Historical outlines of political Catholicism,...

Front matter

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Chapter I

Clerical subordination — Religion of Christ — Church of Rome — Priestly dominion — Era of Reformation — English Protestantism — Irish Catholicity — Penal Code — Catholic Emancipation — Wellington — Papal States — Ambition of Clergy — Reign of Elizabeth — Paul IV. — Inquisition at Rome — Popedom — Duke of Alva — Persecutions — Council of Blood — Pius IV. — Pius V. — His deathbed — Canonization — Papal Bulls — Bossuet — Gregory XIII. — Papal attempts in Ireland — Sextus V. — Amiada — "Walsingham — Spanish expedition to Ireland — Its defeat — Irish rebellious chieftains — The Queen — Her contempt for the Spaniards — Clement VIII. — O'Neill — His defeat — Clanricarde — Return to Spain — Submission of the rebels — Popish Clergy in the reign of Elizabeth — James L — Arabella Stuart — Tolerant intentions of James — Address of the Commons — Edward Bruce — Crown of Ireland — Victoria, Queen of Ireland — Gunpowder Plot — Mount Eagle — Garnett the Jesuit — Gospellers — Papelins — Roman Catholic subjects — Jesuits — Plantation of Ulster — Sir John Davis — Lord Deputy Chichester — Commons of Ireland — Tumultuous proceedings — Reception of deputies by the King — Conclusion 1 . . 1 —

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Chapter II. Page

Accession of Charles I. — Parliament — Queen Henrietta — Her humiliating penance — Her Confessor — Strafford — Massacre of 1641 -Exclamation of Charles — Indignation of Castle Haven, a Roman Catholic Peer — Rebellion — Confederate Catholics — Difficulties of the King — The Scots — Remonstrance of Trim — Richelieu — Mazarin — Stuarts — Coronation Oath — Charles' refusal to violate it against the Church — His instructions to his son — Priesthood — Arrival of Nuncio in Ireland — Excommunications — Priestly intemperance — Rinuncini — Rein onstrance — Ormond — Priestly treachery — Glamorgan — Mission — Signet instructions — Warlike Archbishop of Tuam slain —Betrayal of Glamorgan — Clerical perfidy — Fate of Charles I. — Exultation at Rome — Cromwell — Priestly power — Fulmination of Nuncio — Madness of Clergy — Popular infatuation — Cromwell in Ireland — Misdeeds of Rinuncini — Cromwellians — Tipperary — Counties Palatine — Synods — Sufferings of the nation — Subdued state of priesthood — Flight and return of Nuncio to Rome — Fleet of Blake on Papal coast - Consternation — Submission at Rome — Payment by the Pope to the treasury of England .... 28 — 49

Chapter III

Humiliation of the Roman Catholics — The new settlers — Described by Swift — Contrast between fate of Republicans in England and those who settled in Ireland — Restoration of Charles II. — Synod at Dublin: — Pope Alexander VII. — Peter Talbot — Proffer of the Crown by the priests — Charles II. — His faithlessness — Irish brigade — Marlborough— Contrast — Plots — Accession of James II. — His cruelties — His Queen — His abdication — Petre his Confessor — Revocation of Edict of Nantes — Castlemaine — Mission to Rome — Cardinal Howard — . Innocent XI. — Baseness of James — Committal of Castlemaine — Diplomatic relations with Rome— Infatuation of James— Rinaldo D'Este, the Queen's brother — Resigns, on his marriage, his cardinal's hat — St. Paul's — Remark

CONTENTS.

