ Synop. Prov. Franciscan, in Hib.,” 
 p. 66. The same account is given by Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20, where 
 he refers to John Good’s work. 
 
x\ THE REIGN OF ELIZAEFTH. 
 
 21 
 
 Father O^DOWD, Franciscan * 
 
 Father Mooney did not know the name of this martyr^ 
 which, however, we learn from other authorities ; but I give 
 his account as the fullest and most authentic, as it was 
 derived from the actors in the tragedy. He also states it to 
 have taken place in the convent of Elphin, in the episcopal 
 city of Elphin, whilst others lay the scene in the convent of 
 Moyne, in the county of Mayo. Clearly the English soldiers 
 who assisted at the massacre and narrated it to Father 
 Mooney knew little of the name of the place where it 
 occurred or of the priest whom they saw slain ; but they are 
 the very best authorities as to the fact having taken place. 
 
 Father Mooney thus narrates the event : — 
 
 In this same convent on another time certain Englisli 
 soldiers t seized a certain priest of our order and some other 
 prisoners. They pressed a certain secular, who was one of 
 their captives, to tell them something of the plots which they 
 said he had made with others against the Queen of England; 
 but he protested he could tell nothing but the truth, and that 
 there were no plots; so they determined to hang him. 
 "When they said this he begged he might be allowed to make 
 his confession to the brother ; this they granted the more 
 readily that they thought the priest, if he were tortured, 
 would reveal what might be told him. As soon as the confes- 
 sion was over the secular was hung ; and then they asked the 
 priest, who was also to be hung, if he had learned aught of 
 the business in confession. He answered in the negative, 
 and, refusing to reveal anything of a confession, they offered 
 him life and freedom if he would reveal, and threatened tor- 
 ture if he refused. He answered he could not, and they 
 immediately knotted a cord J round his forehead, and, thrust- 
 ing a piece of wood through it, slowly twisted it so tightly 
 
 * From Dr. Moran, who quotes “ Syiiop. Prov. Franciscan, in Hib.” 
 and Mooney, p. 35. The name we learn from the former, and also the 
 date. 
 
 t They were the soldiers of Filtou, then President of Connaught. 
 
 X Others say the cord of his habit. 
 
22 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 that at length, after enduring this torment for a long time, 
 his skull was broken in, and, the brain being crushed, he 
 died.* I have seen and examined ocular witnesses of this 
 fact, who were serving in that body of English troops, and 
 sought absolution from me ; but they did not remember the 
 name of the brother or the exact year ; but it was about 
 1677.^’ — Mooney, p. 35. 
 
 Eight Rev. THOMAS LEVEROUS, or LEARY, 
 Bishop of Kildare. 
 
 I GIVE his life, translated from the work of Dr. Rothe, 
 Bishop of Ossory. 
 
 The memory of those deserves to be preserved who have 
 left to posterity an example of fidelity to God and man 
 worthy both of honour and of imitation. Such was the 
 Right Rev. Thomas Leverous,f who was born in a village of 
 the county Kildare, of a family bound by old ties of client- 
 ship to the illustrious family of Kildare in the same county. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VIII., when schism was already 
 impending over England, Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare 
 and ’Viceroy of Ireland, was summoned to England at the 
 instigation of his enemies and by the advice of Cardinal 
 Wolsey, who was then all-powerful and not at all favourable 
 to the Geraldines. The earl was accused of being unfaithful to 
 the King, and of having in his office of Viceroy connived at 
 rebels and disturbers. He was thrown into prison, and the 
 news inflamed the youthful mind of his eldest son, Thomas 
 Geraldine, who had been left by his father to exercise his 
 power in his absence. When he received the news of his 
 fathers arrest, he handed back the sword of state to the 
 Chancellor and Privy Council, and, with courage worthy of a 
 man, but the folly of a child, took up arms against the King 
 (a.d. 1534). But this furious outburst was soon quelled 
 with the death of its author and five of his uncles, the only 
 
 * On the 9th of June. 
 
 t Leurusius is the name as given in Latin, which is translated Le- 
 verous 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 28 
 
 one of the family who was saved being Gerald Geraldine^ the 
 youngest son, who was hidden by a faithful nurse from the 
 rage of his enemies.* But as it was said that this escape 
 was favoured by Leonard, Lord Gray, he afterwards paid the 
 penalty of this connivance with his head. But how could 
 so young a boy take to flight, or, if he did, how could he 
 eflfect it successfully at so young an age and surrounded by 
 so many dangers? Nor could any common man give a 
 shelter to a youth of so noble a race without it being 
 remarked. But the affectionate care of his nurse shone forth 
 in this emergency, and she had as a partner in her trouble, 
 and the guide of her flight, the Thomas Leverous of whom 
 1 now write. 
 
 He was as a father to the youth whilst he grew up, and by 
 constant flight eluded the snares of his enemies; and a guide 
 and councillor when he grew up and travelled in foreign 
 lands. When he was named to the bishopric of Kildare he 
 lost nothing of his humility, gentleness of mind, piety, and 
 Christian charity; yea, rather, his lowliness of spirit and 
 contempt of worldly honours and riches increased as he was 
 elevated in dignity and wealth. 
 
 When, after the death of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., 
 Queen Mary, the daughter of the former and sister of the 
 latter, restored the exiled Gerald to his rank and title, his 
 faithful friend and guardian, Thomas Leverous, was esta- 
 blished in the bishopric of Kildare. t 
 
 That diocese is ample and honourable^ the land thereof is 
 rich, the inhabitants numerous, and embrace many noble 
 families ; but of these by far the most numerous and most 
 honourable is that of the Geraldines. His bishopric Thomas 
 enjoyed during the reign of Queen Mary, but at her death, 
 
 * Our author is here inaccurate. Gerald and Edward were the two 
 sons of Earl Gerald, by his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Gray. 
 Edward, the youngest, was conveyed to his mother in England ; 
 Gerald, the elder, aged about thirteen, found an asylum in Thomond. 
 See Haverty’s “ Ireland,” p. 361. 
 
 t “ He succeeded by provision of Queen Mary, 1st March, 1554, but 
 was not confirmed by the Pope’s bull till the 3rd August, 1555.”— 
 Ware's ^^Antiquities : ” Bishops of Kildare. 
 
MAllTVllS AND CUNFESSOllS 
 
 when her sister Elizabeth sueceeded to the crown by the will 
 of her father, she gave instructions to the Viceroy, the Earl 
 of Sussex, to tender the oath of the Queen^s ecclesiastical 
 supremacy to the bishops of Ireland, and to drive from their 
 sees whoever should refuse to take it. 
 
 AVhen Bishop Leverous was summoned by Sussex to take 
 the oath, and he refused to take it as being against his con- 
 science, the earl asked him for what reason he denied that 
 the Queen was the head of the Church, since so many illus- 
 trious men, and so many doctors and bishops, both in 
 England and Ireland, had acknowledged her as such. But 
 he gave for answer only such a simple reason as any common 
 man might understand, namely, that all true ecclesiastical 
 jurisdiction must come from Christ our Lord ; and, since He 
 had not given even the smallest share of ecclesiastical power 
 to His Mother, so glorious and so dear, so adorned with 
 virtues and honours, how much less could such supreme 
 jurisdiction be given to any one of the same sex! S. Paul 
 would not allow any woman even to speak in church : how 
 much more are all excluded from judging, ruling, and pre- 
 siding ! S. John Chrysostom well expressed the mind of 
 our Lord (lib. ii., He Sacerdotis^^) when he thus spoke of all 
 persons of that weaker sex : When the question is of the 
 
 headship of the Church, and of entrusting to one the care of 
 so many souls, the whole feminine sex must by its nature be 
 excluded from a task of such weight.’^ So also Tertullian : 
 “ It is not permitted to a woman to speak in the Church, nor 
 to teach, nor to offer, nor to claim a share in such offices 
 reserved to men, much less in that of the priesthood.^^ 
 
 And were it not that they are unfitted by nature and the 
 condition of their sex from such exercise of authority. He who 
 on earth raised His Mother to a dignity above all others, and 
 above all women, and in heaven has placed her on a throne 
 next to Himself, would not have lowered her by refusing her 
 an honour fitted to her sex, and which others of that sex 
 might enjoy. But since by nature it was not fitting that 
 women should share in it, it was no dishonour to His Mother 
 not to participate in the jurisdiction which her Son conferred. 
 
IN THE KEKiN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 Hence it followed that Elizabeth could not lawfully take^, uor 
 her father Henry give, nor any Parliament bestow on w^omen 
 that authority which Christ gave, and which was, as the 
 Scripture says, a fountain sealed up^^ to those men to 
 whom He assigned it wdio bears on His shoulder the key of 
 the house of David, and who gave to Peter His keys, by which 
 the gate of heaven is shut and opened. 
 
 The answer of the bishop pleased not the Viceroy, who 
 drove him from his bishopric as unworthy of the honour 
 who thus dishonoured his Queen ; yet he, with a sincere mind, 
 sought not to deprive her of any just honour, but only re- 
 fused her an unlawful title and a vain figment of honour 
 devised by flatterers, and which became not her head, adorned 
 with an earthly crown. 
 
 Driven thus from his cathedral see, and deprived of its 
 revenues, humble and poor like Christ, he sought a strange 
 and distant shelter in a distant district, rejoicing to suffer 
 contumely for the name of Christ. As he had answered the 
 Viceroy when he threatened him wdth deprivation of all his 
 goods and expulsion from his see unless he bowled him to the 
 Queen’s will, What,” said he, will it avail a man to gain 
 the whole world and lose his own soul?” Thus he esteemed 
 all things as dirt that he might gain Christ. O generous 
 champion of Christ, who to prepare for the fight threw 
 away all burthens, great was thy faith, great thy zeal for the 
 faith, and great the reward laid up for thee in heaven ! 
 Thus was this aged man, of venerable appearance, unfitted 
 for any business save the cure of souls and the upholding of 
 ecclesiastical discipline, compelled to turn his aged limbs to 
 tasks fitted only for the youthful, — the labours of a toilsome 
 journey and a distant flight. When he was young he went 
 into voluntary exile for the sake of another ; now, aged, he 
 was compelled to seek his owm living in exile. But he could 
 console himself with the wise words of the great S. Leo 
 (Serra. 9, de Quad.) : ^^As it is the occupation of the whole 
 body to live piously, so it is the occupation of all time to 
 bear the cross.” No age, no time, no place, no state in this 
 our mortal life can insure the servants of Christ from bear- 
 
MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 2G 
 
 ing the cross; and there is often more danger from a con- 
 cealed adversary than from an open enemy. 
 
 In order, therefore, that he might secure his own safety, 
 and be of service also to others, he went to Gerald, Earl of 
 Desmond, and the Countess Joan, his wife, and the mother 
 of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond, a wise and prudent 
 heroine ; and, being hospitably received by them, he kept 
 himself with all prudence and peacefulness, lest he should 
 bring any trouble on those who sheltered him. 
 
 By his assiduity in his sacred ministry he abundantly com- 
 pensated the generosity of his host, and his piety, modesty, 
 sobriety of life, and fervour in promoting the divine honour 
 made him acceptable to the neighbouring nobles and the 
 inhabitants amongst whom he sedulously laboured to preserve 
 them from the novelties of heresy. He was constant in 
 admonishing and exhorting in all fitting time and place, 
 and performing the work of a bishop ; and laboured like a 
 simple priest in administering the sacraments, and found such 
 labours sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. 
 
 When, however, prudence required him to abstain from 
 these exercises in places where he was well known, or which 
 were near his ordinary residence, his charity could not endure 
 to be idle, but he cheerfully removed to more remote districts, 
 and, like the busy bee, ever sought new fields of work. 
 
 He travelled through various districts, instructing all, both 
 old and young, with the same zeal, with teachings adapted to 
 the age and intelligence of each; and the venerable bishop 
 in these labours never thought of his rank or age, and even 
 taught boys, like a common pedagogue, not only the elements 
 of rhetoric and grammar, but even to read ; and this not 
 only in country villages, as in the village of Adare, in the 
 territory of Connaught, but in municipal towns and noted 
 places, as in Limerick, where he opened a school, and had for 
 teacher under him Bichard Creagh, then young, but who was 
 afterwards Archbishop of Armagh and Primate, of whom we 
 have written more at length in the beginning of these notes. 
 
 How noble a school, in which the teachers were so distin- 
 guished! how well cultivated the field, in which the labourers 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 27 
 
 were so skilled ! how' fruitful the seminary, planted by such 
 noble founders ! how glorious the lecture-hall, in which such 
 great doctors taught ! Would that I might enter that school 
 to hear you, Leverous and Creagh, teaching even the rudi- 
 ments of philology to the tender minds of youth, as a pre- 
 paration for the higher mysteries of the faith, and forming 
 their souls at once in learning and virtue ! I may well 
 address ^you in the words which S. Augustine uses of SS. 
 Peter and Andrew when called by our Lord: Leaving their 
 
 fishing, they adhered to Him, or if they left Him for a time, 
 to return again they did as is written : ^ Let thy foot wear 
 the doorstep of His house; arise and come to Him assiduously 
 and learn His precepts.^ He showed them where He dwelt, 
 and they came and dwelt with Him. What a happy day and 
 night did they pass ! Who may tell us what they heard from 
 Christ ? Let us also build up in our hearts a dwelling for 
 Him, that He may come and teach us and dwell with us.^^ 
 Our Lord taught Peter and Andrew, ami they taught the 
 world : the same Lord taught Richard and Thomas, and they 
 by their teaching made wise unto salvation the little world 
 of Ireland. From their school came forth worthy disciples, 
 zealous labourers, who gathered an abundant harvest into the 
 granary of the Lord : the one laboured in the north, the 
 other in the south. Were there no other monument of their 
 piety, their labours in teaching youth were deserving of com- 
 memoration. AVell hath Plutarch said, As the limbs of 
 new-born children should be laid straight, that they may so 
 grow up, so also their minds should be trained to virtue. 
 For that early age is easily moulded, and discipline is better 
 implanted in their minds which are yet impressionable, 
 whilst when age has hardened them they are more difficult 
 to change.^^ What I before said of his colleague * is yet more 
 applicable to Leverous, who the more deserves our admira- 
 tion in that he was a bishop when he thus devoted himself 
 to the labour of teaching youth. Thus did he ever strive to 
 
 “ His colleague,” Dr. Creagh, whose life comes before that of 
 Dr. Leverous in Eothe. 
 
28 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 preserve the faith in his country and hand it over to pos- 
 terit}^^ and after having thus laboured to the end, he went to 
 receive at the hand of his Lord and God the crown he had 
 earned by his labours. He died at the age of 80, and was 
 ])uried in the town of Naas,* which, after the cathedral city, 
 is the principal town in the diocese of Kildare. The towns- 
 people unanimously assert that he has been honoured by 
 miracles. He died about the year 1577. — Rothe, ‘‘Be 
 Processu May'tyrialiP 
 
 Rev. THOMAS COURCY. 
 
 He was from Munster, a most zealous priest, and Vicar- 
 General of Kinsale. When visiting, as was his office, his parish 
 priests, and admonishing them to be diligent in guarding the 
 flocks committed to their care, he fell into the jaws of that 
 cruel tyrant. Sir John Perrot, then President of Munster, 
 by whose order he was hung. And thus he obtained of 
 Christ the victory, on the 30th March, 1577.^^ — By'uodm, lib. 
 iii. cap. 20. 
 
 Anno 1578. 
 
 Right Rev. PATRICK O’HELY, Bishof of Mayo, and 
 H is companion. Rev. CORNELIUS O’RORKE, 
 Franciscans. t 
 
 Again, by the kind permission of Doetor Moran, I copy 
 his excellent aceount of this holy martyr. 
 
 Dr. Patrick O^Hely, the last Bishop of Mayo,f was a 
 native of Connaught, and from his youth was adorned with 
 every virtue. Having embraced the religious order of S. 
 Francis, he proceeded to Spain, and pursued his sacred 
 studies with great applause in the university of Alcala. In 
 obedience to the minister-general of his order, he repaired to 
 
 * In the parish church of S. David. — Wares “ Antiquities” 
 
 t From Dr. Moran, p. 139. The original authorities are O’Sullivan, 
 p. 90; Rothe’s “Analecta,” p. 63 ; Dorn, a Rosario, p. 140; Mooney^ 
 pp. 9 and 54; Theatre of Prot., p. 50; Bruodin, p. 437 ; Arthur a 
 Mouasterio in Martyrolog. Francis. See also Rcnehan, Collec., p. 389. 
 
 X Mooney, p. 9 
 
IX THE REIGN OE ELIZABETH. 
 
 20 
 
 Rome in 1575_, and, having resided for some time in the 
 convent of Ara Coeli in that city, he was proposed for the 
 vacant see of Mayo in the consistory of 4th July the same 
 year.^' Returning to Ireland, he was accompanied by Cor- 
 nelius O’Rorke, a Franciscan priest, who, though the eldest 
 son of the Prince of Breffny, had abandoned all the pleasures 
 of the world to embrace a life of prayer and poverty. They 
 encountered many difficulties on their journey, but at length 
 safely landed in Dingle, in the county Kerry. The heretical 
 spies whom Drury, the Lord-Deputy, kept at this time sta- 
 tioned along the southern coast of Ireland soon recognized 
 the venerable strangers. They were, therefore, almost im- 
 mediately on landing, arrested and transmitted to Limerick, 
 to be examined by Goulden, the military commander of that 
 district. By his orders the prelate and his chaplain were 
 loaded with chains and cast into the public prison. Here 
 they remained for some months, till the arrival of Sir William 
 Drury in Kilmallock, before whom they were conducted, in 
 the month of August, 1578. 
 
 On being examined, Patrick O’Hely confessed that they 
 lielonged to the Franciscan order, that he himself was Bishop 
 of Mayo, sent by Gregory XIII. to guide and instruct his 
 spiritual flock ; this, he added, was the object of his mission, 
 and the only motive of his return to Ireland. ^^And do you 
 dare,’’ asked Drury, ^Go defend the authority of the Pope 
 against the laws of the Queen and Parliament ? ” “ 1 repeat 
 
 what I have said,” replied the bishop, and I am ready, if 
 necessary, to die for that sacred truth.” Father O’Rorke 
 replied in the same strain. Threats and promises were 
 unavailing to change their resolution; and they both joy- 
 fully received sentence to be first put to the torture, and 
 then to be hanged in the presence of the garrison. 
 
 These orders of Drury were executed with an uncommon 
 degree of barbarity. The two prisoners were first placed on 
 the rack, their arms and feet were beaten with hammers, 
 so that their thigh-bones were broken, t and sharp iron 
 
 * Ex Act, Consist. 
 
 t Domin. a Rosario, 
 
30 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 points and needles were cruelly thrust under their nails, 
 which caused an extreme agony of suffering. For a con- 
 siderable time they were subjected to these tortures, which 
 the holy confessors bore patiently for the love of Christ, 
 mutually exhorting each other to constancy and perse- 
 verance. 
 
 At length they were taken from the rack, and hanged from 
 the branches of a neighbouring tree. Their bodies were left 
 suspended there for fourteen days, and were used in the 
 interim as a target by the brutal soldiery. When the mar- 
 tyr-prelate was being hurried to execution, he turned to 
 Drury and warned him that before many days he himself 
 should appear before the tribunal of God to answer for his 
 crimes. On the fourteenth day after, this unhappy man 
 expired in great agony at Waterford, of a distemper that 
 baffled every remedy.* The 22nd of August, 1578, was the 
 day rendered illustrious by their martyrdom. By the care 
 of the Earl of Desmond, their bodies were reverently laid in 
 the Franciscan convent at Clonmel, whence, seventy years 
 afterwards (in 1647), they were translated with solemnity, and 
 deposited, together with the implements of their torture, in 
 the convent of Askeaton. 
 
 Right Rev. MAURICE GIBBON or FITZGIBBON, 
 Archbishop of Cashel. f 
 
 About this year Dr. Gibbon, Archbishop of Cashel, who 
 had been forcibly driven into exile, died in the city of 
 Oporto. He is enumerated by Dr. Rothe amongst those 
 w'ho suffered death or imprisonment for the faith. I have 
 not met with any other record of his imprisonment save in 
 Bruodin, who says he died in prison in Cork, 6th May, 1578. 
 — See also McCarthy Collections. 
 
 * Besides the authorities quoted by Dr. Moran, this fact is men- 
 tioned in the ancient MS. in the Burgundian Library, which is en- 
 titled “ Magna Supplicia,” &c, MS. No. 2159. 
 
 t From Bothe’s “Analecta Nova et Mira,” 2nd part. 
 
IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 
 
 31 
 
 Right Rev. EDMUND TANNER, Bishop of Cork. 
 
 “ He was a native of Cork, and for many years a member 
 of the Society of Jesus, and noted for his virtues ; at length 
 he was obliged, by illness, to leave the society, with the 
 good will of the fathers. He was soon after appointed 
 Bishop of Cork,* but had hardly taken on him the burden of 
 the episcopate, when he was arrested for having opposed the 
 Queen^s supremacy, and carried to Dublin. In prison he 
 was tortured in divers ways, and was more than once hung 
 up for two hours by his hands, tied together behind his back. 
 Broken with these and other sufferings, after an imprison- 
 ment of eighteen months, he went to receive his reward the 
 4th of June, 1578.^’ — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. xx. 
 
 PHELIM O^HARA, Franciscan. f 
 
 Father Mooney is our authority for this narrative. 
 
 In the year 1578 the English heretics made an expedi- 
 tion to this convent (that of Elphin, in the city of the same 
 name), and when the brethren learned their approach, they 
 fled across the sea in a boat which was there. The father 
 provincial minister was there at the time, and when he 
 asked who, for the merit of holy obedience, would remain 
 alone in the monastery. Brother Phelim O^Hara, a lay brother, 
 was chosen out of many who offered themselves, partly 
 because he was prudent and far advanced in years, and partly 
 because it was hoped he would be less obnoxious than the 
 
 * Dr. Tanner was appointed bishop on the nones of November, 1574. 
 He was a native of Leinster, and we find faculties granted to him, not 
 only for his own diocese, but also for the provinces of Cashel and 
 Dublin. His successor, Dermitius Graith, was appointed on the lltli 
 October, 1580. — Moran, ex ArcJiiv. Vatican, in Alps. Dublin, vol. i. 
 p. 187. Mooney, p. 2. 
 
0,0 
 
 :\[ARTyRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 others.* Wherefore he received the benediction^ and re- 
 mained. But the English, coming, despoiled the monastery 
 and slew this brother, even before the high altar; nor did 
 they dare to remain there long, but departed the same day. 
 The other brethren, who had fled, and who remained out at 
 sea waiting, when they returned home found the brother, 
 who had become a martyr through obedience, before the 
 high altar, where it was believed he was praying when, on 
 the approach of the enemies, he gave up his soul a grateful 
 sacrifice to God. He is buried in the chapter-house.^^ 
 
 Wadding adds, ^^The soldiers, returning another time, 
 seized a secular priest and another Minorite friar, and, having 
 hung the former, tortured the latter, to make him reveal what 
 the priest had said in confession, by tightening a cord round 
 Ills forehead till the skull cracked and the brain protruded.^^ 
 He also — Annals,^^ ad an. 1578 — mistakes the convent of 
 Moy for that of Elphin. 
 
 Rev. JOHN O’LOCHRAN, EDMUND SIMMONS, and 
 DONAT O^RORKE, Franciscans. t 
 
 These fathers were members of the Franciscan convent of 
 Down. A military commissioner, named Britton, and his 
 ravaging band, resolved to fix their winter quarters in that 
 ancient town. Their thirst for religious spoils soon impelled 
 them to the convent. But the sacred vessels had been con- 
 cealed, and none could be found. The three fathers were 
 their only prey. These they first subjected to a variety of 
 tortures, and then, dragging them to the adjoining garden, 
 strangled them from the branches of a large oak that over- 
 shadowed the sanctuary, 
 
 * Because the others were priests. 
 
 t From Bruodin, “ Passio Martyr.,” p. 440 ; and L. Wadding, 
 “ Scriptores ” and “ Annales,” vol. xx. p. 258, and who puts their mar- 
 tyrdom about 1570 ; but Bruodin gives the exact date. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 33 
 
 Anno 1579. — Eight Eev. THOMAS O’HERLAGHYj 
 Bishop of Boss. 
 
 I GIVE his life iu fall from Dr. llotlie : — 
 
 After collecting as best I could any information in my 
 power about Archbishop O’Hurley, it now remains for me 
 to relate what befell a suffragan of his see, Thomas 
 O’Herlaghy. The diocese of Boss is situated in the south 
 part of Munster ; the cathedral is in a town neither large 
 nor fortified, in the district of Carabry, and from its name of 
 Eoss the bishopric derives its title. Thomas, of whom I 
 write, was a man of most exemplary piety, born of an humble 
 family in a small village of that territory, and when he was 
 raised to the episcopal dignity he was unwearying in the 
 care of his flock, and preserving them in the Catholic faith. 
 Together with two other Irish bishops, Donald Magongial, 
 Bishop of Eaphoe, and Eugene O’Hairt, Bishop of Aghadoe, 
 he took a part in the Council of Trent, and he therefore 
 strove with peculiar zeal to have the decrees and discipline 
 of the Council observed throughout the whole district under 
 his jurisdiction. This caused him many troubles, and raised 
 a great persecution against him, which compelled him to 
 take refuge in a small island to escape, like a bird from the 
 claws of a hawk ; and, like another Ulysses in Ithaca, he 
 there led a solitary life with one chaplain, intent on prayer 
 and meditation; yet he was not long safe from the pursuer. 
 They were both taken prisoners by one from whom they 
 looked not for such treatment, — a noble of their own nation, 
 one O’Sullivan, the eldest son of the great O’Sullivan,* 
 a spoiler the more unfortunate the greater his spoil; for, 
 like the Tolosan gold, or the horse of Sejan, it prospered 
 him not, but from that day he fell into many misfor- 
 tunes, hated by the strangers, and detested by the natives 
 and his former friends. He took his captives to Sir John 
 Perrott, an English Protestant, who was then President of 
 Munster ; by him the bishop was cast into chains, a chain 
 being fastened round his neck, and fetters on his legs, and 
 
 * Filio majore raajoris O’Sullivan, 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 after he had suffered much torment and misery in Ireland 
 he was sent to England. 
 
 The night previous to his being taken before the President 
 he took care to have his episcopal tonsure shaved, in token 
 of Catholic union and the faith which he professed, for he 
 did not blush to confess Him before men from whom he 
 hoped to receive the reward of his confession, the prize of 
 victory and the crown of immortality; but this tonsure, 
 detested by them, drew upon him the scorn and insolent 
 scoffs of the soldiers, his gaolers. When taken to England, he 
 was thrown into the Tower of London, where he was kept for 
 three years and about seven months with the Primate, Arch- 
 bishop Creagh. At first he was shut up in a dark cell, without 
 bed, fire, or light, having only one small window, which was 
 open to the northern blasts, which froze his aged limbs. 
 
 Freedom and honours were offered to him if he would 
 yield to the Queen^s will ; but he would not. Many persons 
 were sent to persuade him, by threats and fair words, to 
 apostatize, but he adhered firmly to the rock on which he 
 had taken his stand. They brought him in writing a form 
 of abjuration to sign, in which were contained many errors 
 against the faith ; but he firmly refused to admit, either by 
 word or writing, anything contrary to the orthodox faith, 
 and declared he would rather his hand were cut off than 
 that it should sign such a paper, — that he valued the deposit 
 of the faith more than to renounce it for any human threats. 
 In this he imitated Eusebius, the Bishop of Vercelli, who, 
 when the Arian emperor called upon him to give up the 
 declaration of Catholic faith which the orthodox bishops had 
 entrusted to him for safe keeping, and threatened that his 
 right hand should be cut off, boldly answered, ^ Behold botli 
 my hands ; rather shall they both be struck off than I will 
 basely resign that which has been entrusted to me.’ 
 
 At length the innocent bishop was freed from prison, 
 at the solicitation of certain English nobles, and on Cormac 
 Dermieia,"^ of the house of Carter, lord of Muskerry, in 
 
 ■" So written in the original : it is probably a translation of Dermody, 
 as Bermiciada, later, is a classic form of the same patronymic. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 35 
 
 Ireland, becoming bail for his innocence and purity of life. 
 On leaving prison he determined to cross over into Belgium, 
 but, being seized with an illness, the seeds of which he had 
 contracted in prison, he changed his mind, and betook 
 himself to Ireland. On landing at the port of Dublin, he 
 was seized and brought before the Viceroy, who was about 
 again to cast him into prison, and did detain him until he 
 learned by letter from the governor of the Tower of London 
 that it was by the command of the Queen and Council he 
 was set free. 
 
 He was now advanced in years, of grave manners, of 
 frugal and temperate habits, contented with the simplest 
 food, much given to meditation and prayer. He generally 
 recited the canonical office of Matins in the middle of the 
 night, and that with bare head, and mostly on bended knees. 
 He practised frequent fasts, and frequently, removing the 
 bed, he lay undressed on the hard floor ; and every year, at 
 the close of the Lenten fast, he remained without eating 
 from his sober midday meal on Holy Thursday until after 
 noon of Holy Saturday. 
 
 Although he suffered from dropsy, and was of so weak 
 health that he seemed to need all possible quiet and repose 
 to restore his strength, yet in his whole life he seemed hardly 
 ever to rest from his labours ; for he was ever engaged either 
 in the administration of the sacraments or of his episcopal 
 jurisdiction and preaching, or in private prayer and chastis- 
 ing his flesh. He heard the confession of the people, and 
 even of the poorest, in wretched hovels often covered with 
 mud ; he often administered confirmation to the crowds 
 who pressed to receive it until he was exhausted ; he con- 
 ferred holy orders on those who were chosen ; he blessed 
 the sacred vessels and the holy oils, and laboured in every 
 way possible for a prudent and zealous bishop devoted to the 
 salvation of souls. 
 
 He loved not high-sounding discourses, but rejoiced in 
 the humble ; nor did he prefer his own opinion to that of 
 others. He was gentle in discourse, and liberal in giving 
 to the poor of the little he received from friends and bene- 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 IMARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 factors^ for he never received one farthing of the revenues 
 of his seCj which an intruder held. He avoided all familiarity 
 with w'omen^ nor would he ever speak with them save before 
 witnesses. He was a lover of solitude and silence, and even 
 when sitting at the table of seculars he frequently led the 
 conversation to spiritual subjects, taking occasion from 
 passing events to rise to spiritual thoughts, and to excite the 
 minds of his hearers to heavenly desires. 
 
 When he left the Tower of London, and proceeded, in 
 company with his bailsman, Cormac Dermiciada, to Ireland, 
 he resided at first in Muskerry, the territory of that lord ; but 
 because he was there, on account of his host, obliged to 
 assist at feasts and banquetings, which little suited his taste, 
 he determined to seek another abode, where he might more 
 freely indulge his pious tastes. He therefore hired a little 
 farm, near a dense wood, in the same territory ; there he 
 constructed a dwelling of boughs and twigs, with a roof of 
 sods and straw, and the walls plastered with mud, against the 
 cold. The house was the dwelling of a husbandman, and 
 so were the furniture and cooking utensils; no hangings or 
 table nappery, no silken coverlets or sumptuous couches; a 
 single sheet on straw, and a thick frieze coverlet, sufficed 
 him ; wooden cups, and a plank on wooden props for his 
 table. His drink was water from the spring, or a little weak 
 beer, or whey ; hunger was his only sauce, labour the softener 
 of his couch, a contented mind the solace of all his trials. 
 
 In this position of rural poverty he yet found means to 
 relieve the poverty and wants of others. The war in the 
 south was over, and the country was overrun with crowds 
 of famishing wretches ; for the violence of war and the 
 passage of plundering bands of soldiers had destroyed all 
 cultivation, and the wretched farmers, not able to bear the 
 incessant plundering, had abandoned their fields and their 
 cottages, and wandered about, seeking a precarious life by 
 begging. Many of these came to the bishop, to whom 
 he gave freely of his little means. 
 
 “ This his humble dwelling he preferred to more splendid 
 mansions ; there did he ^ place steps in his heart in the vale 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 37 
 
 of tears,, in the place he had chosen.’ From thence he pro- 
 ceeded on his annual visitation of his diocese ; there he re- 
 turned when he had completed the circuit of his jurisdiction ; 
 there he meditated day and night on the law of the Lord. 
 Thus, whilst the usurper, who had been placed by the favour 
 of Elizabeth in the see of Eoss, occupied his cathedral, the 
 legitimate pastor was not only driven from his country, but 
 was made captive, and fettered and sent out of the kingdom 
 by Perrott, the President, and returned at length with difficulty 
 to the care of his flock, who were dispersed ; for, like Moses, 
 
 ^ he denied himself to be the son of the daughter of Pharaoh, 
 choosing rather to be afflicted with the people of God than 
 to have the pleasure of sin for a time, esteeming the reproach 
 of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians.’ 
 He crossed the sea and fled into the desert from the Egypt 
 of England, and dwelt in solitude and in desert places; 
 there he held his synods and administered the sacraments, 
 and, far from the noise of the world, gave himself wholly to 
 God. On the more solemn feasts he went to the neighbour- 
 ing church, celebrated there the Holy Mysteries, and preached 
 to the people. To this his dwelling may be applied what 
 is said in Deuteronomy of the land of promise, ' The land 
 to which you shall come is not as the land of Egypt that 
 you came out of, where when the seed is sown it is watered 
 as in a garden ; but it is a land hilly and wooded, expecting 
 rain from heaven, which the Lord thy God will send, and His 
 eyes are upon it from the beginning of the year to the end.’ 
 From this land of the dying he sighed after the land of the 
 living, where the sun burnetii not nor the cold freezes. In 
 the midst of his labours and his sufferings from dropsy, his 
 soul panted for the courts of the Lord, and, seated by the 
 waters of Babylon, he was refreshed with the thoughts of 
 Sion, and, though her harps hung silent on the willows because 
 of the violence of the Babylonians, his voice did not cease 
 from her canticles ; the beads of the rosary were ever passing 
 through his fingers, or he was repeating the Psalter. 
 
 Such was his conversation, pious and edifying, whether 
 at home or abroad ; and, whether at home or abroad, he was 
 
38 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 ever employed in liis Lord^s service^ for the venerable bishop 
 laboured much to bring back many who had wandered from 
 the faith, to confirm those who were wavering, to inflame the 
 tepid and strengthen the weak ; and it was granted to him 
 to drive out Satan, not only from the mind, but also from 
 the body. There was a certain damsel who was possessed 
 by a dumb devil, and she was grievously tormented; her 
 voice trembled, her teeth chattered, her heart palpitated, 
 and the shivering of all her limbs showed the power of the 
 malignant spirit. The holy bishop, being taken to see her, 
 exorcised the evil spirit, made the damsel repeat the Apostles^ 
 Creed (which she did with great difficulty), and, having heard 
 her confession and prepared her by careful instruction, 
 administered to her the Holy Communion; and from that 
 time she reeovered not only her spiritual health, but gradually 
 also the health of the body. 
 
 ^^The holy Bishop O’Herlaghy continued unwearied in his 
 apostolic labours up to his sixtieth year, and died in the 
 territory of Muskerry, and was buried in the monastery of 
 the Franciscan order in Kilchree (de Cellacrea) in the year 
 1579 .^^ — De Processu Martyriali/^ T. N. Philadelpko, 
 1619. 
 
 Anno 1580. — This year was peculiarly fruitful in martyrs. 
 
 Eight Eev. HUGH LUKE or LACY, Bishop of 
 Limerick. 
 
 Hugh de Lacy, of a noble Munster family, was a man 
 well versed in sacred and profane learning, and a priest of 
 most exemplary life, for which reason he was created Bishop 
 of Limerick whilst Henry Vlll. was yet a Catholic. When 
 the King apostatized, he never could induce Hugh to join in 
 his spiritual revolt, or to stain himself by subscribing to the 
 King’s supremacy ; for which reason he was deprived not 
 only of the King’s favour, but of all the revenues and of the 
 possession of his see. As nothing was gained by this, the 
 King had Lacy thrown into prison in Cork, where he nearly 
 perished from the filth of the dungeon. He was freed by the 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 39 
 
 dexterity of his friends, and returned to Limerick to collect 
 his flock, which he found scattered by the Anglican wolf. 
 But the persecution increased in the latter years of Henry, 
 and still more under the Calvinistic Edward VI., and Hugh 
 was again threatened ; wherefore, imitating the example of 
 the Apostle, he sought safety in Catholic France. On the 
 accession of Mary he was recalled by Cardinal Pole, and 
 returned to Limerick amid the rejoicings of his flock, and 
 for many years fed his flock in peace, with zeal and vigilance 
 walking in the footsteps of the Great Pastor. When he was 
 more than sixty years of age, and Elizabeth was laying waste 
 the Lord^s vineyard, the venerable bishop was deprived of 
 his episcopal see, and of all means of living, and thrown into 
 prison for refusing the oath of the Queen^s supremacy, 
 where, worn out with suffering, the noble-hearted bishop 
 died, the 26th March, anno 1571 .^^* — Bruodirij lib. hi. 
 cap. XX. 
 
 Bev. LAURENCE MOORE, Priest. 
 
 Father Moore, together with Oliver Plunket, an Irish- 
 man of gentle birth, and William Walsh, an English soldier, 
 were seized by a troop of heretical soldiers, tied to stakes, 
 and shot, and thus obtained the palm of martyrdom, on the 
 Ilth of November, the feast of S. Martin, I580.‘’^ — 
 Philadelphus. 
 
 A letter, written on the 9th January, 1581, in the Vatican 
 archives, published by Dr. Moran, gives a fuller account of 
 their death. They were in the Golden Fort, held by a 
 
 * Here, as in many other instances, Bruodin, although right in the 
 substance of his narrative, is wrong in his dates. Dr. Rothe puts his 
 imprisonment and death at 1580, and he is confirmed by the Vatican 
 list given by Dr. Moran, which describes the see of Limerick as vacant 
 in 1580 “ per obitum D. Ugonis Lacy, in sua ecclesia defunct! j” and his 
 successor. Dr. Cornelius Nachten, was appointed in 1581. Dr. Lacy 
 was deprived of the temporalities in 1571, and William Casey intruded 
 by Edward VI. But he remained at liberty at least until 1575. — See 
 Moran, ''Archbishops of Dublin^'' vol. i. p. 186, and Wares " Bishops." 
 See also Casey s recantation, from the State Paper Office, in Brady, 
 " Papers Concerning the Irish Church," p. 119. 
 
40 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Spanish force under San Jose. When this traitor surren- 
 dered the fort to the English commander, Lord Gray, the 
 letter continues, — 
 
 ^^At the request of the Viceroy, the priest Laurence, 
 Oliver Plunket, and William Willick, an Englishman, were 
 delivered into his hands. To them the offer was made to be 
 restored to liberty should they consent to take the oath of 
 allegiance to the Queen but when they replied, with one 
 accord, that they were Catholics, and that, by the grace of 
 God, they would persevere in the faith, they were led off to 
 a forge of an ironsmith, and then their arms and legs were 
 broken in three diflPerent parts. During all that night and 
 the following day they endured that torment with invincible 
 patience. At length they were hanged, and their bodies 
 cut into fragments.^^ Sir II. Bingham (letter to Walsingham) 
 says that an Englishman who had waited on Dr. Sanders, 
 Plunket, who acted as interpreter, and an Irish priest were 
 reserved for special punishment ; their legs and arms were 
 first broken, and they were hanged on a gibbet on the walls 
 of the fort.^^ — See Moran, ‘‘ Historjj of the Archbishops of 
 Dublin,^’ vol. i. p. 202 ; and Haverty, “ History of Ireland,” 
 p. 243. 
 
 Ret. GELASIUS O^QUILLENAN, EUGENE CRONE, 
 AND HUGH O’MELKERAN. 
 
 Father Gelasius O^Quillenan, of the Cistercian order. 
 Abbot of the monastery of Boyle, was martyred, together 
 with the priest Eugene Cronius (probably Cronin), 1580.^^ — 
 Philadelphus . 
 
 The following account of the life of this holy martyr is 
 taken from Dr. Moran, who drew it from Henriquez and 
 O’Sullivan : — 
 
 ‘‘ Gelasius O’Cullenan was born of a noble family in 
 Connaught, and in his early years embraced the Cistercian 
 order. Having completed his noviciate and sacred studies 
 in Paris, the monastery of Boyle was destined as the field 
 
 * In which was embodied the oath of supremacy. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 41 
 
 of his labours. On his arrival in Ireland he found that the 
 monastery, with its property, had been seized on by one of 
 the neighbouring gentry, who was sheltered in his usurpation 
 by the edict of Elizabeth. The abbot, nothing deterred by 
 the penal enactment which he knew impended over him, 
 went boldly to the usui’ping nobleman, and admonished him 
 of the guilt which he incurred, and the malediction of Heaven 
 which he would assuredly draw down upon his whole family. 
 Moved by his exhortations, the nobleman restored to him 
 the full possession of the monastery and lands; and some 
 time after, contemplating the holy life of its inmates and the 
 happy fruits -of their zeal, and desirous to share in their 
 apostolate, he too renounced the world and embraced their 
 religious institute. In 1580, Gelasius, being in Dublin, was 
 arrested by order of the Government, and, together with 
 Hugh O^Melkeran, another Cistercian father, was thrown 
 into the publie gaol. John O’Garvin,* then Protestant 
 Dean of Christ Church, was amongst those who assisted at 
 his first interrogatory, and having proposed many induce- 
 ments to the abbot ^ to abandon the Popish creed,’ Gelasius, 
 in reply, reproved him for preferring the deceitful vanities 
 of this world to the lasting joys of eternity, and exhorted 
 him ^to renounce the errors and iniquity of heresy by which 
 he had hitherto warred against God, and to make amends 
 for the past by joining -with him in professing the name of 
 Christ, that he might thus become worthy to receive a 
 heavenly crown.’ The holy abbot and his companion were 
 then subjected to torture, and, amongst their other sufferings, 
 we find it commemorated that their arms and legs were 
 broken by repeated blows, and fire was applied to their feet. 
 The only words of Gelasius during all this torture were, — 
 ^Though you should offer me the princedom of England, 
 I will not forfeit my eternal reward.’ Sentence of death 
 being passed against them, they were led out with all pos- 
 sible ignominy to execution. They, however, were filled 
 with consolation ; the sight of the joyous sufferers excited 
 
 * He is styled Garvey by Ware and Mant. He was soon after ap- 
 pointed Protestant Bishop of Kilmore. 
 
42 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 the admiration of the assembled multitude, and many even 
 of the heretics declared that they "were more like angels than 
 men. It was on the 21st November, 1580, that they were 
 happily crowned with martyrdom. The garments which 
 they wore, and the implements of their torture, were eagerly 
 purchased by the Catholics, and cherished by them with 
 religious veneration. Gelasius O’Cullenan is justly styled 
 by the annalist of his order ^ Ordinis Cisterciensis decor, 
 sseculi nostri splendor, et totius Hibernise gloria.^^* — Hen- 
 riquez, Fasciculus part i. distinct 27, cap. i. ; 0^ Sullivany 
 Hist. Cath., p. 126. 
 
 Eev. THADDEUS DONALD and JOHN HANLY. 
 
 These two martyrs received their crown on the 10th August, 
 1580. They had long laboured among the suffering faithful 
 along the south-western coasts of our island. When the 
 convent of Bantry was seized by the English troops, these 
 holy men received the wished-for crown of martyrdom. 
 Being conducted to a high rock impending over the sea, they 
 were tied back to back and precipitated into the waves 
 beneath.f 
 
 Rev. DANIEL O’NIELAN 
 
 was a priest of the diocese of Cloyne, and endured a most 
 peculiar martyrdom on the 28th March, 1580. He was a 
 most apostolic man, full of attention to the wants of the 
 
 * Curry, in his “Civil Wars,” says, — “Among many other Roman 
 Catholic bishops and priests, there were put to death for the exercise 
 of their function in Ireland Glaby O’ Boyle, Abbot of Boyle, of the 
 diocese of Elphin, and Owen O’Mulkeren, Abbot of the monastery of 
 the Holy Trinity, in that diocese, hanged and quartered by Lord Gray 
 in 1580.”- These two are probably the subjects of our memoir. Glaby 
 is Gelasius ; and the practice, common even now in Ireland, of calling 
 a priest, especially a regular, only by his Christian name, as “ Father 
 John,” would easily lead to the confusion as to the surname. O’Boyle, 
 in Irish, would be “ from Boyle.” 
 
 t Bruodin, “Passio Mart.,” p. 440, and Wadding, “ Aunales Ord. 
 S. F.,” p. 251. 
 
IN THE REIGN OP ELIZABETH. 
 
 43 
 
 poor and of solicitude for all liis flock. He was no 
 sooner arrested and conducted under a military guard to 
 Youglial, than two wicked men^ named Norris and Morgan, 
 undertook the task of his execution. They conducted him 
 to the summit of Trinity Tower, and, having fastened a rope 
 around his waist and arms, precipitated him from the battle- 
 ments. The rope not being sufficiently strong to resist the 
 shock, the holy man fell, mangled and almost lifeless, to the 
 ground. 
 
 The fury of his executioners, however, was not allayed. 
 Observing that life was not yet extinct, they caused him to be 
 dragged to a mill not far distant, when they tied him to the 
 water-wheel. His lacerated body in a few minutes was wholly 
 disfigured, and scarcely retained the semblance of human 
 remains.* 
 
 Philadelphus adds that John Norris was commander (what 
 he calls prefect) and William Morgan captain of the troop 
 that arrested him. He says he was an Observantine Fran- 
 ciscan. Dr. Moran, on the authority of Bruodin, calls him 
 a secular priest. Wadding also elaims him as a Franciscian.J 
 
 Rev. MAURICE SCANLAN, PHILIP O’SHEA, and 
 DANIEL O’HANRICHAN 
 
 were three secular priests, and natives of Kerry. For more 
 than thirty years they had been indefatigable in their labours 
 in their native county and the surrounding territory. It 
 was in the town of Lislaghton that they received the crown 
 of martyrdom. Whilst the country around was laid waste by 
 the agents of persecution, they hastened to the sanctuary to 
 offer themselves as victims for their sufl’ering flock. They 
 were soon discovered there by the enemy, and immediately 
 beheaded. The 6th of April, 1580, was the day of their 
 happy triumph. — Bruodin. 
 
 ^ Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
 t Philadelph., and Wadding, “ Scriptorcs 0. S. F.;” also “Annals,” 
 vol. xxi. p. 258. 
 
MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 44 - 
 
 Eev. MAURICE KINREHAN 
 
 was parish priest of Mullinahone^ in Tipperary^ in a special 
 manner attracted the rage of the heretics, and was compelled 
 to take shelter, together witli numbers of his flock, on the 
 wild summits of Slievenamon. Rewards were more than once 
 off’ered for his arrest, and his parish was frequently scoured 
 by military parties, anxious to seize on their prey. 
 
 At length, whilst engaged in administering the last sacra- 
 ments to a dying man, he was overtaken by his pursuers, who 
 at once hurried him towards Clonmel. Before arriving in 
 that town, the officer of the guard, named Furrows, fearing 
 lest the inhabitants might rescue the venerable captive, gave 
 orders to have him despatched. The soldiers treated him 
 with great brutality, and, hewing his body into fragments, 
 scattered his mangled members along the highway, and 
 brought his head as a trophj^'to the commander in Clonmel.* 
 — Bruodin. 
 
 Rev. EDMUND DONNELLY, S.J. 
 
 His life is thus narrated by Tanner : — t 
 At this same time, Ireland being involved in the same 
 calamity by the Queen (Elizabeth), the holy PontifiP (Pius V.) 
 sent spiritual assistance also to that country from the same 
 society ; amongst whom was Father Edmund Donatus, or, 
 as he was called by many, Donnelly, who came to a 
 glorious end in the very commencement of his course, and 
 was the first to declare in Ireland the truth of the Catholic 
 religion by the shedding of his blood. J He was born at 
 Limerick, and, by the desire of the Holy Father, returned to 
 his native country to console and encourage the Catholics, 
 
 * This, is quite a different person from the Maurice Kinrechtin who 
 suffered in 1585, whose life, as given by Rothe, see at that year. Han- 
 richan or O’Hanrichan, and Kinrechin or Kinrechtin, and O’Kiu- 
 rechtin were very common names in Tipperary at this period. 
 
 t Tanner, Societas Jesu, usque ad sanguinis et vitje profusionem pro 
 Deo et Christiana religione militaus. 
 i That is, the first of the Jesuits. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 45 
 
 then grievously tormented. But he was quiekly seized by 
 the enemies of the faith, who were watching everywhere most 
 carefully, and kept for a long time in close custody in 
 Limerick. There his constancy was tried in many ways, the 
 ministers of error promising all- sorts of rewards if he would 
 abandon the Roman faith and embrace the errors of the Refor- 
 mation. As the confessor of God remained unshaken, he was 
 sent to Cork, distant some forty miles, to be further subjected 
 to the cruelty of the question. He was dragged along the 
 whole road with his hands tied behind his back like a robber, 
 and made to endure all that is inflicted on murderers and 
 traitors, and finally thrown into the common gaol at Cork, 
 where he was tortured in divers ways. As his constancy 
 was still unshaken, he was tried for high treason and publicly 
 condemned, such grounds being assigned for the sentence as 
 put the enviable fate of the martyr in its true light, for he 
 was charged that he had been banished from the realm by 
 Queen Elizabeth, under the penalty of treason if he returned, 
 yet had returned to lead and strengthen his fellow- citizens by 
 his word and example j and that he had denied to the Queen 
 the title of head of the English Church. This sentence, so 
 unjust in itself, yet bearing such a glorious triumph to him, 
 he received with the greatest alacrity and joy, and, bowing his 
 head in token of thanks to his judges, he was led to the 
 common place of execution as a traitor. There the rope was 
 put round his neck, and he was hung some time from the 
 gallows, but whilst he was yet alive and breathing, the rope 
 was cut, and he fell to the ground, and his heart, cut out and 
 held up by the executioner to be seen by the people, then 
 thrown into the fire, with the rest of his entrails. The rest of 
 his body was cut in four parts and affixed to poles, there to 
 remain to be seen by all, as though his torn limbs would 
 teach more fidelity to the Queen. The holy man suffered at 
 Cork in 1580.^^ — Tanner, p. 8, Philadelph., and Brnodin (lib. 
 iii. cap. 20), who puts his death at 1575. 
 
46 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 TWENTY-TWO OLD MEN, whose Names are not 
 
 KNOWN. 
 
 Philadelphus mentions these as follows : — 
 
 ‘‘1 have also seen a catalogue in which are written the 
 names of many lay Catholics who perished in consequence 
 either of the fraud or calumnies of their enemies or the hatred 
 of the orthodox faith which they professed. ... To these 
 must be added from the same catalogue twenty-two old men 
 (Catholics), whom, being unable to fly, the fury of the soldiers 
 burnt to death in the village of Mohoriack, in Munster, the 
 2Gth day of June, 1580.^^^' — Pliiladelph. Be P^'ocessuP 
 
 FORTY CISTERCIAN MONKS of S. Mary’s, Ne nag h. 
 
 Their martyrdom is thus narrated by Dr. Moran, from 
 Henriquez : — 
 
 About the same time the monastery of S. Mary of 
 Maggiot became illustrious by the martyrdom of its holy 
 inmates. An heretical band having entered the adjoining 
 country, spreading on every side devastation and ruin, the 
 monks of Maggio, forty in number, were in hourly expecta- 
 tion of death. They resolved, however, not to fly from the 
 monastery, choosing rather to consummate their course in 
 the asylum which had been so long their happy abode. They 
 therefore assembled in choir, and, having recited the morning 
 office, in silence and prayer awaited their executioners. The 
 heretical soldiers did not long delay. On coming to the 
 monastery, they first imagined that it had been abandoned, 
 so universal was the silence that reigned around it, and they 
 plundered it in every part. On arriving, however, at the 
 church, they found the forty religious kneeling around the 
 altar, unmoved, as if unconscious of the scenes of sacrilegious 
 plunder that were perpetrated around them, and wholly 
 absorbed in prayer. ^Like hungry wolves, the heretics at 
 
 ^ Bruodin (lib. iii. cap. 20) gives the name of the village as Bally- 
 mohun, in the diocese of Limerick. 
 
 t “ St. Mary, Abbey of Nenay, or De Mfigg\o.*^Wares^^AntiquUies.” 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 47 
 
 once precipitated themselves upon the defenceless religious. 
 The cruelty and ferocity of the soldiers was surpassed only 
 by the meekness and heavenly joy of the victims/ and in a 
 few minutes forty names were added to the long roll of our 
 Irish saints. The vigil of the Assumption was the day con- 
 secrated by their death. One lay brother of the monastery 
 who had been absent for some time returned that evening, 
 and found his former happy abode reduced to a heap of 
 smoking ruins, and, entering the church, he found the altar 
 and choir streaming with blood. Throwing himself prostrate 
 before the mutilated statue of our Lady, he poured forth his 
 lamentations that her monastery was no more, and that her 
 glorious festival, which should be then commenced, would 
 pass in sadness and silence. He had scarcely breathed his 
 prayer, when he heard the bells of the monastery to toll, 
 and, lifting his head, he saw his martyred brethren, each 
 taking his accustomed seat; the abbot intoned the solemn 
 Vespers, and the psalms were sung as was usual on their 
 festive days. The angels and the Queen of Heaven joined 
 their voices with those of their now sainted companions. The 
 enraptured lay brother knew not whether he had been 
 assumed to heaven or was still on earth, till, the office being 
 completed, the vision ceased, and he once more contemplated 
 around him the mangled and bleeding remains of the mar- 
 tyred religious. Manriquez concludes his narrative of their 
 triumph with the impressive words, O happy Ireland, 
 that is enriched with the treasure of so many martyrs ! O 
 happy community, that sent forth so many intercessors to 
 the heavenly throne ! ” — Moran, who refers to Henriquez, 
 Manriquez, Sanctoral. Cisterc., and the Persecut. Hibernic. 
 of the Irish Seminary of Seville. 
 
 Anno 1581. 
 
 ROBERT MEYLER, PATRICK CANAVAN, and 
 EDWARD CHEEVERS. 
 
 These, together with some other Catholic sailors, had 
 secretly carried over into Prance a certain father of the 
 
48 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Society of Jesus^ and some other priests and laymen who 
 were flying for the faith, and, being seized, were tortured and 
 hung, cut down whilst only half dead, and then dismem- 
 bered, on the 5th day of July, 1581/^ — Philadelph. Bruo- 
 din gives a slightly different account, lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
 PATRICK HAYES, 
 
 a merchant and shipowner of AVexford, because that he 
 had oftentimes aided the Catholics in their distress, both 
 bishops, priests, and others, suffered a long imprisonment, 
 and, worn out by confinement and suffering at Dublin, he 
 slept in the Lord in the year 1581.^^ — Philadelph. 
 
 Rev. RICHARD FRENCH, 
 
 a priest of the diocese of Ferns, worn out with laborious 
 journeys, was cast into prison because that he had ingenu- 
 ously confessed and strenuously defended the faith, and sunk 
 under the filth and horrors of the prison, going to his Lord 
 in the year of salvation 1581. — Philadelph. 
 
 Rev. MATTHEW LAMPORT 
 
 was a priest and rector of a parish near Dublin, where he 
 was made prisoner by the heretics and sent to Dublin, where 
 he was put to death, rather from hatred to the Catholic 
 religion, which he zealously maintained, than for the reason 
 which was alleged, namely, that he had frequently given 
 hospitality to Father Rochford, the Jesuit. He was hung and 
 cut in four parts, and so gloriously died, 1st July, 1581.^^— 
 BriiodiUj lib. iii. cap. 20.* 
 
 * This, and the next, is a curious instance where the law, making it 
 treason to “ entertain a Jesuit,” was literally put in execution. Rothe, 
 however, says that it was for having given shelter to the Catholic Baron 
 of Baltioglas when in extreme want. - 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 49 
 
 Anno 1582. 
 
 Rev. DONATUS HEINRECHAN, PHILIP OTEUS, 
 AND MAURICE O^SCALLAN, O.S.F. 
 
 These Franciscan monks and priests were seized by the 
 heretics in their monastery of Lisacten,* not being able to 
 fly, on account of their age and loss of sight, and violently 
 dragged before the high altar of the church, and there slain, 
 a precious holocaust of sweet savour in the sight of the Lord, 
 the 20th July, in the year 1582.^^ — Philadelph, and Wadding^ 
 *^AnnalSf^ vol. xxi, p. 366. 
 
 Rev. THADD^US O’MERAN, FELIX O’HARA, and 
 HENRY LAYHODE, O.S.F. 
 
 In the convent of Enniscorthy, Thaddseus O’Meran, 
 father guardian of the convent, Felix O’Hara, and Henry 
 Layhode, under the government of Henry Wallop, Viceroy of 
 Ireland, were taken prisoners in their convent by the soldiers, 
 and for five days tortured in various ways, and then slain.” 
 — ^^AnnalSy^ vol. xxi. p. 366. 
 
 ROGER DONNELLAN, CHARLES GORAN, PATRICK 
 KENNAN, ROGER O’HANLON, and JOHN 
 PILAN, O.S.F., 
 
 having been long kept most strictly confined in prison in 
 Dublin, worn out with misery and squalor of the prison, 
 there died, the 13th Feb. 1582.” — ^^AnnalSy^ ut sup. 
 
 Rev. ^NEAS PENNY, 
 
 a priest of Connaught, was slain by the heretical soldiers, 
 in the act of celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in his 
 parish church of Killatra, the 4th May, 1582 .” — Bruodiuy 
 lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
 ♦Friary of Lislaghtin (county of Kerry). The place has its name 
 from S. Lactin, who died in the year 622. — Ware, p. 107. 
 
 E 
 
60 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Eev. DONATUS O’RIEDY, 
 
 also a priest of Connaught and parish priest of Coolrah, 
 when the soldiers of Elizabeth rushed into the village, sought 
 refuge in the church, but in vain, for he was there hung 
 near the high altar and afterwards pierced with swords, and so 
 nobly finished his life, 12th June, 1582/^ — Bruodin, lib. hi. 
 cap. 20. 
 
 Rev. JOHN WALLIS, 
 
 a priest of Leinster, honourable by birth, but still more 
 by piety, was seized by the heretics and endured many tor- 
 ments. Being sent prisoner to England, he there died, in the 
 prison of Worcester, and so triumphed for Christ, 20 Januarii, 
 1582.^^ — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
 Anno 1583. 
 
 Most Rev. NICHOLAS SKERRETT, 
 
 " Archbishop of Tuam, after a long imprisonment, escaped 
 to Portugal, and died, much regretted, in the city of Lisbon, 
 in 1583. He is buried in the church of S. Roch.^^ * — De 
 Processu MartyrialiP 
 
 Dame MARGERY BARNEWALL. 
 
 I GIVE her life from Dr. Rothe : — 
 
 ^^This virgin was born of noble parents, and when she 
 attained a marriageable age determined to dedicate her vir- 
 ginity to God, and in her thirtieth year received the holy 
 veil from the Catholic bishop. The name of virgin, says 
 S. Ambrose, is a title of modesty, and the one of whom I 
 write did not disappoint the omen of the name ; for she ever 
 delighted in purity and the conversation of other devout and 
 
 * Brerman says he was flogged and incarcerated,” but does not 
 refer to bis authority. — Eccl. Bist., vol. ii. p. 123. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 51 
 
 modest virgins. She dwelt for the most part in the city^ or 
 at least diocese, of Dublin, nor could her profession and 
 mode of life be long concealed from the pretended bishop of 
 the place, for information of it was given to him by a spy, 
 not for misliking of the life of the holy virgin, but for hope 
 of lucre from the archbishop. On receiving the information, 
 he sent an apparitor to arrest the lady and bring her before 
 him. She was first thrown into prison, and then brought out 
 for a public examination. Many questions were put to her 
 regarding her name, parentage, age, residence, and profes- 
 sion, to all of which she answered prudently and categori- 
 cally. Her age was then thirty-three, her condition that of 
 a virgin. ^ How,’ said the pseudo bishop, ' can I believe that 
 one so noble born, so well brought up, and so fair, could remain 
 in this wicked world to that age a virgin ? ’ This he took 
 from the ideas of Luther, who, himself given up to concu- 
 piscence, remembered not those classes of eunuchs of whom 
 our Lord speaks, of whom those who voluntarily renounce 
 carnal pleasures for the kingdom of heaven obtain the 
 reward ; and though this work is difficult and beyond the 
 ordinary strength of man, yet is it not impossible to Him 
 whom all things obey and whose power is equal to His will. 
 But our Sunamitess, who by the grace of God had observed 
 that which she had promised, modestly blushing, answered 
 that she marvelled her questioner should think it strange 
 that God should give strength to observe the vow He had 
 himself inspired, and which so many men and women in all 
 ages had observed. Thus repulsed with regard to her vow of 
 virginity, the bishop attacked her faith, using many artifices 
 to induce her to swerve from the orthodox faith ; but she 
 boldly and plainly answered that she had hitherto lived in 
 the bosom of the mother Church Catholic and Roman, and 
 was resolved in the same to die, nor was there aught in life 
 which could shake this her resolution. Irritated by this 
 answer, the bishop at once ordered her to be taken back into 
 prison. After she had been there detained for some time 
 she escaped by the aid of her noble relatives, who bribed the 
 gaoler, and, having found a British ship in the port of Dublin, 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 agreed with the master to take her to S. Malo.* This is 
 a city in the lesser Britain^ called also Armorica, surrounded 
 with walls and towers, yet, for greater safety, when the gates 
 are shut at night large fierce dogs are loosed to strengthen 
 the guard. They roam outside the walls and ferociously 
 attack any man or beast whom they may meet. The sailors 
 spoke much amongst themselves before they arrived at the port; 
 this inspired Dame Margery and her handmaiden with some 
 fear, and she determined not rashly to expose herself to them. 
 
 “ When the ship reached the port and had dropped her 
 anchor, the captain and his men landed, leaving only two 
 sailors to guard the women till morning, for it was late when 
 they arrived in the bay, and they had to go some distance in 
 a boat to land. The women feared the dogs on land, but the 
 dogs on sea proved even more dangerous; for the two un- 
 principled sailors, finding themselves left alone with the two 
 women, broke into the place where they were sleeping, and 
 tried first by offers and promises and then by violence to 
 make them consent to their impure desires; but the holy 
 virgins, calling God and our Blessed Lady to their aid, 
 resisted alike their solicitations and their violence, and, 
 strengthened by Him who is the strength of those that call 
 upon Him, were enabled to defeat their unholy violence. At 
 length, wearied with their obstinate resistance, the sailors 
 left them, and, retiring to their own berths, slept heavily. 
 
 All thought of sleep had fled from the terrified women, 
 and, trembling lest they should be again attacked by these 
 vile men, they thought of flying from that den of wild beasts. 
 Tying their clothes tightly around them, they threw them- 
 selves into the sea, and, supported by their clothes, which 
 floated on the water, were borne to the shore. But as they 
 reached the land, having thus escaped two successive dangers, 
 a third, awaited them,— the dread of the ferocious dogs who 
 roamed round the walls at night, and spared neither man 
 nor beast. The maid was particularly terrified, but her mis- 
 tress encouraged her, reminding her of the Divine Providence 
 
 * Sancti Maclovis Portus. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 53 
 
 and goodness, and saying that it were better for them that 
 their bodies should be devoured by dogs than their souls 
 destroyed by vicious men. Thus they mutually encouraged 
 each other^ arming themselves with the sign of the cross, 
 and imploring the divine assistance, and the protection of 
 the Blessed Virgin as they approached the shore. On their 
 landing, the ferocious watch-dogs rushed at them, and the 
 largest and fiercest placed his paws on the shoulders of the 
 virgin, as if about to tear her ; her maid, following behind, 
 trembled, but the mistress, repeating the verse of the psalm, 
 
 * Many dogs surrounded me,’ and speaking some words of 
 her native Irish to the dog, gently stroked his head, and the 
 dog, suddenly becoming gentle, with all his fellows, led them 
 to the gate of the city, and guarded them there safely until 
 the gates were opened, which, according to custom, was not 
 until the sun had arisen. 
 
 When those who had the charge of the keys of the gates, 
 and of the dogs, opened them in the morning, they were 
 astonished to see two women alive and unhurt in the midst 
 of the savage dogs, and, after a few questions, they led them 
 to the bishop of the place, who was then celebrating the 
 Divine Mysteries in the church. The news of the strange 
 event spread through the city, and a crowd assembled at the 
 church to see the two women, who, contrary to all example, 
 had escaped safe from the dogs. 
 
 ^‘The bishop, when he had finished Mass, examined them by 
 means of an interpreter, for he did not understand Irish, nor 
 they French or English. But by good fortune there was 
 present a noble of Maclon,* who had been brought up in 
 Ireland, and who knew the parents of our Margery, perhaps 
 even herself, having resided in the neighbourhood, as there 
 is a constant intercourse between the inhabitants of Maclon 
 and Ireland, the young people of each country being enter- 
 tained in the other to learn the language and custom of the 
 people, as is still the custom in some parts of Ireland. 
 
 In order more certainly to learn all the affair, the bishop 
 
 * Dr. Bothe writes it Maclon. 
 
54 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 sent for the captain, and asked him what he knew of the 
 women. He frankly told the whole tale, how they had been 
 recommended to him in Dublin, and had come in his ship, 
 and how he had left them in it the preceding evening to 
 await for day in order to land. Finally, the two sailors who 
 had assaulted them were brought up, and, on their con- 
 fessing their guilt, the two women whom they had sought to 
 injure begged that they might be forgiven. 
 
 “^All having thus come to light, the bishop, lest the recol- 
 lection of these events should perish, ordered the whole 
 examination, and the result, to be enrolled in the public 
 registers of the town, and most hospitably entertained, dur- 
 ing their stay, the two women thus preserved by the Divine 
 Providence ; nor when they departed did he allow them to 
 leave empty-handed. They had made a vow to God, who 
 had freed them from such great danger, to visit the shrine of 
 S. James of Compostella. On their arrival there the ser- 
 vant fell ill, and departed to the Lord. The stronger consti- 
 tution of the mistress enabled her to continue her pilgrimage 
 to Rome, and to visit the tombs of the Apostles. There she 
 related to her confessor the whole of this narrative, — of her 
 imprisonment in Ireland and her escape, her voyage to Brit- 
 tany, the assaults of the two sailors and her escape from their 
 power, the unusual gentleness of the watch-dogs, and how 
 the waves and the wild beasts had spared their innocence. 
 
 Afterwards, by her counsel and example, many pious 
 women and religious maidens in Ireland dedicated their 
 chastity to God, and, to use the words of S. Jerome (Epist. 
 8, ad Demetr.), ^by the solemn words of the priest covered 
 their consecrated heads with the virginal veil ; ’ and many 
 more would have done so had those who ruled the country 
 allowed them to lead a coenobitical life. But since, accord- 
 ing to the proverb, women require the protection either of a 
 man or a wall to guard them ^ from the attacks of the noon- 
 day devil, from the arrow that flieth by day, and the thing 
 that walketh in the nighV prudent men were cautious in 
 exhorting the weaker sex to take on them the veil and vow 
 of celibacy, lest the purity of that virginal garment should 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 55 
 
 become tarnished in the heat of the worldly sun, since it is 
 more easily guarded in the shade of the cloister than in the 
 throng of the world. Yet there still remain in that land 
 scattered shoots of that virginal tree, whose light shines the 
 brighter for the surrounding darkness, and by whom the 
 world, the flesh, and the devil are overcome. 
 
 Our Margery was taken prisoner by the Protestants, in 
 Dublin, in the year 1580, and in the third following year, 
 that is 1583, in the month of October, reached Rome, and 
 there gave an account of all these her wanderings to her 
 confessor, from whom we learned them, and for the edifica- 
 tion of our readers have here written them .^^ — Processu 
 MartyrialiP 
 
 Dr. Rothe does not mention, nor have I been able to find, 
 the date or place of Dame Margery BarnewalFs death. As 
 he says himself, he collected, from time to time, what 
 authentic accounts he could of the suff’erings of those per- 
 secuted for the faith ; and thus probably her confessor, who 
 was his informant, could only tell him the events of her life 
 up to her arrival in Rome, and departure hence. 
 
 Anno 1584. 
 
 Most Rev. DERMOD O’HURLEY, Archbishop of 
 Cashel. 
 
 I GIVE his life from Dr. Rothe, and in the notes any addi- 
 tional facts from O’Sullivan and others. 
 
 " The birthplace of this glorious martyr was a little village 
 in the diocese of Limerick, less than three miles from that 
 city, called Lycodoon,* where his parents lived respectably 
 
 * Lycodunum : Lycodoon still retained in the town land — no longer 
 a village — of Lycodoon, parish of Enockea, now the property of William 
 Smith O’Brien, Esq. — {Renehan, p. 251.) Vicus, or village, seems, 
 in writers of this period, often to mean only what is still called in 
 Ireland, amongst the peasantry, “the town ; ” viz., the dwelling-house 
 of a gentleman or farmer, with its surrounding offices and labourers’ 
 cottages. 
 
56 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 by farming, both of tillage and cattle ; they were held in 
 good estimation by their neighbours, both rich and poor, 
 especially James Geraldine, Earl of Desmond. His father^s 
 name was William Hurley, owner of the farm of Lycodoon, 
 and also steward or bailiflp for many years to the said earl, 
 whose power and fame was in those days great in all that 
 region, and, indeed, throughout Ireland, although by change 
 of fortune all that power has fallen. His mother was Honor 
 M^Brien, who was descended of the celebrated family of 
 Briens, Earls of Thomond, and, before the conquest of 
 Ireland, Kings of Munster. But in treating of the man of 
 whom we write it boots but little to speak of his descent or the 
 position of his ancestors, since he himself placed little or 
 none of his glory in such things. 
 
 Kam genus et proavos et quae non fecimus ipsi 
 Vix ea nostra voco. 
 
 " By the care and liberality of his parents, he received a 
 liberal education, and, having passed through all branches of 
 study, received the doctor’s degree in civil and canon law ; * 
 and, having made equal progress in piety and religion, he was 
 chosen by the Holy See as a fitting man to be made the 
 shepherd of his Catholic countrymen in Ireland, then suffer- 
 ing under the storm of schism. f 
 
 Having then been raised to the episcopacy by Gregory 
 XIII., and named Archbishop of Cashel, he took his route 
 towards Ireland. But there was great difficulty in proceed- 
 ing, from the dangers to which, in those turbulent times. 
 Catholic merchants and sailors were exposed from the 
 heretics. 
 
 “ However, after some time, having found an opportunity 
 of a Waterford ship in the port of Grosvico,J in Armorican 
 Britain, he treated with the ship’s factor for a passage to 
 
 • He gave public lectures in philosophy for four years in Louvain, 
 and subsequently held, with great applause, the chair of canon law in 
 Kheims . — JElogium Elegiac., ap. Moran, Hist. Ahps., i. 132. 
 
 t He was appointed by Gregory XIII. in 1580. — Ex Act. Consist., 
 ap. Moran. 
 
 X Probably Cherbourg. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 57 
 
 Ireland. There were in the same town, at that time, some 
 other ecclesiastics of the same nation, w ho were also desirous 
 to cross to Ireland ; amongst whom was Niel, Abbot of the 
 Cistercian Order of the Abbey of Newry,* in the diocese of 
 Armagh. 
 
 And that all may understand the greatness of the danger 
 which is daily encountered by the labourers in our vineyard, 
 when they seek to return to their country to spend their 
 labour, and even their lives, for Christ and His Church, it 
 must be considered that it is most difficult to find sure and 
 faithful men to whom the poor travellers can safely trust 
 themselves. For if the merchant himself be imbued with 
 the new errors (which is, however, very rare in a real Irish- 
 man), or the captain of the ship, or even any of the common 
 sailors (who are often of other nations, as Britons, English or 
 Scotch), the wretched priest is in danger of being denounced, 
 especially if there is any suspicion of his being of any dignity, 
 or even if the sailors have a bare suspicion that he be of an 
 ecclesiastical vocation, as lately befell two Capuchin monks, 
 whose innocence and uprightness was known to all, anno 
 1618. But as these two unexpectedly escaped from the hands 
 of their pursuers, so may their example make others hope con- 
 fidently in the divine bounty, which never deserts those who 
 trust in Him, but upholds with His almighty arm those who 
 are under trial lest they fall, or withdraws them from danger 
 lest they perish, and even strengthens them when necessary 
 to confess His name before the kings and princes of the 
 earth. The greatest and most frequent danger to which 
 those are exposed who seek to save their neighbours^ souls 
 in Ireland, and that when they least expect it, is that of 
 being betrayed on their landing by the sailors, either through 
 treachery or fear of themselves incurring danger.f 
 
 * Abbas de Urio, Newry. One of the old and most commonly used 
 Irish names of Newry was Uar ; whence the Latin de Urio. See an 
 account of it in Ware. 
 
 t There were heavy penalties enacted against all those who should 
 “aid in introducing Jesuits or priests.” How strictly these were 
 enforced another passage from our author will show : — “ As a certain 
 
58 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 There is another danger on the shores of Catholic lands, 
 lest they be denounced beforehand by spies, of whom there 
 are many in all the ports from which they may sail, even in 
 Catholic lands. There is danger also awaiting them on the 
 shores of their own land, that of being arrested by the 
 guards of the port, and the authorities of the town ; dan- 
 gers by sea, lest they fall into the hands of heretical pirates, 
 who would slay them for hatred of the Catholic faith ; dan- 
 ger every day they live in Ireland of falling into the hands 
 of her present rulers, as lately happened to the Reverend 
 Father Abbot Paul Ragetus, after a stay of many years in 
 his native land, and a little before, the same fate befell the 
 Reverend Father Guin,* of whom the one was arrested as 
 he was just about to step into the ship to embark in order 
 to leave the kingdom, and the other as he was going to the 
 seaport town to embark for France ; both were thrown into 
 prison in the Castle of Dublin; thus proving how every step 
 in Ireland is beset with danger. However, he who was last 
 arrested, having greased the hands of his guards (to use the 
 common expression), managed to escape. But the other, 
 who, as it seems, had less of that ointment and ^oil of 
 sinners,^ still lies in prison, with many other regular and 
 secular priests. But we have one ground of hope for them, 
 and all our countrymen, arising from the marriage of our 
 prince, which we pray God may be prosperous.f 
 
 Since what we are every day witnessing has led me into 
 this disgression, I hope that pity for our daily misery will 
 obtain me the reader^s pardon. My only reason for this 
 
 father of the Society of J esus, and with the illustrious Baron of In- 
 chiquin, who had received him as a guest, was thrown into prison : 
 the latter was at length dismissed with a heavy fine, for having ex- 
 tended ta a man bound to him both by religion and blood that hos- 
 pitality which, in our country, is ever extended to all. The merchant 
 who brought the priest was deprived of all his property by the Pre- 
 sident .” — Analecta Sacra Nova'* 
 
 * Probably Quin. 
 
 t The proposed marriage between the heir of the crown, Charles 
 (afterwards Charles I.), and the daughter of the Spanish Queen. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 59 
 
 mention was to show to what dangers our Archbishop of 
 Cashel exposed himself when he set his face to return into 
 his own land, as a sheep prepared for the slaughter. He 
 entrusted to a certain merchant of Wexford the rescript of 
 his appointment and his other papers conferring on him the 
 care of the flock, for he would not seem to thrust himself 
 into the episcopacy without being duly called and appointed, 
 as do our modern innovators, like those of old. But being 
 duly ordained and consecrated by the Apostolic See, he could 
 truly say, ‘ Of the Lord is our calling, and of the Holy One 
 of Israel our King.^ But these sacred writings he preferred 
 to send by others and by another road, that he might be 
 exposed to less danger on entering the kingdom, as well as 
 the merchants who took him with them. For merchants 
 who bring in such persons are exposed to no little danger, 
 as this very merchant, B. H., * had experienced, as well 
 as many others; as, for example, G. D., who, because he 
 was cognizant of the bringing of the Primate into Ireland, 
 was punished with three years’ imprisonment and heavy loss 
 of fortune. Thus is it seen that neither their incoming nor 
 their outgoing nor their abiding are safe. 
 
 The Wexford merchant who carried the bulls fell into the 
 hands of pirates, by whom he was spoiled and so pillaged 
 that he deemed it a mercy his life was spared. But the 
 archbishop, taking advantage, as I have said, of a Waterford 
 ship, committed himself to the divine providence, and, after 
 a prosperous voyage, reached the island of Skerries,t and 
 from thence proceeded to Waterford. Whilst he was hospi- 
 tably entertained there, J it chanced that one day there was 
 
 * He gives only the initials of his name. 
 
 t Sciretio insula; in Irish, Sciric. He landed at Drogheda . — See 
 “ State Papers.’" 
 
 t O’Sullivan says, “ For two whole years English spies sought every 
 opportunity to seize on his person ; but their plans were frustrated by 
 the fidelity of the Irish Catholics. In order to escape notice, he wore 
 generally a secular dress, as indeed all bishops and priests are obliged 
 to do in England, Ireland, and Scotland ever since this persecution 
 first broke out.” (p. 124.) 
 
60 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 some conversation on religion; on these occasions his zeal 
 and learning could not be restrained or concealed, and so 
 offended a certain heretic who was present, whose name was 
 Walter Baal (a fitting name, since of old it designated the 
 devil and a son of Belial) : he broke out into violent lan- 
 guage, and soon after, starting off to Dublin, denounced 
 Dermod to the governors on suspicion. The departure of 
 this man suggested to the archbishop the thought that it 
 boded him no good, and his fears were confirmed by an 
 honest citizen, who warned him and the companion, or 
 rather guide, of his journey. Father John Dillon, of their 
 danger, and advised them to leave that city immediately.* 
 The same Father Dillon afterwards paid the penalty of 
 this companionship by a long imprisonment, and with difiiculty 
 escaped death by the favour of his elder brother, who was 
 at that time one of the King^s Council, and filled the office 
 of First President of the King^s Exchequer or Treasury. 
 
 They immediately departed with their little baggage, and 
 betook themselves to Slane, to the castle of the noble Lord 
 Thomas Fleming, Baron of Slane.f Here, by desire of that 
 pious heroine, Catherine Preston, wife of the aforesaid baron, 
 they were concealed in a secret chamber. They remained 
 here for some time, removed from society, and avoided being 
 seen by any but friends, until the attempt of Baal to have 
 them arrested should have wholly failed, and the rumour 
 spread by him should have died away. When they thought 
 that the whole matter was forgotten, they began to act a 
 little more freely, to sit at table with the family and join in 
 
 * O’Sullivan gives the date of this 1583. 
 
 t Ismay Dillon, daughter of Sir Bartholomew Dillon, of Biverstown, 
 county Meath, and aunt to Sir Bobert, was married to John Fleming, 
 of Stephenstown, second son of James, Lord Slane, by whom she had 
 Thomas, Lord Slane. Dillon and Lord Slane were therefore cousins. 
 Dillon was then Chief J ustice of the Court of Common Pleas. The wife 
 of Lord Slane, Catherine Preston, was daughter of Jenico, the third 
 Viscount Gormanston. She died in 1597, and was buried in the 
 hermitage of S. Erk Slane . — See ArchdalVs “ Lodge,” vol. iii. p. 78 ; 
 vol. iv. pp. 143, 144. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 61 
 
 their conversation, and no longer to avoid meeting any 
 guests that might chance to come to the house. Now, it 
 so chanced that one day there came to that house, whether 
 by accident or design, Robert Dillon, one of the King’s 
 Council, and Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. 
 At table the conversation turned on serious subjects, and 
 the archbishop betrayed so much learning that it gave 
 occasion to the sagacious Chief Justice (who bodily was blind 
 of one eye, and mentally wholly blinded by ambition) to 
 mark the man, to inquire who he was, whence he came, and 
 to put many other questions, the answers to all of which he 
 kept to himself until he had the opportunity to lay them 
 before the governors and the Council. He laid all his sus- 
 picions before the Council, and proposed that he should be 
 brought from his hiding-place to answer for himself to the 
 Council, and that if he fled he would confirm their sus- 
 picions ; and that the Baron of Slane should be summoned 
 before the Council, and held either to produce his guest 
 or answer for him. The bishop fled, and the baron having 
 appeared before the Council, was severely reprimanded for 
 sheltering such a man, and threatened with heavy fine and 
 imprisonment unless he found and produced his late guest. 
 Terrified by these threats, the baron at once set out to pursue 
 him ; for, being tepid in faith, and bound up with the world, 
 he shrunk from what seemed to threaten certain destruction, 
 especially as the persecutors were so bitter in their rage 
 against the archbishop, and their threats against himself for 
 having sheltered him. Loftus,* who was the colleague of 
 Wallop, did not so thirst for the blood of the innocent, for 
 he was more inclined to gentleness by nature and equity, as 
 beseemed a Chancellor; but his partner in the government 
 was a son of Mars, and, skilled rather in the arts of Bellona 
 than of Pallas, was a man of blood, and not to be satisfied 
 without shedding it. His mind, too, was exasperated against 
 
 * “ Anno 1582-3. — Lords Justices of Ireland, Adam Loftus, Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor, with Sir Henry Wallop, 
 Treasurer of Ireland.”— TFizre’^ “ Annals." 
 
62 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Archbishop Dermod by an unfounded suspicion which he 
 had conceived, that that prelate had been a party to a process 
 which had been some time before instituted at Madrid or 
 E-ome against a grandson of his, who had been denounced 
 to the Inquisition by his own countrymen for offences 
 against religion.* This prosecution is said to have so in- 
 flamed the mind of the Lord Justice against our prelate that 
 he could not be satisfied with less than his death ; as this 
 was well known to the Council, they admonished the Baron 
 of Slane that if he would save his own life he must produce 
 the bishop. 
 
 Looking more to his own safety than to the duty of 
 friendship, he pursued hotly after the archbishop, and, over- 
 taking him at Carrick-on-Suir, just as he had returned from 
 visiting the blessed cross,f a visit which, when in danger, he 
 had vowed to make, he prayed him very civilly to accompany 
 him to Dublin, there to appear before the Council, and prove 
 his innoeence, and show that he had come to Ireland with a 
 true ecelesiastical spirit, and to preach the faith. What was 
 the pious bishop to do? He recked not of his own danger, 
 but looked to the safety of the baron. At that time there 
 was at Cork the great Earl of Ormond, Thomas Butler, of 
 devout memory, who loved Dermod, and respected his virtue 
 and the dignity of his office, and ordered him to be supplied 
 with food and all necessaries from his own house, and many 
 say that he had his recently-born son James, who afterwards 
 died young in England, privately baptized by him. 
 
 “At that time the unfortunate rising of the southern 
 nobles had been suppressed, and the Earl of Desmond him- 
 self, having lost nearly all his forces, was about to seek safety 
 in eoncealment. I express no opinion on the matter, nor do 
 I attribute to any one the blame of the crime that was com- 
 
 * ISTota Authoris. — “Others relate that Wallop tortured the arch- 
 bishop out of hatred and envy to the Earl of Ormond, by whom the 
 prelate had been received.” 
 
 t This would be the Abbey of Holy Cross, in Tipperary, a celebrated 
 pilgrimage in those days . — See Saverty s “ History of Ireland," 
 p. 413. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 63 
 
 mitted;* nor shall I speak of the Lord Arthur Gray having 
 violated the pledge he had given to the auxiliary troops ; 
 but it is believed by many that Archbishop Dermod, either 
 of his own idea or at the suggestion of others^ wished to see 
 the Earl of Desmond ere he retired to his fastnesses, to 
 console him, and if it might be to bring him back to courses 
 more consistent with his honour and safety ; and if the earl 
 had turned a willing ear to the advice the archbishop sought 
 to give him, and if this prudent design had not been cut 
 short by the imprisonment of Dermod, Munster would not 
 have had to deplore the wretched death of the earl, which 
 happened a little later, at the hands of two wretched cut- 
 throats. 
 
 “ As the bishop travelled back to Dublin with the baron, 
 each night when the latter put up either in the public inn or 
 the house of a friend, the former was thrust into the public 
 prison, for greater security, as if he wore the wings of Mer- 
 cury on his feet to enable him to fly. One night he spent 
 in Kilkenny in prison, and there a certain Catholic came to 
 him to obtain the benefit of his ministry ; their conversa- 
 tion turned upon the unhappy Bishop of Eerns,t whom 
 human weakness and the fear of men had led to desert the 
 Catholic faith. ^Many,^ said our holy martyr, ^who are lions 
 before the battle, are timid stags when the hour of trial 
 
 * Our author refers here to the treachery by which the Desmonds 
 were pursued, and to the slaughter, after quarter given, of the un- 
 armed Spanish garrison of the fort at Smerwick harbour, by order of 
 Arthur, Lord Gray, in 1580. 
 
 t One circumstance connected with the heroic constancy of Dr. 
 O’Hurley deserves to be specially commemorated. The Bishop of 
 Eerns had wavered in his allegiance to the Holy See, and hence, at 
 this period, stood high in court favour. Witnessing the triumph of 
 Dr. O’Hurley, he was struck with remorse for his own imbecility and 
 criminal denial of his faith, and, hastening to the Lords Justices, 
 declared that he was sorry for his past guilt, and now rejected with 
 disdain the temporal supremacy of Elizabeth. “ He too,” writes the 
 Bishop of Killaloe in October that same year, “ is now confined in a 
 most loathsome dungeon, from which every ray of light is excluded.” — 
 Moran, p. 135, Epist. cit. See a further account of this bishop, Dr. 
 Power, at p. 125. 
 
64 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 comes. Lest this prove true of me, I daily pray to our good 
 Lord for strength ; for let him that thinketh to stand look 
 lest he fall.^^ ^ Thus did he work out his salvation with fear 
 and trembling, neither puffed up with self-confidence nor 
 cast down by fear, and kept himself with the sheep of Christ 
 in the sheepfold, who hear the voice of Christ in that of His 
 vicegerent. When the archbishop arrived in Dublin, he was 
 brought before the Privy Council for examination,* falsely 
 accused of many crimes, and he meekly showed his innocence. 
 The Chancellor, Adam Loftus, treated him more gently, and 
 sought by many cajolements to induce him to conform, as 
 they call it. Sir Henry Wallop was more savage, and re- 
 peatedly broke out into violent and abusive threats, and 
 showed that his inveterate hatred to the orthodox faith would 
 never be satisfied with anything less than the slaughter of 
 this innocent lamb. 
 
 ^^As, after many examinations, no shadow even of crime could 
 be discovered against him, and he could not be condemned by 
 the tribunals, according to the common law of this kingdom, 
 without either proof of some crime or the confession of the 
 criminal, the judges were consulted whether he could not, at 
 least, be sent into England, there to be tried under the sta- 
 tutes recently passed there against the Catholic subjects of 
 that kingdom, especially those suspected of any foreign in- 
 trigues. But the judges answered that, as Ireland, although 
 part of the possessions of the English Crown, is governed by 
 its own laws', customs, and statutes, and is a different king- 
 dom from England, with a different Parliament, different 
 privileges, and different tribunals, no one not born in Eng- 
 land could be sent there to be tried by the laws of that 
 kingdom. 
 
 “ Since, then, he was not subject to the law of England, 
 and could not be proved guilty of any crime in his own 
 
 * O’Sullivan says, at his first examination he was asked if he were 
 a priest, to which he answered in the affirmative, and added, more- 
 over, that he was an archbishop. He was then thrown into a dark 
 and loathsome prison, and kept there, bound in chains, till the Holy 
 Thursday of the following year. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 G5 
 
 country^ that no means might be left him of escaping the 
 hands of the executioner,, a new and strange mode of trial was 
 devised against him. And as by the laws of war some military 
 crimes are punishable by death by the authority of the 
 general^ and sudden risings or breaches of military disci- 
 pline may be checked by sudden punishments, this bloody 
 soldier determined to have the peaceful bishop slain by 
 military law, as he could not attain his end by the laws of 
 his country. But he determined first to subject him to the 
 torture, that, if he could not extort by pain any confession of 
 guilt, he might perchance be induced by the intensity of his 
 sufferings to abjure the Catholic faith. But the eruel tyrant 
 was disappointed in Dermod ; his flames could not overcome 
 the flames of the love of Christ ; the fire that burnt without 
 was less powerful than that which burned within his breast. 
 
 ^^Fortunately we have a description of his sufferings, written 
 by a noble and learned man, a citizen of Dublin, who learned 
 the circumstance from eye-witnesses, if indeed he were not 
 himself in the city when our martyr suffered ; wherefore 
 I will give his words, as given in the introduction to his 
 discussion with James Usher. (Stanihurst, pp. 29, 30.) 
 After having said a few words of the martyrdom of Eichard 
 Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, 
 words which I will give in writing of the death of that pre- 
 late, he adds, regarding Dermod O’ Hurley, — 
 
 ^ The Archbishop of Cashel met a harder fate, and the bar- 
 barous cruelty of Calvinism cannot be better shown than by 
 it. The executioners placed the archbishop’s feet and calves 
 in tin boots filled with oil ; they then fastened his feet in 
 wooden shackles or stocks, and placed fire under them. The 
 boiling oil so penetrated the feet and legs that morsels of the 
 skin and even flesh fell off and left the bone bare.* The 
 ofiicer whose duty it was to preside over the torture, unused 
 to such unheard-of suffering, and unable to look on such an 
 inhuman spectacle, or to bear the piteous cries of the inno- 
 cent prelate, suddenly left his seat and quitted the place. 
 
 O’Sullivan says he was subjected to this torture for an hour, 
 
GO 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 1’he cruel minds of the Calvinistic executioners were gratified, 
 but not appeased, by these extraordinary torments; and a 
 few days afterwards, wholly unexpectedly, they took out the 
 archbishop, who from his sufferings was indeed suffering a 
 daily death, yet had no reason to expect execution, to a 
 place a little distance from the Castle of Dublin. This was 
 done at early dawn, lest the spectacle should excite a tumult 
 amongst the people. There they hung him with a halter 
 roughly woven of twigs, to increase his torture. This bar- 
 barous and inhuman cruelty satiated indeed their thirst for 
 his blood, but opened for the holy prelate the fountain of 
 eternal life ; so that, drinking of its eternal source, though 
 cast down, he is raised up ; though conquered, he hath con- 
 quered ; slain, he lives, and by the cruelty of the Calvinists 
 triumphs everlastingly. 
 
 ^ The cries of the holy archbishop, of which I have spoken, 
 were no murmurs of an impatient mind, — not a cry as the 
 cry of Esau, or as those that mourn the dead, but the sighs of 
 a Christian breast feeling the bitterness of its torments ; for 
 he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity, and 
 from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head all was tor- 
 mented. Not only his legs and feet were tortured with the 
 boiling oil and salt, but his whole body was burnt with 
 the heat, and bathed in the chill perspiration of exhaustion. 
 With a loud voice he cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have 
 mercy upon me ! raising up his voice with his soul to 
 Him who alone is mighty to save. No torture could wring 
 from him aught but a profession of the orthodox faith ; he 
 was stronger than his tortures, for neither boiling oil nor 
 piercing salt nor blazing fire could shake his faith or extin- 
 guish his love of God. 
 
 Exhausted and, as it were, suffocated by his sufferings 
 whilst fastened in the stocks, the archbishop lost all voice 
 and sense, and when taken out lay on the ground like dead, 
 unable to move hand or foot, or even eye or tongue. The 
 head executioner began to fear lest he had exceeded his 
 orders, which were only to torture and not to kill, and 
 might be punished for having put him to death without 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 67 
 
 orders. He therefore directed him to be wrapped in linen and 
 laid on a feather bed, and poured a few drops into his mouth 
 to see if any life yet remained in the tortured body, and if 
 he could be recalled to his senses. The next morning, as 
 he had a little revived, aromatic drinks were administered 
 to him, to give him strength to endure new torments, the 
 executioners rejoicing as they saw him slowly swallow it 
 from a spoon, for they feared to receive from Wallop the 
 same punishment as Perillus from Phalaris : — 
 
 Et necis artifices arte perire sua. 
 
 ^^^Our martyr was gradually so far recovered as to be able 
 to sit up* and to limp a little, when his enemies sought to 
 make him waver in the faith, offering him dignity and office 
 if he would resign his position as bishop and acknowledge the 
 Queen to have a double sovereignty, ecclesiastical as well as 
 secular. There was sent to him for this purpose, amongst 
 others, Thomas Johns, who is now Chancellor of this king- 
 dom. But he remained unshaken as the Marpesian rock. 
 His only sister, too. Honor Hurley, was induced to go and 
 tempt him to apostatize, and she urgently besought him to 
 yield ; but he, frowning on her, ordered her to fall at his 
 knees and humbly beg pardon of God and absolution for so 
 grave a crime against God, so hurtful to her own soul, and 
 so abhorred by her brother. 
 
 ‘ These governors were about to quit their office, to be 
 succeeded by Sir John Perrott, who at this time arrived in 
 Dublin ; but, before he entered on office, as it was rumoured 
 that the Earl of Ormond was hastening to Dublin to congra- 
 tulate the new Viceroy and intercede with him for Dermod, 
 Wallop was determined first to slake his hatred in the blood 
 of the archbishop. 
 
 * O’Sullivan says, “ A worthy priest named Charles MacMorris, 
 of the society, skilled in medicine, found access to the archbishop, 
 and treated his wounds with such skill that in a few days his strength 
 began to return, and in less than a fortnight he was enabled to sit up 
 in bed. This priest had himself been confined in prison by the English, 
 but released on account of the skill with which he treated some noble- 
 men when suffering from dangerous illness.” 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 ‘ As Perrott was to ;*eceive the sword of office on Sunday^ 
 the feast of the Holy Trinity, and his power would then 
 cease, lest his successsor might prove more merciful, on the 
 preceding Friday,* and at early dawn, as we have men- 
 tioned, the archbishop was drawn on a hurdle through the 
 garden-gate to the place where he was hanged. Wallop 
 himself (as it is said) going before with three or four guards ; 
 and there he was hanged in a withey, calling on God and 
 forgiving his torturers with all his heart. 
 
 ^ He was taken out of the castle without any noise, lest 
 there should be a tumult; but the Catholics who were 
 prisoners there, seeing him going, called out that he was 
 innocent ; and, amongst others, a certain bishop, then a pri- 
 soner there, called out aloud that he rather deserved that 
 fate for the scandal he feared he had formerly given, but 
 that Hurley was an innocent and holy man. Upon which 
 the gaoler severely flogged him and the others, and so re- 
 duced them to silence.^ 
 
 The holy martyr was hanged in a wood near the city, and 
 at evening was buried in the half-ruined church of Saint 
 Kevin, and it is stated that many miracles have been 
 wrought there; and, in consequence, the old church has 
 been restored, and a road opened to it, which is much fre- 
 quented by the people, who go to recommend themselves to 
 the prayers of the holy martyr.^^t 
 
 * According to O’Sullivan, he was executed on the 7th June, 1584. 
 William Simon, a citizen of London, removed the martyr’s body in a 
 wooden urn, and buried it secretly in consecrated ground. Richard, a 
 distinguished musician, celebrated his sufierings and death in a plaintive 
 elegy, called “ The Fall of the Baron of Slane.” Moran says he was in 
 his sixty -fifth year, and was executed on the 6th May, and gives as his 
 authority the Littera di Geoghegan, 4th June, 1584, and letter of 
 Cornelius Laonensis from Lisbon, 29th October, 1584. (“ History of the 
 Archbishops of Dublin,” i. 135.) O’Sullivan is probably inexact, as he 
 often is. Mooney also says he suffered “ mense Mari but the recently 
 published “ State Papers ” say he was executed on the 19th June. 
 
 f Dr. O’Hurley ’s own suffragan bishop thus speaks of him : — “ The 
 Archbishop of Cashel endured martyrdom in Dublin with most glorious 
 firmness and heroism, and although subjected to the most dreadful 
 
IN THE IIEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 69 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 Ireland, vol. cv. No. 10. 
 
 1583. Oct. 8. 
 
 [The original correspondence on the subject of the archbishop s 
 trial between the lords justices in Ireland and the Council in 
 England, lately discovered in the State Paper Office, London, 
 throw much light on the whole matter, and so strikingly prove 
 the accuracy of the narrative of Dr. Rothe that I give them here 
 in extenso.~\ 
 
 Indorsed — Sr. H. Wallop, and Archbishop of Dublin. 
 
 Dr. Hurley apprehended. 
 
 Addressed — To the Worshipful Robert Beale, supplying 
 the place of Her Majesty Chief Secretary. 
 
 Sir, — 
 
 By our last letters we gave you some inkling of the 
 arrival here of one Dr. Hurley, upon intelligence whereof 
 Ave caused so narrow search to be made after him, as wc 
 found he had been entertained in the house of the Baron of 
 Slane, and some others of good account within the pale, and. 
 from thence was departed (in company with Mr. Perse 
 Butler, base son to the Earl of Ormond) into Munster. 
 Whereupon, sending for the Baron of Slane, we so dealt 
 Avith him as he travailed presently to the Earl for the 
 apprehension of the said Hurley, and, returning again yes- 
 terday, brought him unto us, but as yet our leisure hath not 
 served to examine him. What shall fall out upon his ex- 
 amination we willby the next advertise the Lords at large. 
 In the mean time it is most certain that he had been a leidger 
 at Rome for a long time, soliciting all matters that had been 
 
 torture, yet could never be induced to subscribe to the iniquitous in- 
 novations of Elizabeth. He died fearlessly and gloriously confessing 
 his faith ; but what afflicts me is, that our martyrs are no longer led 
 publicly to execution, but are put to death in private, without the 
 presence of the people : it was thus the archbishop was executed, by 
 only three soldiers, fearing lest he should exhort and inflame the 
 people to constancy in their Christian faith.” — Letter of Dr. Cornelius 
 O' Mulrian, ex Archie. Secret. Vatican, ap. Moran. 
 
