INCHIQUIN, RINUCCINI, AND ORMONDE, 1648
[Sidenote: Inchiquin and the Parliament.]
[Sidenote: He is distrusted,]
[Sidenote: and voted a traitor, April 14, 1648.]
Inchiquin's espousal of the Parliamentary cause had been generally
attributed to his disgust at the King's foolish appointment of
Portland to be President of Munster over his head. But the motives of
men are, for the most part, mixed, and he may have thought, as was
indeed the fact, that he was taking the best course to protect the
Protestants of southern Ireland. Ormonde could do little for them,
and the masters of the sea could do much. But Parliament was torn
by factions, and help was sent to Ireland grudgingly. Having gained
two great victories and successfully maintained the three seaports,
Inchiquin thought he deserved better treatment. Besides all this, he
disliked the Independents and dreaded their growing power. In November
1642 he assured Ormonde that he was no Roundhead; and in August 1645,
after Naseby and after his expulsion of the Roman Catholics from
Cork and Youghal, he told his brother-in-law, Michael Boyle, that
he would waive all dependence on Parliament if he could see safety
for the Protestants by any other means. Even before the battle of
Knocknanuss he was distrusted in Parliamentary circles, and after it
he began to draw towards Ormonde. The Confederacy was evidently on the
decline, and there was some chance of a general combination against
Owen Roe O'Neill. Purely selfish considerations would probably have
confirmed him in his allegiance to the Parliament; for since Cornet
Joyce's raid it was easy to see that the 'Roundheads' were going to
win. On March 30, after the letter from Inchiquin's officers had been
considered, three members of the House of Commons were appointed to go
as commissioners to the Munster army. A fortnight later Major Elsing,
one of the officers who refused to follow their general, reported his
defection to the House, who thereupon recalled their commissioners,
cancelled all Inchiquin's powers, and voted him a rebel and traitor.
Before declaring himself openly he had taken the precaution of
bespeaking a welcome in France in case the worst came to the worst.
Broghill, his rival in Munster, was also intriguing with Ormonde and
the Queen; but in his case it came to nothing. His cousin, Sir W.
Fenton, and other officers who refused to declare for the King, had
been imprisoned by Inchiquin, and this may have tended to prevent
Broghill from joining him.[123]
[Sidenote: Inchiquin's truce with the Confederacy]
[Sidenote: Rinuccini's opposition.]
[Sidenote: The truce condemned by the bishops, April 27.]
Inchiquin having declared himself a Royalist, there was nothing to
prevent those who had made the Ormonde peace from coming to terms
with him also. When the late raid was fresh in his memory, even
Rinuccini had seen the necessity of doing something of the kind. Now
that Kilkenny and Waterford seemed safe he strenuously opposed any
cessation or truce on the ground that it would leave things as before.
Inchiquin's change of front had left him without allies, and this
was the time to crush the author of the Cashel massacre. The Supreme
Council urged that they were in no condition to maintain a war, and
that even if they were it would be bad policy to drive Inchiquin to
desperation. The result would be to deliver Cork, Youghal, and Kinsale
to the Parliament, who would always grant him fair terms for such
valuable possessions. Inchiquin was certainly very anti-Catholic,
'yet, as we are informed, he suffers our priests to live and mass to
be celebrated within his quarters,' and he would allow tithes to be
paid in Tipperary and 'Cashel and all the churches which were profaned
there' to be restored to their old uses. Michael Jones was making
great preparations in Dublin, and the Confederacy would soon have to
reckon with him. 'Your lordship knows by experience,' they reminded
the nuncio, 'that when the enemy insulted over your lordship at the
walls of Waterford, and stood at defiance with us at the gates of
Kilkenny, how slow our forces were drawing to a head, when after
orders upon orders, ten times at least, issued by us, one on the neck
of another, to General Preston, General O'Neill, and the Lord Taaffe,
scarce three thousand men could be brought into the city before the
enemy retreated.' But Rinuccini above all things dreaded the return
of Ormonde, and persisted in opposing a truce 'with any of a contrary
religion,' though he was willing to agree to an 'accommodation,
confederacy, or some such like contract,' based not upon the _status
quo_, but upon a distinct advantage to be gained. He held a meeting of
fourteen bishops, who decided that no one could with a safe conscience
agree to the truce. There was a minority of six, but, according to the
custom on such occasions, they signed with the rest.[124]
[Sidenote: Rinuccini goes to the Ulster army.]