IX of Spanish ambassador to James — Tyrconnell — Folly of the Irish — Intemperance of their priesthood — Base money of James — Ill-treatment of the Irish Protestants — Chancellor Fitton — French auxiliaries — "William — Penal laws — Huguenots— Cruel treatment of them — Treaty of Limerick — Bill of Exclusion — Calamities — Priestly presumption — Anecdote — Mary Beatrice — Chevalier St. George — Advice of James to his son respecting the Irish — Vicissitudes of Rice, Chief Baron — Dr. Doyle's opinion on the propriety of the penal laws — Ultramontane priesthood — Their dangerous principles 50—76

Chapter IV

Penal Code — Roman Catholics — Reformation — Reign of Queen Anne — Elector of Hanover, afterwards George I. — Further intrigue of France — Its failure in Ireland — Severities against the priests — Their justification— First Pretender — Roman Catholics of that day — Celtic race — Swift — His estimate of the Roman Catholics — Fontenoy

— Charles Edward the second Pretender — Bishop Berkeley — Viceroy alty of Chesterfield — Roman Catholic Clergy — Bishop Berkeley to Roman Catholic Clergy — Their address to Bishop Berkeley — Reflections — Degradation — Crimes — Retrospect — America — United States — Its new Constitution — Catholicism — Volunteers — French Revolution — British dragoons in Roman States

— Pope Pius VI. — Republican France — Sacrilegious treatment of that Pope by the French — His death — British marines in Rome — Stuart race — Penal Code — Relaxations — Ireland — Elective franchise — Earl Rosse

— Remarkable predictions — Their realization — Reflections — Curran — Burke — Maynooth — Priesthood — Contrast— Maynooth-reared priests— Slavery — Tyranny — Agitation — America — Scotland — England — Ireland — Press— Andrew Marvel — Races — Trench Directory — Theobald Wolfe Tone — Invasion — French Fleet in Bantry Bay — Its dispersal— Rebellion — Lords Mountjoy and O'Neill — France —The Hoche— The Donegal — Wellesley— Wellington— The Union . . . 77—112

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CONTENTS.

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Chapter V

The French as invaders — The Eoman Catholic Bishops — Maynooth — Clergy — Contrast — Grattan — Father O'Leary — First Consul — Napoleon — Emperor — His excommunication — His son made King of Rome — Napoleon II. — Fontainebleau — Waterloo — Works of art — Canova — Rome — Pope Pius VII. — England — France — Inquisition in Italy — Modern Rome — Clerical ascendancy — Papal recantation — Tuscany — Italy — France — French occupation of Rome' — St. Peter's — Revival of Imperial dynasty — Catholic exclusion — Their claims— Professions — Their opponents — Their apprehensions — Secretary, afterwards Sir Robert Peel — Catholic pledges — Declaration by Mr. O'Connell, that he was not a papist — Abbd Roy — Altered tone at Rome — Papal pretensions — Connexion between Church and State — Catholic petitions — Oaths — Casuists — Hypocricy — Established Church — Lord Plunket — Duty of Catholic gentry — Evidence of Catholic leaders and prelates — Their declarations and professions — Bill of Rights — William of Orange —Coronation oath — Sheil — Pennenden Heath — Catholic Association — Emancipation — Predictions — Mr. Sadler — Catholic gratitude — Catholic prelates— Wellington ...... 113-143

Chapter VI

The wings — Opposition to them — Violence and faithlessness of the leaders — State provision for priesthood — Contemplated control of Government — Proposed measures — Anticipated benefits — Unreasonableness of priesthood — Domestic nomination — Its violation in the person of Paul Cullen — Armagh — Dublin — Stipendiary priesthood — Religious processions — Their condemnation by the Roman Catholic Bishops — Proclamation — Unwarrantable excitement — Papal encroachments — Aggression — Doctor McHale and Cardinal Wiseman- Ecclesiastical Titles Bill — Parliamentary reform — Municipal reform — Resolutions of Bishops — Scottish Union — Reformation — Church property — Viceroy alty

CONTENTS.

— Abolition recommended —Union — Steam — Electric light — Catholic Bishops favourable to Union — Their motives — Mania for repeal of Union —Agitation for the repeal — Its absurdities — Catholic prelates and priests — Delusion — Imprecations of priests — Visitation of Providence — Smith O'Brien — Young Ireland — O'Connell — Contrast— Wellington 144—176

CHAPTEE VII.