70 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 there attempted to the prejudice of H. Majesty’s proceedings 
 here in this realm, and the perturbing of this state. He is 
 nominated by the Pope to be Archbishop of Cashel. Thus 
 for the present, all things else being in reasonable good quiet? 
 and having not further to enlarge, we betake you to the 
 tuition of Almighty God. From Dublin, this 8th of 
 October, 1583. 
 
 Your assured loving friends, 
 
 Ad. Dublin. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 PUBLIC BECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 Ireland, vol. cv. No. 29. 
 
 Indorsed — 20th Oct. 1583. 
 
 Reed. 29. 
 
 Lords Justices of Ireland, 
 
 Michael Fitzsimons. 
 
 BarnewelPs Second Confession. 
 
 Dr. Hurley. 
 
 Addressed — To the Right Honourable Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham, Knight, Principal Secretary to her Majesty, give 
 these at court. 
 
 Touching Since your Honour’s departure into Scot- 
 
 Michael Fitz- received a letter from the Lords 
 
 Simons pardon. . -,/r* i i 
 
 concerning one Michael Fitzsimons, the copy 
 
 whereof we send your Honour, here enclosed. 
 
 Whereby it seemeth that besides his flying 
 
 into France without licence which he maketh 
 
 the ground of his suit for a pardon, their 
 
 Lordships would have him pardoned for any 
 
 one fault that he hath committed against the 
 
 law here in hope of his conformity and dutiful 
 
 life hereafter. According to which letter we 
 
 have called him before us, and declared their 
 
 Lordships’ pleasure in his behalf, willing him 
 
 to show any one fault wherein he had offended 
 
 her Majesty’s laws, and he should have pardon 
 
Second confes- 
 sion of Barne- 
 well. 
 
 IN THE llEtGN OF ELIZABETH. 71 
 
 for it according to their Lordships^ direction. 
 But he will not enter into any particular 
 with us, but urgeth the pardon in general 
 terms. This Fitzsimons is well known unto 
 us to be not only an arrogant Papist impossible 
 to be reformed, and a continual practiser 
 against the State. So if it please your Honour 
 to read the examination of Christopher 
 Barnewell against Sedgrave and William Fitz- 
 simons of this city your Honour shall find 
 that this Michael Fitzsimons was made ac- 
 quainted with the whole practise, and that, if 
 he could have furnished himself with money, 
 he should have been the carrier of the letters 
 both to the Pope and the King of Spain, to 
 have sollicited for more aid ; and, therefore, 
 sinee his offense is to be justified by Barnewell, 
 and that he will not enter into the voluntary 
 confession of it, it is like he find a guilty 
 conscience in divers treasons, and therefore 
 will depend upon this letter of the Lords for a 
 refuge against the first fault wherewith he 
 shall be charged. Wherefore, we wish (the 
 quality of his offense considered) that we 
 might have a revocation of their Lordships^ 
 said letter, whereby we might be at liberty to 
 deal with him in a more severe sort. 
 
 Secondly, your Honour is to understand 
 that about the time of the beginning of your 
 journey into Scotland, we sent to the Lord 
 Treasurer and your Honour jointly a second 
 voluntary confession of the aforesaid Chris- 
 topher Barnewell touehing 120. In whieh 
 confession there is one Dr. Hurley (by 
 creation of the Pope, Archbishop of Cashel), 
 named to have been a practiser at Borne 
 about the rebels here, and to have had access 
 to Cardinal Comensis, the Pope^s secretary, as 
 
MARTYRS AND CONEESSORS 
 
 in the confession at large appeareth. This 
 Hurley, having received letters from Rome 
 to divers persons in Ireland, landed at Droyg- 
 hadore about six weeks past, and immediately 
 grew familiar with the Baron of Slane, and 
 resorted to his house under pretense of ac- 
 quaintance with a base son of the Earl of 
 Ormondes, who married the Baron’s daughter, 
 and, passing some time there, from thence 
 went into Oreylies country to seek some 
 priests of his foreign acquaintance, and so 
 into Munster to the Lord General (being a 
 born man under his Lordship), and craving 
 protection at his hands. Which being re- 
 vealed unto us, we so dealt with the Baron 
 of Slane that he travailed to the Earl and 
 brought the said Hurley hither unto us^ 
 where we have committed him close prisoner 
 to the Castle. At his first apprehension he 
 uttered some words to the Baron of Slane as 
 though 120 and .... were to be charged 
 with these late stirs and foreign practices 
 and so the Baron gave it forth in secret ; but 
 before his coming to us, he had been so well 
 schooled as now he pretendeth ignorance in 
 all things saving that he confesseth that the 
 Viscount of Bathinglas, his brother Richard 
 Eustace, Barnewell, and he, were together 
 with Cardinal Comensis, but denieth that he 
 saw any such letters, as Barnewell in his con- 
 fession alledgeth, nor heard any matter of 
 such importance. The other justifieth his 
 former confession, and addeth that the Doctor 
 was one of the House of Inquisitions, which 
 he denieth not. And further the Doctor con- 
 fesseth that he had letters from Cardinal Sans 
 [Sens] (who is called Protector of Ireland) to 
 the Earl of Desmond and others, which letters 
 
IN TilE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 73 
 
 (he saitb) lie left in France and would not 
 meddle with them. We heartily, therefore, 
 pray your Honour that conferring with the 
 Lord Treasurer you will procure us resolution 
 upon our former joint letter to his Lordship 
 and you touching the confession of the said 
 Barnewell, how we shall either proceed in it 
 or suppress it, and also what course we are to 
 hold with the Popish Archbishop and Michael 
 Fitzsimons, and so, most glad of your Honour’s 
 safe return, we commit you to the Lord. 
 
 From Dublin this 20th of October, 1583. 
 Your Honour’s always at commandment, 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 PUBLIC BECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 State Papers, Ireland No. 7. 
 
 1583, Dec. 10. 
 
 Among other letters directed to us and brought by this 
 last passage, we received one from your Honour declaring 
 her Majesty’s pleasure for the proceeding with Dr. Hurley 
 by torture or any other severe manner of proceeding to gain 
 his knowledge of all foreign practices against her Majesty’s 
 state, wherein we partly forbore to deal till now, because that 
 Mr. Waterhouse (whom we used only in the former examina- 
 tions) was employed in Connaught with Sir Nicholas Malbic 
 in searching out the manner of the death of the Baron of 
 Leitrim, and being now returned, we will enter into the 
 matter again by examination of all such as transported Hur- 
 ley, and such as hosted and entertained him after his landing, 
 and will also deal with himself by the best means we may. 
 But for that we want here either rack or other engine of 
 torture to terrify him, and doubt not but, at the time of his 
 apprehension, he was schooled to be silent in all causes of 
 weight, we thought that in a matter of so great importance 
 and to a person so inward with the Pope and his Cardinalls, 
 
74 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 and preferred by them to the dignity of an Archbishop^ the 
 Tower of London should be a better school than the Castle 
 of Dublin, where being out of hope of his Irish patrons and 
 favourers he might be made more apt to tell the truth, and 
 therefore do wish that we had directions to send him thither 
 which we think may be secretly done, as his departure hence 
 should not be known, neither be discovered till he came 
 thither, and in the mean season we would not only inform 
 ourselves of all that may be gained here out of the examina- 
 tion of him and others, but also prepare that Barnewell, his 
 accuser, may repair to the court to justify his former depo- 
 sition and other matters against Hurley, wherein we pray 
 your Honour to be speedily informed if her Majesty please, 
 and so do commit ye to the Lord. 
 
 At Dublin, the 10th of Dec., 1583. 
 
 Yr. Honour^s assured at commandment. 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 To the Right Hon. Sir Francis Walsingham, Knt., Prin- 
 cipal secretary to Her Majesty, give these. 
 
 Indorsed — 10th Dec., 1583. 
 
 From the Lords Justices of Ireland. 
 
 Why they have not proceeded further as yet against 
 Hurley, they want instruments of torture. 
 
 They desire the said Hurley may be sent over to the 
 Tower, and herein crave answer with speed. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON, 
 
 Ireland, vol. civ. No. 381. 
 
 1583, Aug. 12th. 
 
 The examination of Christopher Barnewell, of Dundalk, 
 the 12th August, 1583. (N.B. The first half of this examina- 
 tion is regarding James Fitzmaurice and Rochfort the 
 priest.) Also when he went to Rome, as in his other con- 
 fession is expressed, he saith that, missing Richard Eustace 
 at Paris, he went to Rome and there found him, at which 
 time there was one Hurley, now created Archbishop of 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 75 
 
 Cashel. Richard Eustace carried this examinate to the 
 Archbishop, who examined him of all matters of Ireland, 
 especially what Lords were in arrest; this examinate told him 
 of all that were in the action. Then the Bishop asked of the 
 Earl of Kildare. He answered he was in the Castle of Dublin 
 prisoner, and the Baron of Delvin with him. Then he asked 
 whether the Earl were taken as a companion of the rebellion 
 or no. He answered no ; he served against the Viscount, 
 and before that against James Eitzmaurice. Then the 
 Bishop took him with him to the Pope^s Secretary, called 
 Cardinal Comensis, to whom he told the same tale. Then 
 the Cardinal said, ^^Who would trust an Irishman? The 
 Earl promised to take our part, and shrunk his shoulders into 
 his ears.^^ The Archbishop said that he thought the Earl 
 never promised that he would take arms. Then the Cardinal 
 chaffed, and said, “ Wilt thou tell me ? And then he went 
 into his study and fetched out two writings, the one a great 
 writing whereunto the Bishop said the most part of the 
 lords and gentlemen of Ulster, Munster, and Connaught had 
 subscribed ; the other was a letter from the Earl of Kildare 
 alone, which the Cardinal showed to the Archbishop as 
 rebuking him for not believiog him. All this the Examinate 
 saith was expounded to him both by the said Bishop and 
 Richard Eustace, and he saith further that the Cardinal, in 
 the end of that conference, said, ‘^Do you think that we 
 would have trusted to James Eitzmaurice, or to Stewkely, 
 or to all these lords (which subscribed the great letter), unless 
 we had received the letter from the Earl of Kildare And 
 then the Cardinal turned away and told the Archbishop that 
 the Pope had no money for none of their nation. He said 
 further that all the Irishmen in Rome cursed the Earl of 
 Kildare for breach of his promise, and prayed for the 
 Viscount and the Earl of Desmond and all other confederates. 
 
 {Signed) Christopher Barnewell. 
 
 The said Christopher Barnewell was examined before us. 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 Ed. Waterhouse. 
 
76 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 PUBLIC BECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 Ireland, Eliz., vol. cviii. 
 
 1584, March 8th. 
 
 Extract of the last letters touching Hurley. 
 
 7th March, 1584. With an extract of Hurley^s examina- 
 tion, as also of other examinations that touch Hurley. 
 
 The best lawyers there doubt whether he can be found 
 guilty, his treasons having been committed in foreign parts, 
 and the law not stretching in this behalf so far there as it 
 doth in England. They think it better, Hurley having 
 neither lands nor goods, that he be executed by martial 
 law rather than by any ordinary trial. 
 
 To have resolutions herein from hence. 
 
 5th March, 1584. With the letters of Hurley to the 
 Pope, intercepted since his torture. 
 
 Hurley and such-like, favoured by great Potentates, they 
 desire to know the acceptation of their travail in this and in 
 the like. 
 
 Never heard answer to their letters to my Lord Treasurer 
 and me with the examination of Barnewell. 
 
 They will desist if their travail be not acceptable, knowing 
 how dangerous it is. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 1584, March 7th. 
 
 From ye Lords Justices of Ireland, touching Dr. Hurley. 
 
 Addressed — the Right Hon‘^^^ Sir Francis Walsing- 
 ham, K*.. Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, and of Her 
 Highnesses Most Hon*^'®. Privy Council. 
 
 May it please your Honour. Since the last term, which 
 the other general affairs here would give us leave, we have at 
 several times examined Dr. Hurley, with whom albeit we 
 dealt by all the good means we could to draw him to confess 
 his knowledge, not only of any practice of disturbance 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 77 
 
 pretended against tlie land in particular, but also of any 
 other foreign conspiracy whatsoever against her Majesty for 
 England, or any other parts of her dominions ; and in that 
 point we omitted not to give him a taste that so far forth as 
 he would sincerely and liberally discover all that he knew of 
 others, her Majesty^s mercy might be extended to repair such 
 faults as himself had committed. Yet, he retaining his former 
 obstinacy and evasions, we found himself far off from that 
 truth which we expected, and are not ignorant that he can 
 declare if he list ; yea, he would not confess that he brought 
 from Rome the Pope^s letters of comfort, addressed to the 
 Earl of Desmond, Viscount of Baltinglas, and other rebels, 
 till he knew by us that we had intercepted the said letters, 
 with other testimonials of his consecration, and were already 
 possessed of them. So as not finding that easy manner of 
 examination to do any good, we made commission to Mr. 
 Waterhouse and Mr. Secretary Fenton to put him to the 
 torture, such as your Honour advised us, which was to toast 
 his feet against the fire with hot boots. His confessions, 
 as well upon the torture as at sundry times before, we have 
 extracted and sent herewith to your Honour, together with 
 all other declarations, both of the Lord of Slane and others, 
 which have any community with Hurley’s cases, and which 
 we have at several times drawn from the parties themselves 
 by way of examination; by which we doubt not but your 
 Honour will discern how many ways Hurley is to be overtaken 
 with treason in his own person, and with what bad mind 
 he came into Ireland, instructed from Rome to poison the 
 hearts of the people with disobedience to her Majesty’s 
 Government, which was not unlike to put the realm in 
 danger of a new revolt if he had not been intercepted in 
 time. Even so we desire your Honour to consider how he 
 may speedily receive his deserts, so as not only his own evil 
 may die with himself, and thereby tlie realm delivered of a 
 perilous member, but also his punishment to serve for an 
 example ad terrorem to many others, who we find by his own 
 confessions are prepared at Rome to run the same course 
 both here and for England. And herein we thought good 
 
78 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 to remember your Honour by way of our opinion that, con- 
 sidering how obstinate and wilful we find him every way, if 
 he should be referred to a public trial, his impudent and 
 clamorous denial might do great harm to the ill-affected 
 here, who in troth have no small admiration of him. And 
 yet, having had conference with some of the best lawyers in 
 the land, we find that they make a scruple to arraign him 
 here, for that his treasons were committed in foreign parts, 
 the statute in that behalf being not here, as it is in England. 
 And therefore we think it not amiss (if it be allowed of 
 there) to have him executed by martial law, against which 
 he can have no just challenge, for that he hath neither lands 
 nor goods, and as by that way may be avoided many harms, 
 which, by his presence standing at ordinary trial, and retain- 
 ing still his former impudence and negative protestations, he 
 may do to the people. So also it may be a mean to prevent 
 danger to us, and the said Waterhouse and Mr. Secretary, 
 that have from the beginning interposed ourselves, not only 
 in his apprehension, but also in all his examinations, if (as it 
 is most likely) he should break out and exclaim to the people 
 that he was troubled for some noblemen of his country, whom 
 your Honour may find by the extracts now sent chargeable 
 with more than suspicion of confederacy in the late rebellion, 
 whereof we humbly pray your Honour to be careful in our 
 behalf, considering in how little safety we live here for the 
 like services we have already done to her Majesty; and so, 
 eftsoons desiring your Honour^s speedy resolution whether 
 he shall be passed to martial law or not, for what purpose 
 we have sent this bearer, Mr. Randall, and to return with 
 your answer with all the diligence he may, we humby take 
 our leave of your Honour. 
 
 At Dublin, the 7th day of March, 1584. 
 
 Your Honour^s at commandment. 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 79 
 
 PUBLIC EECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 Ireland, vol. cviii. 1584, March 8. 
 
 Indorsed — 8th March, 1584. 
 
 The Lords Justices of Ireland. 
 
 Dr. Hurley. 
 
 Addressed — To ye Right Honourable Sir Francis WaL 
 singham, Knt., Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, give 
 these. 
 
 It may please your Honour, as in our other letter to your 
 Honour, of the 7th of this present, we have declared our pro- 
 ceedings by torture with Dr. Hurley, having sent you the 
 abstract of his examinations, together with the Baron of 
 Slane^s, John Dillon^s, and others, to be considered of by 
 your Honour, and used in such sort as shall seem good unto 
 you, so also have we herewith sent the copies of such letters 
 as since the writing of our former letters we have intercepted, 
 being written since his torture, — the one to the Earl of 
 Ormond, and the other to a kinsman of his own in this 
 town, serving Dr. Forth, who should have practised for him ; 
 which letters were brought to our hands by the fidelity of 
 Sylvester Cooley, the constable, and the good handling of 
 one of the warders, who hath the keeping of Hurley. By 
 those letters your Honour may discover what favour these 
 Romish runagates have with our great Potentate here. 
 They that will not see let them be blind still ; and it shall 
 suffice us to have discharged our duties herein as before, in 
 BarnewalPs examination, formerly sent unto the Lord Trea- 
 surer, and your Honour, concerning the Earl of Kildare and 
 the Baron of Delvin, confirmed now by Hurley’s own speech 
 to the Baron of Slane, as in the Baron’s confession appeareth, 
 whereof, nevertheless, we never had any answer, which maketh 
 us somewhat doubtful how to proceed in these causes, not 
 knowing how our doings in that behalf are there thought of. 
 Beseeching your Honour to let us understand how both these, 
 and the former also, are there taken, and be directed which 
 course we shall hold therein, or otherwise, if your Honour 
 find but small accompaniment to be made thereof, that it will 
 
80 
 
 ’MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 please you to yield us your good advice for the staying of our 
 hands^ and not further to stir those coals to scorch ourselves, 
 knowing how dangerous it is for us to busy ourselves in this 
 sort, with setting these matters abroad here, if, when we 
 have, according to our duties, presented the same unto your 
 Honour^s there, in lieu of backing and good countenance from 
 thence, our doings shall be discovered ; and so, craving by the 
 next despatch to be satisfied from your Honour herein, we 
 humbly take our leave. 
 
 From Dublin, this 8th of March, 1583. 
 
 Your Honours always at commandment, 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 Sir Franc. Walsingham. H. Wallop. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 State Papers, Ireland, No. 12, vol. iii. 1584, July 9. 
 
 It may please your Honour, having by your letter unto 
 us of the 29th of April, received her Majesty^s resolution 
 for the course to be holden with Hurley, namely, that we 
 should proceed to his execution (if it might be) by ordinary 
 trial by law, or otherwise by martial law, and having there- 
 upon caused the lawyers and judges here to set down their 
 resolute opinion in that matter, wdiich was, that he could 
 not be tried by course of her Majesty’s common laws, as 
 may appear by the copy enclosed, we thought meet accord- 
 ing to your direction to proceed with him b}^ the other way, 
 and for our farewell, two days before we delivered over the 
 sword, being the I9th of the last (with the consent of the 
 Lord-Deputy), we gave 'M^arrant to the knight-marshal in her 
 Majesty’s name to do execution upon him, which acccordingly 
 was performed, and thereby the realm well rid of a most 
 pestilent member, who, notwithstanding the appearing of his 
 treasons, even until he was given to understand her Majesty’s 
 resolute pleasure, and our determination in that behalf, was 
 continually in hope and (in a manner) in an assured expec- 
 tation of some means to be 'vyrought for his enlargement, if 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 81 
 
 lie might have found that favour, to have had his time pro- 
 longed but to the end of our government. Thus much we 
 thought good to signify unto your Honour of our proceedings 
 in that behalf, to be imparted unto her Majesty and the 
 Lords, as your Honour shall see cause, and in the meantime 
 do receive no small comfort by your Honour^s signification 
 of her Majesty^s good reception and allowance of our care- 
 ful and zealous travail in that matter. 
 
 Wherein we have done but our duties, so we will not, 
 God willing, at any time omit to perform the same in like 
 sort as occasion shall be offered, especially in such matters 
 as so highly concern the glory of God, and her Majesty's 
 crown and dignity, to whom we accompt we owe, not only 
 all our endeavours, but also our lives and ourselves, and so, 
 for the present, we betake your Honour to the tuition of the 
 Almighty. 
 
 Dublin, this 9th of July, 1584. 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
 Directed — To the Right Honourable Sir Francis Walsing- 
 ham, Knt., Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, give these 
 at Court. 
 
 Indorsed — 1584, 19th July, from the Lord Chancellor and 
 Sir H. Wallop. 
 
 Enclosing No. 121. 
 
 Our humble duties recommended unto your Honours. 
 Having, according to your Lordships' direction, conferred 
 whether treasons committed in the parts beyond the seas 
 may by her Majesty's laws be tried within this realm, it 
 appeareth unto us that before the statute made in the 35tli 
 year of our late Sovereign Lord King Henry VIII. it was 
 doubtful in England whether such foreign treasons might be 
 tried within that realm, for remedy whereof the said statute 
 was made and provided, and in the preamble thereof is set 
 down, which statute is not confirmed nor established in this 
 realm ; wherefore, and for that we find no precedent for any 
 such trial, and that the rules of common law appoint no 
 ordinary trials for things beyond the seas, our opinion is 
 
 G 
 
8,2 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 that things committed without this realm may not be tried 
 here by order of her INIajesty^s laws, and so we humbly take 
 our leave. 
 
 Dublin, the 1st of June, 1584. 
 
 Your Honour’s humble, to command, 
 
 Robert Dillon. 
 
 Lucas Dillon. 
 
 Edmond Butler. 
 
 Wilton Bathe. 
 
 Edward Fitzsimons. 
 
 George Dormer. 
 
 Richard Barlinge. 
 
 Richard Sedgrave. 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 Ireland, Eliz. vol. cix. 1584, April 14th. 
 
 [Extract of Indorsement.) Do expect answer of that 
 formerly they have written hither of Hurley, and the E. 
 Kildare. 
 
 Addressed — To the Right Honourable Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham, Knt., Principal Secretary to Her Majesty, give 
 these. 
 
 {Extract.) 
 
 In our late letters touching Hurley, we earnestly pressed 
 her Majesty and their Lordships’ resolution for our pro- 
 ceedings with him, which eftsoons we humbly beseech your 
 Honour to hasten as much as you may. In like sort we 
 have long expected their Lordships’ pleasure touching that 
 which formerly we wrote concerning the Earl of Kildare, &c. 
 
 From Dublin, this 14th of April, 1584. 
 
 Your Honour’s always at commandment. 
 
 Ad. Dublin, Cane. 
 
 H. Wallop. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 83 
 
 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON. 
 
 State Papers, vol. cix. No. 66. 
 
 1584, April 28. 
 
 After my hearty commendations to your Lordships, your 
 late letters of the 7th and 8th of last month by Mr. Alverie 
 Randolph, together with the extract of the examinations off- 
 hand of others, being of some length, and the time otherwise 
 here full of great causes, I could not before now so impart 
 to her Majesty as I might withal know her mind touching 
 the same for your Lordships’ further direction. Wherefore 
 she having at length resolved, I have, accordingly by her 
 commandment, to signify her Majesty’s pleasure unto you 
 touching Hurley, which is this : that the man being so notori- 
 ous and ill a subject, as appeareth by all the circumstances 
 of his course he is, do proceed if it may be to his execution 
 by ordinary trial of him for it ; howbeit, in case you shall 
 find the effect of his causes doubtful by reason of the affec- 
 tions of such as shall be his jury, and for thesupposal con- 
 ceived by the lawyers of that country that he can hardly be 
 found guilty for his treason committed in foreign parts 
 against her Majesty, then her pleasure is you take a shorter 
 way with him by martial law. So as you may see itis referred 
 to your discretion whether of these two ways your Lordships 
 will take with him ; and the man being so resolute to reveal 
 no more matter, it is thought meet to have no further tor- 
 tures used against him, but that you proceed forthwith to his 
 execution in manner aforesaid. As for her Majesty’s good 
 acceptation of your careful travail in this matter of Hurley, 
 you need nothing to doubt, and, for your better assurance 
 thereof, she has commanded me to let your Lordships under- 
 stand that, as well in all other the like as in this case of 
 Hurley, she cannot but greatly allow and commend your 
 doings. And touching the matters of Sedgrave and Fitz- 
 simons, whose trial for treason the city of Dublin clairnctli 
 by their privileges, whereof you writ in October last, so it 
 is that the best lawyers here have delivered their opinion 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 MAllTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 against the claim of that city, and therefore Sir John (Perrot) 
 before his departure shall have directions to proceed accord- 
 ingly with these persons after his arrival with you. 
 
 Indorsed — 28th April, 1584, 
 
 To the Lords Justices, 
 
 How to proceed against Dr. Hurley, 
 
 By Mr. Randolph. 
 
 DAME ELEANOR BIRMINGHAM. 
 
 I GIVE her life from Dr. Rothe ; — 
 
 There lived in Dublin a widow of a generous soul, named 
 Eleanor Birmingham, relict of Bartholomew Baal she was 
 worthy of honour, according to the saying of S. Paul, 
 Gionour widows, who are truly widows,^ and have learnt to 
 govern their own house and to make a return of duty to 
 their parents ; who, being widows indeed and desolate, trust 
 in God, and continue in supplications and prayer night and 
 day. And such was this widow of whom I write, ^ for she that 
 liveth in pleasures is dead while she is living / but she was 
 not such, but blameless, having care of her own, especially 
 those of her house. That she had testimony of her good 
 works, and brought up children, and ministered to them that 
 suffered tribulation, and diligently followed every good work, 
 all who knew her testify. How earnestly and sedulously she 
 did so I will briefly relate. 
 
 How diligently, during all her widowhood, she turned to 
 the Lord in prayer may be known from this, that besides her 
 daily prayers, morning and evening, no day passed in which 
 she did not devote some hours, spared from the care of her 
 household and the other labours of Martha, to the reciting 
 of the rosary and penitential psalms. She never missed 
 hearing Mass on the feasts, and also on all days of devotion 
 
 * Or Ball. The habit of calling wives by their maiden name, as Dr. 
 Rothe does here and elsewhere, still obtains amongst the peasantry in 
 many districts of Ireland, 
 
IN THE llEIGX OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 85 
 
 when possible; and that slie might be more certain of being 
 able to do sO;, and even to have a daily MasSj although the 
 times were evil and the rulers persecuted the Catholics, she 
 entertained in her house a Catholic priest, to whom she 
 supplied food, clothing, lodging, and a certain annual honora- 
 rium, in order that there might always be there a priest to 
 say Mass, administer the sacraments, and pray for her and 
 licr family. She was several times accused of this before the 
 Privy Council, and at last pursuivants were sent who arrested 
 her as she was hearing Mass, together with the priest who was 
 at the altar. They were both hurried, guarded by an armed 
 party, before the Viceroy and the Chancellor and a few of the 
 Council; and this was done so hurriedly that the priest was 
 not given time to lay aside his sacred vestments ; and he, 
 clothed in the sacrificial ornaments, and she, borne down 
 with the weight of years, were carried oflP in a cart to prison ; 
 and that this might be the more insulting, the priest clad in 
 the sacred vestments was paraded through the streets and 
 held up to ridicule. But though this sight moved the 
 laughter of the Protestants, yet it the more confirmed the 
 Catholics in their faith : as in the time of the Emperor 
 Claudius when the holy martyrs Marius, Martha, and 
 Audifax, were paraded through Rome with their hands cut off 
 and hung round their necks, the sight roused the Catholics 
 of Rome to piety and constancy in the faith. The pious 
 matron was despoiled of the sacred ornaments, the chalice, 
 paten, and all other things, on which these fanatical spoilers 
 greedily seized and turned them to profane uses. She lay in 
 prison for a considerable time, until, having smoothed the 
 way ])y bribes, and the minds of the king^s ministers being 
 mollified by the intercession of some nobles, she was set free 
 and allowed to return to her house. 
 
 “After her deliverance she resumed her accustomed way of 
 life, spending her time in prayer and other pious exercises, 
 wherein she tasted and saw how sweet is the Lord. And 
 she ever generously relieved the wants of the poor, and this 
 the more freely out of gratitude to God for her deliverance. 
 In her house she was a pattern to all of integrity and chastity, 
 
8() ^ MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 of piety and innocence^ of modesty and virtue to her servants, 
 of purity to virgins, of continence to widows, to all a light 
 of religion, of faith, and of holiness. 
 
 For this reason noble ladies from both far and near who 
 cared for the bringing up of their daughters in solid piety, 
 sent them to her to be educated, and she so brought up those 
 children intrusted to her as to make them handmaids of 
 virtue, so that they might say of her what S. Basil writes 
 of his grandmother S. Macrina, where he says that, when 
 a child, he was taught the Christian doctrine by her, where- 
 fore he calls her his nurse in the faith, and rejoices that he 
 retained the faith which he had received like pure milk from 
 her. Many now in Ireland may truly say of this holy 
 matron that the dew of piety was instilled by her in their 
 earliest education; and many also, that at a more advanced 
 age she renewed its freshness in their souls. 
 
 But her heart was grievously afflicted by the hardness of 
 heart of her eldest son Walter Baal, who, from communication 
 with the innovators, had imbibed their pernicious errors : she 
 sought by all means to purge from him that leaven of malice ; 
 she prayed day and night, and besought the divine goodness 
 to cure the malady of his soul, and besought the prayers of 
 others for the same end. There was no priest, secular or 
 regular, or bishop or other person, renowned for sanctity, 
 whom, when she had the opportunity, she did not beseech to 
 pray for his conversion. It seemed as if S. Monica were 
 again alive and renewing her prayers for the conversion 
 of S. Augustin to the Catholic faith from which he had 
 wandered. But Monica was happier, since she at length 
 obtained her request and recovered a son, not only a Catholic, 
 but a most intrepid defender of the faith. But the unworthy 
 son of this worthy Eleanor was a son of Belial ; without price 
 he served Baal and adored him, and became a ^Nabal 
 according to his name, he is a fooP (Kings i. 25), and his 
 folly he carried down with him into the grave ; and whilst 
 many others by means of this matron were led back from 
 their errors, he hardened his heart, and obstinately died in 
 his blindness. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 87 
 
 ‘‘ But the crowning stroke of his wickedness was that, not 
 content with himself wallowing in the mud of error, he bitterly 
 persecuted his mother to make her share in the same. Being 
 made Mayor of the city of Dublin,* he was so inhuman 
 towards the mother that bore him, that although she was 
 decrepit with age and no longer able to walk from weakness, 
 when all his attempts to draw her into conformity with the 
 established religion had failed, he had her carried to prison 
 in a chair. This trial she patiently bore, and leaving behind 
 her a sweet odour of constancy, longanimity, and unspotted 
 faith, happily slept in the Lord, in prison, about the year 
 1584.^^ t — Rothe, De Pi'ocessu MartyrialiP 
 
 * Walter Ball was Mayor of Dublin in 1580, having been sheriff in 
 1572. — Wares ''Annals^' p. 168. If, therefore, she died in prison in 
 1584 this, her second imprisonment, must have lasted between three 
 and four years. 
 
 t As an introduction to the notices of Eleanor Birmingham and 
 Margery Barnewall, Dr. Bothe says, — 
 
 “ As I have thus given a few examples of constancy, taken from 
 every rank of the male sex, both ecclesiastical and secular, primates, 
 archbishops, bishops, abbots, deans, archdeacons, and other priests of 
 different orders, of whom I spoke in my catalogue ; and, as I there 
 made mention of illustrious women, if now I give two examples, one of 
 a married woman and the other of a virgin, I shall not seem wholly to 
 have omitted the sex. I shall, therefore, here briefly give a few parti- 
 culars, flrst of a married woman, that is a widow, and then of a virgin.” 
 We must therefore take these two lives (see anno 1583) as only two 
 examples out of many, and instances of what daily befell Catholic 
 women in Ireland in those days. 
 
 The end of Dame Margery’s unworthy son, Walter Baal, is thus re- 
 lated in a MS. in the Burgundian library : — 
 
 “In the same year (1599), Walter Ball, truly a man of Belial, a 
 senator of Dublin, so impious a son that he dragged his aged mother 
 by force into the congregation of the impious and sacrilegious, a hunter 
 after the anointed priests of the Lord, one day, with a crowd of fol- 
 lowers, went to seek for a certain Franciscan father, and a father of 
 the Society of Jesus, whom he just missed. On his return home, dis- 
 appointed, he was seized with sudden madness, and breathing blas- 
 phemies, he departed to join the other persecutors of priests.” — MS. 
 2,159, entitled Magna Supplicia a Persecutorihus aliquot CaiJioli- 
 corum in Hibernia sumpta.” 
 
88 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1585. 
 
 Right Rev. MURTAGH O’BRIEN, 
 
 Bishop of Emly, was appointed to the see of Emly on 
 24th January, 1567.* In a letter of Dr. Cornelius O’Mul- 
 rian, preserved in the Vatican archives, f immediately after 
 the eulogy of the heroic martyr of Cashel (Dr. O’ Hurley), is 
 added, The bishop of Emly, who is equally constant in the 
 faith, is at present confined in the Dublin dungeons; they 
 are now preparing for him, too, the tin boots, and intend to 
 apply the fiery ordeal, as they did with the archbishop, that 
 thus, if possible, they may compel him to renounce his 
 religion.” This was on the 29th October, 1584. Of his 
 subsequent sufferings no record has been preserved : but 
 Mooney chronicles his death in prison in the following y ear. J 
 Philadelphus also mentions his death in prison at Dublin, 
 but puts it at 1586. J 
 
 Most Rev. RICHARD CREAGH, Archbishop of Armagh. 
 
 I Give first his life, as written by Dr. Rothe, and then 
 such additional ])articulars as can be drawn from other 
 sources. 
 
 Notes on the Life and Death of Richard Creagh, Archbishop 
 
 of Armagh. 
 
 This great ruler of the Church of Ireland was a noble 
 champion of the Catholic faith, and foremost amongst its 
 defenders and restorers in his native land. He was born at 
 Limerick, the son of respectable but not distinguished citi- 
 zens of that city, Nicholas Creagh and Joanna White. That 
 city is situated in the province of Munster, remarkable for its 
 site and its cultivation : it is surrounded by walls and washed 
 
 Dr. Moran, Abp. of Dublin, p. 136. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 X Mooney, p. 95. In another passage (p. 69) he also mentions his 
 death in this year (although the name, probably through a mistake of 
 Mooney’s copyist, looks like Moriartus O’Konny). 
 
IN THE IlEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 89 
 
 by the river Shannon, the greatest of the rivers of Ireland : 
 the goodness of its port invites the eitizens to commerce, 
 and in consequence the most honourable of its citizens for 
 the greater part bring up their sons to trade. Thus it hap- 
 pened that the young Richard was by his parents placed in 
 a commercial house to learn business, as was S. Francis 
 by his father; and to acquire a knowledge of such articles 
 as were most in demand. Amongst such was saffron, which 
 at that time was much used by the Irish for dyeing, cooking, 
 and medicine. One day young Creagh perceived that the 
 bags in which the saffron was kept were damp (as ofttimes 
 happens with that oily flower), and fearing lest there should 
 be any fraud in that dampness — for he had learned in the 
 divine law that adulterating goods and unjust weights are 
 an abomination to the Lord — he placed the bags in the sun 
 to dry. His mind was troubled by the thought of the 
 dangers to which his soul would be exposed in trading in the 
 goods of this world, for the Lord had destined him for another 
 business, that of saving souls, that he should make fine linen 
 and sell it, and deliver a girdle to the Chananite; and should 
 be as a merchants ship bringing his bread from afar. Nor 
 was he of those who being brought up in garments of saffron 
 embraced the dunghill, but rather of those who deemed 
 saffron and cinnamon and all other precious spices as dirt 
 that he might gain Christ. He determined, therefore, to 
 abandon the balance that he might embrace the cross;* and 
 having with some difficulty obtained the consent of his 
 parents, he got his discharge from his master, and bidding 
 adieu to the business of this world, devoted himself to study 
 and piety in the hope of an abundant return, as he remem- 
 bered the treasure hidden in a field, and the pearl of great 
 price spoken of in the Gospel ; wherefore he sold all he had 
 to buy it. 
 
 Freed from the dealing in spices, he yet gave a sweet odour 
 of piety, like cinnamon and balsam, and to him might be 
 applied what said S. Basil said, ^^as sweet ointments diffuse 
 
 * “ Eelicto igilur croco ut se ad cniccni Cln’isti pararet melius.” 
 
90 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 through the air a sweet odour, which refreshes those who 
 breathe it, so a good man is useful and agreeable to all that 
 dwell with him, as was proved in him. But I must now 
 relate more at length the stages by which he was led by 
 Divine Providence. 
 
 As soon as he had learned in Ireland the rudiments of the 
 Latin language, he went to Belgium, where in the great 
 university of Louvain he studied letters, and having com- 
 pleted his course of philosophy, and taken the degree of 
 master of arts, he studied sacred theology with all care, and 
 after several years^ study attained the degree of bachelor in 
 theology.* 
 
 Having taken this degree, he determined to return to his 
 native land, then, alas ! overrun with weeds and briars caused 
 by the schism and heresy under Elizabeth (for her Catholic 
 sister was then dead) ; error was sown broadcast all through 
 the kingdom, more especially in his native city, where he 
 desired to root out the bad and sow the good seed. Being 
 now a priest, he laboured zealously, exhorting in private and 
 preaching in public, and administering the sacraments; and 
 warning all against the oath of the queen^s usurped ecclesi- 
 astical supremacy, and against unlawfully communicating in 
 divine things with the schismatics, and he withdrew many 
 from these two snares of the soul. 
 
 * Note A. — The following reference to our archbishop occurs in 
 the “Records of Louvain,” published by De Ram in 1861. (“ Rerum 
 
 Lovaniensium libri 14,” auctore Jac. Molano, 1582.) 
 
 “ Richard Crews, a native of Limerick, in Ireland, having obtained 
 a free bourse from the almoner of Charles V., studied arts as a con- 
 victor in domo Standonica, and afterwards theology in the Pontifical 
 College, and in the year 1555 took his degree of bachelor. He was 
 subsequently made Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland ; 
 and, being taken prisoner in the persecution of Elizabeth, miraculously 
 escaped from prison in the year 1565, and came to Louvain, where he 
 was received with great kindness by Michael Banis, President of the 
 Pontifical College ” (founded by Adrian VI., now called College du 
 Pape). 
 
 Dr. Creagh, in his examination, says he was educated “ at the 
 Emperor Charles’s and other good men’s costs.” 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 91 
 
 And as nothing remains so firmly fixed in the mind as 
 what is learned in youth (Quint., lib. i. cap. 1), he gave what- 
 ever time he could spare from the duties of his sacred office 
 to teaching youth and bringing them up in virtue, not 
 unmindful of what S. Irenseus wisely observed, the know- 
 ledge of what we have learned in youth strengthens with 
 our growth and is firmly fixed in our mind.’^ “ A young 
 man according to his way, even when he is old he 
 will not depart from it” (Prov. xxii. 6.) He opened a 
 school, and taught at once letters and religion to children 
 and youth, and all who came. For, as the father of Roman 
 eloquence says, What better service can we do the State 
 than to teach youth ? ” For as the ruin of cities and states 
 follows the neglect of this duty, so does their prosperity from 
 its fulfilment. For how shall the State flourish unless its 
 governors be good ; and how can magistrates be good, unless 
 the citizens from whom they are chosen be good: nor can 
 they be such, unless in their youth they be well brought up. 
 Grievously did our forefathers offend in this respect, by 
 neglecting the education of their children. But far more 
 grievously do our modern rulers offend, who devote all 
 their care to poisoning the mind of youth, both by infusing 
 the poison of error into the teaching of youth, and by 
 prohibiting Catholic schools, in which youth would be 
 taught both literature and virtue. 
 
 Richard therefore laboured with solicitude and zeal to 
 teach youth, to form their plastic minds to the orthodox faith, 
 and to endure sufferings for Christ. After some time, how- 
 ever, he determined to leave Ireland, urged by the inspiration 
 of the Holy Spirit, which makes men deem all that they have 
 done nothing whilst yet anything remains to do ; and which 
 made him, although wholly devoted to promoting the Ca- 
 tholic faith, consider he was not yet a perfect follower of 
 Christ, and desire a more perfect way; and partly because 
 he Avas worn out with labour, partly because he desired to 
 advance more in sacred studies, and to follow a stricter rule 
 of life, he proceeded to Catholic countries, and finally to 
 
92 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Rome.* Here he was known and esteemed by Pope Pius V., 
 who forbade him to enter a regular order, as he purposed, 
 
 * Note B. — The account which we gather chiefly from the arch- 
 bishop’s examination in London is fuller. I take it from an excellent 
 sketch of his life, given in the Bamhler of April, 1853 (by Rev. D. 
 McCarthy), from which I shall also make several other extracts : the 
 writer does not appear to have seen the life by Rothe. The details in 
 the life by Rothe are fuller and more authentic than any others, but 
 he has fallen into some not unnatural errors as to the chronology of 
 the archbishop’s life, and has transposed his trials and escapes ; placing 
 his trial in Ireland before his escape from the Tower of London, 
 whereas it occurred subsequently. 
 
 It will make the narrative clearer if I here give a summary of the 
 dates of his life : — 
 
 1525. — The archbishop was born probably in this year. 
 
 1548. — About this year went to Louvain j he was there seven or eight 
 years. 
 
 1555. — Took his degree of bachelor of divinity at Louvain, and soon 
 after returned to Limerick. 
 
 1557. —This year Hugh Lacy, the Catholic bishop, was restored to the 
 
 See of Limerick, and as Dr. Creagh came to Limerick under 
 him, it must have been about this year. 
 
 1558. — Elizabeth succeeded, and the persecution began. 
 
 1560. — The Nuncio Wolfe arrived in Limerick, charged with providing 
 for the vacant sees. 
 
 1562. — In August, Dr. Creagh left Limerick for Rome by direction of 
 
 the Nuncio. 
 
 1563. — January he arrived in Rome. 
 
 1564. — He was consecrated archbishop in April, and set out on his 
 
 journey to Ireland on horseback ; in October he reached 
 London, and some time later landed in Ireland, and was soon 
 after arrested and sent to London. 
 
 1565. — January 18th ; committed to the Tower. He was interrogated 
 
 on the 22nd February and 23rd March, and escaped from 
 prison on the octave of Easter Sunday, as related by the 
 letter of Dr. Southwell and Father Navarchus. He returned 
 to Ireland either the end of this year or the beginning of 
 
 1566. — In August of this year he had an interview with Shane O’Neill. 
 
 1567. — 8th May he was taken prisoner in Connaught ; in August he 
 
 was tried in Dublin, and acquitted, but kept in custody, and 
 escaped soon after ; was retaken before the end of the year, 
 and sent to London, and lodged in the Tower, where — 
 1585.— He died on the 14th October. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 93 
 
 until lie should learn more of the will of his Holiness j but 
 the PontiflP, although unknown to him, had already deter- 
 mined to send him back to Ireland, to strengthen and con- 
 sole its inhabitants so sorely tried for their faith ; and to give 
 more scope to his zeal, to consecrate him archbishop of 
 Armagh, and Primate of All Ireland; for that see was then 
 vacant by the death of his illustrious and most reverend 
 predecessor, James Dowdell, who died, about the same time 
 as Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole, in England, whither he 
 had gone about some affairs of his Church. In vain he 
 alleged, in order to escape the burthen to be laid upon him, 
 the dangers of the journey and the difficulty of entering 
 Ireland ; but as soon as he was consecrated, animated by 
 the Holy Ghost, he crossed the sea, and, leaving behind the 
 storms of ocean, encountered fiercer storms on land.* He 
 had hardly landed and proceeded a few days on his journey, 
 when he was seized by the enemies of the faith and carried 
 to Dublin and thrown into prison. iVfter he had lain there 
 some time, he fled, together with his gaoler.f What further 
 troubles he passed through I will relate as far as I have 
 learned. 
 
 Escaped from chains, he fled across the sea, to breathe in 
 freedom amongst Catholics for a short time, and prepare for 
 fresh combats. After he had a little restored his strength, 
 having received an intimation from the Holy Father, the Pri- 
 mate returned a second time to Ireland, and, whilst watching 
 over his flock, he was again seized and brought before the 
 Viceroy and Council in Dublin, where he was accused of high 
 treason, as a vagabond and transgressor of the laws, a con- 
 temner of the statutes of the kingdom, an escaped criminal, 
 and worthy of the severest punishment. Jurors were called, 
 who, according to ancient custom, were to decide on his guilt. 
 The jurors were sworn before the royal tribunal, and, having 
 heard from the judge the heads of the accusation and the 
 evidence, were to pronounce on the fact. The archbishop. 
 
 See Note B, p. 92. 
 
 t This is a mistake. His escape with his gaoler was from his later 
 imprisonment in 1567. 
 
94 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 confiding in the goodness of his cause, boldly pleaded before 
 the jurors, proved his innocence, and explained the causes of 
 his arrest and his escape. He acknowledged that he was a 
 Catholic, and a Catholic bishop, but guilty of no crime ; that 
 he had not broken forcibly out of prison, but had fled with 
 his gaoler to save his life. He prayed them to remember 
 that with them rested the life or death of an innoeent man, 
 — if they condemned the innocent, they would have to an- 
 swer to the divine judgment ; that, his mortal life, but their 
 immortal life, was in the balance. And as the law allows 
 the accused a certain number of peremptory challenges to 
 the jurors, but if he exceed the number, condemns him to 
 what is called the 'peme forte et dure, that is, to be crushed 
 to death beneath a weight, he challenged some peremptorily 
 and some for cause, and in all things acted with wisdom and 
 prudence, neither omitting any just means of defence nor in 
 aught transgressing the law, — no easy matter in so intricate 
 a business. The judge, in charging the jurors, enlarged at 
 great length on what he called the atrocity of the crime, 
 that they might have the less hesitation in finding him 
 guilty. After they had heard his address and the evidence, 
 they retired to discuss the faets and decide on their interlo- 
 cutory sentence, which is called the verdict. There ensued a 
 long discussion amongst them ; and, as the law directs that 
 the jurors may not return to their homes until they have 
 agreed on their sentence and it has been announced by their 
 leader, they were so long without coming to a decision, some 
 being for the accused and some against him, that they re- 
 mained for several days shut up on a small allowance of 
 bread and water until they should agree. The foreman of 
 the jurors, who was for an acquittal, had for some time 
 suffered mueh from dysentery, and all physicians are agreed 
 that nothing is worse for such a complaint than cold and 
 uncooked food, yet, supported by a sense of justice, his 
 spirit upheld the weakness of his body, and far from suf- 
 fering, he was better and freer from the disease after than 
 before his seclusion. At length the jurors returned a verdict 
 of not guilty, but were in consequence themselves thrown 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 95 
 
 into prison and fined. The archbishop was sent to London, 
 and thrust into an obscure cell in the Tower of London, 
 which was called ^^the whale’s room.” The place was very 
 dark and shut out from the light of the sun, and the only 
 light allowed to the prisoner was as much of a tallow candle 
 as his gaolers thought would enable him to eat his food.* 
 But he, thinking more of the food of the soul than of the 
 body, in order to have light to read his prayers out of a 
 book which he had concealed, made a species of rude candles 
 out of strips of his shirt steeped in the fat of the meat given 
 him for food. After some time, however, he was removed 
 from this den into a larger and more lightsome room in the 
 same tower, in which he could breathe freer and purer air 
 and enjoy the light, not as in his former cell, whither not 
 even a ray of light ever penetrated. Here he remained for 
 some time ; and though afflicted in many ways, and deprived 
 of all human consolation, he was not abandoned by God nor 
 weakened in mind, for he placed his confidence not in the 
 arm of the flesh, nor in the vanity of this world, but in the 
 light and source of all consolation, whose streams do not 
 fail ; his hope was not in riches nor in power, but in the aid 
 of God, whose aid never fails those who rest in the testimony 
 of a good conscience, — those who love not the world, but 
 God. In so great a cause he was neither slack nor timid ; 
 and as poverty and suffering are said to be as sisters to a 
 pure mind, so they strengthened him in constancy, fortitude, 
 and liberty of spirit. He daily grew in the contempt of the 
 things of this world, and the generous determination of 
 suffering all things for Christ. For he is not to be called 
 courageous whose courage does not rise under difficulties, as 
 S. Bernard says, ‘^Ghe faithful man is more faithful when 
 afflicted.” (Epist. 256.) 
 
 The archbishop himself stated : “ Besides divers my poor bodies 
 sickness, I can neither day nor night change apparel, having neither 
 of myself, nor of any other body, one penny, to cause the broken shirt 
 that is on my back to be once washed ; whose in commodity decency 
 will not have it to be declared, beside tlie misery of cold, such others 
 without even a convenient hose.” He had been nearly three months 
 in prison when he thus wrote. 
 
9G 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 But our good Lord^ whose goodness exceeds our desires, 
 did not abandon His servant in his distress, but by the aid 
 and observation of a bird he enabled him to fly from prison. 
 (Athan., Oratio contra Gentes.) Small instruments suffice in 
 His hand for great results. What is smaller than a damp 
 head of saffron ? yet it called our prelate from the business of 
 this world to that of saving souls ; so by watching the flight 
 hither and thither of a bird, he learned how to escape from 
 that labyrinth of Daedalus, surrounded by so many walls, 
 fastened with so many locks. Thus the fugitive Malchus, 
 with the partner of his home and faith, learned by watching 
 the ants a path of flight. 
 
 The archbishop escaped from the Tower, and that in a 
 manner so unexpected as to excite the surprise of all who 
 knew the place and the care taken in guarding prisoners. 
 Many illustrious men who had formerly been connected by 
 friendship with the prisoner, were anxious to learn from him- 
 self how he had escaped out of the lion^s den. Amongst 
 others, the illustrious Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of Asaph,* 
 who was at that time living at Milan, on hearing that after 
 his escape from London he was at Louvain, wrote to him 
 the following letter, partly to congratulate him, partly to 
 inquire the particulars of his escape : — 
 
 Copy of a letter from the Bishop of Asaph to the Primate^ 
 translated from the English original. 
 
 “ Illustrious and very Beverend Lord, I was deeply grieved 
 to learn that your Grace, on your arrival in Ireland, had been 
 treacherously captured and taken to the Tower of London. 
 But equally great was my joy when I learned that you had 
 escaped almost miraculously, and had reached Louvain, where 
 you were hospitably entertained by our mutual friend. Master 
 Michael, t who, I doubt not, rejoiced at your arrival as I did 
 at your escape. When you have leisure you would sensibly 
 oblige me by writing me a full account of your escape ; for 
 
 * Dr. Creagh mentioned in his examination that he had known him 
 at Lome. 
 
 t Michael Banis, President of the Pontifical College, Louvain, 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 97 
 
 when I was first told of it it appeared to rae so strange as to 
 resemble the dream seen by St. Peter, when the angel led 
 him forth from prison. However it be, praise be to God, who 
 deigned to protect His servant. To His divine guardianship 
 I commend your Grace, praying you to remember me in your 
 prayers ; and. as it is reported here that a certain English 
 father of the Society of Jesus was your Grace^s companion 
 in Ireland, there are many here who are anxious to know 
 his fate. There lives in this city a very pious Irish Jesuit, 
 named Maurice, who greatly rejoiced at hearing of your 
 escape. I pray you to salute for me our reverend friend 
 Master Michael.* Wishing your Grace health and peace. 
 
 Your Grace’s unworthy brother and servant, 
 
 Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of St, Asaph. 
 
 Milan, 20th June, 1565.” 
 
 The answer which the Primate wrote to the Bishop of S. 
 Asaph has not come into my hands, but the account which 
 he so earnestly asked for of his escape is to be found in a 
 letter written by Father James Narvarchus,f of the Society of 
 Jesus, to Father Florence Bonchortius, of the same society, 
 and which is to be found amongst the Japanese^ letters 
 printed at Louvain by Uvelphius (p. 290), and it may be con- 
 sidered fully trustworthy, as the particulars were all gathered 
 from the mouth of the Primate himself. I have therefore 
 thought it worth inserting here for such of my readers as 
 may not have had an opportunity of seeing it : — 
 
 To the Rev, Father in Christ Florence Bonchortj of the 
 Society of Jesus, the Peace of Christ, ^c. 
 
 ^Mt will not be ungrateful to you, dear Florence, if I briefly 
 narrate for you what was lately told me by the Most Reverend 
 
 * Evidently Master Michael Banis, President of the Papal College, 
 Louvain. See Note A, p. 90. 
 
 t Perhaps his name was Captain, and he an Englishman. 
 
 X Letters from the Jesuit Missionaries in Japan, 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, touching his 
 marvellous escape from prison in the Tower of London. As 
 I judged the event to be not unlike what we read in the 
 Acts of the Apostles of the delivery of St. Peter, I prayed him 
 to give me the particulars in writing, for I feared lest if I 
 trusted to others I might omit something ; and he, being a 
 most courteous man, and anxious for the glory of God, 
 granted my request. I deem this narrative will bring no 
 little consolation to the Catholics, who now suffer so much, 
 especially to those who are engaged in the defence of the 
 faith, and will excite the faith and confidence in God of our 
 fellow-soldiers of the faith, and encourage them to labour still 
 more zealously in the vineyard of the Lord in its present dis- 
 tracted and almost desperate state, for who could have thought 
 that our Archbishop of Armagh would escape ? I know that 
 prayer without ceasing for him was made, not only in the 
 colleges of our society, but also by many others, not so much 
 that he might escape as that he might with constancy endure 
 death, like the Bishop of Boss and Sir Thomas More (some 
 members of whose family entered the Society of Jesus), and 
 by his example animate others, and inspire them with 
 constancy. But God had determined to make him useful to 
 the persecuted Christians in a different way, as will appear 
 from this narrative. To begin, then, at the beginning, he was 
 sent from Horae, having received much from the bounty of 
 Pope Pius, that he might snatch his sheep in Ireland from the 
 jaws of the wolf and rule them in all piety. On his arrival 
 he said Mass in a certain monastery of his province. The 
 soldiers of a certain governor, who had charge of the coast 
 not far from where the bishop landed, found him there and 
 carried him a prisoner to the garrison, where he was inter- 
 rogated by the governor as to the primacy of the Church. 
 He freely and ingenuously confessed the Catholic doctrine, 
 and declared himself a Christian. Amongst those who were 
 present at this interrogatory was the brother of the governor, 
 a violent man and quick of hand, who was furious at the 
 bishop^s opposition to heresy, and sought by all means to 
 liave the matter referred to the Queen of England, hoping 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH, 
 
 99 
 
 for such a spoil to win at court, not only favour, but ample 
 rewards, for he made no great secret of the fact that he acted 
 rather from self-interest than from any great zeal for religion. 
 These are the motives which influence men devoid of the love of 
 God, and who are now gradually returning to the old idolatry. 
 For as Catholics by study and inquiry make progress in the 
 knowledge of truth, so those, by adding error to error and 
 falsehood to falsehood, fall deeper and deeper, as may easily 
 be perceived by any one who compares the earlier with the 
 later works of Luther and Melanethon, or by one who, meet- 
 ing with these men, examines into their mode of life and 
 faith. For they can never put any limit to doubts, and are 
 obliged to confess that they rely, not upon the foundations of 
 faith, but upon their own opinions. On the contrary, the 
 orthodox faith is one certain and free from change, for it 
 comes from God, with whom there is no change or shadow of 
 alteration. 
 
 To return to the Primate. Being taken on that night, he 
 was, as I have said, sent to the Queen, and underwent several 
 interrogatories at Westminster. After having answered all 
 that was alleged against him, and modestly and fittingly 
 defended our faith, he was, without further trial, marched 
 between two guards through almost the entire city of Lon- 
 don, as a spectacle of derision and contempt to all for the 
 faith of Christ, and thrown into the lowest and darkest prison 
 of the Tower. This was on the feast of St. Peter^s Chair 
 (18th January). After a time, however, he was removed to 
 a larger and more lightsome room ; for some, mindful of 
 justice and the laws, said it was unjust that one who had not 
 been tried should be so inhumanly treated. Whilst the bishop 
 was thus straitened, God, the Consoler of the afflicted, did 
 not abandon him, but on the very day of the feast of St. 
 PeteFs Chair^' gave to him both great consolation of mind 
 and a sure hope of deliverance. He persevered continually 
 in prayer, and on the third day following, which was Sunday, 
 recited with all devotion the prayers of the Mass, as well as 
 
 * S. Peter’s Chair at Antioch, Feb. 22. 
 
 II 2 
 
100 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 he could from memory, in prison. The peace and consolation 
 which he then felt had been preceded by a dreadful fear, so 
 hard to endure that his soul seemed at the point of death, 
 and he recited the office of the dead for himself, believing 
 that he would soon be put to death for the faith of Christ. 
 He waited for those who were to examine into his faith and 
 life, and who he knew w'ere to come on the feast of St. 
 Patrick (1 7th March), the patron of Ireland, and, his first 
 predecessor in the cathedral church of Armagh, and, as he 
 had often experienced his aid, he daily by prayer besought 
 his help. He was examined on this day, and again on the 
 fourth following, and was told by the governor of the Tower 
 that the great point was that with regard to the cure of souls, 
 as he (the governor) held obedience was not due to the 
 Eoman Pontiff, but to the Queen of England, to whom all the 
 Irish churches are subject, and that all would be well with 
 him if, renouncing his perfidy (for so he called the Catholic 
 faith), he would acknowledge her supremacy, and pray insti- 
 tution from the Queen. To all these representations, which 
 were again and again repeated by others, he constantly 
 answered, as became a Catholic bishop, that he would not 
 vary by one hair^s breadth from the ancient laws of Christ’s 
 religion. Five weeks had now passed since his imprisonment, 
 which brought it to the octave of Easter, when, I know not 
 why, unless by the divine inspiration, he began to think of 
 escape. It seems that the thought was suggested to him by 
 a little bird, which, flying from under the eaves, plumed her 
 feathers, and, spreading her wings, and flying before him in 
 his chamber, seemed to invite him to follow her example. 
 Although he had no certain hope of escape, he began to pre- 
 pare his little bundle and secretly prepare for flight. Nor 
 was his hope vain, as the result proved, for God, unknown to 
 His servant, had prepared help for him. 
 
 On the following night a great noise was heard in his 
 room and the neighbouring one, and the guardian of the 
 prison came to ask what was the cause of so much noise. The 
 bishop answered, as was the truth (for he had slept soundly), 
 that he had heard nothing and had not caused the noise, but 
 
IN THE REIGN OE ELIZABETH. 
 
 101 
 
 there were signs in his room of the prison having been dis- 
 turbed. On the following night he had strange dreams^, and 
 seemed to himself to have escaped from prison. On the third 
 night he seemed to be surrounded by the forms of the dead, 
 especially those to whom, on the festival of Easter and the 
 following day, he had applied the indulgences granted to him 
 by the Pontiff. The dream returned several times, and 
 at length the figures of the dead seemed to lead him out of 
 prison. At dawn he began to recite the Divine Office, having 
 entirely forgotten his dreams ; but he could not free himself 
 from an inclination or inspiration to try to leave the prison 
 and pass the gates. This idea so constantly returned to his 
 mind that he could not drive it away. He did, however, 
 drive it away once and again, because he deemed it only a 
 distraction of prayer. At last he could no longer resist the 
 impulse, and left his chamber hastily. He examined the 
 neighbouring passages, and perceived that all the doors, 
 which were ordinarily securely barred, were open, and was 
 astonished at so strange a case. Returning to his chamber, 
 he yet dared not attempt to fiy, fearing to bring on himself 
 still greater danger if retaken, and tried to compose himself 
 again to prayer ; but he could not drive away the idea of 
 flight, to which he felt himself strongly prompted, and, having 
 again examined the door, he knelt down in his chamber 
 and earnestly besought God to give him courage and inspire 
 him to do whatever were most for His divine honour. Hav- 
 ing made this short prayer, he took under his arm the little 
 bundle which through some presentiment he had before made 
 up, and, invoking God, the Author of his flight, and laying 
 aside all fear, proceeded through six doors, guided he knew not 
 how along that winding path, for he had been brought in by 
 another door. At length he came to the guards, who asked 
 whether he had a butt. This word had been given to them 
 as the sign or password, and had no other meaning but to 
 detect strangers. As he understood not their question, he 
 was silent ; but one of them (and in this may be noted the 
 power of God, to whom it is easy to use any instrument for 
 His own glory) answered jestingly that he carried his coat 
 
102 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 for a butt under his arm. They then asked him who he was. 
 He had prepared an answer to this question : refleeting that 
 he was the servant of the servants of Christy he answered 
 truly enough that he was the servant of a certain great Lord^ 
 who was in a more open part of the prison. As the guards, 
 fearing blame, pressed him closely, and said he should be 
 taken before a judge, he remained unmoved, and said he 
 was ready to go anywhere. At length, God so disposing, 
 they let him pass. Wandering for three days about London, 
 amidst strangers, he heard several speak of the escape of the 
 archbishop, whom they described as having a white beard, 
 as indeed he had, but they (deceived by the double meaning 
 of the word, which in their language signifies either naturally 
 fair or white from age), instead of a naturally fair beard (such 
 as his), understood it to be white from age. Whilst Avandering 
 these three days through the streets of London he several 
 times met the pursuivants, and some of them spoke to him 
 and asked him who he was, but, as he answered them in 
 French, they took him for a Frenchman and left him. I 
 have also been told by persons of repute that he was met 
 and recognized by the guardian of the prison, but that he 
 felt himself hindered from molesting him. At length he 
 found a ship, and was taken on board as a stranger by the 
 captain, who was a decided enemy of Catholics. Soon after- 
 wards the pursuivants came on board, and thrice inter- 
 rogated the sailors on oath if they knew anything of the 
 bishop, whom they described as grey-haired and not as an 
 Irishman (as they thought that name would be denied). The 
 sailors were asked about every one in the ship, but, God so 
 disposing, they did not ask any questions of the bishop, for 
 they never suspected him to be the archbishop, whom they 
 believed was grey-headed; but when they saw him young and 
 speaking French, they took him for a Frenchman. Thus did 
 God set astray those who were in the ship, and who were 
 bitter enemies of the faith, but he escaped from out of their 
 hands, and arrived safe in Brabant, although three hundred 
 ducats were promised to any one who should apprehend him. 
 In that country he gave himself not to idleness or pleasure, 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 103 
 
 but to sacred meditation and returning thanks to God for His 
 great mercies. From this wonderful instance of divine 
 providence we clearly see that there is no surer or firmer 
 trust than in God. By no other means than the help of 
 God did he escape, and he solemnly asseverated that all 
 happened as I have related it, nor did he wish it eoncealed, 
 lest any one should suffer for his escape ; and in this he 
 imitated St. Stephen, nay, our Divine Lord Himself. I will 
 here add, what is worthy of note, that it was about the feast 
 of St. Patriek he was examined in Borne previous to his con- 
 secration, and that a year later he was called on to eonfess 
 the faith of Christ in London on the same feast, and he 
 escaped from prison on the same day on which he was conse- 
 crated bishop. I have related these matters as he gave them 
 to me, written with his own hand, to you, Bonchort, and our 
 brethren in the warfare of Christ, that you may understand 
 God^s providence in regard to His own, since He restored the 
 Bishop to the Catholics from out of the hands of his enemies. 
 The first time I saw him after his return (for I had before 
 met him when on his road to Ireland, and perceived him to 
 be a man of good and pious manner) I found him very 
 different in appearance. He had something pre-eminently 
 holy about him, and was of such peculiar piety that many 
 said God had worked wonders in his soul, and given him 
 extraordinary virtue, that he might bring back his nation to 
 their pristine piety. Nor can it be doubted but that the 
 Queen must have been mueh struck by his escape, and felt it 
 a lesson to return to the Catholic faith, especially as she is 
 said not to be very averse to it if she were not led by the 
 advice and persuasion of eertain evil men. May she, then, be 
 led by this warning of God to a better frame of mind. Fare- 
 well, Florence, my dear brother in Christ, and forget me not 
 in your prayers. 
 
 Your servant in the Lord, 
 
 James Navarchus OndischothanuSo 
 
 Louvain, on the Calends of October, 1565.'^ 
 
104 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 After some time (how long I know not) he returned a third 
 time to Ireland, through solicitude for his flock, the Holy 
 Pontiff also having so advised. At that time war was raging 
 in Ulster (in which is the church of Armagh). It had been 
 begun by John O’Neill, the most powerful dynast of all in 
 that province, against Queen Elizabeth. Whether his motive 
 was the lust of power, or the desire of restoring the orthodox 
 religion, I leave to others to decide. However that be, it is 
 certain the Primate and the dynast did not agree well about 
 many things. The origin, or at least the great cause, of these 
 dissensions was the discontent of the Primate at the many 
 injuries the dynast inflicted on ecclesiastics,* and his offences 
 against the rights and privileges of the churches, many of 
 whose possessions he occupied, and, together with his follow- 
 ers, used much violence towards them. These injuries reached 
 such a height that when the Primate found he could not, by 
 advice or gentleness or threats, bend him from his violence 
 and insolence, he deemed it necessary to use his pastoral 
 authority and proceed to public censure. He therefore pro- 
 claimed against him the sentence of excommunication. 
 O’Neill resisted the judgment of his bishop and contemned 
 the precept of his pastor, but he felt the punishment of his 
 contumacy, for his enterprises from that time to his death 
 failed and ended ill, and thus the divine judgment made 
 itself manifest. t 
 
 In the mean time the Primate zealously fulfilled the duties 
 of his episcopate, both in that province and throughout 
 such parts of Ireland as he visited either from necessity or 
 as opportunity offered. He was, however, a third time 
 treacherously taken prisoner, and sent to Dublin, from 
 
 * The chief one was that O’Neill in an expedition against O’Donnell, 
 in the winter of 1566 or spring of 1567, hung a priest. On his return 
 to Armagh he applied for absolution, which the Primate could not give, 
 as the case was reserved to the Pope. 
 
 t Shane O’Neill was treacherously murdered by the Scots, whom he 
 had invited over to his assistance, June, 1567, his army having been 
 defeated, and nearly annihilated, in a great battle a few miles from 
 Letterkenny, on the 8th May, 1567. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. l05 
 
 whence he was sent over to England and eonsigned to close 
 custody in the Tower of London^ where he long led a life of 
 suffering, or rather a prolonged martyrdom. He escaped 
 from the Tower a.d. 1565, and after several years was again 
 consigned to the same prison, where he died the 14th 
 October, a.d. 1585. 
 
 Besides his daily difSculties and vexations for so many 
 years, he had to encounter many troubles and vexations in 
 the administration of his diocese during the short time he 
 lived in his province and primatial see ; grievous labours 
 and much weariness in governing his flock in that troubled 
 and afflicted kingdom ; and, the more to try his constancy and 
 enhance his merit, to bear also the calumnies of strangers and 
 the accusations of some of his own subjects. 
 
 The Bishop of Clogher,* having a knowledge of the disputes 
 between the Primate and the dynast, whom the former 
 reproved for many excesses and oflPences against the ecclesias- 
 tical jurisdiction and rights, accused the Primate to the 
 Court of Borne of having violated the divine laws and those 
 of the Church, and produced to his Holiness and the College 
 of Cardinals forged letters, purporting to be written by the 
 Primate, containing horrible things and evil counsels most 
 foreign to his nature. But the wiles of his accuser and the 
 forgery were discovered by both the signature and the known 
 handwriting of the forger. The accuser being therefore 
 called upon to answer for his calumny, fled privately, and 
 proceeding to England, abandoned the faith and became an 
 apostate. And whilst the Primate was a prisoner in the Tower 
 he was daring enough to visit him, and to offer him, on the 
 part of the Queen and her Council, wealth and honours if he 
 would take his advice, and, renouncing his obedience to and 
 union with the Apostolic See, swear to the ecclesiastical supre- 
 macy of Elizabeth ; but he answered the unblushing apostate 
 with indignation, and ordered him to quit his presence. 
 
 In the Tower of London he had to encounter still more 
 wicked machinations, which were more painful to his soul, 
 and would have imprinted a fouler stain on his memory had 
 ^ * The infamous Meyler Magrath. 
 
106 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 not the outstretched arm of God reduced his accuser to 
 silence, and His mighty hand strengthened His servant in 
 his troubles. One of the prison guards, named Vanright, 
 accused him of having attempted to offer violence to his 
 daughter. (Some describe her as a washerwoman, others as 
 a girl of tender age.) He was put on his trial on this accusa- 
 tion before twelve jurors at Westminster. His accusers 
 poured forth all their malice against him. Alone and unde- 
 fended he so clearly proved the falsehood of their statements 
 and his innocence, that the jurors pronounced him innocent, 
 and all who were present openly declared him spotless. The 
 girl herself, who had been schooled by her father to calum- 
 niate the Primate, openly confessed the falsehood and the 
 subornation. Thus like another Athanasius did he confound 
 his enemies. 
 
 His treatment in prison varied at different times, being at 
 times less rigorous, at times more severe. When he was 
 allowed a little more freedom, his delight was to assemble 
 the priests who were his fellow captives, and were scattered 
 in various chambers, and with them to discourse of sacred 
 things, as did the primitive fathers in the crypts and caves 
 and sandpits of Rome. In these meetings under his presi- 
 dency were discussed the controversies of faith, the duties of 
 a Christian, and the steps to perfection for a Catholic. At 
 times, too, he gave answers in writing to those who sought 
 his decision on matters of faith and morals, on avoiding 
 heretical churches and ceremonies, and all intercourse with 
 heretics. For such duties he had his commissaries, to whom 
 whilst in Ireland, and especially whilst a prisoner in Dublin, 
 he delegated full powers, and by whose means he, whilst a 
 prisoner, freely, as it were, fulfilled the duties of his office. 
 It is also related by a trustworthy witness, that at one time, 
 in the Tower of London, he was kept so strictly that he was 
 loaded both with gives on his feet and chains on his hands, 
 and was at the same time suffering from the stone, so that 
 his only solace was to open the window for fresh air, and at 
 the same time pluck the herbs w'hich were growing out 
 of the wall, and make out of their juice a drink which 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 107 
 
 seemed to alleviate his suffering. Rightly has it been said 
 by the great Afriean, He feels not the pain in his foot whose 
 mind is in heaven (Tertullian) ; so he felt not the ehains 
 on his hands whose soul was wrapt in heaven. 
 
 There eame an order from the Couneil to Eugene Hopton, 
 Knight; the head guardian of the Tower, who is called lieu- 
 tenant, that Richard and the other priests who were prisoners 
 were to be taken to the chapel of the Tower to hear the heretical 
 preaching. The lieutenant spoke to him on the subject, to 
 learn his mind. Much moved by so unlawful a proposal, he 
 answered that he would never go, but would rather, if it 
 were the Queen^s pleasure, go to the scaffold. The knight, 
 angered by this answer, ordered his servants to drag him to 
 the oratory. This they did willingly, and forcibly held him 
 down in the midst of the audience ; but when he heard the 
 preacher thundering against the Pontiff, and all who pro- 
 fessed the faith of the Pontiff, blaspheming against the 
 Saints and the Queen of Saints, and disseminating pesti- 
 lential errors and lies in the ears of his hearers, he abruptly 
 interrupted the sermon, and on the spot answered the 
 preacher. He was ordered to be silent, but, boiling with 
 zeal for the honour of God, he continued till the sectaries, 
 crowding around him, violently compelled him to silence. 
 But with one word he adjured his hearers not to believe the 
 false preacher, for that he who should hold by his errors 
 without doubt would perish everlastingly. 
 
 He was taken back to his prison, and as there seemed no 
 hope of shaking his constancy in the faith, — whether it was 
 that his gaolers were weary of the charge of guarding and 
 the cost of keeping him, or ashamed of the failure of their 
 repeated attempts to bring him over, or merely out of malice 
 and hatred to the Catholic religion, — one Culligius, an under- 
 warder of the Tower, poisoned some cheese, a food which he 
 knew the Primate took freely for supper, and placed it 
 before him. He, suspecting no evil, eat it, and presently 
 felt grievous pains in his entrails, and his throat swelled. 
 The day after he had eaten it he sent a servant to a Catholic 
 physician in the city, named Arclous ; when he learned the 
 
108 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 symptoms, he exclaimed that the bishop was poisoned, that 
 the poison had penetrated to the vitals, and that no human aid 
 could avail. The Primate, feeling himself getting worse, 
 called in a confessor from a neighbouring chamber. Father 
 Critonius, of the Society of Jesus, who was there confined 
 on account of the faith. He heard his confession, gave him 
 absolution, and did all that the difficulty of their position 
 would allow, watching with fraternal affection over the pious 
 dying bishop, who yielded up his soul to his Creator the 
 14th of October, 1585. 
 
 A certain modern writer speaking of the happy end of this 
 martyr, says : Richard Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh and 
 
 Primate of all Ireland, who spent the greater part of his 
 life in the Castle of Dublin and the Tower of London, was 
 slain by poison, by a certain villain, and leaving his earthly 
 prison of stone rejoined the happy inhabitants of heaven. — 
 F^tanihurstj “ Proemium ad Usse7'ium/’ pp. 28, 29. 
 
 AVhen he was in Rome he obtained from Gregory XIII. an 
 annual sum for the support of some Irish students to form 
 the commencement of a college. Its first foundations were 
 laid in the University of Pont-a-Mousson,^ whence several 
 pious and learned men have already come to us. He exerted 
 himself much to forward the mission of the Society of Jesus 
 in Ireland. On this subject there is extant a very friendlj^ 
 letter of his to the Reverend Father Oliver Manarens, who was 
 then visitor of that society. Mention is made in ^^Britanno- 
 machia^^ of his refusal to consecrate theinnovating bishops in 
 England. 
 
 He wrote several little works; amongst which the following 
 are said to be the principal : Of the Origin of the Irish 
 
 Language , “ Controversies of Faith against the Heretics ” 
 (these tyvo in Latin), A Catechism in Irish.^'’ Some of these 
 are extant ; others I fear have perished, unless perchance they 
 exist in the Tower of London, where also he is buried. 
 
 So far Dr. Rothe. 
 
 I will now proceed to fill some omissions in the life given 
 by Dr. Rothe, availing myself of the labours of the learned 
 University of Pont-a-Mousson, on the Moselle, founded 1572. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 109 
 
 writer in the Rambler. Dr. CreagVs zeal and high repute 
 for learning attracted the attention of the Nuncio David 
 Wolfe, who arrived in Limerick in August, 1560, charged 
 expressly with providing for the vacant sees. He was at once 
 destined either for the see of Armagh or that of Cashel, both 
 then vacant, and was commanded, in virtue of the oath 
 taken by the bachelors of divinity, to proceed to Eome. He 
 expressed a decided repugnance to this promotion, but in 
 obedience to his oath, and not without a hope that he might 
 be permitted to enter the order of Theatines at Eome, he 
 left Ireland for that city in August, 1562. His whole resources 
 for travelling on his departure were twenty crowns of his own, 
 forty from the Nuncio, and twelve marks from De Lacy, 
 Bishop of Limerick. Arriving in Borne in January, 1563, he 
 delivered to the general of the Jesuits the letter written to 
 Cardinal Moroni by the Irish Nuncio, and was ordered in 
 the month of February, by Cardinal Gonzaga, who then held 
 the place of Moroni, absent at the Council of Trent, not to 
 think of entering any religious order until the Pope^s pleasure 
 was known. The order was soon given ; he was commanded 
 to prepare for consecration as Archbishop of Armagh, was 
 examined on S. PatriclCs day, 1664, and consecrated by 
 Lomelino and other bishops in the Pope’s chapel the follow- 
 ing Easter. Under the eye of Pope Pius IV., to whom our 
 archbishop was specially dear, there were collected at that 
 time in Borne several distinguished Irish priests, who had also 
 been sent over by David Wolfe. Tliree of them had already 
 taken their places in the Council of Trent as Irish bishops, 
 and several others were supported in Borne with their retinue 
 at the Pope’s special charge. Bichard was placed on this 
 list as soon as he was ordered to prepare for consecration : 
 he had daily meat, drink and wine for himself and his ser- 
 vants at the Pope’s cost, paying for his house-room six crowns 
 by the month; he had apparel of three sorts, of blue and un- 
 watered chamlet, and wore the same in Borne, having four 
 or five servants waiting there on him ; in his household also, 
 and supported at his own expense, were two or three poor 
 scholars.” These particulars, and many others too numerous 
 
110 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 to mention, were elicited from him by the inquisitorial inter- 
 rogatories in the Tower of London. In the month of July, 
 1564, he received the Pope’s blessing, and set out on horse- 
 back from Rome, accompanied part of the way by a priest, 
 and the entire journey by an Ulster student. The fatigues 
 of this summer’s journey reduced a constitution not naturally 
 strong, and by the time of his arrival at Augsburg he was 
 attacked by an ague which compelled him to accept for a week 
 the kind hospitality of the Cardinal Bishop of Augsburg. 
 Starting with restored health, he proceeded to Antwerp, where 
 he met John Clement, tutor of the children of Sir Thomas 
 More, and then an exile for the faith. Prevented from sailing 
 immediately, he turned his steps to his beloved Louvain, 
 where his heart was cheered by meeting some Irish students, 
 and where, for the first time since his departure from Rome, 
 he appeared publicly as Archbishop of Armagh. In memory 
 of old times, he gave a grand banquet to the doctors of the 
 University, sitting with them in his archbishop’s apparel 
 of blue chamlet, which he did not wear in any other place 
 since he came from Rome.” Embarking in an Irish ship 
 bound for England, he was driven ashore at Dover, and, in 
 his own words, being arrived in England, he was unknown ; 
 and at Rochester he found an Irish boy begging, whom he 
 took with him to London, and then lodged at the ^ Three 
 Cups,’ in Broad Street, in October, 1564, where he tarried 
 past three days ; and at his being in London he went to 
 Paul’s Church and there walked, but had no talk with any 
 man; and also to Westminster Abbey to see the monuments 
 there ; and from thence he went to Westminster Hall at the 
 time that he heard Bonner was to be arraigned there.” 
 Within less than one short year our fearless Primate was 
 himself^ to be arraigned there. The dangers of the Irish 
 mission had greatly increased since his departure, and there 
 were, especially for him, difficulties which would be trying at 
 any time in the circumstances of the diocese to which he had 
 been appointed. Nearly the whole diocese of Armagh was 
 at this period under the absolute control of John O’Neill, a 
 prince of great energy and not a few noble qualities, but 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 Ill 
 
 who, though never faithless to the Catholic Chureh, regarded 
 it, as it as been too often regarded, as an acolyte of the civil 
 power. He wished to have the vacant see of Down for his 
 brother, a young man without learning, only 23 years of age, 
 and he had sent to Rome for the purpose. But the Primate, 
 it was known, would not consent to that nomination. More- 
 over, Terence Daniel, foster brother of O’Neill, and dean of 
 Armagh, a court favourite during the reign of Edward 
 VI., and one of those pliant ecclesiastics with whom some of 
 the high places in the Church were cursed at that period, was 
 strongly reeommended to the Pope by O’Neill for the arch- 
 bishopric. Here was what may be ealled the Catholic party 
 opposed to the new Primate. Moreover, Elizabeth had 
 appointed Adam Loftus, an English Protestant, to the see. 
 The canons had no part in this nomination, for, though to 
 conciliate them she violated a statute just passed by the 
 Irish parliament, and had issued a conge d^elire, the dean 
 either could not or would not assemble them, so indignant 
 w^ere they at the intrusion of a heretic into the chair of S. 
 Patrick. Loftus, however, after a considerable delay, was 
 consecrated inMarch, 1563, and by the aid of English troops 
 held his position for some time in the Louth or English por- 
 tion of the diocese. To the difficulties arising from these 
 two parties must be added the Primate’s utter ignorance of 
 the arch-diocese. To use his own words, he did not wish 
 to be sent to Armagh among barbarous, wild, and uncivil 
 folks, where he had no acquaintance among the clergy he 
 had merely seen some of the Ulster prelates in the English 
 pale in Queen Mary’s time. The Pope had given him a 
 letter to Shane O’Neill, and a pension on the see of Down 
 for O’Neill’s brother, w'hich the Ulster priesthad applied for; 
 but though he intended to go direct to Armagh he did not 
 know if Shane would receive him. Not deterred, however, 
 by these difficulties, he resolved, if he were received by the 
 chapter, to inculcate peace and loyalty in Ulster, to induce 
 O’Neill and the other chieftains to found colleges and 
 schools, and he even dreamed of the possibility of founding 
 an Irish University with the co-operation of the Crown. If 
 
112 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 he were rejected by the chapter, his course was also resolved 
 upon. When commanded by the Pope to accept the arch- 
 bishopric, he had extorted from his Holiness a promise to be 
 allowed to resign it when it was good,^^ and he would at 
 once return to Louvain, and, according to his first and still 
 cherished intention, enter a religious order. Providence 
 had, however, marked out a different fate for him. 
 
 Immediately after his arrival in Ireland, in the winter of 
 1564, when in the act of celebrating Mass in a monastery in 
 his own province not far from the place where he had landed, 
 he was betrayed and arrested by the garrison of a neigh- 
 bouring castle and brought before the warden. He told his 
 rank and his object in coming over, and at the instigation of 
 the warden’s brother, a man infected with the heresy of the 
 times and fully aware of the political prize which had fallen 
 into his hands, he was kept a close prisoner, and in pursu- 
 ance of orders subsequently received from England, was sent 
 in chains to London, where, as I have mentioned, he was 
 committed to the Tower on the 18th January, 1565. On 
 the 22nd February, the feast of S. Peter’s Chair at Antioch, 
 he was interrogated at great length by Sir W. Cecil in 
 Westminster Hall. He was again examined before the Re- 
 corder of London on the 17th of March, and a third time on 
 the 23rd March. Soon after, that is on the octave of Easter, 
 he escaped, as has been described by Rothe, and proceeded to 
 Louvain, where he was welcomed by his old friend Michael 
 Banis, president of the Papal College in that University. 
 After a short stay there he proceeded to Spain, whence, ex- 
 pecting to return to Ireland, he wrote to Lord Robert 
 Leicester, through the Spanish Ambassador, offering, should 
 the Pope order him to return to Ireland, to give to Caesar 
 his own and to God his own. The good archbishop seems for a 
 long time to have imagined that if the Queen could be con- 
 vinced of his loyalty — and he was truly loyal — she would forgive 
 his Catholicity. He was, however, bitterly undeceived. It 
 does not appear whether any answer was given to his letter; 
 but he returned to Ireland, and made his way to his diocese, 
 where, in the month of August, 1566, he had an interview 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 113 
 
 at Irish-Darell, near Clondarell, in the county of Armagh, 
 with Shane O^Neil, and he was accompanied by Myler 
 McGrath, lately appointed by the Pope bishop of Down. 
 There attended also at this interview another powerful chief- 
 tain of the O’Neills, — Turlough Leynagh, to whom a letter 
 had been sent by the Pope. He was meditating an attack on 
 Carrickfergus, and requested the archbishop to warn the 
 friars of that place. On the following Sunday he preached 
 in the cathedral of Armagh before Shane, Turlough Ley- 
 nagh, and Hugh O’Donnell, of Tyrconnell, and had other 
 interviews with Shane, who in the confidence of his power, 
 promised, when burying his brother at Armagh, that he 
 should hold his church as honourably as any archbishop ever 
 had.” His promise, however, he did not fulfil, for a few 
 months later he ruined that cathedral to prevent the English 
 converting it into a fortress. On Christmas day, 1 566, hoping 
 to promote peace, the Primate wrote the following letter to 
 the lord deputy, Sir Henry Sidney : — 
 
 Right Honourable Lord, — 
 
 ^^At our being in Spain, doubting whether the Pope’s 
 Holiness would command us to come back again to Ireland, 
 we have written letters to my Lord Robert showing that if we 
 should by the said Holiness be commanded to come thither 
 we should have none other thing to do but what our Lord 
 and Master Christ has commanded, ‘ Give to Csesar his own 
 and to God his own.’ The aforesaid, our simple letters, as 
 we think the King of Spain (because we were his father’s 
 scholar at Louvain the space of seven or eight years) has 
 directed unto his ambassador in England, willing him to 
 know whether the Queen’s Majesty should be contented 
 that we should fulfil the office that we should be bound to, 
 concerning the archbishopric of Armagh. Soon after we 
 have received without our own procurement from Rome 
 such letters as were necessary for the aforesaid archbishop- 
 ric, whereby we were bound by our Catholic religion to come 
 to Ireland ; wherein, being before the lord O’Neill’s going to 
 Tyrconnell, we desired him (according to the above-men- 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 tioned letter to Lord Robert) to provide for all possible 
 means whereby he might be at accord with the Queen’s 
 Majesty and your lordship. But he was then so busy about 
 his affairs that he took not heed thereto ; and now before we 
 should earnestly speak thereof unto him, we thought but to 
 know of your lordship’s will, and what you shall will us to do 
 therein we shall by God’s leave do the best we can. The 
 said lord O’Neill, for safeguard of his country, hath burned 
 the cathedral church and the whole town of Armagh, 
 although we have earnestly chided him before and after 
 he did the same ; but he alleged such hurts as were before 
 done to his country by means of that place. If it be your 
 lordship’s pleasure you will not disdain to write to us, first 
 whether you will have us speak concerning any peace with 
 the said lord O’Neill and how; secondly, if that peace should 
 be or not, whether it should please your lordship that we 
 should have our old service in our churches and suffer our 
 said churches to be up for that use, so that the said lord 
 O’Neill should destroy no more churches, and perhaps should 
 help to restore such as by his procurement were destroyed;* 
 finally whether your lordship has heard anything concerning 
 our letters sent by the King of Spain to his ambassador and 
 to my Lord Robert. So we commend your lordship unto 
 Almighty God. From Dunavally (near Charlemont), this 
 instant Christmas. By your lordship’s to command in what 
 we can lawfully execute, 
 
 Richard, Archiep. Armagh.” 
 
 No written answer was given to this letter. We have 
 given forth speech of his extirpation by war ” was the only 
 reply. The Irish race and the Catholic religion were to be 
 alike exterminated, and O’Neill, the Irish chieftain, and Dr. 
 Creagh, the loyal palesraan but the Catholic bishop, were 
 
 * The reader must remember that at this date Loftus, the titular 
 Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, was living in a lodging in London, 
 and that there was not even the pretence of a Protestant congregation 
 in the diocese of Armagh. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 115 
 
 doomed alike. Yet even Thomas More in his history has 
 written that there was no persecution for religion until the 
 close of Elizabeth's reign ; for what but his religion did the 
 Queen’s devoted subject Dr. Creagh suffer ? 
 
 To add to the Primate’s troubles, Myler McGrath, bishop 
 of Down (who afterwards apostatized at Drogheda, on the 
 31st May, 1567), fomented trouble between him.and O’Neill 
 (we have already mentioned the outrages against priests 
 committed by O’Neill), and forged a letter to disgrace him 
 with the Pope. The forgery was however discovered. The 
 Primate, in consequence, it appears, of these troubles, and 
 probably to escape the imputation of being implicated in 
 O’Neill’s resistance to the Queen’s authority, retired to Con- 
 naught. Here, however, he was pursued by the malice of his 
 English enemies and treacherously taken prisoner on the 
 30th April (a week before O’Neill’s defeat at Letterkenny) , 
 by O’Shaugnessy, who received a special letter of thanks 
 from Elizabeth for his services. By order of the Queen 
 dated 22nd July, 1567, he was tried in Dublin, but acquitted. 
 This is the trial narrated in detail by Rothe, who, however, 
 puts it before his escape from the Tower instead of after. He 
 was not, however, set free, but escaped soon after with the aid 
 of and in company with his gaoler. A proclamation was issued 
 with a reward of £40 for his apprehension. He was taken 
 by the retainers of Gerald, Earl of Kildare, under the com- 
 mand of Myler Hussey, who, how^ever, could not discover him 
 until he had sworn and pledged the earl’s honour that his life 
 should be spared. On the 22nd December, 1567, Hussey 
 petitioned the lords of the Privy Council to that effect, 
 urging that if faith were not kept, there was an end to all 
 confidence in petitioner’s oath and credit.” Before the end 
 of the year, the Primate was once more in the hands of 
 Cecil (Shirley, pp. 324, 326) ; but whether to save the honour 
 of his captors, or for some other reason, he was never brought 
 to trial, but was kept a close prisoner in the Tower until he 
 was carried off by poison, as Dr. Rothe relates, in 1585. 
 
 The original authorities for Dr. Creagh’s life are Rothe, 
 O’Sullivan, O’Daly, and the documents printed in the 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Shirley papers ; Sanders' History Eng. Eeform ; Life of Sir 
 J ohn Perrot, &c. See Eenehan's Bishops ; and the Rambler , 
 Aprils 1854. 
 
 Rev. PATRICK O'CONOR and MALACHY O'KELLY. 
 
 He was descended from the royal race of O'Conor, in 
 Connaught, but, renouncing the false joys of the world in the 
 flower of his age, he embraced the monastic life in the 
 celebrated Cistercian monastery of .... in the diocese of 
 Elphin, in the year 1562. During all the twenty-three 
 years he lived in the monastery, he was as a shining light to 
 his brethren. He was assiduous in prayer, during which he 
 shed floods of tears, and unwearied in all works of charity, 
 especially towards the sick, and rigorous in chastising his 
 body. During the last fifteen years of his life he never 
 touched beer or wine ; he never eat meat during all the 
 years of his profession. Almighty God, to reward the merits 
 of Father Conor, suffered him, together with Father Malachy 
 Kelly, a monk of the same monastery, remarkable alike for 
 noble birth and virtues, to fall into the hands of the cruel 
 satellites of Elizabeth, by whom, with barbarous torture, he 
 was first partially hung, and then cut into four parts, near 
 the same monastery, the 19th May, 1585. See a manuscript 
 of the Irish College of Prague, and Henriquez's in Menologia 
 Cister." — Bruodin, lib. hi. cap. 20. 
 
 Rev. MAURICE KINRECHTIN. 
 
 I GIVE his life from Dr. Rothe : — 
 
 It is almost incredible what disturbances and tumults 
 have been caused in Ireland by the new opinions and the 
 differences in religion. Even the heterodox writers admit 
 that all; or nearly all, the insurrections which have taken 
 place in this island, from the beginning of the English 
 schism, have been begun on account of the faith and the 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 117 
 
 orthodox profession ; if not begun for that reason, yet 
 religion entered into their motives; or, finally, if that were 
 not the real motive of their authors in taking up arms, yet 
 they held it out as a pretext, and by that means drew many 
 into their combinations. Nor has this been said only by 
 strangers, but amongst natives, by all those well acquainted 
 with affairs and intimately conversant with the secret 
 councils of those who have staked all in the chance of 
 battle. 
 
 It would not be well here to repeat what has been often 
 said, or by imprudent words to stir up a trouble not yet laid, 
 therefore I will omit all mention of persons whose defence I 
 have not undertaken, and on whom the judgment of this 
 world has varied according to the opinions and prejudices of 
 various men. I know that the inhabitants of Ireland, the 
 subjects of our king, are contented with the present peace 
 (as the subjects of the Roman empire under Augustus, when, 
 the civil war being ended, the Augustan age of peace re- 
 turned). I know how they detest the tumult of war, and 
 desire to devote themselves to the arts of peace, and enjoy 
 its sweets. I know how ready they are to receive with 
 warm affection and reverence the presence of their prince. 
 I know that they desire nothing more than the happiness of 
 the king and his offspring, and that under their auspices 
 may be firmly established the much-desired peace and 
 indulgence towards the Irish, both in respect to other 
 matters of political administration, and especially in those 
 matters of TroXireia which regard religion, the divine worship 
 and ecclesiastical discipline, and the profession and practice 
 of the ancient faith.* And since I know the present 
 position and disposition of our countrymen, and that respect 
 for justice which is natural to all mankind, and has, more- 
 over, been divinely infused into their minds, and divinely 
 
 ♦ Although Dr. Eothe’s book was printed in 1619, it would appear 
 probable that this passage was written much earlier, in the reign of 
 James I., when the Catholics had hopes of toleration from him — hopes 
 soon BO treacherously and bitterly disappointed. 
 
118 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 preserved,* I will not linger over the sad events of the days 
 that are gone, or past events and manners ; I will not again 
 recite the odious tale of ancient quarrels and injuries, of 
 vengeance sought or inflicted ; for me these things shall be 
 buried in oblivion, and covered with eternal shadows. 
 
 What I have now to do is to give an account of the holy 
 death of Maurice Kinrechtin, priest, of the holy faith in 
 which he lived and in which he died. He was born in the 
 town of Killmallock, and departed this life in that of 
 Clonmel; the former is in the diocese of Limerick, the 
 latter in that of Lismore. I will pass over his childhood 
 and youth, and pass to the account of his maturer years. 
 Having embraced the ecclesiastical profession, and obtained 
 the rank of bachelor in theology, he was made chaplain and 
 confessor to Gerald, Earl of Desmond; and when the latter 
 joined the united chiefs, his chaplain did not desert him. 
 
 ^^With a good intention, and firm faith, and pure in- 
 tention of pleasing God, did Father Maurice go with Earl 
 Gerald ; not from party spirit, or intention of rebelling, but 
 to preserve the peace of Christ — to unite in the union of the 
 Catholic faith those who were divided into parties and sects, 
 and ^ to overcome Satan in their hearts^ (Eph. v. 13; 
 Coloss. iv. 5). Whether he acted wisely as regards this 
 world I ask not, for I am sure he acted honestly ; and the 
 purity of his intention and the liveliness of his faith will 
 have freed him from all criminality before the supreme 
 tribunal of the Judge of the world; for 'to the pure all 
 things are pure : and blessed is he that condemneth not him- 
 self in that which he alloweth^ (Rom. xiv. 22). But if any 
 man be straitened between the duty of obedience and the 
 dictates of his conscience, because he cannot satisfy both, 
 there^ can be no doubt the lesser must yield to the greater 
 
 * Sir John Davis, James I.’s Attorney-General for Ireland, 
 says : — “ The truth is, that in time of peace the Irish are more fearful 
 to offend the law than the English, or any other nation whatsoever. 
 There is no nation of people under the sun that doth love equal and 
 indifferent justice better than the Irish.” How little they got of it 
 from his master ! 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 119 
 
 obligation^ the human to the divine, that of the natural law 
 to that of the positive, temporal to spiritual, profane to 
 sacred, earth to heaven, * for all that is not of faith is sin ^ 
 (Rom. xiv. 23). Such was the hard condition of the times, 
 such the necessity of the day, and such the disturbance of 
 men^s minds, from which, indeed, we might have been wholly 
 delivered and truly made free, if King James had persevered 
 in his original intention and granted the wishes of the native 
 inhabitants for the free exercise of their religion and worship. 
 But let us pass over these sad questions, and speak of the 
 piety and constancy in the orthodox faith of Maurice. His 
 attention to prayers, his sobriety and continency of life, his 
 gentleness of speech, proved his love of God and his neigh- 
 bour. Although these qualities were recognized by all, and 
 he was loved and respected by all the good, he had the 
 misfortune to fall into the hands of one Maurice Sweeny,* a 
 faithless and bloody captain of hireling soldiers, a deserter 
 from his lord, in whose forces he had been leader of the 
 axe-bearers — those who fight with battle-axes, a weapon 
 much used by the Irish. It was no wonder that Father 
 Maurice w'as by this perfidious man given up a prisoner 
 to a troop of English soldiers, and thus to Sir John Norris, 
 President of Munster; since, notwithstanding his allegiance 
 to him, he sold, for a wretched price, the Earl of Desmond, 
 when unarmed and defenceless. It was then not to be 
 expected that he would treat his chaplain better. But the 
 fate which befell the captor showed the wickedness of the 
 capture. 
 
 Maurice, being thrown into the prison of Clonmel, re- 
 mained for rather more than a year in chains ; here he bore 
 the filth and stench of the prison, and all the other sufferings 
 of prison, with great patience. He edified all who approached 
 him by word and example, exhorting them to penance, to 
 constancy in the faith, to restitution of goods unjustly 
 obtained, to charity to the poor. He, indeed, being bound 
 in the Lord, was as one not bound, for his charity and 
 
 * “ Suvinium,” which I translate Sweeny. 
 
120 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 prayers reached all known and dear to him; nor did his 
 generous spirit forget even his enemies. To all he zealously 
 preached the unity of the Catholic faith, out of which there 
 is no salvation. He could preach this with the more effect 
 to the Irish, that obedience to Rome seems inborn in them ; 
 wherefore he might duly address them in the words of 
 Moses to the Israelites, — ^ Behold, heaven is the Lord thy 
 God^s, and the heaven of heavens, the earth, and all things 
 that are therein. And yet the Lord hath been closely joined 
 to thy fathers, and loved them, and chose their seed after 
 them, that is to say, you, out of all nations, as this day it is 
 proved.^ — Deut. x. 14, 15. 
 
 The dwellers in this island seem to be chosen out of all 
 nations, that they hold fast on the Lord in all their tribu- 
 lations. And since Maurice seemed by his sufferings to be 
 more closely united to God, he was the more beloved by his 
 friends and the servants of God. About the feast of Easter, 
 in the year 1585, when all the faithful are bound not only by 
 devotion, but by the ecclesiastical precept, to approach the 
 Holy Communion, a certain eminent citizen of Clonmel 
 sought to afford a paschal pleasure to the captive priest, and 
 at the same to satisfy the piety of his neighbours, who 
 desired above all things to make their Easter confession to 
 the prisoner for Christ’s sake, and to receive from him the 
 Holy Communion. Victor White therefore went to the 
 head gaoler, and for a considerable sum of money obtained 
 of him that the prisoner should be allowed to spend that one 
 night in his house. The gaoler assented to the petition, 
 which was backed by money, and let out the prisoner, for 
 whom the other became security. But the wretch was not 
 satisfied with selling this moment of liberty to the captive, but 
 sought also to sell the pious host, the whole neighbourhood, 
 and the- life of the poor priest, to the wicked President 
 Norris, who arrived at that time. That same evening he 
 privately went to the President and told him that at the 
 request of Victor he had allowed Maurice to leave the prison 
 for that night, and sleep in his house ; that he was there 
 then^ and that all the Catholics in the neighbourhood were 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 121 
 
 warned of the Mass which would be celebrated the next day ; 
 that he might surround the house early the next morning 
 with soldiers, and seize them all. 
 