[Sidenote: The truce concluded in his absence, May 20.]
[Sidenote: Interdict and excommunication follows.]
'The nuncio,' says Bellings, 'seeing that no opposition he could give
was of force to interrupt the cessation, judging it, perhaps, unfit
for him to be present at the publishing of it, left the town in such
a manner as might well persuade the people somewhat had been plotted
against his person, for, passing through the garden of Mr. Shea's
house, where he lived, and mounting to the town wall by a ladder,
he went out at the gate, and thence to the northern army in Leix,
where the Ulster creaghts, from the time Owen O'Neill had taken the
fort of Maryborough on his advance to the siege of Dublin, had been
planted.' Bishop Macmahon left Kilkenny next day. Some monks had told
the nuncio that a plot against his life had been revealed to them
under the seal of confession. Somebody may have said this to drive him
away, but that there was such a plot is quite incredible, and it may
be doubted whether Rinuccini believed it himself. He fled to O'Neill
at Maryborough, and when he was gone the truce was quickly concluded.
The Council, more for the sake of popularity than because they wished
for his presence, made great efforts to induce him to return, but he
was irreconcilable, and was destined never to see Kilkenny again.
The truce was concluded without his consent on May 20, to last until
November 1, upon the basis of each party retaining its own and of a
mutual exchange of prisoners. Inchiquin's quarters were defined as
the counties of Cork, Kerry, and Waterford, with the proviso that he
should not tax the baronies of Glenaheiry, near Clonmel, and Gaultier,
near Waterford, nor the towns of Dingle and Tralee. He undertook not
to interfere with the free exercise of religion outside his garrison
towns. A week later the nuncio excommunicated all who accepted the
truce, and laid an interdict on towns and villages receiving it.
Macmahon and four other bishops signed the document, and the penalties
of excommunication were declared to be incurred by all who removed or
defaced it.[125]
[Sidenote: The Supreme Council appeal to Rome.]
[Sidenote: O'Neill supports the nuncio.]
[Sidenote: Tyrone's sword.]
[Sidenote: Preston and O'Neill at war.]
'The lord nuncio's excommunications,' says Bellings, 'had now by his
often thundering of them, grown more cheap.' A sense of this may have
been the reason why he made it as stringent as possible, though he was
without books or canonists, and therefore open to criticism in point
of form. In the letters written at the time he admits that the result
varied very much in different places, but in the narrative composed
after he left Ireland he says he 'knew of no occasion when the censure
has better deserved the name of a thunderbolt,' and that it had at
once sent 2000 of Preston's soldiers over to O'Neill. The paper was
publicly posted in Kilkenny, and the Supreme Council at once appealed
to Rome. O'Neill and his officers declared unreservedly for the nuncio,
professing to believe that Ormonde was really a partisan of the
Parliament, and that those who adhered to him were inclined the same
way. The Council thereupon revoked his commission as general of Ulster,
and advised him and his officers by letter. O'Neill collected these
missives and burned them publicly in the presence of Bishop Macmahon
and others, and proceeded to increase his forces as fast as possible.
Some money brought from Rome by Dean Massari enabled him to do this.
The Dean had also brought a sword from Luke Wadding, which was said to
have been Tyrone's, and for which he had a splendid scabbard made at
Paris. As a former Pope had sent Tyrone a crown of peacock's feathers,
so this was thought to be a confirmation of the report that Owen
O'Neill was designated as king in Mahony's pamphlet. The sword never
came into O'Neill's hands, and there is no evidence that he had any
such ideas, though the nature of his ambition must always be somewhat
questionable. Things came to a head about the end of July, when James
Preston, the general's son, besieged Athy, which was held by Shane
O'Hagan against the Confederates, and where O'Neill had established a
bakery for ammunition-bread. Summoned by O'Hagan to his relief, the
northern general came from Longford without meeting much resistance,
and passed the flooded Barrow by felling an oak tree across it. Preston
drew off at his approach, and he encamped a few days later in Lord
Mountgarret's park at Dunmore with 10,000 foot and 500 horse. His men
ate the deer and drank the good ale in the lodge. He made no attempt on
the town, about which Preston had collected some troops, and after a
stay of five days drew off into Queen's County, Inchiquin following him
with a much inferior force.[126]
[Sidenote: Panic at Kilkenny, May-August.]
[Sidenote: Inchiquin urges Ormonde to return.]
