In all, six thousand scudi.”
Again, on the 8th of June, 1699, the secretary of the king,
writing from St. Germain, acknowledges the receipt, from the
Holy Father, “of 37,500 livres to be distributed amongst his
subjects, persecuted for their faith.”
When, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the enemies
of Catholicity had recourse to new arts to assail the
time-honoured faith of our nation, and sought to poison the
sources of instruction of our Catholic youth, the Holy See was
again ready, not only with its exhortations and counsels, but
also with its pecuniary aid to support Catholic poor-schools
through the country, and from that time to the close of the
century, when the Pope was momentarily deprived of his states
and driven into exile, 1,000 Roman crowns were annually
transmitted to our bishops for that purpose.
Thus were the Roman Pontiffs at every period the fathers of
our country, the guardians of our persecuted people, the
support of our exiled clergy. “The blessings of faith were
transmitted to us by the Popes, not only as the successors of
St. Peter, but as sovereigns of Rome; and when an opportunity
is given Catholic Ireland of making them some return, it would
be strange, indeed, if she did not gratefully remember the
services rendered in her hour of distress.”[28]