 The President listened to his tale with pleasure, and 
 prepared his soldiers for the work. When the hour for Mass 
 approached, whilst Maurice was yet hearing confessions, and 
 the altar was prepared in a quiet part of the house, the 
 pious dwelling was surrounded, and the soldiers rushed in 
 and seized on all, nor spared the hoary head of the house- 
 hold. Great was the terror of the assembled Catholics; the 
 trembling women and children hid themselves in dark 
 corners ; others threw themselves down from high windows 
 and into ditches in order to escape. In these efforts some 
 broke their legs, and some their arms, and received other 
 injuries. 
 
 ^^In the mean time the priest was hid under a large heap 
 of straw which lay in the court-yard. The soldiers, in trying 
 this with their swords and javelins, chanced to wound the 
 fugitive whom they were seeking in the thigh ; but he, being, 
 as it were, rendered insensible by fear, did not utter a sound, 
 and so escaped. The sacred utensils were carried away, the 
 chalice and the rest despoiled, and the master of the house 
 himself carried to prison, and threatened with the loss of all 
 his goods and his life unless he returned the priest who had 
 escaped. These two worthy friends, Victor and Maurice, 
 strove each to suffer for the other. I will not here speak of 
 David and Jonathan, or Orestes and Pylades ; the neigh- 
 bouring Britain produced S. Alban, who, whilst yet a 
 gentile, gave shelter to a Christian cleric, as did Ireland, 
 Victor and Maurice. (Bede, lib.i. cap. 7.) But as the laurel 
 of the martyr is more glorious than the reward of the con- 
 fessor, so was Alban more happy than his guest, as he received 
 the crown which seemed prepared for the latter, and so 
 Maurice by his triumph recovered the crown from Victor. 
 
 “ When he heard, in the place of safety which he had 
 reached, that Victor was in peril, he returned to the danger 
 he had escaped to free his friend. An exchange was made 
 of the prisoners ; Victor was set free, and Maurice was 
 
122 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 fettered and thrown into prison, this time into the lowest 
 prison, dark indeed and horrid in the eyes of man, but 
 glorious in the sight of angels. Sentence of death was 
 passed against him, although not in a legal manner. Its 
 execution, however, he could have avoided, and saved his 
 life if he would have abjured the orthodox faith and taken 
 the oath of the Queen^s supremacy. But he chose the better 
 part, he finished his course, he kept the faith. As to the 
 rest, there was laid up for him a crown of justice, which the 
 Lord the just Judge gave to him in that day, and will give to 
 them also that love His coming. 
 
 I find a difiPerence of opinion as to the mode of his death. 
 Some relate that after he was hanged until he was half dead, 
 his head was cut off, and his body divided into four parts. 
 Thus it is related in a MS. compendium of Irish martyrs, in 
 these words : — ^ When he came to the place of execution, 
 turning to the people, he exhorted them, as far as time 
 would permit, and at the end, begging all the Catholics to 
 pray for him, and blessing them, he was hung from the 
 gallows, and, being taken down half dead, his head was cut 
 off and his body cut into four parts ; and these were 
 watched all that night by the soldiers, lest they should be 
 taken away by the Catholics. The next day the four pieces 
 were fastened on a cross in the middle of the town, and the 
 head on a high place where it could be seen by all, and so he 
 completed his glorious martyrdom.^ 
 
 Others relate that after his head was cut off the Catholics, . 
 either by prayers or bribes, induced the executioner not to do 
 any more to his body, nor to cut it in pieces : so says the 
 Reverend Father Robert Rochfort, of the Society of Jesus, in 
 his letter to his companion relating the death of Father 
 Maurice. This letter I have given in full, exactly as it came 
 into my hands, at the end of this narrative. This difference 
 in the narrative may have arisen from the fact that some 
 inferred from the terms of the sentence that it had been 
 carried out in the regular and usual way, and speak rather 
 of the sentence as recorded than as executed ; and therefore 
 I consider, in the ‘ Compendium of Martyrdoms,^ it is rather 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 123 
 
 the sentence than the execution that is spoken of. But as 
 sometimes, either through the mercy of the judge or the 
 favour of the executioner, some part of the details of the 
 sentence, though not of its essence, were omitted, those who 
 more carefully inquired into every particular narrate the 
 event with more accurate detail. And probably this is done 
 more accurately in the narrative of Father Bochfort than in 
 the Compendium.* 
 
 Somewhat similar to this is the difference between the 
 different accounts given by different writers of the martyrdom 
 of Sir Thomas More ; for some write that he was quartered 
 (as Paulus Jovius), others that he was only hanged ; and the 
 latter is the more correct.-j* But Jovius followed the tenor 
 of the sentence pronounced upon him, the others referred to 
 the mitigation accorded by the King. Whether anything 
 similar occurred in the present case must be inquired into 
 whenever an opportunity may offer. 
 
 But, whether his body was quartered or not, there is no 
 doubt he was beheaded, and the following strange circum- 
 stance followed ; for, his head being exposed for several days 
 in the sight of many, as they crowded round the foot of the 
 cross which stood in the middle of the market-place, about 
 the tenth hour each day they perceived a suffusion of ruddy 
 colour and perspiration on the forehead and cheeks of the 
 separated head ; and many remarked that that was the hour 
 at which Maurice, when free, used to celebrate Mass, as if 
 even in his ashes glowed the flame of piety and adorned the 
 forehead of the martyr. 
 
 Some remarked, too, that his hands after death formed 
 of themselves the sign of the cross, the first fingers being 
 crossed and the thumbs on the index ; and when the soldiers 
 
 * It was a common request to make of the executioner of those who 
 were executed after the manner of traitors, that he would allow them 
 to hang until they were dead before being cut down and embowelled ; 
 but frequently this was not done . — See instances in Challoners “ Mis- 
 sionary Priests,” and Lingard, vol. v. p. 39. 
 
 t Henry commuted the sentence into decapitation, and More was 
 beheaded. — Lingard, vol. v. p. 45. 
 
124 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 who were on guard, seeing this, sought to remove them and 
 straighten the fingers and separate them, so that they should 
 not make the sign of the cross, they returned of themselves 
 to the same position, and, as the elements return naturally 
 to their centre, so the fingers of the martyr returned to the 
 form of the cross. He departed to his crucified Lord the 
 30th April, in the year of our Lord 1585.^^ 
 
 Copy of a letter of Father Robert Rochfort, relating the 
 martyrdom of Father Maurice Kinrechtin. 
 
 I send you an account of the glorious martyrdom of a 
 friend of mine, Maurice Kenrechtin, a pious priest, chaplain 
 to the Earl of Desmond, whom you know. He was for this 
 cause taken prisoner by the English, and taken to your 
 native town of Clonmel, where he lay in prison for more than 
 a year. On the eve of Easter, 1585, Victor White, one of 
 the principal citizens of Clonmel, and a pious Catholic, 
 obtained from the head gaoler permission for the priest to 
 pass the night in his house ; this the gaoler agreed to, but 
 secretly informed the President of Munster, an English 
 heretic, who chanced to be in the town, that, if he wished, he 
 might easily seize all the principal citizens whilst hearing 
 Mass in the house of Mr. White at daybreak ; at the same 
 time he bargained to be paid for his perfidy. At the hour 
 agreed on, the soldiers rushed into the house and seized on 
 Victor ; but all the others, hearing the noise, tried to escape by 
 the back doors and windows : a certain matron, trying to 
 escape, fell and broke her arm. The soldiers found the chalice 
 and other things for Mass; they sought everywhere for the 
 priest (who had not yet begun the Mass), and came at length 
 to a heap of straw, under which he lay hid, and, thrusting 
 their swords through it, wounded him in the thigh ; but he 
 preserved silence and, through fear of worse, concealed his 
 suffering, and soon after escaped from the town into the 
 country. But the intrepid Victor (who, although he had for 
 this reason suffered much, could never be induced to attend 
 the conventicles of the heretics) was thrown into prison 
 because he would not give up the priest, and would no doubt 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 125 
 
 have been put to death had not Maurice, hearing of the 
 danger of his friend, voluntarily surrendered himself to the 
 •president, showing a friendship truly Christian. The presi- 
 dent upbraided him much, and, having sentenced him to 
 death, offered him his life if he would abjure our Catholic 
 faith and profess the Queen to be head of the Church. 
 There came to him also a preacher, and strove long, but in 
 vain, to seduce the martyr ; nor would he on any account 
 betray any of those who had heard his Mass, or to whom he 
 had at any time administered the sacraments. At length he 
 was dragged at the tail of a horse to the place of execution 
 as a traitor. Being come there, he devoutly and learnedly 
 exhorted the people to constancy in the faith. The execu- 
 tioner cut him down from the gallows when yet half alive 
 and cut off his sacred head, and the minister struck it in the 
 face. Then the Catholics by prayers and bribes obtained of 
 the executioners that they should not lacerate his body 
 any further, and they buried it as honourably as they could. 
 Farewell, and peace in the Lord, and be ye imitators — if 
 occasion offers — of the courageous Maurice Kenrechtin, and 
 till then prepare your souls for the trial. — Your devoted 
 servant, — dated from the College of S. Anthony, 1586, 
 20th March, Robert RocHroRT.^^—i2o^/ie, De Processu 
 MartyrialiP 
 
 Anno 1588. 
 
 Right Rev. PETER POWER, Bishop op Ferns. 
 
 “ Peter Power, native of Munster, for his merits was raised 
 to the diocese of Ferns by the Apostolic See.* He fulfilled 
 the duty of a good pastor, but, being taken prisoner by the 
 heretics, was wounded, and bound with cord and carried to 
 Dublin, where, overcome by human weakness and the torture 
 
 * Appointed in Consistory of April 27, 1582. — Moran, “ Alps. 
 Dublin, " vol. i. p. 184. 
 
126 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 of the rack, he abjured the Catholic faith, and subscribed to 
 the new religion of Elizabeth. On the fourth day afterwards 
 he so repented of this grievous fault that, having first 
 received absolution in the tribunal of penance, he coura- 
 geously returned to Dublin, and, like another Pope Marcellinus, 
 he sought the Viceroy and judge, and, upbraiding him with 
 having induced him to be guilty of such impiety, retracted 
 all he had said or written against the Catholic faith, and re- 
 nounced all the errors of Protestantism and heresy. Angered 
 by this public revocation of the Bishop of Ferns, the ministers 
 of Elizabeth tried his constancy with the sharpest torments, 
 but in vain ; for, full of the spirit of God, in the midst of 
 the torture of the rack, he at one time prayed in the words 
 of the psalm Miserere me Deus, then prayed for the salvation 
 of the executioners, and told them they punished him not 
 enough for the crime he had committed in denying the faith. 
 At length, wearied and despairing of overcoming the con- 
 stancy of Peter, the officers left him bound in prison. The 
 gaoler, a Catholic at heart, was touched with pity for the 
 bishop, and secretly unbound him, and let him retire to a safe 
 place. Thus did Peter expiate his fault and escape from the 
 hands of the executioners. By the aid of the Catholics he 
 escaped to that refuge of all Irish exiles, Spain, where he 
 died, in repute of holiness, 15th December, 1588 .^^ — Bruodirij 
 lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
 Bothe says, — 
 
 Escaping from prison, he made his way to Rome, and, 
 prostrate before the tribunal of the supreme judge, obtained 
 absolution. He then proceeded to Compostella, where he 
 was made suffragan of the Archbishop of Compostella, and 
 there dieA (as it was said, of poison given to him by a wicked 
 Galilean sacristan), about 1587.^' — Rothe, Be Processu 
 MartyrialiP 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 127 
 
 MAURICE EUSTACE. 
 
 Maurice Eustace, a youth of great promise, entered the 
 Society of Jesus at Bruges, in Flanders, and being called 
 home by his father. Sir John Eustace, a noble and influential 
 man, he returned to Ireland, by the permission of the Father 
 (as is mentioned by the author of the Theatre), before he 
 had taken his vows. He had not long enjoyed his gentle 
 native air when he was seized by the ungentle heretics in 
 Dublin, and examined on the suspicion of holding corre- 
 spondence with the Catholic nobles who had been driven by 
 the cruelty of Elizabeth to defend the Catholic faith by 
 arms. Maurice, who was an intrepid young man, boldly 
 answered the accusation and proved his innocence, adding 
 that he had only lately returned from Belgium (where he 
 was enrolled among the novices of the Society of Jesus), in 
 order to satisfy the ardent desire of his parents, and that his 
 object was not to excite rebellion, but only to satisfy his 
 parents^ request, and return as soon as possible to take his 
 vows. On this the chief judge answered, ‘ Out of your own 
 mouth I judge you; for as you say you are one of the Jesuits 
 who are born to excite trouble and sedition, any one must 
 see you are guilty of the crimes you are accused of.^ And 
 on this he sentenced Maurice to die. The youth was then 
 dragged from the court to the place of execution, and there 
 hung, and cut in four parts, and so gloriously triumphed for 
 Christ, 9th June, 1588.^^ — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
 Rothe, De Processu Martyriali,^^ mentions his death, and 
 says he was a master of arts. 
 
 Rev. peter MILLER, 
 
 of Wexford, and bachelor of theology, moved by charity 
 for the Catholics, returned to Ireland from Spain. He had 
 hardly landed, when he was taken in Wexford, tried, and, 
 being constant in the faith, by order of the judge was, after 
 various tortures, hung and cut in four, 4th October, 1588.^’ 
 — Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
128 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 PETER MEYLER, 
 
 a student in arts [litteris humanioribus) y was seized by 
 the heretics, and because he remained constant in the faith, 
 suffered martyrdom at Galway, in the year of our Lord 
 1588/^ — PMladelph. 
 
 Rev. JOHN O^MOLLOY, CORNELIUS DOGHERTY, 
 AND WALERID EERRALL, O.S.F., 
 
 were Franciscans, and about 1588 fell victims to the 
 malice of the heretics. They spent eight years in adminis- 
 tering the consolations of religion throughout the moun- 
 tainous districts of Leinster. Many families of Carlow, 
 Wicklow, and Wexford, had been compelled to seek a refuge 
 there from the fury of the English troops. The good Fran- 
 ciscans shared in all their perils ; travelling about from place 
 to place by night, they visited the sick, consoled the dying, 
 and offered up the sacred mysteries. Oftentimes the hard 
 rock was their only bed ; but they willingly embraced 
 nakedness and hunger, and cold, to console their afflicted 
 brethren. In a remote district of the Queen^s County they 
 were overtaken by a party of cavalry, bound hand and foot, 
 and conducted with every species of insult to the garrison 
 of Abbeyleix. Here they were flogged, and then put on 
 the rack ; at length being strangled, embowelled, and quar- 
 tered, they happily yielded their souls to their Creator — 
 Moran, ^‘Abps. of Dublin/^ p. 143; Bruodin, and Mooney. 
 
 Anno 1589. — Rev. Father MAURICE, Franciscan. 
 
 He is commemorated by Father Mooney in these words : — 
 In the convent of Clonmel is interred the Rev. Father 
 Maurice, a priest who suffered martyrdom at the hands of 
 the heretics in the same Clonmel, about the year 1589, and 
 whose relics were placed behind the high altar.^^ — Mooney, 
 p. 58. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH, 
 
 129 
 
 Anno 1590.— CHRISTOPHER ROCHE. 
 
 Born of a respectable family in Wexford, he had nearly 
 completed his studies at Louvain, when he was compelled by 
 sickness to return home, but was arrested at Bristol, in 
 England, examined, and called upon to take the oath of 
 supremacy. He refused resolutely to stain his soul with 
 such a perjury, and in consequence was sent to London, 
 where he was flogged through the streets. Then, after hav- 
 ing endured the horrors of Newgate prison for four months, 
 he was put to the torture of ^ the scavenger's daughter/ 
 and gave up his soul to God, under this torture, the 13th 
 December, 1590/^ — Bruodin^ lib. iii, cap. 20. 
 
 Anno 1597.—Rev. JOHN STEPHEN, WALTER 
 EERNAN, and several Others. 
 
 He is mentioned by Curry, Civil Wars in Ireland,^^ p. 6, 
 who refers to ^^The Theatre of Catholic and Protestant Reli- 
 gion,^^ p. 582 ; and, as he also mentions several other martyrs, 
 the exact date of whose triumph I have not been able to 
 ascertain, I shall here give the whole passage : — 
 
 ^Hn this reign, among many other Roman Catholic priests 
 and bishops, were put to death, for the exercise of their 
 functions in Ireland — John Stephens, priest, for that he said 
 Mass to Teague McHugh, was hanged and quartered by the 
 Lord Burroughs, in 1597 ; Thady O’Boyle, guardian of the 
 monastery of Donegal, was slain by the English in his own 
 monastery ; six friars were slain in the monastery of Mogni- 
 higan; John O’Calyhor and Bryan O’Trevor, of the Order 
 of S. Bernard, were slain in their own monastery, De Sancta 
 Maria, in Ulster; as also Eelimy O’Hara, a lay brother; so 
 was iEneas Penny, parish priest of Killagh, slain at the altar 
 in his parish church there; Cahill M^Goran ; Rory O’Don- 
 nellan ; Peter M'^Quillan ; Patrick O’Kenna ; George Power, 
 Vicar-General of the diocese of Ossory; Andrew Stritch, of 
 Limerick ; Bryan O’Murihirtagh, Vicar-General of the dio- 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 cese of Clonfertj Doroghow O^Molowny, of Thomondj John 
 Kelly^ of Louth ; Stephen Patrick, of Annaly ; John Pillis, 
 friar ; Eory McHenlea ; Tirilagh Mclnisky, a lay brother. 
 All those that come after ^neas Penny, together with 
 Walter Fernan, priest, died in the Castle of Dublin, either 
 through hard usage and restraint or the violence of torture.^^ 
 
 Of Andrew Stritch, Philadelphus says: He was a priest 
 
 of the diocese of Limerick. Educated for the Church in Paris, 
 he went to Ireland to save souls, and laboured zealously in 
 that vineyard for many years ; at length, being taken by the 
 heretics, he was taken to Dublin, and there thrown into 
 prison, where he happily completed his course, about the 
 year 
 
 Bruodin gives us some more particulars about the Bev. 
 Walter Fernan. He says, He was a priest of Leinster, and 
 a zealous preacher. Taken by the heretics, he was sent to 
 Dublin, where he triumphed in Christ. Thrown into prison, 
 he was tied round with an iron chain, and his hands and feet 
 being tied up to the beam of the roof, he was so left hanging 
 for forty hours. He was then flogged, and salt and vinegar 
 rubbed into his lacerated flesh. Being then asked if he would 
 take the oath of the Queen^s supremacy, he answered, with 
 constancy^ ^that he would rather die than swear that a 
 woman, who, as S. Paul teaches, may not even speak in 
 church, was the head of the Church. The bloody judge, 
 named Walter Bawley, angered by this answer, ordered 
 Fernan to be tortured on the rack. The executioners had 
 not been long pulling his limbs asunder, when Walter, 
 exclaiming, ^ Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,^ 
 gave up his soul to his Creator, the 12th March, 1597.^^ — 
 Bruodin, lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 131 
 
 Anno 1598. 
 
 Most Rev. EDWARD MacGAURAN, Archbishop of 
 
 Armagh. 
 
 '^Edward MacGauran was the immediate successor of 
 Primate Creagh. In the year 1594 Pope Clement VIII. em- 
 ployed the prelate as his envoy to the Irish nation, with the 
 view of animating them to persevere steadfastly in the faith, 
 and, rather than deny their consciences and their God, to shed 
 the last drop of their blood in defence of their religion. The 
 recent edict of Elizabeth against the priests and Catholics 
 was the last of the many causes that alarmed the holy Pontiff^s 
 zeal, and rendered such an exhortation necessary. Not 
 content with ejecting the bishops and priests from their 
 dwellings, and hunting them into the woods, nor by punish- 
 ing by fines and confiscations both priests and people for 
 not attending the Protestant worship, nor with punishing 
 as high treason every acknowledgment of the Pope^s spiritual 
 authority, this unrelenting persecutrix published a new edict 
 on the 18th October, 1591, in which she commands all heads 
 of families to seek out and discover the priests, whom she calls 
 Jesuits and Seminarists, and deliver them over, under a 
 strong guard, to her officers. The Irish princes had fre- 
 quently implored, during the last fifty years, the advice of 
 the Roman Pontiff, and his interposition, either personally 
 or through the French and Spanish monarchs, with the 
 court of England in their behalf ; when their remonstrances 
 failed of effect, the Irish then asked for military assistance. 
 In these circumstances, Philip II. of Spain, incensed against 
 England for some depredations committed on his European 
 and American dominions, and waging against her an unsuc- 
 cessful war for the last five years, promised at length to send 
 an effectual military aid to the Irish, and commissioned 
 Primate MacGauran to give the Irish princes the most positive 
 assurances of its speedy arrival. Dr. MacGauran, setting 
 sail from Spain in the vessel of James Fleming, a merchant 
 of Drogheda, arrived in Ireland in the beginning of 1594 with 
 
132 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 these two commissions. He lost no time in visiting the 
 different princes of Ulster; he communicated to them his 
 commissions^, and then took up his residence with Maguire, 
 prince of Fermanagh, on the confines of his diocese. 
 
 Maguire, before his arrival, had been in arms against 
 England, and when the Lord-Deputy Sussex called on him 
 to deliver up the Primate, he peremptorily refused. Shortly 
 after he directed his forces against the English possessions 
 in Connaught, and brought the bishop with him. Sir H. 
 Bingham, the governor of that province, despatched Sir 
 William Guelfort, with a body of troops, to oppose him. 
 The two armies, on the 23rd June, met at a place called 
 Sciath-na-Feart (the Shield of Wonders) ; the cavalry of both 
 were before the fort, and, there being a very thick mist, 
 they saw not each other till they met. The signal was given, 
 and, a brisk and determined action having been commenced 
 by the cavalry, Maguire, after much fighting, fixed his eye 
 on the opposite general, and, setting spurs to his horse, and 
 cutting a passage for himself through the surrounding officers 
 with his sword, he pierced Guelfort through with his lance. 
 The English, astonished at this daring bravery, and seeing 
 their commander slain, fled from the field. The Primate 
 was at a short distance from the engagement, administering 
 the last sacraments, and hearing the confessions of some of 
 the mortally wounded soldiers (Dr. Pothe says reconciling 
 a dying heretic) . A party of the fugitive cavalry happened 
 to come upon him while thus engaged, and transpierced with 
 their lances the unarmed and inofiPensive archbishop, being 
 roused to rage by seeing him engaged in the vocation of a 
 Catholic clergyman. 
 
 Thus the martyr Archbishop Creagh (anno 1585) was 
 succeeded by the martyr Dr. MacGauran (anno 1598), and 
 
 * Penehan, Collec., p. 18, from O’Sullivan, Pet. Lombard, and 
 Philadelph., who puts his death at 1598, but Dr. Eenehan gives 
 strong reasons to think this arises from a confusion between two battles 
 of Maguire, and that the true date is 1593. Sir Pichard Bingham, 
 writing to the Privy Council on the 28th June, 1793, describes his 
 death . — See Moran, Mist. Ah'ps:. Dnhlhi, vol. i. p. 290. 
 
N THE KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 133 
 
 at his death the headship of the Irish Churchy with the title 
 of Yice-Primate,* devolved ou Dr. Kedmoiid, Bishop of Derry, 
 who also laid down his life for the faith (1601), when the 
 office devolved on Dr. llichard Brady, Bishop of Kilmore, 
 who was a confessor, and almost a martyr. It then passed to 
 Dr. Cornelius O^Doveney, who also laid down his life for 
 (■hrist (anno 1612). Thus in thirty years four martyrs 
 and a confessor succeeded each other in the primacy of 
 the Irish Church. 
 
 Brimo avulso non deficit alter 
 Aureus ; cl simili frondescit virga metallo. 
 
 Rev. GEORGE POWER, 
 
 a priest of Kilkenny, and ATcar-General of the diocese of 
 Ossory, in a very advanced age was dragged to Dublin to 
 answer for the Catholic faith; he made a good confession 
 before the public tribunal, and, being thrown into prison, 
 and worn out with misery, he passed from life to death in 
 chains, about the year 1599.’^ — Pldladelph. See also Curry. 
 
 Anno 1600.— Rev. JOHN WALSH, 
 a priest and Vicar-General of the diocese of Dublin, was 
 thrown by chance on the coast of England, questioned of his 
 faith, and for his constancy thrown into prison in Chester, 
 where he ended his life and confession of the faith in chains, 
 about 1600.^^ — Pldladeljjh. 
 
 Mooney thus explains the title of Vice-Primate : — “According to 
 the custom of the province of Armagh, which is, that when the Primate 
 is absent or the see of Armagh vacant, the oldest bishop of the pro- 
 vince has the title of ‘ Vicc-Primatc,’ .... which I thought it right 
 to hand down to remembrance, lest the custom might become obsolete 
 by oblivion ” (p. 75). 
 
134 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1601. 
 
 Right Rev, Dr. RICHARD BRADY, Bishop of Kilmore, 
 
 AND Rev. BERNARD MORIARTY, and Companions. 
 
 The account which Father Mooney, who was one of the 
 party, gives of all the circumstances connected with the 
 sufferings of these holy men, is so interesting, and gives so 
 lively an idea of the state of the country, that I shall tran- 
 scribe it entire. 
 
 Of Father Bernard Moriarty he says, He was a priest of 
 the diocese of Ardagh, who had graduated in canon law in 
 Spain, and was Dean of Ardagh and Archdeacon of Clane 
 (Cluonensis), and was afterwards made Vicar-General of 
 Dublin by Dr. Matthew de Oviedo, Archbishop of Dublin, 
 and lived in the Franciscan convent of Multifarnham, on 
 account of his great affection for the brethren. . . . 
 
 The convent of Multifarnham, situated in a little village 
 of the diocese of Meath, in the county of Westmeath, was 
 founded by a Delmer, who in Irish is called Maeherbert, 
 and is believed to have been founded during the life of S. 
 Francis. But the family of Nugent, which is the family of 
 the Barons Delvin, are now looked upon as the founders, 
 especially the descendants of Sir James Nugent, of Donore. 
 This convent is the only refuge of such brethren as are sick, 
 weak, or aged, in the whole province, who, coming there 
 from all parts, live as it were without fear, wearing their 
 habit and serving God in all simplicity. 
 
 ^Mn the year 1601, on the 1st day of October, Sir Francis 
 Shean, an heretical soldier, invaded this convent with his 
 troop of soldiers, and apprehended the Right Rev. Brother 
 Richard Braden, Bishop of Kilmore ; the Rev. Brother J ohn 
 Gragan, the provincial minister; Brother James Hayn, a 
 priest; and the Very Rev. Bernard Moriarty, Dean of 
 Ardagh, whom I have mentioned before. After he came to 
 the convent he also arrested the father-guardian, who was 
 there, Brother Neemias Gragan, a very religious man and 
 much given to prayer, gentle in conversation, prudent in 
 council, and whose whole life was worthy of praise. He 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 135 
 
 arrested Brother Hugh Me [the word is illegible] , a priest-; 
 
 Brother Lewis Ogy — [also illegible], a lay brother ; Torchseus 
 Gragan and John Cahill, both lay brothers ; and Brother 
 Donatus Mooney, a novice, who was to make his profession in 
 two days ; all the rest had escaped, for it was night, and, after 
 the night prayers, at the usual signal, they had retired from 
 the church to their cells. Now our captor sent oflP a party 
 with some of his prisoners in the night to his castle, called 
 Balmore, and kept us two days in the monastery prisoners, 
 he staying there with his soldiers to look after plunder, of 
 which there was not much, save a tolerable large store of 
 provisions, which was the greater on account of the ap- 
 proaching festival of S. Francis, to the celebration of 
 which many nobles generally flock there, who send before- 
 hand their provisions to the monastery, because there are no 
 fitting inns there in which they could eat on that day. 
 Whilst we were kept prisoners in the monastery, I so 
 arranged that the father- guardian and all the other brethren, 
 except myself and one lay brother, deceived the watchfulness 
 of their guards and escaped. And I myself remained in 
 captivity, partly because I was more closely watched by the 
 guards, as being young and active, being then about twenty- 
 four, and practised beforetime in war, and partly from a 
 scruple that I thought my profession, which I was to make 
 in two days, would not be valid unless I made it in the 
 hands of the father-minister, who was a captive in another 
 place, and into whose company I calculated I would soon be 
 brought. Influenced, then, chiefly by these scruples, I would 
 not escape, although the father-guardian wished me to escape 
 rather than himself. 
 
 After two days the tyrant Francis Shean placed me and 
 the lay brother on horses and brought us to his castle afore- 
 said, and set Are to and destroyed the whole monastery, to 
 the great grief of all who saw or heard of the destruction of 
 that holy house, of which the very memory seemed thus 
 given to oblivion. He did not dare to do me any personal 
 injury, because he feared my relations and others bound to 
 me in blood or friendship who lived near him. Nay, he 
 
136 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 often said he would let me go, but that he could not do so, 
 unless, putting off my habit, I would return to the world ; 
 adding that I might do so without denying the Catholic 
 faith (which he called Papistical), since I was not yet bound 
 by vows ; adding that my doing so would be very pleasing 
 to my father (who was a great friend of his, and without 
 whose consent I had embraced this mode of life), because 
 he had much possessions, which, without a strenuous pro- 
 tector, as he said I would be, would most likely be plundered 
 and spoiled. And he urged me, saying, ^If you will give up, 
 not, indeed, the Papistical religion, but this hypocritical 
 vanity, and return to those warlike pursuits in which you 
 gave such good promise, I will cause you to be taken into 
 the Queen^s pay, and you will become a great man so 
 much did he desire my souks destruction. But He who had 
 called me from the darkness of misery into His admirable 
 light, and the society of His beloved Son, so strengthened 
 my soul that not for a kingdom would I have put off my 
 profession. He therefore strove in vain, and I was brought 
 into the prison in which were the bishop and the father- 
 minister and the aforesaid Brother James and the priest, 
 and I was left with them, with my companion the lay brother ; 
 and as the year of my noviceship was now fully completed, 
 1 spoke to the reverend father-provincial, humbly beseeching 
 him that, as God had granted me to come to that day and 
 place, he would allow and receive my vows by which I was 
 determined to devote myself and my whole life to God and 
 S. Francis. The bishop, surprised, or rather wishing to 
 try me, said, ^ Hear me, my son, who art now in prison for 
 the habit of S. Francis, and mayest depart if you will 
 put off this habit ; if thou art minded to be for ever bound by 
 this rule, weigh well what thou dost.^ I answered, ' Right 
 reverend father, I am firmly resolved, and when first I w'as 
 made prisoner the first thought that came into my mind 
 was that Satan had caused this violence to be done to us 
 that I might be driven from my resolution. But I might 
 have escaped from the monastery, but preferred to come here, 
 that I might make my profession in the hands of the father- 
 

 
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IN THE IIEIGN OE ELIZABETH. 
 
 157 
 
 miiiibier. And 1 hope that, if such be the \vill of God, I. 
 shall escape also from here, so that I he first bound to God 
 by this triple knot ; and if it be not His will, I am ready 
 to be a captive in the hands of God, and a captive in the 
 hands of my superiors for God, and a captive in the hands of 
 God’s enemies as long as He wills. I prefer the freedom of 
 His sons to that of His enemies.’ At length, whilst my 
 fellow-prisoners stood around, I made my regular profession 
 in the hands of the father-minister, and the bishop and the 
 others wept and embraced me with affection. God knows 
 what joy my heart felt in that hour. I cannot describe it, 
 nor can I now think of the joy of that hour without tears, 
 so greatly does God temper for beginners in His service the 
 bitterness of afflictions with the sweetness of his consolations, 
 so that we may truly say that the sufferings of this time 
 are not worthy to be compared either to the grace which is 
 given, or the consolation which is communicated, or to the 
 future eternal glory which shall be revealed in us. I have 
 been, perhaps, too prolix in describing this joy, because 
 through life there has been given to me the grace to re- 
 member with joy and satisfaction the vows which my lips 
 then uttered. 
 
 After this, our merciful Lord, seeing that I was young and 
 not sufficiently prudent or wise, so that were I long in prison 
 1 might perchance relax of my fervour, and, by my ingratitude 
 losing grace, say or do something unbefitting the holy pro- 
 fession I had made, put it into my mind to devise some 
 means to escape from that prison ; and I, turning my 
 whole mind to it, often thought of seizing, with the assist- 
 ance of Father Bernard, the castle in which we were kept in 
 chains, and expelling our guards, keeping it in our possession 
 until we should be freed by the Irish Catholics, the defenders 
 of our faith, who would come to our assistance. And wc 
 would have done so if there had been in it any gunpowder, 
 or provisions for four or five days ; but because there was no 
 such thing there, and the enterprise could not be effected 
 without shedding blood, wc again and again devised other 
 means; but none succeeded. Every night I and Father 
 
138 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Bernard were bound with an iron chain on our feet, for they 
 feared us both much ; but occasionally it was omitted to be 
 put on. At length, after we had devised many plans in vain, 
 I succeeded in making a rope out of the tow with which the 
 soldiers fired their guns, and, aided by God alone, I let 
 myself down from the top of the tower, and so escaped, to 
 the great surprise of all who knew the height of the tower. 
 I had only got halfway down when the rope broke, and I 
 fell, and, striking against an old wall, was greatly shaken and 
 somewhat wounded, yet I walked that night ten miles, till I 
 came to a place of safety, for 1 was unacquainted with the 
 country. There were guards on the walls, but they did not 
 perceive me ; but I saw them plain enough. There was a 
 troop of soldiers encamped on the ground around in their 
 huts and tents and sleeping-places. It was about seven 
 o^clock in the evening, and no one saw me ; but when I had 
 crossed the ditch of the camp, in which the water was up to 
 my middle, I saw all over the place the soldiers running 
 about with candles and lanterns seeking me. Thus I 
 escaped by His might who decreed that my colleague. Father 
 Bernard, to whom I had first communicated my intention of 
 entering into religion, and who had piously and prudently 
 aided and strengthened me, should remain in chains as a 
 more mature victim, and obtain the palm of martyrdom : by 
 His providence I was preserved for further ills, when, if it 
 had pleased the divine goodness, I might have also received 
 the crown of martyrdom. . . . After this, Francis Shean 
 determined to send to Dublin the priest and brother; but 
 the bishop, because he was of a noble * family, he gave to a 
 neighbouring Catholic nobleman to keep, he giving security 
 to send him to Dublin when the winter was past, which was 
 done, and he remained there until he was redeemed with 
 money the following summer, in the year 1602. 
 
 “The father-minister, with Brother James Hayn and the 
 
 * There is a word wanting here, which I have supplied at a guess. 
 The text runs, “ Episcopus qui genere erat, cuidam nobili vicino tra- 
 didit.” 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 139 
 
 aforesaid Father Bernard, were sent to Dublin ; and whilst 
 they were on the road, Sir Walter Nugent, standard-bearer 
 of the Baron of Delvin, with thirty Catholic soldiers, who 
 were in the Queen^s service, met them, and the soldiers who 
 were escorting the prisoners, being terrified, took to fiight, 
 and NugenCs party took the brother and the priest with 
 them. But it chanced that two troops of heretic soldiers 
 were near, who, hearing of it, immediately pursued them and 
 forced them to fight, although only thirty against two 
 troops. There was a sharp fight for three or four miles, the 
 heretics attacking, and the Catholics, with unbroken ranks, 
 retiring towards a place of safety. At length the brothers 
 were not able to endure the fatigue, for they were old, and 
 voluntarily gave themselves up. Six of the Catholic soldiers 
 were slain. Both Father Bernardos thighs were broken by 
 the heretical musketeers, and thus they were led captives to 
 Dublin. The rest at length got away ; but Father Bernard, 
 on account of his wound, and that he had no surgical care, 
 nor bed to lie on, died on earth, to live for ever in heaven. 
 The father-minister and Father James were detained there 
 until I obtained from the chieftains O^Neill and MacMahon 
 
 I 
 
 two prisoners of war, whom I gave for the fathers. Yet 
 before the feast of the Nativity of our Lord we built up a 
 little house on the site of the monastery, and there we 
 dwelt who were left after the flight. I was the first, and 
 then others returned ; and from that day there were never 
 wanting brethren there.* They had no church, save a very 
 inconvenient sort of cabin in the garden ; and the offices of 
 the monastery, in which they prefer to live, however strait- 
 ened, rather than elsewhere in comfort. Afterwards Father 
 Neemias Gragan, the father-guardian, began to build a church, 
 and to repair the monastery, and for this purpose caused 
 much wood to be cut in the territory of Deabhna McLoch- 
 lain ; and when they had roofed a chapel, and some outer 
 
 * The Franciscans have never abandoned Multifaruham, and still 
 own the old church (restored) and the site of the monastery, with some 
 remains of the cloisters, a modern house, which is now the monastery, 
 and a field. 
 
MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 1 10 
 
 biiildiugs^ there came down the soldiers of another Sir 
 Francis Ringtia; and they burnt down the monastery again ; 
 and carried off some of the brethren captive to Dublin. The 
 bishop whom I mentioned before;, who was then very decrepit^ 
 and had long dwelt in the monastery, because they could 
 not lead him away captive, as from extreme age he could 
 iicither stand nor walk, they stripped of his clothes, and left 
 him lying in the open air. He only prayed that their crime 
 might be forgiven them. 
 
 ^^This Bishop Bichard was of a noble family in Brehnc- 
 (iraillc. He studied civil and canon law; afterwards, 
 although he had great expectations in the world, despising 
 its allurements, he entered the Order of S. Francis in the 
 county of Cavan, and made such progress in religion and 
 piety that he passed through different offices in the order, 
 and was made father-minister of the province, which post 
 he filled with the highest praise; so that from no seeking of 
 his own, but the solicitations of others, he was made Bishop 
 of Ardagb, the 23rd of January, 157G. Afterwards he 
 resigned that bishopric, and was made Bishop of Kilmorc. 
 Afterwards, according to the custom of the province 
 of Armagh, by which, when the Primate is absent or the 
 sec of Armagh vacant, the senior bishop of the province 
 has the title of Vice-Primate, on the martyrdom of Dr. 
 Edmund Gauran, who was Primate, Dr. Redmond, Bishop 
 of Derry, held the office of Vice-Primate ; and at his mar- 
 tyrdom it passed to Dr. Richard, of whom I am now 
 speaking, as the senior bishop of the province ; and after 
 his death, passed to the holy martyr Cornelius, Bishop of 
 Down and Connor. These things I thought it well to men- 
 tion, lest this custom, by oblivion, might become obsolete. 
 
 Dr.'' Richard was old when he was made bishop; 
 throughout his life he was most religious, and never, except 
 when the duties of his episcopal administration required it. 
 Jived anywhere save in some convent of his order, and 
 generally in the convent of Multifarnham. He never had 
 any garments but such as tlic brethren commonly wore, and 
 abvays took his meals at the tabic of the community, unless 
 
IX THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 Ml 
 
 when the coming of strangers required him to remain in the 
 guest-house. He was with difficulty persuaded to give up 
 the practice of attending chapter and publicly confessing 
 liis faults ; he attended Matins and tlie other offices as though 
 lie were a simple monk. He liad no attendants but his 
 father confessor_, one secular priest^ and two monks. I saw 
 him when very old_, and he was such a lover of austerities 
 that^ though many prudent men, even monks, sought to 
 persuade him, for his health^s sake, to wear linen shirts, 
 until his death he never would wear aught but the rough 
 habit. He was much given to prayer, and strenuous and 
 watchful in administering the episcopal office, as far as the 
 time would allowx Thrice was he taken prisoner by the 
 heretics; the first and second time he was ransomed, and 
 gave great edification in his imprisonment; the last time, as 
 I have already told, being old and infirm, he was despised, 
 stripped of his clothes, thrown amongst nettles, and left 
 there. He lived for many years after he had resigned his 
 episcopal charge, helpless and childish, but gracious and 
 amiable. He slept in the Lord in the year 1607, in the 
 month of September, in the convent of Multifarnham, and 
 his body is interred, where he himself liad long before 
 directed, in the cloister, where all the brethren are buried, 
 at the entrance of the door which leads into the church.^’—- 
 Mooney, p. 75. 
 
 Philadelphus narrates the martyrdom of Pather:^jSoriarty 
 and the imprisonment of the bishop, but did not know the 
 date : he says only about 1596.^^ 
 
 Rev. HONATUS O^MOLLONY 
 was of a noble family, a theologian and priest, and vicar 
 of the diocese of Killaloe. He was a truly apostolic pastor, 
 and when the wild boars ravaged the vineyard of the Lord 
 in the diocese of Killaloe (of which Malachy O’Mollon}^ was 
 bishop) he feared not to risk his life for his flock. He was 
 taken in the district of Ormond, where he was visiting the 
 parish priest, and, with his hands tied liehind his back like 
 
142 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 a robber, was dragged to Dublin in the midst of the soldiers. 
 The reader may imagine what he suffered in this long 
 journey. (I have heard much of it from my mother, Margaret 
 O^Mollony, a near relative of the martyr, and from other 
 friends in my country, but for the sake of brevity I omit 
 much.) Hardly was Donatus shut up in the Tower of 
 Dublin, when the iron boots, the rack, the iron gauntlets, 
 and the other instruments with which the executioners 
 tortured the confessors of Christ, were paraded before his 
 eyes, and he was asked by the chief judge whether he would 
 subscribe to the Queen^s laws and decrees in matters of 
 religion. Mollony, filled with the spirit of God, answered 
 courageously he was ready to obey the Queerds commands 
 in all things not contrary to the laws of Jesus Christ, the 
 King of kings, and His Vicar on earth. The judge, like 
 Pilate, answered, ^The Queen in her kingdom is the only 
 vicar of Christ and head of the Church ; therefore you must 
 either take the oath of supremacy or die.^ Mollony answered, 
 
 ^ Either Paul, the doctor of the Gentiles, and Christ Himself 
 in His Gospels err, or the Queen is not the Vicar of Christ J 
 ^ Then you will not acknowledge the supreme authority, after 
 Christ, of the Queen in spirituals ? ^ ^ By no means/ said 
 
 Mollony ; ^ a woman, who may not speak in the church, I 
 cannot acknowledge as its head; nay, for the truth of the 
 opposite I am ready, by God’s help, to endure all torments, 
 and death itself’ ^ Very good,’ said the judge; ' we shall 
 see to-morrow if your deeds correspond with your words.’ 
 
 ^^Next day, about nine o’clock, the executioners, by order 
 of the judge, so squeezed Donatus’s feet in iron boots, and 
 his hands in like gauntlets, that blood came from all his ten 
 fingers. 
 
 ^^Butthe torture failed to move him, and during it Donatus 
 more than once returned thanks to God that by His grace he 
 was able to bear the torture for His Son’s name. He was 
 then for two hours extended on the rack, so that he was 
 stretched out a span in length. During the cruel torture 
 Donatus continually either prayed or exhorted the Catholics 
 who were near to constancy in the faith, which is the only 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 143 
 
 road to salvation^ and for which he was ready to shed his 
 blood. The executioners were moved to tears by the patience 
 and constancy of the sufferer, and, by order of the judge, 
 carried him, half dead, back to prison, where a few hours 
 afterwards he slept piously in the Lord, on the 24th April, 
 anno 1601 .^^ — Bruodirij lib. hi. cap. 20. 
 
 Eev. JOHN O^KELLY, 
 
 a priest of Connaught, of an illustrious race, endured many 
 torments for the Catholic religion, and, worn out by sufferings 
 and the squalor of prison, he yielded his soul to God in prison 
 in Dublin, 15th May, 1601 .^^ — BruodiUy ibid. 
 
 Right Rev. MALACHY O^MOLLONY, Bishop op 
 Killaloe. 
 
 Malachy O’Mollony, of Thomond, Bishop of Killaloe, a 
 pastor unweared in labour, full of learning and apostolic zeal, 
 did not escape the satellites of Elizabeth who were roaming 
 through all parts of Ireland. He was taken in the castle of 
 the illustrious hero Gelasius O^Saghnashy, dynast of the 
 island of Guor and of Knaleo, and was led on foot through 
 all Thomond to prison in Limerick. In that long journey 
 he suffered unheard-of insults and injuries from the brutal 
 soldiers. He spent eighteen months in a squalid prison, 
 amidst thieves and robbers, and his constancy in the faith 
 was firm as gold tried in the fire. As his constancy remained 
 unshaken by his sufferings, he was brought before the tribu- 
 nal and asked whether, as became a subject, he would sub- 
 scribe to the Queen^s decrees in matters of faith. Malachy 
 answered that it was not competent for Elizabeth to rule 
 the Church, and that therefore be recognized her authority 
 in temporals, but not in spirituals. Then the chief judge, 
 without any further examination, sentenced him to be first 
 tortured and then put to death. After sentence the good 
 shepherd was taken back to prison, whence he escaped that 
 very night by the care of his uncle, Gelasius O^Mollony, my 
 grandfather, and, returning to his own people in Thomond, 
 
144 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 lie changed his dress^ and^ disguised as a labourer, and hiding 
 from the heretics for the most part in woods and morasses, 
 he discharged the duties of a bishop for some years. At 
 length, in great holiness, worn out with age and hardships, 
 he slept in the Lord in the house of an honourable man, 
 Cornelius Bruodin, lord of Moyne (commonly called Mac- 
 Bruodin), the 20th July, 1603/' — Bruoclw, lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
 Anno 1602. 
 
 BORTY-TWO PRIESTS. 
 
 “ It was intimated in many districts of the southern 
 province in 1602 that such of the clergy as presented them- 
 selves to the magistrates would be allowed to take their 
 departure from the kingdom. Two Dominican fathers, and 
 forty others,* for the most part Cistercians and secular 
 priests, availed themselves of the Government proposal. They 
 were ordered to assemble at the island of Inniscattery, in the 
 vicinity of Limerick, and on the appointed day they w^ere 
 taken on board a vessel of war to sail forl^rance. No sooner, 
 however, had they put to sea than all were thrown overboard. 
 When the ship returned to port, the captain and all the 
 soldiers and sailors in her were cast into prison, and all the 
 officers were cashiered by the Queen's order, that she might 
 seem to the world innocent of that atrocity ; but at the same 
 time thej^ were privately admonished not to regard this, and 
 after their pretended imprisonment were rewarded with a 
 part of the goods of the abbey abandoned by those so sacri- 
 legiously slain by them ; and some of the descendants of 
 these men yet live in Ireland."t — Hib. Bom., p. 595, who 
 quotes O' Hey n, Epilogus Chronol,^ p. 18. 
 
 * De Burgo says, “Forty-two monks, under the name of Ber- 
 nardins, two fathers of ours, seven clerics of ours also, came then from 
 the convents of Limerick and Killmallock.” 
 
 t Incredible as this atrocity might appear, the reader who will look 
 in this work to the year 1644 will see that in that year another captain 
 received the thanks of Parliament for a similar act. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 145 
 
 Rev. EUGENE Mac EGAN. 
 
 The convent of Timoleague is near the sea, at a small port 
 in the diocese of Ross, eighteen miles from Cork. In this 
 convent repose the remains of the holy martyr Dr. Eugene 
 Mac Egan, a priest,* who whilst he was officiating with the 
 army of the Catholics in 1602 was mortally wounded by the 
 heretics and left for dead, but was carried off yet breathing 
 by his friends, and expired in great sentiments of zeal and 
 charity in the hands of a priest and a physician, who both de- 
 clared on oath that they perceived in the place, whilst he was 
 expiring, so extraordinary and bright a light that it obscured 
 the light of the candle which was there. He is buried in 
 the cloister near the northern and western angle, and there 
 is a small cross above in the wall.^^ — Mooney, p. 49. See also 
 Philadelplius, 
 
 Rev. DOMINICK COLLINS, S.J. 
 
 The following account of this holy martyr is given by 
 Tanner : — 
 
 Dominick Collins, a man who showed equal courage 
 when serving in France and Spain under the banners of an 
 earthly prince, and in the Society of Jesus under the banner 
 of the Cross, was born of noble and illustrious parents in 
 Ireland, lords of a town called Labranche.f His name whilst 
 living in the world was O^Calanus (it is the custom in Ire- 
 land to prefix the letter to a name as a sign of nobility), but 
 when he entered religion he changed it through humility to 
 Collins. J When he had attained to manhood under the 
 
 * “ Doctor in theology, and vicar apostolic of the diocese of Ross.” — 
 Pliiladeljjh. 
 
 t Philadelphus calls him “ Yoghelensis,” an inhabitant of Youghal, 
 as does O’Sullivan, p. 239. 
 
 X Philadelphus gives his name as Cullen; it would seem, therefore, 
 doubtful whether his family name was O’Cullen or O’Callaghan ; pro- 
 bably the latter. 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 training of his pious parents he crossed into France^ and, 
 inspired by the generous ardour of youth, he determined to 
 embrace the military profession, induced to it by the thought 
 that in the army of the Most Christian King he would be 
 fighting rather for Christ than for the King, for France 
 was at that time torn by civil strife, heresy having excited 
 sedition ; and Dominick served for five years against the sec- 
 taries who had taken up arms against their religion and their 
 King, and obtained the command of a company when only 
 twenty-two years of age. When that war was ended he went to 
 Spain, where he was taken into the army by King Philip, and 
 given a rank suitable to his birth and services. He served 
 here eight years, mostly in peace, but turned his attention 
 from external to internal enemies, and sought, by the constant 
 use of the sacraments, by meditation and prayer, to overcome 
 the interior enemies of his soul, and to overcome his body 
 by mortification. His piety thus daily increasing, he began 
 by degrees to conceive a desire for a more perfect life, and 
 to view in another light the goods of this world. Having 
 determined to enlist under the standard of Christ, he only 
 hesitated as to which of the various orders of His soldiers he 
 would join. He was at first inclined to join the Discalced 
 Franciscans, from love of the strictness of their rule ; or the 
 Friars Preachers, whose order was celebrated inSpain; andthe 
 heads of both these orders, knowing his spirit of piety, would 
 readily have advanced him to the priesthood. But, after having 
 long and earnestly recommended the matter to God, he de- 
 termined to enter the humble Society of Jesus, and to con- 
 tinue in it in the humble rank of a lay brother, as though 
 unworthy or unfitting the rank of priest. When he arrived 
 at Compostella, where he went to enter on his noviceship in 
 a handsome dress, and accompanied by a large number of 
 friends^ and servants, as was fitting for his birth and rank, all 
 the fathers judged him unable to undergo the labours and 
 duties of such a state, because, although more than thirty 
 years of age, he had always been accustomed to be waited on, 
 and had ever lived in affluence. 
 
 '^Ashe perceived the common opinion in their countenance. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 147 
 
 he sought to change it by his acts, and a violent in- 
 fectious disorder having just then broken out in the college, 
 although he had not yet entered on his noviceship or changed 
 his secular dress, for three whole months he most sedulously 
 attended on the sick, and sought to be employed in the lowest 
 and most painful services with as much eagerness as he had 
 formerly courted rank and dignities. After he had gone 
 through his noviceship and taken his religious vows he was 
 given as a companion to Father John Archer, who was to ac- 
 company the fleet which the Most Catholic King was about 
 to send to the assistance of the Irish Catholics. Here his 
 zeal had full scope, serving both the bodies and souls of the 
 sailors, attending on the sick day and night like a physician, 
 and exhortingthem to patience, persuading those who were 
 well to the practice of virtue and the use of the sacraments. 
 Yet outward occupations did not so engross him as to 
 prevent him from meditation and prayer as if he were in a 
 college, and practising continual mortifications both at sea 
 and after his landing in Ireland, as if he had no labours to 
 undergo. 
 
 These voluntary suflPerings prepared him to endure with 
 courage the tortures he was soon to suffer at the hands of the 
 enemies of the faith ; for, a short time after his landing, he 
 was taken prisoner in the fort of Beerhaven by the heretics,* 
 and, contrary to the law of nations and in violation of their 
 pledges, he alone was put in chains ; for the besiegers had 
 guaranteed the safety of all the besieged on condition of the 
 castle being surrendered to them, and had given the most 
 solemn pledges to this effect to Dominick himself, who had 
 been the pacificator and the messenger of the besieged. But 
 they seemed to consider that to have seized a Jesuit was a 
 vindication of every breach of faith and perjury .f His 
 hands were tied behind his back, and he was brought to Cork 
 
 ♦ Beerhaven is given by Philadelphus. Tanner has “ via arce Dombn- 
 gensi but he constantly makes mistakes in the orthography of Irish 
 names. 
 
 t Philadelphus says Beerhaven was taken by Sir George Carew, then 
 commanding in Munster. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 by a troop of soldiers, where he was thrown into the common 
 prison. He lay here for three months, till the time of the 
 assizes for the trial of all criminals, when he was to be tried. 
 
 ‘^Dominick would not appear in court in any other dress 
 than the usual habit of his order, so that if any other cause 
 than his religion were sought to be assigned, his very dress 
 might prove the contrary. 
 
 Mountjoy, Viceroy of Ireland, who presided, made great 
 oflPers to him if he would join the Queen^s army, threatening 
 him on the other hand with torments and death if he per- 
 sisted in his determination not to deny his religion. His 
 friends and relations also sought to persuade him for their 
 sakes to yield to the circumstances of the times, and not to 
 bring destruction on himself and a stigma on an illustrious 
 family, saying he might remain in secret a Catholic and only 
 conform outwardly to please the Queen. But Dominick was 
 unmoved alike by threats and promises, and declared he 
 could not in such a matter listen to them, and was ready 
 to endure every torment rather than deny God. Nor did 
 his acts belie his words, for, being sentenced to death, as 
 guilty of treason, he returned joyfully to his prison to await 
 the time of his delivery. The cruel Mountjoy was angered 
 at this calmness of the man of God, and, that the days which 
 were to precede his execution might be full of suflPering, he 
 ordered him to be tortured, which was contrary to law. The 
 most severe torments he bore as if they were pleasures and 
 favours of Heaven, and the heretics, provoked at his patience, 
 hastened the day of his death. On the last day of October, 
 1602 , at dawn, having no respect for the day, which was 
 Sunday, they led him out to execution, with his hands tied 
 behind his back and a halter round his neck. He walked 
 calmly^ along, with his eyes raised to heaven and his mind 
 fixed on God, reflecting on Christ bearing His cross. When 
 he arrived at the foot of the gallows, he fell on his knees and 
 kissed it, commending his passage to God; then, following 
 the example of the martyrs, he prayed for his enemies, for 
 the Queen, and for his country, and with alacrity and a 
 cheerful countenance ascended the ladder. Turning round 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 149 
 
 on the topmost step, from thence, as from a pulpit (for he was 
 dressed in the ordinary habit of the order) he began more 
 ardently than ever to exhort the Catholics to preserve the 
 faith undaunted unto death, and disregard alike the threats 
 and promises of the heretics. ‘ Look up,^ he continued, ^ to 
 heaven, and, worthy descendants of your ancestors, who ever 
 constantly professed it, hold fast to that faith for which I 
 am this day to die.' These words, which derived additional 
 force from his high birth and the contempt he had shown for 
 the goods of fortune, and the position in which he stood, were 
 most powerful in encouraging the Catholics, and affected 
 even those who were not Catholics. The officers, perceiving 
 this, to prevent any further effect on the crowd, ordered him 
 to be thrown off the ladder. Nor was he allowed to hang long 
 on the gallows, for, whilst yet breathing and palpitating, the 
 executioner, in punishment of his constant profession of his 
 religion, cut open his breast, and, taking out his heart, held 
 it up to the people, uttering the usual ^ God save the Queen.' 
 Thus this last victim to God in Ireland in Ker reign pre- 
 ceded the Queen, guilty of so much innocent blood, to the 
 judgment-seat of God.* On the following night the 
 Catholics collected his mangled limbs with great pity, and 
 consigned them to the earth in a chapel not far from where he 
 suffered." — Tanner, p. 55. See also Philadelphus, and Bur- 
 gundian MS. Martyrol. Soc. Jesu, and O’ Sullivan, Hist. 
 Oath., p. 239, edition of 1850. 
 
 * Queen Elizabeth died on the 24th March, 1603 ; but her death 
 brought no relaxation of the persecution. 
 
150 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1604. 
 
 Right Rev. REDMOND O'GALLAGHER, Bishop of 
 
 Derry, 
 
 ^^and at that time Vice-Primate of Ireland, when in his 
 seventieth year, was overtaken by a troop of heretical horse 
 who were wandering about the country, and by them pierced 
 with many wounds, whereof he died, in the year of our Lord 
 1604."< — Pliiladelph, and Mooney , sub initJ^ 
 
 WALTER ARCHER, 
 
 *'a gentleman of one of the. first families of Kilkenny, 
 proved his constancy in the faith by enduring a long and 
 painful imprisonment for having opposed the desecration of 
 the Dominican abbey f in that city, and died in exile the 
 24th August, 1604. The convent was restored to its sacred 
 use by the piety of the citizens after the death of Elizabeth.'' 
 — Philadelph, 
 
 Anno 1605. — Rev. BERNARD KEROLAN. 
 
 This Bernard, or, as some have it, Barnabas Kerolan, 
 appears to be the same whom the holy martyr Cornelius, 
 Bishop of Down, mentions in his list of martyrs (which I 
 have) as having been hung from a tree at Trim by the 
 heretics in the year 1605."t — Philadelph, 
 
 * See Renehan’s Collec., p. 274. 
 
 t The celebrated Black Abbey of Kilkenny. It was again restored to 
 the Dominicans, and the church repaired, 1864. 
 
 X Mooney says he perished in 1601, on the 8th March, “at a very 
 advanced age, being, as was supposed, the oldest bishop from his ordi- 
 nation in Europe." (Mooney, sub init.) The difference between old and 
 new style frequently gives rise to apparent discrepancies in dates, as is 
 noticed by Mooney himself in this place, where he adds, the old style was 
 observed in some parts of Ireland, the Gregorian calendar in others. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 151 
 
 Anno 1606. 
 
 Rev. EUGENE O’GALLEHER and BERNARD 
 O^TRUORY. 
 
 “Eugene O^Galleher, a Cistercian abbot, and an alumnus 
 of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin of Asseroe, diocese of 
 Raphoe, together with Bernard O’Truory, his companion, a 
 monk of the same order, were slain by some soldiers, in hatred 
 of their religion, in the year 1606.^^ — Philadelpli. 
 
 Bruodin, lib. hi. cap. 20, gives date 14th November. 
 
 Rev. BERNARD OTHARNEL, 
 
 “a priest of Leinster, of a noble family, was accused by 
 the heretics of having administered the sacraments according 
 to the Roman rite, and, without any more trial, was hung 
 and quartered at Dublin on the 25th January, 1606.^^ — 
 Bruodhij lib. hi. cap. 20. 
 
 Anno 1607. 
 
 Rev. NIGEL O’BOYLE, O.S.F. 
 
 “Nigel O’Boyle, of the Order of S. Francis, was be- 
 headed by the heretics and buried in a monastery of his 
 order. It is to be inquired whether this is the same whom 
 the Bishop of Down, in his list of martyrs, calls Thady 
 O’Boyle, guardian of the Convent of Donegall, a preacher 
 and confessor slain by the heretics 1607.” — Philadelph. 
 
 Rev. ROBERT LALOR. 
 
 He was Vicar-General of the dioceses of Dublin, Kildare, 
 and Ferns. He had been cast into prison, and on 
 the 22nd December, 1606, a formula of retractation was 
 proposed to him, in which King James was declared to 
 be “ lawful chief and supreme governor in all causes, 
 as well ecclesiastical as civil ; ” the bishops “ ordained 
 and made by the King’s authority ” were acknowledged to 
 be “lawful bishops;” and, in fine, a promise was exacted 
 
152 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 that he would be willing and ready to obey the King, as a 
 good and obedient subject ought to do, in all his lawful com- 
 mandments/^ To this latter promise Lalor readily assented ; 
 and interpreting the preceding declaration as merely regard- 
 ing the legal ordinances of the realm, he subscribed to them 
 also. The Government, however, was not as yet satisfied, 
 and, though his confinement was somewhat relaxed, he was 
 still detained in custody. His friends, on learning that he 
 was indebted for this leniency to his having acknowledged 
 the King^s supremacy, were filled with indignation : they 
 were appeased, however, when he protested “that his ac- 
 knowledgment of the King^s authority did not extend to 
 spiritual, but was confined to temporal causes only.^^ This 
 declaration of the vicar-general soon reached the ears of the 
 Lord-Deputy, and hence he was, without delay, indicted 
 upon the statute of Prcemunire,^ tried, and found guilty. 
 During the trial the judge reproached him with having 
 denied the doctrine which he had by his signature acknow- 
 ledged to be true. The prisoner, however, by his courage, 
 made ample atonement for any weakness he might have 
 heretofore been guilty of. He declared that there was no 
 contradiction between the document he had signed and the 
 declaration which he had made to his friends : he had 
 acknowledged the King^s authority in questions of social 
 order, but he had told his friends that “he had not acknow- 
 ledged the King^s supremacy in the spiritual order; and 
 this he still affirmed to be true.^^ This explanation was, of 
 course, declared by the Government officials to be mere 
 “knavery and silliness the sentence of the law was 
 pronounced upon the prisoner, and in a few days another 
 name was added to the martyrs of Dublin. — Moran, Hist. 
 Ahps. Dublin, vol. i. p. 29. 
 
 Dalton, “ Archbishops of Dublin,^^ p. 332, says the sentence 
 was not executed, but does not give his authority. It was 
 certainly passed. 
 
 * Which made the introduction of bulls, or holding communication 
 with Eome, a capital felony 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 153 
 
 Anno 1608.— Rev. DONATUS OLUIN, O.P.P., and 
 Companions. 
 
 He was Prior of Derry, and in his ninetieth year was, 
 together with several secular priests, hung and quartered by 
 the English in the market-place of the town of Derry. His 
 brother, William Oluin, another religious of the Friars 
 Preachers, was also hung for the faith a short time before 
 the martyrdom of the prior, as is mentioned by Peter 
 Malphseus, Prior of Brussels.’^ — Hib, Dom. p. 559, and Dom. 
 a Rosario^ cap. 9. 
 
 Anno 1610. 
 
 Sir JOHN BURKE, or DE BURGO. 
 
 I GIVE his life from Rothe, ^^De Processu Martyriali.” 
 
 Sir John Burke was of noble birth, and had inherited, 
 together with the lordship of Brittas (De Bretasio),* several 
 other estates in the same neighbourhood. His wealth and 
 position induced Sir George Thornton, an Englishman, to 
 give him in marriage his daughter, a young lady of excellent 
 education, named Grace Thornton. After some children 
 had been born to him, he conceived a desire to travel, more 
 especially in Spain — whether that he considered the journey 
 thither easier than elsewhere, or that he thought he would 
 find there more facilities either for further travel or for 
 dwelling there, as he proposed, for the comfort of his soul 
 and peace of conscience, and security in professing the 
 Catholic faith ; for he had already seen and partly felt the 
 sufferings which weighed on Catholics in his own land, and 
 had heard from trustworthy persons of the splendour of the 
 divine w^orship and the liberty and perpetual peace which 
 the Catholics enjoyed in Spain; and how that nation fa- 
 voured his own, not only on account of the similarity (as is 
 alleged) of their origin, but much more on account of the 
 affection created by their profession of the same common 
 faith. 
 
 * Bruodin (lib. Hi. cap. 20) says he was the second son of the Baron 
 of Castle Connell, in the county Limerick. 
 
164 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Whilst John was thus moved by these reasons, and was 
 privately preparing money and getting letters of introduction, 
 his servants, guessing his intention, desired to impede his 
 plan ; and his father-in-law, having heard from others some 
 hints of his intended journey, made use of all his authority, 
 and that of his colleague. Sir Charles Wilmot, to put a stop 
 to it ; and, was it not that he treated him more gently 
 because he was his son-in-law, he would have punished 
 severely what he called his daring attempt. He and Sir 
 Charles Wilmot were joined in the government of the pro- 
 vince of Munster. Being thus frustrated of his intent, he 
 turned himself with more zeal than ever to a course of piety 
 in his own country and amidst his own kindred. He at- 
 tended Mass openly, and assisted at sermons in company 
 with his neighbours, either at his own house, when there 
 was an opportunity of having a priest there, or in the neigh- 
 bouring town, which was five miles from his house. And 
 neither the length of the journey nor the heat of summer 
 or the rains of winter could prevent him from taking this 
 journey at least on all Sundays and feasts; nor could the 
 severity of the persecution keep him from the participation 
 in the rites of religion. By degrees his piety and zeal for 
 the Catholic religion so increased that he entrusted most 
 of his domestic affairs to his wife, and gave his whole time 
 to works of charity, and especially to escorting on their road 
 and forwarding priests, more particularly those of the Order 
 of S. Dominick ; and by this means he became much hated 
 by the Protestants. 
 
 Thus he passed his time until the arrival in Munster of 
 the Viceroy, Sir Charles Mountjoy (Lord Mountjoy). At 
 that time, on the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Catholics 
 throughout Ireland tried to restore in the various towns the 
 public exercise of the Catholic worship, which before they 
 had only practised in hidden places in fear and danger. 
 
 On the Viceroy^s arrival in Limerick, charges were laid be- 
 fore him against Sir John Burke, the sum of all which was, that 
 he had been a leader in those tumults in the city ; so they 
 called th^eal for religion which the citizens and municipalities 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 155 
 
 had shown in the interregnum which occurred on the death 
 of Elizabeth, when it was not certain what would be the 
 course of her legitimate successor, King James — whether he 
 would imitate the example of his pious mother and ancestors, 
 or would embrace the new sect instituted by his predecessor. 
 And as there was this doubt as to what the King would do 
 — for he was despotic enough in power to do as he pleased — 
 they deemed themselves free to come out of their hiding- 
 places, and openly show their affection for the Catholic 
 faith, and, without injury to any one, show their devotion 
 by its public exercise; and if in this they be held to 
 have acted too hastily in occupying some churches without 
 waiting for the consent of the authorities, it was due to 
 the fervour of their piety, not to any malignity or spirit 
 of revolt. 
 
 But all was turned into crime, and the Viceroy listened 
 with willing ears to all that was told to him by informers, of 
 the zeal and vehemence of Sir John in this work; and he 
 caused him at once to be thrown into prison, and taken to 
 Dublin, where he could be guarded more safely in the 
 castle. Many interceded for his release, and offered to 
 become bound in any bail for him ; but all their entreaties 
 were rejected, until that plague was raging in Dublin which 
 afterwards spread over almost all Ireland. At that time the 
 chief magistrate and the council of the kingdom, and the 
 judges and all the officials, fled in all directions, each 
 seeking his own safety, and waiting till the plague should 
 abate. In that terror and flight, after several of the pri- 
 soners had been carried off by the pestilence, almost all 
 the rest, and amongst these Sir John, were set free. 
 
 Whilst he was detained in prison he gave himself wholly 
 to exercises of devotion, reciting the canonical hours and the 
 rosary of the Blessed Virgin, pious reading and meditation, 
 in which he seemed so absorbed and forgetful of himself 
 that he heeded not the mice which gnawed his bed and 
 pillow, and even the skin of his neck. Whenever in the 
 night, after having composed himself to sleep, having, as he 
 thought, said all his prayers, he recollected that he had 
 
156 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 omitted througli forgetfulness any of his accustomed prayers, 
 he at once got out of bed and threw himself on his knees to 
 say them. 
 
 When he was delivered from prison, his desire for perfec- 
 tion continually increased ; he became a great friend of a 
 certain father of the Friars Preachers (Dominicans) named 
 Edmund Halaghan, by whom he was enrolled in the sodality 
 of the Holy Posary, which had been recently erected, and 
 most regularly observed the rules of that confraternity, both 
 as to reciting the rosary, frequenting the sacraments of con- 
 fession and communion monthly, and other duties ; and his 
 fervour so grew that his whole pleasure was in the society of 
 ecclesiastics and pious conversation. 
 
 The fame of his piety spread through all the neighbour- 
 hood, and came to the ears of Henry Bronkard, President 
 of Munster. During the whole time of his presidency he 
 bitterly persecuted the Catholics ; and certain men who 
 were envious of Sir John stirred him up, who was of himself 
 indeed willing enough, to have him arrested. Theobald 
 Burke, baron, and Edmund Walsh, knight, who was then 
 vice-lieutenant* of that district of Limerick, by letter 
 accused Sir John of being a harbourer of Popish priests and 
 regulars throughout that county ; they added that he had 
 erected an altar in his house, as in an oratory, to which 
 crowds of people of both sexes came from all parts to say 
 their prayers. It would be invidious and distasteful to me 
 to relate what befell one of the informers ; nor is it for us to 
 guess what will be the fate of the other, or indeed of both, 
 unless they repent by times, for the future is uncertain ; 
 
 but the Most High is a patient rewarder.^^ (Eccles. v. 4.) 
 
 It is true that Sir John had erected an altar in the largest 
 banqueting-room in his castle at Brittas, and, to leave it 
 freer, he moved all his household to anotlier smaller room. 
 This he did that, on the next Sunday, which was the first 
 in October, there might be space enough for the crowd of 
 
 * “ Yicecomes,” which generally means viscoimt, is here apparently 
 used for vice-lieutenant of the county, he who is second in authority 
 to the lieutenant. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 157 
 
 members of the sodality who would come to receive the 
 Holy Communion ; for, according to the rule of their insti- 
 tute, they approach the Holy Communion on the first Sunday 
 of every month. 
 
 The president, having learned all this from a trustworthy 
 messenger, sent a certain Captain Miller with his troop to 
 apprehend Sir John Burke and his chaplain, or head of the 
 sodality. Father John Clancy (Clansseus), and carry off all 
 the sacred ornaments. On the Sunday, at dawn, Captain 
 Miller with his troop of horse proceeded to the land of 
 Brittas, and surrounded the house at the moment when the 
 priest was saying Mass before a great multitude. At the 
 first noise of their approach the terrified crowd fled in all 
 directions; but Sir John, with the chaplain and the sacred 
 utensils, fled into a strong tower built in the house, ac- 
 companied by two servants, one retainer, and two women, 
 who had joined them in the tumult. The captain with 
 his guards surrounded the tower and demanded entrance, 
 promising that if it were yielded no harm should be done 
 to him.* Sir John gave him no answer but that if he 
 
 * Evidently the captain offered safety to Burke, but said nothing as 
 to what would he done with the priest ; and the former, well knowing 
 what would be his chaplain’s fate, refused the proffered terms. This 
 is also shown by O’Sullivan’s account of the transaction. Pie says, 
 “ Sir John held the castle until the Mass was finished. When that was 
 over, the priest, dressed in secular habit, went out in the crowd of 
 people, but was recognized by the Protestants and seized. Sir John, 
 mounting his horse, with his armed retainers, rescued the priest from 
 the Protestants. For this he was soon after besieged in the same 
 castle by five troops. He held the castle against them for fifteen days 
 with only five companions, and then, being pressed by hunger, he 
 broke through his enemies by night, and having lost one of his com- 
 panions, John O’Holloghan, he escaped with the other four. He was, 
 however, taken prisoner by the Protestants a few days later, in the 
 town of Carrig-na-Suir, which is in the county of Ormond, and sent to 
 the city of Limerick. Here he suffered much, for many days, from 
 the darkness and filth of his dungeon, and, as he constantly refused to 
 hear the Protestant preacher, even stopping his ears with his fingers, 
 and preferred the Catholic religion to the title of baron and other 
 rewards, and even to his life, he finally suffered death. It is said that 
 
158 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 desired to enter there he should go to confession and become 
 a Catholic; if not^ there could be no communication between 
 Christ and Belial ; for without are dogs and sorcerers, 
 unchaste and murderers, and servers of idols, and every one 
 that loveth and maketh a lie/^ (Apocal. xxii. 15.) 
 
 Sir John, having given this answer, desired the captain 
 and his troop to depart, for that neither he nor the priest 
 should ever fall into their hands. His wife and mother 
 implored him to surrender, and admit the King^s troops. 
 But their words fell on deaf ears, for he would neither 
 let them in nor come out. The vice-lieutenant, hearing 
 of the disturbance, came to the spot with his forces. He 
 stormed and threatened, and set fire to the houses of the 
 retainers round the castle, and tried to set fire to the roof 
 of the castle itself, but could not make them come out. 
 After a few days of siege, Sir John armed the two servants 
 I have spoken of, together with the one follower, and, 
 taking the ornaments of the altar under his arm, lest 
 they should be exposed to profanation, with his casque on 
 his head, his shield on his left arm, and his sword in the 
 right hand, he ordered those three to follow him, and, 
 throwing open the door of the tower, suddenly dashed off to 
 the bank of the neighbouring stream, having first sent off 
 the chaplain to a safe place, and agreed with his followers on 
 a trystiug-place if they should escape. Having crossed 
 over a murmuring weir-head, he reached the land ; but the 
 noise was heard by the guards, who seized their arms and 
 pursued him. In order to run quicker, he hid the sacred 
 load which he had under his arm in the brambles and long 
 grass. 
 
 He succeeded in evading his pursuers, having lost two of 
 his companions, and reached a distant seaport in safety, 
 probably with the hope of sailing from that port before the 
 news would spread or the place of his hiding become known. 
 
 two women, who were accused, the one at Garrick, the other at Water- 
 ford, of having concealed him, were burnt alive. It is also related that 
 two other women were burnt at Limerick, the one for having said that 
 the King’s laws were unjust, the other for having concealed a priest.” 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 159 
 
 But finding no opportunity of so doing, he retired to an 
 inland town, and, public orders regarding him having been 
 published throughout several counties, he was betrayed by 
 a woman at Carrick-on-Suir, and taken and thrown into 
 prison by the governor of that town. When his wife, who 
 was with child, was allowed to visit him in prison, there was 
 nothing he more earnestly urged upon her than to hold to 
 the true faith, to serve God and to honour His blessed 
 Mother, and to avoid all intercourse with heretics. Sir 
 John so fied from all communication with heretics, that he 
 would remind us of Polycarp against Marcion, whom he 
 called the eldest born of Satan, and S. John fleeing from 
 the bath when Cerinthus entered. In order the better to 
 strengthen his wife and instruct her in her duty, he gave her 
 a letter to Father Edmund Halaghan, the director of the 
 sodality (in which he had himself been some time enrolled), 
 beseeching him to instruct her and watch over her. She 
 was so eager to please her husband that, although little fit 
 for such a journey, not being far from her time, she travelled 
 from Garrick to Waterford, and, not finding him there, on to 
 Kilkenny, and that at the most inclement season of the 
 year. A troop of horse was sent to escort him from Garrick 
 by the president, who was then at Gork, and they were 
 ordered to bring him to Limerick, where the president 
 was a few days later to hold a general gaol delivery. 
 
 Sir John so abhorred holding any intercourse with the 
 Protestant soldiers that he would neither speak to them nor 
 salute them ; nor when he entered an inn on the road, or 
 left the prison, or was tied on a car, would he utter one 
 word. So also, when he was put on his trial, and accused 
 of many things, and especially of having slain a soldier by a 
 gunshot when he was besieged in his castle, he answered not 
 a word, and imitated Him who as a lamb before His shearers 
 opened not his mouth. The president, like Pilate, sought 
 to extract an answer from him, and declared he sought not 
 his life or goods, and would treat him with great kindness if 
 only he would yield to the King^s will in matters of religion 
 and faith. On his refusal to obey the King in matters of 
 
160 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 faith^ or to abandon the path of duty in which he had been 
 brought up, he was condemned to death. 
 
 What was very remarkable about this matter was, that 
 the two judges whose duty it was to pronounce sentence — 
 namely, the justices of the province — touched with compunc- 
 tion, evaded doing so ; and in consequence, by the despotic 
 order of the president, the judge who by virtue of an extra- 
 ordinary commission sat to try him was Dominick Sarceville 
 (Sarcevilius), who was then King’s procurator or fiscal advo- 
 cate of the province of Munster, and a judge in the Court of 
 Common Pleas.'^ 
 
 He, indeed, appeared to the spectators to be unwilling 
 about this matter, and, looking up towards heaven, to be 
 touched by remorse of conscience ; but, fearing to resist the 
 authority of the president, he went through his duty as 
 judge, and interrogated the accused whether he would obey 
 the will of the King and conform. He unfearingly and 
 unhesitatingly answered that he could acknowledge no king 
 or queen against Christ, the King of Heaven, and the Queen 
 of Heaven, His Mother ; and that whoever sought to turn 
 him away from the true worship and honour due to both, 
 far from deserving to be obeyed, deserved neither honour 
 nor assent ; and that whoever would act otherwise was not a 
 servant of God, but a slave of the devil. Here I may 
 remind my hearers of the bold speech of the martyr 
 Genesius, who, when he was urged by the persecutors to 
 renounce Christ and obey the Emperor, answered his 
 tormentor in these words : — There is no king but Christ; 
 and were you to slay me for this a thousand times, you 
 cannot tear Him from my heart or mouth.” With 
 similar confidence did John seek to deliver himself from 
 the importunity of the judge; and in language not dis- 
 similar does the Apostle speak of God alone, immortal and 
 invisible, the King of ages ; and of Christ Himself, that no 
 one is good but God alone ; and forbids us to call any on 
 earth our father, as there is one Father of all, who is in heaven. 
 
 * “ Antecessor in Curia Comraunium Placitorum regni.” I do not 
 know if I have rightly translated “ antecessor.” 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 161 
 
 And S. Francis, when his father, in the presence of the 
 Bishop of Assisi, would compel him to take his inheritance, 
 cast off even his garment, saying that for the future he 
 could more freely say, Our Father, who art in heaven/^ So 
 John, when solicited to deny Christ and His blessed Mother, 
 and His spouse the Catholic Church, hesitated not to say 
 that to do so was not the part of a just judge or king, and he 
 preferred rather to disobey one than the other, and preferred 
 heaven to earth. 
 
 Sarcevilius then declared he was guilty of high treason, 
 and pronounced on him sentence of death in this form, to be 
 hanged and then beheaded, and his body divided into four 
 parts. This sentence he received with a cheerful counte- 
 nance, and made no answer, save that he rejoiced that 
 those who could so torture and insult the body had no 
 power over the soul ; and he further expressed his aversion 
 to heresy, and faithfulness in obedience to the Apostolic 
 See, in whose holy communion he wished to die. 
 
 He was carried in a cart to the place of execution, out- 
 side the city, and then he asked to be let down and per- 
 mitted to approach on his knees for the space of about a 
 furlong* to the gallows. 
 
 When his request was granted, he commended himself to 
 the saints with the greatest fervour, and showed as much 
 consolation and alacrity as if he were going to a feast. Truly 
 may we say he was bidden to a feast, at which Christ Himself 
 was to minister, and girding Himself to make those sit down 
 in the kingdom of His Father who in an earthly kingdom 
 would not bend the knee to Baal, but chose rather to offend 
 the presidents and princes and judges of this world than 
 to disobey the Judge of the world to come, by whom judges 
 themselves shall be judged, and kings if they err be corrected, 
 either here or hereafter. 
 
 One day judges another, but the last judges all. When 
 Sir John was hung, some noblemen, amongst others Sir 
 Thomas Broune, entreated the president that when taken 
 
 * He uses the Persian word jparasang, an uncertain measure. 
 
162 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 down from the gallows he might not be cut in pieces, and 
 their request was granted, and his friends and relatives carried 
 him into the city, and buried him in the church of S. John, 
 at Limerick, about the 20th October, a.d. 1607. 
 
 He is mentioned also by Dominick a Rosario ; Carve, 
 p. 315 ; and Hib. Dom., p. 565 ; but they add nothing to the 
 facts given by Rothe and O^Sullivan. Bruodin (lib. iii. cap. 
 20) gives a long life of him, substantially agreeing with that 
 of Rothe, which he says he took from a manuscript life of 
 Sir John, in his possession, written by Father Matthew 
 Crahy, his confessor, afterwards Vicar- General of the diocese 
 of Killaloe. 
 
 Rev. JOHN GRAVES, Doctor in Theology. 
 
 Of him Dominick a Rosario writes : — 
 
 ^‘^Have we not also the history of the martyrdom of John 
 Graves, doctor of theology, who, being accused of having 
 written a defence of the Ropers supremacy, was arraigned 
 before an iniquitous tribunal ? Will not the blood of this 
 man cry aloud to Heaven till this world has grown hoary ? 
 When arraigned before his judges, and interrogated by them, 
 here was his answer : ^ See you,^ said he, ^ this thumb, fore 
 finger, and middle finger ? With them I wrote this writing. 
 I do not repent of having done so, nor does it grieve me to 
 be charged with it, nor do I blush to acknowledge it.^ He 
 was then sentenced to die, and his right hand to be burned ; 
 but, wonderful to relate, the hand was burnt, but those three 
 fingers remained uninjured.^'’ — Dom. a Rosario, p. 163. 
 
 Rev. father FRANCIS HELAN, O. S. F., 
 
 a very aged Franciscan priest, was seized in Drogheda, .at 
 the foot of the altar, after saying Mass. When he was 
 conducted a prisoner through the streets, the women rose, 
 rushed in crowds from all quarters of the town, and by 
 repeated volleys of stones and other missiles rescued him 
 from the soldiery. Father Francis, however, being conscious 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 163 
 
 of no crime, and fearing lest the vengeance of the Govern- 
 ment might fall on the Catholics of Drogheda, surrendered 
 himself voluntarily, and, being conducted to Dublin, was 
 arraigned in his habit before the Lord Chancellor, the 
 Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. The captain of the escort 
 interposed on behalf of Father Helan ; and stated, moreover, 
 that he himself had never been in such danger of his life as 
 from the women of Drogheda. Notwithstanding this inter- 
 position, and although no crime was imputed to him, the 
 aged priest was thrown into prison, where he had to suffer 
 for six weary months.^^ — Mooney, ap. Moran, Hist. Abps. 
 Dublin, vol. i. p. 246 ; also Wadding, Annals. 
 
 Rev. JOHN LUNE, 
 
 of Wexford, a pious priest, persevered courageously in 
 instructing the Catholics entrusted to his care, at the risk of 
 his life ; and, being taken by the heretics, he was hung and 
 quartered at Dublin the 12th November, 1610.^^ — Bruodin, 
 lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
 Anno 1612.— Right Rev. CORNELIUS O’DOVANY, 
 Bishop of Down and Connor, and Rev. PATRICK 
 LOCHERAN, Priest, his Companion, O.S.F. 
 
 I GIVE first his life from Rothe, as it is not to be had in 
 Ireland : — 
 
 ^ How shall I worthily praise, O holy martyrs, your 
 courage and perseverance in the faith ? You endured to 
 the end the sharpest tortures, and yielded not to the 
 torments, but rather the torments yielded to you.^ (S. 
 Cyprian, lib. ii. epist. 2.) I speak here of Cornelius 
 Dovany, Bishop of Down and Connor, and his com- 
 panion, Patrick Locheran, a priest of Ulster, joined in 
 affection, and even in death, their history shall not be 
 divided. Great as is the distance on earth between a bishop 
 and a simple priest, it is just that we should commemorate 
 on one day the birth to a heavenly life of those on whom 
 Christ our Lord bestowed in one day, and under the same 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 persecutor, the martyr’s palm. They were sentenced to 
 death by an unjust judgment, under Arthur Chichester, 
 Viceroy. They suffered death in the city of Dublin, anno 
 1611, on the 1st day of February. 
 
 ^^In thinking of them I am reminded of the holy Pope 
 Sixtus, and Laurence the Levite. The more advanced in 
 age and in rank met death first; the other obediently and 
 courageously followed his father and his bishop. Sixtus 
 consoled Laurence in a strange manner by telling him there 
 remained for him yet greater sufferings for Christ, and that 
 he would follow him after three days. Cornelius consoled 
 Patrick by telling him that he would follow him, not in three 
 days, but in three minutes, by the same ladder and the 
 same death, he would ascend to the same palm of martyrdom. 
 Sixtus forewarned Laurence of his more grievous sufferings. 
 Patrick was pressed to apostatize by Secretary Challoner and 
 his satellites, being shown the headless and bleeding body of 
 his bishop, to strike him with the fear of death ; but, firmly 
 fixed on the rock of faith, he looked unmoved on the blood 
 of his beloved bishop, and drew strength for his own passion 
 from the sight. 
 
 Cornelius, having embraced the rule of S. Francis from 
 his youth, almost before he had attained his twentieth year, 
 was a pattern of piety and patience, and having been raised 
 to the episcopal dignity,* laboured strenuously to fulfil its 
 duties. At length he was taken prisoner and thrown into 
 prison, in Dublin Castle,f and was there kept for about three 
 
 * Appointed to the united sees of Down and Connor 26th April, 
 1582 . — Acta Consistorialia. 
 
 t Two unpublished manuscripts in the Burgundian Library, Brussels, 
 contain much valuable information relating to the martyrdom of Bishop 
 Cornelius. The one is entitled “ Compendium of the Martyrdom 
 of the Eight Eev. Father Cornelius O’Doveany, of the order of 
 Friars Minors, Bishop of Down and Connor, and of his ^Chaplain, 
 extracted from the letters sent from Ireland to the Irish Friars Minors 
 in Louvain.” It is numbered 2,167, pp. 421. The second is a letter 
 from Father Thomas Fleming, Dominican, dated Dundalk, 15th April 
 (old style), 1612, and evidently addressed to a Dominican father in 
 Louvain. It is numbered 2,167, pp. 415. These two contemporary ac- 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 165 
 
 years. What he suffered there can hardly be told, being 
 almost without clothing, and in danger of perishing of hunger 
 
 counts fully confirm the statements of Eothe and O’Sullivan ; indeed, it 
 is probable they were consulted by the former. As, however, they 
 give some new and striking facts, I will here give some extracts from 
 each. * 
 
 Prom the Compendium : — “ During the whole time the bishop was 
 in prison he almost daily said Mass, making use of ornaments secretly 
 conveyed into the prison by some Catholics.* He was oftenseenby someof 
 ours bathed in tears in mental prayer, and was heard by his fellow-cap- 
 tives in his prayer to break out into these words : ‘ O Lord God, through 
 Thy great mercy, grant me. Thy servant, to lay down my life for Thee, 
 as Thou didst lay down Thy life on the cross for me. Thy wretched 
 creature ; and grant me to end my days for the confession of Thy name 
 either by the sword of the heretic or in this prison.’ He often said to 
 noble Catholics who visited him that he would prefer life in prison to 
 freedom, were it not for the good of his fiock. . . . The bishop 
 and priest were placed in two separate carts, and as they went the 
 bishop frequently called out, ‘ Hasten, my friend, to receive your 
 crown;’ and the priest answered, ‘Behold me; I will not hesitate or 
 delay.’ The people thought themselves happy if they could get near 
 the cart to receive the bishop’s blessing, which he lovingly gave. Por 
 many years his face had not been so fresh-coloured nor his counte- 
 nance so cheerful and amiable as it was from the door of the prison to 
 the moment of his death. When they came to the place of execution, 
 there were between five and six thousand people there. The place of 
 execution was on a hill, and the two, getting down from the cart at the 
 foot of the hill, knelt down and prayed fervently. Then, to the admira- 
 tion of all, the old man, with strong and eager steps, walked up to the 
 gallows and embraced and kissed its beams, as did the priest. All 
 were astonished to see such strength in so old a man (he was about 
 eighty years old), and one worn out witli prison. Then he asked that 
 the priest might go first (for he had a pastoral care for his companion), 
 but it was refused, and the priest said, ‘ Go then before me, reverend 
 father, and truly without delay will I follow you.’ He mounted the 
 ladder without assistance, tlie executioner going before him. When 
 he had mounted four or five steps he blessed all the Catholics, praying 
 that liberty might be granted to them, and then prayed to God that He 
 would forgive the injustice that was done to him, and that for his part 
 he freely and willingly forgave it. So also did the priest. Then the 
 
 * I have seen such sacred vessels, &c., myself in Ireland : small 
 chalices, which unscrewed into two parts, and could be carried in the 
 pockets, and thin vestments, which rolled up in a small space. — M. O' R. 
 
166 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 and thirst, had not necessity taught him a mode of obtaining 
 relief. There were confined in the castle prison at that time 
 
 bishop, taking for his text the words of S. Paul, ‘ Though an angel 
 from heaven should preach to you another gospel than you have heard 
 from us, believe it not,’ began to address some words of exhortation to 
 the people, but the councillors who stood around ordered him to be 
 stopped and immediately thrown off. Then, gently smiling, he kissed 
 the cord, and himself fitted it to his neck, and covered his face with a 
 cloth, and held out his hands to the executioner to be bound.” 
 
 Father Fleming, in his letter, says : — “ About the same time that 
 my Lord Carew came here an edict was promulgated against all Jesuits, 
 Seminarists, and other priests, and a short time before was taken 
 prisoner the Fight Fev. Cornelius O’Dovany, who afterwards received 
 the crown of martyrdom : he had reached his eighty-sixth year. The 
 evils of these days will not admit of my telling you all that befell him, 
 but I will mention a few incidents. As he was passing in the cart to 
 the place of execution, one of the first citizens of Dublin threw himself 
 on his knees in the midst of the street to ask his blessing. A noble 
 matron also rushed through the soldiers to the cart in which the holy 
 old man lay to ask for a bit of his girdle,^ to whom he willingly gave 
 the whole. The insolent soldiers reproved her, saying she should be 
 put in the cart herself. (Thus are carried about those who are taken 
 in adultery and fornication.) She answered them that she would deem 
 it a great honour to be put in the cart with so holy a man. ... A 
 number of ministers accompanied the procession, amongst whom was 
 one Challoner, who is well known to your friend Michael. He was 
 very troublesome to the bishop, and as he was just mounting the 
 ladder said to him, ‘ Confess that it is not for your religion, but for 
 treason, that you are doomed to death.’ ‘ Nay,’ said the bishop ; ‘ the 
 contrary is clearly seen, for there stands the messenger from the 
 Viceroy to me, who offered that if I would only once enter that temple 
 (pointing to it), not only life, but ample ecclesiastical revenues should 
 be given me.’ . . . There was one of the soldiers, named Fobin Divel, 
 who bought the bishop’s tunic from the executioner for ten shillings, 
 but he had hardly got it in his hands when the Catholics with their 
 knives cut it in divers pieces and plucked it from him, and though he 
 drew his sword to protect himself, it was no use in such a crowd, and 
 he lost the tunic and his money.” 
 
 The following extracts, although not referring to the death of the 
 bishop, are interesting: — “It was expected that there would be a great 
 persecution of the Catholics, but it is gone off in smoke ; it is not known 
 
 “ Although forbidden to wear it openly, he always wore the habit 
 and girdle of S. Francis under his other clothes.” — Com'pendium. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 167 
 
 other prisoners for civil offences, who were fed, if not better, 
 at least more abundantly, at their own expense. They were 
 in the story under him, so that he could hear their voices, 
 but not see them. Searching about carefully, he found 
 a broken bit of the flooring, which could be lifted up, 
 and through this hole he spoke to them. They were 
 willing enough to succour him in his hunger, but had not 
 much to give ; however, they offered him a bit of bread and 
 a drink of beer. As the floor intervened, Cornelius made a 
 cord with his braces, and, letting it down through the hole, 
 drew up first a dry crust of bread, and then a cup of insipid 
 beer; and many a time during these three years such aid 
 prolonged his life.* We are thus reminded of the Prophet 
 
 why. Our domestic affairs go on well and quietly, and we are very 
 well received by the people, as are the other orders. Your friend 
 Robert is an earnest worker, and never rests from his labours. Where 
 I am stationed there is an abundant harvest, for I have to travel 
 through all Ulster. However, by special order, I have preached here 
 the whole Lent, all Sundays and holydays, in a house prepared for the 
 purpose, and which is capable of holding six hundred persons, and it is 
 wonderful how ready the people are to receive the seed. During the 
 week I have frequently made excursions to the neighbouring villages, 
 of which you may judge the fruit by one example. After one sermon 
 on the right way of confessing, and after I had published the indul- 
 gences granted for that time, I and another priest, the parish priest of 
 the place, were occupied all that afternoon till midnight and the next 
 day until twelve hearing the confessions of the people, many of whom 
 made a general confession of their wholelife. These are the things of most 
 moment which occur to me to tell you, and if I shall learn any other 
 pleasing news I will communicate it to you. I desire to hear some news 
 of my Louvain friends. I wish them all health in Christ, and pray 
 them to remember me in their prayers. My best salutation to Master 
 Lossius, the royal prefect, to Peter, to Vising, and Smith of the Cross. 
 
 “ The Convent of Dundalk, 15th April (old style ; new style 25th), 
 1612. — Your devoted servant, “ Thomas Pleming.” 
 
 * The following letter in the State Paper Office throws much light 
 on the bishop’s arrest, and shows clearly that his only crime was his 
 religion : — 
 
 “ Fytzwylliam to Burghley, October 26, 1588. Dublin. 
 
 “It may please your Lordship : there is a prisoner in the castle, one 
 Cornelius, Bishop of Down and Connor, who, having lately escaped, 
 
168 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Jeremias, who was let down by a cord into a dungeon 
 wherein there was no water, but mire, that he might die of 
 hunger; and had not an Ethiopian of the king’s household 
 taken of the old rags there were in the king’s storehouse, 
 and let them down by cords to Jeremias into the dungeon, 
 and said, ^ Put these old rags and these rent and rotten things 
 under thy arms and upon the cords,’ he had not been drawn 
 up and brought forth out of the dungeon. And, in like 
 manner, had not the holy bishop received these crusts of bread 
 and furtive drops of beer, he had surely perished of famine. 
 
 At length, by divine providence, he was released, God so 
 disposing that his freedom of body should bring freedom to 
 the souls of many. But a very short time passed, however, 
 when the royal councillors repented them that they had let 
 him go, and they sought by every art to get him again into 
 their power. But as the bird which has escaped from the 
 net of the fowler suspects everything, and flies every dan- 
 
 had upon his apprehension found about him a commission — the copy 
 whereof your Lordship shall receive enclosed — sent from the Bishop of 
 Derry, authorizing him, as his vice-primate, to grant pardons and in- 
 dulgences, who, albeit a most pestilent and dangerous member, and 
 fit to be cut off*, yet, being informed that we cannot here otherwise 
 proceed against him than in the course of Praemunire, I humbly beseech 
 your Lordship’s directions and assistance for some other means whereby 
 we may be rid of such an obstinate enemy to God, and so rank a traitor 
 to her Majesty as he no doubt is. 
 
 (Enclosure.) 
 
 “ J^osBedmundus,Dei etApostolicae Sedis gratia Deren. Episcbpus ac 
 totius Hiberniae Vice-Primas, Bev‘‘‘^®D"° confratriN'’" Cornelio, Dunen. 
 et Coneren. Episcopo. — Quoniam propter imminentiapericula ac discri- 
 mina interitus vitae, personaliter terras illas visitare nequimus, ad dis- 
 pensandum cum omnibus cum quibus si presentes essemus Brevis 
 Apostolic! auctoritate ac primitialis dignitatis vices nostras ad annum 
 integrum a tempore et (sic) presentium tenore hujus scripturae, com- 
 mittimus ac potestatem absolvendi omnes ac singulos ad se concur- 
 rentes a casibiis tarn episcopalibus quam papalibus in foro saltern 
 conscientiae, injuncta eisdem pro modo culpae salutari penitentia, ad 
 predictum tempus concedimus et indulgemus. — Dat. in ecclesia paro- 
 <;hiali do Tamlar, 2 Julii, 1588. Eedmundus Deren. Episcopus ac 
 Vice-Primas,” 
 
/ 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 169 
 
 gerous spot^ lest some snare be there hidden, so he walked 
 cautiously and guardedly, lest he should again fall into the 
 same pit. But a care for his own safety often came into 
 collision with the due discharge of his sacred ministry : he 
 always preferred the salvation of others to his own safety ; 
 and at length, after several years^ labours, he at length fell 
 into the hands of those who deemed they would do the King 
 a great service by apprehending him. 
 
 He was seized in the month of June,"^ whilst he was 
 occupied putting an end to quarrels and confirming the 
 servants of Christ. The priest Patrick was taken prisoner 
 the same month in the port of Cork, whither he had lately 
 returned from Belgium, and he confessed to the provincial 
 council that he had been a companion in their travels, and 
 had administered the rites of the Church to those lords 
 whom fear for their own safety, or love of religion, had made 
 exiles from their wide domains. 
 
 They were both taken to Dublin ; the priest was thrown 
 into the vilest dungeon, the bishop was kept in custody in 
 the Castle. t Both were sentenced to death, but I will relate 
 more at length the manner of their sentence. 
 
 “ The bishop was accused that in the last warlike rising 
 caused by the Earl of Tyrone J he had followed the earl, 
 
 * O’Sullivan says he was arrested June, 1611, and executed April, 
 1612 ; and this is probably correct, although Dr. Eothe, in this work, puts 
 his death in 1611, because he himself addressed a letter to him, as in 
 prison, on the 17th December, 1611, and had he been executed eight 
 months before, he would have heard of it. (Epistola Paraenetica ad 
 Episcopum Dunensem, in “Analecta Sacra et Nova.”) Carve puts his 
 death at 1614 ; but he is often inaccurate. Father Fleming writes of it 
 as recent (on 25th April, 1612). Mooney also, who is very accurate, 
 puts his death at 1612. 
 
 t He was less rigorously confined, and was even able to say Mass 
 by stealth. — See p. 165. 
 
 X Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone. To the bishop’s plea that the Act 
 of Oblivion covered all offences, the judge answered that ifcould not 
 avail him, as he had not submitted and taken the oath of allegiance and 
 supremacy. This was, of course, to exclude all Catholics from its 
 benefit, as they, of course, could not take the oath of supremacy. — 
 O' Sullivan. 
 