While O'Neill's tents were visible from the walls of Kilkenny there
was great confusion inside. Some churches were shut; others, in
defiance of the interdict, remained open. A letter was intercepted in
which Paul King, guardian of the Franciscans and a special confidant
of the nuncio's, invited the northern general to take possession.
The Council imprisoned King and made Peter Walsh guardian. Walsh was
employed to draw up queries and answers, which were afterwards signed
by Bishop Rothe, against the validity of Rinuccini's censures. 'I
remember very well,' writes the learned friar, 'how (besides others)
Richard Bellings, Esq., a leading member and chief secretary of the
said Council, came several times from them to my chamber to hasten my
despatch, and to tell me of the great danger of delay, being the enemy
was in sight and the people so divided.' He worked for five days and
nights consecutively without closing his eyes, and preached in the
cathedral at the end of it. A respectable number of divines followed
Rothe and Walsh, but it was evident that the Confederacy could not be
restored. O'Neill, who alone of the Irish generals had the prestige
of victory, openly defied the authority of the Council and adhered to
the nuncio. Jones was gradually growing stronger in Dublin, and it was
evident that no one except Ormonde could have the weight necessary.
Inchiquin had urged him to come as soon as the truce was concluded.
'Divers of my men,' he said, 'have died of hunger, after they had a
while lived upon cats and dogs, as many do now. And if, while I am in
this condition, the Parliament shipping should arrive according to our
expectation, grounded upon good advertisement, with some officers,
money, clothes, and victuals, and make tender thereof unto our
soldiers, if they will give up the officers they have now, a greater
strait than I shall be in cannot be imagined.'[127]
[Sidenote: Activity of O'Neill, August-September.]
[Sidenote: He is generally unsuccessful.]
After leaving Kilkenny, O'Neill marched to Borrisoleigh in Tipperary.
Here he received an invitation to visit Clare, and went to Killaloe,
whence he detached Rory Maguire to surprise Banagher. He then turned
back into Tipperary, and sent another detachment to Nenagh, which was
taken by storm. From Silvermines he went to Birr, where he heard that
Athy was again closely besieged by Preston, and sent a party to relieve
it. Inchiquin, in the meantime, recovered Nenagh by undermining the
wall, while his men were sheltered with wooden barriers. The garrison
surrendered before the mine was fired, and Inchiquin then went to
Banagher, where he was joined by Clanricarde and Taaffe. They were so
well posted that O'Neill was unable to raise the siege, and retired
by Tullamore to the neighbourhood of Belturbet in Cavan. Athlone was
already in Clanricarde's hands, so that the party opposed to Rinuccini
had been successful all along the line. O'Neill's object had been
to reach Kerry, which had not been devastated and where there were
harbours to receive foreign supplies, and mountains suited to his
peculiar tactics. He remained inactive in Ulster for the rest of the
year.[128]
[Sidenote: O'Neill makes advances to Inchiquin,]
[Sidenote: and to Michael Jones,]
[Sidenote: and denounces the Confederates.]
[Sidenote: O'Neill proclaimed traitor, Sept. 30.]
Early in September O'Neill employed Rory O'More, the original plotter
of the rebellion, on a mission to Inchiquin. He offered to leave him
the whole of Munster without any condition but that of non-interference
in the other provinces. Adopting Rinuccini's view that anything was
better than the Supreme Council, he also entered into negotiations
with the governor of Dublin. Jones was represented by his brother,
the Bishop of Clogher, while Macmahon, who claimed the same see, was
hand-and-glove with O'Neill. The General Assembly declared that 'as
Owen Roe and the Bishop of Clogher (Macmahon) mislead those adhering
unto them with deep protestations of their loyalty, and desires to
advance the Catholic religion, and his Majesty's interests, and his
aversion to Jones and his ways; so of the other side Jones with his
Protestant Bishop of Clogher, by the same acts and illusions (while
they be practisers with Owen O'Neill) endeavours to persuade his
officers and soldiers that he intends to prosecute him as a pestilent
blood-sucker, and a sworn enemy to the English nation and Government;
and we are informed that when despatches come from Owen O'Neill, and
the messengers of Vicar-General Edmond O'Reilly are seen at Dublin,
Jones gives out that they are sent from the Council at Kilkenny.' In
his declaration against the truce with Inchiquin O'Neill denounced the
Confederates for surrendering all to Ormonde, 'the great personage whom
in their souls they know to be wholly disposed to betray the kingdom to
the Parliament.' It is hard to believe that O'Neill thought any such
thing; at all events, he heartily congratulated the great personage
on his safe arrival in Ireland. 'None,' he said, 'shall be found in
the kingdom more obedient and dutiful to his Majesty, and consequently
to your Excellency.' Ormonde replied that he would have no reason to
complain if his actions were agreeable to his professions. In the
meantime the Supreme Council had proclaimed O'Neill a traitor, along
with Bishop Macmahon, Vicar-General O'Reilly, Dominic Fanning, and
others, and had ordered all their adherents to lay down their arms
before October 25 on pain of being held traitors likewise.[129]
[Sidenote: Ormonde lands at Cork, Sept. 29.]
