We are happy to be the first to announce to the Irish public the discovery
of the exact spot wherein the remains of our great Irish chieftain,
Hugh O'Neill, repose, side by side with those of Archbishop Matthews.
This privilege we owe to the great kindness of Rev. Dr. Moran, the
distinguished Vice-Rector of the Irish College of St. Agatha, Rome,
who has permitted us to anticipate the publication of the second part
of the first volume of his _History of the Catholic Archbishops of
Dublin since the Reformation_, in which the event is described. Of the
volume itself we shall soon have occasion to speak at some length. For
the present it is enough to say, that like each of Dr. Moran's other
works, it has the great merit of being a work for the times. His _Life
of Archbishop Plunkett_, and his _History of the Irish Persecutions_,
were valuable, no doubt, for the light they cast on an important epoch,
and for the proof they afforded of our forefathers' constancy in the
faith. Far more valuable, however, than these are Dr. Moran's _Essays on
the Origin, Doctrines, and Antiquities of the Irish Church_, in which,
with an extraordinary lucidity of reasoning and a singular amount of
erudition, he answers all the arguments and refutes all the theories
of modern Protestant writers and lecturers, who have undertaken the
hopeless task of proving that the religion of the early church of our
fathers was identical with that which had its origin in the corruption
and cruelty of Henry VIII. and his daughter Elizabeth, and which, as
far as it has extended, was introduced into Ireland by fire and sword
and the most cruel penal laws. Any one who reads Dr. Moran's essays
will admit that not only Whiteside and Napier, who have ventured to
lecture on the ancient doctrines of the Irish Church, with which they
were altogether unacquainted, but also some learned antiquarians who
have treated of the same subject, were quite astray in their views,
and had no solid arguments on which to ground their opinions.
Our first extract is taken from the life of the venerable Archbishop,
Dr. Matthews, who governed the see of Dublin in a most critical and
disastrous period, from the 2nd May, 1611, to the 1st of September, 1623,
when he died an exile in Rome. This extract is found at page 262, and
gives an account of the persecutions to which Catholics were subjected
in the reign of James I., who was supposed to be less hostile than his
predecessor Elizabeth:
"The greater part of the treatise of Dr. Roothe, entitled Analecta,
is taken up with details of the sufferings of our Church at this
sad period. The chief facts, however, which he commemorates are:
(1) that the fines levied in the county Cavan, in 1615, for the
mere crime of not assisting at Protestant service, amounted to
more than eight thousand pounds; (2) that when some of the poor
Catholics of the county Meath, who were unwilling to pay this tax,
fled from the cruel collectors of it into the caverns and mountain
recesses, furious bloodhounds were often let loose in pursuit of
them, followed by the sheriff and his posse of soldiers, equally
furious and unrelenting; (3) that the Protestant authorities had
constant recourse to ecclesiastical censures, in consequence of
which, great numbers of Catholic merchants and artificers were
thrown into prison, and reduced to extreme poverty and distress;
(4) that those who happened to die whilst under the ban of these
Protestant censures, were denied Christian burial, and thrown
into graves dug in the highways, where, to increase the ignominy,
stakes were driven through their bodies.[18]
"More interesting to the reader than all these narratives, will
probably be the sketch of the sufferings of Ireland from the pen
of the archbishop himself,--a sketch drawn up with special care
by Dr. Matthews, in 1623, and presented by him to the Sacred
Congregation of Propaganda.[19] He thus writes:--
"'Although from the very commencement of the schism we have
been constantly in the battle-field, and, with the exception of
the momentary repose enjoyed during the reign of Catholic Mary,
have been unceasingly exposed to the attacks of our persecutors,
yet so severe are their late assaults, that, in comparison,
all their preceding efforts sink into insignificance. Of this
persecution I myself have been a witness and a sharer, and I
shall briefly commemorate a few of its chief heads.
"'Some years ago the heretics strained every nerve to introduce
into Ireland those laws which the English parliament enacted
against the Catholics of England, and to resuscitate the penal
code which had been surreptitiously passed at the beginning
of Elizabeth's reign. A parliament was summoned to attain
these ends. The government again sought by every art and
violence to secure the election of English or Scotch heretical
soldiers. Lest our Catholics might prevail by their numbers, new
English and Scotch colonies were planted, and endowed with the
privilege of representation. Moreover, a number of titles were
conferred on various heretics, whilst the remonstrances of the
Catholics were unheeded. Nevertheless, no counsel can prevail
against the Lord. All the heretical efforts were fruitless;
and so strenuously did the Catholics defend their sacred cause,
that their adversaries did not dare even to propose the penal
statutes. The heretics had then recourse to royal prerogative,
that thus, without any form of law or justice, they might riot
against the Catholics; and so violent is the storm of persecution
which they have thus excited, that it almost baffles description.