170 
 
 MARTYKS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 contrary to the obedience he owed to his prince^ and was, 
 therefore, guilty of high treason ; the more so that he had 
 aided by his counsel and help the earl when he fled with his 
 adherents. 
 
 The bishop endeavoured with valid reasons to answer the 
 principal heads of accusation, and to the first he answered 
 that he was consecrated a bishop to labour for the salvation 
 of the flock entrusted to him, and, as his bishopric of Down 
 and Connor lay in that part of Ulster which Earl Hugh held 
 by force of arms, it was his duty to labour as best he could to 
 direct the inhabitants in the way of salvation ; that as to 
 warlike matters he neither desired to know or knew any- 
 thing; and had he advised the earl against his will, he would 
 not have heeded him or held his hand for any remonstrance of 
 his (the bishop). As far as he could by word and example, he 
 had led men from vice and to follow virtue, and had laboured 
 and watched to this end ; but was not ashamed of it, nor 
 should it be brought as a crime against him. And even 
 were these things, however unjustly, to be accounted crimes, 
 he could defend himself by reminding them that when 
 King James ascended the throne he had proclaimed by 
 the voice of a herald, and publicly posted up in writing, a 
 pardon for all offences and crimes before committed. He 
 could, therefore, allege a double defence — first, that what was 
 alleged against him was no crime ; secondly, that even were 
 it one, it was forgiven by the King^s pardon. That such 
 was the intention of the King and his Council in publishing 
 the Act of Oblivion is clear, as otherwise, instead of an 
 act of clemency, it would be a snare.* Thus the bishop 
 clearly answered the first head of the accusation ; the second 
 he replied to not less felicitously. 
 
 As" I have heard, a false witness, a son of Belial, accused 
 the bishop before the tribunal of having been with Earl 
 Hugh shortly before his flight, and having consulted with 
 
 * I have omitted here a long paragraph, in which, in the style of the 
 period, and with classic illustrations. Dr. Kothe enlarges on this, and 
 later also, one or two other lengthy illustrations. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 171 
 
 him as to the road and manner of his flight and the prepara- 
 tion for it. The holy bishop could have proved by the 
 testimony of many witnesses that he was not in that province 
 at that time, nor within many days^ journey of where Earl 
 Hugh was, so that he could not have been the adviser of that 
 unfortunate expedition, from which, had he been consulted, 
 he would rather have dissuaded them, or had they been bent 
 on being rather exiles than prisoners, he would probably have 
 accompanied them in their exile. 
 
 “ Had he, however, even known of their departure, and 
 given them food and assistance, how should this be considered 
 a crime, since these great lords of the kingdom, leaders of 
 the nation and subjects of the King, were not criminals or 
 rebels,— were not even accused, as far as he could know, of 
 any plots against the Crown, mueh less convicted of crime, 
 but, on the contrary, had just returned from the English 
 Court with the favour of the King ? But whatever matters 
 were thus alleged against him were the pretext for, not the 
 cause of the death of, the bishop ; the real cause was in the 
 mind of the judge and his assessor; another was outwardly 
 put forward. His real crime was that he was a Catholic, a 
 religious, and a bishop ; that he had administered the sacra- 
 ments, preached the Word of God, and bore the habit of 
 S. Francis, which they hated. 
 
 “ But not even the guilty should be condemned, except in 
 accordance with the laws. I do not speak here of the 
 difiference between civil and ecclesiastical tribunals, or of 
 those ecclesiastical immunities sanctioned alike by imperial 
 decrees and the canons of the Church, and which the holy 
 martyr of Canterbury defended even with his life against the 
 so-called English customs and the Statutes of Clarendon. 
 But in this trial the provisions of English law were not 
 observed. The accused was not allowed his lawful chal- 
 lenges to the jurors. The questions of fact are to be deter- 
 mined by the jurors but only strangers to this country, 
 
 * According to the old English law, the jurors were to decide from 
 their own knowledge, aided by the evidence, and the writ directed the 
 
172 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 English and Scotch,* to whom the accused was unknown, and 
 by whom the circumstances of the case could not be under- 
 stood, were allowed to be on the jury. One Irishman there 
 was on the jury, who is said to have openly declared his 
 dissent from the verdict, but he was not listened to. An 
 Irish false witness against the bishop was heard and believed ; 
 an Irish juryman, who was for acquitting the innocent, was 
 not listened to, and might deem himself happy not to be 
 punished for upholding the truth. 
 
 As soon as the jury, with one exception, had pronounced 
 their unjust verdiet, the judge pronounced the sentence that 
 ‘ Cornelius Dovany, Bishop of Down and Connor, should be 
 taken back to prison, and then drawn in a cart to the place 
 of execution, there hanged on the gallows, and cut down 
 whilst alive, embowelled, and his heart and bowels burnt, his 
 head cut off, and his body divided into four parts.^f 
 
 The like sentence was passed on the priest Patrick. If 
 you ask the cause, a diflPerent one was alleged in each case, 
 but in reality there was but one— the Catholic faith ; and 
 although his enemies suppressed this in his sentence, in his 
 death all-powerful Truth drew, however unwilling, an acknow- 
 ledgment ; for as the heretics loudly upbraided him with 
 having been condemned, not for the faith, but for treason, 
 
 sheriff “ to summon a jury of twelve men from the neighbourhood who 
 best may know the facts.” The bishop also challeeged the jurors as 
 being aliens, and not freeholders, as required by law, but the chal- 
 lenges were all disallowed — O'Sullivan. 
 
 * And “ men not one of whom was worth twentypence of revenue.” 
 
 + A certain pious woman, who used to carry food to the bishop and 
 the priest, which was supplied by the Catholics, after his sentence 
 asked the bishop how he was in health. “ I have not been better,” 
 said he, V these ten years, either in mind or body. My only wish now 
 is that God will vouchsafe to take me to His heavenly kingdom now, by 
 martyrdom, rather than permit me to be worn out in prison of old age. 
 You, daughter, have done me many services, for which I thank you, as 
 I may, and which God will reward. Do me this further service, I 
 pray. When I am slain (as God grant I may be) have me buried in 
 this (showing her the Franciscan habit). I value more this frock, 
 V hich I put on when I was young, than the insignia of a bishop.” — 
 O' Sullivan^ ihid. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF J4MES I. 
 
 173 
 
 he by an ingenious artifice preserved, not his life, but his 
 honour. 
 
 “ A petition was written in his name, stating that he lived 
 in the province of Ulster at the time when the Earl of 
 Tyrone involved that province and others in wars and forays, 
 and neither on account of that sedition nor for any other 
 cause had he avoided speaking with or meeting the earl or his 
 followers, much less so after peace had been made. If in 
 this he had erred, and if the Act of Oblivion published by the 
 King, and pleaded by him, did not cover his ofiFence, he thus 
 craved pardon from the Viceroy. This petition was sent in, 
 and his life was promised to him in the name of the Viceroy 
 if he would write his name to the petition. 
 
 When Saul pursued the Royal Prophet with deadly hatred 
 (1 Kings xxii.), and he, flying from the wrath of the king, 
 turned aside to the priest Achimelech, and was refreshed by 
 him, and, being seen by an Edomite servant of Saul, fled 
 elsewhere ; and when the priest was sent for by Saul and 
 accused, saying, ^ Why hast thou conspired against me, 
 thou, and the son of Isai ? and thou hast given him bread and 
 a sword, and hast consulted the Lord for him, that he should 
 rise up against me, continuing a traitor to this day ; ^ and 
 Achimelech, answering the king, said, ^And who amongst 
 all thy servants is so faithful as David, who is the king^s 
 son-in-law, and goeth forth at thy bidding, and is honourable 
 in thy house? Did I begin to-day to consult the Lord for 
 him ? Far be this from me ; let not the king suspect such 
 a thing against his servant ; ^ so Cornelius the bishop did 
 not deny that he had been with Earl Hugh, but confidently 
 denied it was any crime; but if his adversaries, as they had 
 the power, wrested it into a crime, he begged pardon of 
 them and appealed to their clemency; but if they desired his 
 death, he besought them at least to spare his honour, and 
 assign the true cause of his death. They were not adroit 
 enough to avoid the snare, and, seeking to avoid the charge of 
 cruelty, they made his life depend on the royal will, and there 
 openly ofiPered him life if, abandoning the Roman Catholic 
 religion, he would embrace their sect. When the bishop 
 
174 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 heard this he raised his voice and called upon all present to 
 witness that he died for the Catholic faith ; that he would 
 betray himself and deny God if he were for such an earthly 
 offer to abandon the faith.* Having thus obtained his wish, 
 and made his innocence clear, he despised this temporal life, 
 and, eager for the death which awaited him, he expected with 
 the lofty spirit of a Christian the triumph of the cross. 
 
 As is the case with martyrs, his piety increased with his 
 worldly troubles, and in watching and prayer he awaited the 
 day when he should be called to die. That happy and wished^ 
 for day at length came. The 1st of February, at four o’clock 
 in the afternoon, he was called to mount the cart, which, 
 surrounded by guards, stood at the prison door. When the 
 holy bishop came in sight of that triumphal chariot, he 
 sighed and said, ^ My Lord Jesus, for my sake, went on foot, 
 bearing His cross, to the mountain where He suffered; and 
 must I be borne in a cart, as though unwilling to die for 
 Him, when I would hasten with willing feet to that glory ? 
 AVould that I might bear my cross and hasten on my feet to 
 meet my Lord ! ’ Turning to his fellow-sufferer, Patrick, he 
 said, ^Come, my brave comrade and worthy soldier of Christ, 
 let us imitate His death as best we may who was led to the 
 slaughter as a sheep before the shearer.’ Then bending down 
 and kissing the cart, he mounted up into it, and sat down 
 with his back to the horses, and was thus drawn through the 
 paved streets to the field where the gallows was erected. f 
 
 Doeg the Idumean may come with his emissaries, and 
 
 * “ The Viceroy sent, several times, councillors and others to offer 
 the condemned life and reward, and especially to the bishop his 
 bishopric, and to the priest a good living, if they would renounce the 
 Catholic Church and the authority of the Poman Pontiff, and acknow- 
 ledge the King’s supremacy. The bishop answered that it was far 
 greater folly to try to persuade him, a man near eighty years of age, 
 for the sake of a short term of happiness in this fleeting life, to incur 
 eternal punishment, than to have advised the aged Eleazer, in order to 
 avoid death, to eat swine’s flesh. So also spoke the priest.” — O' Sul- 
 livan. 
 
 t “ Having crossed the river which washes the city, they came to 
 the foot of the hillock on which stood the gallows.” — O' Sullivan. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 175 
 
 slay the priest of the Lord ; the priesthood they cannot slay ; 
 our religion they cannot take away^ our faith they cannot 
 uproot, our constancy they cannot weary : the more of us 
 are slain, the more numerous we are. As Tertullian says 
 (Apolog. c. 50), ^ The battle to which we are challenged is 
 before the tribunals ; and there, at the peril of our life, we 
 fight for the truth. Victory is what is sought. That victory 
 brings with it the glory of pleasing God, and the spoil of 
 eternal life. Your cruelty profits nothing, but is rather an 
 incentive ; we become the more numerous the more we are 
 decimated ; our seed is the blood of Christians.^ This was 
 well proved in the martyrdom of the bishop ; for those 
 Catholics who before his imprisonment and condemnation 
 trembled at the sound of a falling leaf, who feared to meet a 
 Catholic priest, much less a bishop, and were slow to harbour 
 one, lest they might thereby incur danger or the enmity of 
 the rulers, now, when he was led to execution, poured out 
 in a dense crowd from every door into the streets, and in the 
 sight of the councillors, and to the indignation of the Vice- 
 roy, fell on their knees. Men of the first rank, and the 
 inhabitants of all the neighbouring villages and castles, 
 crowded as to a solemn sight ; they saluted with reverence 
 the bishop as he passed in the cart, and begged his pontifical 
 benediction. As they lamented his death, he gently consoled 
 them, and with forcible words exhorted them to fortitude 
 and constancy in the faith and all Christian piety. Many 
 noble matrons came and lamented the death of the bishop, 
 and as they perceived several of the King’s council accom- 
 panying the procession and showing their hostility, they 
 boldly exclaimed in their hearing that it ill became the 
 King’s councillors to turn executioners. 
 
 May it be well with that citizen of Dublin, who, as the 
 bishop passed his house, fasting indeed from morning, but 
 not fainting, brought him out a cup of wine, and prayed 
 him to bless him and his household. We may believe he 
 remembered the vision in which his mother taught King 
 Lemuel, ^ Give strong drink to them that are sad, and wine 
 to them that are grieved in mind : let them drink, and 
 
176 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 forget their want, and remember their sorrow no more. 
 (Proverbs xxxi. 6.) 
 
 ^^But Cornelius, because he grieved not, but rather exulted 
 as a giant to run his course, only tasted of the wine, and 
 with his bound hands blessed the house of his friend, and 
 the whole city of Dublin, whose citizens he praised for the 
 fervour of their faith and their charity. 
 
 Cornelius, when he was come to the place of sacrifice, 
 being solicitous for the constancy of his colleague, begged 
 that Patrick might be put to death first, for he feared lest, 
 by the sight of his death and the wiles of the Calvinists, 
 Patrick might be induced to yield to human weakness. But 
 as his wish would not be granted. Father Patrick assured 
 the bishop he might lay aside all fear for him. ^Though,' 
 said he, ' I would desire to die first, and be strengthened in 
 my agony by your paternal charity, since we are given up to 
 the will of others, go, happy father, and fear not for my con- 
 stancy ; aid me by your prayers with God, by whose help I 
 am sure that neither death nor life, nor principalities, nor 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other 
 creature, shall separate me from the love of Christ, or from 
 my companionship with you.^ Bejoiced at these words, 
 Cornelius threw himself on his knees, but had only breathed 
 a hasty prayer (which yet reached God in heaven), when the 
 councillors, the captain and guard, called out to make an 
 end quickly. The field, situated to the north of the cit}'-, 
 which would easily hold 3,000 persons, was crowded. 
 The executioner was an Englishman and a Protestant (for 
 no Irishman could be found who would stain himself with 
 the blood of the bishop*), who was condemned to death for 
 robbery, and was promised his life for acting as executioner 
 on this occasion. Yet, though he had thus purchased his 
 life, he was touched with reverence and compassion for the 
 grey hairs of the bishop, and prayed his pardon, and with 
 trembling hands adjusted the noose. The moment the 
 
 * “ The regular executioner, who was an Irishman, had fled.” — 
 O' Sullivan. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JA:MES 
 
 177 , 
 
 bishop mounted the first step of the ladder, and his head was 
 seen above the crowd, a great shout and groans burst from 
 all the spectators. 
 
 Then the minister Challoner, furious at the cries of pity 
 raised by the people, said to the bishop, ^ Why delude ye 
 the ignorant people V Why end ye your life with a lie, and 
 a vain boast of martyrdom ? Tell the multitude that ye are 
 traitors, and that it is for treason and not for religion ye 
 suffer.^ To these unjust words the bishop answered, ^Far 
 be it from us, who are about to appear before the tribunal 
 of Christ, to impose upon the people. But also far be it 
 from us to confess ourselves guilty of crimes of which our 
 conscience tells us we are innocent. Nor yet do we vainly 
 ambition the title of martyrs, though for us to die for Christ 
 is gain. You know that you are yourself guilty of that prevari- 
 cation of which you accuse us, for but a few hours ago, 
 sent as you said by the Viceroy, you offered us life and free- 
 dom if we would subscribe to your heresy. Leave us, then, 
 son of darkness, and calumniate not our innocence.^ 
 
 Then the minister departed and left the martyrs in peace. 
 As they mounted the middle of the ladder, again there rose 
 the cry of the people ; and a third time, when he was about 
 to be thrown off, the groans of those who beat their breasts 
 rose louder than before. Thrice he prayed, as he stood there, 
 once for all the bystanders; secondly, for the city of Dub- 
 lin, and all the Catholics of this kingdom, that they may 
 serve God piously, faithfully, and perseveringly ; a third time 
 he prayed for all heretics, and for his persecutors, that they 
 might be converted from the evil of their ways. 
 
 ^^May that prayer of Thy martyr, 0 God, ascend to the 
 throne of Thy power, and obtain for us fruits of justice and 
 peace, that, errors and fears being removed, we may serve 
 faithfully, first our God and next our King. The skies gave 
 back an answer (if I am not mistaken) that soon these 
 tribulations should come to an end the blood of our Abel 
 
 * Alas ! the good Bishop Bothe’s anticipations were fallacious. The 
 sword of the Lord was not sheathed for one hundred years more, and 
 Bishop Dovany and his companion were followed by hundreds of other 
 
178 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 cries from the earth, not for vengeance, but mercy. O thou 
 sword of the Lord, how long wilt thou not rest? Be 
 sheathed ; rest and be silent. 
 
 It is related that all the field was crowded with men, 
 women, and children, and when the martyr was dead all 
 struggled to carry away some relic, either a scrap of his 
 clothes, or a drop of his blood, or a fragment of bone or skin; 
 yet, though all crowded and struggled, no one was hurt; 
 but he was deemed most happy who was able to carry off the 
 head of the bishop, deemed more precious than gold or pre- 
 cious stones.* Let us, with the doctors of Catholicity, 
 venerate in the flesh of the martyrs the wounds they have 
 received for the name of Christ ; let us venerate that virtue 
 which conquers the world ; let us venerate their ashes, the 
 seed of life to rise again ; let us venerate the bodies which 
 have taught us to despise death for the faith. S. Gregory 
 teaches us (lib. vi. indict. 15, epist. 23) that the Chris- 
 tians of old held as a great and sacred gift, not only a 
 cloth stained with the martyrs^ blood, but even one that had 
 
 martyrs ; but as the seed was abundant, so has been the harvest. The 
 blood-rain of martyrs’ blood has made the spiritual harvest in Ireland 
 abundant. 
 
 * “ The bishop’s head was hardly cut off when an Irishman seized it, 
 and, rushing into the centre of the crowd, was never found, although the 
 Viceroy offered a reward of forty pounds of silver. The Catholics 
 gathered up his blood, and contended for his garments, despite the re- 
 sistance of the soldiery. The priest Patrick followed the same road, 
 singing, as he mounted the ladder, the canticle of Simeon : ‘ Now, O 
 Lord, dismiss thy servant in peace,’ and, after the example of the 
 bishop, he prayed for the bystanders, blessed them, and forgave all 
 his enemies. The rope being put round his neck, he hung for a short 
 time, was then cut down half alive, mutilated, and cut in pieces. The 
 soldiers, warned by the loss of the bishop’s head, resisted the unarmed 
 crowd, who strove to catch the martyr’s blood, and other relics, and 
 wounded many. The day after, the bodies were buried at the gallows 
 foot, but in the stillness of the night were removed by the Catholics to 
 a chapel not defiled by heretical worship.” — O' Sullivan. 
 
 Mooney says, “ Their remains are deposited in the cemetery of 
 S. James, together with those of many others whom I shall mention 
 later, because all the churches of the city are defiled.” 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 179 
 
 been laid on their tomb ; and the same Gregory sent to 
 King Richard a little key in which was a small portion of the 
 iron of S. Peter^s chains which had touched his sacred body, 
 that, as he said, ^ that what bound his neck for martyrdom 
 may free you from sin.^ (Lib. x. indie. 5, epist. 7.) And the 
 same Gregory sent to the noble lady Savinella a similar key, 
 'in which,^ said he, 'is eontained the blessing of his chains, that, 
 being hung on your neek, by his intercession, what brought 
 him martyrdom may bring you the grace of forgiveness.^ 
 Far different from the seetaries of this age, who, that they 
 only may be honoured by men, do away with all veneration 
 of the saints and their relics. 
 
 One eireumstance is here worthy to be noted, that our 
 Cornelius, who, many years before, was eonsecrated bishop on 
 the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, was called by 
 death to the rewards of the other life on the vigil of the 
 same feast and the day dedieated to S. Brigid, who has 
 always been invoked as patron by our whole nation, and for 
 whom he had a peculiar devotion. It is also worthy of re- 
 mark that the bishop was condemned to death on the day 
 (the 28th January) on which died Charlemagne, the great 
 defender of ecelesiastical freedom. 
 
 " Lest their names, inscribed in heaven, be forgotten on 
 earth, let their epitaph be here reeorded, that the reader, 
 meeting with the record of the saints, may remember that 
 the 1st of February, in the year of our salvation 1611, was 
 the day on which was born to a better life the blessed martyr 
 Dovany, Bishop of Down and Connor, of the Order of S. 
 Francis, who for many years watehed with pastoral eare over 
 the Catholie flock in Ireland, and, after many sufferings, was 
 sentenced to death in the Chichestrian perseeution by D. 
 Sibthorpe,* and by martyrdom passed to his rest. 
 
 "The same day and year the blessed martyr Patrick 
 Locheran, priest, under the same Viceroy, Arthur Chichester, 
 
 * O’Sullivan says, Dominick Sarsfield was the judge, “one most 
 cruel to priests and Catholics,” and that his colleague, though a Pro- 
 testant, feigned illness, not to take part in the condemnation of the 
 bishop, who was innocent. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 and D. Sarcevilius, judge, suffered death. Each might have 
 secured his life if he would abandon the Catholic religion 
 and the obedience of the Holy Roman Church, and embrace 
 Calvinism.* 
 
 Some relate that Sarcevil was the judge who sentenced the 
 bishop ; Sibthorpe, the priest. It differs little, for they both 
 sat in judgment and concurred in the sentence. It is related 
 that when the bishop protested against being tried by a lay 
 tribunal, Sarcevil alleged to him the example of Christ, who 
 submitted to the judgment of Pilate; to whom the bishop 
 answered, ^If you blush not to imitate Pilate, it irks not 
 me to imitate Christ, for He is the way, the truth, and the 
 life.^ 
 
 Annis 1613, 1614, AND 1617. 
 
 Rev. BERNARD GRAGAN and Others, O.S.E. 
 
 Father Mooney, continuing his account of the monastery 
 of Multifarnham, part of which is given under the year 
 1601, gives the following account of others who there suf- 
 fered for religion ; and although it refers to various years, I 
 will here give it in extenso : — 
 
 In the year 1607 Brother John Gragan, father pro- 
 vincial, was arrested, and in 1608 accused of high treason, 
 as knowing of the flight of the Earls of Tyrone and Tir- 
 
 ♦ Father Patrick Locheran was accused of having “traitorously 
 gone to Belgium in the same ship with the fugitives Earls O’Neile and 
 O’Donnell.” He answered that he had crossed to Belgium to study, in 
 the same ship, but before O’Neile and O’Donnell did, and therefore 
 was ignorant of their flight. On being asked whether he would be 
 tried by a jury of twelve men, he answered, “ If the twelve men were 
 to be Irish, they would themselves be in danger ; if they were Pro- 
 testants, they might be induced by fear or reward to commit sin, and 
 condemn him. That he did not desire that worthy Catholics should be 
 brought into danger, or heretics induced to sin. In a judge should be 
 found equity and justice.” Then Sarsfield said, “ As you decline the 
 trial appointed by law, the decision of the cause rests with me,” and 
 proceeded to pronounce sentence, — O’ S%dlivan, tom. iv. cap. 18, 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES 1. 
 
 181 
 
 Connell, and condemned. His life and liberty were then 
 offered to him if he would join the heretical Church, but in 
 vain ; his constancy, prudence, and religious modesty much 
 edified the Catholics, and gained the affection even of his 
 adversaries. At length, at the intercession of the Baron of 
 Delvin, who had been accuscvl of the same crime, but had 
 obtained the King-’s favour, through fear of those who had 
 escaped. Brother John obtained his life, and was set at 
 liberty, having given security to appear if called upon. 
 
 At another time Sir Dudley Loftus, son of the Chancellor, 
 and Sir Richard Graves, invaded the monastery and carried 
 away prisoners — Brother Cormac O’Gabhun, prior of the 
 province, who, being blind, had lived for six years in that 
 monastery; Brother Philip Cluaine, who is now (1621) 
 living, an old man, in Kilconnell ; Brother Terence 
 Macanaspie, who died in prison in Dublin ; Brother Manus 
 Oge O’Fidy ; and Brother Coghlin Oge MacAliadha. These 
 two last they left by the way in the town of Baleathbeg; the 
 others they took to Dublin and threw into prison, where, 
 after a year and a half, two of them, who survived, were set 
 at liberty on giving security to appear if called on. 
 
 ^^In the year 1613 Patrick Fox, Viscount of Westmeath, 
 invaded the monastery and carried off the vicar of the 
 convent. Brother Bernard Gragan, a priest, who lay in 
 prison in Dublin for a whole year, and at length was sent 
 an exile into France, and died at Rheims, in Brittany, partly 
 from the fatigue of the journey and the sea, partly from 
 infirmities contracted in prison. 
 
 "In the year 1614 Sir Oliver Lambert took prisoner 
 Brother James MacGrollen, a holy priest of the same convent, 
 who was seeking alms through the country, and he was long 
 detained in prison in Mullingar ; being then sent to Dublin 
 Castle, he remained there a long time; but as, notwithstanding 
 many threats and promises, he remained constant, he was 
 sent into exile, and remained some time in Rouen, whence, 
 returning into Ireland, he was by pirates at sea wounded 
 in the face; but, his wounds being cured, he still lives in 
 Ireland. 
 
182 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 In 1617 there was taken prisoner, whilst he was collect- 
 ing alms for the convent, by a certain local tyrant whose name 
 was Daniel,* another brother of the same convent, whose 
 name was Charles Crossan, a priest. So also in like manner 
 was taken in the year Brother Didacns Conor, a priest, 
 whilst, through obedience, he was collecting alms. These 
 two are yet in prison. f So much for this theatre of per- 
 secution and unarmed and innocent endurance.^^ — Mooney, 
 p. 77. 
 
 WILLIAM MEDE 
 
 ” was a citizen of Cork, distinguished for his learning and 
 wealth, and was patron and protector of the rights and im- 
 munities of that city.J He persuaded his fellow- citizens, 
 during the time between the death of Queen Elizabeth and 
 the proclamation of King James, to resume the public 
 practice of the Catholic religion, ’which had been long 
 omitted, and thereby drew upon himself a most bitter per- 
 secution on the part of the heretics. He was put upon his 
 trial for treason, but the twelve jurors acquitted him ; and, 
 to punish them for thus refusing to condemn the innocent, 
 they were tormented in all sorts of ways, publicly paraded 
 through the city with an inscription on their foreheads 
 calling them perjurers, and being finally thrown into prison, 
 were there kept till they paid a heavy fine. Even so the 
 hatred of his enemies was not appeased, and AVilliam was 
 compelled, through regard for his life, to go into a voluntary 
 exile, where, after several years, he piously slept in the 
 Lord at Naples, in 1614.^^ — Philadelph. 
 
 * There is a word before Daniel which is illegible, 
 t Mooney wrote in 1624. 
 i Our author probably means he was mayor. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 183 
 
 Anno 1615.— Sirs BERNARD and ARTHUR O’NEILL, 
 RODERICK AND GODFREY O’KAHAN, ALEX- 
 ANDER MacSORLEY, Knights, and Rev. LEWIS 
 OLABERTAG. 
 
 “ Sir Arthur Chichester devised this plan to entrap some 
 of the inhabitants of Ulster who were most remarkable for 
 their courage and talent ; but he the more thirsted for the 
 blood of the men of Ulster because he had himself been 
 granted large possessions in Ulster by the king : — He seized 
 upon an idle, dissipated man, who had often stopped at 
 Bernard O’Neill’s, and had him condemned to death. He 
 then promised him a pardon and large reward if he would 
 accuse Bernard and the others whom I am about to name. 
 The desperate gambler, unmindful of the many benefits 
 he had received from Bernard, consented. Then the Viceroy 
 ordered Bernard and Arthur O’Neill, Roderick O’Kahan, 
 Godfrey O’Kahan, Alexander MacSorley, knights of high 
 lineage, and Lewis Olabertag, a priest, to be seized and 
 thrown into prison, as accused of high treason. The witness, 
 to make this out, swore that they had conspired to take 
 some forts in Ulster, garrisoned by English and Scotch, and 
 to slay the guards. The knights answered that the testimony 
 of one man of infamous character was not enough to convict 
 them. They were tortured, but confessed nothing. But 
 as they were tried by twelve English and Scotch Protestants, 
 who had also received land in LTlster, and did not wish to 
 have Catholic neighbours, they were at once found guilty. 
 The Viceroy referred the sentence to the King, who sent 
 back for answer that a free pardon should be granted to the 
 knights and the priest if they would renounce the Catholic 
 religion. But they boldly made answer they never would 
 accept that condition. That night they mutually exhorted 
 each other to endure death for Christ. The priest gave 
 sacramental absolution to the others. The next day, having 
 hung a short time, they were cut down, embowelled, their 
 entrails burnt, their bodies cut in four parts and exposed in 
 
181 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 public places. This happened in the year of our Lord 1615. 
 About the same time Sir Patrick O’Murry,* knight, and 
 Connor O’Kieran, priest, were put to death in like manner 
 on the same charge.” — O’ Sullivan, p. 260. 
 
 Anno 1617. 
 
 Rev. THOMAS GERALDINE, O.S.F. 
 
 Father Mooney, speaking of the Castle of Dublin, says, — 
 “ So also Brother Thomas Geraldine, of our order, a 
 preacher, and some time commissary of our province, suf- 
 fered much during a long imprisonment,t and at length 
 died in the Castle of Dublin, worn out with the hardships of 
 the prison, in the month of June,]: in the year 1617 ; and the 
 citizens, having begged his body, celebrated his obsequies for 
 three or four days with great devotion, to the great surprise 
 and indignation of the heretics, who yet could not prevent 
 the devotion of the people ; and at length his remains were 
 laid in the same cemetery (that of S. James), near those of 
 the bishop (Dr. O’Dovany).” — Mooney, p. 68, and Fhila- 
 delph. and Bruodin, lib. iii. 20. 
 
 Rev. WILLIAM DONATES (or DONAGH). 
 
 He is mentioned in a letter preserved in Stoneyhurst 
 College. 
 
 ‘^A large reward had been offered for the head of Dr. 
 Matthews, Archbishop of Dublin, or that of Dr. Kearney, 
 Archbishop of Cashel, dead or alive. The Chancellor, Adam 
 Loftus, personally conducted a most rigorous search in 
 Dublin, as Archbishop Matthews was supposed to be there. 
 The letter continues, ‘^But the archbishop, by God’s will, 
 was out of their way ; but in the search many others were 
 apprehended and cast into prison, both ecclesiastics and 
 others. One regular, and another secular priest, by name 
 
 * “ Omurius/’ 
 
 t Philadelphus says he was several times imprisoned. 
 
 X Philadelphus says the 12th of July. 
 
IN THE KEIGN of JAMES 1. 
 
 185 
 
 William Donatus, who^ though lying ill in bed, because he 
 was thought to be the chaplain of the archbishop, was com- 
 pelled to get up and accompany the others to prison, where 
 he yet lies.^ ” — Renehan, Collections, vol. i. p. 266. 
 
 Eev. dermitius bruodin, o.s.f. 
 
 ‘‘ Dermid Bruodin was born in Thomond, in Ireland, of a 
 family noted for many generations for piety, learning, and 
 hospitality, and became a member of the Franciscan Order. 
 His father was Miles Bruodin, owner of Mount Calary, a 
 man much esteemed by Cornelius O’Brien, Earl of Thomond 
 (Clare) ; his mother was Joanna Mahony, or Matthews. He 
 w^as no longer a boy wdien, having learned the rudiments of 
 learning, he lost his parents, and, having always intended to 
 devote himself to God, entered the cloister amongst the strict 
 observers of evangelical poverty — the Franciscans — as a no- 
 vice in the convent of Inisheen, in Clare. He was a model of 
 virtue, assiduous in prayer, ready for every exercise of 
 humility, constant in fasting, and daily afflicting his body 
 with the discipline. 
 
 Having made his profession, by order of his superiors he 
 proceeded to Spain, and there, among the sons of the pro- 
 vince of S. James, progressed alike in learning and piety. 
 When^ his studies were completed, he was advanced to the 
 priesthood, and desired at once to devote himself to the saving 
 of souls in his country, afflicted by heresy. His superiors 
 agreed to his request, and Dermid, trusting in the Cross of 
 Christ, embarked in his Franciscan habit (for neither danger 
 nor the entreaties of his friends could ever induce him, as the 
 other missionaries, to exchange his habit for a secular dress*), 
 and, by the providence of God, he landed at a port near the 
 place of his birth, near the island of S. Sinnanus, called 
 
 * It is to be remembered that he dwelt in Clare, a remote district, 
 inhabited exclusively by Catholics, and whither the Queen’s soldiers 
 rarely penetrated. 
 
186 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONI'ESSOHS 
 
 Inniscathaj in the middle of the river Shannon, in the year 
 1575. 
 
 “ The moment Bruodin touched his native soil he gave 
 thanks to God, and began his apostolic labours amongst his 
 friends and relatives (and then, as now, there were as many 
 Catholics as Bruodins), and laboured with such zeal, where 
 before they had been suffering from a dearth of pastors, that 
 the Catholics in all the baronies of Clare were provided with 
 spiritual food. Dermid had thus laboured for many years 
 in the vineyard of the Lord, when the enemy of human 
 salvation sought, by means of the satellites of Elizabeth, to 
 put a stop to his zealous efforts. Divers man-hunters were 
 therefore employed throughout Clare to catch in their nets 
 the zealous preacher, whose zeal, indeed, for martyrdom 
 would long before have brought him into their hands had he 
 not been prevented by his superiors. 
 
 Whilst the search was most eager Dermid was employed 
 preaching and catechizing not far from Limerick, in a place, 
 however, which was mountainous, and generally safe from the 
 excursions of the heretics. However, his presence there came 
 totheknowledgeof the commander of the garrison inLimerick, 
 who sent some musketeers to arrest him, and they seized him 
 in the act of preaching from the top of a mound. He 
 received many blows from the fists and sticks of the soldiers, 
 and, with his hands tied behind him, was driven to Limerick, 
 in the year 1603. Bruodin, who had been weakened by 
 his voluntary fasts, was thrown into prison, where for four 
 months he endured much, for it was forbidden under a heavy 
 penalty for any Catholic to speak to him or give him any 
 assistance. 
 
 “ At the end of this time he was brought before the king^s 
 judges, and being asked many idle questions, Dermid boldly 
 answered that his dress showed he was a Catholic and a 
 Franciscan ; that as to his name, profession, labours, and 
 friends, they were abundantly known to those who had taken 
 him when preaehing; that therefore there was nothing to 
 be done but either to set him free, or by torture to try 
 his constancy in the profession of the Catholic faith. ^Well,^ 
 
IN THE REIGN OF JAMES 1. 
 
 187 
 
 said the judge, 'you shall have your wish/ By his order 
 the Franciscan habit was torn off him, and he was severely 
 flogged by two executioners ; then his hands were tied 
 behind him, and he was lifted up by them off the ground. 
 Whilst he was thus tortured he was asked by a certain 
 petulant preacher whether he felt pain? He answered, 'I 
 feel pain indeed, but far less than my Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, for whose cause I suffer, endured for me.^ 
 Then, let down from the rack, he was taken back to prison. 
 
 " At the time when Father Bruodin was being tortured 
 there arrived in Limerick Donatus O^Brien, the powerful 
 chieftain of his own race, and Earl of Thomond. He was a 
 man of great influence both in England and Ireland. Touched 
 by the affection which the O^Briens always bore to the 
 Bruodins, he sought to devise some way of freeing Father 
 Hermid from further tortures and the death which threatened 
 him. With this view, the earl persuaded the judges that 
 Hermid was a fool, with whom he often amused himself, 
 and, to prove this, he adduced as an argument that no one but 
 a fool would go about in public with his head shaved, and a 
 long beard and a long habit, contrary to the usual practice 
 of all the other Popish priests in England and Ireland. 
 The judges, either persuaded, or, as I think, not wishing to 
 offend the powerful earl (whose fidelity and services to the 
 Crown were well known), set Hermid at liberty, who was 
 indeed nearly worn out with tortures and suffering. Hermid, 
 thus set free as a fool for Christ, returned to his native 
 district and prudently resumed his labours in Clare. Pro- 
 tected everywhere by being known as the mad monk, and 
 favoured by Earl O’Brien (a man nominally a heretic, but a 
 Catholic in his heart), he passed safely through the perse- 
 cuting English at Inish^ and elsewhere in the province, and 
 gained many to Christ, ever wearing the Franciscan habit, 
 and often rejoicing to bear insults and derision for the 
 
 * The Franciscan convent of Inish, or Inis-Cluan-ruada, founded, 
 according to Ware, by Donagli Carbrac O’Brian in the year 1210, for 
 Minorites, by the river Forgy. 
 
188 
 
 MAUTVIIS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 honour of Christ. At length_, weighed down with years, 
 and worn out with labours, Bruodin, fortified with the sacra- 
 ments of the Church, slept in the Lord, in his Franciscan 
 convent of Inish, the 9th August, 1617. The other friars 
 had been expelled in 1575, and he had lived there alone with 
 his servant for the three last years of his life .^^ — Bruodin j lib. 
 iii. cap. 20. 
 
 As this is the last date given in Philadelphus, I shall here 
 insert all those martyrs to whose triumph, being uncertain of 
 the year, he does not give any date. 
 
 Rev. NICHOLAS YOUNG, 
 
 a priest from the village of Newton, near Trim, a vener- 
 able old man, for hatred of his religion w'as cast a prisoner 
 into the Tower of Dublin, where he ended his days, worn out 
 with suffering and misery, about the year 
 
 JAMES DOWDALL, 
 
 one of the leading men of the municipality of Athboy, was 
 frequently summoned to Dublin by the Chancellor to answer 
 for his profession of the Catholic faith, and chiefly because 
 he harboured priests. He was several times thrown into 
 prison, where he patientlj' spent many years. At length, as 
 the noble-minded man could neither be induced to bend to 
 the times nor abandon his determination of patient endur- 
 ance, the enemies of the faith let him go for a time, 
 when he returned home, and peaceably died there about 
 the year 
 
 I 
 
IX THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 
 
 189 
 
 JAMES DOWDALL (another) 
 
 was a merchant of Drogheda, who, being in England on 
 business, was arrested, and being called upon to swear to the 
 Queen^s supremacy, he ingenuously confessed his faith, and 
 declared he was a Catholic, for which cause he was put to 
 death in the city of Exchester,* and his tomb is said to be 
 celebrated even to this day for favours obtained there. 
 
 PATRICK BROWNE, 
 
 ^^a distinguished citizen of Dublin, had been reared up 
 from his youth in heresy, but by a special grace of God was 
 received into the Church ; and for the profession of the 
 faith he suffered in Dublin, for nearly twenty years, a most 
 cruel imprisonment, which he bore with unshaken mind, but 
 from which he contracted a fatal disease ; and, although he 
 was at length, on giving security, allowed home for a time to 
 recover from his disease, he was only delivered from it by 
 a happy death. 
 
 Here I may also insert an account given by Father 
 Mooney, of which the exact date is uncertain, but which 
 equally must have occurred about the close of Elizabeth's 
 reign : — 
 
 Rev. CORNELIUS. 
 
 The convent of Athskelin (Askeaton) is said to have 
 been founded by the Earl of Desmond, and for a long time 
 there have not been any monks there, because, during the 
 war which theaforeoaid earl waged against the English, many 
 cruelties were practised on the brethren of that convent, and 
 several of them suffered martyrdom at the hands of the 
 
 * So printed in the original, in the margin. It is Exeter, as given in 
 the text, “Exoniensi.” Bruodin gives the date of his death as 20th 
 September, 1600, 
 
190 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 English soldiers under Nicholas Mally, but I could not learn 
 their names with accuracy, except of one priest, whose name 
 was Brother Cornelius, whose relics are interred iri the 
 chapter-house of the convent /^ — Mooney j p. 46. 
 
 Anno 1618. 
 
 Rev. JOHN O’HONAN, O.S.F. 
 
 The Rev. John O’Honan was a native of Connaught, a 
 priest, and a member of the Franciscan order. A fter he had 
 spent many years in religion, and in the charge of the 
 pastoral office among the afflicted Catholics of Leinster, he 
 was taken by the English heretics in Dublin. 
 
 After seven weeks’ imprisonment, despising the honours 
 and rewards which were offered to him in the name of the 
 king if he would renounce his faith, he was first cruelly 
 tortured, and then hung and cut in four parts, and so 
 gloriously triumphed on the 14th October, 1618.” — Bruodin, 
 lib. iii. cap. 20. 
 
 Rev. PATRICK O’DYRY. 
 
 He was a native of Ulster, and a priest, and received the 
 crown of martyrdom at Derry, of S. Columbanus, for having 
 disobeyed the iniquitous law of Elizabeth and James.* He 
 preferred to suffer tortures, the ignominy of the scaffold, and 
 the cutting of his body in four parts, rather than deny the 
 truth. He died, venerable for age and virtues, the 6th 
 January, 1618, and, as we may piously trust, enjoys a crown 
 of glory with the saints .” — BruodiUj ut supra. 
 
 * That making it treason for monks and priests to re-enter the 
 kingdom. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 191 
 
 Anno 1632.— Father EDMUND DE BURGO, O.P.P. 
 
 Father Edmund de Burgo departed to Christ in the 
 year 1632.* He was an Irishman, of a noble family, son of 
 the brother of the Dynast of Mayo, a man of great humility, 
 and rich in a spirit of holy poverty. He was a great opponent 
 of the heretics, many of whom he converted to the unity of 
 the Church, wherefore the heretics turned his convent into a 
 den of thieves, but Father Edmund, partly from reverence 
 for his person and partly fear of the influence of his family, 
 they after a time set at liberty. — Mon, Bom, 
 
 He had received the habit in the convent of Burishool, in 
 the county of Mayo, and was a model of penance. He wore 
 a chain of iron round his waist, and slept on the ground or on 
 a little straw, with a stone for a pillow, and, allowing himself 
 only a few hours of sleep, spent the rest of the day and night 
 in prayer. He frequently fasted on bread and water, and in 
 the depth of winter attended the chapel with bare feet. By 
 a singular grace of God, although noble and brought up 
 in the midst of the pleasures of this world, he preserved his 
 virginal chastity to his dying day. He had a singular devo« 
 tion for the rosary of the Blessed Virgin, and at the striking 
 of every hour knelt down in prayer . — Acta Capituli Generalis 
 RomcCj 1656, ap. Hib, Bom. 
 
 Anno 1633.— Rev. ARTHUR MacGEOGHEGAN, O.P.P. 
 
 The venerable Father Arthur MacGeoghegan, after he 
 had completed his studies in Spain,f and transacted with 
 much prudence the business of the order intrusted to him, 
 sailed (from Lisbon, where he had remained for some time in 
 
 * Hib. Dom. gives the date as 1633 ; but in the “ Monumenta Domini- 
 cana” it is printed 1632. He was a monk, but not a priest, 
 t He was an alumnus of the convent of Mullingar. 
 
192 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 the Dominican convent of our Blessed Lady of the Bosary)* 
 to return to his own country, but, being taken on his road 
 by the heretics and thrown into prison in London, was 
 tried, as was usual, for high treason,f and also for having 
 said in Spain that ^ it would be lawful to kill the King of 
 England ; ' but he proved that he had not said so, but, 
 arguing against the heretical doctrine, denying man’s free 
 will, ^that if it were true, it would be an excuse for the 
 greatest crimes, even killing a king.’ Nevertheless, he was 
 condemned and taken to the place of execution, where, 
 having publicly proclaimed his faith, and that he was a 
 Dominican, he was hung, and cut down whilst yet alive, 
 his heart and entrails cut out and cast into the fire, and his 
 body quartered ; and thus gloriously completed his con- 
 fession of Christ .” — Ex Act. Cap. Gen., 1644, ap. Mon. 
 Dom. and Dom. a Ros. ap. Hib. Dom. 
 
 De Burgo adds that Father MacGeoghegan had been sent 
 to Ireland to obtain students for the Dominican College of 
 Lisbon, which had been founded a few years before, viz., in 
 1615, for the purpose of educating priests for the Irish 
 mission. His death as he was passing through England of 
 course hindered the execution of his design, but the fame of 
 his martyrdom attracted many young Irish to the college 
 from whence he came, so that it began from that date to 
 flourish, and became a celebrated seminary of martyrs ; for 
 within a very few years seven priests left it, who all received 
 the crown of martyrdom ; namely, Arthur MacGeoghegan, 
 Gerald Dillon, Miler Magrath, ^neas Ambrose O’Cahill, 
 Michael O’Clery, Gerald Bagot, and Thaddeeus Moriarty. — 
 Hib. Dom., p. 419. 
 
 ' * Dom. a Bosario. 
 
 t “ For returning, having been ordained beyond the seas.” 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 193 
 
 Anno 1637. 
 
 Most Rev. HUGH O’REILLY, Archbishop of Armagh. 
 
 This venerable prelate, who in 1628 was transferred from 
 the see of Kilmore to that of Armagh, was in 1637, for hav- 
 ing dared to assemble the clergy of his province in synod, 
 thrown into prison in Dublin Castle, where for six weeks 
 he was detained in a painful captivity. We learn these par- 
 ticulars from a letter to the archbishop himself, addressed to 
 Dr. Dwyer, in Rome, on 24th October, 1637, in which he 
 further states that as yet his health had hardly recovered 
 from the severe shock it received in the damp dungeon of the 
 castle. — Moran, Abps. Dublin, vol. i. p. 402. 
 
 For a full account of the great deeds of this noble bishop, 
 and how he died a fugitive on Trinity Island in Lough 
 Erne, and was buried in the abbey of Cavan, founded by 
 Gelasius O’Reilly, I must refer my readers to Dr. Renehan’s 
 
 Collections.” 
 
 Rev. JOHN O’MANNIN, O.P.P. 
 
 The venerable John O’Mannin, of the convent of Derry, 
 a most strict observer of the rule, always wore the habit of 
 his order, and being recognized on a time by the heretics, 
 he was by them taken prisoner and dragged before the 
 tribunal. Here he despised alike the rewards which were 
 offered to him and the torments with which he was threatened, 
 and ever loudly professed the Catholic faith. He was ordered 
 for several weeks to be tortured two or three times a week on 
 the rack, and once when he was hanging in that torture he 
 was let fall and his back broken, so that to his dying day he 
 remained humpbacked, showing clearly he lacked not the 
 will, but the chance to be a martyr .” — Ex Act. Cap. Gen., 
 Rome, 1656, ap. Mon. Dom. 
 
 o 
 

 194 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1640.— Rev. RAYMOND KEOGH, O.P.P. 
 
 This year the Rev. Father Raymond Keogh, being taken 
 prisoner by the heretics, through hatred of the Catholic 
 faith and the , authority of the Roman Pontiff, which he 
 preached, was by them beheaded .^^ — Ex Relat. ad Sac. Cong, 
 dat.j ap. Mon. Dorn. 
 
 Anno 1641. 
 
 Although it is foreign to the purpose of this book to enter 
 into the general history of Ireland, or even of the persecu- 
 tions, my intention being only to give a brief account of the 
 separate sufferings of those martyrs and confessors whose 
 names have been preserved, yet it appears desirable before 
 entering on a new and different era of persecution briefly to 
 call attention to its features. From the change of religion 
 under Elizabeth to the commencement of the wars of the 
 Long Parliament the persecution had been more or less inter- 
 mittent, and a distinction might, with some show of reason, 
 be drawn between the wars in which the Irish were engaged 
 in defence of their independence against Elizabeth and purely 
 religious wars, although in truth all through these wars 
 hatred and love of the Catholic religion were the mainsprings 
 of action. But with 1648 began a new era. The Parlia- 
 ment of England declared war against the King, and Ireland 
 was pressed by the two belligerents. The Catholics took up 
 arms in their own defence, and declared for the King. At 
 one time they were encouraged by him ; at another, when 
 pres'sed by the Parliament and the Scotch, he disavowed 
 them. One party was always, and under all circumstances, 
 inimical to the Catholic Irish — the party of the Parliament- 
 arian Puritans. For eight years these bloody wars went on, 
 accompanied by most sanguinary persecutions of the Catholics, 
 till Charles I.^s execution, on the 30th January, 1649. In 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 ]95 
 
 August of that same year Cromwell landed in Ireland. For 
 a sketch of the bloody persecution, or rather universal 
 massacre, which followed, I must refer my readers to the ' 
 work of Doctor Moran, Persecution of the Irish Catholics 
 but it will be necessary for them to remember these dates in 
 order to understand the lives of the few victims whose names 
 have been preserved. It will give my readers some idea of 
 the way in which the persecution was carried on, to mention 
 that Lord Clarendon says, The Parliament party had 
 grounded their own authority and strength upon such foun- 
 dations as w^ere inconsistent with any toleration of the Roman 
 Catholic religion, and even with any humanity to the Irish 
 nation — and more especially to those of the old native ex- 
 traction, the whole race whereof they had upon the matter 
 sworn to extirpate.^^ (Hist., i. 215.) The Parliament of 
 England, under their guidance, resolved on the 24th October, 
 1644, that no quarter shall be given to any Irishman, or 
 to any Papist born in Ireland” and their historian Borlase 
 adds, ‘^The orders of Parliament were excellently well exe- 
 cuted.^^ (Hist, of Rebellion, p. 62.) Leland and Warner refer 
 to the letters of the Lords Justices for the fact that the 
 soldiers slew all persons promiscuously, not sparing even 
 the women.^^ Cromw'ell declared on landing in Dublin that 
 no mercy should be shown to the Irish, and that they should 
 be dealt with as the Canaanites in Joshua^s time. It is im- 
 possible to estimate the number of Catholics slain in the ten 
 years from 1642 to 1652. Three bishops and more than 300 
 priests were put to death for the faith. Thousands of men, 
 women, and children were sold as slaves for the West Indies ; 
 Sir W. Petty mentions that six thousand boys and women 
 were thus sold (Political Anatomy of Ireland, p. 187). A 
 letter written in 1656, quoted by Lingard, puts the number 
 at 60,000; as late as 1666 there were 12,000 Irish slaves 
 scattered amongst the West Indian Islands. (Letter of Rev. 
 J. Grace, written in 1669, ap. Moran, p. 147.) 40,000 Irish 
 Catholics fled to the Continent, and 20,000 took refuge in 
 the Hebrides and other Scottish islands. (Moran, p. 99.) In 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 a word, as Sir W. Petty writes, the population of Ireland in 
 1641 was 1,466,000; of whom Catholics were about 1,240,000; 
 in 1659 the whole population was only 500,091, of whom 
 Irish were only 420,000 ; so that very nearly or quite one 
 million must have perished. (Sir W. Petty, Polit. Anat./^ 
 p. 13, ap. Moran, and Hardinge’s census of 1659.) 
 
 One other remark is necessary before entering on the 
 separate lives : up to 1640 the Irish had days and even years 
 of comparative safety, during which they could collect and 
 communicate information, and several writers collected and 
 published accounts of the lives and deaths of those who 
 suffered for the faith ; but so universal was the desolation, so 
 almost entire the extinction of the Irish Catholics, in the 
 Cromwellian persecution, that no such collections could be 
 made, and hence we have only scattered notices of a com- 
 paratively few cases, and no such collected accounts as Dr. 
 Pothers De Processu Martyriali,^^ published in 1619, and 
 similar works. The few records that remain have almost 
 all been collected by Dr. Moran in his work, and to him I 
 am indebted for a great part of the following pages. 
 
 TWENTY CAPUCHIN FATHERS 
 
 Before the close of 1641 a proclamation was published 
 interdicting the exercise of the Catholic religion ; a rigor- 
 ous search was made to discover the priests and religious, 
 and no fewer than forty of them being arrested, they were for 
 some time treated with great rigour in prison, and then 
 transported to the Continent. An extract from a letter ad- 
 dressed to his superior in Rome, on the 12th July, 1642, by 
 a Capuchin father who was sent into exile, will convey some 
 idea of the storm thus let loose against the Catholics. 
 
 Whithersoever the enemy penetrates, everything is de^ 
 stroyed by fire and sword ; none are spared, not even the 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 197 
 
 infant at its mother’s breast, for their desire is to wholly 
 extirpate the Irish race. In Dublin our order, as also the 
 other religious bodies, had a residence, and a beautifully orna- 
 mented chapel, in which we publicly, and in our habit, per- 
 formed the sacred ceremonies ; but no sooner had the soldiers 
 arrived from England than they furiously rushed everywhere, 
 profaned our chapels, overturned our altars, broke to pieces 
 the sacred images, trampling them underfoot and destroying 
 them by fire; our residences were plundered, the priests 
 were everywhere sought for, and many, amongst whom my- 
 self and companion, were captured and cast into prison, 
 
 “ We were twenty in number, and the Lords Justices at 
 first resolved on our execution, but through the influence of 
 some members of the Council we were transported to Prance. 
 The masters of the two vessels into which we were cast, re- 
 ceived private instructions to throw us into the sea, but they 
 refused to commit this horrid crime. Oh ! would to God that 
 we had been worthy to be led to the scafi*old, or thus drowned 
 for the faith ! ” — Morariy Persec., p. 11, and letter of Father 
 Nicholas, superior of the Capuchins of Dublin, from Poitiers, 
 \2th July, 1642, quoted by him. 
 
 Rev. peter HIGGINS, O.P.P., 
 
 “an alumnus of the Dublin convent, at the commencement 
 of the war was taken prisoner by the heretics, and although 
 not accused of any crime, but, on the contrary, many of the 
 heretics proclaimed his innocence, yet was he condemned to 
 death, and having thrice confessed to his prior and received 
 absolution from him, — for he made his way into the prison in 
 disguise, — publicly professing his innocence and his firm 
 adherence to the Catholic faith and our holy order, he was 
 hung in the public place of Dublin, on the 23rd of March, 
 1641. His constancy under torment, and the joy expressed 
 in his countenance, moved many of the heretics to tears; but 
 on the other rather excited the fury of others who vented 
 
198 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 their rage on his body by all sorts of insults ; and refusing to 
 allow it to be buried in the city ; and as it was carried out 
 of the gate^ one broke the skull with a bullet from a gun, and 
 inflicted divers other like injuries. — Hib. Dom.j p. 561, ex 
 Actis CapituU Generalis Romce, 1644. 
 
 Very- Rev. PETER O’HIGGINS, O.P.P. 
 
 This same year the Rev. Father Peter O’Higgins, Prior 
 of Naas, obtained the palm of constancy in Dublin. (Hib. 
 Dom.) This pious and eloquent man was arrested and 
 brought before the Lords Justices (Parsons and Borlase), 
 charged with dogmatizing, or, in other words, seducing the 
 Protestants from their religion. Now, when they failed to 
 sustain any capital charge against him, they sent to inform 
 him that if he abandoned his faith he might expect many 
 and great privileges, but all depended on his embracing the 
 English faith. That they were resolved to sacrifice him he 
 knew right well ; so that on the very morning of his execu- 
 tion the messenger came to his prison with the terms pro- 
 posed by the justices. O’Higgins, in reply, said, 'Alas ! I 
 am not so weary of life as to wish for speedy dissolution ; but 
 if your masters are so anxious to preserve me, return and ask 
 them to forward in their oivn handwriting an instrument 
 leaving life and death to my own option ; so that if I shall 
 have renounced the Roman Catholic religion in presence 
 of the gibbet, the terrible circumstance in which I have been 
 placed may extenuate the guilt attaching to what is deemed 
 apostasy.^ The Justices, thinking he was shaken in his 
 mind, ordered the conditional pardon to be handed to him 
 on the first step of the ladder, and it was so handed to him 
 by the executioner. He bowed courteously on receiving it, 
 and loud was the exultation oi ihe heretic mob, who thought 
 they were about to catch ' a convert.’ Now, when he stood 
 exposed to the view of God and man, he exhibited to all 
 around the instrument which he held, and, commenting on it 
 with Warmth, convicted his impious judges of their own 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 199 
 
 avowed iniquity. Knowing well that there were Catholics in 
 the crowd, he addressed them in such words as these — 
 ‘^^Dear brethren, children of the -Holy Koman Church, 
 since the day I fell into the cruel hands of the heretics who 
 stand around me, I have endured much hunger, great insults, 
 dark and foetid dungeons ; and the doubt as to what was the 
 cause seemed to me to render the palm of martyrdom doubt- 
 ful ; for it is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr. 
 But the omnipotent God, the protector of my innocence, 
 and who ordereth all things sweetly, has so arranged that 
 although I have been accused as a seducer and a criminal 
 by the laws of the land, yet to-day in me it is the Catholic 
 religion only that is condemned to death. Behold here an 
 undoubted witness of my innocence — a pardon signed by the 
 King^s representatives, offering me, not only life, but large 
 gifts, if even now I renounce the Catholic religion. But I 
 call God and men to witness how freely I reject this — how 
 gladly I now embrace my doom in and for the profession of 
 that faith.^ Having thus spoken and thrown the pardon to 
 a friend in the crowd, he desired the executioner to do his 
 office. When his body was hanging, and the executioner 
 pulled at it several times, yet, heaving a loud sigh, he uttered 
 ^ Deo gratias,^ and so, having disappointed the expectation of 
 the heretics, he went to his God.’^ — Dom. a Ros,, Father 
 Meehan^ s translation^ p. 199.* 
 
 Borlase, the Protestant historian, gives the following account of 
 his arrest : — “ In this expedition to the county of Kildare the soldiers 
 found a priest, one Mr. Higgins, at Naas, who might, if he pleased, 
 have easily fled if he apprehended any danger in the stay. When he 
 was brought before the Earl of Ormond he voluntarily confessed that 
 he was a Papist, and that his residence was in the town, from whence he 
 refused to fly away with those that were guilty because he not only 
 knew himself very innocent, but believed that he could not be without 
 ample testimony of it, having, by his sole charity and power, pre- 
 served many of the English from the rage and fury of the Irish ; and, 
 therefore, he only besought his lordship to preserve him from the fury 
 and violence of the soldiers, and put him securely into Dublin, though 
 with so much hazard that when it was spread abroad among the 
 
 Guilty, that is, of the rising of 1641. 
 
200 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 For an account of the wholesale massacres of Irish, and 
 even English and Scotch Catholics in Ireland, on account of 
 
 soldiers that he was a Papist the officer in whose custody he was 
 intrusted was assaulted by them, and it was as much as the earl could 
 do to compose the meeting. When his lordship came to Dublin he 
 informed the lords justices of the prisoner he had brought with him, 
 and of the good testimony he had received of his peaceable carriage, 
 and of the pains he had taken to restrain those with whom he had 
 credit from entering into rebellion, and of many charitable offices he 
 had performed, of all which there wanted not evidence enough, there 
 being many then in Dublin who owed their lives, and whatever of their 
 fortunes was left, purely to him. Within a few days after, when the 
 earl did not suspect the poor man being in danger, he heard that Sir 
 Charles Coote, who was provost-marshal-general, had taken him out of 
 prison, and caused him to be put to death in the morning before, or as 
 soon as it was light ; of which barbarity the earl complained to the 
 lords justices, but was so far from bringing the other to be questioned 
 that he found himself upon some disadvantage for thinking the pro- 
 ceeding to be other than it ought to have been.” — Borlase, ap. Curry, 
 
 p. 211. 
 
 “ That this Father Peter O’Higgins is another person from the 
 Father Peter Higgins mentioned before is quite clear. First, because 
 his martyrdom is mentioned in the acts of the general chapter of 1656, 
 under the title ‘ Appendix of some remarkable men of this province 
 (Ireland), whose memory was omitted to be recorded in the acts of 
 former chapters ; ’ but the memory of the former was not forgotten to 
 be recorded in the acts of former chapters, but is recorded in the acts 
 of the preceding chapter, that of 1644. Also because the latter is called 
 in the acts of the chapter of 1656 Prior of Haas, and is therefore called 
 reverend father ; the former is called in the acts of 1644 simply father, 
 for he was not prior (nor in office), and is said to have confessed to his 
 prior, and indeed all the details are different. Hor is the identity both 
 of name and surname, and the place of their suffering, any objection. 
 For only to cite, for brevity’s sake, a few instances. I knew at Borne, 
 in the convent of S. Sixtus, two of our fathers whose names were 
 Michael MacDonogh, one professor of theology, and raised at that very 
 time to the bishopric of Kilmore, the other a student of theology. 
 Lately there were two Thomas de Burgos, both alumni of the con- 
 vent of Athenry, both of whom were presented for their degree in theo- 
 l^gJj aiid one of whom lately perished in the earthquake at Lisbon, not 
 to speak of the third Thomas de Eurgo who writes this. At this 
 moment there are in this metropolis of Dublin four priests of the name 
 of Peter Talbot, two secular and two regular, of the order of Hermits of 
 S. Augustine. It is also to be remarked that the latter Peter is called 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 201 
 
 their religion_, I must refer my readers to Curry^s Civil 
 Wars/^ Appendix, p. 623, where he gives an abridgment 
 of the Collection of some of the Massacres and Murders 
 committed on the Irish in Ireland since the 23rd October, 
 164d/^ Printed at London, 1662. 
 
 Anno 1642. 
 
 Rev. Father HENRY CAGHWELL, S.J., and Others. 
 
 The reader has seen under date of the preceding year an 
 account of the sufferings of the Capuchin fathers in Dublin ; 
 very similar was the fate of the Jesuits in the same place. 
 A narrative preserved in the Irish College, Rome, and given 
 by Dr. Moran, thus briefly narrates them : — We were per- 
 secuted and dispersed, and despoiled of all our goods ; some 
 too, were cast into prison, and others were sent into exile. 
 Amongst the fathers of the society was Father Henry Cagh- 
 well, renowned for his zeal and learning. Being confined to 
 his bed by sickness, he was apprehended by the soldiers, and 
 hurried to the public square. As he was unable to walk, or 
 even to stand, he was placed on a chair, more for mockery 
 than ease, and subjected to the cruel insults of the soldiery; 
 lie was then beaten with cudgels and thrown into the ship- 
 with the others for France . — Missio Soc. Jesu usque ad an. 
 1655, in Archiv. Colleg. Hib.j Romce, ap. Moran. 
 
 A manuscript in the Burgundian Library at Brussels 
 fixes the date of this event in 1642. It says, “To omit 
 many others, his master (Slingsby^s), Father Henry Caghwell, 
 under whom he learned a part of his philosophy, in the course 
 of last year (1642), gave to the citizens of Dublin a noble 
 
 O’Higgins ; the first, Higgins, without the letter O ; because in Dublin, 
 an almost English city, many Irish names lose the prefix O, or Mac, 
 which is commonly added in the country.” — Hih. Dom., p. 562. 
 
 I have given the whole of this note because my readers will con- 
 stantly meet with this identity of names, and, as little is known of 
 many martyrs save the date of their death, might think that some 
 were identical. 
 
202 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 example of patience for the faith, for, being dragged from 
 the house where he lay a paralytic, he was scourged in the 
 public square, and left lying there in the sight of his friends, 
 who dearly loved him, but did not dare to raise him up; 
 then he was cast into prison, and at length thrown with 
 twenty other priests into a ship, which landed him just alive 
 in France/^ — ■ MS. No. 3,824, Correspondance des Peres 
 Jesuites Irlandais. 
 
 We learn from Oliver that he was landed at Rochelle, 
 where the Rector of the Jesuits’ College paid him every chari- 
 table attention, and by great care and the best medical advice 
 gradually succeeded in restoring him to a state of convales- 
 cence. As soon as he could, the reverend father hastened 
 back to the scene of his former labours, but within a few 
 days after his return, early in 1643, fell a victim to his zeal 
 and charity. F. G. Dillon says, in a letter of 3 Aug. 1643, 
 that he had encountered a storm on his passage back which 
 lasted twenty- one days. Sic verus Christi confessor obiit . — 
 Oliver. 
 
 Rev. Father FERGAL WARD, O.S.F., and CORNELIUS 
 
 O’BRIEN. 
 
 “ Father Fergal Ward was a native of Ulster, and a mem- 
 ber of the Order of the Striet Observance of S. Francis. He 
 was renowned for his eloquence, and for his zeal in the 
 exercise of the sacred ministry. In 1642 he was seized on 
 by a cruel and barbarous pirate, a Scotchman, named Forbes, 
 who kept six vessels in the service of the Puritans, and chiefly 
 infested the banks of the Shannon. In the third month 
 after his arrest he was hanged from the mast-head, in odium 
 fideij in the very centre of the Shannon, where the pirate 
 then lay in wait for some prey, about the end of October, 
 1642.” — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 14. 
 
 This is quite a different Father Ward from the one slain 
 in Armagh in 1577, the only similarity being that of the 
 name, and that they were both Ulster men. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 203 
 
 Cornelius O^Brien_, the Lord of Carrigh, in the county 
 Kerry, a man of great hope to his family and his country, 
 was arrested by the piratical band of the same Forbes, in 
 the castle of Glanens, which was situated on the banks of 
 the Shannon, and was the property of John Geraldine. 
 Being conducted to their vessels, threats and promises were 
 alike employed in vain to induce him to abandon the Catholic 
 faith. He was therefore led out to execution, and on the 
 same day with Father Ward, and by a similar death, attained 
 the martyr^s crown. Both were hanged at the same time, 
 one at each extremity of the yard, and subsequently, at full 
 tide, the ropes being cut, their bodies were cast into the 
 river.^^ — Ibid. 
 
 Rev. Father JAMES LATIN, S.J. 
 
 Dr. Oliver says, — 
 
 All that I can gather concerning this zealous father is 
 from two letters, one dated Waterford, 10 October, 1642; 
 the other from Galway, 3 Aug. 1643. The first informs me 
 that though many priests and religious had been seized and 
 executed by the Puritans, yet Father James Latin and two 
 of his brethren braved every danger, and w^ere indefatigable 
 in assisting and consoling the Catholics groaning under 
 Puritanical despotism. In the postscript the writer says 
 he had just received intelligence of Father Latinos apprehen- 
 sion and commitment to gaol. The second letter states that 
 he was still a prisoner, and that he had been apprehended 
 in the street in the act of proceeding to administer the sacra- 
 ments to the sick.^^ 
 
 As there is no notice of his having ever reached France, 
 it is easy to conjecture his fate. 
 
 Rev. EDMUND HORE and JOHN CLANCY. 
 
 In the Barberini archives in Rome is preserved a letter, 
 written on the 9th March, 1642, by the venerable Bishop of 
 Waterford, to an Irish gentleman resident in Paris. In it he 
 says,— 
 
20 4 < 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 “Last week the President of Ulster,, having received 
 reinforcements, once more took the field, together with the 
 Earl of Cork, the Earl of Barrymore, Lord Broghill, and 
 Sir John Browne. Marching to Dungarvan, and seizing on 
 the castle, they set fire to the town, and put to death Father 
 Edmund Hore, and Father John Claney, both priests, 
 together with others of the principal citizens ; they then 
 sacked the place, and retired, leaving a strong garrison in 
 the castle.^^ — MS. ap. Moran, Persecut., p. 55. 
 
 Eev. FRANCIS O’MAHONY, O.S.F. 
 
 “ Francis O’Mahony, or Matthews, was a native of Cork, 
 and a shining light in the Order of S. Francis. Having 
 completed his studies in Spain and Belgium, he returned to 
 his country in the* reign of King James, and did much for 
 the glory of God and the increase of the Franciscan order. 
 In more advanced age he was provincial minister of Ireland, 
 and twice general visitor, and finally guardian of the college 
 of S. Antony at Louvain, of which he was an alumnus. 
 In the year 1642 he was guardian of the convent of Cork, 
 and was taken prisoner by the heretical governor of the city, 
 and thrown into prison. A few days afterwards he was 
 brought up for examination, when he confessed he was a 
 Franciscan, but denied that he had sought, as was alleged, to 
 betray the city to the Catholics. His constancy in the faith 
 was tried by many torments, especially the following : — the 
 executioners wrapped the old priest’s ten fingers in tow and 
 pitch, and then tied them together with candles of pitch, and 
 then set fire to them, so that all his ten fingers burnt 
 together. (I was at this time in the eountry.) Whilst his 
 fingers were thus burning, Father Francis exhorted the 
 Catholies who stood around to constancy in the faith, and the 
 heretics to be converted. A certain preacher, wondering at 
 the patience of the blessed martyr, asked him whether he 
 felt pain. ' Touch my fingers with one of yours,^ answered 
 Father Francis, ^ and you may judge.^ When all his fingers 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 205 
 
 were burnt down to the last joints he was ordered to be 
 executed. The man of God gave thanks to God, and went 
 to the place of execution as to a feast ; and, having exhorted 
 the people, joyfully mounted the ladder, and, fitting the rope 
 round his neck, having made all necessary dispositions for 
 dying well, he desired the executioner to do his office. He 
 was then pushed off the ladder, and so hung from eleven in 
 the forenoon until five in the afternoon. 
 
 Father Francis had in the city, besides one sister, two 
 nephews and four grand-nephews, and as many friends as 
 there were Catholics. Some of them, who were men of in- 
 fluence, went to the governor and asked that they might take 
 down the body of the father, and bury it after the manner 
 of the Catholics. The governor granted their request, and 
 they carried the body to the house of his sister, and, 
 having there laid it on a table, dressed in his habit, and 
 placed lighted candles round it, devoutly venerated the 
 deceased martyr of Christ. 
 
 “About the second hour of the night, whilst the Catholics 
 who crowded the house were devoutly praying, Father Francis 
 began to move, and, looking on his sister and the persons 
 who stood around, desired them not to be afraid, but to lift 
 him off the table. His friends soon crowded around him, 
 and, removing the candles, perceived that Father Francis was 
 really alive and well, and began to congratulate themselves 
 and him that he had escaped the executioner. ‘ Not so, my 
 dear friends,^ said Father Francis, my soul, which had left 
 my body, returns by the will of God, who desires the salva- 
 tion of all in error; call therefore to me the governor of the 
 city, that once more I may preach to him the words of 
 salvation.-’ All the Catholics who were present besought 
 him with tears to abstain from useless preaching, and, as the 
 heretics held him for dead, to hide himself in some safe place 
 for their spiritual good. ^ It is the will of God,’ he an- 
 swered, ^ which Christians must not oppose, that I should 
 announce the words of life to the heretics; call therefore the 
 governor and the leaders of the soldiers, or I will myself go 
 to them.’ 
 
206 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 The Catholics, compelled by his commands, sent to the 
 governor to inform him that Father Matthews was alive 
 and well. Astonished at the news, the governor hastened 
 with his principal officers and a strong guard of soldiers to 
 the house where Father Francis lay. The moment the father 
 saw the Puritans — who were rebels alike to their God and 
 their King — he rose to his feet, and with his usual zeal, 
 told how their merciful God desired their salvation, and 
 earnestly besought them to abandon heresy and return to the 
 bosom of their mother the Church. The governor, hardened 
 in evil, the more raged at this exhortation, and ordered the 
 Papist — who, as he said, must have preserved his life by 
 magic — to be immediately hung with his own girdle. Some 
 of the soldiers immediately turned executioners, for even the 
 Puritan officers, not to speak of the soldiers, considered it 
 no disgrace to hang a Papist with their own hands, especially 
 if he were a priest. They immediately fastened his Francis- 
 can girdle round his neck and tied him up to the beam which 
 supported the ceiling of the room, and, having broken his 
 neck, left him hanging there all night under a guard of 
 Puritan soldiers. 
 
 There are still living a hundred men who were then at 
 Cork, and are witnesses of what I write. The name of the 
 governor has escaped me, or I would record it for his lasting 
 ignominy. On the next day the body of the deceased was 
 reverently taken down by the Catholicsandburied in the church 
 of the Friars Minors, anno 1642.^^* — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 * Bruodin evidently considered the revival of Father Francis mira- 
 culous, but it was not necessarily so. Many extraordinary cases of 
 suspended animation from hanging, when, as in those times, from the 
 execution not being carried out with a violent fall, the neck was not 
 broken, are recorded. Amongst the papers left by a distinguished 
 surgeon who lived in Dublin at the close of the last century was an , ac- 
 count of the case of a young man who, in 1798, was hanged for several 
 hours, and whose apparently lifeless body was brought by his friends, 
 after dark, to the surgeon’s house. The latter succeeded in restoring 
 animation : the young man remained concealed in the surgeon’s house 
 for some days, and lived long afterwards. An illustration of another 
 part of Bruodin’s account may be drawn from the same period of 1798. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 207 
 
 Rev. Father RAYMUND KEOGHY, Brother RAY- 
 
 MUND KEOGH, Reverend Father STEPHEN 
 
 PETTIT, and Brother CORMAC EGAN, O.P.P. 
 
 ^‘In the following year (1642) Father Raymund Keoghy, 
 of the convent of Roscommon, was seized by the heretics, 
 and, being slain for the faith, found in death eternal life.^^ — 
 Capit. Gen. RomcSy 1656. 
 
 "In the year 1642 Father Stephen Pettit, sub-prior of the 
 convent of Mullingar, whilst hearing the confession of a 
 soldier in a fight near Ballynacurry, was recognized to be a 
 priest by a neighbouring advanced post of heretical soldiers, 
 who aimed at him, and, being hit by a bullet, he received the 
 sacraments of the Church, and died the next day.^^ — Cap. 
 Gen. RomcBj 1644, and Bom. a Rosario, p. 360 (216). 
 
 " Brother Raymund Keogh was slain by the heretics in 
 hatred of the ~~^Capit. Gen. Romce, 1644. 
 
 " Brother Cormac Egan was hung by the heretics about 
 the year 1642. — Ap. Gen. Romce, 1644. 
 
 All these are from " Hibernica Dominicana,’^ p. 562, where 
 De Burgo gives reasons to show the two Keoghs are different, 
 one being a priest, the other a simple monk. 
 
 Mrs. ALISON READ. 
 
 " The soldiery, rushing into the defenceless town of Dun- 
 shaughlin, seized on fifty old men, women, and little boys, 
 and mercilessly slew them with their swords and spears. 
 Mrs. Read, then in her eightieth year, encouraged these 
 sufferers to endure every torment with constancy for the 
 
 A well-known major of yeomanry, of very tall stature, was known by 
 the sobriquet of the walking gallows, because rebels had been hung 
 over his shoulder. The more ordinary mode was to tie the condemned 
 to the end of the shaft of a cart and then tilt the cart, so lifting him up 
 from the ground. In this mode of execution the neck was not broken, 
 and so life might linger a long time. 
 
208 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 faith. Fired with rage at her exhortations^ the Puritan 
 soldiers^ after inflicting many wounds, set her up as a target 
 for their guns ; and thus she happily expired. The son of 
 this venerable martyr has preserved to us her memory, and 
 in his commentary on the Book of Maccabees mentions her 
 heroic death to illustrate the fortitude and holy sentiments 
 of the mother of the seven Maccabees, the true model of 
 female heroism.^^ — Moran, Persecut., p. 198. 
 
 Anno 1643. 
 
 Rev. CORNELIUS OTONOR and EUGENE DALY, 
 Trinitarians. 
 
 These two fathers studied in Spain, and were sent into 
 Ireland by their superiors. They made their way there in 
 an English vessel, and spent there some time ; and Lopez 
 mentions that Father Cornelius had some disputes with 
 heretics about recovering the convent of Adare.* They 
 returned to Spain to make arrangements for a college of 
 their order in Seville or elsewhere, and, having arranged for 
 the reception of Irish youths in the convents and colleges 
 of Aragon, Castille, and Andalusia, embarked for Ireland, 
 but their ship fell into the hands of a cruel heretical pirate 
 
 * It is curious, as illustrating the way in which the Catholics from 
 time to time restored, at least partially, the possession of the convents 
 to the religious, that although the Trinitarian convent of Adare was 
 suppressed in the reign of Henry YIII., in a survey of the manor of 
 Adare, dated 6th November, 1559 (2nd Elizabeth), it is said, — “ There 
 standeth an abbey of Friars of the Trinity, which hath a crosse of redd 
 and blewe upon their brests, of the foundation of the earl’s ancestors, 
 as the minister {i.e. the father minister) did shew, which hath, &c. — 
 And the said minister hath in Adare a small acre, with certen gardens.” 
 &c. N.B. — The lands here enumerated as belonging to the abbey and 
 minister are only a small part of the original possessions of the abbey. 
 In 1566 Elizabeth demised the Trinitarian Abbey to Sir Warham St. 
 Leger, yet, about 1640, “ Father Cornelius had a lawsuit with some 
 heretics about the recovery of the convent of Adare,” as is stated in 
 the letter of Father Burgatt, in Lopez . — Manor of Adare, by 
 Lord Dunraven, 1866. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 209 
 
 named John Plunket, by whom they were thrown into the 
 sea^ either in 1643 or 1644. — (LopeZj p. 62_, who gives as his 
 authority an original letter of Father Christopher Burgat, 
 of the convent of Kilmallock, written in Spain in 1648, 
 and some other contemporary authorities.) 
 
 Anno 1644.* 
 
 Rev. CHRISTOPHER ULTAN (or DONLEVINS), O.S.F, 
 
 This father of the Order of S. Francis, after completing 
 his studies in Spain, for many years preached with great 
 fervour the sacred truths of the Gospel in the province of 
 Ulster. He was concealed with Father Ward (see Anno 
 1642) at the time of his arrest, and shared his captivit3^ 
 The Puritan pirate Forbes, anxious to supply a bloody feast 
 to the London mob, sent Father Ultan prisoner to England. 
 For three years he was detained a captive in Newgate 
 (London), and there subjected to many cruelties. His con- 
 stitution }4elded to the severity of the prison, and he expired, 
 before being led to the scaffold, in the year 1644. — Bruodin, 
 lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 Rev. Father FRANCIS MATTHEWS, O.S.F. 
 
 Francis Matthews, of Cork, a theologian, and learned in 
 canon law, guardian of the (Franciscan) College of Louvain, 
 and father minister of the Irish province, who had composed 
 several works, and suffered much labour in the persecution, 
 was cruelly slain, with many torments, by the heretical 
 Puritans, in the year 1644.’^ — Wadding ^ Scriptores, p. 123. 
 
 * Fontana, Mon. Dom., mentions that in this year “in the general 
 chapter of the Dominican order held at Rome, the Irish provincial. 
 Father Terence Albert O’Brien (afterwards the martyred Bishop of 
 Emly) stated that there were in the Irish province about six hundred 
 brethren of the order, of whom the greater part perished in the Crom- 
 wellian persecution, either by the sword or by deportation to Barbadoes, 
 or exile ; so that in the following chapter, held in 1656, not one quarter 
 survived, many having been slain in their own convents, many en- 
 during a lengthened death in the new hemisphere, and all these, being 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1645. 
 
 Rev. Fathers PETER COSTELLO and GERALD 
 DILLON, O.P.P. 
 
 In this year (1645) Dominican blood still flowed freely, 
 for our fathers strenuously upheld the Catholic faith in 
 Ireland, preaching the authority of the holy Roman See, and 
 publicly wearing the habit of the order, and suffered many 
 torments and death at the hands of the sectaries. One of 
 them was the Rev. Father Peter Costello', who, whilst 
 denouncing the usurped authority of head of the Church 
 assumed by the English King, pierced with a sword, expired 
 on the spot, and his soul by martyrdom ascended to heaven. 
 
 He was followed to glory by Father Gerald Dillon, who 
 had devoted himself to bringing heretics to the knowledge 
 of their true mother, the Roman Church. Being taken 
 prisoner, he was thrown into a wretched dungeon ; and 
 there, worn out with the squalor of the prison and various 
 sufferings, he breathed out his soul to God.^’ — Mon. Dom.j 
 sub anno. Hib. Dom. says they were both from the convent 
 of Orlar, in county Mayo, but says they suffered about the 
 year 1648. I have preferred the authority of Fontana, who 
 refers to the acts of the general chapter held in Rome 
 in 1656. 
 
 Most Rev. Archbishop MALACHY O’QUEELY 
 AND THADDiEUS O^CONNEL. 
 
 Malachy QuiELY or Keely was a native of the diocese of 
 Killaloe, and made his collegiate studies with signal success 
 in the University of Paris. He returned to his native 
 diocese, where he proved a zealous missionary ; he governed 
 the see of Killaloe as vicar-apostolic, and was consecrated 
 Archbishop of Tuam in a private chapel at Galway, by 
 Dr. Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel. All con- 
 
 approved by the testimony of faith, were found in our Lord Jesus 
 Christ.” 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 211 
 
 temporary writers extol his virtues. He was the father, 
 protector, and advocate of the poor. He was one of the 
 first members of the Supreme Council of Kilkenny. He 
 accompanied the Connaught army when it achieved many 
 brilliant victories in 1645 ; but after the coming of Sir 
 Charles Coote from the north, with reinforcements of Scotch, 
 the Irish were defeated ; their horse fied from a party of 
 the enemy on the 25th October, 1645, and Doctor Queely 
 was left on the road mortally wounded, at a place called 
 Clare, near Sligo. The Puritans first cut off his right arm, 
 and then cruelly mangled his body, cutting it into small 
 pieces.-’^ — Renelian, Collect. ^ p. 402 ; and MoraUy Pei'secut., 
 p. 206, from Bruodin. Hardimard s Galway, and Archives 
 of St. Isidore, Rome. 
 
 “Father Thaddseus O^Connel, of the Canons of S. Augus- 
 tine, was for six years the companion of Dr. O^Queely. Taken 
 with the archbishop, he was carried off to execution. He 
 besought the archbishop to give him absolution, and as the 
 archbishop raised his right hand to do so, the soldiers cut it 
 off, and at the same moment struck down Father O’Connel.^^ 
 — Bruodin. 
 
 Rev. henry WHITE. 
 
 “ He was a Leinster priest, a most zealous and pious pastor, 
 and was in the eightieth year of his age when he was taken 
 prisoner by the garrison of Dublin, whilst hearing confes- 
 sions in the village of Ballynacargy ; and, out of hatred to 
 his faith and saeerdotal character, without respect for liis 
 innocence or old age, was hung, by order of Sir Charles 
 Coote, Governor of Dublin, in the town of Rathconnell, in 
 the year 1645.’’* — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 * I have put the death of Father White at 1645, as that is the date 
 given by Bruodin ; but the true date is, I think, 1641, or early in 1642, 
 when Sir Charles Coote was ravaging the country-. He, Coote, was killed 
 at Trim on the 7th May in the latter year, and Bruodin puts the death 
 Father Peter Higgins, who was certainly put to death by Coote in 1641, 
 at 1645, as v’ell as that of Father White. Ballynacargy and Rathcou- 
 nell arc two villages in the county Westmeath. 
 
 V 
 
212 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1646. 
 
 Rev. Rather DOMINICK NEAGREN, O.P.P. 
 
 As Father* Dominick A. Neagren (or Neagkten) of the 
 convent of Roscommon, a most religious man, and strict 
 observer of the rule, continued to wear his habit during the 
 bitter persecution, and exhorted the faithful to publicly 
 recite the rosary of the Blessed Virgin, he was more than 
 once flogged and wounded almost unto death. Yet did he 
 persevere in his holy work, and by the order of a chief of 
 the soldiers he was slain by the sword. A true Israelite, in 
 whom there was no guile.^^ — Mon. Dom.j ex Actis Cap. Gen. 
 1650. Hib. Dom. puts him about 1648.^^ 
 
 Rev. Father JOHN OLUIN (or O’LAIGHIN), O.P.P. 
 
 ^^Rev. Father John Oluin, Prior of Derry, who was 
 sedulous in administering the sacraments to the Catholics 
 in Ireland, and confirming them in their fidelity to the 
 holy Roman Church, was taken prisoner by the heretics and 
 put in chains. After daily sufferings in prison, rejecting 
 great offers from the heretics if he would abandon the Roman 
 faith, he preferred death to dishonour. His fellow-captives 
 narrated that they saw him in prayer raised up off the 
 ground. Finally, being hung and then beheaded, he gave 
 up his happy soul to his Creator.^^ — Mon. Dom., ex Actis 
 Cap. Gen. 1650. Hib. Dom. after O^Heyn, puts his death 
 about 1657 ; but this is impossible, as Fontana refers to the 
 general chapter of 1650. 
 
 Anno 1647. 
 
 Rev. father RICHARD BARRY, O.P.P. ; WILLIAM 
 -BOYTON, S.J.; THEOBALD STAPLETON, and 
 Many Others. 
 
 In 1647 the Earl of Inchiquin, having administered the 
 Covenant to his apostate followers, led them on to the assault 
 
 “Couversus,” a monk, but not a priest. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 213 
 
 of Cashel. Along his march he everywhere burned the 
 crops and massacred the peasantry, and to the present day 
 his name is familiar in the household traditions of our 
 country as Murrough of the Burning.^^ * 
 
 Cashel became not only a prey to the enemy, but a very 
 slaughter-house. The city being but badly fortified, it 
 accepted the offer of conditions from Inchiquin, and opened 
 its gates. The garrison, about 300 in number, together 
 with the priests and religious, as also very many of the 
 citizens, retired to the cathedral church, which holds a strong 
 position, and is styled the Bock of S. Patrick. The enemy 
 having taken possession of the city, and in part destroyed it 
 by fire, assailed the cathedral with all their forces, but were 
 heroically repulsed by our troops. After a long combat, the 
 general of the enemy suspended the fight, and, demanding a 
 surrender, offered permission to the garrison to depart with 
 their arms and ammunition, and all the honours of war, 
 requiring, however, that the citizens and clergy should be 
 abandoned to his mercy. It was then that the true heroism 
 of the Catholic soldiers was seen. They refused to listen to 
 any conditions unless the citizens and clergy, whom they had 
 undertaken to defend, should be sharers in them ; and they 
 added that they chose rather to consecrate their lives to God 
 on that Bock of S. Patrick than to allow that sanctuary to 
 be profaned by dogs. The assault was then renewed with 
 extreme ferocity ; the enemy, being 7,000 in number, 
 assailed the church on every side, entering by the windows 
 and the shattered doors. Nevertheless, for some time the 
 struggle was bravely maintained within the church, till our 
 few troops were rather overwhelmed by the multitude of the 
 enemy than vanquished by them. 
 
 ‘‘ When all resistance ceased, then was the cruelty of the 
 heretics displayed against the priests and religious, one of 
 whom was one of our society, by name P. William Boyton. 
 Many old men of eighty years of age, aged females, some of 
 them in their hundredth year, besides innumerable other 
 
 * His name was Morrougli O’Brien. 
 
MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 214 
 
 citizens who had grown old, not only in years but in piety, 
 and' whose only arms were their prayers, prostrate around 
 the steps of the altar, now empurpled them with their blood ; 
 whilst the infirm, who had been borne to the ehurch as to a 
 plaee of sacred refuge, and the innocent children, w^ere 
 slain on the very altar. Within the cathedral nine hundred 
 and twelve was the number of the slain, of whom more than 
 five hundred were of the heretical troops, and about four 
 hundred of the Catholics. Everywhere dead bodies were to 
 be seen, which for some days remained uninterred. The altars 
 and chapels, the sacristy and seats, were covered with them, 
 and in no place could the foot rest on anything, save on the 
 corpses of the slain. — MS. Relatio Rerum quarumdam, ^c., 
 written by the Irish Superior of the Jesuits, ap. Moran, 
 Per sec., p. 27. 
 
 One of the priests who had taken refuge in the cathedral. 
 Father Theobald Stapleton, was remarkable for his piety : 
 clothed with surplice and stole, and holding a crucifix in his 
 left hand, he sprinkled with holy water the enemy^s troops 
 as they rushed into the sacred edifice. The heretics, mad 
 with rage, strove with each other who should pierce him 
 with their swords, and thus he was hewn to pieces. At each 
 wound the holy man exclaimed, Strike this miserable 
 sinner ! till he yielded his soul into the hands of his 
 Creator. 
 
 Of Father Boy ton, the Jesuit, we read : — 
 
 As the enemy forced their way in, he exhorted all, with 
 great fervour, to endure death with constancy for the Catholic 
 religion, and was wholly occupied in administering to them 
 the sacrament of penance. The enemy, finding him at this 
 work, slew the father with his children. But God revenged 
 the^ unworthy death of His servants, and by a manifest sign 
 showed the cruelty of this massacre. A garrison of heretical 
 soldiers was stationed on the rock ; on a certain night an 
 old man of venerable aspect appeared to its commander, and, 
 taking him by the hand, led him forcibly to the top of the 
 church tower, and then asked him how he madly dared so 
 impiously to profane that holy place. And as he trembled. 
 
IN TliE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 215 
 
 and did not answer, he flung him down into the cemetery 
 below, where he lay half dead, and with many bones broken, 
 until the following day, when, having fully declared the divine 
 vengeance which had overtaken him, he expired/^ — Tanner , 
 Soc. Jesu. 
 
 Dominick a Rosario gives the following account of the 
 death of Father Richard Barry, the Dominican : — * 
 
 The colonel who led the assault, struck with his appear- 
 ance (for he was a grave and noble-looking man, and held a 
 sword in his hand), said to him, ‘ I see you are a brave man, 
 and I promise you safety if you will cast ofP that dress, which 
 we hate (he was in the habit of his order) ; for the terms of 
 this war allow of no mercy to those colours, which excite not 
 our favour, but our rage/f The father answered, ^My dress 
 is the emblem of Christ and His passion, and the banner of 
 my warfare. I have borne it from my youth, and will not 
 put it off in death. Let my safety or doom be that of the 
 emblem of my spiritual warfare.^ The colonel answered, 
 ^Be more careful of yourself. If you fear not to die, you 
 shall soon have your way ; but if you desire to live, cast away 
 that traitoFs dress; if you look for the foolish vanity of 
 martyrdom, we will take care that you shall well earn it.^ 
 ' Since so excellent an occasion is offered me,^ answered the 
 father, ^to suffer is my joy, and to die my gain.^ Provoked 
 at this answer, the colonel gave the father over to the 
 soldiers, who struck him and spat on him ; then, tying him 
 on a chair,{ they applied a slow fire from the soles of his 
 feet to his thighs for about two hours, until, whilst he looked 
 up to heaven and the blood bubbled from his pores, the 
 officer ordered his death to be hastened by driving a sword 
 through him. The soldiers remained there three days 
 plundering, for they did not think the place strong enough 
 
 * He was a native of Cork, and Prior of Cashel, and had desired all 
 his brethren to seek their safety by flight, but himself refused to leave 
 his flock. 
 
 t It must be observed that putting off the religious habit was often 
 looked upon as a sort of tacit apostasy. 
 
 J The acts of the general chapter say, “ to a column.” 
 
216 
 
 MAIITVRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 for a permanent garrison. During this time a certain 
 pious woman, who was of the third order of S. Dominick,* * * § 
 sought out his body amongst all the corpses, and when she 
 had found it informed the vicar-general. The vicar-general, 
 after the departure of the enemy on the fourth day, having 
 called together any clergy and people who survived, together 
 with the notary apostolic, Henry O’Cullenan, who yet lives 
 (anno 1655), and has borne witness to this, examined the 
 body. He found all the marks of his sufferings, his burnt 
 feet and legs, the wound going from side to side, and two as 
 it were fresh streams of blood. They formed a procession, 
 and carried his body to the convent of his order, where, 
 having sung the Te Deum, they laid it. The day of his death 
 was the 15th f September, 1647.^^ — Dom. a Ros., p. 339. 
 
 Lord Castlehaven, in his Memoirs, says, — 
 
 It (the rock) was carried by storm, so that within and 
 without the church there was a great massacre, and, amongst 
 others, more than twenty priests and religious men killed.^^J 
 
 The Nuncio Rinuccini adds, They slew in it (the church 
 of S. Patrick) the priests, and the women who clung to the 
 statue of the saint.^^ § 
 
 The rest of the conduct of Inchiquin’s soldiers is thus 
 described in the Relatio referred to before : — 
 
 * Third order of S. Dominick : those who lived in the world. 
 
 t Tanner says the 13th. Probably the town was taken the 13tb, 
 the rock the loth. Fontana, Mon. Dom., gives rather a different ac- 
 count of the first part of Father Barry’s death. He says, “ Standing 
 in his full habit, with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other, 
 he exhorted the faithful to meet death bravely for their holy religion. 
 Afterwards, being taken whilst praying in a chapel of the church, with 
 incredible cruelty his feet and legs were burnt with a slow fire, and, at 
 length, he was pierced through with a sword.” Fontana refers to the acts 
 of the general chapter held at Rome 1650, and I am inclined to consider 
 his account the more accurate, and that O’Daly, who was himself of a 
 warlike turn, adopted a popular story about the sword. I have met 
 with hardly any authentic accounts of priests taking part in actual 
 warfare. 
 
 J Memoirs of Earl of Castlehaven, by himself. London, 1681. 
 
 § Rinuccini, Nunziatura, Florence, 1814, p. 416. 
 
IxN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 217 
 
 “ The heretics set to work at once to destroy all the 
 sacred things which had been stored in the cathedral of S. 
 Patrick. The altars were overturned, the images that were 
 painted on wood were consigned to the flames, those on 
 canvas were used as bedding for the horses, or were cut into 
 sacks for burdens. The great crucifix which stood at the 
 entrance of the choir, as if it bad been guilty of treason, was 
 beheaded, and soon after its hands and feet were amputated. 
 With a like fury did they rage against all the other chapels 
 of the city. Gathering together the sacred vases and all the 
 most precious vestments, they, through ridicule of our cere- 
 monies, formed a procession. They advanced through the 
 public squares wearing the sacred vestments, and having the 
 priests^ caps on their heads, and inviting to Mass those whom 
 they met on the way. A beautiful statue of the Immaculate 
 Virgin, taken from our church, was borne along (the head 
 being broken off) in mock state, with laughter and ridicule. 
 The leader of the Puritan army had, moreover, the temerity 
 to assume the archiepiscopal mitre, and boast that he was 
 now not only governor and lieutenant of Munster, but also 
 Archbishop of Cashel.^'’ 
 
 I will conclude this account with the following extract from 
 Pontana : — 
 
 ^^At the same time Sister Margaret, of our third order, a 
 woman of more than seventy years of age, whilst flying from 
 the city (Cashel) was intercepted by the heretics, and, being 
 constant in the profession of the Catholic faith, was slain by 
 the sword . — From the same Acts, 
 
 Rev. Fathers PATRICK HEGERTY, EDMUND CANA, 
 AND JOHN STEWART, O.S.F. 
 
 Father Patrick Hegerty, formerly definitor of the pro- 
 vince (Ireland) and commissary visitor, who was a confessor 
 of Christ in many prisons, being at length delivered after a 
 five years^ imprisonment amongst the Scotch, wrote to me 
 from the Convent of the Desert, a little before his death, a 
 
218 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 letter dated the 18th June, 1467 /^ — Le Marchanty Relatio 
 Viridica. 
 
 Here it may not be amiss to give short acount of the 
 mission in the Hebrides amongst the Scotch, where Father 
 Hegerty so long laboured ; and for this purpose I shall have 
 recourse to the pages of Doctor Moran. 
 
 In the month of December, 1618, Pope Paul V. selected 
 three Franciscan fathers from the Irish College of Louvain 
 to cultivate the vineyard of Scotland, which for many years 
 had been overrun with heresy, and had become a prey to 
 the enemies of God. Other Irish priests had been from 
 
 time to time called to the same mission in the early 
 part of the century, through the care of Peter Lombard, 
 Archbishop of Armagh, who with the title of Primate of All 
 Ireland, by authority of the Holy See, united also that 
 of Primate' of Scotland. To secure, however, an uninter- 
 rupted supply of fervent missioners, the religious of S. 
 Francis now received it in special charge ; and on the 4th 
 January, 1619, Fathers Edmund Cana* and Patrick Brady, 
 with the lay brother John Stewart,t set out from the convent 
 of Louvain to brave the perils of persecution in that 
 necessitous mission. After two yeaiV incessant labour. 
 Father Edmund was seized by the Scotch heretics, and 
 thrown into a filthy prison, whence, after a long confine- 
 ment, he was sent into banishment. The other two escaped 
 the pursuit of the heretics, and continued their labour of 
 love till, in 1623, a new dawn arose for that mission ; and 
 whilst Dr. Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, was appointed 
 its immediate superior, three new missionaries, selected by 
 him — viz. Cornelius Ward, James O’Neill, and Patrick 
 Hegerty — were sent thither with most ample authority and 
 
 ^ Cana is, I think, the same name as McCann. 
 
 t John Stewart was a native of Scotland, but for many years had 
 lived as a lay brother with the Franciscans in Ireland. About 1614 
 he was arrested near Dublin, and, after suffering many hardships in 
 Dublin prison, was transferred to the Tower of London, where many 
 attempts were made to seduce him from the Catholic faith. He was 
 released about 1617, and sent into Belgium. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 219 
 
 privileges from the Holy See; and at the same time the 
 old veteran Father Edmund Cana resolved to brave once 
 more the fury of the heretics and the penalties of the law. 
 The barren wilderness was soon clothed with gladness, and 
 Father Hugh de Burgo writes from Dublin on the 17th 
 November, 1624, God has already performed great things 
 in Scotland, through the labours of our Franciscan fathers. 
 They could even have effected more were it not for the great 
 poverty and wretchedness of the country ; for their district 
 of Scotland is so impoverished that scarcely can they find 
 sufficient means for the most frugal support.’-^ 
 
 It appears their labours were chiefly in the Hebrides and 
 northern parts. Many interesting particulars are contained 
 in a narrative which was drawn up for the Sacred Congrega- 
 tion of Propaganda in 1637 by Father Ward. He had in the 
 interim visited the Eternal City, and on his return, having 
 received the benediction of the Bishop of Down and Connor, 
 hastened in November, 1635, to resume his missionary 
 labour in the Hebrides. Before two months had elapsed 
 he had restored fifty heretics to the saving fold in the island 
 of Sgiahanach. During the following year (1636), in twenty- 
 two villages of the islands of Eustia and Benimhaola, two 
 hundred and three heretics were converted, whilst in the 
 islands of Barra, Feray, and Barnaray no fewer than fifty 
 others were led captive to truth. In the last-named island 
 the zealous priest was pursued by a Protestant minister, 
 who had procured a warrant for his arrest, and in conse- 
 quence he was obliged to fly to the mainland of Scotland. 
 There, on the mountains of Muidheart and Arasoig, during 
 two months, the conversion of two hundred and six heretics 
 was his reward. He adds, The missionary labour in 
 those barbarous and remote districts is indescribable, and 
 incredible to those who have not witnessed it. Oftentimes 
 the missionary father has passed six months there without 
 being able to procure any other drink than milk and water ; 
 indeed, their whole food consists of milk, and in summer 
 they seldom have bread. In the Hebrides, and in the moun- 
 us districts of Scotland, there is no city, nor town. 
 
