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ing, &c.; and by having such servants usually in their families as were the most profane in the kingdom, few others being countenanced by them but such; and if any seemed to be of a holy life, he was scorned and persecuted by them.'1

Two things are to be noted in connection with this appalling picture of the Episcopal Church at this time. The first is that while the Presbyterians of Ulster, the industrious hardworking people who were reclaiming the country, increasing its resources, adding to the revenue, and presenting to the natives an example of a peaceful and well-ordered community, were thus cruelly persecuted by their fellow Britons and their fellow Protestants, the Roman Catholic priesthood and people were treated with indulgence and favour. The victims of this ruthless persecution at the hands of Englishmen in Ireland in the seventeenth century were a thoughtful, educated, self-reliant, honest, lawrespecting, Bible-reading, God-fearing people; the people to whose industry, and skill, and perseverance, and good conduct, and loyalty, has been truly ascribed the prosperity of Ulster, present ing as it does such a striking contrast to the backward state of the other provinces.

The second point to be noted is that the Protestant clergy and people who were unfortunately involved in the Massacre of 1641,' which followed those proceedings, were not the sort of clergy or people which we should regard as martyrs for their religion. As to the bishops and clergy--covetous, greedy, dishonest, usurping, intolerant, cruel, regardless of their professional duties, violators of their solemn trust, irreligious, profane, and abandoned to all sorts of worldliness and licentious indulgencethey demand pity indeed for their sufferings, but deserve little sympathy as Irish Protestants, placed in the country to war with spiritual weapons against ignorance, superstition, and barbarism. The laity, indeed, with their families, their wives, and their children, must be regarded in a different light, because they were left without instruction, without pastoral care or spiritual oversight, by the faithless and rascally men that were paid for preaching the Gospel to them. Besides it has not been sufficiently considered that the rapacious and unscrupulous conduct of the

Read's History,' vol. i. p. 275.

Earl of Strafford, in seeking out what he called defective titles, incarcerating and fining sheriffs and juries who would not do his bidding in robbing Catholic gentlemen of their estates which had been confirmed to them by kings and parliaments, was the principal exciting cause of the Revolution of 1641. That the promotion of the Reformed Religion was not his object is plain enough, from the fact that the Roman Catholics, as we have seen, were unmolested, while the Presbyterians were tortured. Their bishops, priests, fraternities, schools and colleges, all flourished until they were betrayed into that disastrous revolt; and we find Bishop Bedall complaining that every parish had its priest and the Catholic hierarchy' exercise full jurisdiction, and his Majesty is now with the greater part of this country-as to the heart of his subjects; King but at the Pope's discretion!' The Presbyterians were not so completely surprised by the rebellion of 1641 as the Episcopalians. The havoc produced by this outbreak of fanaticism was fearful. The Established Church was now overthrown and desolate. Few of her clergy, and only two of her prelates, remained in Ulster.

CHAPTER XI.

THE MASSACRE OF 1641.

THE English Puritans and the Scottish Covenanters who engaged in the civil war against Charles I. were determined never to lay down their arms till they had made an end of Popery in Ireland. Pym, their celebrated leader, was said to avow that the policy of his party was not to leave a priest alive in the land. Rumours were spread abroad that similar sentiments and purposes had been uttered in Dublin by the Lords Justices, Sir John Parsons, and Sir John Borlase. It was generally believed the former had said, that in twelve months no more Romanists should be seen in the country. Meantime the Irish chiefs were busy intriguing at Rome, Madrid, Paris, and other Continental capitals, clamouring for an invasion of Ireland to restore Catholicity, and to expel the English heretics from the forfeited lands. Philip III. of Spain, an intensely bigoted Catholic, favoured these aspirations, and he kept up an Irish legion under the command of Henry O'Neill, son of the fugitive Earl of Tyrone. It was reported that in 1630 there were in the service of the Archduchess in the Spanish Netherlands alone, 100 Irish officers able to command companies, and 20 fit to be colonels, with many others at Lisbon, Florence, Milan, and Naples. They had in readiness 5,000 stand of arms laid up at Antwerp. The banished Irish ecclesiastics at the same time formed an efficient diplomatic corps at every Catholic Court of Europe. Religious wars, grand expeditions for the extermination of heretics, were popular in those times, for heresy was considered not only a crime in itself— treason against the King of Kings-but a monstrous iniquity pregnant with all sorts of damnable abominations. Hence a crusade against the English Protestants in Ireland was received with general favour on the Continent, and the religious motive