[Sidenote: The King's orders to him.]
Ormonde reached Cork harbour on Michaelmas Day. Inchiquin begged him
to come, with or without money, but to multiply the real sum by four
so as to encourage the soldiers. What he actually brought was thirty
pistoles, his slender resources having been expended through various
accidents and delays before he left France. He issued an address to
the Munster army, declaring that he had come 'to employ his utmost
endeavours for the settlement of the Protestant religion, for defence
of the King in his prerogatives, and for maintaining the privileges
and freedom of Parliament, as well as the liberty of the subject.'
Independency he would do his best to suppress. He had still all the
legal authority of a viceroy, but his special powers to treat with the
Irish had been exhausted in 1646. He had fresh powers from the Prince
of Wales, but they might be objected to, and the King was applied to
for their confirmation. 'I must command you two things,' wrote Charles
from Newport, 'first, to obey all my wife's commands; then, not to
obey any commands of mine until I send you word that I am free from
restraint. Lastly, be not startled at my great concessions concerning
Ireland, for that they will come to nothing.' Ormonde stayed a few days
at Cork, and then went to his own house at Carrick, so as to be near
Kilkenny.[130]
[Sidenote: Riot at Galway, July.]
[Sidenote: The archbishop defies the nuncio.]
[Sidenote: The General Assembly denounce the nuncio's party,]
[Sidenote: and welcome Ormonde to Kilkenny.]
The mayor of Galway attempted to proclaim the truce, as Kilkenny had
done, but Rinuccini opposed him in person, and in the riot which
followed some lives were lost. The mob generally sided with the
nuncio, and he had the bell of the Carmelites' church taken down,
that order having opposed him. Two priests were posted at the door
'to keep Catholics from the mass, to the great scandal of Catholic
religion in the country, where there are many Protestants that, by
good example, might be converted to the Catholic faith.' Archbishop de
Burgo reached the town at this juncture, and demanded the production of
the warrant under which Rinuccini acted. 'I won't show it,' said the
nuncio. 'And I won't obey you,' replied the archbishop, and ordered
the church doors to be forcibly opened by a man who got in through
a hole in the roof. The archbishop celebrated mass in spite of the
interdict. In order to neutralise the action of the Kilkenny Council,
Rinuccini summoned a national synod to meet at Galway on August 15;
but Clanricarde, who had the assistance of Inchiquin, surrounded the
town and quite prevented any episcopal gathering there. No letters
reached the nuncio, and it was with great difficulty that he despatched
any. On August 30 he published a declaration, which was signed by six
bishops and some other dignitaries, setting forth that adhesion to the
truce with Inchiquin was 'a deadly sin against the law of God and His
Church.' This did not prevent the Assembly from meeting at Kilkenny
on September 4, who denounced the malice and irregularity of those
who signed the declaration, and pronounced them guilty of the late
bloodshed at Galway. A few days later they sent John Roe, provincial
of the barefooted Carmelites, to Rome with letters for the Pope. They
had fought, they said, for the faith for seven years, and their reward
was to have the papal thunders loosened upon their heads by the nuncio.
As soon as Ormonde arrived they congratulated him, and announced their
willingness to conclude 'a well-grounded and lasting peace' with him.
Commissioners, of whom Sir Phelim O'Neill was one, were appointed to
carry on the negotiations. Early in November Ormonde was invited to
Kilkenny, and entered the town with great pomp, the members of the
Assembly going out along the road to meet him and conducting him to his
own castle. It was just three years since Rinuccini had been received
with equal or greater rejoicing.[131]
[Sidenote: Antrim tries to thwart Ormonde]
Antrim was much disgusted at not being made Lord Lieutenant, and
reached Ireland about the same time as Ormonde, with the intention of
thwarting him. He was not trusted by the Confederates, and the most
important part of the Paris negotiations had been hidden from him.