"'1. All Catholics are removed from the administration of
affairs, and even the smallest offices are given to heretics
and schismatics, who may with impunity persecute the Catholics
according to their fancies.
"'2. No Catholic can hold property throughout the entire kingdom;
everything is seized on by heretical colonists, and the ejected
Catholic proprietors cannot even live as servants on those lands
of which they are the masters by hereditary right. For the
heretics have learned by experience that there is no people in
the world so attached to the faith of their fathers as are the
Irish, in defence of which they often had recourse to arms, and
risked their fortunes and lives. Seeing, therefore, that penal
laws could not suffice to destroy their devotion to the Catholic
religion, they had recourse to new arts, and by a disastrous
counsel commenced to fill the country with English and Scotch
colonies; whilst at the present time, in consequence of the
treaties entered into with the continental states, the Irish can
hope for no assistance from other powers. Thus, then, the natives,
though unaccused of any crime, are, without colour of justice,
without any feeling of humanity, without any fear of Him who will
punish the oppressors, expelled from the homes of their fathers
and from their hereditary estates. Sometimes they are driven
to other parts of the kingdom, where small portions of land
are assigned to them for their maintenance; sometimes they are
compelled to fly from the island, and seek support by entering
the armies of the Continent. Heretics being thus introduced into
the Catholic lands, a great part of the kingdom is polluted with
their sacrilegious impieties; and unless God may avert the dire
calamity, the ancient faith will be banished from the whole
island. As this evil is propagated by brute force, and as our
people have neither skill nor power to cope with our enemies,
we must wholly rely for its remedy on the mercy of God.
"'3. Ministers and preachers were sought out everywhere in
Scotland and England, and sent hither to pervert our Catholics.
"'4. All benefices and other ecclesiastical property were, from
the beginning, seized on by the heretics. In each diocese there
is a pseudo-bishop, and in each parish a pseudo-minister.
"'5. The Catholics are compelled to repair, for heretical worship,
the churches and chapels which these iconoclasts themselves
had destroyed.
"'6. The pseudo-clergy not only seize on all the revenues, but
exact payment for the sacraments of baptism and marriage, even
when they are administered by the Catholic priests; the sum thus
exacted sometimes amounts to four guineas or more, according to
the will of the Protestant ministers, who make no account of the
poverty and misery of the people. In addition to these exactions,
a salary was lately assigned to a certain heretic, to be levied
on the births, marriages, and deaths of the Catholics.
"'7. Four times in the year questors are appointed to explore
the Catholics throughout the whole kingdom, and impose fines
on all who absent themselves from the heretical sermons and
communion. As this fine is not defined by law, the judges and
questors display great earnestness and avarice in exacting it,
through hatred of our holy religion.
"'8. On each Sunday, each Catholic father of a family is obliged
to pay a pecuniary fine for himself and for each Catholic member
of his family. This fine is exacted without mercy even from the
poorest labourers.
"'9. The pseudo-bishops have introduced a new system
of excommunicating, forsooth, the Catholics; from which
excommunication the Catholic cannot be freed, except by
recognizing the spiritual authority of these bishops, and thus
sacrificing their own faith. Those thus excommunicated are liable
to arrest; and should they die, are interred in unconsecrated
ground.
"'10. Those who assist at Mass, incur a penalty of one hundred
marks.
"'11. All our gentry and nobility are obliged to send their heirs
to be educated and perverted in England.
"'12. None of the nobility are now allowed to succeed to their
paternal inheritance, without first taking the oath of royal
supremacy: otherwise they and their posterity are deprived of
their revenues, and thus the dreadful alternative is presented
to them of perversion or poverty.