Protestant gentry— Sir Francis Head— His question and his answer — Social evils traceable to the Priests — Tenant-right — Lord Clare — Agrarian law at Rome — Grazing — Depopulation — Sir Thomas More — Lordkeeper Coventry — Famine — Emigration — Celtic priests — Representation — Sheil — Curran — Priestly influence — Intimidation — Their selections — Contrast — Queen's Colleges — Papal and priestly opposition to education — Early anxiety of Catholic gentry for education — Doctor Doyle favourable to mixed education — Bigots of Synod of Thurles — Wordsworth — Apostate priests of Oxford — Cranmer — Wolsey — Armagh — Slavish opinions of the apostates — English Catholicism — Infallibility of the Pope — Formerly denied by the Catholics — University of London — Stonyhurst and Oscot — Catholic University — Contract — Pascal — Galileo — President Newman — Dunciad — Philip II. — Continental seminaries — Maynooth — Gallican Church — Ultramontane doctrines — Irish constabulary — German State of Hesse — Catholic Protestants — Jews — Priests of Meath — Mr. Gladstone — Neapolitan States — Madiai — Papal and other States of Italy — Royal Colleges — Proposed extension — Preliminary education for Priests there — Degrees in Divinity — Improvement of priesthood — Francis I. — Concordat — Napoleon — Power of State over Priesthood — First French Revolution — Prospects from last — France — Rome — Despotism — Arming of France — Spirit of England — Priests — Civil war — Invasion of Ireland — Catholics — Protestants — Comparison — British fleets — Wellington — Trophies — Naval architects of England — Armada — Elizabeth — Dismay at Rome — Inquisition — French expedition to Ireland — Its fate — Bantry Bay —

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CONTENTS.

Tone — National regiments of militia — Aliens — Indignation — Sheil — Appeal in Parliament — Papacy — Contract — Great Britain — Free institutions — Fidelity — Extension — Catholic freedom — Hostages for allegiance — Civil and religious liberty — Conclusion .... 177 — 220

HISTORICAL OUTLINES

OF

POLITICAL CATHOLICISM.

Chapter I

" A clergy," declared the prophetic Burke, " who are not restrained hy the most austere subordination, will become a nuisance, a real public grievance of the heaviest kind, in any country that entertains them." That subordination, to which the most eminent advocate of civil and religious liberty thus referred, is twofold. First, to the government, laws, and institutions of the State which protects the priesthood in their civil rights ; next, to the doctrines, discipline, and tenets of the Church of their religious ministration.* The principles that ought to govern clerical subordination are best studied in the precepts of the Divine Founder of Christianity. The truest interpreter of those precepts is the life of Him whose words were the emanation of Heaven ; whose morals were as pure as his charity was unbounded ;

* " L'Ecclesiastique doit compte de ses talens, autant a son Prince, et a la patrie, qu, a la religion dont il est ministre." — Abbe Boy.

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2 RELIGION OF CHRIST — CHURCH OF ROME.

whose humility was as unaffected as his origin was exalted ; whose benevolence was as universal as his mission was sublime. Of Him who, above human prejudice, appeared a poor man amongst the poor ; who, endowed with omnipotence, inculcated equajity ; who, an enemy to tyranny, announced that the truths he taught would make all men free ; who, despising ambition, preached peace on earth ; who, Sovereign of the spiritual world, acknowledged his temporal allegiance ; who, born in Judea, submitted to the laws and civil authority of imperial Rome.*

The religion of Christ has, however, unfortunately for the liberties and happiness of man, been but rarely the religion of Christendom. That faith, designed to be a mild and endearing bond of amity amongst men, has been too often wielded as a desolating instrument of discord. That theology has been denounced as false, which, by an impious converse, makes man according to God's image, and plants infernal passions in his breast.f

The tyranny of the Church of Rome has always assumed two phases, — despotism and intolerance. The first it exercises over the members of its own ; the latter, over the members of every other creed. Happy would it be for the destinies of men, could the aphorism of Andrew Marvel be realized in the priesthood of every creed : " There is nothing that comes nearer the divine perfection, than to enjoy a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to mankind, under a disability to do all that is evil." J

To the intrigues, intemperance, and treachery of the

* Essay on the Eoman Catholic Keligion. f Sheil.