218 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONJ’ESSORS 
 
 letter dated the 18tli June, 1467 .^^ — Le Marchanty Relatio 
 Viridica, 
 
 Here it may not be amiss to give short acount of the 
 mission in the Hebrides amongst the Scoteh, where Father 
 Hegerty so long laboured ; and for this purpose I shall have 
 reeourse to the pages of Doetor Moran. 
 
 In the month of December, 1618, Pope Paul V. selected 
 three Franciscan fathers from the Irish College of Louvain 
 to cultivate the vineyard of Scotland, which for many years 
 had been overrun with heresy, and had become a prey to 
 the enemies of God. Other Irish priests had been from 
 
 time to time called to the same mission in the early 
 part of the century, through the care of Peter Lombard, 
 Archbishop of Armagh, who with the title of Primate of All 
 Ireland, by authority of the Holy See, united also that 
 of Primate of Scotland. To secure, however, an uninter- 
 rupted supply of fervent missioners, the religious of S. 
 Francis now received it in special charge ; and on the 4th 
 January, 1619, Fathers Edmund Cana* and Patrick Brady, 
 with the lay brother John Stewart, t set out from the convent 
 of Louvain to brave the perils of persecution in that 
 necessitous mission. After two yeaiV incessant labour. 
 Father Edmund was seized by the Scotch heretics, and 
 thrown into a filthy prison, whence, after a long confine- 
 ment, he was sent into banishment. The other two escaped 
 the pursuit of the heretics, and continued their labour of 
 love till, in 1623, a new dawn arose for that mission ; and 
 whilst Dr. Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, was appointed 
 its immediate superior, three new missionaries, selected by 
 him — viz. Cornelius Ward, James O’Neill, and Patrick 
 Hegerty — were sent thither with most ample authority and 
 
 Cana is, I think, the same name as McCann, 
 t John Stewart was a native of Scotland, but for many years had 
 lived as a lay brother with the Franciscans in Ireland. About 1614 
 he was arrested near Dublin, and, after suffering many hardships in 
 Dublin prison, was transferred to the Tower of London, where many 
 attempts were made to seduce him from the Catholic faith. He was 
 released about 1617, and sent into Belgium. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 219 
 
 privileges from the Holy See; and at the same time the 
 old veteran Father Edmund Cana resolved to brave once 
 more the fury of the heretics and the penalties of the law. 
 The barren wilderness was soon clothed with gladness, and 
 Father Hugh de Burgo writes from Dublin on the 17th 
 November, 1624, ‘‘ God has already performed great things 
 in Scotland, through the labours of our Franciscan fathers. 
 They could even have effected more were it not for the great 
 poverty and wretchedness of the country ; for their district 
 of Scotland is so impoverished that scarcely can they find 
 sufficient means for the most frugal support.’^ 
 
 It appears their labours were chiefly in the Hebrides and 
 northern parts. Many interesting particulars are contained 
 in a narrative which was drawn up for the Sacred Congrega- 
 tion of Propaganda in 1637 by Father Ward. He had in the 
 interim visited the Eternal City, and on his return, having 
 received the benediction of the Bishop of Down and Connor, 
 hastened in November, 1635, to resume his missionary 
 labour in the Hebrides. Before two months had elapsed 
 he had restored fifty heretics to the saving fold in the island 
 of Sgiahanach. During the following year (1636), in twenty- 
 two villages of the islands of Eustia and Benimhaola, two 
 hundred and three heretics were converted, whilst in the 
 islands of Barra, Feray, and Barnaray no fewer than fifty 
 others were led captive to truth. In the last-named island 
 the zealous priest was pursued by a Protestant minister, 
 who had procured a warrant for his arrest, and in conse- 
 quence he was obliged to fly to the mainland of Scotland. 
 There, on the mountains of Muidheart and Arasoig, during 
 two months, the conversion of two hundred and six heretics 
 was his reward. He adds, “ The missionary labour in 
 those barbarous and remote districts is indescribable, and 
 incredible to those who have not witnessed it. Oftentimes 
 the missionary father has passed six months there without 
 being able to procure any other drink than milk and water ; 
 indeed, their whole food consists of milk, and in summer 
 they seldom have bread. In the Hebrides, and in the moun- 
 tainous districts of Scotland, there is no city, nor town. 
 
MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 220 
 
 nor school, neither is there anything like education; and 
 none can be found to read, exeept a few who reeeived edu- 
 cation in distant parts/^ Father Ward eontinued on those 
 mountains until his store of altar breads and wine for the 
 Holy Sacrifice was exhausted ; he then set out on foot for 
 Edinburgh, and, after many risks and dangers, returned with 
 a renewed supply to his mountain flock, where, though he 
 was at the same time weighed down by a grievous illness, 
 he, between the 8th September and Christmas, through 
 the districts] of Locheabar, Muiduirt, Sliebhte, and Glean- 
 silge, received back one hundred and thirty-nine heretics 
 into the bosom of the Catholic Church. Overcome by his 
 labours. Father Ward was soon obliged to return to the 
 comparative repose of his Irish convent, and Father Patrick 
 Hegerty, who had been for eight years guardian of the 
 convent of Bunargy, in the north of Ireland, opposite Scot- 
 land, was chosen prefect of that mission. About 1641 he 
 was thrown into prison by the Scots, and detained in close 
 confinement for five years. On the 29th August, 1646, he 
 wrote from Waterford, expressing his gratitude to God for 
 having been freed from prison, and requesting at the same 
 time sufficient means to resume his labours in the vineyard 
 of Scotland. He died at Multifarnham in 1647. 
 
 For further particulars of these Scotch missions the reader 
 is referred to Dr. Moran’s work. 
 
 Anno 1648. — Bev. Father GERALD GERALDINE and 
 Father DAVID FOX, O.P.P. 
 
 On a certain stormy night the heretical troops suddenly 
 burst into the monastery of our order at Kilmalloc, which 
 lies beyond the bridge outside the walls, hoping, no doubt, 
 to slay many of the brethren ; but the others eseaped, and 
 they found only these two kneeling before the high altar, in 
 prayer, with their rosaries round their necks. They pierced 
 them with swords, and, finally, as they lay in their blood, 
 blew out their brains with a musket-shot, and so left them. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 221 
 
 and carried away tlie spoils of the monastery.^’ — Mon, Dorn., 
 Hib. Dom., p. 565^ and a Rosario. 
 
 Father Geraldine was a priest^ Father Fox a simple monk. 
 
 Anno 1649. 
 
 Rev. Fathers JOHN BATHE and ROBERT NETTER- 
 VILLE, S.J.; DOMINICK DILLON, RICHARD 
 OVETON, — ATHY, and PETER COSTELLO, 
 O.P.P. ; and Many Others. 
 
 Cromwell landed on onr shores in July, 1649, firmly 
 resolved to acquire popularity amongst his fellow-Paritans 
 by the extermination of the Irish Papists. On his arrival 
 in Dublin he addressed his soldiers, and declared that no 
 mercy should be shown to the Irish, and that they should 
 be dealt with as the Canaanites in Joshua^s time.^^ 
 Drogheda was first attacked. It was defended by 3,000 
 good troops, commanded by Sir Arthur Ashton, a Catholic. 
 Three times did they repel the assaults of their 10,000 
 besiegers. At length, seeing further resistance useless, they 
 surrendered on terms. Cromwell, writing to the Parliament, 
 makes it a boast that, despite the promised quarter, he him- 
 self gave orders that all should be put to the sword and, 
 in his Puritanical cant, he styles that brutal massacre a 
 righteous judgment of God upon the barbarous wretches ; a 
 great mercy vouchsafed to us ; a great thing, done, not by 
 power or ' might, but by the spirit of God. The slaughter 
 of the inhabitants continued for five days, and the Puritan 
 troops spared neither age nor sex, so much so that the 
 Earl of Ormond, writing to the secretary of Charles II., to 
 convey the intelligence of the loss of Drogheda, declares 
 that ” Cromwell had exceeded himself, and anything he had 
 ever heard of, in breach of faith and bloody inhumanity ; 
 and the Parliamentarian General Ludlow speaks of it as an 
 extraordinary severity. The church of S. Peter, within the 
 
 * “ Our men were ordered by me to put them all to the sword.” — 
 CromwelVs Letter to Lenthal, ap. Linyard, vol. iv. p. 634. 
 
222 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 city, liad been for centuries a place of popular devotion ; a 
 little while before the siege the Catholics had reobtained 
 possession of it, and dedicated it anew to the service of G-od, 
 and the Holy Sacrifice was once more celebrated there with 
 special pomp and solemnity. Thither many of the citizens 
 now fled as to a secure asylum, and, with the clergy, prayed 
 around the altar ; but the Puritans respected no sanctuary 
 of religion. In this very place writes Cromwell, near 
 one thousand of them were put to the sword. I believe all 
 the friars * were killed but two, the one of which was Father 
 Peter Taaffe, brother to Lord Taaffe, whom the soldiers tooh 
 the next day, and made an end of ; the other was taken in 
 the round tower : he confessed he was a friar, but that did not 
 save him.^^ We read in Johnston^s History of Hrogheda,^^ — 
 Quarter had been promised to all those who should lay 
 down their arms, but it was observed only until all resist- 
 ance was at an end. Many, confiding in this promise, at 
 once yielded themselves prisoners; and the rest, unwilling 
 to trust to the mercy of Cromwell, took shelter in the steeple 
 of S. Peter^s ; at the same time the most respectable of the 
 inhabitants sheltered themselves within the church. Here 
 Cromwell advanced, and, after some deliberation, concluded 
 on blowing up the building. For this purpose he laid a 
 quantity of powder in an old subterraneous passage, which 
 was open, and went under the church ; but, changing his 
 resolution, he set Are to the steeple, and as the garrison 
 rushed out to avoid the flames they were slaughtered. After 
 this he ordered the inhabitants in the church to be put to 
 the sword, among whom many of the Carmelites fell a sacri- 
 fice. He then plundered the building and defaced its prin- 
 cipal ornaments.^^ 
 
 Thomas Wood, one of the Puritan officers engaged in the 
 massacre, relates that a multitude of the most defenceless 
 inhabitants, comprising all the principal ladies of the city, 
 were concealed in the crypts or vaults of the church; thither 
 the bloodhounds tracked them, and not even to one was 
 
 * They were Carmelites. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 223 
 
 mercy shown. Lord Clarendon also records that during the 
 five days, whilst the streets of Drogheda ran with blood,* 
 “ the whole army executed all manner of cruelty, and put 
 every man that related to the garrison, and all the citizens 
 who were Irish — man, woman, and child — to the sword ; 
 and Cromwell himself reckoned that less than thirty of the 
 defenders were not massacred, and these, he adds, are in safe 
 custody for the Barhadoes. 
 
 The manuscript written in 1651,f quoted by Dr. Moran, 
 gives the following account of the martyrdom of Fathers 
 Bathe and Netterville : — On the following day, when the 
 soldiers were searching through the ruins of the city, they 
 discovered one of our fathers, named John Bathe, with his 
 brother, a secular priest. Suspecting that they were reli- 
 gious, they examined them, and finding that they were 
 priests, and, moreover, one of them a Jesuit, they led them 
 off in triumph, and, accompanied by a tumultuous crowd, 
 conducted them to the market-place, and there, as if they 
 were at length extinguishing the Catholic religion and our 
 society, they tied them both to stakes fixed in the ground, 
 and pierced their bodies with shot until they expired.^^ 
 
 Father Robert Netterville was another victim to their fury. 
 He was aged and confined to bed by his infirmities ; never- 
 theless, he was forced away by the soldiers, and dragged 
 along the ground, being violently knocked against each 
 obstacle that presented itself on the way ; then they beat 
 him with clubs, and when many of his bones were broken, 
 they cast him on the highway. On the fourth day, having 
 fought a good fight, he departed this life, to receive, as we 
 hope, the martyr^s crown. — Ibid. 
 
 Three Dominican fathers also received the martyr’s crown 
 in Drogheda on this occasion, as is recorded by Fontana. 
 “ Father Dominick Dillon, Prior of Urlar, together with 
 
 * Down to the present century the street leading to S. Peter’s 
 Street retained the name of Bloody Street. It is the tradition of the 
 place that the blood of those slain in the church formed a regular 
 torrent down this street. 
 
 t Relatio Rerum, etc. 
 
224 
 
 MAllTYllS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Fathers Athy * (the sub-prior) and Fichard Oveton, beiug 
 taken prisoners in Drogheda^ and led out for execution 
 in presence of the whole heretical enemy, poured forth their 
 soul in prayer, and so bravely met death — Ex Act. Cap. 
 Gen. 1650; Mon. Dom. ad an.^ 
 
 “ This same year d-nd day. Father Peter Costello, sub-prior 
 of the convent of Strade, was slain there for the faith — 
 Mon. Doin.-\- 
 
 Rev. Father JAMES O^REILLY, O.P.P. 
 
 ‘‘ The Rev. James O’Reilly, a learned theologian, a cele- 
 brated preacher, and an excellent teacher, was sent from 
 Waterford to Clonmel, where he instructed youth in learn- 
 ing and the Christian religion. At the approach of the 
 enemy the garrison and citizens fled, and he also left the 
 city to seek a place of safety; but, mistaking his road, he fell 
 in with a troop of Cromwellian horse, as he carried his 
 rosary in his hands. Being asked what he was, he courage- 
 ously answered, ^ I am a priest, and, though unworthy, a 
 Dominican monk. I have lost my way, and, flying from you, 
 I have fallen into your hands. I am a Christian, Roman, 
 Catholic, and Apostolic ; as I have lived, so will I die. May 
 the will of Heaven be done.^ They immediately rushed upon 
 him, and for nearly an hour he endured, with wonderful 
 fortitude and patience, blows and wounds, covered with 
 blood, and invoking the name of Jesus, of his Blessed 
 Mother, and of our holy father S. Dominick. At length, 
 having received more wounds than he had limbs, he fell a 
 happy victim.^^ — Hib.Dom., p. 566, ex Act. Cap. Gen.j 1656, 
 and Mon. Dom. 
 
 * O’Heyn, “with Father Richard Oveton, the Sub-Prior of Athy.” 
 It is hard to determine which is correct, as Athy is not only the name 
 of a town where there was formerly a Dominican priory, but also a 
 common surname. 
 
 f Straid, or Strade, as De Burgo tells us (Hib. Dora., p. 249), is a 
 little village in the county Mayo, two miles from Athlethan or Bally- 
 lehan. Straid, he tells us, was in 1760 celebrated for its fairs, which 
 are still held. 
 
^rt of Consttrafion 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SACRED HEART. 
 
 Act of Consecration. 
 
 “ My loving Jesus! I (N.N.) give 1 hee 
 my heart, and I consecrate myself wholly 
 to Thee, out of the grateful love I bear 
 Thee, and as a reparation for all my un- 
 faithfulness ; and with Thy aid I purpose 
 never to sin again.”— lOo days Indulgence 
 once a day. 
 
 “ lesus meek and humble of Heart, 
 make my heart like unto Thine.”— 300 
 da\s' Indulgence once a day. 
 
 May the Heart of Jesus, in the Most 
 Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, 
 and loved with grateful affection at every 
 moment in all the Tabernacles of the 
 world even to the end of time. Amen. 
 —100 days' Indulgence once a day. 
 
 “ Jesus, my God ! I love Thee above all 
 things.”— 50 days' Indulgence each time. 
 
 Office of “The Irish Messenger Sacrec 
 
 Heart,’’ 5 Gt. Denmark St. 
 
Sweetest Ibeart of ^csus, 3 implore 
 
 TTbat 3 ma^ ever love Ubee 
 
 more anb more.” 
 
 kyfte^ to joiE 
 
 
 ^rnroiRus* sodality 
 
 oil ths of' t'ni T(i 
 
 Ht ^■"n’rlo>-k. rif-aM#j 
 
 
 aut! bru-g Kuw U 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 225 
 
 llEv. Father RAYMOND STAFFORD, and Six 
 Others, O.S.F. 
 
 It was on the 11th October that CromwelFs soldier 
 entered the town of Wexford, which had been surrendered 
 by the treachery of one of Ormondes officers. Cromwell, 
 as he expressed it, ^Mhought it not good or just to restrain 
 the soldiers from their, right of pillage, nor from doing 
 execution on the enemy ; ” he estimates in this letter the 
 number of the garrison butchered at 2,000. Father Francis 
 Stafford, in a letter written at the time^ says, On the 11th 
 of October, 1649, seven friars of our order, (Franciscans), all 
 men of extraordinary merit, and natives of the town, perished 
 by the sword of the heretics. Some of them were killed 
 kneeling before the altar, and others whilst hearing confes- 
 sions. Father Raymond Stafford, holding • a ^crucifix in his 
 hand, came out of the church to encourage the citizens, and 
 even preached with great zeal to the infuriated enemies 
 themselves, till he was killed by them in' the market- 
 place.^^ * 
 
 Dr. French, the venerable Bishop of Ferns, who himself 
 escaped with difficulty, gives the following account of the 
 massacre, in a letter to the internuncio, 1673 ; — On one 
 day I lost, for the cause of God and the faith, all that I pos- 
 sessed ; it was the 11th of October, 1649; on that most 
 lamentable day my native city of Wexford, abounding in 
 wealth, ships, and merchandise, was destroyed by the sword, 
 and given a prey to the infuriated soldiery by Cromwell, 
 that English pest of hell. There, before God^s altar, fell 
 many sacred victims, holy priests of the Lord ; others, who 
 were seized outside the precincts of the church, were scourged 
 with whips ; others were hanged ; some were arrested and 
 bound with chains ; and others were put to death by various 
 most cruel tortures. The best blood of the citizens was 
 shed ; the very squares were inundated with it, and there 
 was scarcely a house that was not defiled with carnage, and 
 
 * See the Letter in Duffy s Mayazine, May, 1847. 
 
226 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 full of wailing. In my own palace a youth hardly sixteen 
 years of age, an amiable boy, as also my gardener and 
 sacristan, were cruelly butchered ; and the chaplain, whom 
 T caused to remain behind me at home, was pierced with six 
 mortal wounds. 
 
 These things were perpetrated in open day by the 
 impious assassins. From that moment (and this it is that 
 renders me a most unhappy man) I have never seen my city, 
 or my flock, or my native land, or my kindred. After the 
 destruction of the city I lived for five months in the woods, 
 with death ever impending over me. There my drink was 
 milk and water, a small quantity of bread was my food, and 
 on one occasion I did not taste bread during five days ; there 
 was no need of cookery for my scanty meals, and I slept in 
 the open air without either bed or bed-clothes. At length 
 the wood in which I lay concealed was surrounded by nume- 
 rous bodies of the enemy, who anxiously sought to capture 
 me, and send me loaded with chains to England. My angel 
 guardian being my guide, I burst through their lines and 
 escaped, owing to the swiftness of my able steed .^^ — Letter 
 of Dr. French, ap. Moran. 
 
 CromwelPs ^ ministers of the divine will ^ performed 
 their part at Wexford, as they had done at Drogheda, doing 
 execution, not on the armed combatants only, but on the 
 women and children also. Of these helpless victims many 
 had congregated round the great cross. It was a natural 
 consequence in such an emergency. Hitherto they had 
 been accustomed to kneel at the foot of that cross in prayer ; 
 now, with life itself at stake, they would instinctively press 
 towards it to escape from the swords of the enemy. But as 
 far as regards the atrocity of the thing, it makes little differ- 
 ence on what particular spot they were murdered.^^* — Lin- 
 yard, vol. ix. note D. 
 
 Captain Wood, at the storming of Drogheda, a subaltern in 
 Ingoldsby’s regiment, describing the massacre in S. Peter’s church, 
 Drogheda, at which he was himself present, says, “ When they (the 
 soldiers) were to make their way up to the lofts and galleries, and up 
 to the tower of the church, each of the assailants would take up a child 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 227 
 
 Revs. JAMES LYNCH and RICHARD NUGENT. 
 
 Rev. James Lynch was parish priest of Kells, and Richard 
 Nugent of Ratoath, both in the county Meath, and were 
 both put to the torture and suffered on the same day in 
 defence of the Catholic faith. Father Lynch was a venerable 
 old man, nearly eighty years of age, and was massacred in 
 his bed, to which, through infirmity, he had been a long 
 time confined. Father Nugent was sent under an escort to 
 Drogheda, and, a gibbet having been ereeted within sight of 
 the walls, he ended his course with such serenity and firm- 
 ness as confounded his enemies, and drew forth the tears 
 and benedictions of the faithful inhabitants of that ancient 
 city . — MoraUj Persec., p. 193, /rom Bruodin. 
 
 Anno 1650. 
 
 Right Rev. DAVID ROOTH, Bishop of Ossory. 
 
 From Wexford, Cromwell advanced in a dreary season to 
 Kilkenny, not prepared for a regular siege, but relying on 
 the promises of an officer named Tickle that he would betray 
 the city of Kilkenny into his hands. The plot was dis- 
 covered and the agent executed, and the eustody of the 
 city and adjacent country was intrusted to Lord Castlehaven, 
 with a body of twelve hundred men. But the plague which 
 had broken out obliged Castlehaven to retire, and reduced 
 the garrison to about four hundred and fifty. Nevertheless 
 Sir Walter Butler made a brave defence, and repelled the 
 assaults of the besiegers with such spirit and success that 
 Cromwell, despairing of taking it by force, granted favour- 
 able conditions ; but no sooner had the enemy possession of 
 the city than these were violated. The Puritans profaned 
 the churches, overturned the altars, destroyed the paintings 
 and erosses, and profaned all things sacred. The vestments, 
 
 and use it as a buckler of defence, when they ascended the steps, to 
 save themselves from being brained or shot.” And he describes his 
 own unavailing attempt to save one young woman out of the general 
 massacre of all the women there. — Linjard, vol. ix. note D. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 ISIARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 which had been for the most part concealed, were diseovered 
 and plundered by the soldiery ; the books and paintings were 
 cast into the street, and either destroyed by fire or brought 
 away as booty. The holy bishop. Dr. David Rooth, vener- 
 able for his years, his piety, his learning, and his zeal, had 
 just entered a carriage to seek for safety by flight when the 
 enemy arrived. They inhumanly dragged him from his seat, 
 despoiled him of his garments, and then, clothing him with a 
 tattered cloak, which was covered with vermin, they cast him 
 into a loathsome dungeon, where, after a prolonged martyr- 
 dom, he expired, in the month of April, 1650. 
 
 Whilst the pestilence raged within the city, one good 
 priest. Father Patrick Lea, Avas especially distinguished by 
 his charity and zeal. Not only was he untiring in adminis- 
 tering to the spiritual wants of the siek and dying, but he 
 also assisted them in their corporal wants. He administered 
 to the poor even in the most loathsome duties, and some- 
 times too he was seen digging graves and bearing on his 
 shoulders to interment the bodies of those who were aban- 
 doned. It was whilst exercising this last-mentioned excess 
 of Cdiristian heroism that he himself was infected with the 
 disease, and expired, a martyr of charity, a few days before the 
 arrival of Cromwell at the gates of Kilkenny. — Moran, 
 Persec., p. 50, who quotes a MS. in his possession, written 
 in 1667, and entitled Brevis Relatio de Prcesenti in Hiber- 
 nia Fidei et Ecclesice StatuP See also Leland, Hist, of 
 Ireland, vol. iii. p. 361. 
 
 Right Rev. BOETIUS EGtAN, Bishop of Ross. 
 
 He was a holy Franciscan friar, appointed to the see of Ross 
 in 1647 by the Pope, on the recommendation of the Nuneio 
 Rinuccini. In 1650, when the savage bands of Cromwellian 
 soldiers under Ludlow were laying waste the country, he left 
 the retreat in which he had lain hidden for months, in order 
 to visit some distant and abandoned parts of his diocese, 
 when, on his return to his lonely hiding-place, he was over- 
 taken by a troop of horse under the command of Lord 
 
DURING THE commonwealth. 22<J 
 
 Broghill, who was hastening to assist Cromwell in the siege 
 of Clonmel. ‘‘ Lord Broghill promised to spare his life if 
 he would use his spiritual authority with the garrison of a 
 fort adjacent to prevail on them to surrender. For this pur- 
 pose he was conducted to the fort, but the gallant captive, 
 unshaken by the fear of death, exhorted the garrison to main- 
 tain their post resolutely against the enemies of the King, 
 their country, and their religion, and instantly resigned him- 
 self to execution. Bruodin adds that he was offered pardon 
 and rewards if he would deny his faith and join the Parlia- 
 mentarians, but he rejected the temptation with disdain. 
 He w^as then abandoned to the soldiers^ fury, and, his arms 
 being first severed from his body, he was dragged along the 
 ground to a neighbouring tree, and, being hanged from one 
 of its branches by the reins of his own horse, happily con- 
 summated his earthly course in November, 1650. — Bruodin^ 
 Passio Martyr., p. 530 ; Hih. Dom., p. 490 ; Mooney [Con- 
 tinuation). 
 
 Rev. STEPHEN GELOSSE, S.J. 
 
 He was born in 1617; he was teaching poetry in Kilkenny 
 College in 1649, and was then reported by the visitor, Father 
 Verdier, as a truly good and religious man. I believe he 
 made his debut as a minister of religion at Waterford, 
 whence he was sent to Ross to attend Father Gregory Dow- 
 dal in his last illness, and who died in his arms in 1650. 
 For the next nineteen years he continued to exercise his 
 pastoral functions in that town and neighbourhood. No 
 dangers that threatened him from the Cromw^ellian party, who 
 filled every place with blood and terror, could deter this 
 genuine hero from doing his duty; no weather, no pesti- 
 lential fever, no difficulties, could hold him back from visiting 
 
 * Leland, vol. hi. p. 362. He refers to Cox. 
 
 t Tlie compiler of the Supplement to Wadding’s Scriptores says 
 Dr. Egan was a member of the third Order of S. Francis, and that 
 thirteen other members of the same institute suffered with him (I pre- 
 sume he means about the same time), and he refers to a contemporary 
 writer, F. Bordonus, as his authority. 
 
230 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONRESSORS 
 
 the sick and the dying in their meanest hovels. His purse^ 
 his time, his services, were always at the command of the 
 distressed Catholics : it was his food and delight to exercise 
 the works of mercy, corporal and spiritual. Though the 
 tyrant Cromwell had issued a proclamation to his troops 
 (and they were in the habit of searching the houses of 
 respectable Catholics) that should they apprehend a priest 
 in any house, the owner of such house should be hung up 
 before his own door, and all his property be confiscated, 
 and that the captors of the priest should be rewarded at the 
 rate destroyers of the wolf formerly received (so little value 
 was attached to a priest^s life), nevertheless Father Gelosse 
 managed every day to offer up the unbloody Sacrifice of the 
 altar. His extraordinary escapes from the clutches of his 
 pursuers bordered on the miraculous. He assumed every 
 shape and character : he personated a dealer in faggots, a 
 servant, a thatcher, a porter, a beggar, a gardener, a miller, 
 a carpenter, a tailor with his sleeve stuck with needles, a 
 milkman, a pedlar, a seller of rabbit-skins, &c.; thus becom- 
 ing all to all, in order to gain all to Christ. However, he 
 was four times apprehended, as he told Father Stephen Rice; 
 but his presence of mind never forsook him, and he in- 
 geniously contrived to extricate himself without much diffi- 
 culty. After the restoration of Charles II. he set up a 
 school at Ross, which took precedence of all others in the 
 country, whether rank, numbers, proficiency, discipline, or 
 piety be taken into consideration ; but this was broken up by 
 the persecution of 1670. He then removed to the vicinity 
 of Dublin, where he taught about forty scholars, and in 
 August, 1673, he returned to Ross to reopen his school, but 
 at the end of three months was obliged by the fanatical spirit 
 abroad to abandon this favourite pursuit. He was still living 
 in the summer of 1675, when I regret to part company with 
 him — Oliver. ____ 
 
 Rev. NICHOLAS MULCAHY 
 was parish priest of Ardfinnan, in the county Tipperary, and 
 was famed for his zeal and apostolic labours. He had been 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 231 
 
 frequently advised to fly from the storm, but his affectionate 
 solicitude for his flock rose superior to every counsel. During 
 the siege of Clonmel he was seized upon by a reconnoitring 
 party of CromwelPs cavalry. Immediately on his arrest he was 
 bound in irons, conducted to the camp of the besiegers, and 
 offered his pardon should he only consent to use his influence 
 with the inhabitants of Clonmel, and induce them to give up 
 the town ; but he steadfastly refused, and was consequently led 
 out in sight of the besieged walls, and there beheaded whilst 
 he knelt in prayer for his faithful people and asked forgive- 
 ness for his enemies. — Moran, from Bruodin, 
 
 Fathers JAMES MORAN,* DOMINICK or DONATES 
 BLACK, AND RICHARD OVEDON, O.P.P., 
 
 of the convent of Athenry, were slain through hatred of the 
 faith, and thus offered as sacred victims to Christ. — Mon, 
 Bom. and Hib. Bom., ex Act. Cap. Gen. 1656. 
 
 Rev. Father MILER MAG RATH, O.P.P., 
 
 '^a son of the convent of S. Dominick, of Benfica (near 
 Lisbon), and an alumnus during some years of the Irish Do- 
 minican College of the Blessed Virgin of Lisbon, then pro- 
 curator and vicar, was led by his zeal for souls to venture 
 into Clonmel, then held by a strong garrison of the heretics. 
 He was seized just after he had finished Mass, Avhilst administer- 
 ing the Blessed Eucharist to a dying man, and with the sacred 
 pix in his hands, and w^as instantly led off to execution. He 
 prayed fervently with the people, and amidst their tears and 
 admiration he was hung.^^ — A Rosario, p. 354 (211) ; also 
 Hib. Bom., p. 566, and Mon. Bom. 
 
 * Of Father Moran it is said he was a lay monk ; of the other two 
 it is not said whether they were priests or not, but they arc not styled 
 reverend ; from which I gather they were not in holy orders. Fontana 
 puts their martyrdom in 1650 ; De Burgo, in 1651. 
 

 MARTi'RS AND CONRESSORS 
 
 Rev. Father ARTHUR O^CUIFFE, O.P.P. 
 
 Father Arthur O^Cuiefe, of the convent of Tralee, 
 suffered much for the faith under Cromwell, and lay for a 
 whole year in a noisome dungeon. During that time the Rev. 
 Father Edmund MacMorice, a pious, sincere, and humble 
 man, was of great service to religion, for he was able to 
 travel about the district round his convent in tolerable free- 
 dom, because, being a near relative of the Lord of Kerry, no 
 one dared to molest him.^^ — O’Heyn, Epilogus, p. 21. 
 
 Anno 1651. 
 
 Right Rev. TERENCE ALBERT O^BRlEN, O.P.P.,Bishop 
 OF Emly; Revs. JOHN COLLINS, JAMES WOLF, 
 AND DAVID ROCHE, O.P.P. ; also Revs. BRIEN, 
 BARRY, AND LEE, of the Congregation of S. 
 Vincent. 
 
 The life of Bishop O^Brien has been well traced by Father 
 Meehan, in i\\Q Hibernian Magazine for 1864, and the greater 
 part of the following account is taken from his pages. ^ 
 
 Terence Albert O^Brien was born in the city of Limerick, 
 in the year 1600, of parents descended from the ancient 
 house of O’Brien. AVliile yet a child he received the earliest 
 rudiments of education from his pious mother and an aged 
 priest, who found constant welcome and protection in his 
 father’s house, and who, in all probability, was the first to 
 inspire him with the idea of devoting himself to the ministry. 
 As he grew to boyhood, the desire struck deeper root in his 
 heart, and he lost no time in placing himself in communica- 
 tion with his uncle, Maurice O’Brien, who was then prior of 
 the Dominican convent of his native city. The uncle was 
 not slow in seconding the lad’s wishes, and he accordingly 
 had him received into the novitiate of the Friars Preachers — 
 for we need hardly add that the monastery of S. Saviour, 
 founded in the thirteenth century by Donat O’Brien, had 
 
 * Duffy’s Hihemian Magazine, April, 1864. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 233 
 
 long since shared the fate of other religious houses in 
 Ireland. Having been received into the order, young O’Brien 
 was sent to the convent of S. Peter Martyr at Toledo, where 
 there was then a vacancy for an Irish student, and arrived 
 there just as he had entered on his twentieth year. The 
 Dominican school of Toledo was then one of the most 
 renowned in Spain ; here O’Brien spent eight years, when 
 he was ordained priest, and, as the wants of the Irish mission 
 were then pressing, his superiors commanded him to lose no 
 time in preparing for the journey home. 
 
 On arriving in Ireland, the scene of his first mission was 
 Limerick, where he took up his residence with the other 
 Dominicans in a hired house, where they lived in community 
 as well as the circumstances of the time Avould allow. It 
 was a time of peril to all priests, but especially to those of 
 the religious orders, for Lord-Deputy Falkland was then 
 enforcing the penal enactments. The Dominicans were not, 
 however, objects of so much jealousy to the Government as 
 the Franciscans, who took more part in politics. 
 
 Availing himself therefore of the opportunities which 
 were thus afforded him of doing good. Father O’Brien 
 settled down in the little convent at Limerick, where, with 
 the rest of the brethren, he toiled through many dreary 
 years in the quiet performanee of the duties which belonged 
 to his calling. Fifteen years did he labour in Ireland, during 
 which time he w^as twice elected prior of his native convent 
 of Limerick, and once of that of Lorragh.* 
 
 In 1643 the Dominican chapter, assembled in the Abbey 
 of the Holy Trinity at Kilkenny, unanimously elected him 
 provincial of the order. A short time previously he had 
 seen his native city identify itself with the eonfederates, and 
 we may readily imagine with what feelings of devoted grati- 
 tude he and the other members of his order must have 
 regarded the men who restored to them that splendid temple 
 which William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, erected for the 
 honour of God, and as a last resting-place for himself, 
 
 * Situated in the barony of Lower Ormond, and founded by Walter 
 de Burgo in 12G9. 
 
234 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 some few years before he closed his mortal warfare.* Towards 
 the end of 1643 Father O^Brien was called to Borne to assist 
 at a general chapter of the Dominicans, which was held in the 
 following year, when many ordinances were made for the 
 better government of the Irish province and the revival of 
 the order in Ireland, where it had suffered so terribly during 
 the persecutions of Elizabeth and James I. The acts of this 
 chapter,t indeed, throw much light on the state of the 
 Irish Church at the period, and it is only reasonable to 
 suppose that we are indebted to O’Brien for the valuable 
 information they contain. This chapter, ^^in order that pro- 
 per provision should be made in that province (Ireland) for 
 literary studies,” ordered that five universities, or houses of 
 general study, should be established, for the five parts of the 
 kingdom, in the convents of Dublin, Limerick, Cashel, 
 Athenry, and Culraha; and if from the hardness of the 
 times such studies cannot, at any time, be carried on in one 
 of these convents, then the provincial shall appoint another 
 convent for such time.”J At this chapter Father O’Brien 
 was raised to the rank of master in theology, and appointed 
 one of the two persons to decide all disputes as to the bound- 
 aries of the Dominican convents in Munster. § 
 
 As soon as the council terminated its sessions, O’Brien 
 set out for Lisbon, to visit the Dominican house which had 
 been founded in that city by O’Daly, who was then engaged 
 on his History of the Geraldines.” || About the middle of 
 July, 1644, while O’Brien was still at Lisbon, intelligence 
 from Borne led his friends to suppose that it was the intention 
 of Urban VIII. to advance him to the coadjutorship of Emly, 
 
 The Black Abbey of Kilkenny, 
 t Hib. Dom., p. 115. 
 
 There were in 1646 in Ireland forty -three Dominican convents, with 
 about 600 monks. 
 
 § A convent, once founded, was always held to exist, and to preserve 
 its ecclesiastical privileges, as long as any brethren remained, although 
 the original building might be confiscated. Thus ..the Dominican 
 fathers, residing in a lodging in Limerick, were “ the Convent of 
 Limerick.” 
 
 II A Eosario, Persec., p. 204. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 235 
 
 and indeed the announcement seemed so reliable that he at 
 once set out for Ireland to take part in the election of his 
 successor in the provincialate. There can be little doubt 
 that Urban did mean to have him consecrated bishop, but as 
 his Holiness died in the very month in which the nomination 
 is said to have been made, the bulls were not despatched, and 
 O^Brien^s promotion was consequently postponed, and did 
 not take place before the third year of the pontificate of 
 Innocent X. On his return to Ireland, O’Brien fixed his 
 residence in the convent of Limerick, where, as provincial 
 and prior, he exerted himself indefatigably for the interests 
 of his order, which had lately received a large accession to 
 its members from Rome, Louvain, and other places on the 
 Continent. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that O’Brien was not con- 
 secrated in 1644, as De Burgo thought, as is shown by a 
 letter of the Nuncio Rinuccini, dated Kilkenny, January 1st, 
 1646, in which he says, Father Terence, provincial of the 
 Dominicans, is a man of prudence and sagacity. He has 
 been in Italy, has had considerable experience, and the 
 bishop who wishes to have him for his coadjutor is, I am 
 told, in very feeble health.”* Eight months after the date 
 of that letter — that is, in August, 1646 — when the Bishop of 
 Eraly was on the point of death, the nuncio wrote again to 
 Rome, recommending various candidates for dioceses that 
 were then either vacant or about to be so ; and, among others, 
 he named O’Brien as ^^one who deserved the highest 
 advancement Rome could bestow, and whose claims and 
 qualifications were duly set forth in a memorial which the 
 clergy had forwarded in his favour.” The answer, however, 
 did not reach Ireland till October, 1647, when Rinuccini 
 had the satisfaction of learning that the Holy See sanctioned 
 O’Brien’s promotion, and that of the other candidates for 
 whom he was interested; and Father O’Brien was con- 
 secrated in November, 1647. 
 
 Dr. O’Brien lost no time in taking possession of his see. 
 
 * Nunziatura, pp. 84, 152. 
 
J236 
 
 MARTYllS AND CONFESSOllS 
 
 but he found it in a, deplorable state. The victory of Conoe- 
 na-Noss (13th November, 1647) had made Inchiquin, the 
 bitter enemy of the Catholics, master of nearly all Munster, 
 and his soldiers ravaged all the country. At Kilkenny 
 Dr. O’Brien had zealously supported the policy of the 
 Nuncio Rinuccini, and joined in the ill-advised excommuni- 
 cation ; and when the nuncio was at Galway, before his 
 departure, he hastened thither to see him. When, however, 
 he had reached a village within three miles of Galway (pro- 
 bably Oranmore), word was brought him that the nuncio 
 had sailed, and he then returned to his diocese, where he 
 remained until May, 1650, when the progress of the Crom- 
 wellians compelled him to return to Galway. 
 
 In August, 1650, Dr. O’Brien acted with those prelates 
 who, after discarding Lord Ormond, and insisting on the 
 appointment of Clanricarde as Viceroy, offered the Pro- 
 tectorate of Ireland to the Duke of Lorraine. He then 
 returned to his diocese, and, after a brief sojourn there, 
 fixed his final abode in Limerick, just as Ireton was marching 
 on that devoted city. Ireton commenced the siege of 
 Limerick early in 1651, but it was not till July that the 
 investment of the place was complete. I need not recapitu- 
 late here the well-known incidents of that heroic siege, in 
 which the besieged suffered more by pestilence than from 
 the efforts of the enemy. Eight thousand citizens perished 
 by the pestilence, and the heroic missioners of S. Vincent 
 of Paul, who were in the city, made the memory of their 
 order dear to Catholic Ireland by their zeal in attending 
 the sick, a task in which they were aided by Drs. Walsh, 
 Archbishop of Cashel, and O’Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick,* 
 who were also in the city. 
 
 At length, on the 27th of October, the treachery of Colonel 
 Pennell enabled Ireton to compel the surrender of the city.f 
 Twenty-four persons were excepted from quarter by the 
 
 He was the only one of the twenty-four to whom quarter was denied 
 by Ireton who escaped . — JBorlase and Ludlow, ap. Leland, vol. iii. p. 387. 
 
 t Moran, Persecutions, p. 61 ; Haverty’s History of Ireland, p. 591 ; 
 Hibernian Magazine, p. 256. 
 
DURING THE CO-AIMONWEALTII. 
 
 237 
 
 articles of capitulation. Knowing the fate that was reserved 
 for him^ Dr. O’Brien retired to the pest-house, in order to 
 devote the last hours of his life to the benefit of his suffering 
 fellow-citizens, and to preparing himself for death. Here he 
 was found by the officers sent to arrest him, and brought 
 before Ireton, who told him he was to be tried by a court- 
 martial, and imprisoned till the sentence was pronouneed. The 
 bishop heard this unmoved, and when asked did he want 
 counsel ealmly replied that all he required was his confessor. 
 Tliis boon was granted, and Father Hanrahan, a member of his 
 own order, was suffered to pass the whole day and night 
 of the 30th October in his prison. On the following evening 
 he was led out to execution, and, as Father Hanrahan related, 
 walked as joyfully to the place as to a feast. His contem- 
 porary, De Marinis, relates his execution thus: — He went 
 with joy to the place of execution, and then, with a serene 
 countenance, turning to his Catholic friends, who stood in 
 the crowd inconsolable and weeping, he said to them, ' Hold 
 firmly by your faith, and observe its precepts ; murmur not 
 against the arrangements of God’s providence, and thus you 
 will save your souls. Weep not at all for me, but rather pray 
 that in this last trial of death I may, by firmness and con- 
 stancy, attain my heavenly reward.’ The head of the martyr 
 was struck off and placed on a spike on the tower ” which 
 
 is on the middle of the bridge .” — A Rosario), “ and long 
 after seemed to drop fresh blood, and uncorrupted and un- 
 changed in aspect, flesh, or hair — a tribute, as may be thought, 
 to that virginal purity which it is universally believed he 
 preserved to the end.”* Thus he went to his reward, on the 
 vigil of All Saints, 1651. De Marinis and A Rosariof relate 
 that the holy bishop summoned Ireton to the judgment-seat 
 of God to answer for his crimes; and on the 18th day after- 
 wards that bloody persecutor was seized with the plague, 
 and, after sixteen days, expired in great torments. Dr. Moran 
 mentions that the spot where this holy bishop was martyred 
 
 * Hib. Dom., p. 489. 
 
 t In Hib. Dom., loc. cH. ; and A Eosario, Persec., p. 207, 
 
238 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 is yet pointed out and venerated by the Catholics of 
 Limerick.* 
 
 With Bishop O^Brien perished another Dominican, Father 
 John Collins. He had made himself peculiarly obnoxious 
 to the Parliamentarians by the active part he had taken in 
 the war against them ; he had, in the habit of his order, 
 and with a crucifix in his hand, led a storming party at 
 Bunratty, and had made himself remarkable during the siege ' 
 for his courage, and was in consequence excepted by Ireton 
 from the capitulation. He was sought out after the sur- 
 render, and, being found, was at once put to death.f 
 
 Father James Wolf, another Dominican, received the 
 crown of martyrdom at the same time. I give the account 
 of his martyrdom from the acts of the general chapter 
 held in Rome in 1656, p. 150 : — J 
 
 He was an old man, and preaeher-general, who had 
 before been a long time in prison for the faith, and in this 
 last persecution was as a wall against the enemies of the 
 faith. He was taken in Limerick whilst offering the Mass, 
 and in a few hours afterwards was sentenced to be hung, 
 and brought out into the market square, where he made a 
 public profession of his faith, and exhorted the Catholics to 
 constancy in the religion of their ancestors, and that with 
 so much ardour that it moved his very enemies. Standing 
 on the top step of the ladder, and about to be swung off, 
 he joyously exclaimed, ‘ We are made a spectacle to God 
 and angels and men — of glory to God, of joy to angels, of 
 contempt to men.^ Having said this, he was hung, and so 
 went to his crown.^-’ 
 
 O’Daly adds that he had been absent from the city during 
 the siege, but that when it was taken, and all the priests 
 there either slain or driven away, zealous for the souls of the 
 citizens, he seeretly returned to administer the sacraments 
 to them, but had hardly been there eight days when he 
 was taken and hung;§ and this agrees with what is said 
 
 Moran, Persec., p. 180. 
 X Hib. Dom., p. 568. 
 
 t A Rosario, Persec., p. 17. 
 
 § A Rosario, Persec., p. 217. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 239 
 
 in the acts of the chapter, that he was taken whilst saying 
 Mass. 
 
 It is probable that Father David Roche, O.P.P., whom 
 De Burgo mentions to have been sent as a slave to the 
 West Indian tobacco plantations in this year, was taken at 
 Limerick.* 
 
 Here also we may eommemorate the virtues and sufferings 
 of the fathers of S. Vincent in Limerick. S. Vincent of 
 Paul, that angel of charity, cherished a special affection for 
 the persecuted Church of Ireland : the sole detail of all he 
 
 did and procured to be done in favour of the ecclesiastics 
 banished from Ireland by Cromwell would exceed my limits, 
 and wear out the patience of my readers.^^ And the archives 
 of Paris yet preserve many records of the untiring efforts 
 of the saint to provide a home and a refuge for the mul- 
 titude of our countrymen who, despoiled of all they possessed, 
 and exiles from the land of their birth, were cast upon the 
 shores of France. The Bishop of Waterford, who had been 
 an eye-witness, gave an account to Clement XI. of the 
 assistance in money, ornaments, and clothing, sent by the 
 saint to the suffering Catholics in Ireland, declaring at the 
 same time that as S. Patrick and S. Malachy in earlier 
 ages, so Father Vincent was raised up by God, in this period 
 of persecution, to be the salvation of our country. 
 
 It was in 1646 that the first missionary fathers landed in 
 Ireland ; and, during the five years that they remained, 
 Limerick was the chief scene of their labours. The happy 
 fruits of their zeal were soon visible to all ; and it is recorded, 
 as a striking^^fact, that none of the clergy of any mission 
 which they visited were found to abandon their spiritual 
 charges : all remained with the flocks intrusted to them, 
 
 assisting and defending them until they were banished, or 
 suffered death for the Catholic faith ; and, in effect, it was 
 granted to all to endure one or the other.^-’t 
 
 * Hib. Dom., p. 571. 
 
 t Abelly’s “Vie de Saint-Vincent,” lib. iv. chap, viii., inDr. Moran, 
 Persec., p. 7, to whom I am indebted for all this account of tlje 
 Vincentians. 
 
240 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 As early as 1648 the Archbishop of Cashel wrote to S. 
 Vincent that^ through the zeal of his good fathers, the 
 people had been excited to piety, which was increasing every 
 day ; and although these admirable priests have suffered 
 inconveniences of every sort since their arrival in this country, 
 they, nevertheless, have not ceased for an instant to apply 
 themselves to their spiritual mission, and, blessed by heavenly 
 grace, they have gloriously propagated and increased the 
 worship and glory of God/^ And at the same time the 
 Bishop of Limerick wrote that, “ by the example and edifying 
 deportment of these fathers, the greater part of the nobility 
 of both sexes had become models of piety and virtue. It is 
 true that the troubles and the wars of this kingdom have 
 been a great obstacle to their functions; nevertheless, the 
 truths of faith have been so engraven by their means upon 
 the minds of the inhabitants of both the cities and the 
 country parts that they bless God in their adversities equally 
 as in prosperity.’^ 
 
 When the storm raged with all its fury in 1657, only three 
 priests of the order remained in Ireland, but their labours 
 were incessant, and an abundant spiritual harvest was their 
 reward. At that time there were 20,000 communicants 
 within the walls of Limerick ; the whole city assumed the 
 garb of penance, to draw down the blessings and the grace of 
 Heaven.” 
 
 In April, 1650, S. Vincent wrote to the superior of the 
 order, encouraging them to meet courageously the dangers 
 which then threatened them. In his letter he says, — 
 
 You have given yourselves to God, to remain immovably 
 in the country where you now are, in the midst of perils, 
 choosing rather to expose yourself to death than to be found 
 wanting in charity to your neighbours. You have acted as 
 true ..children of our most admirable Father, to whom I re- 
 turn infinite thanks for having produced in you that sovereign 
 charity which is the perfection of all virtues. I pray Him 
 to fill you with it to the end, that, exercising it in all cases 
 and everywhere, you may pour it forth into the hearts of 
 those who want it^ seeing that your companions are in the 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 241 
 
 same disposition of remaining, whatever may be the danger 
 from war and pestilence, we are of opinion that they should 
 be allowed to stay. How do we know what God intends in 
 their regard ? Certainly He does not bestow on them so 
 holy a resolution in vain. My God, how inscrutable are Thy 
 judgments ! Behold at the close of one of the most fruitful 
 missions we have ever as yet witnessed, and perhaps too 
 the most necessary. Thou dost stop, as it were, the course of 
 Thy mercies upon this penitent city, and dost lay Thy hand 
 still more heavily upon her, adding to the misfortune of 
 war the scourge of pestilence; but all this is done in order to 
 gather in the harvest of the elect, and to collect the good grain 
 into Thy eternal granary. We adore Thy ways, O Lord ! 
 
 Although the three fathers who had laboured in Limerick 
 during the siege escaped the fury of Ireton on its surren- 
 der, one of them resolved to remain in the city to assist with 
 his sacred ministry the remnant of its Catholic citizens, and 
 after a while consummated there his holocaust of charity. 
 The two others, Brien and Barry, escaped with about 120 
 other priests and religious, in various disguises, mixed up 
 with the garrison of the place, who by the terms of the capi- 
 tulation obtained their lives and permission to retire from the 
 city. As there was no quarter allowed for any ecclesiastics, 
 these holy men, sure that death awaited them, passed the 
 night preceding their escape in prayer and preparation for 
 their martyrdom. They were not, however, recognized; and 
 after escaping from the city they separated. Father Brien 
 taking the road towards his native district in company with 
 the Vicar-General of Cashel, whilst Father Barry went towards 
 the mountains, where a charitable lady received him, and 
 concealed him for two months. A barque freighted for France 
 appearing on the coast, he availed himself of the opportunity 
 thus presented, embarked in the vessel, and happily landed 
 in Nantes. This caused indescribable joy to S. Vincent, 
 who had already given up these two fathers as lost, believing 
 them to have been involved in the general massacre of 
 Limerick. Although these good priests escaped from that 
 general massacre, the congregation paid its tribute to the 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 persecution, and a lay brother of the order, named Lee, being 
 discovered by the heretics, was brutally put to death by them 
 before the eyes of his own mother; his hands and feet were 
 first amputated, and his head was then bruised to atoms/^* 
 Father Abelly, the author of the Life of S. Vincent,^’ 
 mentions another martyr, whose name, however, is not given. 
 He writes as follows : — 
 
 '' It happened that one of these heroic pastors, having gone 
 to a missionary father (who lived in a cabin at the foot of a 
 mountain) to make his annual retreat, was on the following 
 night discovered in the act of administering the Sacrament 
 to some sick persons, and cut to pieces on the spot by the 
 heretical soldiery. His glorious death crowned his innocent 
 life, and fulfilled the great desire he had to suffer for our 
 Lord, as he himself had declared in the preceding year at 
 a mission given by the Vincentian fathers in Limerick.^' 
 
 Here also we may hand down the names of those martyrs 
 of charity who are known to have perished of the plague 
 whilst attending the sick in this disastrous year. 
 
 Of these there are enumerated by De Burgo, of the Do- 
 minican order alone, in the year 1651 — Fathers Michael 
 O’Clery, Prior of Waterford, at Waterford, and GeraldBagot; 
 Thaddseus O^Caholy,t William Geraldine, and John Geral- 
 dine, of Limerick ; and Donald O’Brien, in county Clare ; and 
 of the Jesuits, Father Francis White, at Waterford, 
 
 My readers will, I am sure, be glad here to read the ac- 
 count of their noble devotion given by O’Daly : J — 
 
 '‘The first who earned this crown was the Beverend 
 Father Michael O’Clery, an alumnus of our college of Lisbon, 
 and prior of our convent of Waterford. When the plague 
 raged in the town of Waterford, the bishop of the place 
 called together all the priests and monks of the place, and 
 laid before them how great a work of charity and how accept- 
 able to God it would be to devote themselves to administer 
 
 * Acts of the order, and a letter of S. Vincent, ap. Moran, 
 t Or O’Cahasi. 
 
 X A Bosario, Persec., p. 222, in Father Meehan’s translation ; but 
 he has abridged it. See p. 367 of original, and ap. Hib. Dorn., p. 570. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 243 
 
 the sacraments to those of their Catholic brethren who were 
 perishing of the plague. All the others held their peace, 
 but our prior, and a worthy priest, Patrick White, a canon of 
 Waterford, of a very good Waterford family, and his brother, 
 Father Francis White, of the Society of Jesus, and minister 
 of the college of S. Patrick of Lisbon, offered themselves for 
 this duty. They prepared themselves for three days by a 
 general confession of their sins and the reception of the 
 Blessed Sacrament, and then entered on their labours in 
 the pest-house, where they diligently discharged the duty of 
 physicians of souls. After having heard the confessions of 
 almost all, they were themselves seized with the disease and 
 perished together. 
 
 The second was Father Gerald Bagot, also of our college 
 of Lisbon, a man of good family and talents. Having come 
 into Limerick from the country, he was asked to step out of 
 his way to hear the confession of a man who was at the point 
 of death from the plague. The pious father immediately 
 consented, and purchased the man^s salvation with his life, for 
 no sooner had he completed that work of charity than he 
 felt himself attacked, and, not daring to enter the city, in 
 three days after, having made his confession and commu- 
 nion he died outside the walls. 
 
 “The third was Father Donald O^Brien, who died in the 
 same way in Thomond (county Clare), having taken the 
 plague by hearing confessions. 
 
 “ The fourth was Father Thaddseus O^Cahasi, who, in the 
 siege of Limerick, when the sword destroyed without and 
 the pestilence within, was assigned the post of attending to 
 the hospital of the soldiers, which was near our convent, and 
 was made a refuge for all the sick except those stricken with 
 the plague. But the plague made its way in there and 
 seized our father, and, having received the sacraments, he 
 died on the fifth day. Father John William Geraldine, 
 having gone to hear his confession, took the disease and died 
 on the third day. He was a very religious and learned man, 
 a preacher-general,* and had been prior of several convents. 
 
 Prfcdirator ji^cneralis ord. 
 
 K 2 
 
244 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 ^^When this John was dyin^, his brother, Gerald Geral- 
 dine, also a Dominican father, came to hear his confession, 
 and took the disease, of which he died on the third day, 
 having piously received the sacraments. 
 
 ^^The Reverend Father Thomas Philbin (MacPhilbin), 
 formerly Prior of Burishoole, and Father Charles MacCuil, 
 lost their lives in this work of charity, in 1652.’^ 
 
 Rev. Fathers LAURENCE O^FERRALL and BERNARD 
 O’FERRALL, O.P.P. 
 
 These two appear to have been brothers of the ancient 
 family of O’Ferrall. Of Father Laurence, Dominick a Rosario 
 says he studied in the college of Lisbon, aud was for some 
 time guardian of it. Of Father Bernard, De Burgo says that 
 he was predicator generalis of the order; and from the acts of 
 the general chapter held at Rome in 1656 he and Fontana 
 give the following account of their martyrdom : — 
 
 ^'They were seized at early dawn, whilst praying in the 
 church of their native convent of Longford, which had been 
 abandoned by the brethren on account of the violence of 
 the persecution. Father Bernard was at once overwhelmed 
 by the persecutors with more than four-and-twenty deadly 
 wounds, whereof he expired, yet lingered long enough to re- 
 ceive the last sacraments from another of our fathers before 
 he expired; and this he had himself foretold. Brother Lau- 
 rence they dragged, wounded, before the governor, and on 
 discovering that for the faith, and in obedience to the authority 
 of the nuncio,* he had joined the Catholic army, he was 
 condemned to death. He was to have been executed on the 
 following day, and joyfully awaited his fate, but by the inter- 
 ces'sion of some friends it was deferred for three days. This 
 was most grievous to Laurence, who blamed his intercessors, 
 and spent the whole three days in prayers and tears, beseech- 
 
 * A Rosario says his captors discovered some letters from the 
 apostolic nuncio sewed up in his inner garments . — A Rosario, p. 212. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 245 
 
 ing God not to suflPer him to lose the palm of martyrdom 
 At length he obtained his desire, and from the top of the 
 ladder he addressed an eloquent exhortation to the Catholics ; 
 then, placing the rosary round his neck, and holding a 
 crucifix in his right hand, and bidding the people farewell, he 
 blessed them, and, meekly folding his hands under his scapu- 
 lar, submitted himself to the executioner. When the execu- 
 tioner, after placing the cord round his throat, pushed him 
 ofiF the ladder, whilst hanging he drew both his hands from 
 under his scapular and raised the cross on high in both, as the 
 emblem of his triumph. The heretical governor was so much 
 struck that he allowed his body to be given to the Catholics, 
 and solemnly interred by them, and gave a safe-conduct for 
 the clergy to attend, fearing lest otherwise there might be 
 tumults.^^ — Hib, Dom.^ p. 569, and Mon. Dom. 
 
 Rev. Father ^NEAS AMBROSE O^CAHILL, O.P.P. 
 
 Father Ambrose O’Cahill, of the convent of Cork, after 
 a glorious trial, earned the crown of heaven by the effusion 
 of his blood ; for whilst proceeding from one place to another 
 to administer the sacraments to the faithful, by chance he 
 fell in with a troop of the heretic horse, and, having been 
 recognized by them to be a priest, was by them cut in pieces 
 on the spot.” — Mon. Dom., ex Act. Cap. Gen. 
 
 See also Hib. Dom., p. 567, and A Rosario, p. 358 (215), 
 who calls him an alumnus and sacristan of the college 
 of Lisbon, and says his body was cut in small pieces, and 
 scattered for food for ravens. O’Heyn, p. 13, says he was 
 taken near Cork. 
 
 Rev. Fathers WILLIAM O’CONOR, THOMAS 
 O’HIGGINS, AND WILLIAM LYNCH, O.P.P. 
 
 The same year the venerable Father William O’Conor, of 
 the convent of Clonmel, a most pious man, and intent on the 
 salvation of souls, was taken by the heretics whilst ad minis- 
 
246 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 tering the sacraments to the faithful, and, being stripped of 
 all his clothes, was beheaded.^^ — Mon. Dom., ex Actis eisdem. 
 He was Prior of Clonmel, and definitor of the provincial 
 chapter. — See Hib. Dorn., p. 329. 
 
 Also, at Clonmel, Father Thomas O^Higgins was thrown 
 into prison by the heretics, and, being condemned to death 
 by hanging for having confessed the faith, received his 
 crown.^^ — Hib. Dom. and A Rosario. 
 
 A Rosario adds in a note to this work : — 
 
 Since I wrote the above, certain religious and learned 
 men have testified to me (and they are above suspicion) that 
 three others of our religion suflPered death — Father William 
 Lynch, who was hung ; and he adds Fathers O^Conor and 
 Costello, whose deaths we have given from the acts of the 
 general chapter, but which O^Daly had not heard of before. 
 
 Rev. Father VINCENT GERALD DILLON, O.P.P. 
 
 Father Dillon, of the convent of Athenry, who was of a 
 noble family, and remarkable for his piety, formerly vicar of 
 the Irish Dominican convent of Lisbon, proceeded to England 
 with the Irish who served under the King^s standard to hear 
 the confessions of the Catholics in that army, and, being 
 taken prisoner by the rebels after the battle of York, was 
 thrown into prison, and there kept until he died of hardship 
 and hunger, in 1651.^^ — A Rosario, p. 359 (216), and Mon, 
 Dom, 
 
 Rev. Father STEPHEN PETIT, O.P.P. 
 
 '^Father Stephen Petit, of the convent of Athenry, whilst 
 hearing the confessions of Catholic soldiers, was struck by a 
 bullet, and so completed his course, in the year 1651.^^ — Hib, 
 Dom., p. 570, ex Act. Cap, Gen, Romce, 1656. 
 
 De Burgo points out that this is clearly another from the 
 father who fell in 1642, being from different convents, and 
 their fate narrated at different chapters of the order. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 247 
 
 DONATUS O^BRIEN, 
 
 we learn from an eye-witness of Cromwellian cruelty, 
 was descended of the royal race of the O^Briens, a most 
 generous man, and of surpassing hospitality. After the 
 Protestants had plighted to them their faith, and given him a 
 safe-conduct, he was advancing one day to meet them, when 
 a certain Protestant knight shot him through the body. 
 Dissatisfied with this cruelty, when the venerable old man 
 (then aged about sixty-four years) had entered a hut, half 
 dead, that he might in penitence commend his soul to God, 
 a soldier followed, set fire to the hut, and burned this coura- 
 geous martyr, in Thomond,A.D.1651.^^ — Morison^ s Threnodia^ 
 ap. Moran, Persec., p. 196. 
 
 Bev. BERNARD FITZPATRICK 
 
 was a holy and illustrious priest, descended from the noble 
 lineage of the Barons of Ossory. Flying for refuge from the 
 fury of the Protestants to a cave, he was pursued by them ; 
 entering the cave, they cut of the head of this most holy man, 
 who was equally renowned throughout the whole kingdom 
 for his life, his doctrine, and his lineage. They affixed his 
 head to a spike over the town gate, to be meat for the fowls 
 of the air, and left his flesh to be devoured by the beasts of 
 the 
 
 Right Rev. ARTHUR MAGENNIS, Bishop of 
 Down and Connor. 
 
 ^^Few dioceses in Ireland contributed more martyrs from its 
 hierarchy than the ancient see of Down and Connor. Under 
 James I., and again under Charles I., we find its bishop 
 laying down his life for his flock. During the persecution of 
 Cromwell it not only shared with Clogher the glory won for 
 the Irish Church by the heroism and fortitude of Heber 
 McMahon, but merited, moreover, to have its own chief 
 
248 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 pastor put to death for his unflinching attachment to the 
 Catholic faith. This was Dr. Arthur Magennis, a member 
 of the Order of S. Bernard, or Cistercians.* Dr. French, 
 indeed, in his catalogue of the Irish bishops, merely states 
 that he died at sea ; and Bruodin only adds that he was 
 advanced in years, that he was at the time sufiPering from a 
 violent fever, and that he was subjected by the heretics 
 to much hardship and persecution. From the Bishop of 
 Clonfert, however, we learn by what peculiar art the per- 
 secutors eflPected his death. Even the most ruthless savage 
 would desist from torturing a venerable aged man, thus a 
 victim of disease and anguish ; but the Puritan sailors, with 
 brutal ferocity, delighted in adding to his sufiPerings. A 
 cannon was fired off at his bedside, and, though it was 
 charged with powder only, such was the terror that it excited 
 in the aged bishop that he instantly expired.^’ — Moran^ Per- 
 sec., p. 209. 
 
 Rev. denis NELAN, O.S.F. 
 
 He was a priest of the Order of S. Francis, and descended 
 from noble parents in the county Limerick. Before en- 
 tering the Franciscan order he was for many years parish 
 priest of Kilragty, and his labours produced an abundant 
 spiritual harvest. From 1642 to 1651 these labours were 
 happily continued by him as a Franciscan father, till at 
 length Limerick became a prey to the Puritan strangers. 
 With many others. Father Denis fell into their hands, being 
 arrested at the house of his relative Mr. Laurence Neherenny. 
 With his hands tied behind his back, he was led along, like a 
 convicted robber, to the island of S. Cunan, or Cronan, 
 where was then the heretical camp. The whole way along 
 he fervently exhorted the heretical soldiery to attend to their 
 eternal salvation ; and when interrogated by the commander 
 whether, renouncing the doctrines of Rome, he would sub- 
 scribe to the Puritan tenets, he courageously replied that he 
 
 * Hib. Dom., p. 490, where he gives Dr. French’s catalogue. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 249 
 
 had long anxiously sighed for an occasion when he might lay 
 down his life for the Catholic faith, and he would not only 
 never renounce its saving doctrines, but was ready, moreover, 
 to endure a thousand torments in its defence. These words 
 were scarcely uttered when the surrounding soldiers, erecting 
 a temporary gallows, hanged him on the spot.'^ 
 
 Rev. Father THADDiEUS CARIGHY, O.S.F. 
 
 “ He made his solemn profession amongst the religious of 
 the Franciscan convent of Inish, and filled the whole district 
 of Thomond with the odour of his virtues. In 1651 he was 
 arrested by the Cromwellians in the neighbourhood of his 
 convent, and was tempted with the promise of riches and 
 dignities should he renounce the Catholic faith ; but neither 
 allurements nor tortures could turn him aside from the path 
 of virtue, and by order of his captors he was immediately 
 hanged, and his body barbarously mangled.^^ — BruodiUy 
 lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 Rev. HUGH MACKEON, O.S.F. 
 
 Ulster, amongst other flowers of the Franciscan order, 
 produced that most pious man Father Hugh Mackeon, the 
 son of respectable parents in the county Armagh. He made 
 his profession in the convent of Armagh, and was so esteemed 
 by his superiors that he was ordained priest and appointed a 
 confessor. When the Cromwellian rebels prevailed in Ulster, 
 Father Hugh, by order of his superiors, betook himself to 
 Connaught, where he was taken prisoner, and, in hatred of 
 the faith, thrown into prison in Athlone (Allonia), where, 
 overcome by the squalor of the place, he died, in the year 
 1651.’^* — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 * In 1658 twenty-five pounds were paid to Lieutenant Edward 
 Wood, on the certificate of William St. George, Esq., of the county 
 Cavan, for the arrest of five priests ; amongst others the Rev. Hugh 
 MacGeown. (See under that year.) Either this one was different from 
 Father Hugh Mackeon, or Lieutenant Wood had to wait seven years 
 for his blood-money ; probably they were different. 
 
250 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Rev. ROGER MACNAMARA, O.S.F. 
 
 ^^The family of Macnamara is an ancient and illustrious one 
 in Clare, and of it was Father Roger, son of Donald Mac- 
 namara and Marina Mahony. He made his profession in 
 the convent of Quenhy* (built magnificently of black marble 
 by his ancestors), and was ever a model of a simple and pious 
 religious. From the time he was ordained priest he daily 
 offered the Divine Sacrifice of our redemption with great de- 
 votion. When the heretics were ravaging the province, and 
 Father Roger bearing consolation to the dispersed Catholics, 
 God determined to reward his piety. Therefore, by the 
 divine permission, he was taken near the town of Clare, and, 
 when neither threats nor promises could shake his constancy 
 in the faith, he was pierced with bullets and then beheaded, 
 anno 1651.^^ — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 DANIEL CLANCHY and JEREMIAS NERIHING, 
 
 O.S.F. 
 
 ^^He was born of a respectable family at Tradria, in Tho- 
 mond, and became a lay brother in the Franciscan convent of 
 Quenhy in 1640, where he lived as became a worthy disciple 
 of S. Francis until 1651, when he was taken by the heretics 
 and hung in hatred of the faith. 
 
 Jeremias Nerihing was the son of wealthy parents (who 
 were well known to me) . Despising the vanities of this world, 
 he, in 1640, became a lay brother in the same convent of which 
 Father Bonaventure Gorman was at that time guardian. 
 Taken by the heretics, he was beaten with sticks, and, with a 
 rope, round his neck, was threatened with death unless he 
 would renounce what they called the errors of Popery. 
 Brother Jeremias answered that out of the holy Roman 
 Church there is no salvation, and was immediately hung, the 
 same year.^^ — Bruodin. 
 
 * Convent of Quenby, or Quencby. See page 257. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 251 
 
 Eev. EUGENE O^TEMAN, O.S.F. 
 
 He was born in the county of Donegal, and, seeking to 
 follow in the steps of Christ in evangelical poverty, became 
 an alumnus of the Franciscan convent of Donegal, where for 
 some years he led an exemplary life. When the regicides 
 tyrannized over Ulster, Father Eugene was taken by the 
 garrison of Balasaun. He was scorned, his religious habit 
 torn off him, he was flogged, and so cut to pieces by the 
 soldiers^ swords that eighteen wounds were counted on his 
 body. Eugene was left for dead on the road, but was found 
 by some of his brethren still breathing, and was carried to 
 their residence, where, to their great grief, he expired four 
 days afterwards/^ — Bruodin* 
 
 Revs. DONATES O^KENEDY, DONATES SCRENAN, 
 FULGENTIUS JORDAN, ROMANDUS O’MALY, 
 THOMAS TELLY, and THOMAS DEIR, of the 
 Order of Hermits of S. Augustine. 
 
 Bruodin says he found no record of them except in a book 
 published in Belgium by an anonymous writer, and dedicated 
 to the Archduke Leopold, entitled Sanguinea Eremo Mar- 
 tyrum Hibernice Ord. Eremit. S. P. AugustiniP The writer 
 did not give the exact dates of their martyrdom. 
 
 Father Donatus O’Kenedy was of a noble family in Or- 
 mond, a monk of the order of the Hermits of S. Augustine, 
 and was hanged in hatred of the faith. Of the same order 
 were Fathers Donald Screnan and Fulgentius Jordan, slain 
 in like manner; also Father Romand O’Maly, of a Gal- 
 way family, and Father Thomas Tully, and Brother Thomas 
 Deir. — Bruodin. 
 
252 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Rev. FRANCIS SULIVAN, O.S.F. 
 
 He was of the race of the chiefs of Baer and Bantry, in 
 Munster, and lector jubilatus in theology. He was ap- 
 pointed over the Irish province in 1650, and governed the 
 flock intrusted to him as well as he could till the year 1651, 
 when the rebels prevailed in Munster. Father Francis, the 
 provincial, remained in Kerry whilst the heretics ravaged all 
 the country. However, to escape the tempest, and after the 
 example of the Apostles, to preserve himself for the care of 
 the flock committed to him, he hid himself with many others 
 in a cavern, but did not thereby escape the lynx eyes of those 
 who sought out Papists to slay them. The holy father was 
 found out and shot to death in the cavern, which thus served 
 as his tomb, about the beginning of December, 1651.^^ — 
 Bruodin. 
 
 Brother ANTONY BRODER or O’BRODER, O.S.F. 
 
 “ The family of O’Broder is a respectable Catholic one in 
 the county of Galway, possessing land not far from a celebrated 
 lake called Lough Derighert.* Brother Antony Broder was 
 a member of this family and an ornament to the Franciscan 
 order. When the persecution of the rebels laid waste the 
 country, Antony, who was then only a deacon, had, like other 
 ecclesiastics, to seek a hiding-place. He sought and, as he 
 thought, found one in the castle of Turlevachan, in the county 
 of Galway. It proved, however, an unsafe retreat, for Charles 
 Coote, alike a barbarous tyrant and a cunning hunter-out of 
 priests, found him out and immediately hanged him, in the 
 year 1652. 
 
 On the fourth week after the martyr had been hurriedly 
 buried, on the place of execution, his friends came and dug 
 up his body, in order to bury it in consecrated ground. 
 Strange to say, when he was dug up in his Franciscan habit, 
 blood flowed freely from the nostrils. I leave the explanation 
 of this fact to others.^^ — Bruodin. 
 
 * I cannot identify this lake. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 253 
 
 Rev. HILARY CONRY, O.S.F. 
 
 He was bora of noble parents, in the county of Ros- 
 common. Having completed his studies, he embraced a life 
 of evangelical poverty in the Franciscan convent of Elphin, 
 which was then a noviceship of that order. The piety and 
 learning of Conry so pleased the fathers that he was ordained 
 priest. One day, by order of the father guardian, he went 
 out to beg through the district, as is the custom of the men- 
 dicant orders, and was taken prisoner on the road by that 
 cruel tyrant Charles Coote, carried to Castle Coote, and there 
 hanged.”* — Bruodin. 
 
 Anno 1652. 
 
 Right Rev. FRANCIS KIRWAN, Bishop of Killala; 
 Dr. JAMES FALLON, Vicar- Apostolic of Achonry; 
 and Many Others. 
 
 The town of Galway, the last fortress of the Irish, sur- 
 rendered to Ludlow on the 20th March, 1652, on articles 
 securins the inhabitants their residence within the walls of 
 the town and the enjoyment of their houses and estates. The 
 taxation was soon so great that many of the townspeople 
 quitted their habitations and removed their cattle, unable to 
 endure it. The tax for the support of the soldiery was col- 
 lected from the inhabitants every Saturday by sound of 
 trumpet, and if not instantly paid the soldiery rushed into the 
 house and seized what they could lay hands on. The sound 
 of the trumpet every returning Saturday shook their souls 
 
 * Bruodin puts his death at 1642, but I think that must be a mis- 
 take for 1652. In 1642 Sir Charles Coote was in Dublin and its nei^h- 
 hourliood, at Naas and Trim, and was killed at the latter place on the 
 7th May in that year. Ills son was appointed Provost-Marshal of 
 Connaught,* and persecuted there in 1652, when he miglit well have 
 taken Father Conry near Elpliin. The mention of Castle Coote (which 
 is in Cavan) is strange. It should be added that the life of Father 
 Conry in Bruodin comes in the midst of several others who suffered in 
 1652, 80 that 1642 would seem to be a clerical error. 
 
254 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 with terror, like the trumpet of the day of judgment. On 
 the 23rd July, 1655, all the Irish were directed to quit the 
 town by the 1st November following, the owners of houses, 
 however, to receive compensation at eight years^ purchase ; 
 in default, the soldiers were to drive them out. On the 30th 
 October this order was executed. All the inhabitants, except 
 the sick and bed- rid, were at once banished.* But to return 
 to the date of the surrender of the town. Colonel Stubbers, 
 who was appointed military governor of the town upon its 
 surrender, under the pretence of taking up vagrants and idle 
 persons, made frequent nightly excursions with armed troops 
 into the country, and seized upwards of a thousand people, 
 often without discrimination of rank or condition, whom he 
 transported to the West Indies, and there sold as slaves. Up- 
 wards of fifty of the Catholic clergy were shipped to the 
 islands of Arran and Boffin, until they could be transported 
 to the West Indies, and, being allowed only twopence a day 
 each for their support, they were nearly famished.f 
 
 Dr. Francis Kirwan, the Bishop of Killala, was at this time 
 lying hid in a country house at a short distance from the 
 city. For eight months he continued there, in a small nar- 
 row room, which, besides two beds for himself and his chap- 
 lain, was barely able to contain a chest. This served for an 
 altar, and whilst the Holy Sacrifice was offered up each day, 
 one bed had to be removed to afford standing-room for the 
 celebrant. The intense cold of winter was endured without a 
 fire, and during the whole eight months only thrice did the 
 bishop go for an instant from this hiding-place. On one 
 occasion he was carried out wrapped in a sheet, whilst the 
 enemy were engaged in searching every corner of the house 
 for arms, and when met by the soldiers he was recognized 
 only as a feeble and worn-down old man ; and well does his 
 biographer compare his many sufferings at this period to those 
 of the early pastors of the Catholic Church. When the 
 bishop deemed it more secure to enter the town, he was 
 
 * Prendergast, Cromwellian Settlement, p. 146. 
 
 t See Anno 1657. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 255 
 
 obliged to take refuge in the topmost story of the house, 
 underneath the tiles, and this, too, at mid-winter, without 
 one spark of fire. Sometimes, too, he was forced to go out 
 on the roof, and, when the pursuers approached, to descend 
 into a neighbouring house by the dormer window. When at 
 length the good bishop, finding it impossible to remain con- 
 cealed any longer, surrendered, he and several other eccle- 
 siastics were treated as galley-slaves; they were marched along 
 in bodies, surrounded by soldiers, drums beating and bugles 
 sounding, and when, by the diligence of priest- catchers, many 
 other ecclesiastics were cast into prison, they were locked up 
 in houses hired for the occasion, and for which the prisoners 
 themselves had to pay. During his imprisonment the holy 
 man found occasion frequently to celebrate the sacred mys- 
 teries, and at a window administered to the children the 
 sacrament of confirmation. No sooner was it discovered by 
 the Government that the bishop and his companions were 
 thus engaged in conferring spiritual blessings on the Catholics 
 than their banishment was resolved on. The confessors of 
 Christ were suddenly carried off to a ship, and on their way 
 were surrounded by a terrible escort, nor had they any 
 previous notice of the decree of banishment, lest their friends 
 might succour them with some viaticum. 
 
 For further particulars see under 1655, notice of Dr. 
 Burke. 
 
 Throughout the whole province of Connaught the persecu- 
 tion raged with the same fury. Thus, when Dr. James Fallon, 
 who governed the diocese of Achonry as vicar-apostolic, was 
 arrested in lar Connaught, the heretics so plundered him of 
 his copious collection of books that not even a breviary was 
 left with him. Before he was made a prisoner, he for a long 
 time was exposed day and night to the inclemency of the 
 winter, till he at length erected a small hut at the base 
 of a rock ; here he remained till the goats, browsing on the 
 foliage, stripped the branches, and then he was obliged to 
 seek elsewhere a place of refuge. — Moran, Persec., p. 72, 
 and Life of Dr. Kirwan, by Lynch. 
 
256 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Rev. BONAVENTURE DE BURGO, O.S.F. 
 
 “ He was a son of the noble knight Oliver de Burgo, lord of 
 Ropy, in the county of Mayo, and Anabella Conor, his wife. 
 At an early age he embraced the rule of S. Francis, in 1635, 
 and carefully observed it until 1652, when, with Thaddseus 
 Conor, lord of Bealnamilly, he was hung, in hatred of the 
 faith .^^ — Bruodiuj lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 Rev. ANTONY O^FERRALL, O.S.F., 
 
 was taken whilst preaching, by the Cromwellians, at Tulsk, 
 in Roscommon, in the castle of Sir Ulysses de Burgo, and 
 immediately hung, anno 1652.’^ — Bruodin. 
 
 Rev. JOHN CAROLAN, S.J. 
 
 In 1649 he was living at Galway, aged sixty-four, of which 
 period he had passed twenty-four years in the society, but 
 was in priesEs orders before his admission. The good old 
 man was literally hunted to death by the Cromwellian 
 myrmidons, between the years 1652 and 1656. Though not 
 actually taken by his inveterate and savage pursuers, he died 
 of exhaustion and hunger.^^ — Oliver, Collections. 
 
 Rev. EUGENE OUAHAN, O.S.F. 
 
 He was of a noble family in Thomond (Clare), and entered 
 the Order of S. Francis of the Strict Observance, in the con- 
 vent of Inish, in the sixteenth year of his age, and there 
 mad^e great progress in religion. He made his profession 
 about the year 1628, and by order of the heads of the Irish 
 province proceeded to Rome, and there, in the celebrated 
 college of S. Isidore, under the great men who then presided 
 over it. Fathers Luke Wadding, Antony Hickey, James 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 257 
 
 Bridges^ and Thaddaeus Daly (whose memory is in benedic- 
 tion), made such progress in learning and religion as might 
 be expected from a generous youth under snch masters* 
 When he had finished the study of theology he proceeded to 
 Naples, by direction of the Very Rev. Father Benignus 
 a Genna, then minister-general, and there taught philosophy 
 amongst the Fathers Minorites. Anxious to serve his 
 country, he obtained leave of the father-general to proceed 
 to Ireland, and sailed for that country in the year 1641, and 
 devoted himself to missionary labours. When the Catholics 
 obtained power in 1643, Father Eugene, by direction of his 
 superiors, opened a school in the town of Quenhi,* in 
 Thomond, which he taught together with the Rev. Father 
 Thaddseus O’Brien, of the same order. So great a number of 
 youths from all parts of Ireland flocked to this school that in 
 1644 there were more than eight hundred students (amongst 
 whom were I and eighteen other Bruodins) . When, through the 
 evil chance of war, and, alas ! the dissensions of the Catholics, 
 this school was dispersed. Father Eugene was made guardian 
 of the convent of Inish, which had been founded by the 
 liberality of the chief of the O’Briens. He proved himself 
 diligent and blameless in this office for three years. At 
 length he was taken prisoner by the heretics, then overrun- 
 ning the country, in the year 1651, and grievously scourged. 
 Father Eugene, more solicitous of saving souls than of pre- 
 serving his life, besought them, not to cease their cruelty to 
 himself, but to abjure their errors. On the other hand, 
 they threatened him with death unless he would embrace 
 their creed, and when they saw that they prevailed nothing, 
 they hanged the good father, on Mount Luochren, in 
 Thomond, anno 1651.” — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 Revs. ROGER ORMILY and HUGH CARIGHY. 
 ^^The Rev. Roger Ormily was a native of Clare, and a secular 
 
 * Or Quinchy, according to Ware, wliere was a convent of Friars 
 Elinors, founded in 1433 by Macon Macnemarra, 
 
 S 
 
258 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 priest^ who for thirty years was parish priest of Brentire. 
 When he was upwards of sixty years of age he fell into the 
 hands of the Cromwellians, then ravaging Clare^ and^ without 
 any form of trial, when he confessed himself a priest, was 
 hung, and so gained everlasting life, on the 12th October, 
 1652. In the same year, day, and place, and by the same 
 death. Father Hugh Carighy obtained the crown of martyr- 
 dom. He was a parish priest of Clare, and in the seventy- 
 sixth year of his age, and the forty-fourth of his priest- 
 hood.^^ — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 Rev. NIELAN LOCHERAN, O.S.F. 
 
 ^^He was a native of Ulster, and a Franciscan of the convent 
 of Armagh, where he made his profession about his twentieth 
 year, and made good progress in virtue, and would have made 
 more had not his days been shortened by the fury of the 
 heretics. The good father was taken prisoner (I know not 
 by what chance) by the soldiers of Londonderry, and dragged 
 to that town, with his hands tied behind his back, like a 
 robber. After he had endured tortures, the governor ordered 
 him to be brought before him, and offered him a wife and a 
 good benefice if he would apostatize. Nielan, with an angelic 
 courage replied that he had, following the example of S. 
 Peter the Apostle, voluntarily relinquished all, that he might 
 gain Christ, and that he would not, by looking back, deprive 
 himself of the reward promised in heaven ; nay, he exhorted 
 the governor to save his soul, redeemed with the blood of 
 Christ, by abjuring heresy and embracing the Catholic 
 faith. Furious at this audacity, the governor at once ordered 
 him to be hanged. Joyfully did Father Locheran go to the 
 place of execution, and was then hung, from enmity to the 
 Catholic faith, anno 1652.^^ — Bruodin^ lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 Lady ROCHE and Lady BRIDGET FITZPATRICK. 
 
 The latter of these two noble and pious ladies was executed 
 in tliis year, the former in 1654, but as the account of their 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 259 
 
 deaths is given by the same author, I have placed them here 
 
 Morison thus narrates their fate: — 
 
 The inhuman fury of the Protestants was not satisfied 
 with the slaughter of men, but they also drew their swords 
 against women. Thus, the noble Lady Roche, wife of 
 Maurice, Viscount of Fermoy and Roche, a chaste and holy 
 matron, whose mind was solely occupied with prayer and 
 piety, being falsely accused of murder by a certain ungrateful 
 English maid- servant (whom she had compassionately taken 
 when a desolate orphan, and supported and educated), was 
 hanged in Cork, in 1654, although stricken in years, and des- 
 tined in the course of nature soon to die. The noble Lady 
 Bridget, of the house of Darcy, wife of Florence Fitzpatrick, 
 one of the Barons of Ossory, was also hanged by the Pro- 
 testants, at Dublin, in 1652, without the form of law or 
 j iistice. 
 
 “ What shall I yet say ? Time would fail me to narrate 
 the martyrdom of chiefs, nobles, prelates, priests, friars, 
 citizens, and others of the Irish Catholics, whose purple gore 
 has stained the scaffolds almost without end ; who by faith 
 conquered kingdoms and wrought justice ; of whom some had 
 trials in mockeries and stripes, moreover, also, of chains, and 
 prisons ; others were overwhelmed with stones, cut asunder, 
 racked, or put to death with the sword; others have wandered 
 over the world in hunger, thirst, cold, and nakedness, being 
 in want, distress, and afflicted, wandering in deserts, in moun- 
 tains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth. And all these, 
 being approved by the testimony of the faith, without doubt 
 received the promise .^^ — Morison Threnodiap. 72, ap. Moran, 
 Persec., p. 197, and Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 DANIEL CONNERY and DANIEL MOLLONY. 
 Morison gives two other striking examples of the yiractical 
 working of the laws against Catholics. He says, — 
 
 ‘‘ I myself saw this iniquitous law (against harbouring a 
 priest, 27 Eliz. cap. 2) put in execution in the city of Lim- 
 
 s 2 
 
260 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 erick by Henry Ingoldsby, the governor of that city. A 
 gentleman of Thomond, named Daniel Connery, was accused 
 of harbouring in his house a priest, and, being convicted on 
 his own confession (although the priest had a safe-conduct 
 from the same governor), he was sentenced to death, and, the 
 sentence being (mercifully as was said) commuted into confis- 
 cation of all his goods and imprisonment, afterwards com- 
 muted for perpetual exile. He had a wife of a noble family 
 of Thomond, and twelve children : his wife fell ill, and died 
 from the want of necessaries ; and of his children, three hand- 
 some and virtuous girls were shipped as slaves to Barbadoes, 
 where, if yet alive, they live in miserable slavery ; the rest of 
 his children, who were too young to work, are either dead of 
 hunger, or live miserably under the yoke of their enemies. 
 
 I also saw the second part of this law (as to denouncing 
 a priest) put in force in the same Limerick, under the same 
 governor, in the year 1652, against a noble and honest Catholic 
 of the name of Daniel Mollony, of Thomond, who, coming 
 to Limerick on account of some business, chanced to meet in 
 an heretic inn a priest, a relative of his, named David Mol- 
 lony. The priest was afterwards betrayed and taken prisoner, 
 and Daniel was summoned to answer why he had not informed 
 the magistrates that there was a priest there ? He answered 
 that he was a Catholic, and that there was no law obliging 
 one to denounce a priest, although there was one not to har- 
 bour or feed one (and this was the truth, for the law was not 
 passed till three years later). But, notwithstanding this pru- 
 dent answer, the governor ordered his ears to be cut off by the 
 executioner, which was done. I could give a thousand such 
 examples.’ ’ — Moriso?rs Thremdia. 
 
 Rev. Fathers JOHN O’CUILLIN AND EDMUND 
 O’BERN, O.P.P. 
 
 “ Father O’Cuillin, of the convent of Athenry, a living 
 example of religion and observance of the rule, most given to 
 prayer and (though of delicate health) to fasting, ever con- 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 261 
 
 tent with a poor habit, yet of so excellent a genius that with- 
 out masters he had acquired great knowledge of science. He 
 learnedly confuted the heretics and animated the Catholics, 
 shunning no danger in the defence of the authority of the 
 Holy See. Being at length taken by the heretics at Limerick, 
 and pierced with many wounds, he joyfully laid down his life 
 for Christ. His head was cut off and borne about on a spear 
 as a trophy. 
 
 “ The same year Father Edmund O’Bern, who was twice 
 sub-prior of the convent of Roscommon, after enduring much 
 for faith, country, and the respect due to the Holy See, and 
 therefore sought for execution by the sectaries, at length fell 
 into their hands, and was instantly pierced with bullets, axes, 
 and swords, and so purpled his purity with his blood. He 
 was taken by the garrison of Johnstown. — Mon, Dom. and 
 Hih, Dorn.j ex Act. Caj), Gen. ; and Bruodin^ lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
 Anno 1658. 
 
 Rev. Father THADD.^US MORIARTY, O.P.F. 
 
 He was prior of the convent of Tralee, and a model to 
 those under him in defending the orthodox religion and the 
 authority of the Roman Pontiff’; neither labours, nor suffer- 
 ings, nor imprisonment, nor death itself, could break his 
 courage. 
 
 When the Cromwellian persecution was raging, an oppor- 
 tunity offered itself for his escape to a safer place, but he 
 courageously refused, being moved with compassion for the 
 Catholics, to whom he knew his presence was most necessary, 
 on account of the dearth of priests to administer the sacra- 
 ments. He was taken prisoner and carried to Killarney, and 
 condemned to death. From the to}) of the ladder he exhorted 
 the faithful with great earnestness to have patience and pre- 
 serve the faith, and, having recited the verse, “ Into Thy hands 
 I commend my spirit,” he met a glorious death, the very 
 sectaries being struck with admiration, and saying, ‘‘ If ever a 
 Papist were a martyr, he was one.” — Mon. Dom.^ ex Act. Cap, 
 Gen, 1656. 
 
262 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 He suffered on the 15th October, 1653. 
 
 He had studied in the convent of Toledo, where he made 
 much progress in learning, having first entered the college of 
 Lisbon. His brother, Father Thomas Moriarty, of the same 
 convent, was also a most pious and zealous priest, and laboured 
 much in the same district, where he died.’*’ — Hih. Dom., 
 p. 573 ; Dom. a Rosario^ p. 355. 
 
 Father BERNARD O’KELLY, O.P.P., 
 
 a Dominican of the convent of Roscommon, lay long in 
 prison, where he suffered much from the filth of the prison, 
 the weight of the chains with which he was bound, and 
 hunger, being compelled to sell his only coat for bread. At 
 Galway he was condemned to death for having exhorted some 
 Catholic women to constancy in the faith, and, meeting a 
 glorious death by the gallows, departed to heaven,” — Mon, 
 Dom., ut supra. 
 
 SEVERAL JESUIT FATHERS. 
 
 On the 6th January, 1653, a proclamation was published 
 against the Catholic clergy. By it all ecclesiastics, secular 
 and regular, were commanded, under penalty of being judged 
 guilty of treason, to depart from the kingdom within twenty 
 days, and should they return, of the penalties and confiscations 
 specified in the 27th of Queen Elizabeth — that is, those of 
 treason. A manuscript in the Irish College, Rome, quoted 
 by Dr. Moran, continues, — 
 
 “ When this edict was published, the superior of the 
 Jesuits was lying sick of fever in the house of a respectable 
 citizen, unable to move in bed, not to say to journey on foot 
 or on horseback ; a petition was therefore presented to the 
 governor of the city that he might be allowed to remain some 
 few days, till his strength should return. But the governor 
 replied that, though the whole body of the Jesuit was dead, 
 and life remained only in one hand or foot, he must at once 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH.' 
 
 263 
 
 quit every inch of Ireland. The sick man was forthwith 
 seized in bed, hurried along for about seventy Irish miles, in 
 the midst of a severe winter, to a seaport, and then, with 
 two other Jesuits and forty secular priests, w^as cast into a 
 vessel bound for Spain.” — Status Rei Cath. in Hibernia hoc 
 anno 1654, in Archie, Colleg. Hib. Romce^ ap. Moran, 
 Persec., p. 99. 
 
 Borlase, the Protestant historian, estimates the number of 
 Irish transported in the year 1654 at 27,000. A contemporary 
 document states that no less than 20,000 Irish took refuge in 
 the Hebrides and other Scottish islands. Dr. Burgatt, agent 
 of the Irish clergy in Rome, afterwards Archbishop of Cashel, 
 in a relation presented to the sacred congregation in 1667, 
 says, In the year 1649 there were in Ireland twenty-seven 
 bishops, four of whom were metropolitans. In each cathedral 
 there were dignitaries and canons ; each parish had its pastors ; 
 there were, moreover, a large number of other priests, and 
 innumerable convents of the regular clergy. But when 
 Cromwell, with exceeding great cruelty, persecuted the clergy, 
 all were scattered. More than three hundred were put to 
 death by the sword or on the scaffold, amongst whom were 
 three bishops ; more than a thousand were sent into exile, and 
 amongst these all the surviving bishops, with one only excep- 
 tion, the Bishop of Kilmore, who weighed down by age and 
 infirmities, as he was unfit to discharge the episcopal functions, 
 so too was he unable to seek safety by flight. And thus for 
 some years our island remained deprived of its bishops, a 
 thing never known during the many centuries since we first 
 received the light of Catholic faith.” — Moran^ he. cit. 
 
 Rev. M. MORISON, O. Min. 
 
 Probably to about this year may be referred the imprison- 
 ment of Fath^ Morison. Writing in 1659, he says, — 
 
 “ I myself, the least and most unworthy of all {absit gloriari 
 nisi in cruce)^ passed thirty months in a dark dungeon, thirty 
 feet below the earth, with irons of 47 lb. weight on my feet 
 and hands, sometimes alone, sometimes in company of robbers, 
 
26i 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 often beaten and wounded, and at last sent into exile. Now 
 there are so few priests left, that there are many Catholics, 
 especially in Munster, who have not been able to receive the 
 sacraments for one, two, three, and even six years, and some 
 have journeyed 120 miles to confess and receive the Blessed 
 Eucharist once.” — Morison^s Threnodia. 
 
 The Lady HONORIA DE BURGO and HONORIA 
 MAGAEN. 
 
 “ The same year Sister Honoria de Burgo proved her devo- 
 tion to her heavenly Spouse by uniting to the lilies of virginity 
 the purple of martyrdom. She was the daughter of Richard, 
 dynast, of the De Burgos in Connaught, and in her four- 
 teenth year received the habit of the third order of S. Domi- 
 nick, at the hands of Father Thady Dunne, the then pro- 
 vincial of Ireland, and lived piously in a house which she 
 caused to be erected near our convent and church of Buri- 
 shooL* Here she continued in works of piety through the 
 reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles, up to a great age ; a 
 very mother to the needy and poor, and never, as is believed, 
 having committed a mortal sin. In a time of great dearth she, 
 with another sister of the third order, was near perishing of hun- 
 ger, but in their sore need the spouses of Jesus Christ implored 
 His aid who alone could save them, and then came presently 
 to the door a fair young man (it may be thought an angel), 
 who provided the handmaidens of Christ abundantly with all 
 they needed, and departed. At length, in the last Cromwellian 
 persecution, when the religious were everywhere dispersed, the 
 pious virgin, taking with her a little food, fled, with the com- 
 ])anion already mentioned and one handmaiden, to a certain 
 island (called Holy Island) ; here, however, she was followed 
 by tlm enemies and taken prisoner, spoiled of everything, and, 
 though it was the depth of winter, stripped almost naked 
 and led away, and the barbarians flung her violently, 
 
 * Burishool (in Irish, Buresuaii — that is, the place of apples), in the 
 county Mayo. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 265 
 
 although only skin and bone, and half frozen, into a boat, like 
 a log of wood, whereby three of her ribs were broken, and she 
 died. Before, however, she expired, the servant carried her 
 to our church of Burishool, and laid her before the altar of 
 the Blessed Virgin. Having left her there, the servant went 
 to seek the other sister, whom she found in the wood, and 
 when she returned to the church she found the body of Sister 
 Honoria on her knees as if praying, she calmly sleeping in the 
 Lord. 
 
 Sister Honoria Magaen, also a professed sister of our 
 third order, and inseparable from Sister Honoria de Burgo, 
 whose labours and troubles she shared, joined to her in life, in 
 death too she was not divided, but shared her tomb and fol- 
 lowed her to glory ; for she was taken prisoner by the same 
 soldiers, in the same island of saints, and, in derision, all her 
 clothes stripped off, and many torments inflicted on her. As 
 she was younger, and, being fair, feared more for her chastity 
 than her life, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit she 
 snatched herself from the hands of her furious persecutors, 
 and escaped into the neighbouring wood, where she hid her- 
 self in the trunk of a hollow tree, where the next day she was 
 found by the servant of her friend Honoria, dead of cold, 
 with her hands raised to heaven. She was buried with her 
 friend in one tomb, and, as in life they had loved each other, 
 in death they were not divided.^’ — Mon. Dom.^ e.v Act. Cap. 
 Gen. 1656. 
 
 Anno 1654. 
 
 Rev. Father HUGH MacGOILLY, O.P.P. 
 
 In the year 1654 the shedding of Dominican blood con- 
 tinued in Ireland. The Rev. Hugh MacGoilly, of the con- 
 vent of Rathbran,* who for his piety and learning had been 
 appointed master of the novices in that convent, urged 
 by his zeal, proceeded to AVaterford, to confirm the Catholics 
 there in their veneration and reverence towards the Holy 
 Roman Church, and its visible head the Pope. He was taken 
 
 * Rathbran, in the barony of Tjrawly, county of Mayo. 
 
266 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 by the heretics, and, having freely confessed that he was a 
 priest and a Dominican, was condemned to be hung. Standing 
 under the gallows, he so movingly addressed the bystanders 
 that his very enemies were moved to tears. The Catholics 
 buried his venerable body with what honour they might. — 
 Mon. Dom.^ eoo Act, Cap. Gen, 1656. 
 
 Revs. JOHN CAROLAN and CHRISTOPHER 
 NETTERVILLE. 
 
 Their fate is told in the MS. given by Dr. Moran : — 
 
 “We lived for the most part in the mountains and forests, 
 and often too in the midst of bogs, to escape the cavalry of the 
 heretics. One priest, advanced in years. Father John Carolan, 
 was so diligently sought for, and so closely watched, being 
 surrounded on all sides, and yet not discovered, that he died 
 of starvation. Another, Father Christopher Netterville, like 
 S. Athanasius, for an entire year and more lay hid in his 
 father’s sepulchre, and even then, with difficulty escaping the 
 pursuit of the enemy, he had to fly to a still more incommo- 
 dious retreat. One was concealed in a deep pit, from which 
 he at intervals went forth on some mission of charity. The 
 heretics having received information as to his hiding-place, 
 rushed to it, and, throwing down immense blocks of rock, 
 exulted in his destruction ; but Providence watched over the 
 good father, and he was absent, engaged in some pious work 
 of his ministry, when his retreat was thus assailed. As the 
 Holy Sacrifice cannot be offered up in these receptacles of 
 beasts rather than of men, all the clergy carry with them a 
 sufficient number of consecrated Hosts, that thus they may 
 themselves be comforted by this Holy Sacrament, and may be 
 able to administer it to the sick and to others .” — Status Rei 
 CatJi. in Hib. hoc anno 1654, ap. Moran, Persec,, p. 120. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 267 
 
 Kevs. ROGER BEGS, WILLIAM SHIEL, . and 
 
 TOBIN. 
 