Wexford favoured the nuncio, and Antrim collected about a thousand
men there with a view of making a diversion in aid of Owen O'Neill.
They consisted of a battalion of Highlanders, under Macdonald of
Glengarry, and of levies made among the O'Byrnes and Kavanaghs. They
were attacked on the road between Wexford and Arklow by the Confederate
forces, and routed by MacThomas and his cavalry. This is what Antrim
in his autobiographical memoir calls 'living privately at Wexford and
Waterford.' He escaped by boat to Arklow, and thence to O'Neill's
garrison at Rebane in Kildare. In the following year he became a
pensioner of Cromwell.[132]
[Sidenote: The Parliament masters of Ulster.]
[Sidenote: Monck takes Carrickfergus and Belfast, September.]
In the meantime the aspect of affairs in Ulster had changed very much.
Coote was governor of Londonderry, but much straitened by the fort
of Culmore, which was held by Sir Robert Stewart. Stewart was now a
decided Royalist, and his guns commanded the channel of the Foyle
so that supplies reached the city with difficulty. Monro still held
Carrickfergus and Belfast, while Monck held O'Neill in check from
Dundalk and Lisburn. When Monro's nephew George, who had escaped so
narrowly at Benburb, went over to Scotland for the King, he took with
him men from most of the Scottish regiments. This was done with his
uncle's connivance, and Monck had strict orders from the Parliament to
seize Belfast. During the night of September 12 he arrived accordingly
before Carrickfergus with a strong force. The captain of the guard
opened the gate, Monro was taken in his bed, and sent over to England.
Belfast then surrendered without resistance. The thanks of Parliament,
which was in good humour after Preston, were given to Monck, who was
voted 500_l._, and made governor of Belfast and Carrickfergus. A few
weeks later, Coote was equally successful, and he also received the
thanks of Parliament. Stewart was inveigled into Londonderry to attend
a christening, and was seized, along with Audley Mervyn. They were sent
over to England, and Culmore fort soon surrendered to Coote, as did
Lifford and some other places. With the exception of Charlemont, which
the Irish had held since 1641, every fortified place in Ulster was in
Parliamentary hands by the end of the year.[133]
[Sidenote: Mutiny in Inchiquin's army.]
[Sidenote: Ormonde at Cork, November.]
[Sidenote: The Prince of Wales expected.]
While Ormonde was negotiating at Kilkenny, a serious mutiny occurred
among the cavalry of Inchiquin's army. Many of the officers were not
Royalists, and many of the men had received no pay. It was true that
their wants had been neglected by Parliament; but the Houses had at
least the means of becoming prompt paymasters, while Ormonde could only
give promises. The proceedings in Ulster showed that the Parliamentary
cause was gaining ground. By simultaneously seizing several of the
chief officers, by offering an indemnity for the past, and by promising
to detain no man against his will, Inchiquin quelled the mutiny; but it
was thought desirable that Ormonde should visit Cork, and he left the
Assembly sitting at Kilkenny. Richard Fanshawe reached Kinsale at this
juncture with letters from the Prince of Wales and power to announce
that Rupert was coming with his fleet and supplies. The Duke of York
was expected at once, and his elder brother as soon as he had recovered
from an attack of smallpox. Ormonde urged the Prince of Wales to come,
for his presence was the one thing necessary to restore the confidence
of 'a discouraged rather than disaffected army.' Money and additional
men would be very useful, but Charles himself much more so. Having done
what he could in Munster, the Lord Lieutenant returned to Kilkenny
within a fortnight as he had promised.[134]
[Sidenote: No help from Rome.]
[Sidenote: Peace concluded, January, 1648-9.]
[Sidenote: Commissioners of Trust appointed.]
Ormonde was ill after his return to Kilkenny, and the discussions
about the peace were suspended till December 19; but the Confederates
were in no condition to drive a hard bargain. Bishop French and
Sir Nicholas Plunket had returned from Rome empty-handed, the Pope
alleging troubles in Crete and a possible invasion of Italy by the
Turks as reasons for turning a deaf ear to Ireland. The agents were
also reminded that no account had been given of the large sum sent
over by Massari. The Remonstrance of the army in England became known
at Kilkenny about the same time, and it had a very sobering effect.