was, of course, the one urged loudly and incessantly by the exiled bishops and priests. But with the Irish chiefs, the strongest stimulus was the desire to get possession of their homes and their lands. The most active among these was Rory O'Moore, a man of high character and great ability, with a handsome person and fascinating manners. With him were associated Macguire, two McMahons, two O'Neills, and Magennis. O'Moore visited the country, went through the several provinces, communicated with the remaining chiefs personally, and organised a grand conspiracy to expel the British, and recover the kingdom for Charles II. and the Pope.

The plan agreed upon by the confederates was, that they were to rise when the harvest was gathered in, to make a simultaneous attack upon all the English fortresses, to surprise Dublin Castle (said to contain arms for 12,000 men), bringing with them for these objects all possible aid from the Continent in officers and munitions of war. The opportunity seemed favourable; Dublin Castle was then guarded by only a few pensioners and forty halberdiers. The rising took place on the night of October 22, 1641, but the lords justices had got information of the plot through an informer, just in time to take measures for the defence of the city.

The chief command of the insurgents was taken by Sir Phelim O'Neill, one of the Irish gentlemen' who, by a royal favour, were permitted to retain some portion of their ancient patrimony. He was at this time the owner of thirty-eight townlands in the Barony Dunganon, estimated to be then worth 1,6007. a year. He might therefore have been content with his position, so far as property was concerned. But, setting aside patriotism, ambition, and religion, it is likely that he distrusted the Government, and feared the doom that had overtaken the other chiefs of his race in Ulster. He began by issuing a proclamation, in which he stated that the insurrection was in no wise intended against the king nor to hurt any of his subjects, either English or Scotch, but only to defend the liberties of the Irish people; promising reparation for any damage that had been done, and that the severest punishment should be inflicted upon the offenders. The insurgents seized in succession the forts of Charlemont and Mountjoy, the

towns of Dunganon, Newry, Carrickmacross, Castle Blaney, and Tanderagee, while the O'Reilleys and Maguires overran their own territories in Cavan and Fermanagh. Sir Carvill Magennis wrote from Newry to the heads of the Government in Dublin, saying: We are for our lives and liberties. We desire no blood to be shed; but if you mean to shed our blood, be sure we shall be as ready as you for that purpose.' Blood was indeed shed abundantly on both sides, and shed too with the utmost barbarity. However well-disposed insurgent chiefs may be; however humane and honourable, they cannot possibly answer for the consequences when arms are put into the hands of a tumultuous mass of excited, vindictive, drunken men, whose passions are inflamed by a religious fanaticism.

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However, the notion common among Protestants, repeated by historians, and credited by learned and eminent men, even in our own day, seems to have no foundation in fact, viz., that the insurgent chiefs planned and designed a nocturnal massacre of all the Protestant inhabitants. Mr. Prendergast quotes contemporary authorities, which seem to be decisive upon this point. In the same year was published by G. S., a minister of God's Word in Ireland,' A Brief Declaration of the Barbarous and Inhuman Dealings of the Irish Rebels, written to excite the English Nation to relieve our poor wives and children that have escaped the Rebels' savage cruelties.' The account which this writer gives of the plan was this- On Saturday the rebels were to disarm all the English; on Sunday to seize all their cattle and goods; on Monday, at the watchword "skeane," they were to cut all the English throats.' And then, he adds, the former they executed; the third only, (that is, the massacre) they failed in.' Though this is stated by an anonymous writer, it is confirmed by the contemporary official documents, which certainly would not diminish or extenuate, however naturally they might exaggerate, the atrocities which the enemy had treacherously perpetrated. The lords justices, in their proclamation of February 8, 1642, more than three months after the alleged event, stated expressly that the massacre had failed. Many thousands had been robbed and spoiled, dispossessed of house and lands, and many murdered on

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