 Of the first all we know is that on the 4th of August, 1654, 
 he was dismissed from prison, “on account of his miserable con- 
 dition,” after nine months’ imprisonment ; but two conditions 
 were added — viz., that within four months he should trans- 
 port himself out of the country, and during that interval 
 “should not exercise any part of his priestly functions.” Another 
 priest, named William Shiel, was also dismissed from prison, 
 on account of his “ being old, lame, and weak, and not able 
 to travel without crutches but two conditions were also 
 added to his release — that he should never exercise his priestly 
 function, and should not move beyond one mile from the spot in 
 Connaught which would be assigned to him for residence by 
 the governor of Athlone. Some idea of the condition of the 
 }iriests in prison may be formed from the fact recorded of 
 Father Tobin, of Kilkenny, that, though in a violent fever, 
 he was obliged to sleep on the floor, and his only food was a 
 small quantity of half-boiled beans. It was made a privilege 
 to allow them to transport themselves to foreign parts, as 
 appears from an order of 29th May, 1664 ; and then the 
 clause was added that each should provide the five pounds 
 which had been paid for his arrest. — Moran^ Persec.^ p. 105 ; 
 Prendergast, Cromwellian Settlements p. 159 ; Letter in 
 S. C. de Prop, Fid,^ Marchs 1656. 
 
 Rev. BRYAN KILKENNY, O.S.F. 
 
 1 FIND the following notice of him in Curry : — 
 
 “ A barbarous murder was committed by one Edward Alta, 
 an irreligious, profane fellow, of the county of Mayo, and 
 his accomplices, on some Protestants at Shruel, a place meet- 
 ing Galway, on about thirty persons ; and the pamphleteer 
 might well remember that the neighbouring gentry came with 
 all expedition to rescue the said Protestants, and that they did 
 rescue the Bishop of Killala (who by the pamphlet would 
 seem to have been murdered), and his wife and children, with 
 most part of the said Protestants ; and Bryan Kilkenny, a 
 
268 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONRESSORS 
 
 friar, then guardian of the abbey of Ross, near Shruel, was 
 of the first that made haste to that rescue, and brought the 
 said bishop’s wife and children, with several other of the 
 distressed Protestants, to his monastery, where they found as 
 much civility as was in the said friar’s power to give them for 
 several nights, until Mr. Burke, of Castle-Hacket, brought 
 the said bishop, his wife and family, to his own house, where 
 they wanted nothing he could afford them for several weeks : 
 the like being done by several other neighbouring gentlemen 
 to the rest of the said Protestants, until they were sent to 
 places of security by the Lord Marquis of Clanricarde^s order; 
 yet the said friar hath been these eight years past (written in 
 1662) kept a prisoner for his function or calling, without any 
 crime laid to his charge, being now above eighty years old. 
 And it is observable that in this county of Galway, all the 
 war-time, several Protestant ministers had their Protestant 
 flocks and meetings without interruption, living amongst the 
 Irish.” — Extract of a collection of some of the massacres 
 ayid 7 nurders committed on the Irish in Ireland since the 
 ^Srd October, 1642. {London, 1662), ap. Cui'rfs Civil 
 Wars, Appendix, p. 623. 
 
 Rev. BERNARD CONNOR, O.S.F. 
 
 “ He was a distinguished Franciscan, and several times held 
 the offices of guardian, definitor, and once that of provincial 
 minister, of visitor-general, and guardian of the college of 
 S. Anthony at Louvain. Exemplary for piety, zeal, and 
 eloquence, he was known to all the Catholics throughout the 
 island. This innocent and exemplary man, when in his 
 seventieth year, was seized by the rebels, alike against their 
 God and their King, aud was sent to the island of Inisbofin, 
 some -miles from the coast of Connaught, in the year 1651. 
 It is impossible to tell all he suffered in the wretched dun- 
 geon there, from the Calvinists, during two years. At length 
 he was taken to Galway for execution, but before the sentence 
 was carried out he gave his soul to God in prison, in the year 
 1654.” — Bruodin, lib. iv. cap. 15. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 2G9 
 
 Anno 1655. 
 
 Most Rev. JOHN DE BURGO, Archbishop of Team, 
 
 was consecrated Bishop of Clonfert in 1639, and transferred 
 to Tuam in 1647. It is not necessary here to enter at any 
 length on the part he took in the politics of the period ; he 
 opposed the nuncio, and advocated the peace of 1646 ; but 
 after the triumph of Cromwell all Catholics suffered alike. 
 It appears from the “ Libellus Supplex,” presented by Dr. 
 French to Clement IX. in 1667, that Dr. Burke was arrested 
 after the surrender of Galway in 1652, detained in prison for 
 some time, and then sent into exile. He was arrested on the 
 11th March, 1654, and detained in prison for fourteen months, 
 having suffered so much in the mean time from a violent 
 disease in the legs that he could scarcely move. In August, 
 1665, the convict ship sailed from Galway for the port of 
 Nantes, with the Archbishop of Tuam, the Bishop of Killala, 
 Dr. Kirwan, and many priests among the prisoners. 
 
 In 1662, after the restoration of Charles, when hopes of 
 toleration (how delusive, time soon proved) were entertained 
 by the Catholics who had suffered so much for his family. Dr. 
 Burke sailed directly from S. Malo, and landed in Dublin 
 about October or November. To the reproaches of the emis- 
 saries of Ormond he answered that he had returned to die at 
 home — to lie down at rest in his grave and native soil.” He 
 had hoped to pass through Dublin unnoticed, when the Lord- 
 Lieutenant was absent, that his past loyalty had been proved ; 
 for the future no pledge was necessary, and he asked permis- 
 sion to remain in Ireland for so short a time as he had to 
 drag on a miserable existence, and end it by a death more 
 welcome, which he daily expected.” 
 
 The next day the archbishop was removed in a litter on his 
 way to Connaught, accompanied by two priests, both Jesuits, 
 one his nephew, and the other Father Thomas Quin. 
 
 He died in 1666, being above eighty years of age. — Rene- 
 han‘‘s Bishops, For life of Kirwan^ LyncKs Alethinologia ; 
 WalsFs Remonstrance^ etc. 
 
270 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Rev. Father THOMAS BIRMINGHAM, O.P.P. 
 
 “ In this year the venerable servant of God Father Thomas 
 Birmingham died in exile for the faith, in great reputation 
 for sanctity. After the example of our early fathers, he was 
 most assiduous in prayer, and a great mortifier of his body, 
 which he often beat, even to blood. He watched and fasted 
 much, and slept on a hard board. He, by prayer, obtained aid 
 for the Catholics who were besieged in Naas. At length he 
 was taken prisoner by the heretics, who thirsted for his blood. 
 They stripped him of the habit of his order, and in derision 
 clothed him in that of the Friars Minors, and amongst the 
 insults and blows of the soldiers he was dragged to Dublin, 
 where he long lay in prison, and was at length sentenced to 
 be transported to Barbadoes. But a ransom* having been 
 paid for him by the Lords Constantine and Felix O’Neill, and 
 Hugh O’Rorke, he was sent to Spain, whence he proceeded 
 to Rome, and, having visited the most celebrated shrines in 
 Italy, he ended his course, and departed to eternal life.” — 
 Mon. Do7n., ecc Act, Cap. Gen. 1656. 
 
 Rev. Father DANIEL CREIDEGAIN, O.P.P. 
 
 The same year died in his native country the venerable old 
 man. Father Daniel Cnegan,*|* who with extraordinary zeal 
 revived our order in Connaught when it was nearly extinct. 
 He restored and built anew several convents, and gave the 
 habit to many youths, whom he sent to be educated in other 
 provinces of the order. Under King James this intrepid 
 champion of the faith animated to constancy many noble men 
 who were thrown into prison for their ancestral faith, and 
 collected funds for their sustenance. He persuaded the illus- 
 trious Earl of Westmeath to go to the King in England, to 
 seek to mollify his anger against the Catholics, and assuage 
 the rage of the heretics. He suffered much persecution, and 
 
 * Those sent to Barbadoes were publicly sold, 
 t Mon. Dom, gives his name as Cnegan ; Hib. Dorn, as Creidegain. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 271 
 
 once, having publicly exposed himself to preserve the honour 
 of a noble Catholic matron assaulted by heretics, he received 
 a fearful wound on the head, from which he nearly^ied, and 
 lost his sight ; whereupon the heretical governor, on account 
 of his well-known innocency of life, exempted him from the 
 common sentence of exile, and allowed him to spend the 
 remnant of his life amidst his friends. Here he laboured 
 assiduously in consoling the Catholics ; and, worn out with 
 age and labours, he calmly slept in the Lord. — Mon. Dom*^ 
 ut sup. 
 
 Rev. Father DAVID ROCHE, O.P.P., and Other 
 Priests. 
 
 Of the many thousands of Irish men, women, and children 
 who were sold into slavery in the West Indies, the names of 
 very few have been preserved. Amongst these was Father 
 David Roche,* Dominican. Full details of this infamous 
 traffic are given by Prendergast, Cromwellian Settlement.’^ 
 Thus, a Government order, published on March 4th, 1655, 
 states that in the four preceding years 6,400 Irish men and 
 women, boys and maidens, had been disposed of to the English 
 slave-dealers. On the 14th September, 1653, two English 
 merchants, named Selleck and Leader, signed a contract with 
 the Government commissioners, by which a supply was 
 granted to them of 250 women and 300 men of the Irish 
 nation, to be found within twenty miles of Cork, Youghal, 
 Kinsale, Waterford, and Wexford. Roger Boyle, Lord 
 Broghill (afterwards Earl of Orrery), deemed it unnecessary 
 to take such trouble in visiting different parts of the kingdom, 
 and undertook to supply the whole number from the county 
 of Cork alone ; hence he received an order empowering him 
 to search for and seize upon that number, “ and no person, 
 being once apprehended, was to be released but by special 
 order in writing under the hand of Lord Broghill. In the 
 month of November, 1655, all the Irish of the townland of 
 I.ackagh, county of Kildare, were seized on by the agents 
 
 * Hib. Pom., p. 571. 
 
272 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 of Government. They were only forty-one in number, and of 
 these four were hanged by sentence of court-martial ; the 
 remaining thirty-seven, including two priests, were handed 
 over to Mr. Norton, a Bristol merchant, to be sold as bond- 
 slaves to the sugar-planters at the Barbadoes.” Again, on 
 the 8th December, 1655, we find a letter from the commis- 
 sioners to the Governor of Barbadoes, advising him of the 
 approach of a ship with a cargo of proprietors, deprived of 
 their lands, and seized for not transplanting ” They add 
 that amongst them were three priests, and tlie commissioners 
 particularly desire that these may be so employed as they 
 may not return again where that sort of people are able to do 
 so much mischief, having so great an influence over the Popish 
 Irish. On the 4th January, 1655, the sum of five pounds 
 was paid for the arrest, on the 27th November preceding, of 
 a priest, with his appurtenances, in the house of one Owen 
 Byrne, of Cool-ne-Kishin, near old Leighlin, in the county 
 Carlow, which said priest, together with Byrne, the man of 
 the house, were brought prisoners to Dublin.” On the 8th 
 January, Richard and Thomas Tinte, Edmund and George 
 Barnewall, and William Eitzsimons, held the castle of Bal- 
 trasna, in the county Meatli, in defence and rescue of a priest 
 who had repaired thither to say Mass. For this they were 
 arrested and their goods seized, and the soldiers claimed 
 the booty, on the ground that the castle was defended against 
 them, “ with arms and ammunition, by those who maintained 
 a priest in his idolatrous worship, in opposition to the declara- 
 tion of the State on that behalf.” — Hib. Dom.; Mormi, 
 Persec., pp. 106, 151 ; Prendergast, Cromwellian Settle- 
 ment, p. 159, &c. 
 
 Anno 1656. 
 
 - Rev. Father JOHN FLAVERTY, O.P.P. 
 
 “ He was prior of the convent of Coleraine, and was stoned 
 to death by the soldiers, and thrown into the river, and so 
 gave his life for the faith in the Cromwellian persecution, 
 about the year 1656.” — Hib. Dom., p. 574; O'Heyn, p. 4. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Rev. Father JAMES O’REILLY, O.P.P. 
 
 “ H E belonged to the convent of Coleraine, and expired under 
 the blow's of the soldiers, about the year 1656. Another 
 James O’Reilly, who belonged to the convent of Clonmel, 
 suffered martyrdom in the year 1649, as I have mentioned 
 before,” — Hib. Dom., p. 574 ; O^Heyn, p. 4. 
 
 Rev. Father NICHOLAS NUGENT, S.J. ; Rev. 
 
 PAUL CUSPIIN; and Others. 
 
 The only record of the first that I find is in Dr. Oliver, 
 Collections,” &c. He says, after an imprisonment in Dublin 
 of four years, he died on the Snd November in this year. Dr. 
 Oliver refers to “ Synopsis Annalium Soc. Jesu in Lusitania,” 
 auctore P. Ant. Franco, Aug. Vindelic., 17^6, pp. 466 ; but 
 I have not been able to see this work. 
 
 In this year the transporting of innocent Catholics to 
 Barbadoes continued. In Scobell’s “ Acts and Ordinances ” 
 there is an Act of Parliament, passed in 1656, which, after 
 stating that the children, grandchildren, brothers, nephews, 
 uncles, and next pretended heirs of the persons attainted do 
 remain in the provinces of Leinster, Ulster, and Munster, 
 having little or no visible estates or subsistence,” commands 
 all such persons to transplant, or be transported to the 
 Plnglish plantations in America.” 
 
 On the 3rd of May, 1656, the governors of the various 
 prisons received orders to convey their prisoners to Carrick- 
 fergus, to be there put on board such ship as should sail 
 with the first opportunity for the Barbadoes.” One aged priest, 
 named Paul Cushin, was arrested at his mission in Mary- 
 borough, and was amongst those then hurried off towards 
 Carrickfergus. On the way he fell dangerously ill, at Philips- 
 town, and a petition being sent in his name to the commis- 
 sioners to be allowed to remain, they replied by an order of 
 the 27th August, 1656, allowing him sixpence per day during 
 his sickness, which munificent sum “ was to be continued to 
 him thence to Carrickfergus, in order to his transportation to 
 the Barbadoes.” 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1657. 
 
 Hey. Father JOHN O’LAIGHLIN, O.P.P. 
 
 ‘‘ He was Prior of Derry, and suffered a long imprisonment 
 and sore want. The heretics made him great offers if he 
 would abandon the Catholic faith, but he chose rather death. 
 His fellow-captives related that they had seen him in prayer 
 raised up a cubit’s height from the ground, and that he said 
 that a glimpse of the glory to come had been granted to him, 
 lest he should yield to the bitterness of torments. He was 
 strangled in prison, and his head cut off, and thus received tlie 
 crown of martyrdom, about the year 1657.”* 
 
 Rev. JAMES FINAGflTY, Rev. DONALD HA- 
 GERTY, Rev. EDMUND DUIN, DANIEL 
 CONNERY, GERALD DAVOCK, O.P.P., and 
 Rev. BERNARD MacGHIOLLA CLUINNE, 
 O.M., AND Many Other Priests and Laymen. 
 
 Of the Rev. James Finaghty, vicar-general of the diocese of 
 Elphin, the following account is given in a visitation of the 
 diocese made in 1668 : — 
 
 ‘‘ Father James Finaghty suffered many tortures and cruel 
 afflictions from the common enemy for the faith of Christ : 
 five times he was arrested, and once he was tied to a horse’s 
 tail and dragged naked through the streets, and then cast into 
 a horrid dungeon ; nevertheless, being again ransomed by a 
 sum of money, he continues to labour untiringly and fearlessly 
 in the vineyard of the Lord.”f 
 
 This year Mr. Prendergast gives us the following as in- 
 stances of similar orders : — “ 10th August, £ 5 , on the certifi- 
 cate of Major Stanley, to Thomas Gregson, Evan Pow^el, and 
 Samuel Ally, being three soldiers of Colonel Abbott’s regi- 
 ment of dragoons, for the arrest of Donogh Hagerty, a Popish 
 priest, by them taken, and now secured in the county gaol of 
 Clonmel. To Arthur Spunner, Robert Pierce, and John 
 
 * This evidently refers to the sentence for treason, 
 t MS. Eelatio Visitationis Dioc. Elphin., facta anno 1668, ab 
 Edrnundo Tiege, ap. Moran, “Persec.,” p. 125. 
 
DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 275 
 
 Bruen, five pounds, for the good service by them performed in 
 apprehending and bringing before the Chief Justice Papys, on 
 the 21st January, 1657, one Edmund Duin, a Popish priest. 
 On 13th April, 1657, to Sergeant Humphrey Gibbs and Cor- 
 poral Thomas Hill, ten pounds, for apprehending two Popish 
 priests — viz., Maurice Prendergast and Edmund Fahy, who 
 were secured in the gaol of Waterford, and, being afterwards 
 arraigned, were both of them adjudged to be and were accord- 
 ingly transported into foreign parts.”* 
 
 The Archbishop of Tuam informs us that about this year 
 the priests arrested ceased to be put to death, as formerly, in 
 consequence of the remonstrances of the Catholic princes on 
 the Continent ; but ^'^they were transported to the island of 
 Inisbofin, in the diocese of Tuam, where they were compelled 
 to subsist on herbs and water.” Mr. Prendergast has pub- 
 lished some further details connected with this new place of 
 imprisonment. On the 27th February, 1657, the commis- 
 sioners referred to his Excellency to consider where the priests 
 then in prison in Dublin should be most safely disposed of, 
 and, in reply, an order was received to transport them “ to 
 the isles of Arran, lying out thirty miles in the Atlantic, 
 opposite the entrance of the bay of Galway, and the isle of 
 Inisbofin, off the coast of Connemara.” 
 
 In these storm-beaten islands they lived during the remain- 
 ing years of the Commonwealth ; and from a Treasury war- 
 rant dated the 3rd July, 1657, we learn that cabins were 
 ordered to be built for them on these islands, and that the 
 Governor of Galway, Colonel Thomas Sadleir, was commis- 
 sioned to allow them sixpence per diem for their support.*!' ^ 
 letter from a priest in Nantes, dated 19th October, 1659, 
 also states that for some time past the Puritans had resolved 
 to put none of the clergy to death, and, instead of sending 
 them into exile, to sentence them to perpetual imprisonment. 
 This was partly because they envied us that incredible joy 
 with which the priests went out to death, and partly because 
 they thus hoped to cut off all chance of return to their 
 
 * Prendergast, Cromwellian Settlement, pp. 153-8. 
 
 t Prendergast, p. 162. 
 
 T 2 
 
27G 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 flocks, and all possibility of administering spiritual assistance 
 to the Catholics. Hence, out of fifty-two priests who were in 
 custody, thirty-six were lately sent to the islands of Inisbofin 
 and Arran, where lately there are heretical garrisons, and 
 where they can neither offer up the Holy Sacrifice nor see 
 the face of a single Catholic, and not even are they allowed to 
 administer to each other the last rites of religion.”^ 
 
 One instance will give an idea of the share the laity had in 
 these sufferings. In 1657 a gentleman of Clare, named 
 Daniel Connery, was sentenced to banishment, by Colonel 
 Henry Ingoldsby, for harbouring a priest. The wife of the 
 gentleman fell sick and died, and three of his daughters — 
 most beautiful girls — were transported to the West Indies, to 
 an island called the Barbadoes, and there, if they are alive, 
 they are in miserable slavery. — Morison^s Threnodia^ p. 287. 
 See Moran^ Persec., pp. 104-5, 123, 154. 
 
 Amongst the priests sent to the island of Inisbofin about 
 this time were two Dominican fathers, as we learn from the 
 Hib. Dom., p. 577. “ The Very Rev. Father Gerald Davock, 
 an alumnus of the convent of Athenry and master in theology, 
 returned to Ireland after having studied in Spain. He was 
 made reader in philosophy, and afterwards master of studies. 
 These offices he filled well, and preached eloquently. When 
 the religious were dispersed he was taken by the heretics and, 
 with many other priests, both secular and regular, sent to the 
 island of Bofin, where he passed seven years in hunger and 
 want with much patience. When King Charles II. was 
 restored (1660) they were freed, except that great and vener- 
 able man Father Bernard MacGhiolla Cluinne, provincial of 
 the Franciscans, who there died happily for the glory of God. 
 Round the loins of this heroic man was found when he died 
 a leather girdle set with sharp iron points. Father Davock 
 lived very religiously for many years after his liberation from 
 that island, and laboured by word and example in the vine- 
 yard of the Lord, until, in advanced age, borne down by the 
 weight of the persecution which had then again sprung up. 
 
 * Ex; ArcUiv. Soc. Jesu in Rome. 
 
DURlxN'G THE COMMONNVP]ALTII. 
 
 217 
 
 he died, fortified with the sacraineiils, in the year of our J^ord 
 1675;’ 
 
 Brennan, ‘‘ Eccl. Hist, of Ireland,'’ vol. ii. p. 197, gives a 
 list of the priests who in 1653, or rather 1657, were confined 
 as prisoners in the island of Bofin or shut up in the gaols 
 of Cork and Galway : — 
 
 Bev. James Fallen, V.G. ; Rev. Roger Coinmin, secular 
 priest ; Rev. Gerald Davock, Dominican ; Rev. Brien Corny, 
 Franciscan; Rev. Thomas Bourke, Franciscan ; Rev. Philip 
 Walsh, secular priest ; Rev. Thomas Grady, secular priest ; 
 Rev. Timothy JMannin, secular priest ; Rev. Miles Tully, 
 secular priest; Rev. Patrick Trevor, secular priest; Rev. 
 John Kelly, secular priest ; Rev. McLeighlin Conry, secular 
 priest ; Rev. Anthony Geoghegan, abbot ; Rev. John Dillon, 
 Dominican ; Rev. Thomas McKernan, Franciscan ; Rev. 
 Edward Delamar, secular priest ; Rev. Terlagb Gavan, secular 
 priest; Rev. John Russell, V.G. ; Rev. W. Henessy, se- 
 cular priest; Rev. William Farrell, secular priest; Rev. 
 Redmond Roche, secular priest ; Rev. Conner Keilly, secular 
 priest; Rev. Denis Horgan, secular priest; Rev. Henry 
 Burgat, Dominican ; Rev. Timothy Donovan, Franciscan ; 
 Rev. Connor Hurly, Franciscan ; Rev. James Slevin, Rev. 
 Thomas Roony, Rev. Connor Scanlan, Franciscans; Rev. 
 Bernard Comins, Dominican; Rev. Bonaventure Dant, Rev. 
 Thomas Burke, Rev. Francis Horan, Rev. Thomas McKer- 
 nan, Rev. Terence Gavan, Rev. Hugh McKeon, secular 
 })riests. — E<v Lihro Archimi Promncialis CoUegii Lovaniensis 
 Sancti Antonii de Padua Fi\ Min. Hihernorum. 
 
 Anno I658.-Revs. THOMAS McKERNAN, TUR- 
 LOGH O'GOWAN, HUGH McGEOWN, and 
 TURLOGH FITZSYMONS, and Othees. 
 
 That the persecution still continued we find from the entries 
 of money paid for the arrest of priests. Thus, in November, 
 1658, ‘‘To Lieutenant Edward Wood, on the certificate of 
 IVilliam St. George, Esq., J.P. of the county Cavan, twenty- 
 
278 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 five pounds for five priests and friars by him apprehended — 
 viz., Thomas McKernan, Turlogh O’Gowan, Hugh McGeown, 
 and Turlogh Fitzsymons, who, upon examination, confessed 
 themselves to be both priests and friars.” 
 
 Father Richard Shelton, superior of the Jesuits in Ireland, 
 writing to the Sacred Congregation on the 29th April, 1658, 
 conveyed the sad intelligence that the persecution of Crom- 
 well against the Irish Catholics was carried on with ever- 
 increasing fury. Two of the Jesuit fathers had been lately 
 arrested, and were treated with great cruelty ; especially, he 
 adds, every effort is now made to compel the Catholics, by 
 exile, imprisonment, confiscation of goods, and other penalties, 
 to take the sacrilegious oath of abjuration ; but all in vain, for 
 as yet there has not been even one to take it, with the excep- 
 tion of a stranger residing in our island, who had acquired 
 large possessions, and, being afraid of losing them, and at the 
 same time being ashamed of the other Catholics, undertook a 
 journey of more than two hundred miles to present himself to 
 one of Cromwelfs emissaries.’^ 
 
 Yet some idea may be formed of the zeal of the clergy in 
 filling the gaps created in their ranks by imprisonment and 
 transportation from the fact, mentioned by the Archbishop of 
 Tuam in a letter written from Nantes in September, 1658, 
 that even then, whilst the persecution raged with its greatest 
 violence, there were one hundred and fifty priests in his pro- 
 vince, and a like number in the other provinces, ‘‘ attending 
 to the care of souls, seeking refuge in the forests and in the 
 caverns of the earth .” — See Moran, Persec., pp. 104, 123, 
 157. 
 
 * In 1659 there was in Connaughr no Scotch, 7,673 English, and 
 79,680 Irish (the last may be taken as Catholics), and 150 priests ; or 
 Catholics to Protestants 10 to 1, and 1 priest to every 534 Catholics. In 
 1861 there were 46,326 Protestants, 866,023 Catholics, and 408 priests ; 
 or Catholics to Protestants nearly 18 to 1, and 1 priest to every 2,165 
 Catholics. In 1864 the total number of priests in Ireland was 3,097. 
 The Catholic population of Ireland in 1861 was 4,505,265. This would 
 give a proportion of one priest to 1,454 Catholics. — Census of 1659, 
 Hardinge ; Census q/’1861; and Catholic Pirectory, 1864. ] 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 279 
 
 Anno 1664.-Rev. Fathers CHRISTOPHER O’FER- 
 RALL, JOHN OTIART, and ARTHUR lUYNTI, 
 O.P.P. 
 
 The reader has seen how in the years from 1641 to 1660 the 
 persecution had nearly exterminated the Catholics, till the 
 persecutors slackened rather from want of victims than from 
 diminution of animosity. In 1641, according to Sir William 
 Petty, the Catholics in Ireland were about 1,240,000; in 1659 
 there were only 413,984 persons of Irish descent in Ireland, 
 which therefore must have been the maximum number of 
 Catholics left, or, in other words, in these eight years 826,000 
 Irish Catholics had perished or been exiled or sold as slaves 
 to the West Indies. 
 
 In 1660 Charles II. was restored to the throne, and the 
 persecution of Catholics was no longer so violent ; nor shall 
 we, from this date, any longer meet with hecatombs of victims. 
 But Ireland was still to furnish a few, and not the least illus- 
 trious, of her confessors and martyrs; Of these was Father 
 Christopher O’Ferrall, the Dominican, of whom we find the 
 following record : — 
 
 He was a friar of the convent of Dublin, and studied at 
 Louvain, whence he returned to Dublin, where he became 
 prior, and was remarkable as a pious, diligent, and prudent 
 confessor. Together with the provincial. Father John O’Hart, 
 he was thrown into prison in Dublin * for the defence of the 
 authority of the Pontiff*, and lay there for full three years ; 
 nor was he allowed any bed, but made to lie on the bare earth. 
 He himself told me (OTIeyn) that his feet were often bitten 
 by mice. He was most devoted to the Blessed Virgin. He 
 died some years later than 1664. Father Arthur Panti, of 
 the same convent of Dublin, was confined in Dublin for the 
 same cause. Afterwards he was procurator for Ireland, and 
 died at Seville after 1664.”^ — Hih. Dom,, p. 575, and 
 G'Heyn^ p. 7. 
 
 It would appear from another entry that Father O’Hart was 
 thrown into prison in 16G0. — Hih. Bom., p. 525. 
 
^280 
 
 MAllTVllS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1665.~Rev. Father RAYMUND MOORE, 
 
 o.r.p. 
 
 “ The Very Rev. Father Raymund Moore (O’Morradh), of 
 the convent of Dublin, vas a distinguished theologian. He 
 studied with distinction in Spain, and in the college at Lisbon, 
 and returning thence to Dublin, immediately on his landing 
 was thrown into prison, with the two priests mentioned under 
 last year, and spent there three years, enduring the same suffer- 
 ings; but at the close of the third year this glorious, learned, and 
 courageous man died for the honour and unity of the Church 
 under its visible, supreme, and infallible head. He was called 
 in English Moore, but his name is purely Irish, for he was 
 descended of the noble family of OAIorradh, wlio were formerly 
 lords or dynasts of the whole of the county whicli is now called 
 the Queen's County (except the barony of Upper Ossory). He 
 died in prison in 1665. — Hib. Dom.^ p. 575, and O'Heyn^ 
 p. 7. 
 
 Anno 1666.— Most Rev. EDMUND O’REILLY, 
 Archbishop oe Armagh. 
 
 I GIVE bis life from Dr. Renehan's “ Collections.” 
 
 After the death of Dr. Hugh O'Reilly, the primatial 
 chair remained vacant for more than one year, and was then 
 lilled by another clergyman of the same name, but of a 
 different family. He had the misfortune to find in a 
 personal, political, and religious enemy the only historian 
 that has left any considerably detailed narrative of his life. 
 He concurred in the excommunication of Father Peter Walsh, 
 the Franciscan ; he manfully opposed the cringing sycophancy 
 of that friar’s politics, and set himself up as a wall of brass 
 against his schismatical innovations, even at the peril of his 
 life. " It would be unreasonable to expect from so vindictive a 
 writer as Walsh an impartial biography of so decided an 
 opponent. But in following his authority,* if many of the 
 
 ^ The work of Walsh from which the facts here recorded are 
 principally taken is his “ History of the Irish Remonstrance^’ 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 .^i8i 
 
 rrimatc's qualities are suppressed, yet tliose which appear iu 
 the facts lie relates, or shine through the ill-wrought veil of 
 liis clumsy slander, receive additional lustre and certainty. 
 Indeed, it is no small eulogy of our Primate that the tooth of 
 even Walsh’s revenge could find no point in his moral or 
 religious character on which to fasten. 
 
 The ]\Iost Rev. Edmund O’Reilly was born in the diocese 
 of Dublin, about the year 1606, and after having completed a 
 course of studies in philosophy, and a limited portion of 
 theology, he was ordained priest, and after some little time 
 appointed to the government of a parish in his native diocese.* 
 It appears not improbable that he received his ecclesiastical 
 education in the college established in Dame Street by the 
 Catholics, and that the suppression of that seminary by the 
 Government in 1629 was the cause of the abridgment of his 
 theological studies. Whatever was the cause, he, at least, 
 deeply regretted the effect, and anxiously awaited an oppor- 
 tunity of resigning his parish, and proceeding to some foreign 
 university, in order to extend his information, and qualify 
 himself more perfectly for the discharge of his arduous duties. 
 His archbishop. Dr. Fleming, saw that his strong natural 
 talents deserved cultivation; for he was at this time, to use 
 the words of Dr. O. Plunkett, “ a man of a good mother- wit, 
 but no extraordinary learning.” t 
 
 Obtaining at length his superior’s permission, he repaired 
 to the University of Louvain, about the year 1633; j and, 
 residing in the Irish secular college, he devoted himself for 
 seven years with great assiduity to the study of the Sacred 
 Scriptures and moral divinity under the Jesuits, and of 
 canon law under the Franciscans. Here his piety and 
 ecclesiastical decorum soon attracted the esteem of his su- 
 periors, who, after some time, convinced also of his prudence 
 and zeal for collegiate discipline, appointed him prefect of the 
 
 * Walsh’s Hist, of Remonstrance, p. 608. The year of his nativity 
 is deduced only by inference from Columbanus. 
 
 t Jus Primatiale, p. 30. 
 
 X Columbanus’s Hist. Address, p. 1. Walsh’s Hist, of Rcmi, 
 p. 008, says he was in 1636 “ somewhat elderly/’ 
 
282 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 college of Irish secular ecclesiastics, wherein he resided. But 
 he was honoured in an especial manner by the affectionate 
 friendship and confidential intimacy of the Hon. and Rev. 
 Thomas Fleming (the eldest son and heir of Lord Slane), 
 who, renouncing the pleasures of earth, had exchanged the 
 titles and estates of this world for the cloister here, and the 
 “ hundredfold hereafter,” and was now professor of divinity in 
 the Franciscan college of S. Anthony of Padua, at Louvain. 
 It was here also, and through this saintly professor, that Mr. 
 (PReilly became first acquainted with Peter Walsh, the Fran- 
 ciscan. But they were men of opposite dispositions, not likely 
 to coalesce, — the one prefect of a college, and the confidant 
 of the professors, but particularly of the pious Fleming ; the 
 other, his refractory pupil, — the one a disciple of the Jesuits in 
 those doctrines of grace and free will which have since gained 
 such support amongst all classes of Christians ; the other, a 
 professed Jansenist, the confidant of Jansenius, to whom 
 Walsh dedicated his philosophical theses, and whose famous 
 “Augustinus ” Walsh boasts of being the first to have read in 
 albis, as it came from the press.* In these circumstances, an 
 acquaintance between two such men would more naturally 
 produce hostility than friendship. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. O’Reilly returned to Ireland in 1641, 
 bringing with him testimonial letters of the strongest descrip- 
 tion from the university. But the Hon. and Rev. F. Fleming 
 thought it his duty to write, moreover, privately to his uncle, 
 the Archbishop of Dublin, and zealously recommended to his 
 Grace’s esteem and protection the piety and abilities of his 
 subject O’Reilly. He again zealously applied himself to the 
 laborious functions of a parish priest in the salvation of souls, 
 and w'as in a few months appointed by Dr. Fleming vicar- 
 general of the diocese.f The labour and responsibility of his 
 new dignity were increased the following year, 1642, when 
 the Archbishop of Dublin being appointed a member of the 
 supreme council, and fixing his residence on that account at 
 Kilkenny, the administration of the diocese, in spirituals and 
 
 * Walsh’s Hist, of Hem., treatise iv. p. 76. 
 
 t Walsh, &c. Columbanus’s Hist. Address, p. 14. 
 
IN THE REIGN OE CHARLES II. 
 
 temporals, was confided entirely to the vicar-general O’Reilly 
 from the year 1642 to 1648. 
 
 In this latter year he was deprived of his office of vicar- 
 general, if we may credit Peter Walsh, who boasts of having 
 been the principal instrument thereof himself. The matter 
 appears to have happened thus: when llinuccini and a portion 
 of the clergy had complained that the council of Kilkenny had 
 grossly neglected the interests of religion in the articles of 
 cessation of arms with Inchiquin, and the nuncio had there- 
 upon fulminated sentence of excommunication for perjury 
 against the council and their adherent, the Catholics became 
 divided into two opposite parties, the majority of the clergy, 
 the people, the province of Ulster, and the Milesian Irish 
 generally, being on the one side ; the aristocracy, the de- 
 pendents and expectants of the court, and the Anglo-Irish, on 
 the other. The famous Owen O’Neal espoused the nuncio’s 
 cause ; Dr. O’Reilly adhered to it also, and Avas believed to 
 assist O’Neal by his counsel. The opposite party laboured 
 to diminish the influence which O’Neal’s military bravery 
 and repeated victories had procured him with the people, 
 feeling that their existence depended on their success in this 
 point, and that while O’Neal continued unsuspected he would 
 continue irresistible. In these circumstances, a letter was 
 produced in the council, purporting to be written by O’Neal 
 to Colonel Jones, the Parliamentary general, and intercepted 
 in its passage to him. Dr. O’Reilly’s name was neither 
 mentioned in, nor signed to, the letter. But P. Walsh con- 
 tended it was in his handwriting. The Archbishop of Dublin 
 was then lodging in the Franciscan convent of Kilkenny, 
 “ which, as well as the Dominican, observed the censures.” 
 AV^alsh resided in the Duke of Ormond’s castle, and from 
 thence he sent the letter to the archbishop, with, of course, 
 his own conclusions thereon, and an appropriate commentary. 
 The consequence was that Dr. Fleming, either believing, as 
 Walsh says, “it to be Edmund’s handwriting,” or, what his 
 subsequent conduct proves more probable, deeming it prudent 
 to yield for a moment to the storm, in order to avoid odious 
 imputations himself, and appease his vicar’s enemies, withdrew 
 
.AJAllTVllS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 liis commissions from Dr. O^lleilly, cind appointed Dr. Lau- 
 rence Archibald, P.P., of Alaynooth, vicar-general in his 
 place. 
 
 The malignity of his enemies was not, however, yet 
 satisfied. The following year he was waylaid in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Dublin, on his return to his own house, by an 
 armed party, “ with one Scurtog at their head, and narrowly 
 escaped assassination.^’ ^ 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1650 Archbishop Fleming 
 restored him to the office of vicar-general, thereby declaring 
 solemnly his utter disbelief of the imputations which pensioned 
 calumniators had fastened on his character. These slanders 
 did not assail his moral, but his political conduct ; they were 
 even then put forth only as the whisperings of Ormond, or 
 mere hear-say reports,^’ without pretending to a particle of 
 evidence, and doubted by their very publishers. If O’Reilly 
 had acted disloyally in the affairs of Wicklow Castle, the 
 camp at Baggotsrath, &c., Ormond and his other enemies 
 wanted neither the power nor the will to punish him on the 
 scaffold on which they had murdered many other clergymen 
 of acknowledged innocence. And it is clear that if such 
 serious charges were but partially believed, or even reported, 
 beyond the purlieus of courtly corruption. Dr. O’Reilly would 
 not, in such times, have been subsequently appointed Vicar- 
 General of Dublin, or Primate of Armagh. 
 
 After his re-establishment as vicar-general he persevered in 
 the undisguised profession of the principles for which he had 
 been persecuted. While assisting at the synod of Leinster, 
 held in the woods of Glenmalure, in the county Wicklow, he 
 gave a noble specimen of the apostolic virtue of overcoming 
 evil with good. Peter Walsh had been excommunicated by 
 the synod, and denounced for errors in doctrine, schism, and 
 other crimes. Colonel Luke O’Toole, understanding that he 
 was lurking in these very woods, prepared a party of horse 
 and foot, to pursue a man whom he considered a spy upon the 
 Catholics, and the fomenter of their dissensions, a rebel to the 
 
 Walsh’s Hist., p. 609. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 285 
 
 Cluircli, and a traitor to his country. Dr. O’lieilly, having 
 learned his design, generously forgot past injuries, exerted 
 every means of changing his purpose, and ceased not to reason, 
 to importune, and entreat till he obtained a promise. “He it 
 was,^’ says the ungrateful Walsh,* * * § “who alone dissuaded 
 Colonel Luke O’Toole from his design, and thus saved 
 my life.'’ The following year (1653) Dr. O’Reilly was 
 himself apprehended as a Popish priest ; for, having been 
 summoned as a witness to one of the courts in Dublin, one of 
 the parties, feeling that his cause would be injured by his 
 testimony, cried out to the judge, as soon as he ascended the 
 table, to seize him, for that he was Edmund O’Reilly, the 
 Popish vicar-general. Immediately he was seized and dragged 
 to prison, where he was loaded with chains, and suffered witli 
 great fortitude the most shocking privations. After several 
 months’ incarceration, the intrepid confessor — “ no other cause 
 of guilt being found in him " except his religion — was driven 
 into banishment, by virtue of a proclamation of the Cromwel- 
 lian Government, dated the preceding feast of the Epiphany, 
 which commanded all priests, bishops, &c., to quit the king- 
 dom within twenty days, under pain of high treason. -f Dr. 
 O’Reilly fled to the Irisli College of Lisle, in Flanders, and 
 it was there he received notice that the Pope, in approbation 
 of his virtues and constancy, had appointed him to the prima- 
 tial see of Armagh. I have not met with the precise date of 
 this promotion, but think it must have been towards the end 
 of 1654, for he did not leave Ireland till near the end of 
 1653,^ and Pope Innocent X., by whom. Primates McMahon § 
 and Talbot II inform us, the appointment was made, died on 
 the 7th January, 1655. Knowing that the Irish colleges in 
 Flanders were beset with English spies, and feeling how much 
 
 * Hist, of Rem., p. G09. 
 
 t Hib. Dominicana, pp. 704, 5. 
 
 X Walsh says he was seized in 1653 (the beginning of which he 
 counts from the 25th March), hurried to prison, suffered much, and 
 was at length either banished or licensed to depart to Flanders. 
 
 § Aforison, Thren., p. 12; Jus Prim. Armacanum, p. 190. 
 
 II Prim. Dublin, p. 59, 
 
286 
 
 MARTYRS AND CX)NFESSORS 
 
 his future safety would be endangered by there being any 
 legal proof of his consecration. Dr. 0’K.eilly departed privately 
 for Brussels, and was there consecrated, in the vestry of the 
 Jesuit chapel, with the utmost secrecy. 
 
 At this time the Catholic Church of Ireland was reduced 
 to a most deplorable condition. ‘‘ Neither the Israelites,” says 
 Morrison, ‘‘were more cruelly persecuted by Pharaoh, nor the 
 infants by Herod, nor the Christians by Nero, Diocletian, or 
 any other pagan tyrant, than were the Roman Catholics of 
 Ireland at that juncture.” Never did the host of hell put 
 forth half such violence, even in Ireland ; never did any reli- 
 gion, in any country, survive so bloody a persecution, or with- 
 stand sucli infernal machinery, as were then levelled against 
 tlie Irish Church. The clergy of every grade and order were 
 driven by the law into perpetual banishment, and if they 
 dared to remain in the kingdon, or return to it again, after the 
 1st February, 1653, tliey were condemned to be hanged till 
 half dead, then cut down alive and beheaded, their heads put 
 upon poles on the highways, and their hearts and entrails 
 publicly burned. A price was set upon their heads (it was the 
 price of a wolf’s), and the money was paid when the bloody 
 evidence of the murder was delivered. It was then high 
 treason for a Catholic priest to breathe within the realms, as 
 Lord Mansfield expressed himself when expounding the 
 boasted English law a century afterwards.* To harbour a 
 priest, o speak to him, not to betray him, nay, to exercise, no 
 matter how privately, the Catholic religion, was each a capital 
 crime, for which the laity were to be punished with death, and 
 total confiscation of property. By these, and many other 
 such hellish laws, and the still more diabolical machinery that 
 was invented to enforce them, the churches were widowed of 
 their bishops, the people deprived of comfort, instruction, and 
 sacraments, and religion so nearly extirpated from the island 
 that the despairing tongue faltered while it said, “ If God be 
 
 * See liis speech on the trial of Mr. Webb, June, 1768, in the Life ot 
 Right Rev. Dr. Challoner, p. 145. 
 
 t Hib. Dom., p. 607 j Carte, vol. ii. ; Leland, vol. ii.j M‘Geoghegan. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 287 
 
 with us, who can prevail against us?’’ ‘Uhere is no counsel 
 against the Lord.” 
 
 In 1649, and for some years before, the Irish hierarchy was 
 in a much more flourishing condition than at any period since 
 the English schism. The sees were all filled up, except Derry 
 and Kildare ; the parishes were supplied with zealous and 
 learned pastors; the convents were re-established, and their 
 crowded choirs poured forth in unceasing peals the canticle of 
 praise and benediction to the Lord. The prelacy consisted of 
 four archbishops and twenty-three suffragans — viz., eight in 
 the province of Armagh, and as many more in Cashel, three in 
 Dublin, and four in Connaught.* All of these resided in 
 their dioceses with undisturbed security, and publicly per- 
 formed the rites of religion ; many enjoyed the cathedrals, and 
 lands with which their Catholic ancestors endowed the sees, 
 for the support of Catholic bishops. The parochial churches 
 and glebes were restored to the Catholic clergy ; the male and 
 female religious recovered their convents, and a remnant of 
 their ancient inheritance ; and the peace of 1648 with Ormond 
 and the King stipulated that the Catholic Church should per- 
 manently enjoy at least what it then possessed,*!- Such was 
 the state of the Church in 1649. The Catholic religion 
 was not only what it always continued, the religion of the 
 nation, but also what it, on that account, ought ever to have 
 been, the national, the established religion. But how reversed 
 was the scene in 1654, when Dr. O’Reilly was consecrated ! 
 Three of the bishops, and more than three hundred of the 
 clergy, had already been put to death for the faith. All the 
 surviving bishops but one, and upwards of one thousand 
 priests, were banished for ever from their country ; some were 
 allowed to seek exile in the kingdoms of Europe, but many 
 hundreds were stowed in crazy ships, treated with ignominious 
 cruelty, and transported to Barbadoes, and other isles of the 
 West Indies. J The friars were expelled from their convents, 
 
 * MS. Memoir of the State of the Irish Church, written in 1GG7, 
 j>enes me, Dr. French, in Hib. Dom., p. 499. ^ 
 
 t Philopater, lib. i. p. 165 ; Hib. Dom., p. 686. 
 
 X MS. Memoir of the Irish Church, Hib. Dom. 
 
288 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 and obliged to fly ; of six hundred Dominicans scarcely one 
 remained the more numerous Franciscans, the Augustinians, 
 &c., were also gone — nay, even the nuns were turned out 
 into the woods, or banished to some distant land. But one 
 bishop remained, t and he was old, decrepit, and bedridden, 
 and to his inability alone to discharge any episcopal functions 
 lie owed the privilege of dying in the land of his fathers. 
 There remained also a portion of the parochial clergy, who, 
 whenever their functions where to be exercised, nobly braved 
 the axe and gibbet, and who, when the sinner was reconciled 
 to God, or the departing soul prepared for heaven, sought a 
 hiding-place in the forest, and sheltered themselves in caverns 
 and morasses from the blood-scent of spies and priest-catchers. 
 They did not, however, always escape. Even after the resto- 
 ration of Charles II., when persecution relaxed its fury, not 
 less than one hundred and twenty of these heroic confessors 
 were sometimes crowded into the same loathsome gaol, to pine 
 away and starve together.;j: In this state did things continue 
 
 till 1661, and with very little variation till 1669. The old 
 Bishop of Kilmore still continued to struggle in the arms of 
 death ; the Archbishop of Tuam returned in 1662, to die along 
 with him, being then eighty years of age, and disabled by 
 repeated attacks of paralysis. The provinces of Leinster and 
 Munster were totally bereft of their bishops for sixteen years, 
 and, Munster like Connaught, had each, for the latter half of 
 the time, but one prelate surviving, even in banishment. From 
 1652 to the year 1655 neither the sacrament of confirmation 
 nor of holy orders was conferred in Ireland, yet there were in 
 the latter year about 1,100 secular priests on the Irish mis- 
 sion ;§ but, the Bishop of Ardagh having returned in 1665, 
 the number of priests was doubled in the course of six or 
 seven years, although until the year 1669, the period of Dr. 
 
 * Hib. Dom., pp. 525, 116, &c. 
 t MS. Mem.; Walsh’s Hist, of Eem., passim. 
 
 X Fasti Dublinenses, in Whitelaw and Walsh’s Hist. Dub., vol. i. 
 
 § Walsh’s Hist. Bern., pp.574, 5, &c. ; also the MS. Memoir cited 
 before, 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES IT. 
 
 289 
 
 O'Reilly's death, the Irish prelacy could only count three 
 bishops in Ireland, and three in involuntary exile. 
 
 Violent as was the fury of the Cromwellian persecution, its 
 terrors did not friohten the new Primate from visiting his 
 desolated flock. But the difficulty was, how to makegood his 
 journey to Ireland without being discovered. A favourable 
 opportunity was for some time waited for ; but none occurring, 
 he set out from Brussels for Lisle, and, making there no long- 
 delay, came from Lisle to Calais. Here he was introduced 
 by the exiled Bishop of Dromore to Cardinal Mazarin, the 
 French minister, who gave him some pecuniary aid, and pro- 
 cured him a safe voyage to London, where he arrived in 1658. 
 But although the cardinal strongly recommended him to 
 several noblemen of the highest influence, and entreated for 
 liim the protection of the English ministers, yet he was obliged 
 to conceal himself in cells and garrets, and it was in one of 
 these retreats that he said Mass and administerd confirma- 
 tion and the other sacraments to a multitude of Irishmen 
 tlien in London, having previously obtained the necessary per- 
 mission of the English archpriest. Dr. Knightley.* After 
 about six weeks' stay in London, he met the schismatical friar 
 P. Walsh. The Primate, supposing that he had no longer 
 any motive for persevering in his obstinacy, exerted all his 
 zeal to effect his conversion, and promised to absolve him from 
 the excommunications he had incurred as soon as he should 
 repent. His exhortations on this subject were frequently re- 
 peated, and always with great unction, condescension, and 
 mildness. The result was, that, besides whatever occurred in 
 the sacred tribunal, the Primate publicly restored him to the 
 communion of the Church, AValsh “ kneeling before the altar 
 in his own house” while the Primate pronouncea the 
 solemn words of absolution over him. Such is the account 
 given of this transaction by Walsh himself.*[‘ But after the 
 return of his master Ormond to power, on the exile of Dr. 
 O’Reilly, he relapsed again, and even boasted that he had never 
 repented, and that the absolution, given as above, was in spite 
 
 * Walsh, 4c., pp. 609, 610, 
 
 U 
 
 t Ibid 
 
290 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 of him. This clumsy and slanderous fabrication was, how- 
 ever, believed by no person, and was indignantly denied by the 
 Primate himself. Walsh’s general reputation for intrigue and 
 fabrication left but little credibility to his story. The interest 
 that he had in convincing Ormond and his party that he had 
 not in their absence changed his principles, on the other 
 hand Dr. O’Reilly’s character for veracity and straightfor- 
 wardness, the extreme improbability that he would, without 
 any possible inducement, so grossly profane his spiritual powers 
 or select Walsh’s own house for forcibly absolving him, while 
 Walsh remained patiently and piously “on his knees before 
 the altar ” — in a word, every circumstance of intrinsic or 
 extrinsic evidence convicted the fabricated tale of absurdity 
 and falsehood. 
 
 At all events. Dr. O’Reilly soon felt to his cost that Walsh 
 had not more influence formerly with the ministers of the King 
 in Ireland than he had now with Ids murderers in England, 
 and that the only return he had to receive for his trouble was 
 the exertion of that influence in depriving him of his friends 
 and procuring his banishment. He had been accompanied to 
 London by two priests, whom Walsh calls Father T. T, and 
 Father N. B., initials which I am unable, at present, to de- 
 cipher. These worthy men “ were told,” and, not knowing their 
 informant’s character, were made to believe, that the Primate 
 had slighted both, and deceived one of them in a matter of 
 grave importance. The consequence was a silent dissatisfac- 
 tion and an almost total separation. Soon after, however, the 
 bishop having learned, by some accident, the cause of discon- 
 tent, and an explanation having been obtained, he at once 
 fully convinced them that the supposed recommendations to the 
 Holy See had never been made, and that the story was, as 
 Walsh confesses and the event proved, totally without foun- 
 dation. Finding that they had been maliciously imposed upon, 
 the Primate and his companions became grievously dissatis- 
 fied, and “ quarrelled with Walsh” — no obscure indication that_ 
 he was the incendiary between them. But he soon took ample 
 revenge. While the Primate and his friends were preparing 
 to continue their journey to Ireland, and their minds filled 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 291 
 
 with dreams of success, Walsh was whispering in the court of 
 Cromwell, and at length obtained an order from the minister 
 of state for their banishment. ‘‘ They were all three,’’ he says, 
 ordered on a sudden, when they least expected it, to quit the 
 country for France instanter.” Who could expect that he 
 who confesses himself the sole author^ of this persecution, by 
 his Machiavellian intrigue with the minister, should in the 
 same page charge O’Reilly with being the friend of Cromwell 
 and the enemy of Cromwell’s rival ? While the tyrant reigned, 
 Walsh represented O’Reilly as the friend, the spy, or emissary 
 of the King ; when the King was restored to power, he, to 
 cover his own treason and gratify personal enmity, represented 
 him as the ardent, inveterate advocate of the deceased tyrant. 
 
 Dr. O’Reilly was obliged to fly to France, but soon after- 
 wards his increasing zeal made out an opportunity of effecting 
 his long-wished-for visit to Ireland. He sailed directly from 
 France, and, notwithstanding the penal laws and his personal 
 proscription, arrived safely in his province of Armagh in the 
 year 1659. Here he laboured with great zeal and effect for 
 a year and a half, and, travelling in disguise under a fictitious 
 name and character, he visited every part of the province, and 
 almost of the kingdom, instructing, reforming, and consoling 
 his afflicted flock, and administering the sacraments which 
 required episcopal power. About the beginning of 1660 “some 
 person,” says Walshf (who, most probably, was himself that 
 person), wrote secretly to the English court of Charles II., 
 then in the Low Countries, representing Dr. O’Reilly as ad- 
 vocating the interests of Cromwell, and animating the Protest- 
 ants of Ireland to oppose the restoration of Charles II.^ 
 promising them the full co-operation of the Irish Catholics to 
 that effect. Impudently false as this absurd fabrication would 
 have appeared if known in Ireland, it was believed in Holland 
 by a prince accustomed to be duped ; and on this occasion, 
 having no means of detecting the imposture, Don Stephano 
 de Gamarro, the Spanish ambassador to the Dutch court, was 
 solicited to complain to the Pope on the subject, and to request 
 
 * Walsh’s Hist, of Remons., p. 610. 
 
 u 2 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
292 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 his Holiness, in the King's name, to order the Primate to with- 
 draw from Ireland. The application was made immediately 
 before the King left Holland for England ; the requested order 
 was received in Engdand tlie following autumn.* 
 
 In the mean time Dr. O’Reilly, who knew nothing of the 
 storm excited, and now ready to burst upon him, was labouring 
 in the ministry, exulting with joy, as were all his people, at 
 the restoration of the King, for wdiose cause they had suffered, 
 and expecting every day that the excessive loyalty which made 
 them fight for Charles, even for four years after every other 
 part of the empire had submitted to Cromwell, as it had pro- 
 voked the usurper's greater severity, so would now be rewarded 
 with proportionate favour. An address of loyalty and con- 
 gratulation was prepared, and, Walsh being selected, as a 
 clever insinuating politician, and a man who had friends at 
 court, to present the address and manage other matters for 
 the Catholic body, the unsuspecting Primate signed the docu- 
 ment appointing him the Catholic proxy or proctor. The 
 imperative command of Pope Alexander VII. to the Primate 
 liad been some time before this sent over to Walsh from the 
 English court, a fact which, connected with several other 
 circumstances, leaves no doubt that it was he who originally 
 suggested it. No sooner, therefore, did he receive Dr. O'Reilly’s 
 signature to the deed of procuration than he sent back to him, 
 with characteristic gratitude, the decree for his expatriation. 
 In vain did the archbishop solemnly deny the charge, in vain 
 did he appeal to the testimony of all who knew him, and to 
 public notoriety. He was compelled a third time to quit liis 
 country. After arriving in France he again wrote from Rouen 
 to Walsh, beseeching him to efface the slanderous impression 
 made on the minds of the ministers, and multiplying the pro- 
 testations of his innocence, which were as unnecessary as they 
 were/ruitless.f He then went to Rome, and remained there till 
 1665, when he returned back to France, again wrote to 
 
 ^ Walsh’s Hist. Remons., p. Gll ; Dr. Plunket’s Jus Primatiale, 
 p. 31 ; MS., lit supra. 
 
 t “Wait there for three years ’’ was the answer his Grace reeeivec] 
 from the inipudent, luxurious friar, 
 
IN THE REIGN OE CHARLES II. 
 
 !I93 
 
 Walsli, and on August 31st to the Lord-Lieutenant Ormond, 
 soliciting permission to return to his diocese. AValsh was at 
 this time moving heaven and earth to induce the clergy to 
 adopt his famous “ Remonstrance.'’ Ormond also pressed its 
 subscription, not, it was believed, because he attached any 
 importance to it, but because he considered it a suitable wedge 
 for splitting the compact Catholic body into parties and frag- 
 ments.* Since, however, it had been condemned by some 
 foreign universities, and was generally rejected as heretical, 
 or at least schismatical, by the Irish clergy, — since also it had 
 been subscribed from 1661 only by one bishop, now no more, 
 and sixty-nine priests, fifty-four of whom were friars, — ^-it was 
 deemed a matter of the utmost importance to the views both of 
 Ormond and his pensioner to enlist the support and influence 
 of the Primate in its favour. A national synod of the clergy 
 was summoned to meet in Dublin, June 11th, 1666, and letters 
 were despatched to Dr. O’Reilly about the March or April 
 preceding, inviting him to attend. England was at this time 
 at war with France and Holland; but the perils of the jour- 
 ney could not shake the fortitude of the archbishop. The 
 safest route appeared to be through Flanders. But the Inter- 
 nuncio Rospigliosi, learning his determination, and knowing 
 the temptations that would beset him in Dublin, wrote to 
 dissuade him from continuing his journey, lest he should 
 countenance the Valesian formulary.” So important indeed 
 did the nuncio deem this point that he wrote also to Martin, 
 Bishop of Ypres, enclosing a copy of the letter, and requesting 
 him to make out O’Reilly and deliver the enclosure to him. 
 The Primate received these letters, but yet delayed not a 
 moment. He ])assed from Flanders to London, and thence 
 through Chester to Dublin, where he arrived on the Pith June, 
 1666, being the second day of the national congregation. The 
 English Lord Chancellor had already learned Iiis arrival in 
 
 * Ormond himself explains his motive and object in a letter to his 
 son, Lord Arran, dated Decccmbcr 29th, 1680. “ My aim,” says he, 
 ” was to work a division amongst the Ivomish clergy, and I believe I 
 had compassed it, to the great security of the Government and the 
 Protestants .” — See Carte, vol. iii. ; Plowdeu, vol. i. p. 3L 
 
294 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 England, and immediately despatched an express to Ormond, 
 informing him that Clleilly was travelling incognito to Ire- 
 land, and directing his Excellency to secure his apprehension. 
 It is worthy of remark, as illustrative of the vigilant espionage 
 then practised over the Catholic clergy, that this despatch was 
 brought to Ireland by the very same packet in which O’Reilly 
 travelled.* The situation in which the Primate now stood was 
 of a peculiarly trying character. On perusing the declaration 
 of principles and allegiance called the “ Remonstrance,” 
 proposed for their own purposes by Ormond, through his 
 creature Walsh, he found it so captious and ambiguous in 
 expression, and in sentiment so temerarious, and so nearly re- 
 sembling heresy, that he could not conscientiously support it. 
 It pledged its subscribers to swear to speculative opinions 
 which were uncertain, if not false, and if not erroneous, at 
 least not commonly adopted ; it encroached on the preroga- 
 tives of the Universal Church in defining articles of faith ; and 
 its object, bethought, was dissension, and its tendency schism. 
 On the other hand, he knew very well his temporal happiness, 
 his liberty, nay, perhaps his life, depended on its adoption. 
 
 But Dr. O’Reilly was not “a reed shaken by the wind,” he 
 was not a man clothed in soft garments,” nor versed in that 
 finesse and pliancy which prevail in the “ palaces of kings 
 he knew not how to temporize, but he knew how to contend 
 and suffer for justice’ sake.” At once, therefore, he boldly 
 opposed in the congregation the ‘‘ Valesian Remonstrance,” 
 but at the same time supported warmly another declaration 
 which fully expressed the strongest allegiance, emphatically 
 renounced the objectionable doctrines imputed to Catholics, 
 but abstained from pronouncing on dubious and disputed 
 opinions which had no connection with their political relation 
 to the King, or their civil relation to their Protestant fellow- 
 subjects, such as the superiority of councils over the Pope, &c. 
 
 His support of the latter, however, gave as much offence to 
 the court as his rejection of the former formulary. Walsh 
 fled to the castle and complained to Ormond that very night, 
 as he tells us himself. O’Reilly was summoned to the castle be- 
 * Walsh’s Hist., &c., p. 012. 
 
IN TIIK IlEIGN OF CHARLES 11. 
 
 295 
 
 fore the Lord-Lieutenant. Here all the artifices of that crafty 
 and intriguing statesman were exhausted in endeavouring to 
 seduce O’Keilly, or at least silence his opposition. In an 
 address of considerable ingenuity he at first sharply rebuked 
 the Primate, then threw before his imagination vague insinu- 
 ations about secret accusations, grievous offences against the 
 State privately informed of, and terrific innuendoes about their 
 punishment ; bid him, however, to speculate upon the favour, 
 and to merit by loyal compliance the gracious bounty, of the 
 Crown, but again reminded him of the power of the Govern- 
 ment, and the rigorous severity of the laws, in case he should 
 persist in undutiful opposition. But the Primate’s conscience 
 reproached him with no offence that merited punishment; and 
 as to the sham plots and unjust persecution then so prevalent, 
 he dreaded them as little as he courted the corrupting bounty 
 of the Crown. He therefore returned the day after to the 
 national congregation, and firmly resisted every attempt to cor^ 
 rupt the faith or discipline of the Irish Church. 
 
 The national congregation, after having unanimously re- 
 jected the Valesian Remonstrance, was dissolved on Monday, 
 the 25th of June, 1666; and on that very day the Duke of 
 Ormond gave an order from the castle for arresting all the 
 bishops that had attended its sessions. The prelates had all 
 been invited and pressed to this assembly by Ormond himself; 
 they had refused to come to Dublin, on account of the penal 
 laws and the consequent danger to their liberty and lives, and 
 they persisted in this determination until Ormond, as Lord- 
 Lieutenant, gave them a passport, and pledged himself in 
 writing that they should enjoy perfect security and liberty in 
 coming to Dublin, in their deliberations there, and in return- 
 ing therefrom. The Bishop of Kilfenora, placing no great 
 reliance on the veracity or justice of Ormond, privately fled 
 from the city the very moment the synod was dissolved, and 
 thus escaped the execution of the order. The other prelates, 
 who had formed a higher estimate of his honour or had less 
 knowledge' of his character, remained in town, and were laid 
 under arrest that very evening.* 
 
 * Walsh’s Hist , &c., p. 744. 
 
296 
 
 MAIlTYllS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 It was, however, deemed advisable to find some pretext for 
 this nefarious violation of public faith. Ormond at first 
 pretended that it was done only with the view of detaining 
 them in town till he should be at leisure to rebuke them for 
 their undutiful proceedings ; yet the Primate remained three 
 months’*^ a prisoner, and Ormond never once spoke to him. 
 This pretext being published, every effort was made to find 
 some ground of accusation against O'Reilly. Being allowed 
 to live at his own lodgings, and walk within the confines of 
 the city, several attempts were made by, it would appear, 
 hireling spies to cajole him outside the limits into the adjacent 
 fields ; but the Primate, knowing that his doing so would be 
 construed into a breach of imprisonment, always avoided the 
 snare. This scheme having failed, a plot that would disgrace 
 Machiavelli was hatched, with the view of forcing him to 
 fly, from the terror of an ignominious death, into voluntary 
 banishment. 
 
 The stoi-y throws too much light on the character of 
 Ormond and his creatures to be omitted, besides that 
 it amply refutes the calumnious imputations charged on 
 O’Reilly's character after his death. Peter AValsh, the chief 
 of these calumniators, relying on the credulity of his readers, 
 gravely relates the transaction substantially as follows : — 
 
 When Dr. O’Reilly had been about a fortnight under 
 arrest, and, confident of his own innocence, did not avail him- 
 self of the opportunities offered him of effecting his escape, 
 the Duke of Ormond called Walsh aside one day, and told 
 him that he had a charge against OTieilly, of which AValsh 
 had as yet heard nothing. His Grace then directed his secre- 
 tary, Sir George Lane, to read for Walsh a part of a certain 
 letter. Accordingly, Sir George pulled out the letter, and 
 “ read for me how Lord Sandwich, the British ambassador in 
 Spain, informed thence that, as he passed through Gallicia to 
 Madrid, Nicholas French, of Ferns, told him that Edmond 
 
 From 25tli June to 27th September. AValsli says it was but a few 
 Aveeks, and insinuates that it was not more than four or five ; but the 
 date of bis arrest is attested by Walsb birasclf, and the date of bis 
 banishment by Ware, Wbitelaw, and Walsh’s Fasti Dub., Carte, &c. 
 
IN THE IIEIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 297 
 
 O^Reilly had started privately from France for Ireland, with 
 the design and set purpose of raising a rebellion in Ireland. 
 The words I remember not, neither do I know, nor did I 
 inquire from whom the said letter was, or whether it was 
 SandwiclFs own letter, or the secretary's at London, or any 
 otheFs.” Strange as Walsh^s ignorance and incurious indiffer- 
 ence may appear, considering the importance of the charge 
 and the part he was to act, stranger still is the conduct 
 pursued towards the detected traitor and rebel. Ormond 
 commanded Walsh to inform O^Reilly that his rebellious con- 
 spiracy was discovered, and the channel through which the 
 information came, and that, in consequence, he must be imme- 
 diately put under a guard of soldiers. Still the Primate was 
 allowed to go where he wished, but yet he did not fly ; and 
 it was not till the second or third day after he had received 
 this secret intelligence from his pretended friend at the castle 
 that the soldiers appeared. Their vigilance, however, was not 
 very excessive. He was permitted to go from room to room, 
 and to the o^arden ; his friends were allowed to visit him at 
 all times, and in any numbers; and crowds frequented his 
 chambers to hear Mass daily and receive the sacraments : 
 every facility was afforded, yet he made no attempt to escape. 
 The public guard of soldiers was continued for several weeks, 
 till it was supposed that the city must be sufficiently con- 
 vinced that ORleilly must be charged with some grievous 
 offence. In the mean time Ormond went off* to Kilkenny, 
 leaving his orders to the Privy Council : his absence might 
 tend to relieve him from the odium of the iniquitous persecu- 
 tion which would appear to emanate only from the Council, and 
 at all events would secure him from any inconvenient inquiry 
 about the accusation, or the authority on which it rested. At 
 length the Privy Council ordered the prisoner O’Reilly to be 
 brought before them. Who would not suppose that this 
 unfortunate man, to whom so many crimes and treasons had 
 been imputed by the pensioners of Government, would now 
 be satisfactorily convicted and punished for some of them ? 
 Rut no, the Council instituted no trial; nay, says AValsh, 
 they charged him witli no offence whatever ; but, in the true 
 
298 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONl’ESSORS 
 
 spirit of persecution and despotic tyranny? they told him 
 simply they had orders to banish him from Ireland, and he 
 might select the place of his exile. On the 27th September, 
 1666,* * * § he was sent off' to London under the custody of the 
 City-Major Stanley, and thence was sent, without trial or 
 accusation, to Dover, where he took shipping for Calais. 
 
 Thus banished for ever from his diocese and his country, 
 he studied how he might best provide for the interests of reli- 
 gion and the spiritual instruction of diis people. His first care 
 was to revisit the Irish colleges in Belgium. He passed, 
 therefore, from Calais to Lou vain, and thence to the other 
 seminaries, and in the beginning of 1667 reached Brussels, 
 where he ordained several priests for the Irish mission. J 
 
 He then directed his attention to the Irish colleges in France. 
 He came to Paris in the summer of 1667,§ and, making that 
 city his principal place of residence, he occasionally journeyed, 
 at a very advanced age, to the different Irish seminaries 
 throughout the country. In these he exhorted and instructed 
 the young candidates for the ministry, and held several ordi- 
 nations, the last of which, that I find any mention of, took 
 place at Paris in January, 1669. It was probably the ex- 
 cessive fatigue of one of these visits of pastoral zeal that 
 abridged the term of his pilgrimage here, and hastened the 
 reward of his manifold virtues. The expatriated confessor was 
 seized with his last sickness at Saumur, in France, on the 
 Loire, and there, with great sentiments of piety, he resigned 
 his heroic soul into the hands of his Creator, about the spring 
 of the year 1669. || 
 
 * Fasti Dublinenses, in Whitelaw’s Hist, of Hubliu ; Ware’s Gesta 
 Hibernorum, &c., ut supra. 
 
 + Walsh’s Hist, of Eem., part ii. p. 744, &c. Walsh knew nothing 
 of his Grace’s history after his arrival in Louvain. 
 
 ^ See the registry of the priests of Ireland, taken by Government 
 in I704y passim. 
 
 § “ Perpetuo damnatus exilic, in Belgium venit, inde Lutetiam ante 
 aliquot menses,” says the MS. Memoir to which I have so often re* 
 ferred, and which was copied by the present Lord Arundel from the 
 original MS. paper, written in 1667, and preserved in the convent of 
 S. Isidore at Home. 
 
 II So I learn from a MS. note in Plunket’s Jus Prim., p. 31, and 
 
IN THE IIEIGN OE CHARLES II. 
 
 299 
 
 Anno 1671.— Most Rev. Dr. JAMES LYNCH, 
 Archbishop of Tuam. 
 
 This pious bishop, who succeeded that confessor of the faith 
 Dr. Burke in 1669, experienced in the year 1671 how little 
 the sufferings of the Catholics had been diminished by the 
 restoration of Charles II. A certain wicked apostate Augus- 
 tinian monk, named Martin French, who had been repri- 
 manded by the archbishop, denounced him to the authorities, 
 and had him accused, under the statute of Praemunire, of 
 exercising foreign jurisdiction in the British dominions. In 
 consequence of these accusations, the archbishop was detained 
 for many months in prison, and for some time was in great 
 danger of being led to the scaffold. Archbishop Plunket, on 
 the 24tli April, 1671, thus refers to his sufferings : — 
 
 “ The good Archbishop of Tuam was imprisoned anew, 
 during the past Lent, on the accusation of Martin French, and 
 was found guilty of Praemunire — that is, of exercising foreign 
 jurisdiction ; but now, having given security, he is allowed to 
 be at liberty till the next sessions of August ; but Nicholas 
 Plunket, who is the best lawyer in the kingdom, and the only 
 defender that the poor ecclesiastics have in such circumstances, 
 writes that he should appeal from the courts of Galway to the 
 
 from date of Plunkett’s consecration. (He wrote in 1069 from Paris 
 to P. Walsh. See E. 612.) 
 
 With Dr. O’Eeilly was confined the venerable Dr. Patrick 
 Plunkett, Bishop of Meath. He was the second son of Christopher, 
 ninth Lord Killeen, joined the Cistercians, became abbot of S. Mary’s, 
 Dublin, and, on the recommendation of the nuncio, was promoted in 
 1647 to the see of Ardagh. During the bloody days of Cromwell he 
 fled to the Continent, and about 1665 was permitted to return to his 
 Hock. In 1666 he was imprisoned in Dublin along with Dr. O’Ecilly, 
 and kept in close confinement for several months. Apparently he 
 escaped from prison, for in November, 1667, Dr. French, Bishop of 
 Ferns, in his “ Elenchus,” presented to Pope Clement IX., says that Dr. 
 Plunkett then lay hid in the woods, on the mountains, and in the cabins 
 of the poor. He died on the 18th November, 1679, in the seventy- 
 sixth year of his ago, and was buried in tlie chancel of Killeen. — 
 Cogans Diocese of Meath, p. 358. 
 
300 
 
 MAIITVILS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 supreme jurisdiction of Dublin, in which there is greater 
 equity.’’ 
 
 On the trial being sent to Dublin, French did not appear to 
 prosecute, and soon afterwards, touched with repentance, he 
 petitioned the Primate to pardon him his guilt and readmit 
 him to the bosom of the holy Church. The good prelate, 
 moved by his prayers, and still more by the tears which testi- 
 fied his horror for the course of crime he had pursued, ab- 
 solved him, in the name of the Holy See, from the censures he 
 had incurred, and wrote most pressing letters to the Arch- 
 bishop ^f Tuam, praying him to receive back the prodigal son 
 and reinstate him in the household of God. 
 
 It was thus Dr. Lynch himself wrote on the 17th September, 
 1671, to the internuncio at Brussels. After stating that 
 French had repented of his crimes, he adds, — 
 
 “ He had recourse to the most illustrious Lord Primate, who 
 freed him from censures, and more than once notified the same 
 to us by letters, praying also and beseeching us that we would 
 admit to our communion this man, no longer subject to cen- 
 sures or irregularities, and that we would cast every fault, if 
 there were any, upon his own shoulders, and to this testimony 
 we have given every credence .’" — Morajts Life of Arc/ibluhop 
 Plunkett p. 89. 
 
 Anno 1674.— Right Rev. Dr. JOHN DE BURGO, 
 Vicar-Apostolic of Killala. 
 
 Few, even amongst the Irish prelates, suffered more at the 
 hands of the persecutors than Dr. de Burgo : of him might be 
 said that he was a “ minister of (dirist in labours more 
 abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, 
 in deaths often ; in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in 
 perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in 
 perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in 
 the sea.” 
 
 In his youth he had served for some years as an officer in the 
 Austrian army of Northern Italy; but, renouncing the world, 
 
IN THE llEION OF CHARLES TI. 
 
 301 
 
 lie dedicated himself to the service of the altar, and was 
 appointed Abbot of Clare, in the west of Ireland. From 
 1647 till the bishop’s death, in 1650, he acted as Vicar-General 
 of Killaloe, and we find him three years later arrested by 
 Cromwell, and sent, in company with eighteen other priests, 
 into banishment. For some years he dedicated himself to the 
 sacred ministry in France and Italy, till 1671, when he received 
 a brief from Rome appointing him Vicar-Apostolic of the 
 ancient see of Killala. Towards the close of 167S he reached 
 Ireland ; but in the mean time the Archbishop of Tuam, as 
 metropolitan, had appointed a vicar-general for the diocese, 
 and, the matter having been referred to Rome, the appoint- 
 ment of Dr. Burke appears to have been cancelled. 
 
 Before the close of 1674 he was arrested by order of the 
 Crown, accused of bringing Protestants to the Catholic 
 faith, contrary to the statutes of the kingdom, exercising 
 foreign jurisdiction, preaching perverse doctrine, and remaining 
 in the kingdom despite the Act of Parliament of 28th March, 
 1674,” &c. For two years he was detained in prison with 
 irons on his hands and feet. At the assizes he publicly de- 
 clared that the Pope, as Vicar of Christ, was head of the 
 ('atholic Church. He rejected with scorn a private offer 
 that was made to him of being promoted to a Protestant 
 bishopric, should he conform to the Established Church. Con- 
 ducted from Ballinrobe to Dublin, he there displayed the same 
 firmness, and was at length sentenced to the confiscation of his 
 goods and perpetual imprisonment. The Earl of Clanricarde, 
 who was his relative, soon after obtained his release, which was 
 accorded on condition that he should pay the sum of .iPSO 
 sterling (an enormous sum for those days) within one month, 
 and retire to the Continent. 
 
 During his imprisonment De Burgo had made a vow to 
 visit the holy places, should he regain his liberty. In 1679 
 he fulfilled this vow, but on his return from Jerusalem was 
 captured by pirates in the Mediterranean, stripped of all he 
 possessed, and sold as a slave. He, however, found means to 
 escape to Constantinople, where he took refuge with the 
 Austrian ambassador, He thence proceeded to Venice an(] 
 
302 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Rome, and, receiving frequent aid from the Sacred Congre- 
 gation, seems to have passed in peace the closing years of his 
 eventful life. 
 
 Most of these particulars are taken from his own narrative 
 in 1683, in the Archives of the Propaganda.— AVee ‘i]/orcE? 2 "s 
 Life of Archbishop 'Plunhet^ p. 200. 
 
 Anno 1678.— Most Rev. PETER TALBOT, Arch- 
 bishop OF Dublin. 
 
 His life is given at considerable length by Dr. Renehan, and 
 will no doubt be fully illustrated in the future second volume 
 of Dr. Moran’s Archbishops of Dublin.” As this present 
 work treats only of the sufferings endured for the faith, I 
 shall give only an abridgment of Dr. Renehan’s excellent 
 account of the first part of his life : — 
 
 Peter Talbot was a member of that ancient and very 
 illustrious family that bore the titles of Earls of Wexford 
 and Waterford in Ireland, Earl (at one time Duke) of 
 Shrewsbury in England, &c., &c. His father. Sir William 
 Talbot, lived at Malahide, and was the ancestor of the present 
 Lord Talbot of Malahide. Colonel Richard Talbot, Earl 
 and Duke of Tyrconnell, and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 
 was a younger brother of our prelate.* Peter was born at 
 Malahide, in the county of Dublin, in the year 1620, and, 
 after having been educated as suitably to his rank as a Catholic 
 could in these days of uncivilizing persecution, he felt a 
 heavenly impulse strongly urging him to renounce the wealth 
 and honours of the world at the foot of the cross, and to 
 embrace the poverty, the persecutions, and the sacred ministry 
 of Jesus. He was accordingly sent over to Portugal, to be 
 trained up in the spirit and to acquire the learning necessary 
 for the ecclesiastical state, and was there received, in the year 
 1635, into the society of the Jesuits. JIaving finished his 
 course of philosophy under the Jesuits in Portugal, he was 
 
 Carte’s Ormond, vol. ii. p. 384. 
 
IX THE IIETGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 303 
 
 sent to their college in Rome, to acquire in the capital of tlie 
 Christian world greater knowledge of Scripture, theology, 
 and law. After a long course of probation, he received the 
 lioly order of priesthood at Rome, returned soon after to 
 Portugal, and was sent by his superior to teach moral theology 
 at Antwerp.* 
 
 While Talbot was here enjoying the peaceful pursuits of a 
 collegiate life, his native country was agonizing under the 
 bloody ferocities of Cromwell’s army, and England was being 
 disgraced by the murder of one king and the banishment of 
 another. Charles II. fled to Paris, whence he removed to 
 Cologne in July, 1655, after the conclusion of the treaty 
 between the French court and Cromwell. His Majesty now 
 turned his thoughts on engaging the Spanish court to assist 
 in his restoration. Talbot possessed a great deal of influence 
 with many of the Spanish ministers in Flanders, and par- 
 ticularly with the Count de Fonsaldagna, v;ho at that time 
 was the actual governor of the country, though the Archduke 
 Leopold enjoyed the title. His old and special intimacy with 
 Father Daniel Daly, alias Dominick a Rosario, a native of 
 Kerry, and the ambassador of the King of Portugal at the 
 court of France, besides the vast power and influence of the 
 society to which he belonged, enabled Talbot to be of in- 
 calculable service to Charles in the days of his distress. He 
 frequently visited his Majesty at Cologne, and was always 
 honoured with the most gracious and friendly reception. 
 Conversation, after some acquaintance, often turned on the 
 respective merits of the Catholic and Protestant religions. If 
 the King was willing to learn, Talbot was able and willing to 
 teach ; and so deep was the impression made on the conscience 
 of his Majesty that, after a secret conference of some days, he 
 at length shut himself up with our professor in his closet for 
 several days, till his conviction was fully completed, and eveiy 
 doubt removed from his mind. Charles, however, was not a 
 man w'ho would forfeit a crown to follow his convictions. He 
 knew how much the English mind was maddened by the 
 
 Life ia Bibliotheca Patrum S.J. 
 
30 1 . 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 spirit of bigotry against the Catholic Church ; he knew the 
 cliaracter of Ormond and the others that surrounded his 
 person ; he probably saw that those calculating royalists 
 might believe that his conversion would mar their projects 
 for the settlement and partition of Ireland ; and he therefore 
 determined to be received into the bosom of the Catholic 
 Church as secretly as possible, and afterwards, and then only, 
 to absent himself from Protestant communion, but to make 
 no declarations of his religious opinions. Talbot had thus 
 the pleasure to witness his solemn renunciation of the errors 
 of Protestantism, and to receive him, after a formal profes- 
 sion of faith, into the Catholic Church, and no doubt to 
 administer to him the holy sacraments. 
 
 The royal convert persevered for a few years ; but 
 afterwards his absence from Protestant service had been 
 jealously remarked by his ministers, and the secret of his con- 
 version was not only whispered on the Continent, but reported 
 in England, when the boasted and amply rewarded loyalty of 
 liis Protestant supporters chuckled at the fact, and called for 
 its denial, or an open profession of Protestantism. Charles, 
 with characteristic inconstancy, dissembled, denied, renounced 
 the convictions of his heart witli the same readiness as he 
 pledged his honour or his oath, at different times, to support 
 and to repudiate the Irish peace, the Scotch Covenant, and 
 the English Church. Talbot's labour, however, was not lost 
 either to the country or to tlie unhappy King. His Majesty, 
 though a weak and ambitious man, was a sincere convert, and, 
 if he dared, would have proved that sincerity through life 
 which he evinced at his death. When the earthly crown 
 could no longer be held, Charles made an anxious effort to 
 seize on a crown in heaven. He sent for Father Huddlestone 
 to receive him again into the Church, and to prepare him for 
 eternity. He needed but little instruction ; Talbot had 
 supplied that want. His repentance had every appearance 
 of being intense and fervent ; he received the last sacraments 
 with piety, and died a Catholic. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Various causes combiped, about the year Ib6*8, to ipduce 
 
IN THIS REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 305 
 
 the Government to connive at the appointment of a few bishops 
 to some of the many vacanct sees ; and thus the episcopal 
 hierarchy, reduced for some years before to three individuals 
 (as was noticed in the history of the Primates of Armagh), 
 was saved from utter extinction. Dr. Talbot was the first 
 person, or among the first, chosen by his Holiness, and was 
 nominated to the archiepiscopal see of Dublin. How little 
 he ambitioned this arduous but important station may be 
 inferred from the fact that no sooner did he learn that his 
 promotion was intended than he went to Father Joseph 
 Simons, the then provincial of the Jesuits in England, and 
 offered him, and through him the Most Rev. Father Oliver, 
 the general of the order, to re-enter the society, if they deemed 
 that course more conducive to the interests of religion, But 
 these fathers, considering the invaluable services a person of 
 his talents, information, and family influence was likely to 
 render the Catholic cause in Ireland, not only renounced their 
 claim upon him, but used all their influence to forward his 
 promotion to a see, and in particular to that of Dublin. 
 When the bull of his appointment arrived, Talbot, in order 
 to avoid publicity, went over privately to Flanders, and was 
 consecrated at Ghent, near Louvain, on the 2nd May, 1669. 
 ****** 
 
 “ Dr. Talbot lost no time, after his consecration, in visiting 
 his diocese. It had been now thirteen years deprived of a 
 bishop, and from extreme old age Dr. Fleming must have 
 been able to afford it little succour during the last seven 
 years of his life, spent in concealment. A people whose religion 
 and morals were just after being exposed to the dangers of a 
 ten years’ civil war, to the horrors of Cromwell’s devastation, 
 the fanatical persecution of his followers, the irritating in- 
 gratitude of the restored King, and the legalized spoliation of 
 the Act of Settlement, presented a large field for the exercise 
 of episcopal zeal, and required all his attention and activity. 
 Our archbishop wanted neither the energy nor zeal nor 
 abilities fitted to the occasion. On visiting the diocese he 
 found that the Very Rev. James S. Dempsey, the vicar-apo- 
 stolic, who had provided for its administration during the 
 
 X 
 
306 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 vacancy, had been necessitated to admit persons of inferior 
 literary qualifications to the pastoral charge. To remedy 
 this evil, and promote learning among the clergy, Talbot 
 held a diocesan synod in August, 1670, wherein it was enacted 
 that all the parishes or benefices should be disposed of in 
 future by concursus to the most successful answerer, and 
 that all the parochial clergy should be examined within a 
 month, and prove their competency for the cure of souls, or 
 be instantly deprived thereof. He also commanded that each 
 clergyman shoidd give catechetical instruction on every 
 Sunday and holyday, not only to the children, but to the 
 people at large. The following March he convoked a second 
 synod, in which other regulations were enacted for reforming 
 the manners of the laity (specially that no Catholic should 
 attempt to marry a Jew or infidel, under pain of excommuni- 
 cation), that the banns should be solemnly published before 
 marriage, and that any of the faithful who dies without 
 receiving the last sacraments through his own fault, should 
 be deprived of Christian burial.* 
 
 ****** 
 
 ‘‘ From the time of Dr. Talbot‘’s appointment to the 
 see of Dublin his supposed influence in the English court, 
 his uncompromising opposition to the intrigues of the Re- 
 monstrants, and his zealous discharge of his sacred duties 
 exposed him to the calumnies and bitter hostility of a large 
 party in Ireland. He was charged particularly with the 
 design of introducing, contrary to law, ‘ Popish aldermen ’ 
 into the corporation of Dublin, and of reversing the Act of 
 Settlement. Of course the Protestants were excited beyond 
 measure at the thought of losing their ill-got possessions, and 
 they appealed to the English Parliament for protection. 
 
 “ An address was accordingly presented to the King, 
 requiring, among other things, that ‘ Peter Talbot, pre- 
 tended Archbishop of Dublin, for his notorious disloyalty 
 and disobedience and contempt of the laws, be commanded 
 by })roclamation to depart forthwith out of Ireland and all 
 
 * Statuta Diiblinensia (1770), pp. 80, 81. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 307 
 
 his Majesty’s dominions, or otherwise to be prosecuted accord- 
 ing to law,’ &c. In consequence of this edict. Dr. Talbot was 
 banished the kingdom, about the beginning of 1673. 
 
 ****** 
 
 ‘‘Dr. Talbot returned to England in 1675, where he 
 resided for the next two years in Poole Hall, Cheshire.* 
 His health had been failing so rapidly that he sought and 
 obtained, through the interest of his brother with the Duke 
 of York, Ormond’s permission to come to Ireland, ‘ to die,’ as 
 he said, ‘ in his own country.’ Before obtaining this leave, 
 he had to promise to live quietly with his own family, and to 
 interfere no further in political questions, not because the 
 helpless archbishop, who was borne in a chair to his brother’s 
 house, could be suspected of a serious design to subvert the 
 Government, but as a plea to justify the severity of the 
 measures already taken against him. 
 
 “ Shortly after Dr. Talbot’s arrival in Ireland, the Duke 
 of Ormond received a letter from the Secretary of State, 
 informing him of the discovery of the ‘ Popish plot,’ and of 
 the means adopted to extend it to Ireland ; that Peter Talbot, 
 Archbishop of Dublin, was one of the accomplices, and that 
 assassins were hired to murder the duke himself. The duke 
 had no apprehension of that nature at that time, the Irish 
 being in no condition to raise an insurrection, and Peter Talbot 
 in a dying way. He signed, however, a warrant on the 8th 
 (Oct. 1678) and despatched an officer to secure his person. f 
 
 “ Dr. Talbot was arrested in his father’s house at Cartown, 
 near Maynooth ; his papers, containing nothing but disserta- 
 tions on controversy^, were all seized and carefully examined. 
 He was immediately removed to Dublin ‘ in a chair, and 
 committed close prisoner to the castle, with a person to attend 
 him in his miserable and helpless condition, the violence of his 
 distemper being scarce supportable, and threatening his death 
 at every moment.’ J Harris adds ‘ that nothing appeared 
 against him from his examination, nor from those of others.§ 
 
 * Carte, ii. p. 477 ; Harris’s Writers, p. 193. 
 
 t Carte, ii. p. 478. X Carte, ibid. 
 
 § P. Walsh, far the most unscrupulons of his accusers, charges him 
 
 X 2 
 
308 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Yet he was continued in the castle about two years, and died 
 in confinement in the year 1680.’* The reader will no 
 doubt be surprised to find such admissions in the pages of 
 Carte and Harris, and more so still to find their calumnies 
 repeated by authors without number who never notice the 
 statements favourable to the archbishop. 
 
 “To add to the sufferings of this amiable prelate, he saw his 
 own brother. Colonel Talbot, and Father Ryan, superior of 
 the Jesuits, first cast into the same prison, and then, when 
 the horrors of the gaol became insupportable, ordered out of 
 the country. And he knew well, if he was deprived of the 
 happiness of sharing in their exile, it was only because the 
 attempt to remove him in his present exhausted state would 
 instantly cause death. 
 
 “It would be unjust to the memory of Dr. Talbot not to 
 give the vivid description of the circumstances connected with 
 his imprisonment and death, left us by a contemporary and 
 countryman, Richard Arsdekin, S.J. This I translate lite- 
 rally from the dedication of the ‘ Theologia Tripartita.’ Its 
 fidelity may be relied on the more because the author had 
 reason to complain of some expressions applied to himself by 
 Dr. Talbot during the discussion on the Primacy, and cannot 
 therefore be suspected of partiality. * After a short time, 
 when the storm of persecution had abated somewhat rather 
 than subsided. Dr. Talbot returned to Ireland, where he 
 laboured to restore church discipline, to encourage the 
 Catholics, and to elude the machinations of heretics. But 
 his enemies could not long bear the light. They were in- 
 
 with reducing to practice the worst maxims of what was unjustly called 
 Jesuitical casuistry. According to that libeller, Dr. Talbot maintained 
 the lawfulness of equivocation, calumny, assassination, murder, trea- 
 son, &c., provided only the act were useful to yourself, to your family, 
 to your society or order. Walsh asserts that Dr. Talbot was justly 
 expelled by the Jesuits for some grievous crime, which he knows, but 
 won’t mention ; and in the same page, and with this admission before 
 him, he asserts also they were mainly instrumental in procuring 
 his promotion to the see of Dublin to serve their own interests. — 
 Hist. Remons.f pp. 258-.30. 
 
 * Harris’s Writers, book i. p. 193. 
 
IN THE KEIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 309 
 
 censed at his zeal, and jealous of his influence with the people ; 
 and, as is usually the case, they resolved to destroy what 
 they feared. Secret accusations were made before a heretical 
 tribunal, suspicions created, all the other means craftily 
 employed to oppress the just man, opposed to their wicked 
 designs, and whose worst crime was to have the name, the 
 office, and authority of a priest. At length the excellent 
 prelate, always supported by the testimony of a good con- 
 science, was seized on suddenly by wicked officials and cast 
 into a public prison without being guilty of the least offence. 
 There this faithful soldier of Christ was shut up in close 
 imprisonment for some time ; but neither keepers nor prison 
 walls nor chains could restrain that freedom of spirit which 
 animated the true pastor, and made him more careful of the 
 salvation of others than of his own life. Whilst he patiently 
 awaited the usual inhuman sentence of that heretical tribunal, 
 his feeble body, no longer a fit tenement for the noble spirit, 
 was broken down by heavy sickness. Still the soldier of Christ 
 struggled on against disease and the filth of a loathsome 
 dungeon, destitute of almost all human aid, with nothing to 
 console him but a firm resolution and conscious innocence. 
 At length, after enduring various and repeated tortures, he 
 suffered death, not indeed beneath the axe of the executioner, 
 but immured in a filthy prison, and he passed to that better 
 world -where God has promised a crown of justice to those 
 who strive lawfully. But this most illustrious prelate shall 
 ever live in the memory of men ; he shall ever live in the 
 society of holy confessors ; from him the injustice of man, the 
 cunning and envy of heretics, shall never take away the 
 laurels won in a glorious fight. O blind Tyranny, thou art 
 deceived ! whatever thou dost, whatever thou proposest, the 
 blood of martyrs has been, and ever will be, the seed of 
 Christians ! Of this truth Ireland, ever faithful to her God 
 and to her King, has given for ages, and will continue to give, 
 a noble example."* ** 
 
 * Theologia Tripartita Richardi Arsdekin, S.J. ; Prosecutio Ded., 
 
 tom. i., edit, quinta, Antverpise, anno 1682. Arsdekin entered tlie 
 
310 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 ‘‘ Some recent writers have, quite erroneously, fixed the date 
 of Dr. Talbot’s death in 1681, against the unanimous tes- 
 timony of our best-informed historians. It is quite certain 
 he died in 1680, and probably at the close of that year. The 
 nuncio wrote from Brussels, Dec. 21, 1680, ^ that my Lord 
 Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, has died of his sufferings in 
 the prisons of Ireland (e morto d’infermita nelle carcere 
 dTberaia) ; that Dr. Plunket was several times examined, 
 without, of course, any crime being discovered against him, 
 and was still most strictly guarded ; and that Lord Stafford 
 was accused by many of the usual witnesses, and could depend 
 only on the fears of the peers, who did not know, if they 
 admitted such proof, when the same would be used against 
 themselves.’ ”* 
 
 Anno 1679. — Right Rev. Dr. FORSTALL, 
 Bishop of Kildare. 
 
 “Dr. Forstall was a prelate of great virtue and learning, 
 and before his appointment to the see of Kildare he had held 
 high ecclesiastical offices in Vienna, in which he won for him- 
 self the esteem and favour of the Imperial court. He was a 
 member of the Order of S. Augustine, all whose convents 
 throughout the kingdom had been impoverished or destroyed ; 
 and some idea of the poverty of the Irish Church at this 
 period may be formed from the fact that Dr. Plunket, the 
 martyred archbishop, mentions that the diocese of Kildare 
 yielded to its bishop a revenue of only 56 scudi a year, or 
 little more than £1 per month .f And he consequently (20th 
 August, 1677) solicited and obtained for him the adminis- 
 tration of the diocese of Leighlin, which had also fifteen or 
 sixteen priests, and a revenue of only fifty or sixty scudi. 
 
 society in 1642, being then twenty-three years of age, and was conse- 
 quently only about one year older than Dr. Talbot. — See Hib. Dom., 
 pp. 131, 815. 
 
 * Extract from original documents of Padre Theiner, by L. F. K. 
 
 t Dr. Plunket also says the diocese had only fifteen priests. 
 
IN THE REIGN OE CHAHLES II. 
 
 811 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1679 Dr. Forstall was cast 
 into prison ; and even after his liberation the fury of persecu- 
 tion compelled him to seek for safety in the woods and 
 mountains, until, in 1683, he closed his earthly career, an 
 exile in the diocese of Cashel.^’ — Moran’s Life of Dr. 
 Plunket, p. 169. 
 
 Anno 1680. 
 
 Right Rev. DOMINICK DE RURGO, O P.P., 
 Bishop of Elphin. 
 
 “ He was beg-n in Ireland about the year 1629, of parents 
 conspicuous alike for the nobility of their race and their con- 
 stancy in the faith. About the year 1648, when the whole 
 kingdom was torn with war, led by the desire of leading a 
 more perfect life, and devoting himself to the warfare of the 
 Gospel, he entered the holy order of S. Dominick.* He then 
 embarked for Spain, but, being taken prisoner at sea by the 
 heretical English, was carried to Kinsale, where he was 
 despoiled of his clothes and the money he had for his journey, 
 and thrown into prison. Hence he escaped by the singular 
 favour of God, having jumped down from the wall of the 
 prison into the mud left by the receding tide. He lay hid in 
 a wood there for two days, covered with mud up to his neck, 
 because he dared not go to the river to wash. During these 
 two days he neither eat nor drank. At length he made his way 
 with difficulty to the house of a certain Catholic nobleman of 
 the name of Roche. Here he was kindly received and har- 
 boured until he had recovered his strength, when he was 
 furnished with clothes and money, and allowed to depart in 
 peace. Thus aided, he made his way safely to the house of 
 his mother, who was astonished at his appearance, and insisted 
 that he should not again expose himself to the dangers of the 
 
 * In the times of persecution aspirants to the religious life generally 
 were received into the order and clothed in Ireland, and then pro- 
 ceeded abroad to pass their novicesbip in one of the Irish monasteries 
 on the Continent. 
 
312 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 sea. His determination, however, prevailed ; and, having 
 obtained from his mother fresh supplies for his journey, he 
 embarked at Galway, and, reaching Spain in safety, proceeded 
 to Segovia, and spent six years in our convent of the Holy 
 Cross there. When his studies were completed, as the Crom- 
 wellian persecution made it impossible to reach Ireland, he 
 proceeded to Andalusia, and thence to Italy, where he dwelt 
 for about sixteen years, much esteemed by all for his probity 
 and zeal for religion. He was held in the highest consi- 
 deration by the illustrious Father Julius Vincent Gentili, 
 who was twice provincial of the province of Lombardy, 
 and afterwards an Archbishop. Dr. Burgo held many high 
 offices in his order, and was in 1671 named by Clement X. 
 Bishop of Elphin, a dignity which he had not sought, 
 but to which he was called unexpectedly, even as Aaron was. 
 He was consecrated at Ghent, in the forty-first year of his 
 age, and immediately returned to his native land, where for 
 thirty years he zealously discharged every duty of his sacred 
 office. 
 
 “ It were long to tell all he suffered in the bitter persecution 
 which was got up against the Catholics in England and Ireland 
 in 1680. A reward of two hundred pounds was offered for 
 his apprehension by the Viceroy and Council, for which reason 
 he always travelled by night whilst that persecution lasted. 
 For four months he lay hid in a solitary house, and never even 
 put his foot outside the door : but when the time came for 
 consecrating the holy oils (Maundy Thursday) he travelled 
 by night forty miles from that place. 
 
 ‘‘ I (John O^Heyn) was his companion all that year, until 
 the illustrious Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Oliver Plunket, 
 w^as taken prisoner. He often, from his prison in Dublin, 
 warned the Bishop of Elphin of the plans of the Supreme 
 Council for his apprehension, and by this means much aided 
 him to escape their snares. Had he fallen into their hands, no 
 doubt his fate would have been the same as that of the 
 Primate, who was hung, beheaded, and quartered on the first 
 of July, 1681. In the war of rebellion against our King 
 James II. he was compelled to take refuge in the city of 
 
N THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 313 
 
 Galway, out of his own diocese. King James and his Queen 
 esteemed him much. When he was driven into exile, King 
 Lewis of France offered him an abbey, but he preferred to go 
 to Louvain, and share the poverty of his order in our college 
 of Holy Cross there. 
 