The Assembly receded from its extreme claim in the matter of religion,
and on January 17 a peace was concluded which differed but slightly
from that made in 1646 and afterwards rejected by Rinuccini's advice.
Everything was referred to a free Parliament to be held in Ireland
in six months, or as soon after as possible, and no man was to be
molested for any matter of religion in the meantime. The Confederacy
was dissolved and the powers of a provisional government were vested
in twelve lay notables, of whom three were peers, afterwards known as
the 'Commissioners of Trust.' The peace was signed at Kilkenny and
proclaimed on the same day, and a circular letter was also sent out by
nine bishops. These prelates advised their co-religionists to accept
the peace loyally. 'In the present concessions,' they said, 'and in the
expectation of further gracious favours from his Majesty's goodness, we
have received a good satisfaction for the being and safety of religion;
and the substance thereof, as to the concessions for religion, is
better than the sound; by the temporal articles lives, liberties, and
the estates of men are well provided for ... you fight fiercely against
sectaries and rebels for God and Cæsar, and under those banners you may
well hope for victories.'[135]
[Sidenote: The nuncio loses all credit.]
[Sidenote: Ormonde on ultramontane politics.]
While Ormonde was negotiating at Kilkenny, Rinuccini was in low
estate at Galway. 'For eight months,' he wrote, 'I have seen none
of my attendants, and am reduced to such a point, that however bad
the vessel, the sea is almost safer for me than the land.' He sent
his confessor, Giuseppe Arcamoni, a Theatine, to Rome in order to
counterbalance the efforts of the Carmelite Roe. The Confederates
had gone so far as to order him out of Ireland to make his defence
before the Pope in person, and to forbid him in the meantime to
'intermeddle directly or indirectly' in Irish affairs. A duplicate of
this letter was sent to the Corporation of Galway, and both original
and copy were accompanied by a long statement of charges against the
nuncio. The corporation were peremptorily ordered to have no further
dealings with the 'lord archbishop of Fermo.' He was accused generally
of arbitrary and tyrannical conduct, of endeavouring to subvert
fundamental laws and to withdraw the people from their allegiance to
the Crown, and of plotting to 'introduce a foreign, arbitrary, and
tyrannical government.' In a paper drawn up about this time Ormonde
says, 'the nuncio is a foreigner, and no subject of his Majesty's;
therefore not at all interested in any agreement between his Majesty
and his subjects, and may have aims prejudicial to both, wherefore his
satisfaction may be as difficult as unnecessary.'[136]
[Sidenote: Rinuccini leaves Ireland, February 1648-9.]
[Sidenote: Reasons of his failure.]
[Sidenote: What was thought at Rome.]
Rinuccini was completely beaten, though the great bulk of the clergy
were with him. He could claim seventeen bishops against eight, and the
vast majority of the religious orders, excepting the Jesuits. He had
with him the Celtic population, as represented by Owen Roe O'Neill,
and the poorer classes generally, who cared much for the Church and
very little for the Crown. But the nobility and the legal profession
were against him. 'A few days,' he wrote, 'after my arrival in Kilkenny
some lawyers inquired from Father Scarampi if I were going to erect a
tribunal. When he said yes, they replied that they would not put up
with it by any means.... In the public assembly Viscount Muskerry said
that the day of my arrival was a fatal one for the country; in short,
they have shown in every action that they cannot endure the authority
of the Pope; they are even not ashamed to say in private and in print
that his succours were mere empty hopes, vanity, and vexation. It may
be therefore by the will of God that a people Catholic only in name,
and so irreverent towards the Church, should feel the thunderbolt of
the Holy See, and draw upon themselves the anger which is the meed of
the scorner.' Rinuccini declared that a nuncio to a heretic viceroy
was an absurdity, and prepared to leave the country. With difficulty
he succeeded in securing the very _San Pietro_ on board of which he
had first come. Plunket and French went to Galway to report the result
of their Roman mission, but he did not await their arrival, and it
was thought that he feared orders from the Pope incompatible with his
late proceedings. He sailed on February 23, crowds of weeping people
accompanying him to the ship; the poor were much better Catholics
than the lords and lawyers. The demonstration on his arrival had been
less than 'on the completion of his mission to a poor and persecuted
minister, and could not be ascribed to the hopes of assistance which
they entertained.' He thought the corrupted nations nearer Rome should
'journey to a distant clime where the sun is never seen, that they may
fully comprehend the due subjection of the faithful to their head.'