% Works of Andrew Marvel.

PRIESTLY DOMINION — ERA OF REFORMATION.

priesthood, can Catholic Ireland trace her decline and degradation in every age, from the days when Nicholas Breakspear, the only English pope, betrayed the island to his countryman, the Second Henry of England. That transfer has been characterised by the Catholic historian, Thomas Moore, as " an audacious transaction, presenting in all respects a perfect instance of that sort of hypocritical prelude to wrong, that holy league, for the purposes of rapine, between the papal and regal powers, in which most of the usurpations, frauds, and violences of those dark and demoralized times originated."* The priestly chronicler of her annals assures us, that after his invasion, the first measure of that monarch " was to cover the country with monasteries for her subjugation." f Under priestly dominion in succeeding reigns, that subjugation was delegated to restless adventurers, who, rude and uneducated, threw off the control of English institutions, and degenerated to the level of the conquered. While they bowed superstitious obedience to the papal Church, retaining the vices of partial civilization, they superadded the adopted depravity of uncultivated ferocity. Intermittent massacre was succeeded by retaliatory extermination ; temporary truces only induced more sanguinary outbreaks ; purchased pardons only encouraged fresh insurrections. J

The Reformation partitioned the Christian world. From that era a large portion of the subjects of the Crown was found antagonistic to the creed of the State ; persecution became the favourite instrument on both sides for the propogation of faith ; and the accusations of history, when

* Moore's History of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 204.

f Taaffe's Ireland, vol. i.

X Clarke's Memoirs of the Supremacy.

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4s ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM — IRISH CATHOLICISM.

impartial, are equally severe on both. When bribes and terror were found unsuccessful inculcators of doctrine, the sword, the scaffold, and the stake were adopted by all, as the most persuasive and merciful expedients to eradicate errors which reasoning could not remove. The little advance made by the Reformation amongst the native Irish, is attributed by high authority — " to the national feeling which in happier countries was directed against Rome, being in Ireland directed against England." * With English Protestantism, Irish Catholicism accordingly became the touchstone of treason, — consequent cruelty the certain herald of revolt, — and papal intrigue seized every occasion to kindle the conflagration of rebellion. In a succession of rebellions defeat was hereditary, and the Irish invariably acquired the guilt without the glory of war.

Under the dominion of the priesthood, Ireland has ever been the theatre of an unbroken chain of calamity ; their intemperance, exciting and misleading the people, the cause of the long servitude of both. Even though aided by the arms and treasures of Spain, the jealous machinations and formidable hostility of France, — the spiritual protectorate of Rome, when grasping at political influence, has ever proved but the shadow of death to Ireland. Subserviency to foreign influence constantly exciting resistance to legalized authority, the first law of nature — self-preservation — necessarily dictated measures of security to power. The forfeiture of civil rights accordingly became, by form of law, proscriptive as well as remedial, aggressive as well as retaliatory — the retributive fate of those — whose lives the sword had spared, and the remnant of whose properties had escaped former confiscations. In * Macaulay's Essay on Ranke's History of the Popes.

PENAL CODE — CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 5

tracing back the origin and causes of the penal laws, when we remember the haughty tone in which the Church insulted sovereigns as well as subjects, — the zeal with which, in the desperate agonies of her decline, she armed the people against authority, — the pertinacity with which she sought to establish her despotism on the ruins of civil liberty, although sensibility may see in their enforcement much to lament, justice will find in their enactment but little to condemn.