 “ When our convent in Louvain was in a ruinous state, 
 and had to be vacated for repairs, he went to live with the 
 Friars Minors in the same city. There, in his seventy-fifth 
 year, worn out with labours for religion, having made his 
 confession and received the Holy Communion and extreme 
 unction, he calmly yielded up his soul to his Saviour, on the 
 first day of the year 1704, between the ninth and tenth hour 
 of the evening, and is buried in this church, beside the high 
 altar.^^ — Hih. Dom. p. 496; O'Heyn^ p. 33; De Jonghe^ 
 p. 423. 
 
 Rev. Father DOMINICK LYNZE,* O.P.P. 
 
 “ He studied in Spain, and returning to Ireland, led there a 
 most exemplary life, although he was the son of an heretical 
 minister. He showed that the works of faith and grace come 
 not to men by their birth or by nature, but from our Lord 
 God, by Jesus Christ ; for he was so averse to all heretics 
 that he ever avoided their company, although many of them, 
 like the Catholics, sought his society, for he was very 
 agreeable in conversation, although ever observing a religious 
 gravity. He suffered much in the persecution which sprang 
 up in 1680. He lay for a whole year in prison, in close con- 
 finement, which he bore with such equanimity and cheerfulness 
 as to astonish the heretics who spoke with him. After his 
 deliverance from prison he lived until the year 1686, when, 
 fortified with the sacraments of the Church, he calmly departed 
 to our Lord.’^ — O’iJeyw, p. 24. 
 
 * Lynze. This name is probably the same as Lynch. 
 
314 
 
 MARTYllS AND CON I’ I.S;JOKS 
 
 Anno 1681. -The Most Rev. OLIVER PLUNKET, 
 Archbishop of Armagh. 
 
 For a full account of this illustrious prelate, the latest 
 martyr of the Irish Church, I must refer my readers to the 
 valuable work of Dr. Moran, ^ from which the following brief 
 account is extracted. As the purport of this work is only to 
 give an account of the sufferings of the martyrs and confessors 
 of the faith, I shall give a very short account of the life of 
 Dr. Plunket up to the time of his apprehension. 
 
 Oliver Plunket was born at Loughcrew, in the county of 
 Meath, in the year 1629. He was a near relative of Dr. 
 Patrick Plunket, who successively ruled the dioceses of Ardagh 
 and Meath, as also of Dr. Peter Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin. 
 He was also related to the Earls of Fingall and Roscommon, 
 and to the Barons of Dunsany and Louth. From an early 
 age he showed a desire to devote himself to the sacred 
 ministry, and his education was intrusted to his relative. Dr. 
 Patrick Plunket, then titular Abbot of S. Mary’s, Dublin, 
 until the age of sixteen, when he proceeded to Rome, there to 
 pursue his studies. In 1643 Father Peter Francis Scarampo, 
 an Oratorian, had been sent by the Holy See on a special 
 mission to Ireland ; in 1645 he returned to Rome, and young 
 Plunket accompanied him. 
 
 Plunket lived in the Irish college, and pursued his 
 studies in the Roman college of the Society of Jesus. 
 In 1654 he was ordained priest, but, it being impossible at 
 that date for him to proceed to Ireland, he took up his 
 residence with the Jesuit fathers of S. Girolamo della Carita. 
 In 1657 he was appointed professor in the College of the 
 Propaganda, which office he held for twelve years. 
 
 On the 9th of July, 1669, Dr. Oliver Plunket was nomi- 
 nated, by the Sacred Congregation Archbishop of Armagh, in 
 succession to Dr. Edmund O’Reilly. He wished much to be 
 consecrated in Rome, but it was deemed more prudent that 
 he should be consecrated in Brussels, which was done on the 
 
 * Life of Archbishop Plunket, by Rev. P. Moran, D.D. Dublin, 1865. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 315 
 
 30th November, 1669. He immediately left for London, and, 
 although detained at Holyhead for twelve days by contrary 
 winds, reached Dublin by the middle of March. 
 
 At this time the violence of the Cromwellian persecution 
 was over; and although new laws were constantly passed 
 against Catholics, they were little put in execution, and the 
 Government connived at the existence of priests, and the 
 Viceroy, Lord Berkeley, was favourable to a policy of some- 
 thing like toleration. 
 
 Dr. Plunket immediately hastened to his diocese, where he 
 held two synods and two ordinations, and in a month and a 
 half administered confirmation to more than ten thousand 
 people, and in four years to forty-eight thousand six hundred 
 and fifty-five. 
 
 Before the end of 1673, however, the storm of persecution 
 again began to rage ; bishops and regulars were especially 
 sought after, and were compelled to hide. Dr. Plunket, 
 together with Dr. Brennan, Bishop of Waterford, were con- 
 cealed in a wretched thatched cabin, through the holes in the 
 roof of which the rain poured on their beds, and it was with 
 difficulty they could procure even oaten bread for food. All 
 the convents were destroyed, the monks scattered, and the 
 bishops obliged to hide in the mountains. With very 
 slight intervals of relaxation, this persecution lasted until the 
 death of our holy martyr. In 1678 fresh edicts were issued, 
 and bishops and priests sought for more rigorously than 
 ever. The infamous conspiracy against the lives of Catholics 
 known as the story of the Popish Plot was set on foot 
 this year in England, and the Viceroy, the Duke of Ormond, 
 although his private letters show he was well aware of the 
 falseness of the story, fostered the delusion, and issued fresh 
 edicts against the Catholics : all bishops, Jesuits, regulars, 
 and priests, were ordered to leave the kingdom ; all chapels, or 
 Mass-houses as they were called, were closed or pulled down. 
 The first victim was the illustrious Archbishop of Dublin, 
 Dr. Peter Talbot. He had only returned to England from 
 his exile on the Continent in 1676, and a few months before the 
 present outbreak against the Catholics, through the inter- 
 
316 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 cession of the Duke of York, obtained permission to revisit 
 and console his spiritual flock. 
 
 In the month of November, 1679, Dr. Plunket left his 
 place of concealment in the secluded parts of his own diocese, 
 and came to Dublin to assist, in his last moments, his relative, 
 the aged Bishop of Meath. Ten days later he was arrested 
 in his place of concealment, in the city of Dublin, by a body 
 of militia headed by Hetherington, and by order of the 
 Viceroy he was committed a close prisoner to Dublin Castle. 
 This was on the 6th December, 1679. For six weeks no 
 communication with him was allowed; but after that term, 
 nothing treasonable having been discovered in his papers, he 
 was treated with more lenity, and permitted to receive visits 
 from his friends. The only crime of which he was at first 
 accused was that of remaining in the kingdom, notwithstanding 
 the proclamation, and of exercising the functions of his sacred 
 ministry. Thus his relative, the Rev. William Plunket, 
 wrote on the 20th March, 1680, to the Propaganda : — “ I 
 hastened thither (to the castle), and having heard and learned 
 for certain that he had been imprisoned only for being a 
 Catholic bishop, and for not having abandoned the flock of 
 our Lord in obedience to the edict published by Parliament, 
 I was somewhat consoled, it being his and our glory that he 
 should sufler in such a cause.” 
 
 So on his trial the Primate declared, I was a prisoner six 
 months, only for my religion, and there was not a word of 
 treason spoken of against me for so many years.” And the 
 Attorney-General himself avowed that he was arrested “ for 
 being an over-zealous Papist.” 
 
 But a plot to bring him to trial for complicity in the treason 
 of the imaginary “ Popish Plot” was being hatched, and the 
 chief actors in it, as in all the false witness borne against him, 
 were wicked and apostate friars, whom it had been his duty to 
 punisb for neglect of the duties of their order. 
 
 Chief amongst these was a friar named Mac Moyer, whom 
 Dr. Plunket had suspended for various crimes, and who was 
 noted for his violence, drunkenness, and immoralities. An 
 indictment against the archbishop for conspiracy was presented 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 317 
 
 to the grand jury of the county of Dublin, and supported by 
 the evidence of this Mac Moyer and others, but the grand 
 jury would not find the bill. 
 
 The Protestant bishop Burnet gives the following account 
 of this proceeding : — 
 
 “ Plunket, the popish Primate of Armagh, was at this 
 time brought to his trial. Some lewd Irish priests, and 
 others of that nation, hearing that England was at that time 
 disposed to hearken to good swearers, thought themselves well 
 qualified for that employment ; so they came over to swear 
 that there was a great plot in Ireland to bring over a French 
 army, and to massacre all the English. The witnesses were 
 brutal and profligate men ; yet the Earl of Shaftesbury 
 cherished them much, they were examined by the Parliament 
 at Westminster, and what they said was believed. Upon that 
 encouragement it was reckoned that we should have witnesses 
 come over in whole companies. Lord Essex told me that 
 this Plunket was a wise and sober man, who was always in a 
 different interest from the two Talbots, the one of these being 
 the titular Archbishop of Dublin, and the other raised 
 afterwards to be Duke of Tyrconnell. Some of these priests 
 had been censured by him for their lewdness, and they drew 
 others to swear as they had directed them. They had ap- 
 peared the winter before upon a bill offered to the grand jury, 
 but, as the foreman of the jury, who was a zealous Protestant, 
 told me, they contradicted one another so evidently that they 
 would not find a bill. But now that they laid their story 
 better together, and swore against Plunket that he had got a 
 great bank of money to be prepared, and that he had an army 
 listed, and was in corrrespondence with France to bring over 
 a fleet from thence, he had nothing to say in his own defence, 
 but to deny all. So he was condemned, and suffered, very 
 decently expressing himself in many particulars as became a 
 bishop. He died denying everything that had been sworn 
 against him.” 
 
 It was not till the month of June, 1680, that the witnesses 
 had fully arranged their plans. Armed with commendatory 
 letters from the English court, they now returned to Ireland 
 
318 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 assured of success. Amongst the many precautions taken by 
 the apostate friar Mac Moyer, one was to have a Government 
 order sent from London to the Viceroy that no Catholic should 
 be a member of the jury. “ Orders had been transmitted to 
 Ireland,” says the Primate on his trial, ‘‘ that I should be tried 
 in Ireland, arid that no Roman Catliolic should be on the 
 jury, and so it was in both the grand jury and the other jury ; 
 yet there, when I came to my trial, after I was arraigned, not 
 one appeared.” Dr. Plunket did not object to this arrange- 
 ment, though in itself most unjust, so conscious was he of his 
 own innocence, and of the known character of his accusers ; 
 and after the words which we have just cited, he again avowed 
 upon his trial — “ If I had been in Ireland, I would have put 
 myself on my trial to-morrow, without any witnesses, before 
 any Protestant jury that knew them and me.” 
 
 The Viceroy, however, decreed that the trial should be held 
 in Dundalk, the scene of the reputed treasonable crimes; and, 
 as we shall just now see, this alone sufficed to derange all the 
 plans of the witnesses, for they were conscious that their 
 character was well known in that quarter, and that evidence 
 could be without difficulty procured there of their malignity 
 and evil designs and perjuries. Dr. Plunket, writing to the 
 internuncio on the 25th of July, 1680, the day after his 
 return from Dundalk, gives the following detailed account of 
 the proceedings of this trial : — 
 
 “ Your letter of the 17th July consoled me in my tribula- 
 tions and miseries. The friar Mac Moyer, as well in the 
 criminal sessions of Dundalk, as after these sessions, presented 
 a memorial that the trial should not be held in Dundalk, where 
 he was too well known, and that it should be deferred till Sep- 
 tember or March next, but the Viceroy refused. 
 
 “I was brought with a guard to Dundalk on the 21st of July. 
 Dundalk is thirty-six miles from Dublin. I was there con- 
 signed to the King'*s lieutenant in that district, who treated 
 me with great courtesy ; on the 23rd and 24th of J uly I was 
 presented for trial. A long process was read, but on the 24th 
 Mac Moyer did not appear to confirm his depositions and hear 
 my defence. I had thirty-two witnesses, priests, friars, and 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 319 
 
 seculars, prepared to falsify all that the friar had sworn, for- 
 sooth that I had seventy thousand Catholics prepared to 
 rmirder all the Protestants^ and to establish here the Romish 
 religion and Popish superstition ; that I had sent numerous 
 agents to different kingdoms to obtain aid ; that I had visited 
 and explored all the fortresses and maritime ports of the 
 kingdom ; and that I held a provincial council in 1678, to 
 introduce the French. He also accused, in his depositions, 
 iVIonsignor Tyrrell ; Rev. Luke Plunket, the ordinary of 
 Derry ; and Rev. Edward Dromgole, an eminent preacher. 
 Murphy (the second witness) no sooner heard that the sessions 
 and trial would be held in Dundalk than he fled out of the 
 kingdom ; and hence Mac Moyer alleged that he himself could 
 not appear, as he awaited the return of Murphy ; and so these 
 sessions terminated, and, according to the laws of this country, 
 T must present myself at three criminal sessions before I can 
 be absolved ; and, as there will be no sessions in Dundalk till 
 the end of March, my counsel and friends recommended me to 
 yiresent a memorial to have the cause adjudged in Dublin at 
 the next criminal sessions of All Saints’, and that the jury of 
 Dundalk should be brought to Dublin, which, perhaps I may 
 obtain. The manner of proceeding here in criminal cases 
 seems very strange to me. The person accused knows nothing 
 of the accusations till the day of trial ; he is allowed no counsel 
 to plead his cause ; the oath is not given to his witnesses, and 
 one witness suffices for the Crown. They receive, however, 
 the evidence of the witnesses of the accused, although they do 
 not administer the oath to them. The sessions being over, I 
 was re-conducted, by order of the Viceroy, to the Royal Castle 
 of Dublin, to my dear and costly apartment. Considering, how- 
 ever, the shortness of the time spent in Dundalk, it was still 
 more expensive, as I had to bring thirty-two witnesses from dif- 
 ferent parts and maintain them for four days in Dundalk, and 
 amongst the guards and servants of the lieutenant I distributed 
 forty crowns. Although the two chief judges are appointed 
 by the Crown, the jury is chosen by the lieutenant of the 
 district of Dundalk. As there are more Catholics than Pro- 
 testants in the county Louth, Mac Moyer, foreseeing that 
 
320 
 
 MARTYKS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 some Catholics would surely be on the jury, and knowing that 
 the lieutenant, who, from his office, is called sheriff, was a 
 friend of mine, presented a memorial that no Catholic should 
 be on the jury, and he obtained his petition. I made no oppo- 
 sition, knowing well that all the Protestants of my district 
 looked upon Mac Mo^^er as a confederate of the Tories, and 
 hence, at the criminal sessions of Armagh, in 1678, he was pro- 
 secuted and fined ; and I knew, moreover, that they all deemed 
 fabulous the story sworn by Mac Moyer against me ; and, 
 moreover, his dissolute life was notorious, and he was always 
 half drunk when he appeared before the tribunals. Murphy 
 fled because he well knew that the jury of Dundalk would 
 have hanged him. He had been imprisoned in Dundalk and 
 escaped ; he was found in the company of the Tories, and he 
 concealed the articles which they stole. It is said that he has 
 gone to England to obtain pardon from the King, that he may 
 afterwards appear against me ; not to accuse me in crimine 
 IcBsce majestatis (of treason), but of exercising Papal jurisdic- 
 tion in this kingdom. Another witness, Callaghan, accuses 
 me in like manner, and it is an accusation which I deem 
 most glorious. It is more than two years since Mac Moyer 
 commenced his accusations against me, as is clear from the 
 depositions. 
 
 “ I more than once wrote to your Excellency to request 
 my masters to send me some aid. I am at this moment 500 
 crowns in debt ; I have to pay here £l a week for my own 
 and my servant’s apartments, and having no means to pay for 
 my food, one of my servants brings it to me in a basket from 
 the house of two Catholic noblemen. This is the truth, coram 
 Deo, et non mentior; and although you well know I have not 
 now received one halfpenny from my masters, yet Catholics 
 here, as well as Protestants, can with difficulty be induced to 
 believe it. Here there is no such thing as revenue; as you 
 know, we depend on the benevolence of the Catholics, who 
 are reduced to such poverty, especially in my districts, that 
 it is difficult for the parish priests to find the means of sub- 
 sistence. So many, between bandits and soldiery, are con- 
 tinually in pursuit of them, that in m}’ district the greater 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 321 
 
 part left their holdings ; in fact, all the military are main- 
 tained at the expense of the poor Catholics, and many, not 
 being able to pay, are imprisoned.’' 
 
 But the scene was now to be soon shifted from the shores 
 of Ireland to the banks of the Thames. Mac Moyer and 
 his associates felt that it would be impossible for them to 
 attain their wicked purpose in a country where their crimes 
 were so public and the Primate so revered ; they therefore 
 petitioned the King that the trial should be transferred to 
 London. The suggestion was pleasing to the court, and about 
 the middle of October Dr. Plunket received a summons to 
 appear before Parliament and the King to answer to the 
 charges imputed to him. There are two letters of the arch- 
 bishop written on this occasion, one on the 21st of October, 
 announcing this summons to London, and another, written 
 on board the vessel on the 24th, the day of his departure from 
 Ireland. In the former he thus writes : — 
 
 I have been cited to appear before the King and Par- 
 liament in London, and I leave to-day to embark. May all 
 be for the greater glory of God and the salvation of my 
 soul. Another friar has made his appearance as informer. 
 His name is George Coddan : he was imprisoned for some 
 crime, and, to obtain his liberty, became informer against 
 me and against Dr. Hugo, one of the chapter of Armagh, 
 alleging that he was nuncio of the Pope. A third friar, 
 also, a certain Paul Gormley, who was prisoner in Derry, 
 being arrested for robbery, now gives evidence in order to 
 save himself. He studied in Prague. I request you to 
 speak to Mr. Joyce that he may transmit the money to Mr. 
 John Comin without delay. The expenses are and will be 
 intolerable, and already I have sold a part of the few things 
 I had, and pledged the remainder, even to the chalice and 
 cross. From London, if possible, you will receive further 
 intelligence. I have been deprived of pen, ink, and paper. 
 I write suh galli cantii et clam ac furtive. Let Mr. Joyce 
 not mind the exchange, for necessitas non hahet legem. One 
 consolation there is, that the captain of the guard which 
 accompanies me is not my enemy. Dr. Tyrrell, Mr. Luke 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Plunket, and Dr. Dromgole have been declared guilty of 
 treason by the grand jury. A strange thing that, on the 
 mere deposition of witnesses, sentence should be given against 
 persons who are absent and unheard. 
 
 ‘‘ I request you to communicate this intelligence to Mon- 
 signor Cybo, or to send him this letter. There are many of the 
 Irish nobility and gentry here accused of this Utopian con- 
 spiracy, as my Lord Poer, now Earl of Tuam ; my Lord 
 Brittas, &c. I recommend myself to the Sacrifices and 
 prayers of all. 
 
 21st October, 1680.” 
 
 I will now give his trial, from the account printed in 
 1681 
 
 “On the 3rd of May, 1681, in Easter term. Dr. Oliver 
 Plunket was arraigned at the King’s Bench bar for high treason, 
 and for endeavoui ing and compassing the King’s death, and 
 to levy war in Ireland, and to alter the religion therei and to 
 introduce a foreign power. And at his arraignment, before 
 his plea, he urged for himself that he was indicted of the 
 same high treason in Ireland and arraigned, and at the day 
 for his trial the witnesses against him did not appear ; and 
 therefore he desired to know if he could be tried here for the 
 same fact. The court told him that, by a statute made in 
 this kingdom, he might be tried in the Court of King’s 
 Bench, or by Commission of Oyer and Terminer in any part 
 of England, for facts arising in Ireland, and that this ar- 
 raignment there (he being never tried on it) was not sufficient 
 to exempt him from being tried here.* He then desired time 
 
 * This was under a most iniquitous and unconstitutional Act of the 
 English Parliament, and its application in Dr. Plunket’s case was 
 peculiarly outrageous. To send him to be tried by a London jury of 
 that day was to hand over the good prelate to enemies thirsting for his 
 blood ; it was to procure credence for his perjured accusers, removing 
 them from the country where their crimes and perjuries were known, 
 and where Protestant juries had already refused credence to their sworn 
 testimony. It was also, in the existing circumstances, to deprive the 
 accused of the probability of defence, and to oblige him to answer the 
 highest charge against the Crown before a court where there could be 
 no witnesses in his favour, no evidence of his innocence. — Moran, p.322. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 323 
 
 for his witnesses, which they told him he could not do till 
 after plea pleaded, whereupon he pleaded not guilty, and 
 put himself upon the country for his trial ; and after some 
 consideration had about time to be allowed him to bring his 
 witnesses from Ireland, the court appointed the day for his 
 trial to be the first Wednesday in next term, which was full 
 five weeks’ time. 
 
 And, accordingly, on Wednesday, the 8th of June, in 
 Trinity term, he was brought to his trial, and proclamation, 
 as in such cases is usual, being made, it proceeded thus :* — 
 
 “ Clerk of Crown. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand. 
 These good men which thou shalt hear called and personally 
 appear are to pass between, &c. 
 
 Plunket. May it please your lordship : I have been kept 
 close prisoner for a long time — a year and a half — in prison. 
 When I came from Ireland hither I was told by persons of 
 good repute, and a counsellor-at-law, that I could not be tried 
 here ; and the reasons they gave me were that, first, the 
 statute of Henry VIII. and all other statutes made here were 
 not received in Ireland unless there were an express mention 
 made of Ireland in them : so that none were received there 
 
 * The judges on the trial were the Lord Chief Justice Sir Francis 
 Pemberton and Judges Dolbein and Jones. According to the truly 
 barbarous policy of the law in the seventeenth century (and indeed the 
 same law was in force till a very late period), no person accused of 
 treason was allowed the assistance of counsel, unless in the case that 
 some purely legal question should arise during the trial. Hence Dr. 
 Plunket now stood alone at the bar to plead his cause before judges 
 who seemed to vie with each other in their partiality for the perjured 
 witnesses, and in their animosity against the accused, whilst at the same 
 time the jury had nought to guide them in their decision but the long- 
 concocted, and nevertheless occasionally conflicting, evidence of these 
 perjurers. One instance will show the bias of the judges. When at the 
 close of the flrst witness’s evidence Dr. Plunket asked him, why, if all 
 he had said were true, he had never during the past seven years given 
 any notice to the Government of the plot, the Chief Justice, seeing this 
 witness somewhat perplexed, suggested to him an answer, saying, “ Of 
 what religion were you then ? ” and the witness replying, “ A Eoman 
 Catholic,” Justice Dolbein at once added, “ Therefore it will be no 
 wonder you did not discover the plot.” — Moran, p. 324. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 but such as were before Poyuing’s Act. So I came with that 
 persuasion that I could not be tried here, till, at my arraign- 
 ment, your lordships told me it was not so, and that I must 
 be tried here, though there was no express mention made of 
 Ireland. Now, my lord, upon that, whereas my witnesses 
 were in Ireland, and I knew nothing of it, and the records 
 upon which I very much rely were in Ireland, your lordship 
 was pleased to give me time from the 4th of the last month 
 to this day ; and in the meantime, as your lordship had the 
 affidavit here yesterday, and as Captain Richardson can tes- 
 tify, I have not despatched only one, but two, to Ireland, into 
 the counties of Armagh, Dublin, &c., and where there were 
 records very material to my defence ; but the clerk of the 
 crown would not give me any copy of any record at all, 
 unless he had some express order from your lordship, so 
 that, whether it were that they were mistaken or wilfully 
 refused, I could not get the records, which were very material 
 for me ; for in some of those records some of those that accuse 
 me were convicted of high crimes, and others were outlawed 
 and imprisoned, and broke prison ; and there were other 
 records also of excommunication against some of them, and 
 I could not get the records unless your lordship would in- 
 struct me some way or other how I can get over them that are 
 most material for my defence. The servants that I sent hence, 
 and took shipping for Ireland, were two days at sea, and cast 
 back again, and from thence were forced to go to Holyhead, 
 and from Holyhead in going to Dublin they were thirteen or 
 fourteen days, the winds were so contrary ; and then my 
 servant went about to go into the county of Armagh and 
 Derry, that were a hundred miles from Dublin, and Meath, 
 and other places, so that in so short a time, my lord, it was 
 morally impossible for them to have brought the witnesses over ; 
 and those that were ready to have come would not stir at all 
 unless they had a pass from hence, because some of them were 
 Roman Catholics, and they had heard that here some were 
 taken prisoners that were Roman Catholics, and that none 
 ought to come without a pass ; and, they being witnesses 
 against the King, they might be clapped up here, and 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 325 
 
 brought into very ill condition ; so they sent one over that 
 made affidavit. 
 
 Lord Chief Justice. It was the affidavit was read here 
 yesterday. 
 
 ‘‘ Plunket. So that, my lord, I conceive your lordship will 
 think I did it not out of any intent to put off my trial, 
 for Captain Richardson is here, who knows that I wrote by 
 the post, and desired them to come with the pacquet-boat, 
 and they wrote over to the captain after they were landed ; 
 so that I depended upon the wind and weather for my wit- 
 nesses, and wanted your lordship’s order for the records to 
 be brought over, and that their examination might be brought 
 into court, and their own original examination here might 
 be compared with it. So I humbly beg your lordship’s 
 favour ; the case is rare, and scarce happens in five hundred 
 years, that one should be in my circumstances. I am come 
 here, where no jury knows me nor the quality of my adver- 
 saries. If I had been in Ireland I would have put myself 
 upon my trial to-morrow, without witnesses, before any 
 Protestant jury that knew them and me. And when the 
 orders went over that I should be tried in Ireland, and that 
 no Roman Catholic should be upon the jury, and so it was 
 in both the grand and other jury, yet then when I came to 
 my trial, after I was arraigned, not one appeared. This is 
 manifest upon the record, and can be proved. 
 
 Lord Chief Justice. There was no prosecution of you 
 there. 
 
 Plunket. But, my lord, here is no jury that knows me or 
 the quality of my adversaries, for they are not a jury of the 
 neighbourhood that know them,* and therefore my case is not 
 
 the same with other cases Therefore I beseech 
 
 your lordship that I may have time to bring my records and 
 witnesses, and then I will defy all that is upon earth and under 
 the earth to say anything against me. 
 
 “ Lord Chief Justice. Look you, Mr. Plunket, ’tis in vain 
 for you to talk and make this discourse here now. You must 
 
 * The writ for summoning a jury runs, “shall summon twelve men 
 of the neighbourhood who best may know and judge.” 
 
326 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 know that, by the laws of this kingdom, when a man is 
 indicted and arraigned of treason or felony, ’tis not usual to 
 give such time. ’Tis rare that any man hath had such time 
 as you have had — five weeks’ time — to provide your wit- 
 nesses. If your witnesses are so cautious, and are such 
 persons that they dare not or will not venture for fear of 
 being apprehended, or will not come to England without such 
 and such cautions, we cannot tell how to help it 
 
 “ Clerk of Crown. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand. 
 You of the jury look at the prisoner and hearken to his 
 charge : — 
 
 “ He stands indicted by the name of Oliver Plunket, late of 
 Westminster-, in the county of Middlesex, doctor of divinity, 
 for that he, as a false traitor against the most illustrious and 
 most excellent prince our sovereign lord Charles the Second 
 ...... at Dublin, in the kingdom of Ireland, in parts 
 
 beyond the seas, with divers other traitors unknown, traitor- 
 ously did compass the death of the King. And to fulfil and 
 
 accomplish his said most wicked treasons did consult 
 
 and agree our said sovereign lord the King that is now to 
 
 death and final destruction to bring and the religion 
 
 of the Romish Church into the kingdom of Ireland aforesaid 
 to introduce and establish^ &c. 
 
 Mr. Attorney-General. May it please your lordship, and 
 you gentlemen of the jury, the character this gentleman bears, 
 as Primate under a foreign and usurped jurisdiction, will be a 
 great inducement to you to give credit to that evidence we 
 
 shall produce before you.” 
 
 After the speech of the Attorney-General, of which I have 
 given the opening and most characteristic words, the witnesses 
 were called. These were some apostate friars and bad priests, 
 whose evil doings Dr. Plunket had punished, and one or two 
 friends of theirs of similar character. Their character and 
 history are fully traced by Dr. Moran. 
 
 It would only weary my readers were I to recount the 
 ridiculous tales they told of Dr. Plunket’s connection with 
 what they called the Popish Plot. According to them, this 
 bishop (whose most private letters, now published, show he was 
 incessantly occupied in the labours of his episcopate, and could 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 327 
 
 not obtain for himself a revenue of even near ^40 a year, and 
 frequently received only £25), raised annually large sums for 
 the support of a French army,* was to raise himself 70,000 
 men, and spent his time surveying the ports of Ireland for the 
 purpose of a military landing, and kept 100 priests in his own 
 house, when that house was a thatched cabin of two rooms, 
 and when there were only sixty- two priests in the whole diocese 
 of Armagh. The only witness who showed even ingenuity in 
 concocting liis tale was Moyer, an apostate Franciscan friar, 
 who produced a paper — whether a letter or a copy of the 
 diocesan statutes is not clear — signed by Dr. Plunket, in 
 which it was ordered that £50 a year should be raised by the 
 clergy of Ireland to support their ecclesiastical agent in Rome. 
 Moyer had added a cipher making the sum £500, and said 
 the money was for the furthering of the plot. On reading the 
 document, however, Mr. Justice Dolbein observed, “ That is 
 but negotia generally;” and Dr. Plunket pointed out the 
 real sum was only £50. On which the Chief Justice said. 
 
 Look you, Mr. Plunket, consider with yourself, £50 or £500 
 in this case is not five farthings difference, but the money was to 
 be raised by your order.” 
 
 Plunket. Ay, but whether it was not raised to this effect : 
 there is never a nation where the Roman Catholic religion is 
 professed but hath an agent for their spiritual affairs at Rome, 
 and this was for the spiritual affairs of the clergy of 
 Ireland.” 
 
 This was the only fragment of documentary or corrobora- 
 tive evidence produced. Moyer, indeed, produced what he 
 called a translation of a letter of the Primate’s, but the original 
 was not produced, and the pretended translation was evidently 
 a forgery. The other witnesses, when asked for the orders 
 which they swore they had received from Dr. Plunket to raise 
 money for the plot, answered that they had left them in 
 Ireland, not thinking they would be asked for. But Titus 
 Oates had proved that no fable was too gross for the credulity 
 
 * They swore that for this purpose he raised forty shillings and fifty 
 shillings a year from each priest, besides other sums, whereas in 
 reality they were never able to pay the twenty shillings which they 
 were bound to contribute for the archbishop’s own support. 
 
328 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 of that day, if only it were related of papists.’^ Dr. Plunket’s 
 answer to these absurd charges could only consist, besides their 
 own internal inconsistencies and extravagance, in proving the 
 bad character of the witnesses. But this he was not allowed 
 to do. We have seen already how the Chief Justice met the 
 natural question of why they did not reveal his pretended 
 treason for so many years, or whilst he was in prison in 
 Ireland, or on his trial at Dundalk, by the suggestion that 
 they were Catholics, and that that would account for anything. 
 But he protected the witnesses against the truth still further. 
 
 ‘‘ Dr. Plunket. My lord, to show what was part of the 
 falling out (of Friar Moyer with himself), I would ask him if 
 he was indicted of any crime and found guilty by a jury ? 
 
 “ Moyer. That was for discovering, for I discovered it 
 before. 
 
 Plunket. My lord, he confesses he was convicted for 
 giving powder and shot to the rebels. 
 
 “ Mr. Justice Dolhein. No, he does not say so : produce 
 the record, if you have any of such thing.f 
 
 ‘‘ Mr. Serjeant Jeffries. Look you, Dr. Plunket, if you 
 will ask him any questions that by law he is bound to answer, 
 do it, of God’s name ; we will not interpose. But if you ask 
 him any questions that may tend to accuse himself, we must 
 tell you he is not bound to answer them. 
 
 Plunket. He hath been convicted and found guilty; he 
 will confess it himself 
 
 “ Lord Chief Justice. He is not bound J to answer such a 
 
 * The most complete proof of the utter groundlessness of all the 
 allegations in reference to these pretended Popish plots is the fact 
 that, although all the most secret correspondence of the persons alleged 
 to have taken part in or been cognizant of them has since been pub- 
 lished, there is not a single allusion throughout which can be tortured 
 into a reference to the great plot in which they were supposed to be 
 engaged. 
 
 t The judges had judicial knowledge that the Irish courts had re- 
 fused to give copies of any such records without an express order from 
 themselves (the Court of King’s Bench in England), and they had 
 not given any such order. — Trial, p. 62. 
 
 X This was not only manifestly unjust, but wholly illegal. A witness 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 329 
 
 question. Look you, ]\Ir. Plunket, don’t misspend your own 
 time ; for the more you trifle in these things the less time you 
 Avill have for your defence. I desire you now to consider, and 
 well husband your time for your defence. What have you to 
 say for yourself ? 
 
 “ Plunket. My lord, I tell you I have no way to defend 
 myself, in that I was denied time to bring over my records 
 and my witnesses, which were ten or twelve. And if I had 
 them here, I would stand in defiance of all the world to accuse 
 me ; but I have not sufficient time to bring over my records 
 and my witnesses, and I am brought here from out of my 
 native country. Were I in Ireland, there both I and they 
 should be known ; but when I was to be tried there, they 
 would not appear; and it is false and only malice. These 
 men used to call me Oliverus Cromivellus out of spite . . . . 
 As to the first point, I answer that I never received a farthing 
 of money out of my own district ; and, but for my own liveli- 
 hood — and that I can prove by those that have received it for 
 me — that I never received over threescore pounds a year in my 
 life, unless some gentleman would now and then give me ten 
 shillings for my relief. For, my lord, this is the way in 
 Ireland : every priest hath so many families allotted to him, 
 and every Catholic family gives two shillings a year (as they 
 that profess that way know), and the priests give me who am 
 superior over them, in my own district, some twenty shillings, 
 some thirty shillings, and I never got so much in my life as to 
 maintain a servant, and this was attested before the Council in 
 Ireland ; . . . . and I never had above one servant, and the 
 house I lived in was a little thatched house, wherein was only 
 a little room for a library, which was not seven foot high, 
 where once this fellow came to affront me, because I had 
 hindered him from begging : and that’s for the money 
 
 is not bound to criminate himself — that is, to confess a crime of which 
 he has not been found guilty ; but he is bound to answer whether he 
 has been convicted or not, for this does in no way endanger him. But the 
 Chief Justice would neither give an order for the production of the 
 witnesses’ convictions, nor allow them to be asked whether they had 
 been convicted. 
 
330 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Your lordship sees how I am dealt with. First and foremost, 
 I have not time to bring my witnesses, or my records, which 
 if I had I would not weigh one farthing to leave my cause 
 with any jury in the world. Besides all this, I am brought 
 out of my own native country, where these men lived and I 
 lived, and where my witnesses and records are, which would 
 show what these people are. I sent by the post and did all 
 that I could, and what can I say when I have not my wit- 
 nesses against these people ? They may swear anything in the 
 world; you cannot but observe the improbability of the thing 
 in itself, and unto what a condition I am brought. My lord, 
 my life is in imminent danger, because I am brought out of 
 my own country, where these people would not be believed 
 against me. 
 
 “ Then the counsel for the Crown spoke, and the Chief 
 Justice charged the jury bitterly against the prisoner, 
 saying,— 
 
 “ These things do seem to be very plain by the witnesses, 
 that he himself hath taken a commission, or a grant, or what 
 you will please to call it, from the Pope to be Primate of 
 Ireland, that he hath taken upon him to make laws as the pro- 
 vincial, and that he hath taken and endeavoured to settle the 
 Popish religion in that kingdom, and in order to that he hath 
 invited the aid of the French army. 
 
 “ Then the jury withdrew for a quarter of an hour, and being 
 returned gave this verdict : — 
 
 ‘‘ Clerk of the Croivn. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand. 
 How say you, is he guilty of high treason whereof he stands 
 indicted, or not guilty ? 
 
 ‘^Foreman, Guilty. 
 
 Plunket. Deo gratias, God be thanked. 
 
 Then the verdict was recorded, and the court rose. And 
 the keeper went away with his prisoner. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 15th June, 1681, Oliver Plunket was 
 brought to the bar to receive judgment. 
 
 ‘‘ Mr. Attorney-General. My lord, I pray your judgment 
 against the prisoner Oliver Plunket. 
 
 ‘‘ Clerk of the Crown. Oliver Plunket, hold up thy hand ; 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 331 
 
 thou hast been indicted of high treason, thou hast been there- 
 upon arraigned, thou hast thereunto pleaded not guilty, and 
 for thy trial hast put thyself upon God and the country, 
 which country hath found thee guilty. What hast thou to 
 say for thyself why judgment of death should not pass upon 
 thee, and execution be thereupon awarded according to the 
 law ? 
 
 Phmfcet. My lord, may it please your lordship, I 
 have something to say, which, if your lordship will consider 
 seriously, may occasion the court’s commiseration and mercy. 
 I have, my lord^ for this fact been arraigned in Ireland, and 
 brought to my trial there. At the day of my trial all the 
 witnesses voluntarily absented themselves, seeing I had records 
 and witnesses to convince them evidently, and show what men 
 they were, and the prepensed malice that they did bear to me, 
 and so, finding that I could clear myself evidently, they ab- 
 sented themselves. On the day of my trial no Christian 
 appeared, but hither over they come, and procure that I should 
 be brought hither, where I could not have a jury that knew 
 the qualities of my adversaries, or who knew me, or the cir- 
 cumstances of the places, times, and persons. The juries here, 
 as I say, were altogether strangers to these affairs ; and so, my 
 lord, they could not know many things that conduce to a fair 
 trial ; and it was morally impossible they should know it. I 
 have been accused chiefly for surveying the ports, for fixing 
 upon Carlingford for the landing of the French, for the 
 having of 70,000 men ready to join with the French. ■’Tis 
 well known that in all the province of Ulster — take men, 
 women, and children of the Homan Catholics — they could not 
 make up 70,000. This a jury there, my lord, had known 
 very well ; and, therefore, the laws of England, which are very 
 favourable to the prisoner, have provided that there should be 
 a jury of the place where the fact was committed, as Sir 
 Thomas Gascoine, as I have heard, had a Yorkshire jury, 
 though he was tried in London. And then, after my coming 
 here, I was kept close prisoner for six months, nor any 
 Christian was permitted to come at me, nor did I know 
 anything how things stood in the world. I was brought here 
 
S32 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 the 3rd of May, to be arraigned, and I did petition your lord- 
 ship to have some time for my trial, and I would have had it 
 put off till Michaelmas, but your lordship did not think fit to 
 grant so long, but only till the 8th of this month, when my 
 witnesses, who were ready at the seaside, would not come over 
 without passes, and I could not get over the records without 
 an order from hence ; which records w’ould have shown that 
 some of the witnesses were indicted and found guilty of high 
 crimes — some were imprisoned for robberies, and some of the 
 witnesses were infamous people. So I petitioned, the 8th of this 
 month, that I might have time for twelve days more, but your 
 lordship thought, when the motion was made, that it was only 
 to put off my trial ; and now my witnesses are come to 
 Coventry yesterday morning, and they will be here in a few 
 days ; and so, for want of time to defend myself in, I was 
 exposed to my adversaries, who were some of my own clergy, 
 whom, for their debauched lives, I have corrected, as is well 
 known there. I will not deny myself but that, as long as 
 there was any toleration and connivance, I did execute the 
 function of a bishop, and that, by the second of Elizabeth, is 
 only a Prcemunire^ and no treason. So that, my lord, I was 
 exposed defenceless to my enemies, whereas now my witnesses 
 are come that could make all appear. And, my lord, for those 
 depositions of the 70,000 men, and the moneys that are col- 
 lected of the clergy in Ireland, they cannot be true, for they 
 are a poor clergy, that have no revenue nor land ; they live as 
 the Presbyterians do here. There is not a priest in all Ireland 
 that hath, certainly or uncertainly, above threescore pounds a 
 year ; and that I should collect of them forty shillings apiece 
 for the raising of an army, or for the landing of the French at 
 Carlingford, if it had been brought before a jury in Ireland 
 it would have been thought a mere romance. If they had 
 accused me of a PrcEmunire for the exercise of my episcopal 
 function, perhaps they had said something that might have 
 been believed ; but, my lord, as I am a dying man, and hope 
 for salvation by my Lord and Saviour, I am not guilty of one 
 point of treason they have sworn against me, no more than 
 the child that was born but yesterday. I have an attestation 
 under my Lord of Essex^s hand concerning my good be- 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 333 
 
 haviour in Ireland ; and not only from him, but from my 
 Lord Berkley, who was also governor there, which the King^s 
 attorney saw. But here I was brought, here I was tried, and, 
 having not time to bring my witnesses, I could not prove my 
 innocence, as otherwise I might. So that, if there be any case 
 in the world that deserves compassion, surely my case does. 
 And ’tis such a rare case, as I believe you will not find two of 
 them in print, that one arraigned in Ireland should be tried 
 here afterwards for the same fact. My lord, if there be any- 
 thing in the world that deserves pity, this does ; for I can say, 
 as I hope for mercy, I was never guilty of any one point that 
 they swore against me. And if my petition for time had been 
 granted, I could have shown how all was prepense malice 
 against me, and have produced all circumstances that could 
 make out the innocence of a person. But not having had 
 time, and being tried, I am at your mercy. 
 
 “ Lord Chief Justice You have done as much 
 
 as you could to dishonour God in this case ; for the bottom of 
 your treason was your setting up your false religion^ than 
 which there is not anything more displeasing to God or more 
 pernicious to mankind in the world — a religion that is ten 
 times worse than all the heathenish superstitions, the most 
 dishonourable and derogatory to God and His glory of all 
 religions or pretended religions whatsoever, for it undertakes 
 to dispense with God’s laws, and to pardon the breach of 
 them. So that, certainly, a greater crime there cannot be 
 committed against God than for a man to endeavour the pro- 
 pagation of that religion 
 
 “ Plunket. How could any one foresee, unless he was 
 Almighty God, that they would deny it, or that he could not 
 get out a copy of a record, paying for it, without a petition ? 
 All the friends I had told me upon motion there it might be 
 had, but here I have it under the Lieutenant’s and Council’s 
 hands that they would give no copy of records without order 
 from hence, which, before I could know it, it was impossible 
 
 for me to have them ready against my trial There 
 
 were two friars and a priest whom I have endeavoured to 
 correct this seven years, and they were renegades from our 
 religion, and declared apostates 
 
334 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 “ May it please your lordship to give me leave to speak one 
 word. If I were a man that had no care of my conscience in 
 this matter, and did not think of God Almighty, or con- 
 science, or heaven, or hell, I might have saved my life ; for I 
 was offered it by divers people here, so I would but confess 
 my own guilt and accuse others. But, my lord, I would 
 rather die ten thousand deaths than wrongfully accuse any- 
 body. And the time will come when your lordship will see 
 what these witnesses are that have come in against me. I do 
 assure your lordship, if I were a man that had not good 
 principles, I might easily have saved my own life, but I had 
 rather die ten thousand deaths, than wrongfully to take away 
 one farthing of any man’s goods, one day of his liberty, or 
 one minute of his life. 
 
 Lord Chief Justice. I am sorry to see you persist in the 
 principles of that religion. 
 
 Plunket. They are those principles that God Almighty 
 cannot dispense withal. 
 
 Lord Chief Justice. Well, however, the judgment which 
 we give you is that which the law says and speaks. And 
 therefore you must go from hence to the place from whence 
 you came — that is, to Newgate ; and from thence you shall be 
 drawn through the city of London to Tyburn ; there you 
 shall be hanged by the neck, but cut down before you are 
 dead, your bowels shall be taken out and burnt before your 
 face, your head shall be cut off*, and your body be divided into 
 four quarters, to be disposed of as his Majesty pleases. 
 And I pray to God have mercy on your soul. 
 
 Plunket. God Almighty bless your lordship. And now, 
 my lord, as I am a dead man to this world, and as I hope for 
 mercy in the other world, I was never guilty of any of the 
 treasons laid to my charge, as you will hear in time; and my 
 character you may receive from my Lord Chancellor of 
 Ireland, my Lord Berkley, my Lord Essex, and the Duke of 
 Ormond. 
 
 Then the keeper took away his prisoner and, upon Friday, 
 the 1st of July, he was executed according to the sentence.’’ 
 
 I shall now give the account of his execution from Dr. 
 Moran : — 
 
IN THE EEIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 335 
 
 Friday, the 11th of July, 1681, was the day fixed for the 
 execution ; and at an early hour Dr. Plunket was conducted 
 from prison to the scaffold at Tyburn. The dauntless spirit 
 which he displayed whilst awaiting in prison the carrying out 
 of the fatal sentence, and the heroic sanctity with which he 
 disposed himself to receive the martyPs crown, belong rather 
 to the next chapter ; for the present it will suffice to give 
 some extracts from a manuscript narrative presented the same 
 year to the Sacred Congregation, and which was not impro- 
 bably written by Father Teyling, a distinguished member of 
 the Society of Jesus. It is entitled “A brief narrative of the 
 imprisonment, accusations, and death of Monsignor Plunket, 
 Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland, executed at 
 Tyburn, in London, the 11th* of July, 1681.” Many of the 
 facts, however, which it contains have already been comme- 
 morated from other sources, wherefore we shall be content with 
 presenting those passages which add new circumstances con- 
 nected with the imprisonment and death of our holy prelate : — 
 The glorious death of this prelate, deserving of eternal 
 memory, as well for his innocence as for the heroic constancy 
 with which he supported his atrocious penalty, has awakened 
 in many a devout curiosity to learn its circumstances, and 
 especially in those who will remember to have known and con- 
 versed with him in this city of Rome, where he lived for so 
 many years, at first as student of the Irish College, and after- 
 wards as professor of theology for many years in the College 
 of the Propaganda. Wherefore, not to defraud so holy a 
 desire, whilst we await a more complete narrative of those 
 facts, we shall here relate what is known for certain, partly 
 from various letters, and partly from his own discourse, which 
 
 may now be had in print in many languages 
 
 At the same time and place sentence of death was also passed 
 against a certain Fitzharris, a man for many and heinous 
 crimes deserving of that punishment ; this served to form a 
 contrast with Dr. Plunket and add new lustre to his innocence. 
 On the sentence of death being passed, Fitzharris, by the 
 terror of his looks, his trembling, and the complete failure of 
 
 * New style in England, they still observed old style. 
 
336 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Strength, showed that his heart was not less feeble than guilty. 
 On the contrary, the Primate, as well when awaiting the 
 sentence as when it was being passed, and after it, displayed 
 such a frankness of soul and heart, such a serene and joyous 
 countenance, and was so composed in all his actions and de- 
 portment, that all were able to perceive, not only his perfect 
 innocence, but, moreover, his singular virtue, which was 
 master and superior to every emotion of passion. And con- 
 cerning all this the Catholics who were present wrote endless 
 praises, attesting that none could wish for a deportment more 
 noble, more amiable, more worthy of Him whom he there 
 represented. Having heard the sentence (turning his thoughts 
 to his soul, and nowise solicitous as to the sufferings destined 
 for his body), he asked as a favour from the judge to be 
 allowed to treat of spiritual matters with a Catholic priest. 
 
 You will have,"” replied the judge, a minister of the Church 
 of England.” But he answered, “ I am obliged for your good 
 intentions, but such a favour would be wholly useless to me.” 
 The Primate being re-conducted to prison after this public 
 and so glorious trial, there arose between the Catholics and the 
 Protestants an eac^er strife who would visit him and converse 
 withhim — the formerattracted by a singular devotion, the latter 
 by an extraordinary curiosity ; and he, during the few days 
 that he survived, received both with such courtesy, with such 
 a sweetness, and calmness, and amiableness of manner, that the 
 Catholics departed truly edified, and the Protestants were not 
 only exceedingly contented with his deportment, but also 
 rendered more affectionate towards the Catholics. Before his 
 examination he was able to confer with a spiritual father, to 
 whom he manifested, as that which most disturbed him, his 
 having no horror of death, on account of which he feared that 
 he was not well prepared for it, which shows his humility, and 
 with what worthy sentiments he approached his death, as the 
 only' scruple which disturbed him was one derived from a 
 special and excessive grace which God granted to him. 
 On his part, he was nowise negligent in disposing himself for 
 this great grace, for in addition to the sufferings of prison, to 
 the afflicting journeys so patiently borne by him, to the gene- 
 rous and repeated pardon which he so often breathed for his 
 
IN’ THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 337 
 
 enemies in exchange for their many outrages, he added, more- 
 over, many voluntary penances, and especially a rigorous fast 
 on bread and water three times each week during the whole 
 time that he was in prison in London, as the keeper of the 
 prison, a Protestant, attested after Dr. Plunket’s death, not 
 without eulogy and admiration. 
 
 At length, on the 11th of July, the day destined for the 
 carrying out of the fatal sentence, the keeper of the prison, 
 imagining that the apprehension of approaching death and 
 horror of the atrocious punishment would have made some 
 impression on that soul hitherto so resolute, went early in the 
 morning to visit him, and, if necessary, to give him courage 
 and comfort him ; but he was yet more surprised and filled 
 with astonishment on finding that the prelate, on being 
 awakened, was as little moved by the approach of sufferings as 
 though his body was insensible to pain, whilst, nevertheless, 
 he was of an ardent and delicate temperament. In a little 
 while the announcement was made that everything was in 
 order, wherefore he was taken from prison, and stretched (with 
 his face uppermost) and tied with cords upon a wooden hurdle 
 and thus drawn by a horse to Tyburn. 
 
 It had been a hundred years, perhaps, since a Catholic 
 bishop was executed there, and hence the curiosity to see a 
 victim of such exalted dignity, and already so famed for his 
 noble deportment, gathered together an immense multitude of 
 spectators, who partly awaited him on the road-side, partly at 
 the place of execution. Such as he had shown himself when 
 receiving sentence of death did he now prove himself in this 
 last scene when undergoing death itself, being ever serene and 
 tranquil even to his last breath ; so that he universally excited 
 that esteem and sympathy which is invariably evoked by an 
 heroic virtue oppressed by an extreme rigour, so that few could 
 be found even amongst the Protestants to entertain a doubt as 
 to his innocence. 
 
 On the scaffold he delivered a short discourse, in which, 
 after protesting his innocence as to the charges of conspiracy 
 made against him, he prayed for life and health to the King 
 and all the royal family, gave a most complete pardon to all 
 Ins enemies and adversaries, and, in fine, supplicated tl.e 
 
 z 
 
338 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Divine Majesty to be propitious to him, through the merits 
 of Christ, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and 
 of all the holy angels and saints of Paradise. Which form of 
 prayer, so simple and yet so pious, was remarked by the spec- 
 tators, who never remembered to have heard from any other 
 such an express mention of the Blessed Virgin and the saints. 
 
 This discourse was the substance of the longer one which 
 he wrote with his own hand in prison, and left with his friends, 
 lest any, by a malignant alteration, might seek to falsify his 
 dying sentiments. Having concluded his discourse, the sen- 
 tence was carried into execution, and his happy soul sped 
 its flight (as we may hope) to enjoy an eternal repose. 
 
 On the same day and in the same place Fitzharris was exe- 
 cuted, and to the last the contrast of his manner and actions 
 displayed in brighter light the happy lot of the Primate ; and 
 whilst Dr. Plunket excited compassion on account of his 
 atrocious and unmerited suffering, and became universally 
 loved for his innocence and extolled to the skies for his 
 constancy, Fitzharris was abhorred for his wicked deeds, 
 despised for his vile cowardice, and uncompassioned in his 
 suffering, as being his due. 
 
 The Primate, before death, asked and obtained permission 
 to be buried with the fathers of the Society of Jesus who 
 during the present persecution sacrificed their lives at Tyburn. 
 He was therefore interred with them in the church of S. 
 Giles ; and we cannot but remark the devotion and great 
 esteem which the English Catholics displayed for this sacred 
 deposit; and together with it they interred a copper plate, 
 on which was inscribed the following inscription : — 
 
 In this tomb resteth the body of the Most Rev. Oliver 
 Plunket, late Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of All 
 Ireland, who, when accused of high treason, through hatred 
 of the faith, by false brethren, and condemned to death, 
 being hanged at Tyburn, and his bowels being taken out and 
 cast into the fire, suffered martyrdom with constancy, in the 
 reign of Charles the Second, King of Great Britain, on the 
 1st day of July, 168L” 
 
 Here we may remark that, by referring to this inscription. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 339 
 
 it is not our intention to ratify the title of martyr till the 
 holy Church will authenticate it ; as, also, we must add, 
 that the aforesaid date is not contrary to that given above, 
 as the 1st of July, according to the old style, still used in 
 England, is equivalent to the 11th of July according to our 
 Gregorian computation. 
 
 Some few circumstances yet remain, connected with the 
 death of Dr. Plunket, which cannot be passed over in silence, 
 and which we now add. 
 
 1st. It is deserving of attention, that all the accusers, 
 judges, and other opponents of Dr. Plunket were not able 
 to attach the mark of conspiracy to his cause, or conceal its 
 being a manifest and direct cause of religion. The plots in 
 England were pretended to be directed against the life of 
 the King; but neither the death of the King nor the ad- 
 vancement of any other cause could be put forward as the 
 scope of the pretended Irish conspiracy, but only the esta- 
 blishment of the faith. 
 
 2nd. It has been written that two English lords (who 
 were successively viceroys in Ireland) declared to the King 
 that it was impossible to believe or deem probable any of the 
 accusations against the Primate, for they had experienced him 
 a man full of zeal for the public peace — nay, one of the most 
 efficacious in Ireland in appeasing seditious movements. 
 
 3rd. It is certain that, on the part of one of the first noble- 
 men in England, his life was offered him should he consent to 
 accuse others, which offer, although resolutely rejected by 
 him, is said to have been renewed him on the scaffold, God 
 permitting the temptation for the greater merit of one who 
 thus in such innocence sacrificed his life. 
 
 4th. The superior of a certain religious order, a man of 
 great ])rudence, who was present at the Primate’s death, writes 
 that on the scaffold, by the singular composure of soul and 
 actions, he seemed like an angel descended from Paradise, who 
 was joyously arrived at the moment of once more returning 
 thither. 
 
 5th. All write, with one accord, that this innocent victim 
 has done and yet performs great good in England, not only 
 
 z 2 
 
840 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 by the edification he gave to the Catholics, but, moreover, by 
 the change of ideas and sentiments which he occasioned in 
 many Protestants, who now commence to regard all these 
 conspiracies as malicious fictions ; and there are great grounds 
 for believing that the fruit which England will derive from 
 liis blood will not end here. The archbishop himself wrote 
 from prison in London that he had experienced in the Eng- 
 lish Catholics the most exalted piety, faith, and Christian 
 charity which any one could desire ; and he gives the names 
 of many families and individuals who, it seems, gave to him, 
 though a stranger and unknown to them, large sums of money 
 to enable his witnesses to come from Ireland, and offered 
 themselves, moreover, as most ready to undergo any other 
 expense or render him any service. He, therefore, in the 
 letter referred to, professes an unspeakable love for those so 
 bounteous benefactors, and we may hope that as he has whilst 
 living done so much by his example, so now he will be effica- 
 cious in obtaining from Heaven most abundant blessings 
 for those by whom he deemed himself so benefited upon 
 earth. 
 
 Such were the glorious sentiments with which the arch- 
 bishop encountered the barbarous sentence which had been 
 unjustly decreed against him. None, even amongst his ene- 
 mies, dared to insinuate his guilt or pretend that any deeds of 
 conspiracy could be imputed to him. All felt the attractions 
 of his innocence and sanctity, and could scarce find words to 
 express their admiration and esteem. Even amongst subse- 
 quent writers, no matter how ardent defenders they may have 
 been of the Protestant cause, none have reproached his 
 memory with the reputed guilt, but all have uniformly re- 
 corded his innocence of the charges thus made against him. 
 We have already quoted the words of the Protestant bishop 
 Burnet, we may now add the testimonies of some few other. 
 Th-us, for instance, Echard, in his ‘‘ History of England,^^ 
 after stating that Dr. Plunket had an attestation of his inno- 
 cence under the hands of the two Viceroys Essex and Berkeley, 
 adds that he himself was — 
 
 Assured, by an unquestionable hand, that the Earl of 
 
IN THE REIGN OE CilAllLES H. 
 
 341 
 
 Essex was so sensible of this ^ood maids hardship that he 
 generously applied to the King for a pardon, and told his 
 iMajesty that these witnesses must needs be perjured, for these 
 things sworn against him could not possibly be true. Upon 
 which the King, in a passion, said, ‘ Why did you not attest 
 this at his trial It might have done him good then. I dare 
 not pardon any one.’ And so concluded with the same kind 
 of answer he had given another person formerly, ‘Ills blood be 
 upon your head, not upon mine.’ ” 
 
 The continuation of “ Sir Richard Raker’s Chronicle ” not 
 only corroborates this fact relative to the Earl of Essex, 
 but gives us the general Protestant sentiment of the time in 
 regard of the perjured witnesses, and the accusations which 
 they brought against the Primate. 
 
 “In the mean time,” hewrites,“came on the trial of Dr.Oliver 
 Plunket, Popish titular Archbishop of Armagh, who called him- 
 self Primate of All Ireland. He was a worthy and good man, 
 who, notwithstanding the title given him, was in a very mean 
 state of life, as having nothing to subsist on but the contribu- 
 tions of a few poor clergy of his own religion in the province 
 of Ulster, who, having little themselves, could not spare much 
 to him. In these low circumstances he lived, though meanly, 
 quietly and contentedly, meddling with nothing but the con- 
 cerns of his function, and dissuading all about bim from 
 entering into any turbulent or factious intrigues. Rut while 
 the Popish Plot was warm, some lewd Irish priests and others 
 of that nation, hearing then that England was disposed to 
 hearken to good swearers, thought themselves well qualified for 
 the employment, so they came over with an account of a ])lot 
 in Ireland, and were well received by Lord Shaftesbury. They 
 were also examined by the Parliament, and what they said was 
 believed. They were very profligate wretches, and some of the 
 jiriests amongst them had been censured by Plunket for their 
 lewdness, so, partly out of revenge and partly to keep themselves 
 in business, they charged a plot upon that innocent, quiet 
 man, so that he was sent for and brought to trial. The 
 evidences swore that, upon his being made Primate of Ireland, 
 he engaged to raise sixty or seventy thousand Irish to be 
 
342 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 ready to join with the French to destroy the Protestant reli- 
 gion, and to get Dublin, Londonderry, and all the seaports 
 into their hands ; and that, beside the French army, there 
 was a Spanish army to join them, and that the Irish clergy 
 were to contribute to this design. Plunket, in his defence, 
 alleged the improbability of all that was sworn against him, 
 which was apparent enough. He alleged that the Irish clergy 
 were so poor that he himself, who was the head of the whole 
 province, lived in a little thatched house, with only one 
 servant, having never above sixty pounds a year income, so 
 that neither he nor they could be thought very likely to carry 
 on a design of this nature. But the fact being positively 
 sworn against him, and the jury unacquainted with the wit- 
 nesses’’ characters and the scene of action, he was brought in 
 guilty and condemned. It is said that the Earl of Essex was 
 so sensible of the injustice done to him that he applied to the 
 King for a pardon, and told him that the matters sworn 
 against Plunket were so absurd in themselves that it was im- 
 possible for them to be true. But the King answered, in a 
 passion, ‘ Why did you not declare this, then, at the trial ? It 
 would have done him some good then ; but I dare pardon 
 nobody ; ’ and concluded by saying, ‘ His blood be upon 
 your head, and not upon mine.’ 
 
 With peace and calm Dr. Plunket prepared himself in 
 prison to receive in a worthy manner the glorious privilege of 
 dying for the faith with which God wished to crown his earthly 
 labours. On the day after the final sentence had been passed 
 against him he thus wrote to his friend and fellow- prisoner, 
 Father Corker : — 
 
 “ Dear Sir,— 
 
 I am obliged to you for the favour and charity of the 
 20th, and for all your former benevolence ; and whereas I can- 
 not in this country remunerate you, with God’s grace I hope 
 to be grateful to you in that kingdom which is our proper 
 country. And truly God gave me, though unworthy of it, 
 that grace to have fortem animum mortis terrore carentem, 
 I have many sins to answer for before the Supreme Judge of 
 
In the REtGN Of' CHARLES 11. 
 
 343 
 
 the high bench where no false witnesses can have an audience. 
 But as for the bench yesterday, I am not guilty of any crime 
 there objected to me. I would I could be so clear at the 
 bench of the All-powerful. However, there is one comfort, 
 that He cannot be deceived, because He is omniscient, and 
 knows all secrets, even of hearts ; and cannot deceive, because 
 all goodness : so that I may be sure of a fair trial, and will 
 get time sufficient to call witnesses — nay, the Judge will bring 
 them in a moment, if there be need of any. Your and your 
 comrade’s prayers will be powerful advocates at that bench : 
 here none are admitted for 
 
 “ Your affectionate friend, 
 
 ‘‘ Oliver Plunket.” 
 
 This composure of soul, and tranquil resignation to the 
 will of God, is attested not only by the friends of the illus- 
 trious Primate, but also by Protestants who, perchance, had 
 occasion to contemplate and admire his fortitude and heavenly 
 deportment in prison. Sir Richard Bulstrode, for instance, 
 attests that — 
 
 “ Captain Richardson, keeper of Newgate, being asked by 
 the Lieutenant of the Tower how this prisoner behaved himself, 
 he replied, ‘ Very well, for when I came to him this morning 
 he was newly awake, having slept all night without any 
 disturbance; and when I told him he was to prepare for his 
 execution he received the message with all quietness of mind, 
 and went to the sledge as unconcerned as if he had been going 
 to a wedding.’ ” 
 
 In addition to the particulars of the closing scene of 
 Tyburn, which we have already presented from the anonymous 
 narrative, we learn many further circumstances connected with 
 Dr. Plunket’s execution from the letter of the Archbishop of 
 Cashel : — 
 
 “The 1st of July {i.e, the 11th), 1681, being at 
 length arrived, this great bishop (Dr. Plunket) was brought 
 to the place of execution destined for public malefactors, 
 being placed upon a sledge trailed on the ground, and drawn 
 by horses, and accompanied by a numerous guard of military, 
 well as by a multitude of spectators and royal officers ; and 
 
314 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 to all he gave occasion of surprise and edification, because he 
 displayed such a serenity of countenance, such a tranquillity 
 of mind and elevation of soul, that he seemed rather a spouse 
 liastening to the nuptial feast than a culprit led forth to the 
 scaffold. 
 
 “ Being arrived at the place of execution, he mounted a car 
 which had been placed there on purpose, and delivered a dis- 
 course which lasted an hour, clearing himself of the accusa- 
 tions for which he suffered, calling God and the whole 
 heavenly court to witness his innocence as to the pretended 
 conspiracy, and declaring himself an unworthy Catholic 
 prelate, who laboured to preserve and advance the true faith 
 in a just and lawful manner, and by no other means, and 
 pardoning his accusers, the friars and their accomplices, the 
 judges, and all who procured or concurred in his death ; and 
 he delivered this discourse with such sweetness and energy 
 that, it seems, he moved to compassion even his executioner, 
 and much more so those who assisted as spectators. Having 
 finished his address, he made a lengthened prayer to God, and 
 passed to a better life, with a fortitude and spirit truly apostolic. 
 
 His discourse is everywhere to be met with in print, and 
 was applauded even by the adversaries of our religion, who 
 could not fail to admire the sinoular courage, and extol the 
 many heroic acts of the pretended culprit, and to censure the 
 manner of proceeding of the court, and the sentence pro- 
 nounced against him ; the better part of them, and especially 
 those of the province of Armagh, being well acquainted with, 
 and having ever esteemed the deceased prelate as a man of 
 honour, whilst they knew his accusers to be wicked men, and 
 their accusations incredible.” 
 
 The discourse which he delivered from the scaffold, with 
 as great calmness and energetic zeal as though he were ad- 
 dressing from the pulpit his own immediate flock, moved all 
 the assembled multitude, and even his executioner, to compas- 
 sion ; and surely no one even nowadays can read without 
 emotion even the dead letters of the discourse, especially the 
 concluding passages, in which he prays forgiveness to all his 
 enemies, and supplicates from the Almighty pardon for his 
 
IN THE REIGN OE CHARLES II. 
 
 345 
 
 own faults, and eternal rest in heaven. Dr. Plunket composed 
 this discourse in prison, and left it to his friends, written with 
 his own hand, for he feared lest his dying words should be 
 misrepresented, or any false sentiments be imputed to him. 
 
 It was immediately printed, and translated into various 
 languages. We give it in full, from the printed copy in the 
 Archives of Propaganda : — 
 
 I have, some few days past, abided my trial at the King\s 
 Pencil, and now very soon I must hold up my hand at the King 
 of Kings"* bench, and appear before a Judge who cannot be 
 deceived by false witnesses or corrupt allegations, for He 
 knoweth the secrets of hearts ; neither can He deceive any, or 
 give an unjust sentence, or be misled by respect of persons, 
 //c, being all goodness^ and a most just Judge^ trill infallibly 
 decree an eternal reward for all good works, and condigti 
 punishment for the smallest transgression agamst His com- 
 mandments, which being a most certain and undoubted truth, 
 it would be wicked and contrary to my eternal welfare that I 
 should now, by declaring anything contrary to the truth, 
 commit a detestable sin, for which, within a very short time, 
 I must receive sentence of everlasting damnation, after which 
 there is no reprieve or hope of pardon. I will, therefore, con- 
 fess the truth without any equivocation, and make use of the 
 words according to their accustomed signification, assuring 
 you, moreover, that I am of that certain persuasion that no 
 power, not only upon earth, but also in heaven, can dispense 
 with me, or give me leave to make a false protestation ; and I 
 protest, upon the word of a dying man, that, as I hope 
 for salvation at the hands of the Supreme Judge, I will 
 declare the naked truth with all candour and sincerity ; and 
 that my affairs may be better known to all the world, it is to 
 be observed that I have been accused, in Ireland, of treason 
 and preemunire, and that there I was arraigned and brought 
 to my trial; but the prosecutors (men of flagitious and pro- 
 fligate lives) perceiving that I had records and witnesses who 
 would evidently convict them, and clearly show my innocency 
 and their wickedness, they voluntarily absented themselves, 
 and came to this city to procure that I should be brought 
 
346 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 liither to my trial. Here, after six months’ close imprisonment 
 (or thereabouts), I was brought to the bar the 3rd of May, 
 and arraigned for a crime for which I was before arraigned in 
 Ireland — a strange resolution, a rare fact, of which you shall 
 hardly find a precedent these five hundred years past ; but, 
 whereas my witnesses and records were in Ireland the Lord 
 Chief Justice gave me five weeks’ time to get them brought 
 hither ; but by reason of the uncertainty of the seas, of wind, 
 and weather, and the difficulty of getting copies of records, 
 and bringing witnesses from many counties in Ireland, and 
 many other impediments — of which affidavits were made — I 
 could not at the end of five weeks get the records and 
 witnesses brought hither. I therefore begged for twelve days 
 more, that I might be in a readiness for my trial, which the 
 Lord Chief Justice denied, and so I was brought to my trial, 
 and exposed, as it were, with my hands tied to those merciless 
 perjurers, who did aim at my life by accusing me of these 
 following points : — 
 
 First. That I have sent letters by one Mat O’Neal (who 
 was my page) to M. Baldeschi, the Pope’s secretary, to the 
 Bishop of Aix, and to the Prince Colonna, that they might 
 solicit foreign powers to invade Ireland ; and also to have sent 
 letters to Cardinal Bouillon to the same effect. 
 
 “ Secondly. To have employed Captain Con O’Neal to 
 the French King for succour. 
 
 Thirdly. Tohave levied and exacted money from the elergy 
 of Ireland to bring in the French, and to maintain 70,000 
 men. 
 
 “ Fourthly. To have had in readiness 70,000 men, and lists 
 made of them ; and to have given directions to one Friar 
 Duffy to make a list of 250 men in the parish of Foghart, in 
 the county of Louth. 
 
 ‘‘ Fifthly. To have surveyed all the forts and harbours in 
 Ireland, and to have fixed upon Carlingford as a fit harbour 
 for the French’s landing. 
 
 “ Sixthly. To have had several councils and meetings where 
 there was money allotted for introducing the French. 
 
 “Finally. That I held a meeting in the county of Monaghan 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES ll. 
 
 347 
 
 some ten or twelve years past, where there were 300 gentlemen 
 of three several counties, to wit, Monaghan, Cavan, and 
 Armagh, whom I did exhort to take arms to recover their 
 estates. 
 
 ‘‘To the first I answer that Mat O’Neal was never my page 
 or servant, and that I never sent letter or letters by him to 
 M. Baldeschi, or to the Bishop of Aix, or to the Prince 
 Colonna ; and I say that the English translation of that 
 pretended letter produced hy the friar Mac Moyer is a mere 
 invention of his, and never penned by me, or its original, in 
 English, Latin, Italian, or any other language. I affirm, 
 moreover, that I never wrote letter or letters to Cardinal 
 Bouillon, or any of the French king’s ministers, neither did 
 any one who was in that court either speak to me or write to 
 me, directly or indirectly, of any plot or conspiracy against 
 the King or country. Further, I vow that I never sent agent 
 or agents to Rome, or any other place about any civil or 
 temporal affairs ; and it is well known (for it is a precept 
 publicly printed) that clergymen (living where the Govern- 
 ment is not of Roman Catholics) are commanded by Rome 
 not to write to Rome concerning any civil or temporal affairs. 
 And I do aver that I never received letter or letters from the 
 Pope, or from any of his ministers, making the least mention 
 of any such matters, so that the friars Mac Moyer and Duffy 
 swore falsely as to such letter or letters, agent or agents. 
 
 “ To the second I say that I never employed Captain Con 
 O’Neal to the French king, or to any of his ministers; and 
 that I never wrote to him, or received letters from him ; and 
 that I never saw him but once, nor ever spoke to him, to the 
 best of my remembrance, ten words ; and as for his being in 
 Charlemont or Dungannon, I never saw him in these towns, 
 or knew of his being in these places ; so that as to Con 
 O’Neal, Friar Mac Moyer’s depositions are most false. 
 
 “To the third I say that I never levied any money for a 
 plot or conspiracy for bringing in the Spaniards or French, 
 neither did I ever receive any on that account from priests 
 or friars, as Priest MacClave and Friar Duffy most untruly 
 asserted. I assure you I never received from any clergyman 
 
348 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONTESSORS 
 
 in Ireland but what was due to me, by ancient custom, for 
 my maintenance, and wbat my predecessors these hundred 
 years were wont to receive ; nay, I received less than many of 
 them. And if all that the Catholic clergy of Ireland get in 
 the year were put in one purse, it would signify little or 
 nothing to introduce the French, or to raise an army of 70,000 
 men, which I had enlisted, and ready, as Friar Mac Moyer 
 most falsely deposed. Neither is it less untrue what Friar 
 Duffy attested — viz., that I directed him to make a list of 250 
 men in the parish of Foghart, in the county of Louth. 
 
 To the fifth I answer that I never surveyed all the 
 ports or harbours of Ireland, and that I never was at Cork, 
 Kinsale, Bantry, Youghal, Dungarvan, or Knockfergus; and 
 these thirty-six years past I was not at Limerick, Dungannon, 
 or Wexford. As for Carlingford, I never was in it but once, 
 and stayed not in it above half an hour; neither did I consider 
 the port or haven ; neither had I it in my thoughts or ima- 
 gination to fix upon it, or any other port or haven, for landing 
 of French or Spaniards; and while I was at Carlingford (by 
 mere chance passing that way) Friar Duffy was not in my 
 company, as he most falsely swore. 
 
 “ To the sixth I say that I never was at any meeting or 
 council where there was mention made of allotting or collecting 
 of money for a plot or conspiracy ; and it is well known that 
 the Catholic clergy of Ireland, who have neither lands nor 
 revenues, and are hardly able to keep decent clothes on their 
 backs and life and soul together, can raise no considerable 
 sum — nay, cannot spare as much as would maintain half a 
 regiment. 
 
 “ To the seventh I answer that I never was at any meeting 
 of 300 gentlemen in the county of Monaghan, of any gentlemen 
 of the three counties of Monaghan, Armagh, and Cavan, nor 
 of one county, nor of one barony ; and that I never exhorted 
 gentleman or gentlemen, either there or in any other part of 
 Ireland, to take arms for the recovering of their estates ; and 
 it is well known that there are not, even in all the province of 
 Ulster, 300 Irish Roman Catholics who had estates or lost 
 estates by the late rebellion ; and, as it is well known, all my 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 319 
 
 thoughts and desires were for the quiet of my country, and 
 especially of that province. 
 
 “ Now, to be brief, as I hope for salvation, I never sent 
 letter or letters, agent or agents, to pope, king, prince, or 
 ])relate, concerning any plot or conspiracy against my king or 
 country. I never raised sum or sums of money, great or 
 small, to maintain soldier or soldiers, all the days of my life. 
 I never knew or heard (neither did it come to my thoughts or 
 imagination) that the French were to land at Carlingford ; 
 and I believe that there is none who saw Ireland, even in a 
 map, but will think it a mere romance. I never knew of any 
 plotters or conspirators in Ireland but such as were notorious or 
 proclaimed (commonly called Tories), whom I did endeavour 
 to suppress. And, as I hope for salvation, I always have 
 been and am entirely innocent of the treasons laid to my charge, 
 and of any other whatsoever. 
 
 “ And though I be not guilty of the crimes of which I am 
 accused, yet I believe none came ever to this place in such a 
 condition as I am, for if even I should acknowledge (which in 
 conscience I cannot do, because I should belie myself) the 
 chief crimes laid to my charge, no wise man that knows 
 Ireland would Felieve me. If I should confess that I was 
 able to raise 70,000 men in the districts of which I had care, 
 to wit, Ulster, nay, even in all Ireland, and to have levied 
 and exacted moneys from the Catholic clergy for their main- 
 tenance, and to have proposed Carlingford for the French’s 
 landing, all would but laugh at me, it being well known that 
 all the revenues of Ireland, both spiritual and temporal, pos- 
 sessed by his Majesty’s subjects, are scarce able to raise and 
 maintain an army of 70,000 men. If I will deny all these 
 crimes (as I did and do), yet it may be that some who are 
 not acquainted with the affairs of Ireland will not believe that 
 my denial is grounded on truth, though I assert it with my 
 last breath. I dare mention further, and affirm, that if these 
 points of 70,000 men, &c., had been sworn before any Pro- 
 testant jury in Ireland, and had been even acknowledged by 
 me at the bar, they would not believe me, no more than if it 
 had been deposed and confessed by me that I liad flown in 
 the air from Dublin to Holyhead. 
 
350 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 ‘‘ You see, therefore, what a condition I am in, and you 
 have heard what protestations I have made of innocency, and 
 I hope you will believe the words of a dying man. And, that 
 you may be the more induced to give me credit, I assure vou 
 that a great peer sent me notice ‘ that he would save my life 
 if I would accuse others ; ’ but I answered ‘ that I never 
 knew of any conspirators in Ireland, but such (as I said before) 
 as were publicly known outlaws ; and that to save my life I 
 would not falsely accuse any, nor prejudice my own soul. 
 Quid prodest homini, etc. To take away any man’s life or 
 goods wrongfully ill becometh any Christian, especially a man 
 of my calling, being a clergyman of the Catholic Church, and 
 also an unworthy prelate, which I do openly confess. Neither 
 will I deny to have exercised in Ireland the functions of a 
 Catholic prelate, as long as there was connivance or toleration, 
 and by preaching, and teaching, and statutes to have en- 
 deavoured to bring the clergy (of which I had a care) to a 
 due comportment, according to their calling ; and though 
 thereby I did but my duty, yet some, who would not amend, 
 had a prejudice for me, and especially my accusers, to whom 
 I did endeavour to do good — I mean the clergyman (as for 
 the four laymen who appeared against me, viz. Florence Mac 
 Moyer, the two Neales, and Hanlon, I was never acquainted 
 with them) ; but you see how I am requited, and how, by 
 false oaths, they brought me to this untimely death, which 
 wicked act, being a defect of persons, ought not to reflect on 
 the Order of S. Francis, or on the Roman Catholic clergy, it 
 being well known that there was a Judas among the twelve 
 Apostles, and a wicked man called Nicholas amongst the seven 
 deacons ; and even as one of the said deacons, to wit, holy 
 Stephen, did pray for those who stoned him, so do I for those 
 who, with perjuries, spill my innocent blood, saying, as 
 S. Stephen did, ‘ Lord, lay not this sin to them.’ I do heartily 
 forgive them, and also the judges who (by denying me suffi- 
 cient time to bring my records and witnesses from Ireland) 
 did expose my life to evident danger. I do also forgive all 
 those who had a hand in bringing me from Ireland to be tried 
 here, where it was morally impossible for me to have a fair 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 351 
 
 trial. I do, finally, forgive all who did concur, directly or 
 indirectly, to take away my life ; and I ask forgiveness of all 
 those whom I ever offended by thought, word, or deed. I 
 beseech the All-powerful that His divine Majesty grant the 
 King, the Queen, and the Duke of York, and all the royal 
 family, health, long life, and all prosperity in this world, and 
 in the next everlasting felicity. 
 
 “ Now that I have shown sufficiently (as I think) how 
 innocent I am of any plot or conspiracy, I would I were able, 
 with the like truth, to clear myself of high crimes committed 
 against the divine Majesty’s commandments (often transgressed 
 by me), for which I am sorry with all my heart ; and if I 
 could or should live a thousand years, I have a firm resolution 
 and a strong purpose, by your grace, O my God, never to 
 offend you ; and I beseech your divine Majesty, by the merits 
 of Christ, and by the intercession of His blessed Mother and 
 all the holy angels and saints, to forgive me my sins, and to 
 grant my soul eternal rest. Miserere mei Deus, &c. Parce 
 animae, &c. In manus tuas, &c. 
 
 ‘‘ Oliver Plunket. 
 
 “ To the final satisfaction of all persons who have the 
 charity to believe the words of a dying man, I again declare 
 before God, as I hope for salvation, what is contained in this 
 paper is the plain and naked truth, without any equivocation, 
 mental reservation, or secret evasion whatever, taking the 
 words in their usual sense and meaning, as Protestants do 
 when they discourse with all candour and sincerity. To all 
 which I have here subscribed my hand. 
 
 “ Oliver Plunket.” 
 
 Having concluded his discourse on the scaffold, the arch- 
 bishop knelt in prayer, and, with eyes raised towards heaven, 
 recited the psalm ‘‘Miserere mei Deus,” and many other de- 
 vout prayers; and, having breathed the aspiration “ In manus 
 tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum,” “ into Thy hands, 
 O Lord, I commend my spirit,” the cart was drawn away, and 
 whilst at the hands of the executioner he received the dis- 
 
MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 graceful punishment of a traitor, he yielded his happy soul 
 into the hands of his Creator. 
 
 Dr. Plunket was the last victim to the anti-Catholic fury 
 with which the English nation was then inflamed ; and the 
 next day, which witnessed the fall of Shaftesbury, and saw 
 that arch-enemy of the Catholics conducted to the Tower, saw 
 also the very witnesses whom lie had fostered employ their 
 perjured tales to hurry on his ruin. Many, indeed, even in 
 after years, were called to share in Dr. Plunket’s crown, but 
 never with the formalities of a trial, or with the public and 
 direct sanction of the Government. With him was closed the 
 bright array of heroes of the faith who at Tyburn received 
 the martyr’s crown. The enemies of the Catholic Church had 
 vainly hoped by shedding their blood to destroy the faith, but 
 they forgot that the blood of martyrs is a fruitful seed — that 
 the sword of persecution can only prune the vine and cause it 
 to put forth new branches, and that the Church of God is, 
 indeed, the mystic field in which each grain cast into the earth 
 buds forth remultiplied. 
 
 Eight ]Iev. PETER CREAGH, Bishop of Cork. 
 
 ‘‘ He was born in Limerick, and was descended from that 
 family of the Creaghs distinguished by the name of Corrigeen. 
 He was grand-nephew to the most illustrious and famous 
 Archbishop and Primate of Armagh, Richard Creagh, who 
 died a martyr for the faith in the Tower of London during 
 Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and whose life I have given under the 
 year 1585. In his youth our Pierse went to Poitiers, in 
 France, where he was most carefully educated by his uncle, 
 the Rev. Father Pierse Creagh, of the Society of Jesus. From 
 Poitiers he went to Rome in order to perfect himself in 
 divinity, and in that study he acquired great honours under 
 the protection of his other uncle, the Rev. Father in God 
 John Creagh, who was a domestic prelate to Pope Alexander 
 VIL, and on whose family the same Pope conferred the title of 
 duke, and gave an addition to their arms. After finishing his 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 353 
 
 studies in Rome he received the order of priesthood, and then 
 prepared himself for the mission of Ireland, which at that time 
 stood greatly in need of zealous persons. Upon his arrival in 
 Dublin he spared no pains or labour in confirming the Catho- 
 lics in their faith, and in reclaiming to the Church those whom 
 interest and persecution had induced to abandon it. In these 
 and the like works of piety he employed himself for three years, 
 when the clergy of Ireland judged him the properest person 
 to be their agent for the mission at the Court of Rome. He 
 condescended to their desires, and for that purpose he repaired 
 again to Rome, where he signalized himself in procuring all 
 the advantages and possible relief for the mission of Ireland. 
 
 “ His zeal and assiduity herein were so conspicuous that 
 Pope Clement X. took particular notice of him to be a fit 
 person to fill the see of Cork, which was destitute of a pastor 
 for twenty-six years before. Upon his arrival in his diocese he 
 exerted himself in preaching, teaching, visiting it, and reform- 
 ing the many abuses which had crept into it during the long 
 time it was deprived of a bishop. He continued in this holy 
 exercise until the time that Titus Oates laid the foundation of 
 his pretended plot, which occasioned so much bloodshed in 
 England.'^ But that the Protestants of Ireland may not be 
 
 * Oates did not implicate Dr. Creagh in the alleged traitorous con- 
 spiracy. The only Irish prelates he accused were Dr. James Lynch, 
 Archbishop of Tuam, whom he charged as being privy to the design of 
 murdering King Charles II., the design being communicated to him at 
 Madrid in August, 1677 ; and Dr. Peter Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, 
 who was charged with employing four Jesuits, and, in their default. 
 Dr. Fogarty, to murder Ormond, and with intending the massacre of 
 all the Irish Protestants there, and a total overthrow of the Govern- 
 ment. Other reprobates started first in Ulster to accuse Oliver 
 Plunket and Bishop Tyrrell. Their success invited a few in the south, 
 as abandoned as themselves, to imitate their example. It was one 
 David Fitzgerald, a Protestant of Eathkeale, that sought the life of 
 Dr. Creagh. This nefarious villain, who styled himself esquire, was the 
 tenant of a small farm from Sir Thomas Southwell, who distrained and 
 impounded his cows for rent and long arrears. Fitzgerald broke open 
 the pound and stole away the cattle. He had some time before been 
 tried for treason and acquitted. But, apprehending the punishment of 
 the law for this other offence, he resolved to secure himself, to retrieve 
 
 2 A 
 
354 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 any way more backward than the English in promoting such 
 wicked schemes, they encouraged the greatest villains they 
 could find to swear there was likewise a plot forming in Ireland. 
 In consequence of these false evidences, the Rev. Peter Talbot, 
 Archbishop of Dublin, was imprisoned, and died with the 
 hardships he suffered ; the Rev. Oliver Plunket, Primate of 
 Armagh, was sent a prisoner to London, and was executed at 
 Tyburn ; and a strict search was made after our Rev. Pierse 
 Creagh, Bishop of Cork ; but he retired, and sought for shelter 
 the woods and mountains. In these lonesome places he fre- 
 quently assembled his clergy, and exhorted them to persevere 
 and to be vigilant in their duty. The pursuit was so close 
 after him, and, as he three times escaped being taken, he thought 
 proper to conceal himself more closely, and therefore did not 
 stir abroad, but kept himself within doors in a house in the 
 country. He continued here for two years, but at length was 
 discovered by a neighbouring Protestant, who informed the 
 Protestant bishop thereof. Immediately a guard of soldiers 
 surrounded the house; they burst open the door and led the 
 bishop prisoner to Limerick, where he was lodged in gaol. 
 
 He there continued for three months, and then an order 
 
 his ruined circumstances, and wreak vengeance on his landlord, Sir 
 Thomas, by a tale of treasonable conspiracy, more plausible, he 
 thought, and better concocted than Oates’s. It was, he saw, necessary 
 and sufficient, to have any story of rebellion believed by the furious 
 bigotry of that day, that Popish bishops and priests should be the 
 principal actors and contrivers. He therefore swore that he knew 
 them to be hatching a conspiracy since 1652, and says, “ About 1676 
 I saw Dr. Creagh, titular Bishop of Cork, who, as Dr. Stritch told me, 
 was then newly come from France and Rome, Bishop Mullowny 
 soon after told me that they had more information about it (the 
 foreign aid they were to receive by Dr. Creagh and others, lately 
 arrived), that the Pope had already granted the dispensation from 
 allegiance, and that France would faithfully perform its agreement.” 
 Again, he swore that he attended a meeting in the house of Dr. James 
 Stritch, P.P. of Rathkeale, at which Dr. Creagh and the Bishops of 
 Limerick and Eillaloe, besides several priests and about twenty 
 Catholic gentlemen, assisted, in order to give instructions to Dr. 
 Hetherman, Y.G. of Limerick, whom they despatched as their agent 
 to France on that rebellious design. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II. 
 
 355 
 
 came from the English Parliament that he should be trans- 
 mitted to London, along with the Rev. Oliver Plunket, 
 Archbishop of Armagh. He was conveyed to Dublin for that 
 purpose, but, being there seized with a violent fit of sickness, 
 occasioned by the hardships he suffered in gaol, they would not 
 transmit him to London along with the Archbishop of Armagh, 
 and consequently our holy prelate was by this means robbed of 
 the crown of martyrdom, which the blessed Primate of Armagh 
 received there, and which his grand-uncle, Richard Creagh, of 
 Armagh, received there before from Queen Elizabeth. For 
 the space of two years our bishop was kept a prisoner in 
 Limerick and Dublin, during which time the eyes of King 
 Charles II. began to be opened : he put to death many of 
 those who before accused innocent Catholics ; he committed 
 Oates to perpetual imprisonment, and restored to liberty the 
 imprisoned Catholics, both priests and prelates. 
 
 Yet this could not be done without acquitting them accord- 
 ing to the formality of the laws : our prelate, Pierse Creagh, 
 was therefore conveyed to Cork to stand his trial. The judge was 
 intent upon acquitting him, and one of the witnesses against 
 him repented of his crime ; but there was another witness 
 who was hardened in wickedness, and was resolved to prosecute 
 him with all his might. Our poor prelate was as a criminal 
 seated at the bar, patiently listening to many lies and calum- 
 nies which the wicked fellow was laying to his charge. But just 
 as this villain had kissed the book, and called for the vengeance 
 of Heaven to fall down upon him if what he swore to was not 
 true, the whole floor of the court-house gave way, and, with all 
 the people upon it, tumbled down into the cellar, and the 
 rogue was crushed to death in the ruins. The other false 
 witnesses who were at hand immediately fled, and none escaped 
 falling down with the floor except the judge, whose seat was 
 supported by an iron bar, and our prelate, whose chair hap- 
 pened to be placed on a beam which did not give way, and 
 there he continued sitting as it were in the air. The judge 
 cried out that Heaven itself acquitted him, and therefore dis- 
 missed him with great honours. But, that perjured villains 
 should not go unpunished, the judge next day got them apprc- 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 bended, and was going to put the penal laws in force against 
 them for their perjury ; but our holy bishop prostrated him- 
 self on his knees before him, and, with tears in his eyes, begged 
 the judge to pardon them ; and it was with great difficulty 
 that the judge, who was greatly incensed against them, con- 
 descended to his charitable request. 
 
 “ After this our holy prelate continued in peace in his diocese, 
 and when King James II. came to the throne he exerted him- 
 self in establishing the Catholic faith, in erecting altars, in 
 filling the parishes with worthy pastors, and in encouraging 
 religious people to fix themselves all over his diocese. But 
 this sunshine of religion was but of short duration ; for 
 King James being expelled the throne by his son-in-law, the 
 Protestant religion again became superior, and bloody wars 
 were kindled in Ireland. The Catholic party made choice of 
 our prelate to go as an ambassador from them to Louis XIV. 
 to crave his assistance. His errand was attended with 
 the desired success; and when he was upon his return to 
 Ireland he was stopped at St. Germain’s by King James, who 
 presented him to the archbishopric of Dublin, but would not 
 permit him to come to Ireland or quit his own person. The 
 Bishop of Strasbourg having a particular regard and liking for 
 him, begged of King Janies to suffer him to go with him to 
 Strasbourg, in order to assist him in his diocese.'^' The King 
 
 * August 20tb, 1703. The nuncio in Paris writes to Cardinal 
 Paulucci at Pome, saying that the Archbishop of Dublin had arrived 
 at Paris, and requested him to transmit the annexed memorial to the 
 Holy See; that he learned from the Queen that Dr. Creagh was a 
 man deserving much respect, not only on account of his dignity, but 
 also personally estimable, having shown great prudence and zeal in the 
 government of his Church ; that he was now, however, reduced to 
 great distress by a stroke of apoplexy, which deprived him of speech to 
 some extent. The memorial sets forth that the archbishop, after hav- 
 ing laboured more than twenty years in the Irish mission, was obliged, 
 like other prelates, to fly to France, where he had been a long time 
 destitute of beneflce or patrimony ; that the French king, informed of 
 his sufferings and poverty, at the request of the English Queen, 
 reserved to him a pension of 1,500 livres in the Benedictine Abbey of 
 Mormontier. But as that abbey requires no bulls of provision, being 
 
IN THE REIGN OP WILLIAM III. 
 
 357 
 
 condescended to his request, and our holy prelate continued at 
 Strasbourg exercising all episcopal functions and duties, and 
 leading a most exemplary life, until the month of July, 1705, 
 when he made a most happy end ; his remains were there 
 buried, and a sumptuous monument erected over him. One 
 Father Baltus, of the Society of Jesus, preached his funeral 
 oration, and it was out of this that I extracted the above par- 
 ticulars of the life of this holy prelate.” — (Thus Rev. James 
 White) ; Renehan, Bishops, p. S38. 
 
 Anno 1691.— Rev. GERALD GIBBON, O.P.P. 
 
 “ He studied in Spain, and on his return to Ireland was 
 elected sub-prior of the convent of Kilmallock. He managed 
 the resources of the convent so prudently that he provided for 
 the sustenance of fifteen religious. This good man was met 
 by the enemy in the county of Kerry, and slain by them in the 
 village of Listuahil, in the year 1691.’'^' — O'Heyn, p. 18. 
 
 Anno 1692.— Most Rev. PATRICK RUSSELL, 
 Archbishop of Dublin. 
 
 Patrick Russell, son of James Russell, of Rush, county 
 Dublin, was born in that parish in the year 1629. Of his 
 early years, student life, and labours as a priest we know 
 hardly anything beyond what may be learned by conjecture 
 
 entirely dependent on the bishop, the pension cannot be mentioned in a 
 bull, as is usual on such occasions, and therefore the archbishop prays 
 the nuncio to obtain for him a brief, or at least the tacit consent of the 
 Pope, authorizing him, out of respect for his character, his sufferings, 
 feeble health, and destitute condition, to enjoy that pension, which his 
 conscience could not allow him to accept merely by virtue of a decree 
 in council, as others do in France, when bulls are refused . — Theiner 
 MSS. 
 
 ^ This must have been a roving party of Williamite horse who met 
 the good priest. 
 
358 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 and our general acquaintance with the times and his sub- 
 sequent career. 
 
 Dr. Russell was elected Archbishop of Dublin on the 2nd 
 August, 1683. He had to endure at first all the hostility of 
 the bigoted faction that deprived his predecessor, Dr. Talbot, 
 of life and liberty. They watched every movement closely, 
 and sought every opportunity to accuse him of violating the 
 law. In these circumstances the public exercise of his ministry 
 would be attended with the greatest risk, and hence his time 
 was chiefly occupied in the performance of those duties less 
 likely to attract notice and expose him to danger. Notwith- 
 standing this caution and anxiety to avoid giving offence, 
 from time to time his enemies became more furious and 
 intolerant ; their worst passions were excited by some fresh 
 calumny against the Catholics and their religious principles. 
 On these occasions the archbishop generally retired for a while 
 to his native parish, and lay concealed there in the house of a 
 kinsman, Geoffrey Russell, until the storm that threatened him 
 blew over. These visits were long remembered in the village 
 of Rush, and are still spoken of by pious persons there as the 
 most remarkable event in their annals. 
 
 But a great and unexpected change soon took place, which 
 for a time almost restored the Catholic religion to its former 
 splendour. After Charles II. had given the strongest proof of 
 the sincerity of his early conversion, by dying in communion 
 with the Church, and his brother, James II., who never 
 disguised his religious convictions, ascended the throne of 
 England, apparently with the fullest approbation of his 
 Protestant subjects, no one could think of enforcing the penal 
 laws, though they still remained on the statute-book, or of 
 interfering with the public and free exercise of the Catholic 
 religion. 
 
 The new king, it was well known, was too warmly attached 
 to his creed to permit insult or injury to those who embraced 
 it ; his zeal, indeed, required to be checked rather than 
 stimulated. The fullest liberty was given the Irish bishops 
 to meet in council, and to direct their energies to useful legisla- 
 tion. Dr. Russell availed himself at once of this favourable 
 
IN THE BEIGN OF WILLIAM III. 
 
 359 
 
 opportunity, and convened a provincial synod on the 24th of 
 July, 1685, to reform the abuses which crept in during a long 
 period of religious persecutions, when it was impossible for the 
 pastors of the Church to assemble together. One law then 
 sanctioned deserves to be specially noticed just now, when a 
 cry of innovation has been substituted for the old charge of 
 traditional dogmatism, because it proves how ancient and 
 how widely diffused and how sincere is the devotion to the 
 Immaculate Conception in the Irish Church. The festival of 
 the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorative of her exemption 
 from original sin, was ordered to be celebrated throughout 
 the province as a holy day of strict obligation. 
 
 Another provincial synod was held on the 1st of August, 
 1688, at which Dr. Russell and Dr. Phelan assisted, with the 
 Vicars-General of Kildare, Leighlin, and Ferns, and James 
 Russell and Edward Murphy. 
 
 We have also still extant the acts of three diocesan synods 
 of Dublin during Dr. Russell’s administration — the first on 
 June 10th, 1686 ; the second. May 9th, 1688; and the third, 
 April 4th, 1689 — which prescribe very minutely the duties of 
 the clergy and faithful, and evince a knowledge of the require- 
 ment of Church discipline worthy of better times. Although 
 this close attention to the religious wants of his own diocese 
 occupied necessarily much of Dr. Russell’s time, he warmly 
 supported the efforts of others to promote the general welfare. 
 He signed the petition presented by the bishops of Ireland to 
 the King, July 21st, 1685, praying him to confer on Tyrcon- 
 nell the necessary authority for protecting them in the free 
 exercise of their ministry ; and he took a most active part in 
 convening the assembly in which the Primate, Dr. Maguire, 
 and Patrick Tyrrell, Bishop of Clogher, were appointed dele- 
 gates to wait on His Majesty, and to suggest the best means 
 of securing religious freedom. King James received the pre- 
 lates most graciously, and ordered the Earl of Sunderland, 
 Chief Secretary of State, to write to Lord Clarendon, the Vice- 
 roy, recommending the said archbishop, the Bishop of Clogher, 
 and the rest of his brethren, to his Excellency, “ for his 
 patronage and protection upon all occasions wherein they 
 should apply to him or stand in need thereof.” The King 
 
360 
 
 MAKTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 himself wrote to Dr. Maguire, acquainting him that, he had 
 ordered certain sums of money to be paid out of the Exchequer 
 in Ireland — £300 per annum for his own use, £200 per annum 
 to Dr. Russell, and like pensions to the other Catholic bishops. 
 These concessions, which to us appear so insignificant, but 
 were in reality valuable benefits when compared with the 
 grievances of the Catholics before the accession of James, and 
 again under his successor, are to be ascribed to Dr. Russell’s 
 zeal and influence. Indeed, but for the wisdom with which 
 he directed the councils of his brethren, many important 
 changes, deeply affecting the interests of religion, would never 
 have been made in his time. 
 
 One act of the archbishop’s public ministry remains to be 
 noticed here. This was the consecration of the church of the 
 Benedictine nuns in Channel Row, Dublin, June 6th, 1689, 
 which seems to have been performed with unusual pomp and 
 splendour : King James, who had only a few months before 
 arrived in Ireland, attended with his court, and a vast con- 
 course, who welcomed his Majesty with a kind of religious 
 enthusiasm. It was the first time for ages that an English 
 king took part in such a ceremony. Soon after followed in 
 quick succession the battle of the Boyne, the defeat and 
 shameful flight of James, the taking of Athlone, the victory 
 of Aughrim, the siege and treaty of Limerick, the submission 
 of the Irish to the Prince of Orange, and the departure of the 
 native troops for France. 
 
 No one of the Irish prelates, it would seem, felt the 
 consequences of this change sooner than Dr. Russell. It 
 was probably remembered to him that he had the honour of 
 officiating in the presence of the deposed King, not only on 
 the occasion alluded to here, but also at other times. Strong 
 fears were entertained of his fidelity, and his position in the 
 Church tended to increase them. He was accordingly seized, 
 in the very beginning of William’s reign, and cast into prison, 
 where he remained almost without interruption to the time of 
 his death. In an interesting letter from Francis, Archbishop 
 of Rhodi, and nuncio at Paris, to Cardinal Spada, December 
 31st, 1690, it is stated that King James was then at Brest, 
 ‘‘ examining the state of all those who had already come over 
 
IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III. 
 