"'13. It is interdicted to the Catholics to teach school either
in public or in private; on the other hand, heretical masters
are hired in every diocese, and paid from the revenue of some
benefices, to pervert our youth and imbue them with heresy. In
fact, the heretics have obstructed every avenue by which our youth
could receive instruction in this kingdom; and by their severe
penalties and rigorous searches, they seek to render it impossible
for any Catholic teacher to remain in the country. Moreover,
having created a university in the city of Dublin, the seat of
the viceroy and the capital of the whole kingdom, they employ
every artifice to attract our children to its schools. Indeed,
they could not possibly devise any scheme more iniquitous than
that of thus corrupting our youth.
"'14. The Catholic cities are deprived of their ancient liberties,
privileges, and rights, and are reduced to the rank of towns,
unless they elect heretics as their mayors and aldermen, or,
at least, select such persons as the heretics approve of, as
lately happened to the city of Waterford, which holds the second
place in the kingdom for its strength and opulence'".
The second extract is the last appendix to the volume. It gives us the
epitaphs of Hugh O'Neill and Dr. Matthews, which are now published for
the first time.
_Epitaph of the Most Rev. Eugene Matthews, Archbishop of Dublin._
"This volume was already in type, when we were fortunate enough
to meet with the original epitaph which marked the last resting
place of the illustrious Archbishop Matthews.
"Near the summit of the Janiculum, in the city of Rome, stands
the well known church of San Pietro-in-Montorio. It contains many
treasures of art, and its paintings retail the names of Raffaelle,
Michael Angelo, Pinturicchio, Vasari, and other great masters.
More dear to the Christian pilgrim is the adjoining shrine,
which guards the clay in which was set the cross of the Prince
of the Apostles.
"It was in this church that the last princes of Tyrone and
Tyrconnel were interred. In the second row of tombs with which
the pavement of the church is lined, the Irish traveller will
find without difficulty the epitaph of Hugh baron of Dungannon,
who died in September, 1609, and of the two O'Donnells, who died
in the autumn of 1608.[20] It is known that Hugh O'Neil, earl of
Tyrone, was also interred here; but hitherto his tomb has been
sought for in vain. The archives of the adjoining monastery,
however, have at length come to our aid. The last great Irish
chieftain expired in the Palazzo Salviati, on the 20th of July,
1616, and the register of San Pietro-in-Montorio marks the 24th of
July, 1616, as the day on which his remains were, with princely
pomp, laid within its vaults. This same register further tells
us that his epitaph, now wholly obliterated, held _the first place
in the third row_ of tombs which mark the pavement of the church,
and that it consisted of the simple record:
D. O. M.
HIC QUIESCUNT OSSA
HUGONIS PRINCIPIS O'NEILL.
"It was alongside the tomb of Hugh O'Neil that Eugene Matthews,
archbishop of Dublin, reposed in death. His epitaph, says the
register of the church, holds _the second place in the third
row of tombs_. The slab which corresponds with this indication
now only retains some faint traces of letters here and there,
it being impossible to decipher even one word of its original
inscription. Here again the church register comes to our aid; it
tells us that the following was the inscription on Dr. Matthews'
tomb:
D. O. M.
EUGENIO MATTHEI, ARCHIEPISCOPO DUBLINENSI,
DOCTRINAE CLARITATE NATALIUM SPLENDORE,
FIDE IN DEUM PIETATE IN PATRIAM SINGULARI
QUI POSTQUAM SOLLICITI PASTORIS,
DIUTURNO AC DIFFICILI TEMPORE IN HIBERNIA,
NUMEROS OMNES ADIMPLESSET,
SUB GREGORIO XV., ROMAM VENIT,
UBI AB OPTIMO PONTIFICE BENIGNE HABITUS,
DUM PATRIAE SUAE NEGOTIA PROMOVERET,
EXTREMUM DIEM CLAUSIT KAL. SEPT. 1623.
"Thus, as Dr. Matthews was closely allied by blood with the
families of Tyrone and Tyrconnel; as he in youth shared with them
the perils of the Catholic camp; as, when bishop of Clogher, he
enjoyed with them the hospitality of the great pontiff, Paul V.,
in the Salviati Palace, Rome; so was he destined to be united
with them in death, and to repose with them beneath the shadow
of St. Peter's dome, amidst the sanctuaries and shrines of the
Eternal City. We cannot better conclude than with the words of
the Four Masters, when registering the death of Hugh O'Neil:
'Although he died far distant from Armagh, the burial place of
his ancestors, it was a manifestation that God was pleased with
his life; for the place in which God granted him to be buried
was Rome, the capital of the Christians'".