The penal code had its source in the dark and rugged days of our ancestors ; it gradually became mild and mitigated as it descended into more cultivated times. After successive but partial relaxations, the eloquent Curran thus beautifully hailed their extensive remission in 1793 : — "If we look back with sorrow to their enactment, let us look forward with kindliness and gratitude to their repeal. Produced by national calamity, they were brought by national benevolence as well as by national contrition to the altar of public justice and concord, and offered as a sacrifice to atone, to heal, to conciliate, to restore social confidence." Associated with that repeal, as its first appearance in public life, is a name the most illustrious of our age. For that name was reserved in 1829, their total extinction — an act adding one, and that perhaps not the least to its many titles to immortality !

The measure of Catholic Emancipation was in amplitude as large, as noble, and as fearless as the heart of the warrior by whom, as then first minister of the Crown, it was conceived and conceded. Undismayed by danger in the field, unmoved by difficulties in the Cabinet, undaunted by the opposition of popular prejudice, unawed by open hostility from the Throne — in policy as in war,

WELLINGTON — PAPAL STATES.

he trod down what other minds deemed impossibilities. The eye that was omniscient in the storm of battle — could not perceive in the deferential humility of the supplicant, the dissembling guise of deceit. The truest heart that ever beat in the breast of man — could not believe that in the ardent desire to recover political rights, there lurked a secret design to reconquer religious supremacy. He trusted in the solemn professions of men, with the confiding sincerity of a soldier ;

" Artless save in the warrior's art,

And in that art the first." — Croker.

In unrivetting the fetters of his countrymen, he rejected the galling shackles of proffered securities — despising the past, he hoped to guide the future. His magnanimity disdained to make the surrendered independence of the Church the ransom of Catholic freedom. In extinguishing the remnant of the penal code, he raised the Catholic from the abject state of helotism to a level in citizenship with himself — and that self was Wellington !

History is our preceptress, and the essayist who strives to trace the calamities of nations to their causes, must unfold her darkest and most gloomy pages. A man should be equally fearful of suppressing what is true as of publishing what is false. Power in the hands of a political priesthood has been invariably found fatal to popular liberty, subversive of national advancement. High Catholic and clerical authority admits the prerogative of the pontiff as a sovereign in the Papal States, to be " a despotism diametrically opposed to the interests of the people and the personal happiness of the prince."* A

AMBITION OF CLERGY — ELIZABETH.

calm and attentive review of history connected with the Catholic priesthood at home leads to unerring conclusions. Ever servilely devoted when weak, that clergy have been always dangerously ambitious when they fancied themselves strong. When oppressed, they have ever asserted the principles of religious equality — admitted to civil rights, they have ever advanced claims to religious ascendancy— sectarian aggrandizement. Wherever and whenever priestly dominion has attained the ascendant, rational liberty has become proportionately depressed. These axioms may also be deduced from the too rarely consulted testimony of history. All enterprizes in which that clergy have assumed or seized the helm, have invariably drifted into the current of fatal miscarriage. Every attempt by them to revive or extend their power beyond its fitting sphere, has been signally marked by public misfortune. National honour, happiness, liberty, prosperity, always advance with the retreat of the priesthood into sanctified retirement. These pages are intended to elucidate these propositions, — by recalling the crimes, follies, infatuations, vicissitudes, exclusions, indignities, remonstrances, professions and perfidies of past generations for the instruction, — the admonition of this !

1558. The ministers of Elizabeth had been attentive observers of events during the Catholic dominion of Mary. The pope, originally but a bishop, was placed by an imperial edict at the head of the prelacy. When the head of the empire had abandoned, or was driven from the imperial dominion he had exercised over mediaeval Rome, the pontiff, seeking to strengthen his spiritual by the acquisition of temporal power, claimed as the inheritor of his rights. The insurrections which Elizabeth had to subdue in Ireland, according to Ranke,

INQUISITION AT ROME — POPEDOM.