In the meantime he sent his confessor to Rome with instructions to
press for certain specific measures. The authorities were called upon
to suspend Bishop Rothe of Ossory, to summon Archbishop de Burgo to
Rome, to call Peter Walsh 'before the Inquisition or any other tribunal
in Rome,' to summon the chiefs of the recalcitrant Carmelites, and
to order Malone, provincial of the Irish Jesuits, out of Ireland.
Arcamoni arrived in March, but Rinuccini lingered long in France and
in his native Florence, and did not reach Rome till the second week
in November. No one there approved of his proceedings in Ireland, and
the Pope accused him of rashness. More than two years before he had
abstained from making him a cardinal, though urged to do so by Bishop
Macmahon.[137]
FOOTNOTES:
[123] _Bellings_, vii. 37; _Rushworth_, vii. 1060; Carte's _Ormonde_,
ii. 24-31.
[124] _Bellings_, vii. 37-58, where the documents are all given. The
episcopal declaration is dated April 27. Rinuccini's _Embassy_, pp.
380-391. The printed declaration and protestation of Lord Inchiquin and
his officers, dated May 6, 1648, attributes their action to the fact
that the Independents had denied them supplies.
[125] Rinuccini's _Embassy_, p. 393. The articles with Inchiquin in
_Confederation and War_, vi. 235; the Excommunication in _Aphorismical
Discovery_, i. 194; _Bellings_, vii. 69.
[126] O'Neill's _Journal_; _Bellings_, vii. 98, 104; _Aphorismical
Discovery_, i. 240.
[127] Walsh's _Remonstrance_, xlvi.; the Queries, _ib._, appendix 1;
_Bellings_, vii. 103-12; Inchiquin to Ormonde, May 29, 1648, in Carte's
_Ormonde_, iii.
[128] _Bellings_, vii. 104-108; O'Neill's _Journal_, September, 1648.
[129] Documents in _Contemporary Hist._, i. 745-754, September and
October, 1648.
[130] Carte's _Ormonde_, ii. 39-41; the King to Ormonde, October 28,
in Carte's _Original Letters_; Ormonde to Sir R. Blake, Walker's
_Discourses_, p. 71.
[131] Rinuccini's _Embassy_, August and September; Hardiman's _Hist. of
Galway_; Letter to the Pope, September 17, in _Confederation and War_,
vi. 280; _ib._, 300.
[132] Hill's _Macdonnells of Antrim_, pp. 278-303; _Bellings_, vii.
114; Carte's _Ormonde_, ii. 42.
[133] Benn's _Hist. of Belfast_, p. 122; _Rushworth_, vii. 1277, 1282,
1386; Lodge's _Peerage_, vi. 244.
[134] Ormonde to the Prince of Wales from Cork, November 27, 1648, in
_Confederation and War_, vii. 149; Carte's _Ormonde_, iii. 44-47. On
December 12, Digby reported, but without believing the story, that a
'she correspondent' of Jermyn had told him that Inchiquin had agreed
with the Derby House Committee and promised to give up Ormonde, _Carte
MSS._ vol. 63, _f._ 565.
[135] Articles of peace, proclamation of same, and circular of
prelates, January 17, 1648-9, in _Confederation and War_, vii. 184-213.
The Commissioners of Trust were Viscounts Dillon and Muskerry, Lord
Athenry, Alexander MacDonnell (Antrim's brother), Sirs Lucas Dillon,
Nicholas Plunket, and Richard Barnewall, Geoffrey Brown, Donogh
O'Callaghan, Turlagh O'Neill, Miles O'Reilly, and Gerald Fennell
Esquires.
[136] Rinuccini's _Embassy_, October 31, 1648; Sir Richard Blake to
Rinuccini and to the town of Galway, October 19, with enclosure, in
_Confederation and War_, vi. 294; Notes by Ormonde in _Contemp. Hist._
i. 756.
[137] Rinuccini's _Embassy_, pp. 436, 467. The Pope's words to
Rinuccini, as reported by Father Roe to Peter Walsh, were _Temerarie
te gessisti_,--_Hist. of the Remonstrance_, xxxiv. Castlehaven alludes
to them, and may have had his information from either Roe or Walsh.
Macmahon to the Pope in _Spicilegium Ossoriense_, i. 303; Robert
Meynell to Hyde and Cottington, Rome, October 18, 1849, in _Clarendon
S.P._, and Father Roe to Hyde, Nov. 27, _ib._