 361 
 
 from Ireland, amounting to about 15,000, of whom about 700 
 were women and 400 or 500 children. Among the exiles are 
 the Archbishops of Armagh and Tuam, and the Bishops of 
 ‘Cluan’ and Elphin. The Archbishop of Cashel and the 
 Bishop of Kildare, both of whom were at Limerick, and the 
 Bishop of Ossory, are supposed to be still in Ireland. So is 
 also the Archbishop of Dublin, now a long time in gaoV'' 
 
 The fullest information on Dr. Russell’s imprisonment and 
 death is left to us by Dr. James Lynch, Archbishop of Tuam, 
 in an eloquent letter addressed to the Cardinal-prefect of Pro- 
 paganda, and dated Paris, October 28th, 1692. Since his de- 
 parture from Ireland, he says, many pious ecclesiastics, among 
 others the Bishops of Meath and Ferns and the Archbishop 
 of Dublin, have suffered death at the hands of their enemies. 
 “ The Archbishop of Dublin remained as much as possible in 
 his diocese, but, finding that he could not conceal himself 
 in the city or escape the snares of heretics, he retired to his 
 friends in the country, and lay hidden for some time in caves 
 and caverns, or wandered through the woods and mountains. 
 He was at length detected, conveyed to Dublin, and cast into 
 a loathsome prison, where he endured repeated insults, much 
 misery and hardship. On one occasion, indeed, he was 
 liberated on giving bail to appear when called on. But of 
 what use this brief respite.^ The same tortures were repeated 
 again ; guards were set to watch him in a filthy underground 
 prison cell, until, worn out with heavy afflictions, this faithful 
 servant was called to his Master, to enjoy the reward of so 
 much labour. The Archbishop of Dublin is now two months 
 dead. God grant he may have a successor who will imitate his 
 piety, and show the same zeal in his ministry.” 
 
 By the two months ” Dr. Lynch may have understood 
 the interval from the end of July, in which the death took 
 place, to the beginning of October, in which the letter was 
 written ; or he may have reckoned from the time the intelli- 
 gence reached him. The error in any case is very slight, the 
 true date of Dr. Russell’s death being the 14th July, 1692, 
 as appears from the coffin-plate, now in the possession of the 
 venerable parish priest of Rush, the Very Rev. A. Fagan. — 
 Renehan^s Collections. 
 
362 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1698. 
 
 The surrender of Limerick left William the acknowledged 
 king of Great Britain and Ireland, but the terms of capitu- 
 lation, or treaty of Limerick, guaranteed to the Irish Catho- 
 lics, then in arms, liberty of conscience. This was, however, 
 soon violated by the enactment of the penal laws. The first 
 of these was enacted in 1697, after the peace of Ryswick had 
 freed William from the embarrassment of a continental war. 
 In this year an Act was passed “ for banishing all Papists 
 exercising any ecclesiastical jurisdiction whatever in Ireland 
 before the 1st May, 1798, and if found there after that date 
 to be imprisoned during pleasure without bail, and then 
 transported for life ; that in the mean time no archbishop, 
 bishop, vicar, &;c., should ever land in Ireland from abroad, 
 after the 29th December, 1797, under pain of a year’s incar- 
 ceration and then perpetual banishment ; and that if any arch- 
 bishop, &c., should in either case return from banishment he 
 should be judged guilty of high treason, and die the death of 
 a traitor.” Moreover, harbouring or concealing them was 
 punishable by a fine of £20 for the first offence, £40 for the 
 second, and confiscation of all estates and chattels for the third, 
 the fines to be divided, one half to the informer, and one half 
 to the King. 
 
 Under these inhuman laws, nearly every bishop, and most 
 of the regular clergy in Ireland, were either deported out of 
 the country or obliged to seek safety in flight. Amongst 
 these were Dr. Dominick Maguire, Archbishop of Armagh, 
 the Archbishops of Dublin and Tuam, the Bishops of Ossory 
 and Elphin. According to Captain South’s account of the 
 495 regulars then known to be employed in Ireland, 424 were 
 shipped off this year — viz., 153 from Dublin, 190 from 
 Galway, 75 from Cork, and 26 from Waterford. The secular 
 clergy, said to be 892 in number, were obliged by their office 
 to remain with their flock at all hazards. The Archbishop of 
 Cashel, Dr. Comerford, courageously braved the terrors of 
 death rather than leave the whole Irish Church without a 
 
/ 
 
 IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III. 363 
 
 bishop. In 1701 Dr. Comerford tells the Secretary of Propa- 
 ganda there were only three or four bishops still in Ireland. 
 These were Dr. Comerford himself (elait fort age), Dr. 
 Donelly, of Dromore (etait en prison), and, perhaps, the 
 Bishop of Clonfert. — Renehan^s Collections, pp. 84, 301 ; 
 Dalton's Archbishops of Dublin, p. 458. 
 
 Rev, Father JAMES O’F^LAIN (Anglice Fullam), 
 
 O.P.P. 
 
 “He completed his studies in Portugal, and lived in the 
 convent of Dublin, an example and a service to the house, for he 
 was a prudent and provident procurator ; he was several times 
 sub-prior of the same house; he was always head of the con- 
 fraternity of the Holy Rosary, and taught and instructed the 
 associates, which office he executed with great satisfaction to 
 all. When the kingdom was conquered he was obliged to flee 
 across the seas, and being taken at sea by the English, was 
 carried to London, where he endured want and all the hard- 
 ships of prison for two years. At length, by good fortune, he 
 obtained his liberty ; he made his way to France, and dwelt for 
 some years at Abbeville. He made every possible effort to 
 return to his country, and was again thrown into prison in 
 England for a year, and when set at liberty returned to 
 Belgium, where he was made chaplain to the regiment of the 
 Duke of Berwick, where, serving faithfully, he was slain in a 
 battle in the Milanese, between Prince Eugene of Savoy and 
 the Duke of Vendome, in the year ITOJ.”— p. 7. 
 
 Rev. Fathers DANIEL MagDONEL and FLEMING, 
 
 O.P.P. 
 
 “In the same convent of Urlar, in the county Mayo, there 
 lived Father Daniel MacDonel, who had studied in Portugal, 
 and on his return to his native land lived continually in his 
 
364 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONRESSORS 
 
 convent until the late expulsion of priests. He returned to 
 Ireland out of France, and being detected as a religious in the 
 ship, whilst yet it was at anchor, he was thrown into prison 
 with Father Fleming, whom I have spoken of before, and was 
 kept there for fourteen months with gyves on his feet. He was 
 then sent back to France, but, again attempting to return, 
 landed at Galway, where he was immediately made prisoner, 
 and has now (1706*) been nearly six years in prison, without 
 any present hope of release.” — O' Heyn, p, 39- 
 
 Rev. WALTER FLEMING, O.P.P., 
 
 was one of the regulars transported beyond the seas, as we 
 learn from De Burgo, who says, — 
 
 He was sent into exile in the same ship with myself, 
 and landed in France. After a year he returned to Ireland, 
 but, being seized before he landed from the ship, was thrown 
 into prison in Cork, where he remained with a companion for 
 nearly a year in iron fetters. He was sent back to France and 
 fell ill on sea, and lay sick for a long time in an inn at Nantes, 
 where, having piously received the sacraments, he died at an 
 advanced age, in the year 1701.” — Hih. Dom,.^ p. 504. 
 
 Anno 1702.— Rev. JOHN MORROGH, O.P.P. 
 
 There died in this year, after the last exile. Father John 
 O'Moraghuadh (commonly Morrogh), a good man who had 
 been frequently prior of the convent of Cork and elsewhere. 
 He died in prison, where he had been detained four years, for 
 he was unable from gout to fly.” — O'Heyn^ p. 13. 
 
 In 1698 Father O’Heyn, the writer, was, on the 17ih June, 
 forced to embark, with 126 other religious, on board a ship at Galway, 
 and sent out of the kingdom. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. 
 
 365 
 
 Anno 1704.—Rev. CLEMENT O'COLGAN, O.P.P. 
 
 He studied with credit in Spain. Returning to his native 
 land, he lived piously in his convent of Derry, and preached 
 fervently and well until the conquest of the kingdom in the 
 year 1691, when he crossed into France. Hence he proceeded 
 to Rome, and taught philosophy in the convent of S. Sixtus, 
 and afterwards returned to Ireland. Being taken by the 
 heretics, he endured two years’ imprisonment in the city of 
 Derry, and died for the faith in the same prison, in the year 
 1704>’ 
 
 Anno 1706. 
 
 Rev. JOHN MAGLAINN, NICHOLAS BLAKE, and 
 GREGORY FRENCH, O.P.P. 
 
 ‘‘One of these was Father John Maglainn, who has now 
 lain in prison at Limerick for ten years on account of the con- 
 version of a heretic to the faith. 
 
 “ There yet live (1706), of the fathers of the convent of Gal- 
 way, Father Nicholas Blake, who was a distinguished student 
 and monk at Louvain. When he had completed his studies lie 
 returned to Ireland, and chose the convent of Galway for his 
 residence, where he dwelt amongst his relatives and fellow- 
 citizens, esteemed for his piety and observance of the rule. 
 When driven into exile he came to Nantes, and thence returned 
 to Galway, where now for five years he lies by day in some 
 hiding-place, and at night visits the faithful. Truly I fear 
 lest he be now in prison, because the heretics are taking extra- 
 ordinary pains this year in hunting down the -religious. 
 
 “ Father Gregory French, of the same convent, studied at 
 Madrid, ^in the convent of the Blessed Virgin of Atocha. 
 Returning to his country, he was after some years made prior 
 of his convent. Driven into exile, he lived for two years at 
 Nantes, and returning from thence to Ireland, he was at once 
 thrown into prison, where he lay for a year and a half; but at 
 
366 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 the solicitation of his brother he was allowed, on giving heavy 
 bail, to live with this brother. 
 
 ‘‘ The Rev. Father Peter Furlong, of the convent of 
 Athenry, is now, 1706, three years in prison in England.”— 
 O'Heyn^ pp. 27, 36. 
 
 Rev. LAURENCE O’FERRALL, O.P.P. 
 
 ‘‘ He was an alumnus of the convent of Longford, and 
 studied at Prague, in Bohemia, but read his philosophy in 
 Rome with the Irish Dominicans in the convent of SS. Sixtus 
 and Clement, and theology with the English Dominicans in 
 the house of SS. John and Paul. He thence proceeded to 
 England, and whilst discharging the duties of an apostolic 
 missionary was seized and confined in a most strict prison in 
 London, where he suffered much for more than a year. 
 At length by the favour of God he was set free, and proceeded 
 to Belgium, where he patiently bore a long illness. Again he 
 returned to England, and was again imprisoned, but was sent 
 as a German into Portugal with the Archduke Charles, after- 
 wards Emperor of the Romans. From thence he took an 
 opportunity of going to Spain, where he piously died, serving 
 as a chaplain to Berwick’s regiment, in 1708.” — Hih,Dom.^ 
 p. 586. 
 
 Anno 1710. 
 
 In 1704 all the secular priests in Ireland, not bishops or 
 otlier dignitaries, were ordered to register themselves, and were 
 promised protection if they complied. In 1709 an Act had 
 been passed, offering a reward of 50/. for the arrest of a bishop 
 or vicar-general, and 20/. for a friar. What rendered this 
 bribe peculiarly grievous was that the money was to be levied 
 on the Catholics of the county in which the ecclesiastic was 
 convicted. In 1710 the real object of the Registration Act 
 of 1704 was made manifest, for it was enacted that before 
 the 25th March, 1710, every registered priest should present 
 
IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. 
 
 367 
 
 himself at the quarter sessions and take the oath of abjura- 
 tion, under the penalty of transportation for life ; and of a 
 traitor’s death if he returned. By the oath of abjuration the 
 priest was ordered to swear that the sacrifice of the Mass and 
 the invocation of the saints were damnable and idolatrous. 
 In other words, the priest, who had been induced to register 
 under the promise of protection, was called upon to apostatize, 
 under the penalty of transportation for life, and a bribe of 
 80Z. a year for life was offered to any priest who would apos- 
 tatize. The priest-hunters were now called into full activity, 
 and for some thirty years pursued their infernal trade in full 
 force. Each of these wretches had under him an infamous 
 corps, designated priest-hounds^ whose duty was to track, 
 with the untiring scent of the bloodhound, the humble priest 
 from refuge to refuge. In cities and towns the Catholic 
 clergy were concealed in cellars or garrets, and in the country 
 districts they were hid in the unfrequented caves, in the lonely 
 woods, or in the huts of the faithful Irish peasantry. De 
 Burgo tells us that this persecution and hunting after priests 
 was most bitter towards the close of the reign of Anne and 
 the commencement of George I., and he says that none 
 would have escaped were it not for the horror in which priest- 
 catchers were held by the people. He adds, moreover, and 
 it is a pleasing reminiscence, that so odious and detestable 
 were these priest-hunters and informers in the eyes of the 
 honest Protestants of Dublin, that when any of the wretches 
 made their appearance in public both Protestants and 
 Catholics rushed forth to stone them in the streets, amidst 
 shouts and groans of execration.* 
 
 Instances of this persecution will be given under the years 
 1718 and 1737. 
 
 * Cogan, Diocese of Meath, vol. i. p. 266. 
 
3G8 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 Anno 1712.— THE FRANCISCAN NUNS OF 
 GALWAY. 
 
 In 1712, when Edward Eyre, Mayor of Gal way, was directed 
 to suppress the nunneries in that town, Hr. John Burke, 
 then provincial of the Franciscans in Ireland, of which order 
 the nuns were, obtained permission from Dr. Edmund Byrne, 
 titular Archbishop of Dublin, to admit them into his diocese, 
 lioping they would be less noticed there than in a place upon 
 which Government kept so strict an eye as Galway. A few 
 of these unhappy ladies were accordingly translated to Dublin; 
 but they had scarcely reached the city, when the Lords Jus- 
 tices received information of their arrival, and immediately 
 issued orders for their apprehension, in consequence of which 
 several were taken in their conventual habits. A proclama- 
 tion was then issued, dated 20th September of that year, to 
 apprehend said John Burke, Dr. Byrne, and Dr. Nary, as 
 Popish priests attempting to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion contrary to the laws of this kingdom ; and it was ordered 
 that all laws in force against the Papists should be strictly 
 carried into execution. Such were the fears and alarms caused 
 by the arrival of a few weak women in the capital, as if the 
 circumstance had been sufficient to overturn the Government, 
 or to shake the foundations of the Established Church.’' — 
 Ilardimarb s History of Galwo.y^ p. 275. 
 
 In 1717 the Dominican nuns were driven from Galway, as 
 the Franciscans had been a few years previously. 
 
 Anno 1718.— Rev. ANTONY MAGUIRE, O.P.P., and 
 
 Others. 
 
 De Burgo gives a striking instance of the proceedings of 
 the priest-hunters which occurred in this year. 
 
 ‘‘ In this year,” says he, ‘‘as I well remember, seven priests 
 were taken prisoners together in Dublin by means of a Por- 
 tuguese Jew named Gorsia, who pretended to be a priest, in 
 
IN THE llEIGN OF GEORGE II. 
 
 3G9 
 
 order to discover the true priests. Among them were Father 
 Antony Maguire, Irish provincial of the Dominicans, two 
 Jesuits, one Friar Minor, and the other three secular priests. 
 They were sent into exile, and threatened with death if they 
 returned. Nevertheless, they all returned under feigned 
 names, and escaped detection.’’ — Hib, Dorn,, p. 160. 
 
 Anno 1737.— Rev. JOHN BARNEWALL. 
 
 Another striking instance of the proceedings of the priest- 
 hunters may be given from the Diocese of Meath.” It shows 
 the violence of the persecution as late as 1737 : — 
 
 ‘‘ In 1704 Rev. John Barnewall was registered at Trim as 
 ‘ Popish priest of Ardbraccan, Martry, Rathboyne, and 
 Liscartan.’ He was ordained in 1680, at Dunadea, county 
 Kildare, by Dr. Mark Foristall, Bishop of Kildare, lived at 
 Neilstown the year of the registration, and was then forty- 
 seven years of age. This great ecclesiastic was nearly related 
 to Lord Trimblestown, and was, in every sense of the word, 
 worthy of the noble family from which he sprang. Very few 
 of his contemporaries suffered more intensely and continuously 
 from the operation of the penal laws. Many years have 
 elapsed since his departure, yet his memory is fondly cherished 
 by the people of this parish. Whatever residence Father 
 Barnewall may have had in the year of registration, it is 
 certain that, a few years subsequently, when he refused to 
 take the oath of abjuration, he was obliged to flee like a 
 felon from his home, and take shelter in the ditches, the 
 barns, and the cabins of the poor. He seems to have been 
 particularly singled out for persecution ; and neither his 
 illustrious birth, his distinguished relatives, his fine manly 
 figure, nor his piety, charity, learning, or self-sacrifice could 
 screen him from the informers and priest- hunters, whom the 
 infamous penal laws called into existence. 
 
 In the early part of the last century there were two mud- 
 wall thatched chapels in this district, one at Neilstown, and 
 
 2 B 
 
370 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 the Other in the valley, beneath the old church of Rathboyne 
 or Cortown. Father Barnewall, during the lull of the storm, 
 officiated in these humble temples, but when the tempest 
 would burst forth, these wretched houses of worship would 
 be closed, and then Mass would be celebrated by stealth on 
 the hills, in the woods, or at the backs of ditches. The place 
 selected for the celebration of the sacred mysteries would 
 constantly be changed, in order to baffle the priest-hunter ; 
 and word, in the mean time, would be whispered round the 
 people, during the week, where to meet the priest on the 
 following Sunday. At break of day, and frequently before 
 it, the faithful would assemble to assist at the Holy Sacrifice, 
 and the most active of the flock would keep vigil, to protect 
 the sacred ceremonies from profanation, and the unfortunate 
 priest from the dread penalties of the law. 
 
 “ There lived at that time on the banks of the Blackwater, at 
 a place called Oldtown, near Kilmainham-Hertford, a notorious 
 priest-hunter, named Sir Richard Barker. In order to accom- 
 plish his purposes, and to clutch his bribe, he had in his pay 
 a troop of spies, distributed throughout the district, by means 
 of whom he souglit to discover the hiding-places of the clergy, 
 and the lonely places where the people assembled to worship 
 on Sunday mornings. Often did these men plot the capture of 
 Father Barnewall, but failed, either because it was difficult to 
 discover his hiding-place, or because they found it dangerous to 
 attempt his capture. On one occasion they well-nigh succeeded. 
 They assembled in the house of one of their corps, named 
 
 G , at Martry. A messenger was sent among the people 
 
 to find out Father Barnewall, in order (as was pretended) to 
 have the last rites of the Church administered to a person in 
 danger of death. When Father Barnewall heard that a 
 person was dangerously ill he hastened to discharge his duty, 
 but a poor Catholic servant-girl, who had overheard what was 
 in contemplation, contrived to meet him outside the house, 
 and, in a few words, warned him to make off with his life. 
 Father Barnewall acted on the suggestion, and, for this time, 
 the priest-hunters were baffled. At length they succeeded by 
 a stratagem, in the following manner -There lived at that 
 
IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II. 
 
 371 
 
 time, at Allenstovvn House, a kind-hearted Protestant gentle- 
 man, named Waller, who often sheltered Father Barnewall, 
 and gave him timely information whenever the priest-hunters 
 contemplated prosecuting a search. Waller was a magistrate, 
 living in the parish, and thus had an opportunity of acquiring 
 much valuable knowledge, of which he made liberal use for 
 the protection of Father Barnewall. He was obliged, how- 
 ever, to proceed with extreme caution, as the Act of Parlia- 
 ment expressly stated ‘ that the prosecuting and informing 
 against Papists was an honourable service,’ and ‘ that all 
 magistrates who neglected to execute these (penal) laws, were 
 betrayers of the liberties of the kingdom.' The priest- 
 hunters strongly suspected that Waller was more closely 
 acquainted with Father Barnewall than the law allowed, and 
 hence, having placed their ruffians in ambush, they despatched 
 a messenger to find out Father Barnewall’s ‘ hiding-place,’ 
 and to tdl him that Mr. Waller wanted him in all haste, as 
 he had information of the greatest importance to communicate. 
 The priest lost no time in hastening to Allenstown, but when 
 he entered the grounds he found himself surrounded by his 
 enemies, and, having no means of escape, was obliged to 
 surrender. He was marched off in triumph, and lodged in 
 Trim gaol. The charges advanced against him were that 
 he was a Popish priest, living in the country in defiance of 
 the statute, that he refused the oath of abjuration, and that 
 he practised ‘ the damnable and idolatrous superstitions of 
 the Church of Rome.^ The penalty for each of these offences 
 was transportation for life, and, if he returned, to be hanged, 
 drawn, and quartered. In the mean time Mr. Waller was not 
 idle. He felt deeply grieved at the incarceration of his old 
 friend, and he used all his family interest with the members 
 of the grand jury, and succeeded at length in obtaining 
 Father Barnewall’s liberation. 
 
 ‘‘ In this age of Catholic development we can only dimly 
 conceive the sufferings of the Irish priesthood, the incessant 
 privations, humiliations, and persecutions to which they were 
 exposed. The penal laws could be enforced at any moment at 
 the whim of every bigot. The clergy were clad in frieze like 
 
 2 B 2 
 
MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 the peasantry, in order to conceal their ecclesiastical dignity; 
 and they usually travelled with a wallet, or linen bag, across 
 their shoulders, in each end of which, equally balanced, 
 were stowed the vestments and altar linen for the Holy 
 Sacrifice. They had no fixed residence, but journeyed from 
 cabin to cabin, distributing graces, instructing their flocks, and 
 administering the sacraments ; and they partook of the humble 
 fare of the peasantry, to which they were at all times welcome. 
 Father Barnewall was one morning on his way to celebrate 
 Mass in a house near Allenstown. He was clad in frieze, 
 had his vestments in a satchel across his shoulder, a stick in 
 his right hand, and in his left a small silver chalice, un- 
 screwed so as to fit in a little chamois cover. On the roadside 
 Mr. W aller was speaking to a notorious priest-hunter, named 
 Pilot, who was out that very morning searching for informa- 
 tion about Father Barnewall. A glance of friendly recogni- 
 tion passed between Waller and the priest, and each knew it 
 would be unsafe to hazard more. The priest-hunter, half 
 suspecting the disguised traveller, said ‘ Good morning, sir.’ 
 ‘ Good morning,’ was answered. ‘ My name is Pilot ; what 
 is yours ‘ Your name (Pilate), sir, bodes no good to a 
 Christian.’ Waller interposed, saying, ‘ Let him pass, let 
 him pass.’ This was good advice for Pilot ; for if he had 
 assailed the priest single-handed he would have met with a 
 rather unpleasant reception. 
 
 ‘‘At one time, during which the penal laws against the priest- 
 hood were enforced with more than usual rigour. Waller had 
 Father Barnewall concealed for several weeks in his house. 
 Many of the peasantry were aware of this, and understood 
 also the propriety of seeming not to know, and, of course, the 
 necessity of not divulging, the hiding-place of their afflicted 
 pastor. Hence, when any of the people had a sick call, the 
 messenger would proceed to Allenstown, pass round the house 
 so as to attract attention, and when Mr. AValler inquired the 
 cause of uneasiness, the reply would be that a priest was 
 required in such a place. The peasant knew the hint was 
 enough, and forthwith Father Barnewall would be seen 
 journeying on his mission of charity, and, having discharged 
 
IN THE REIGN OF GFORGE II. o7o 
 
 his duty, stealing back to the house of his protector and 
 friend. However, Father Barnewall was sometimes obliged to 
 visit remote parts of his parish, and then found it impossible 
 to return for a considerable time. On one occasion, while 
 visiting the parish of Cortown, the priest-hunter from Kells 
 made so close a search for him that to ensure his safety a 
 farmer constructed a little apartment for him in a rick of turf, 
 in which Father Barnewall dwelt for several days. It some- 
 times happened, too, when dwelling in the cabins of the poor, 
 that in order to take exercise, and at the same time escape 
 the watchful eyes of his enemies, he roamed through the 
 lonely unfrequented fields with a woman’s cloak around him, 
 and the hood over his head. Such were some of the many 
 stratagems the Irish priest was obliged to adopt in the 
 days of persecution, in order to preserve the faith ; and in the 
 worst of times they never flinched or deserted the people. A 
 volume might be written on the trying scenes through which 
 the intrepid Father Barnewall passed in those dismal times. 
 But his reward was near at hand ; the martyrs’’ crown was 
 soon to recompense him for years of labour and suffering. 
 He was more than eighty years of age when he was again 
 arrested by the priest-hunters, and pleaded guilty to the 
 charge of having celebrated Mass. He was clad in a long- 
 frieze coat, wore an old hat, had a breviary in one hand and a 
 staff in the other, and in this plight, surrounded by his 
 enemies, he was marched in triumph to Navan, and lodged in 
 the bridewell. After a fortnight’s confinement, he was sent a 
 prisoner to Dublin Castle,* whence he never returned to his 
 
 * The late Willian Fordo, Esq., town clerk to the corporation of 
 Dublin, who was born in this parish, told the writer that Father 
 Barnewall was arrested about the year 1737, was conveyed a prisoner to 
 Dublin, and was put to death for the faith. There is a tradition in 
 some parts of the diocese that, after suffering for some time in prison, he 
 was shipped off in exile to the Continent, and the ship having entered 
 some port in England, Father Barnewall was pointed out as a Popish 
 priest from Ireland, was dragged from the ship, and hung in the 
 streets. All accounts concur that he suffered martyrdom for the faith. 
 — Cogan, 
 
S74 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 faithful people. The traditions of the parish are most specific 
 i-n representing him as having been put to death for the faith ; 
 but whether in England, as some say, or in Dublin, there is no 
 authentic account. Whether he died violently, or by slow 
 torturing imprisonment, he is equally entitled to the distinc- 
 tion of having been one of the martyred priests of Ireland.’^ — 
 CogarCs ^‘Diocese of Meath vol. ii. 263. 
 
 Anno 1744.— Revs. NICHOLAS ENGLISH, DOMI- 
 NICK KELLY, THOMAS NOLAN, MICHAEL 
 LYNCH, AND JOHN GERALDINE. 
 
 We have now come to the last scene in the sanguinary 
 drama of religious persecution which we have traced through 
 two hundred years. From 1700, as my readers have seen, the 
 rigour of persecution against ecclesiastics had slackened. The 
 penal laws were, indeed, in all their malignant force, and their 
 edge was yearly sharpened,* but priests were no longer put 
 to death, and even their imprisonment had become compara- 
 tively rare. In the year 1743, under the administration of 
 the Duke of Devonshire, a fresh act of active persecution 
 led to such lamentable consequences as shocked the reviving 
 humanity of the country, and led to the first regular toleration 
 of the Catholic service. 
 
 “ On the 28th of February, 1743, a proclamation was issued, 
 signed by the Lord Lieutenant and the members of the Privy 
 Council, directing all justices of the peace and others diligently 
 to put in force the laws for the detection and apprehension of 
 Popish prelates and priests ; and large rewards were offered for 
 the seizure and conviction of those proscribed persons, and of 
 any others who should dare to conceal them or receive them into 
 their houses. Nor was this an idle threat. On Saturday, the 
 17th February, 1744, a certain alderman named William 
 Aldrich went secretly to the Catholic parish church of S. Paul, 
 in the north part of Dublin, and finding there a secular priest 
 
 * The first relaxation of the penal laws was in 1765. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II. 
 
 3/5 
 
 of the diocese of Dublin, named Nicholas English, in the act 
 of saying ]\Iass (he had just read the preface), he arrested 
 him, and, only allowing him to lay aside the sacred vestments, 
 sent him off to prison in a car. He then went to the convent 
 of the Dominican nuns, and seeing two Dominican fathers 
 who were chaplains there — Father Dominick Kelly, of Ros- 
 common, and Thomas Nolan, of Gaula, in the county Fer- 
 managh — sent them in another car to the same prison.^ 
 
 ‘‘ All the other priests, both secular and regular, immediately 
 changed their places of abode and concealed themselves. The 
 same Alderman Aldrich contrived, however, to arrest a Minorite 
 named Michael Lynch, whilst he was deliberating about chang- 
 ing his domicile. All the bishops and priests fled to Dublin, 
 because in so large a city it was easier to lie concealed than in 
 the country. The faithful were deprived of all opportunity 
 of hearing Mass, even on Sundays and holydays, except a few 
 who managed to hear Mass in caves, and in Dublin in stables 
 and other hidden places. As a certain Meath priest, of the 
 name of John Geraldine, was saying Mass before a crowded 
 congregation in the top story of an old and ruinous house, at 
 the end of the Mass, just as the blessing was given and the 
 people stood up, the house fell down ; and the priest and nine 
 laics of both sexes were killed on the spot, and many mortally 
 wounded. 
 
 “ The Viceroy and tlie Privy Council were moved to pity by 
 this lamentable event, and let it be known that they preferred 
 that the chapels should be opened, rather than that the citizens 
 should be thus miserably cut off*. All the chapels in Dublin 
 were therefore opened on S. Patrick’s Day, the 17th March, 
 1745, and have remained open even to this day,” viz,, 1762. — 
 Hih. Bom., pp. 175, 717. 
 
 I have now come to an end of these Memorials. From 
 1744 the Catholics of Ireland heard Mass and received the 
 
 * Father Thomas de Burgo, the writer, was, heTells us, himself 
 attached to the church of S. Paul, and said Mass there at nine o’clock 
 every day, whilst Father English said it at ten o’clock. Father de 
 Burgo had formerly said his Mass at ten, and had changed hours with 
 Father English only a few days before. 
 
^ o7G MAilTYllS AND CONFESSORS. 
 
 sacraments in safety. Gradually the severity of the penal 
 laws was relaxed, the axe had become blunted with use, and 
 although eighty-five years more passed away before Catholic 
 emancipation became law, they were years of comparative 
 peace, Since then our progress has been rapid. The walls of 
 Jerusalem have been built up, and our Church has not wanted 
 saintly bishops, worthy successors of the martyrs of old. Of 
 the latter it may be said that ‘ they delivered their nation, and 
 preserved the deposit of the faith ; ’ of the former, that ‘ they 
 propped up the house and enlarged the temple.’ And the 
 Catholics of Ireland may well return thanks to our God as 
 did the Jews when returned out of captivity: — ‘‘We will 
 praise Thy name continually, and will praise it with thanks- 
 giving. Thou hast saved us from destruction, and hast 
 delivered us from an evil time.” 
 
This Memorial which was accidentally omitted at its 
 proper jilace^ 1634, is given here. 
 
 FRANCIS SLINGSBY. 
 
 I WILL here insert an interesting account of a young convert 
 who suffered imprisonment for the faith in 1634. I do so the 
 more willingly as this contemporary account gives us a lively 
 idea of the nature of those times. This account is taken from 
 a MS. collection of letters in the Burgundian library which 
 was taken from the library of the suppressed Jesuits. 
 
 Francis Slingsby was the eldest son of Sir Francis Slingsby, 
 Knight, an Englishman settled in Ireland, and Elizabeth 
 Cuff. The family was a noble one settled in York- 
 shire, and his father was a privy councillor in Ireland.* 
 The family were all Protestants. He was born towards the 
 end of the year 1611 or the beginning of 1612, and was 
 brought up in Ireland under the care of his parents until his 
 thirteenth year, when he was sent to Oxford, where he studied 
 for five years, and distinguished himself in mathematics. In 
 1630 he left Oxford, and there is no information as to how he 
 passed the three next years, further than that he spent a part 
 
 * See the statement he gave when entering the English College 
 in Rome (Appendix). Sir Francis Slingsby, of Scrivin and Redhouse, 
 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, who died in 1600, married Mary, 
 daughter of Sir Thomas Percy, brother of the Earl of Northumber- 
 land. By her he had many children. His eldest son. Sir Henry 
 Slingsby, succeeded him in his English estates. The father of the 
 subject of our memoir would appear to have been a younger son of 
 this Sir Francis. He says in the statement his maternal grand- 
 mother was “ soror ” of the Earl of Northumberland. He must either 
 have made a mistake, or used “ soror ” in the sense of first cousin. — 
 See Life of Sir II. Slinyahyf printed, Mdinhurgh, 1806. 
 
378 
 
 M.VRTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 of them in travel. Up to this time he had been an unshaken 
 Protestant, but in his twenty-second year he began to conceive 
 doubts of the trutli of that religion, and determined to seek 
 the truth, and by the grace of God to embrace it. His con- 
 version was certainly completed in Rome, as we gather from 
 several passages, and that when he was in his twenty-second 
 year, but whether it was commenced in that city is not 
 stated. 
 
 His intimate friend Father Spreul, whom he had himself 
 converted, thus describes his conversion : — 
 
 “It is worthy of remark that in his conversion to the 
 Catholic faith he not only gave his whole time and attention 
 to the prudent and sincere investigation of the truth, carefully 
 examining the testimonies of the Fathers on the controversies 
 of our day, but sought to learn the will of God by continual 
 and fervent prayer, frequent fasts, and abundant alms ; so that 
 he was strengthened to overcome all the allurements of the 
 world, the hope of honours and dignity, and the indignation 
 and loss of friendship of his friends. He was no sooner 
 received into the Church in Rome than he went through a 
 course of the spiritual exercises of S. Ignatius, and at their 
 conclusion, in obedience to the divine inspiration, he determined 
 to renounce the inheritance of his father, and embrace the in- 
 stitute of the society, in which to live ; and this resolution he 
 adliered to unshaken, notwithstanding the greatest difficulties, 
 during eight years that he remained in the world, and by a 
 remarkable force of mind he strove after religious perfection 
 by a most exact observance of our rules whilst living with 
 laics and heretics at court and at home .” — Letter of Father 
 Spreul. 
 
 His friends were naturally much annoyed at his conversion, 
 which he did not conceal ; indeed, he ever most openly pro- 
 fessed his faith and returned thanks to God for the grace he 
 had received, as father Spreul mentions : — “ Our generous 
 athlete so boldly overcame all these difficulties that he not 
 only openly professed the Catholic religion, but gloried in the 
 signal grace divinely granted to him, and ever gave thanks to 
 God for it. And this is the more worthy of notice, as many 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 379 
 
 after their conversion are allowed to profess the Catholic 
 religion, not openly, but in private.” — Ibid. 
 
 His father, thinking that his influence and that of his 
 friends, and the prospect of the ruin which an adherence to 
 the Catholic faith would cause to the young man’s prospects, 
 might induce him to return to the religion of the State, urged 
 his return to Ireland ; and Francis, although firmly resolved to 
 enter the Society of Jesus, and apparently considering him- 
 self from this date as under obedience to the general of the 
 order,* prepared to return to Ireland in obedience to his 
 earthly father, and with the hope of converting his relations 
 to the true faith. The following two letters, one from 
 his father and one from his mother, written at this date, 
 explain the reasons they urged : — 
 
 My Son, — 
 
 If ever you thought I loved you, you may well think 
 I took always more care for your soul than your body ; and 
 if you do not think I have given you sufficient motives for 
 your return, wherein you may do your parents so good service; 
 in your first you judge uncharitably of me, in your second 
 you deal uncharitably with me. I must needs acknowledge I 
 have much offended God, in trusting too much to an arm of 
 flesh and blood, as though by mine own endeavours I could 
 attain my desire. But now I find my fault and feel my 
 punishment. Our hearts are in the hands of God, to dispose 
 of as He pleaseth ; you are now allowed and commanded to 
 use all lawful means, and then refer the issue to Him. These 
 arguments might bring forth many good, feeling motives, and 
 you know my education hath not been such as to give my 
 tongue effectual persuasions ; yet those might be sufficient to 
 give you a sensible reason not to disregard my loving advice. 
 
 * “ How promptly and with what resignation of his own will he 
 left his country, his relations, and his possessions, notwithstanding 
 the good he was doing, when he was called to Home by the letter of 
 the general ! and what an heroic act of obedience he then made, in 
 fulfilment of the vow he had made in Kome, at the tomb of the blessed 
 Aloysius, after his conversion ! ” — Letter of Father Sjpreul, 
 
380 
 
 Martyrs and confessors 
 
 ‘‘If the defects I found in myself made me seek to redeem 
 them in you, it may be a sufficient motive unto you to think 
 how dearly I loved you, and that I be thus requited for all my 
 care, travail, and cost. My time by course of nature cannot 
 continue long, and will you shorten it by an unkind requital 
 Take but this for your theme, and then comment upon it with 
 such moving reasons as yourself can give and your own 
 thought dictate to you, if your case were mine ; and be not 
 partial, and let not this undue style make it with you dis- 
 esteemed or derided. I have said enough if it prevail ; if not, 
 too much ; and till I shall either see you or hear a good answer 
 to this my letter you shall neither hear from me nor of me. 
 
 “ Sincerity is your best policy, and deal as plainly with me 
 as I with you, and if you give me not great cause to the con- 
 trary, I shall ever remain 
 
 “Your unfeigned loving Father.” 
 
 The following is the letter from his mother : — 
 
 “ My dear Son, — 
 
 “ I have seen, read, and considered all your letters 
 with the best of my poor judgment, written to your father 
 and myself both before and since your sickness, especially 
 your long one of two sheets of paper, signed with your own 
 hand, but written by another ; whereby I perceive the great 
 pains you took to be resolved, which zeal I trust the Lord will 
 favour, howsoever you may be misled. But although I cannot 
 judge of controversy, yet I think you ought not to forsake 
 your old father and me, to enjoy the liberty of conscience 
 which (if there be no remedy) you may enjoy here at home, 
 as many other good subjects do. But you fear your father 
 will be offended : much better may you bear that than we 
 your longer absence, which I assure myself would bring us 
 both with sorrow to our graves. My dear son, consider that 
 our laws do not enforcements consciences ; and therefore what 
 cause can there be to absent yourself.^ If ever you took pity 
 on my sorrows, add not unto them, but return to comfort me, 
 whose eyes have ever fasted with expectation of it. Ah ! my 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 381 
 
 son, you, that ouglit not to turn away your ears from the 
 prayers of the poor, are much more bound to regard the tears 
 and supplications of your mother. I do beseech you with 
 uplifted hands to return by your nearest way, and not to think 
 of passing through Spain. The infinite testimony I have had 
 of your piety and obedience to both of us assures me you will 
 be grieved that T cannot know the haste you will make home ; 
 but, my dear child, let not that trouble you, for I am com- 
 forted in the confidence of it, and so are all your sisters. Your 
 sister Willoughby is the mother of three children, and your 
 sister Betty married ; but in all this T can take no true con- 
 tentment till I see you. i\nd if it please the Lord of mercy 
 to permit that, then shall I say I have had one joyful day 
 before my death. Farewell, and all the good a mother’s 
 blessing can add unto you be heaped upon your head, my 
 dearest child. “Yours, as you know.’’ 
 
 Various letters of his to Jesuit fathers give an account of 
 his journey. 
 
 To Father John Thompson, at Piacenza, he writes from 
 IMilan the 25th May, 1634:—“ We are now, God be praised, 
 safely arrived at Milan, and have already taken places in a 
 coach for Thurin.” From St. Omer he writes, on the 1 4th July : 
 “ I arrived in Paris on Corpus Christ! day, being the 14th 
 June, and remayned there until the 27th. I received from 
 Father Talbot a pass which he had lying by him, which is 
 vet of a fresh date, and I make use of it for my passage into 
 England.” 
 
 He must have arrived in Ireland about the end of July. 
 On arriving in Dublin he waited on the Lord-Deputy Went- 
 worth, as we learn from Father Spreul : — 
 
 “ He called on the Lord-Deputy, Viscount Wentworth (to 
 pay his respects on his return), who was nearly related to hi in, 
 but a most bitter persecutor of Catholics; and in presence of 
 a crowd of heretical noblemen declared himself a Catholic, 
 and when the Lord-Deputy attacked some articles of the 
 Catholic religion he boldly answered him. All this I was 
 told by one of the royal chamberlains, who was present. 
 
 “ As his fatl^er, who had great influence in tliat kingdom. 
 
382 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 liad founded great hopes of advancing his family on the pru- 
 dence and talents of his son, which had been praised by all, 
 he left no stone unturned to withdraw him from the Catholic 
 religion. He pointed out to him the shame and injury he 
 would bring on an illustrious family ; that he would render 
 himself incapable of holding any office of honour or dignity. 
 But he found that he produced no impression, although he 
 held out good hopes of his being made a privy councillor 
 (which is the highest honour) ; for Father Francis, with sin- 
 gular modesty and moderation, made answer only in these 
 words of Christ : ‘ What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
 whole world and lose his own soul ? ’ so that his father per- 
 ceived that, like theApostle, he held all but asdirt that he might 
 gain Christ, and that the only way to influence him would 
 be to persuade him that the Catholic religion was false. And, 
 having perceived in their daily discussions that he was far 
 inferior to Father Francis in disputing on points of faith, he 
 determined to take him to Dr. Usher, who was called Arch- 
 bishop and Primate of all the kingdom, who was considered 
 and really was by far the most learned man amongst the sec- 
 taries, and who had acquired great authority by writing books 
 against the Catholics. Whilst he was disputing with the 
 archbishop it pleased God by a singular trial to test or rather 
 to manifest his constancy in the Catholic faith ; for when the 
 archbishop had objected many things against the faith 
 Francis’s wonted promptitude and readiness in defending the 
 orthodox faith suddenly deserted him, and the motives and 
 reasons which had influenced him seemed suddenly blotted 
 out from his mind, and he seemed to himself plunged 
 sudden mental darkness. In this anguish he raised his whole 
 mind to God, begging His assistance and direction, when sud- 
 denly his mental darkness vanished and he felt most clearly the 
 truth of the Catholic faith, and, falling on his knees, he 
 prayed aloud to God that the earth might open and swallovv 
 him up if ever he failed to profess the orthodox faith taught 
 by Christ and Flis Apostles. Rising, he turned to the arch- 
 bishop and asked if would do as much for his faith ; but he 
 hastily drew back, declaring Father Francis was not in his 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 383 
 
 right mind, and rashly proclaimed his confidence in his faith. 
 As many, even Catholics, blamed liini for his act, I asked him 
 why he had done so. He answered that he had done it in- 
 tentionally and calmly, especially to convince his father of 
 his firm resolution not to abandon the Catholic faith, and so 
 to free himself from the continual importunities and vexations 
 which hindered him from his spiritual exercises and private 
 meditations. He gained indeed his object by this heroic act, 
 but it produced at the moment very different effects, for the 
 Lord- Deputy and the archbishop were so irritated that he 
 was that very day thrown into prison.” 
 
 . Fathk' Francis himself alludes to these events in a letter 
 dated Dublin Castle, January 21st, 1635, to Father Thomas 
 Roberts,* S. J., English College, Rome, in the following 
 words : — 
 
 “ Reverend dear Father, — This is the thirdf letter I have 
 written to you since my coming into these parts. In mv 
 former I gave you an accompt of the conference which passed 
 betwixt my Lord-Deputy and myself at my landing. After, I 
 went into the country to my father, who received me with joy 
 and much love. But since the conversion of my dear and 
 hopeful brother he hath almost quite withdrawn his affection, 
 and procured my imprisonment in the Castle of Dublin. My 
 mother and one of my sisters are not far from the kingdom of 
 heaven, and there is little probability of gaining my father. 
 I am prest with longing desire to know how you will dispose 
 of me ; for if you say but ‘ Veni,’ by the grace of God nothing 
 but violence shall hold me. Dear father, pray for me, as I 
 do continually for you, as the greatest benefactor I have in 
 the world. I pray my humble respects to Mr. Sc3evola,J and 
 
 * Father Thomas Roberts’s real name was Joseph Gerrard. Father 
 F. Slingsby signs this letter, and also several others, Leiois Newman. 
 In other places he uses the name of Francis Perceus, or Perry. Priests 
 and Catholics at this time constantly wrote under feigned names, to 
 elude their enemies. 
 
 t The other two are lost. 
 
 ;|; I may here mention that Scaevola is the name always used for 
 Father Muzio Vitellcschi, general of the Jesuits. The name after 
 Southwell is difficult to decipher. 
 
384 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 my dearest love and respect to Mr. Fitzherbert, Mr. South- 
 well, Mr. Trandis, Mr. Milford, and Mr. Harvey.” 
 
 Tlie following letter describes his imprisonment : — 
 
 After he had been some days in prison, he was brought 
 up to be examined before two privy councillors, and a double 
 charge was made against him — 1. That he had spoken con- 
 tumeliously of the Protestant religion ; namely, that it came 
 out of the teachers of Henry VIII. 2. That he had en- 
 deavoured to bring others to the Catholic faith, which by law 
 was made treason. To the first he answered that he had 
 used those words but in jest, and privately to the husband of 
 his sister, who had jestingly spoken words of contumely 
 against the Pope, to whom he had answered by a jest common 
 in England. To the second he confessed that he had done his 
 best to bring others to that only way of salvation which he had 
 himself embraced. And when one of the councillors observed 
 that by the law that was the crime of high treason he an- 
 swered, ‘ If that be so, I cannot deny I have done it, nor 
 undo what I have done.’ He w^as then taken back to prison. 
 
 ‘‘ Such was his calmness of mind, his modesty, and his gen- 
 tleness whilst in prison that he won the affection even of the 
 heretics, and greatly consoled the Catholics who visited him 
 — and great numbers of Catholics flocked to visit him while 
 in prison. 
 
 These latter he edified, not only by his constancy in pro- 
 fessing the Catholic religion, and readiness to endure all 
 things for its sake, but also by his pious discourses, and he 
 thus moved many to a change of manner and a more holy life. 
 One person in particular I know who was moved by his words 
 and example to a total change of life. Whilst he remained in 
 prison he w'as challenged to a dispute on faith by another 
 heretical bishop, P. Bromwell, who was considered to excel in 
 talents and learning. The bishop chose for the subject of the 
 dispute the receiving of the Ploly Eucharist under one species, 
 for there is no controversy in which they think so easily to 
 obtain the victory as in this. One of the leading nien about 
 the Deputy’s court to]d me of the subject chosen for the dis- 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 385 
 
 pute, and invited me to be present (for I was not at that time 
 a Catholic) ; but wlien we both came to hear the argument 
 the bishop would not let us be. present, on which the noble- 
 man (who was also a heretic) by whom I was invited openly 
 said that it would seem as if the bishop were but little sure 
 of the faith he undertook to defend, when he would not allow 
 his co-religionists to be present. But in this dispute it hap- 
 pened very differently from the former one with the Primate, 
 for so clear a perception of Catholic truth was divinely vouch- 
 safed to him that he most easily answered every objection 
 of the bishop. How well he vindicated the Catholic religion 
 on this occasion may be gathered from this, that when I in- 
 quired from the only person who was present (who was a most 
 bitter opponent of the Catholic faith) what had been said, and 
 lamented that I had not been present, he said not a word of 
 anything which the bishop had urged, but endeavoured to 
 slur over the whole matter, which he surely would not have 
 done had he had the least chance of boasting. 
 
 “Father Francis, too, afterwards frankly told me that all 
 had turned out as he could wish, for that he not only per- 
 ceived most clearly interiorly that the bishop’s arguments 
 were unfounded, but there occurred to his mind abundance of 
 weighty arguments to demonstrate their falseness. When 
 they perceived that there was no chance of Francis returning 
 to their religion they determined at least to punish him by a 
 lengthened imprisonment .”— of Father Spreul. 
 
 “As soon as it was known in Rome that he was in prison 
 Cardinal Barberini exerted himself to the utmost to obtain 
 his liberty, and at last succeeded. He immediately wrote to 
 the Queen of England,'^ and to her sister, the Duchess of 
 Savoy, requesting the latter to use her influence with her 
 sister the Queen to obtain Francis’s liberty. At length he ob- 
 tained, by his entreaties, that tlie Queen of England caused 
 her confessor to write to Francis to say 'she would try to 
 obtain wbat was sought. Thus, as it is thought, it came to 
 
 * Henrietta Maria of France, 
 2 0 
 
38G 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 pass that, instead of being sentenced to exile, he was first 
 transferred to the house of the Earl of Castlehaven, a Catholic, 
 who had done much to obtain his freedom, there to be de- 
 tained in custody, and at length set h'QQ.'''-— Letter of another 
 Jesuit, name lost. 
 
 On the 12th of May, 1635, he was admitted to bail, to 
 remain in Lord Castlehaven’s house. On that day he wrote 
 to Father Roberts (Gerard), — 
 
 ‘‘ Hoping every day to get my liberty, I deferred from 
 time to time to write to you, being desirous to make the news 
 the subject of my letter. 
 
 “ The superior * here laboureth to procure my stay in 
 these parts, but, if you would know mine own affection or 
 inclination of flesh and blood in this point, I will confess 
 that I esteem Rome a paradise and this my purgatory ; but 
 yet, as well in this as in all other things, obedience shall be 
 the rule of my actions. My mother is well disposed to be 
 reconciled to my father, but he remains obstinate.’’ 
 
 The last sentence probably refers to his father’s indignation 
 at the conversion of his brother, and his mother’s tendencies 
 towards Catholicity (see letter of 21st January), 1635, but she 
 was not finally converted till later, as on the 8th May, 1636, he 
 writes to Father Roberts (Gerard), My two kinswomen 
 are not as yet entirely persuaded in judgment.” 
 
 After he had passed several months in the house of Lord 
 Castlehaven, being at length fully restored to freedom, he 
 proceeded to the castle of the dowager Countess of Kildare. 
 His confessor, Father William Malone, mentions that in 
 a short time after his return to Ireland he had converted his 
 mother, his younger brother, his sister, and several others;” 
 and adds, — 
 
 /‘His father was now advanced in years, and usually 
 dwelt in Dublin. Although he avoided as much as pos- 
 sible showing peculiar favour to his son, and would not 
 
 * The superior of the Jesuits in Ireland was Father Robert Nugent. 
 See the MS. “ Relatio Brevis,” &c., by Father Maurice Ward. 
 Written 1643. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 387 
 
 allow him to dwell in the same liouse with him, fearing lest 
 he should be supposed to be a Papist, he yet freely conversed 
 with him in private, and supplied him liberally with the 
 means of satisfying his common wants. His love for his 
 son sometimes went so far that Francis had great hopes his 
 father would renounce his heresy ; wherefore he most freely 
 rendered him every possible service. 
 
 By his father’s desire he attended the courts, and acted 
 for him in divers causes. These and other secular affairs, 
 although contrary to his natural inclinations, he undertook 
 cheerfully, always in the hope of ultimately gaining his father’s 
 soul ; and no doubt he would have succeeded had he remained 
 longer in the kingdom, but, on account of fresh complaints 
 which were made against him, and being again threatened 
 with imprisonment, he was compelled to suddenly embark on 
 board a ship for England, whence he wrote to his father most 
 humbly, and fully explaining the reasons of his departure.” 
 
 Father Spreul further describes his mode of life in the 
 interval between his liberation from constraint and his de- 
 parture from Ireland : — 
 
 “ He made a vei'y different use of his liberty from that 
 commonly made by youth ; for, having been prevented from 
 practising many of his spiritual exercises in prison, when set 
 free, like a flame which lay for a time compressed, bursts 
 forth, he edified the whole city by his fervour and his truly 
 angelic life. He took a lodging in Dublin, where he dwelt 
 very privately, having much intercourse with the Jesuit 
 fathers who then dwelt in that city.* He kept only one 
 servant, and led a life which might shame many in the cloister, 
 for no novice in the noviceship could be more exact in ob- 
 serving the distribution of bis time. For this purpose he 
 obtained from his father confessor, according to the custom 
 of the society (of Jesus), a plan of fixed times for rising, 
 praying, &c., which, through obedience, he observed exactly. 
 Every morning he devoted an hour to mental prayer, on his 
 bare knees ; then studied. During meals he listened to some 
 
 * They were all violently exiled in 1642. See that year. 
 
 2 c 2 
 
388 
 
 IMARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 pious book read by bis servant ; he examined his conscience 
 before dinner; lie had a fixed hour for recreation, during 
 which he entered into conversation with those of the family, 
 speaking of God, of the lives of the saints, and other pious 
 subjects ; and they all declared to me that they never were 
 so edified as by his conversation. When his hour for recrea- 
 tion was over he betook himself to his room, where he gave 
 some time to an examination of himself distinct from the two 
 others, and there pursued the studies he was ordered. His 
 body he afflicted with disciplines and frequent fasts. He 
 rarely left the house except on some business, and so eager 
 was he to employ his time well that he could not bear to be 
 a moment idle. According to the custom of the society, 
 he approached the sacraments of penance and the Blessed 
 Eucharist on every festival day, and so exactly conformed 
 the whole tenour of his life to the institutes of the society 
 that I venture to say that no one in any of our colleges was 
 more exact in observing the rule than he, although living as 
 his own master in the world. And he was assiduous in 
 reading the rules over and over again, that, like another 
 Berckmans, he always carried them about with him, and that 
 so secretly that, although continually amongst heretics, no 
 one ever saw them, for he carried tke rule sewed up in black 
 silk in the top of his hat, which was made of beaver. Although 
 Father Francis sought, by every means, to hide his admirable 
 mode of life, for he wore a dress of silk and fur as became 
 bis rank and the station of his parents, yet he could not 
 prevent the odour of his virtues being diffused abroad ; the 
 more so as there was none, not only amongst the heretics, but 
 even amongst the Catholics, who led such a life, and the 
 praise of his virtues became a common subject of conversa- 
 tion. As it is the custom in our country for the sons of 
 nobles, and especially their heirs, to live in great splendour, 
 keeping many horses, devoting themselves to hunting and 
 such other sports, when they saw a youth of noble birth, in 
 the flower of his age, and brought up whilst a heretic in the 
 midst of luxury, laying aside all these pleasures, although in 
 themselves lawful, and cheerfully embracing a life altogether 
 
IN THE REIGN OE CHARLES I. 
 
 389 
 
 contrary to the ideas of the world, and that in tlie metropolis 
 of tlie kingdom, where many of his relations and friends dwelt 
 in the Lord- Deputy’s court, not only the Catholics, who 
 were very numerous in that city, but also the heretics, gave 
 the greatest praise to Father Francis, and called him a saint ; 
 and of this I am an eye-witness. It was by a singular pro- 
 vidence of God that so public a theatre was assigned to him ; 
 for many Catholics, by the example of his life, were con- 
 firmed in the Catholic faith, and others recalled to virtue. 
 Many heretics, too, were converted l)y his means, amongst 
 whom was myself, who write this, although unwortliy of such 
 a blessing. For I can sincerely declare that, though I 
 laboured much in examining into the truth, I found no 
 motive so efficacious in inducino; me to embrace the Catholic 
 faith as the sanctity of life I perceived in Father Francis. And, 
 amongst many others converted by him to the faith, his 
 younger brother, a youth of much promise, ingenuously con- 
 fessed to me that his chiefest motive for abjuring his heresy 
 was the religious regularity in prayer, sacred reading, and 
 examination of conscience which he saw in Father Francis. 
 Nor did he make converts only by this holiness of life, for 
 he confuted the heretics by most weighty reasons, and showed 
 great talent in all controversies of faith. 
 
 Although he desired to go into public as little as possible, 
 and only to serve God in the aforementioned exercises, yet 
 when there was the least chance of saving souls he most readily 
 deferred or abandoned any of his own business, nor did he 
 ever show any labour or trouble in this work, serving equally 
 freely the rich and the poor. Fie converted in Dublin a 
 whole family to the faith — husband, wife, and children ; he 
 also converted his own mother, brother, sister,'^ and many 
 others, to the number of not less than twenty, whilst he 
 remained in Ireland, which is no small number if we consider 
 the time and the difficulty of converting heretics.” 
 
 It appears that it was in November, 1635, that he was 
 entirely set at liberty, for in a letter dated November 24th of 
 
 It appears by a letter from Father Malone that one died in 1G35. 
 
390 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 that year he says, “lately released from prison, after a full 
 year.” His sisters were not converted until 1636, for on the 
 8th of May he writes to Father Roberts, “ My two kinswomen 
 are not as yet entirely persuaded in judgment.” 
 
 The immediate cause of Francis’s hasty departure from 
 Ireland in 1636 w^as, as we have seen, the imminent danger of 
 being again thrown into prison for having caused the con- 
 version of his sister but he had long meditated proceeding 
 to Rome to fulfil his original intention of becoming a Jesuit. 
 He thought, however, that it might be desirable for him to 
 remain some time longer in Ireland in order to conciliate his 
 father, and so escape being totally disinherited; and Father 
 Robert Nugent, the superior of the Jesuits in Ireland, was 
 anxious to retain him, on account of the good he was doing. 
 The latter wrote from Ireland to Father Thompson in Rome 
 on the 1st of March, 1636, offering to allow Mr. Slingsby to 
 return to Rome, but recommending that he should be left to 
 settle his father’s affairs. The general, however. Father 
 IMutius Vitelleschi, anxious only for the spiritual advance of 
 his intended future son in religion, wrote for him to neglect 
 all worldly considerations, and come at once to Rome. Whilst, 
 however, this correspondence was going on, Francis was 
 obliged to fly to England, and thence to France. This is 
 narrated as follows by Father Spreul : — “ I should here 
 mention an heroic act 'of Father Francis, when, leaving his 
 country, his friends, and all that was dear to him in this 
 world, he went to England. He had left Ireland without the 
 knowledge of his father, who would have had recourse to the 
 authority of the Viceroy, and was therefore destitute of means 
 for so long and arduous a journey. This he rejoiced at, from 
 the great desire he had to abandon the world. He bought for 
 himself in London a poor and simple dress, with the intention 
 of proceeding to Rome on foot, and, if all other means failed, 
 begging his way ; and this no doubt he would have done 
 with as great fervour as the blessed Stanislaus, had it not 
 
 ^ “ He fled from the persecution raised against him by his relations 
 on account of the conversion of his sister.” — 'Father 8prcul. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 391 
 
 been otherwise decided by a particular providence of God. 
 Just as he was about to start, there arrived from Ireland 
 a young nobleman whose virtue was well known to him, Lord 
 Castlehaven, who proposed visiting foreign parts, as is the 
 custom, IVIeeting Father Francis, whom he had known in 
 Dublin, he never ceased importuning him until he agreed to 
 accompany him, to his great profit, for the pious conversation 
 and virtuous example of Francis produced a great impression 
 on him. Nothing more clearly shows how gently, but 
 efficaciously, he inclined the minds of others to virtue than the 
 conduct of this young nobleman whilst travelling with Francis ; 
 for it is commonly said those who travel rarely advance in 
 virtue, and most gentlemen whilst travelling attend to any- 
 thing rather than virtue. After they had examined such 
 objects of interest as were to be seen, they gave the rest 
 of their time to the study of mathematics, in which he acted as 
 teacher to the young count. Every week they approached the 
 sacrament of penance, and never omitted to receive the Blessed 
 Eucharist on Sundays and feast-days, and daily to devote 
 some time to pious reading. This conduct was the more 
 admirable, as the earl had attained to man’s estate. He 
 remained in France with the earl a considerable time,* when, 
 on receiving a letter from the father-general, Mutius Vitel- 
 leschi, he prepared to proceed to Rome, although the earl 
 sought by a means to detain him, so that, not to offend 
 one who had so obliged him. Father Francis explained to him 
 his resolution of embracino; a religious life. The earl was 
 grieved at this beyond expression, not only because he lost his 
 friend’s society, but because he had intended him to marry his 
 sister, a young lad}^ of rare beauty and virtue, and who had a 
 large dowry.” 
 
 The letter from the general above alluded to is probably 
 the following, from Father Thomas Roberts {vere Jos. Gerard), 
 from Rome, dated 16th of May, 1637, written by order of the 
 general to Slingsby : — 
 
 “ He (‘ Scsevola,’ that is the general) read both yours and 
 
 * “ Fcrc biennium.” But this is a mistake, as the reader will sec< 
 
39.2 
 
 martVh.s and confessors 
 
 j\Ir. Nugent's with great attention; and having well con- 
 sidered both the parts of your cause, and pondered also the 
 weight of all the reasons alleged by Mr. Nugent for that part 
 which he desired might take place, yet Scasvola persevered in 
 his former opinion, and made choice of your speedy coming 
 hither as the certain means of your much greater good, which 
 (as he saith and ever hath said when we have talked of that 
 matter) is most to be respected and much to be preferred 
 before the temporal means which by your stay there and loss 
 unto yourself (which would certainly follow of it) you might 
 gain. But Scsevola is and will be much better pleased with 
 my friend alone, and with the internal riches which he will 
 bring with him, and which cannot be taken from him, and 
 which will be much the greater by this act of renunciation 
 than if with his measure of interior goods he brought with 
 him a much greater proportion of exterior riches. Therefore 
 it is his absolute desire that his Joseph do break away from 
 the world, thougli he leave his cloak behind him.*’ 
 
 This was followed by a letter from the general himself, 
 dated Home, 23rd of May, 1637, as follows : — 
 
 “ Although I doubt not you have gathered, both from wliat J 
 wrote to you in the month of October last year and from what 1 
 wrote to Father Nugent in March last, wliat I think of further 
 delay and putting off of your journey, and that I desire 
 nothing more than that you should proceed to Rome as soon 
 as possible, nevertheless, because, perchance, you may think 
 that I have been moved by the reasons you and Father 
 Nugent have written to me and Father Thompson, and 
 changed my opinions, I write these few lines (for Father 
 Thompson will write more at length by my wish and desire) 
 to say that I by no means approve what you have written as 
 to deferring, and, as I understand it, altogether abandoning 
 your journey ; and that I do not consider those reasons to be 
 of sufficient weight, but that rather, casting aside all those 
 impediments, you should fly hither to take up the crosf> of 
 Christ, and, leaving your father's house, and all human 
 relations, give yourself wholly to your Creator. 
 
 “ Having weighed the whole matter in God, I am altogether 
 
IN THE KEiGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 393 
 
 confident this course will redound to the greater glory of God, 
 and your own salvation. 
 
 “ Our sweet Jesus, who hath cast on you the chains of His 
 love, yet draws you oh, and will benignly perfect the work 
 which His infinite mercy hath commenced in you.” 
 
 After Father Spreufs conversion in Ireland, by the advice 
 of Francis, he had gone through a course of the spiritual 
 exercises of S. Ignatius, under the direction of Father 
 Malone ; and he then determined to enter into religion, and 
 become a Jesuit. They then agreed to meet in France, 
 and proceed to Rome together; but Spreul fell very ill, 
 and his friend Francis returned to Ireland, and tended him 
 in his illness. 
 
 The general Vitelleschi alludes to this in a letter dated 
 Rome, 12th December, 1637, in which he says he (Francis) 
 had been recalled to Ireland from the midst of his journey, 
 and hopes he would soon come to Rome. As soon as Spreul 
 was sufficiently recovered to bear the fatigue of the journey 
 they started for Rome, setting out on the 20th November, 
 1638. They made the journey chiefly on horseback, and 
 Slingsby carried a great number of books with him on a 
 sumpter horse. His companion mentions that Francis always 
 took the worst horse and dinner and bed, saying that the 
 other’s recent illness required the most care. It would 
 appear that his brother Henry accompanied him this time 
 to France, from the following passage in one of Father 
 Spreul’s letters : — 
 
 “ When his brother Henry, whom he had converted to the 
 Catholic faith, and who by his example attained to a high 
 degree of Christian perfection, whilst being in the world, was 
 about to return to Ireland from France, a few days before 
 his departure the brothers began to discuss, in a friendly 
 way, the subject of the surrender of his inheritance by Francis 
 to his younger brother. The younger, having no vocation 
 to a religious life, pointed out that it would be well for one 
 of them to remain in the world, and continue the family name 
 (for they were the only two sons), and afford some protection 
 to the poor and oppressed Catholics, and he urged for this 
 
394 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 purpose he would need the paternal inheritance. Francis 
 would rather that they both devoted themselves to God in 
 religion_, and gave all their means, after their father^s death, 
 to found a college in Belgium for the education of youth in 
 the Catholic religion, who, returning to their own country, 
 would there preserve the faith, and be the noblest posterity 
 of the founders. He agreed, however, to surrender all his 
 inheritance to his brother on condition that the latter should 
 pay four hundred gold crowns annually for a seminary in 
 Belgium for educating Irish youth.’^* 
 
 His companion relates the following instance of his extreme 
 love of truth : — 
 
 ^‘^On our journey to Rome, as we passed Savona, some 
 soldiei’s and other citizens of that place embarked in the ship 
 ill which we were proceeding to Genoa. When we arrived 
 at the latter place we were forbidden to disembark until it 
 sliould be ascertained whether we had passed through Nice, 
 where it was said (although untruly) that the plague was 
 making great ravages. Those who had come from Savona, 
 fearing lest if the truth were told we should all be kept in 
 the ship, as it were prison, for a fortnight in the port, came 
 to Slingsby, who spoke Italian, and all urged that it was 
 necessary to dissemble, and by no means to admit that we 
 had put in there. When he answered that he would not lie, 
 they abused and threatened him, hinting broadly that we 
 should suffer if by us they were so inconvenienced. But he 
 answered unmoved that he would rather endure everything 
 than offend his God in the least thing; then, turning to 
 me, he said that we should commit the whole affair to God, 
 through the intercession of S. Catherine of Genoa, whose 
 body we intended to visit. We had hardly ended our prayer, 
 wlien leave arrived from the magistrate for us all to land 
 without any such previous examination as was at first pre- 
 tended. 
 
 AVhen we were about to sail from Genoa to Leghorn 
 a certain religious of the Order of S. Francis wished to 
 
 * See letter of Francis, and his brother later* 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES 1. 
 
 395 
 
 come, but had not money to pay the captain; but Francis 
 charitably paid for him/’ 
 
 The two friends arrived in Rome, apparently, on the first 
 day of 1639. On his arrival in Rome, his friend and pro- 
 tector, Cardinal Barberini, offered Francis a place in his 
 house, but he requested to be allowed to enter a college, 
 “ proposing to the father-general that he should enter the 
 Irish College, but in this, as in all things, submitting himself 
 to the will of the general.” — (Letter of his confessor, Father 
 jMalone, who also accompanied him to Rome.) It was 
 decided, however, that he was to enter the English College, 
 of which the cardinal was the protector. The cardinal pro- 
 posed that he should have a separate room and a servant, and 
 that he, as protector of the college, would give him a dispen- 
 sation to have them. But the modest youth refused, and 
 begged the father-rector not to give him any indulgence 
 above the others in food or dress. In college he was a most 
 diligent observer of the rules, and never omitted to ask leave 
 of the prefect or vice-prefect when he left his room (although 
 others did not do so), because such was the ancient rule. 
 It would appear from the document already referred to that 
 he entered the English College about the middle of February, 
 1639, and there studied philosophy (and we may presume 
 theology also) for two years. 
 
 He was no sooner settled in Rome than he reverted to his 
 intention of resigning his inheritance to his younger brother, 
 and obtaining funds for a college in Belgium. How this was 
 arranged the two following letters will explain : the first is 
 from Father Francis to his brother, and is dated Rome, 24th 
 April, 1639 : — 
 
 “ My most deare Brother, — 
 
 “ I doe hereby renounce myne inheritance, and doe yield 
 unto you, my most deare brother, all ye rights that God hath 
 given me unto my father and mothers estate, and doe utterly 
 disenable myself of pretending anything thereunto, that those 
 conditions be observed.” 
 
3D6 
 
 IMARTVJfS AxND CONFESSORS 
 
 He retained a portion of land value <£100 a year to endow 
 a college. 
 
 His brother answered from ‘‘ Kilkenny, this S. Joseph’s 
 (I9th March), 1640. When I become master of my father’s 
 estate I will bestow £100 a year of it in erecting an Irish 
 seminary; nay, more, if God shall call you away before it 
 shall come to my hands, I bind myself to make it good to the 
 society for that intent. I now, with like willingness, binde 
 myself to give you £25 per annum for yourself, to be paid to 
 you wherever you shall demande it. — H. Slingsey.” 
 
 About this same date he wrote the following letter to his 
 father ; it is a copy in his own hand, but not dated : — 
 
 “Most honoured and dear Father,— 
 
 “ Being now, by the assistance of my good God, arrived at 
 the place where He showed so great mercy unto me as to make 
 me a member of the Holy Catholic Church, which of all places 
 ought to be most dear unto me, and best deserves the name of 
 my country, wherein I was born unto Clirist, I am resolved 
 here to spend some years in the service of God, and prose- 
 cution of my studies. And since, the considering your age, 
 my intended stay in these parts, and the dangers in so long a 
 voyage when I return, it is most possible I shall never see you 
 more, the love and duty I owe you induce me now to bid 
 you farewell. And first of all I most humbly crave your 
 pardon, if at any time, in the heat of discourse about matters 
 of religion, I have forgot the duty I owe unto a father by 
 being more earnest and vehement than modesty allows. Yet 
 have I this consolation, that my intentions were pure, and that 
 I sought you and not yours, for He that shall be my J udge 
 is also my witness that if I had in my possession all your 
 estate, wherein God and nature give me a right, I would 
 most willingly leave both it and my own life too, so that your 
 soul, so dear unto me, might enjoy the happiness for which it 
 was created. My dear father, it is not in your power to 
 hinder my love; all the persecutions you can raise against me, 
 all the afflictions and wants you can make me suffer, nay, 
 
IX THE REICN OF CHARLES I. 397 
 
 your refusing to love me (whicli to me is more than all the 
 rest), are not able to blot out my love towards you. For 
 when I consider how good a father you ever have been, how 
 careful of my education, how tender in your affection, how 
 liberal towards me for my expenses, these former benefits do 
 prevail ; and if I put them in the balance with your latter 
 unkindnesses, yet in my own judgment they weigh down to 
 the ground, especially since the troubles you make me un- 
 dergo proceed not originally from any evil will, but from a 
 deceived judgment. Now that you may see how good a 
 INIaster I serve, I will declare unto you how the prudence of 
 God hath so disposed things that I was never brought to 
 extreme necessity, though I was indeed constrained to sell 
 some clothes and books; for, first, I had when I was first in 
 Rome lent unto an English gentleman eighty pounds sterling, 
 which I could never get paid till my last being in England, 
 so that it seemed God had laid it up in store till I should 
 stand in need thereof ; for our diet, we had it for the most part 
 gratis at my Lord Falkland’s. When I came into France, 
 my Lord of Castlehaven maintained me in all things gratis for 
 the space of a year, wherein he made no difference betwixt 
 himself and me, desiring me to use his purse as my own ; and 
 when I came away into Italy, leaving him in France, he lent 
 me fifty pounds for my expenses by the way, which only I 
 desire you to repay. When I came into Italy, Cardinal Bar- 
 berini, hearing thereof, had given orders, before my arrival at 
 Rome, that lodgings should be provided for me in his palace, 
 but when I came to kiss his hands I told his Eminence that, 
 if it pleased him, I would rather follow my studies in the 
 English College, which he willingly assented unto, giving 
 present order for my maintenance, and offered me the privi- 
 lege of keeping a servant, which I refused. Thus I may truly 
 say, ‘ Pater mens et amici mei dereliquerunt me, sed Dominus 
 suscepit me.’ His goodness hath a care of me, and suffers 
 nothing to be wanting unto me ; one thing alone I except, 
 that we two are not one. Yet whilst I have a tongue to speak 
 I will never cease to beg and say, ‘ liOrd, if Thou wilt Thou 
 canst grant me wliat my soul so much thirstcth after,’ O rny 
 
398 
 
 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS 
 
 father, give me a blessing ; you know what my heart would 
 say. Sapienti paiica. My brother hath refused certain main- 
 tenance here that hath been offered him by the cardinal, out 
 of the desire he hath to return to you, and chooseth rather to 
 hazard the suffering of want in your presence than to want 
 nothing being absent from you. Receive him, therefore, I 
 most humbly beseech you ; despise not your own bowels, since 
 in all things (yourself being judge), except in matters of 
 religion, he hath been a dutiful and loving son unto you. And 
 as you tender the favour of Him of whose favour we shall one 
 day stand so much in need, reject not my mother, since He 
 commands you to receive her, and assures you by His own 
 mouth that unless you forgive you cannot be forgiven.” 
 
 The rest of his brief career may be given in the words of 
 another Jesuit father : — 
 
 During the space of nearly two years that he studied 
 philosophy in the English College he was an example of all 
 virtues to the other alumni. He was ordered for his health’s 
 sake during the summer of the year 1640 and 1641 to Tibur,and 
 stopped in a certain villa at Tusculum, amongst our students, 
 where he always conducted himself as one of them, and 
 showed an example of humility by always washing and 
 cleaning the plates in the kitchen. At the end of winter he 
 was desired to prepare himself to receive holy orders, and thus 
 fit himself for entering into religion, which he had sighed 
 after as another promised land for more than seven years. 
 This he did with great fervour, and on the day of 
 
 July, 1641, he was made priest, and ever recited the divine 
 office and said Mass with the greatest attention and reverence. 
 He chose the feast of the blessed Francis Borgia for his 
 entrance into the noviciate ; and on the eve — that is, on the 
 SOtb September, 1641 — he was accompanied, as is the custom, 
 by the alumni of his college to the novitiate of S. Andrea on 
 the Quirinal, and there took on his body the religious habit 
 which he had long worn in his heart.” 
 
 He died at Naples, but when, 1 have not been able to dis- 
 cover ; probably before he had completed his noviceship. 
 
IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 
 
 399 
 
 Father Spreul say, ‘‘It chanced that I was the first to 
 bring the bitter tidings of his death, struck by an unforeseen 
 chance, to the master of novices. Father Oliva. He was 
 struck with grief, and said that there was one dead from 
 whom he had learned more of virtue than he had ever taught. 
 He called together all his fellow-novices into the school, and, 
 having spoken of the shortness and uncertainty of life, he told 
 them of the death of Father Francis, and desired them to say 
 the rosaries said in the society for a deceased brother, not 
 that he might be freed from the flames of purgatory, for he 
 did not think he needed these suffrages, but to return thanks 
 to God that He had vouchsafed them so excellent an example 
 of holiness and exact observance of the rule. Fie exhorted 
 them all to keep such an example of virtue ever before their 
 eyes ; that they could all bear witness, as he could, that 
 Father Francis had been so perfect in religious observance 
 that he ventured to say he had never broken even the least of 
 the rules.” 
 

 
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ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF MEMOEIALS. 
 
 The figures after the name give the year in which the life 
 will he found. 
 
 YEAR 
 
 Archer, Walter 1604 
 
 Athy, Rev. — 1649 
 
 Barnewall, Rev. John ... 1737 
 Barnewall, Dame Margery 1583 
 Barnewall, Revs. Edmund 
 
 and George 1655 
 
 Barry, Rev. Richard 1647 
 
 Barry, Rev. — 1651 
 
 Bagot, Rev. Gerald 1651 
 
 Bathe, Rev. John 1649 
 
 Birmingham, Dame Eleanor 1584 
 Birmingham, Rev. Thomas 1655 
 
 Begs, Rev. Roger 1654 
 
 Black, Rev. Dominick, or 
 
 Donatus 1650 
 
 Blake, Rev. Nicholas 1706 
 
 Boyton, Rev. William 1647 
 
 Brady, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Richard 1601 
 
 Brien, Rev. — 1651 
 
 Broder (or O’Broder), Rev. 
 
 Antony 1651 
 
 Bruodin, Rev. Dermitius ... 1617 
 Burke,* Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop John 1655 
 
 Burke, Rev. Thomas 1657 
 
 Browne, Patrick 1617 
 
 Cana, Rev. Edmund 1647 
 
 YEAR 
 
 Cana van. Rev. Patrick 1581 
 
 Coghlin, Rev. Oge 1613 
 
 Caghwell, Rev. Henry 1642 
 
 Carighy, Rev. Thaddeeus ... 1651 
 
 Carolan, Rev. John 1654 
 
 Carighy, Rev. Hugh 1652 
 
 Cheevers, Rev. Edward ... 1581 
 
 Clancy, Rev. John 1642 
 
 Clanchy, Rev. Daniel 1651 
 
 Cluaine, Rev. Philip 1613 
 
 Cluinne, Rev. MacGhiolla... 1657 
 
 Collins, Rev. Dominick 1602 
 
 Costello, Rev. Peter 1645 
 
 Costello, Rev. Peter 1649 
 
 Collins, Rev. John 1651 
 
 Connery, Daniel 1652 
 
 Connery, Rev. Daniel 1657 
 
 Conry, Rev. Hilary 1651 
 
 Corny, Rev. Brien 1657 
 
 Commin, Rev. Roger 1657 
 
 Conry, Rev. McLeighlin ... 1657 
 
 Comins, Rev. Bernard 1657 
 
 Connor, Rev. Bernard 1654 
 
 Cornelius, Brother 1617 
 
 Courcy, Rev. Thomas 1577 
 
 Creagh, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Richard 1585 
 
 Creagh, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Peter 1681 
 
 Creidegain, Rev. Daniel ... 1655 
 
 * For Burkes see also De Burgo. 
 2 D 
 
402 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 YEAR 
 
 Crossan, Rev. Charles 1613 
 
 Cregan, Rev. Daniel 1655 
 
 Crone, Rev. Eugene 1580 
 
 Cushin, Rev. Paul 1656 
 
 Davock, Rev. Gerald ... 1657 
 
 Daly, Rev. Thaddaeus 1576 
 
 Dant, Rev. Bonaventure ... 1657 
 
 Daly, Rev. Eugene 1643 
 
 De Burgo, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop John 1655 
 
 De Burgo, Right Rev. John 1674 
 
 De Burgo, Sir John 1610 
 
 De Burgo, Rev. Edmund ... 1632 
 De Burgo, Lady Honoria ... 1653 
 De Burgo, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Dominick 1680 
 
 De Burgo, Rev. Bonaventure 1652 
 
 Delamar, Rev. Edward 1657 
 
 Deir, Rev. Thomas 1651 
 
 Dillon, Rev. John 1657 
 
 Dillon, Rev. Dominick 1649 
 
 Dillon, Rev. Vincent Gerald 1651 
 Donnelly, Rev. Edmund ... 1580 
 
 Dillon, Rev. Gerald 1645 
 
 Donald, Rev. Thaddeus 1580 
 
 Donatus (or Donagh), Rev. 
 
 William 1617 
 
 Donatus, Rev. Edmund 1580 
 
 Donnellan, Rev. Roger 1582 
 
 Dogherty, Rev. Cornelius... 1588 
 Donlevin or Ultan, Rev. 
 
 Christopher 1644 
 
 Donovan, Rev. Timothy ... 1657 
 
 Duin, Rev. Edmund 1657 
 
 Dowdall James (two of the 
 name) 1617 
 
 Egan, Rev. Cormac 1642 
 
 Egan, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Boetius 1650 
 
 English, Rev. Nicholas 1744 
 
 Eustace, Rev. Maurice 1588 
 
 year 
 
 Fallon, Rev. James 1652 
 
 Farrell, Rev. William 1657 
 
 Ferrall, Rev. Walfrid 1588 
 
 Fahy, Rev. Edmund 1657 
 
 Fernan, Rev. Walter 1597 
 
 Finaghty, Rev. James 1657 
 
 Fitzgibbon, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop (or Gibbon) 1578 
 
 Fitzsimons, Rev. Michael... 1592 
 Fitzsimons, Rev. William 1655 
 Fitzpatrick, Lady Bridget . 1652 
 Fitzpatrick, Rev. Bernard 1651 
 Fitzsymons, Rev. Turlogh... 1658 
 
 Fleming, Rev. Walter 1701 
 
 Flaverty, Rev. John 1656 
 
 Fleming, Rev. — 1698 
 
 Forstall, Right Rev. Bishop 1679 
 
 Fox, Rev. David 1648 
 
 French, Rev. Richard 1581 
 
 French, Rev. Gregory 1706 
 
 Fullam, Rev. John 1705 
 
 Furlong, Rev. Peter 1706 
 
 Gauran (or Macgauran), 
 
 Most Rev. Archbishop 1593 
 
 Gavan, Rev. Terlagh 1657 
 
 Geoghegan, Rev. Arthur ... 1633 
 Geraldine, Rev. Gerald...... 1648 
 
 Geraldine, Rev. Thomas ... 1617 
 Geraldine, Rev. William ... 1651. 
 
 Geraldine, Rev. John 1651 
 
 Geraldine, Rev. John 1744 
 
 Geoghegan, Rev. Anthony 1657 
 
 Gelosse, Rev. Stephen 1650 
 
 Gibbon (orFitzgibbon), Most 
 
 Rev. Archbishop 1578 
 
 Gibbon, Rev. Gerald 1691 
 
 Goran, Rev. Charles 1582 
 
 Graves, Rev. John 1610 
 
 Gragan, Rev. Bernard 1613 
 
 Gragan, Rev. John 1613 
 
 Grady, Rev. Thomas 1657 
 
 Hanly, Rev. John 1580 
 
INDEX. 
 
 403 
 
 YEAR 
 
 Hayes, Rev. Patrick 1581 
 
 Hagerty, Rev. Donald 1657 
 
 Hegerty, Rev. Patrick 1647 
 
 Hely, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Patrick 1578 
 
 Helan, Rev. Francis 1610 
 
 Heinrechan, Rev. Donatus 1582 
 
 Henessy, Rev. William 1657 
 
 Higgins, Rev. Peter 1641 
 
 Hore, Rev. Edmund 1642 
 
 Horgan, Rev. Denis 1657 
 
 Horan, Rev. Francis 1657 
 
 Humbert, Rev. Patrick 1539 
 
 Hurly,* Rev. Connor.... 1657 
 
 Jordan, Rev. Fulgentius 1651 
 
 Kelly, Rev. John 1657 
 
 Kelly, Rev. Dominick 1744 
 
 Keilly, Rev. Connor 1657 
 
 Keogh, Rev. Raymond 1640 
 
 Keogh, Brother Raymond.. . 1642 
 Keoghy, Rev. Raymond ... 1642 
 
 Kennan, Rev. Patrick 1582 
 
 Kerolan, Rev. Bernard 1605 
 
 Kirwan, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Francis 1652 
 
 Kilkenny, Rev. Bryan 1654 
 
 Kinrechtin, Rev. Maurice... 1585 
 Kinrehan, Rev. Maurice ... 1580 
 Knoles, Rev. Anthony 1714 
 
 Lacy, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Hugh 1580 
 
 Lalor, Rev. Robert 1607 
 
 Latin, Rev. James 1642 
 
 Layhode, Rev. Henry 1582 
 
 Lamport, Rev. Matthew ... 1581 
 
 Lee, Rev. — 1651 
 
 Leverous, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Thomas 1577 
 
 Locheran, Rev. Patrick ... 1612 
 
 YEAR 
 
 Locheran, Rev. Nielan 1652 
 
 Lune, Rev. John 1610 
 
 Lynch, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop James 1671 
 
 Lynch, Rev. James 1649 
 
 Lynch, Rev. William 1651 
 
 Lynze, Rev. Dominick 1680 
 
 Lynch, Rev. Michael 1744 
 
 Macanaspie, Rev. Te- 
 rence 1613 
 
 MacCongail, Rev. Roger ... 1565 
 
 MacCuil, Rev. Charles 1652 
 
 MacCarthy, Rev. Conor ... 1565 
 
 MacDonel, Rev. Daniel 1698 
 
 MacEgan, Rev. Eugene 1602 
 
 MacEgan, Rev. Dominick 1713 
 MacGeoghegan, Rev. Arthur 1633 
 MacGrollen, Rev. James ... 1613 
 
 MacGoilly, Rev. Hugh 1654 
 
 MacGhiolla Cluinne, Rev. 
 
 Bernard 1657 
 
 McGeown, Rev. Hugh 1658 
 
 McKernan, Rev. Thomas... 1658 
 
 Mackeon, Rev. Hugh 1651 
 
 Macnamara, Rev. Roger ... 1651 
 MacSorley, Sir Alexander... 1615 
 MacGauran, Most Rev. 
 
 Archbishop Edward 1598 
 
 Magrath, Rev. Miler 1650 
 
 Magennis, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Arthur ... 1651 
 
 Magaen, Honoria 1653 
 
 Maglainn, Rev. John 1706 
 
 Maguire, Rev. Antony 1718 • 
 
 Manus, O’Fidy 1613 
 
 Mannin, Rev. Timothy 1657 
 
 Matthews, Rev. Francis ... 1644 
 
 Maurice Rev 1589 
 
 Mede, William 1614 
 
 Meyler, Rev. Robert 1581 
 
 Meyler, Peter 1588 
 
 * See also O’Hurley. 
 
404 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 YEAR 
 
 Miller, Rev. Peter 1588 
 
 Mollony, Daniel 1652 
 
 Moran, Rev. James 1650 
 
 Moriarty, Rev. Bernard ... 1601 
 Moriarty, Rev. Thaddaeus... 1653 
 
 Moore, Rev. Rayinund 1665 
 
 Morrogh, Rev. John 1702 
 
 Moore, Rev. Laurence 1580 
 
 M orison. Rev. M 1653 
 
 Mulcahy, Rev. Nicholas ... 1650 
 Mulroney, Rev. Dermod ... 1570 
 
 Neagren, Rev. Dominick 1646 
 
 Nelan, Rev. Denis 1651 
 
 Nerihing, Rev. Jereinias ... 1651 
 Netterville, Rev. Robert ... 1649 
 Netterville, Rev. Christopher 1654 
 
 Nolan, Rev. Thomas 1744 
 
 Nugent, Rev. Richard 1649 
 
 Nugent, Rev. Nicholas 1656 
 
 O’Boyle, Rev. Nigel 1607 
 
 O’Boyle, Rev. Glaby 1589 
 
 O’Brien, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Terence Albert 1651 
 
 O’Brien, Rev. Donatus 1651 
 
 O’Brien, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Murtagh 1585 
 
 O’Brien, Rev. Cornelius ... 1642 
 
 O’Bern, Rev. Edmund 1652 
 
 O’Coyn, Rev. Matthew 1599 
 
 O’Connel, Rev. Thaddseus 1645 
 
 O’Conor, Rev. William 1651 
 
 O’Conor, Rev. Cornelius ... 1643 
 
 O’Conor, Rev. Patrick 1585 
 
 O’Cuillin, Rev. John 1652 
 
 O’Cahill, Rev. Thaddseus ... 1651 
 O’Colgan, Rev. Clement ... 1704 
 O’Cahill, Rev. .^neas Am- 
 brose 1651 
 
 O’CuifFe, Rev. Arthur 1650 
 
 O’Clary, Rev. Michael 1651 
 
 O’Caholy (or O’Cahosi) ... 1651 
 O’Charnel, Rev. Bernard ... 1606 
 
 YEAR 
 
 O’Cahan, Rev. Eugene 1652 
 
 O’Dunne, Rev. Thaddseus... 1608 
 O’Dovany, Right Rev, 
 
 Bishop Cornelius 1612 
 
 O’Duillian, Rev. Daniel ... 1569 
 
 O’Dowd, Rev. — 1577 
 
 O’Dyry, Rev. Patrick 1618 
 
 O’Ferrall, Rev. Laurence... 1651 
 O’Ferrall, Rev. Christopher 1664 
 O’Ferrall, Rev. Laurence... 1708 
 O’Ferrall, Rev. Bernard ... 1651 
 O’Ferrall, Rev. Antony ... 1652 
 
 O’ Flaherty, Rev. John 1645 
 
 O’Feus, Rev. Philip 1582 
 
 O’Faelain (or Fullam) Rev. 
 
 James 1698 
 
 O’Gallagher, Right Rev. 
 
 Bishop Redmond 1604 
 
 O’Galleher, Rev. Eugene ... 1606 
 O’Gabhun, Rev. Cormac ... 1613 
 O’ Go wan, Rev. Turlogh ... 1658 
 
 O’ Hanlon, Rev. Roger 1582 
 
 O’Higgins, Very Rev. Peter 1641 
 O’Higgins, Rev. Thomas ... 1651 
 O’Herlaghy, Right Rev. 
 
 Bishop Thomas 1579 
 
 O’Hurley, Most Rev. Arch* 
 
 bishop Dermod 1584 
 
 O’Hara, Rev. Felix 1582 
 
 O’Hara, Rev. Phelim 1578 
 
 O’Hely, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Patrick 1578 
 
 O’Hart, Rev. John 1664 
 
 O’Hanrichan, Rev. Daniel... 1580 
 
 O’Honan, Rev. John 1618 
 
 O’Kahan, Sirs Roderick 
 
 and Godfrey 1615 
 
 O’Kienan, Conor 1615 
 
 O’Kleryn, Rev, Michael ... 1651 
 
 O’Kelly, Rev. John 1601 
 
 O’Kelly, Rev. Malachy 1585 
 
 O’Kelly, Rev. Bernard 1653 
 
 O’Kenedy, Rev. Donatus ... 1651 
 Oluin, Rev. William 1607 
 
INDEX. 
 
 405 
 
 YEAR 
 
 Oluin, Rev. Donatus 1608 
 
 Olabertag, Rev. Lewis 1615 
 
 Qluin (or O’Laighin), Rev. 
 
 John 1646 
 
 O’Laighlin, Rev. John 1657 
 
 O’Lochan, Rev. John 1578 
 
 Omurry, Rev. Patrick 1615 
 
 O’Mannin, Rev. John 1637 
 
 O’Melkeran, Rev. Hugh ... 1580 
 O’Mollony, Right Rev. 
 
 Bishop Malachy 1601 
 
 O’Mollony, Donatus 1601 
 
 O’Mahony, Rev. Francis ... 1642 
 O’Maly, Rev. Roinandus ... 1651 
 O’Meran, Rev. Thaddseus... 1582 
 
 O’Molloy, Rev. John 1588 
 
 O’Neill, Sirs Bernard and 
 
 Arthur 1615 
 
 O’Nielan, Rev. Daniel 1580 
 
 O’Neaghton, Rev. Dominick 1646 
 O’Queely, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Malachy 1645 
 
 O’Quillenan, Rev. Gelasius 1580 
 
 O’Reilly, Rev. James 1649 
 
 O’Reilly, Rev. James 1656 
 
 O’Reilly, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Edmund 1666 
 
 O’Reilly, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Hugh 1637 
 
 O’Riedy, Rev. Donatus 1582 
 
 O’Rorke, Rev. Cornelius ... 1578 
 
 O’Rorke, Rev. Donat 1578 
 
 Ormily, Rev. Roger 1652 
 
 O’Shea, Rev. Philip 1580 
 
 O’Scallan, Rev. Maurice ... 1582 
 
 O’Teman, Rev. Eugene 1651 
 
 O’Truory, Rev. Bernard ... 1606 
 
 Ovedon, Rev. Richard 1650 
 
 Oveton, Rev. Richard 1649 
 
 Panti, Rev. Arthur 1664 
 
 Penny, Rev. .dEneas 1582 
 
 Petit, Rev. Stephen 1651 
 
 Pettit, Rev. Stephen 1642 
 
 YEAR 
 
 Philbin, Rev. Thomas 1652 
 
 Pilan, Rev. John 1582 
 
 Power, Rev. George 1599 
 
 Power, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Peter 1588 
 
 Plunket, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 Patrick 1666 
 
 Plunket, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Peter 1678 
 
 Plunket, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Oliver 1681 
 
 Prendergast, Rev. Maurice 1657 
 
 Read, Mrs. Alison 1642 
 
 Roche, Lady 1652 
 
 Roche, Rev. David 1651 
 
 Roche, Rev. David 1655 
 
 Roche, Rev. Redmond 1657 
 
 Roche, Rev. Christopher ... 1590 
 Rooth, Right Rev. Bishop 
 
 David 1650 
 
 Roony, Rev. Thomas 1657 
 
 Russell, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Patrick 1692 
 
 Russell, Rev. John 1657 
 
 ScANLAN, Rev. Maurice... 1580 
 
 Scanlan, Rev. Connor 1657 
 
 Screnan, Rev. Donatus 1651 
 
 Shiel, Rev. William 1654 
 
 Slevin, Rev. James 1657 
 
 Slingsby, Francis 1634 
 
 Simmons, Rev. Edmund ... 1578 
 Skerrett, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Nicholas 1583 
 
 Stapleton, Rev. Theobald ... 1647 
 Stafford, Rev. Raymond ... 1649 
 
 Stritch, Thomas 1651 
 
 Stephen, Rev. John 1597 
 
 Stewart, Rev. John 1647 
 
 Sulivan, Rev. Francis 1651 
 
 Talbot, Most Rev. Arch- 
 bishop Peter 1678 
 
406 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 YEAR 
 
 Tanner, Right Rev. 
 
 Bishop Edmund 1578 
 
 Tobin, Rev. — 1654 
 
 Trevor, Rev. Patrick 1657 
 
 Tinte, Revs. Richard and 
 
 Thomas 1655 
 
 Tully, Rev. Miles 1657 
 
 Tully, Rev. Thomas 1651 
 
 Tynzbi, Rev. William 1629 
 
 Ultan (orDoNLEYiNs), Rev. 
 Christopher 1644 
 
 Walsh, Right Rev. 
 
 Bishop William 1560 
 
 year 
 
 Walsh, Rev. Philip 1657 
 
 Walsh, Rev. John 1600 
 
 Wallis, Rev. John 1582 
 
 Ward, Rev. Fergal 1565 
 
 Ward, Rev. Fergal 1577 
 
 Ward, Rev. Fergal 1642 
 
 White, Rev. Henry 1645 
 
 White, Patrick 1651 
 
 White, Francis 1651 
 
 Wolf, Rev. James 1651 
 
 Wolf, Rev. David 1568 
 
 Young, Rev. Nicholas ... 1617 
 
INDEX OF PLACES. 
 
 The number refers to the page. 
 
 Abbeyleix, 128 
 Ad are, Convent of, 208 
 Armagh, Convent of, 11, 20, 249, 
 258 
 
 Arran, Isles of, 275 
 Askeaton, or Asketin, Convent of, 
 30, 189 
 
 Asseroe, Convent of, 151 
 Athboy, 188 
 
 Athenry, Convent of, 231, 246, 
 260, 276, 366 
 Athlone, 249 
 
 Ballymohun, 46 
 Ballynacargy, 211 
 Baltrasna, 272 
 Bantry, Convent of, 42 
 Beerhaven, 147 
 Boyle, Monastery of, 40 
 Brentire, 258 
 Brittas, 153 
 
 Bunargy, Convent of, 220 
 Burishool, Convent of, 191, 264 
 
 Carrickfergus, 273 
 Carton, 270 
 Cashel, 213 
 Castlehackett, 268 
 Chester, 133 
 Clare, 250, 301 
 
 Clonmel, Convent of, 30, 44, 118, 
 128, 224, 231, 245, 273 
 Coleraine, Convent of, 272, 273 
 
 Coolrah, 50 
 
 Cork, 45, 148, 182, 204, 209, 245, 
 259, 276, 364 
 
 Derry, Monastery of, 153, 190, 
 193, 212, 274, 365 
 Donegal, Convent of, 151, 251 
 Down, Convent of, 32 
 Drogheda, 162, 189, 221, 227 
 Dublin, 49, 50, 63, 84, 85, 88, 97, 
 151, 163, 184, 190, 193, 196, 
 201, 259, 279, 280, 307, 316, 
 363, 374 
 Dungarvan, 204 
 Dundalk, 164, 318 
 Dunshaughlin, 207 
 
 Elphin, Convent of, 31, 253, 311 
 Enniscorthy, Convent of, 49 
 Exeter, 189 
 
 Galbally, 18 
 
 Galvaise-Aharlagh, Convent of, 18 
 Galway, 128, 253, 256, 268, 269, 
 365, 368 
 Golden Fort, 39 
 
 Hebrides, Islands of, 218 
 Holy Cross, Abbey of, 62 
 
 Inisbofin, Island of, 268, 275 
 Inish, or Inisheen, Convent of, 
 185, 188, 249, 256 
 
408 
 
 INDEX OF PLACES. 
 
 Inniscatteiy, Island of, 144 
 Kells, 225 
 
 Kilchree, Convent of, 88 
 Kilkenny, 150, 227, 229 
 Killeen, 299 
 Killetra, 49 
 
 Kilmallock, 29, 118, 220, 357 
 Kilragty, 248 
 Kinsale, 311 
 
 Lackagh, 271 
 Leighlin, 272 
 
 Limerick, 88, 159, 186, 282, 236, 
 248, 259, 260 
 
 Lislaghtin, Convent of, 43, 49 
 Longford, Convent of, 244, 366 
 London, 95, 129, 192, 209, 822, 366 
 Londonderry, 258 
 Lorragh, Convent of, 238 
 Loughcrew, 314 
 Lycodoon, 55 
 
 Maryborough, 273 
 Mohoriack, Village of, 46 
 Monaghan, Convent of, 5 
 Moyne, Convent of, 21 
 Mullinahone, 44 
 Mullingar, Convent of, 192, 207 
 Multifarnham, Convent of, 180, 
 220 
 
 Naas, 198 
 
 Nenay, or De Maggio, Convent of, 
 46 
 
 Newry, Abbey of, 57, 210,223, 865 
 
 Orlar,or De Urio, Convent of, 210, 
 223, 868 
 
 Poolehall, Cheshire, 307 
 
 Quenhi, or Quenchy, Convent of, 
 250, 257, 268 
 
 Rathbran, Convent of, 265 
 Rathconnell, 211 
 Ratoath, 225 
 
 Roscommon, Convent of, 207, 212, 
 261, 262 
 
 Roscrea, Convent of, 19 
 Ross, 280, Abbey of, 268 
 Rush, 857 
 
 S. Giles, Church of, London, 888 
 S. Kevin, Church of, Dublin, 68 
 S. Malo, 52 
 Shruel, 267 
 Slane, 60 
 
 Strade, Convent of, 227 
 
 Thurles, S. Mary’s Convent of, 3 
 Timoleague, Convent of, 145 
 Tralee, Convent of, 232, 261 
 Trim, 150, 188, 369 
 Tulsk, 256 
 
 Urlar, Convent of, in county 
 Mayo, 363 
 
 Viretin, Island of, 20 
 
 Waterford, 243, 275 
 Wexford, 127, 163, 225 
 Worcester, 50 
 
 Youghal, 16, 43, 145 
 
 WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTEES, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON, W.C.