were almost all instigated by Rome :* the conspiracies against her in England could be traced to the same source. Paul IV. was pope on the accession of Elizabeth ; he had introduced the inquisition into Rome, an institution founded by St. Dominic, after one which had existed amongst the Jews in the time of Christ, and had been sanctioned by the Talmud.t It is a gratification, at least, to believe that its origin was unchristian ; and on the death of that pope, the Roman people rushed to destroy the building, the seat of the inquisitorial tribunal. J Paul replied to the ambassador of Elizabeth, that England was held only as a fief of his see ; but he did not long survive his vain and arrogant assertion. He died on the 18th of August, 1559, and on the 29th of December following, Pius IV. assumed the tiara. This pontiff had seen that the efforts to enforce a compelled conversion had been abortive, and in an official letter to Elizabeth of the 5th of May 1560, he sought to cajole the Queen. " You may promise to yourself," said he, " all things you can desire from us, not only for the salvation of your soul, but also to establish and confirm your royal dignity by our authority." Thus was an alliance proffered, by a power ever infallible, to one who had been excommunicated by his predecessor — as a bastard, a heretic, and a usurper,, — that was to legitimize her in birth, lineage and orthodoxy. This pope also sent an eminent ecclesiastic as ambassador specially to conciliate Elizabeth, but on reaching Calais he was refused admission into England. Pius IV. further urged the Queen to send an envoy to

* Ranke's History of the Popes : Kelly's translation. Whittaker and Co., Loud. 1843.

t The Rev. J. Wolff's Journal, vol. i., p. 312.

X Sharon Turner's History of England, vol. xii., p. 155.

DUKE OF ALVA.

the Council of Trent, and to allow her prelates to attend, but she refused;* the intractable arrogance of his predecessor had irrevocably decided the reformation of the Church in England. The State Council, in their discussions on the 1st of May 1561, respecting permission to a nuncio to visit England, explained their suspicions of the pope : — " What an abuse is this to bear us in hand, that no harm is meant by the pope, when he hath already done as much as in him lieth to hurt us. The pope even at this moment hath his legate in Ireland, who is already joined with certain traitors there, and occupied in stirring a rebellion." + Whatever hopes there might have been of reconciliation, expired on the death of Pius IV. in December, 1565 ; and he was succeeded by Pius V., who had been originally selected by Paul IV. to preside over the Inquisition at Rome. This holy incendiary, forgetting that the different branches of Christianity are but so many ways to the same end, adopted the never-failing resource of terrified intolerance — threats and persecution. He stimulated, by pontifical epistles, the frightful atrocities of the ferocious Duke of Alva in Flanders, in 1568. The Council of Alva, to carry out the commands of the pope, is the execration of history, under the designation of " The Council of Blood !" J In 1569 Pius sent his troops,

* Charles Butler, His Mem., vol. i., pp. 152, 153. f Hardw. State Papers, vol. i., p. 184.

X Gibbon observes — " A melancholy truth obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind, — that the Christians, in the course of their intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on each other, than they had experienced from the zeal of Infidels."' In the Netherlands alone, more than one hundred thousand subjects of Charles V. are said by Grotius, a man of genius, learning, and moderation, to have suffered by the hand of the executioner. "If we are obliged," adds Gibbon, "to submit our belief to the authority of Grotius, it must be allowed that the number of Pro-

PERSECUTION— PIUS V.

under Sporza, into France, to punish, by the infliction of every severity, the heretics and their leaders. In his letters to Catherine de Medici, he insisted upon her not sparing the enemies of heaven — they must be massacred — they must be exterminated ; and, with the insanity of his self-deluding bigotry, he added, that he prayed for it every day.* With infatuation incredible, he directed the Cardinal Lorraine to convince the king, that he cannot satisfy his Redeemer, without being inexorable to all who should dare petition him ;t and in a letter to Charles IX., he commanded him to listen neither to the prayers of blood nor kindred. J Against Elizabeth, whose policy was purely defensive, the cruel pontiff hurled fulminations

testants who were executed in a single province and a single reign, far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in three centuries and of the Eoman empire." He adds, in a note, that Fra Paolo, an historian of the Church who resided at Venice (Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, lib. iii.), reduces the number of the Belgic martyrs to fifty thousand. (Milman's edition of Gibbon's ' Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire ;' vol. ii., pp. 501, 502). Charles V. died in 1558. The Government of Alva in the Low Countries commenced in August, 1567 ; he returned to Spain in December, 1573. Alva boasted to Count Koningstein, uncle to the Prince of Orange, that during his government in Flanders of six years and a half, he consigned more than eighteen thousand heretics to the public executioner, besides a much greater number whom he put to the sword in the towns which he took, and in the field of battle. (Robertson's ' History of Charles V. ;' Watson's ' History of Philip II. of Spain.') It has been calculated that about two hundred persons suffered for their religion during the reign of Elizabeth in England.

* See the extracts from the original letters in Latin in Sharon Turner's ' History of England,' note, vol. xii., pp. 182, 183.

J " Qua in re, nullius preces admittere, nihil cujusquam sanguini et propinquitati concedere." — Letter to Charles XI., p. 61.

HIS DEATH -BED — CANONIZATION — PAPAL BULLS. 11

insulting and audacious, urging her subjects to assassinations and conspiracies; and in 1569 he strove to incite the Irish to rebellion — by a promise of the same plenary indulgence which had been conferred in the Crusades. His pontificate commenced on the 7th of January 1566, and ended on the 1st of May 1572; but he did not die until he had created that infernal spirit — which immediately after, in the same year, exhibited itself in the massacre of St. Bartholomew — an event which humanity will never forget, nor recollect but with universal and unutterable horror. Pius, on his death-bed, on reviewing his pontifical life, is said to have exclaimed — " When I was in a low condition, I had some hopes of salvation ; after I had been admitted to be a cardinal, I greatly doubted it ; but since I have come to be a pope, I have no hope at alL" Pius was beatified in 1672, and canonized by Clement XI. in 1712 ; but Charles Butler, a high Catholic authority, in order to palliate his posthumous honours, assures us, that in canonizing a saint, the Church is far from canonizing his acts.*

" The bulls," said Bossuet, the most eloquent ornament of the Catholic church, " of Paul HI. against Henry VIII., and of Pius V. against Elizabeth, were waste paper — despised by the heretics, and in truth by the Catholics. Treaties, alliances, commerce — everything went on as before, and the popes knew this would be the case ; still the Court of Rome, though aware of the inability of its decrees, would publish them to support its chimerical title. The heretics took advantage of them, and the Catholics suffered much by them, as occasion was taken in consequence to punish the Catholics — not as Catholics, but as public enemies — as men ever disposed, when the pope * His Mem., vol. i., pp. 196, 197.

PAPAL ATTEMPTS ON IRELAND.

should order, to revolt against the Crown."* Gregory XIII., in 1576, renewed the fulminations of Pius V. against Elizabeth, with additions of his own, but with equal success. His predecessor had forgotten Ireland in his excommunication ; that of Gregory deprived the Queen of her Crown of Ireland, precisely as that of Pius V. had denuded her of that of England !

During the pontificate of Gregory XIII., an English refugee, Thomas Stuckley — a mere adventurer — resided at Rome. The pope appointed him his chamberlain, created him Marquess of Leinster, and, in order to enforce his bull against Elizabeth, furnished him with a ship and troops to invade Ireland. It was arranged that Stuckley should form a junction on the French coast with a small military force which Geraldine, an Irish refugee, had assembled there, also by means of assistance supplied by the pope. Stuckley, whose trade was fighting, was persuaded, after he had sailed, to take part in the expedition which King Sebastian had fitted out for the coast of Africa, in which, as soldiers of the pope were generally unfortunate, Stuckley was killed. Geraldine having, therefore, to try his fortune alone, landed in June 1579, and after various ill success, was also slain. The Earl of Desmond, on the landing of Geraldine, had revolted against the Queen, but the papal aid proved inadequate ; the money that had been promised by the pope, never arrived : Desmond could therefore hold out no longer, and the English, as usual, were victorious. They punished those who had joined in the insurrection with the most frightful severity. The whole province of Munster was devastated, and colonists crowded from England to occupy