debated, and approved in the general assembly, without one dissenting voice, the whole was concluded, and the confederate catholics obliged to transport within a very short time an army of ten thousand men into England, for the service and relief of the king: and, all things thus stated and settled, the commissioners who had treated the peace were sent, by and in the name of the assembly, to Dublin, where the lord lieutenant resided, to sign the said articles, and to receive his lordship's confirmation of them and accordingly the articles were there, in the beginning of the year 1646, interchangeably signed and perfected, with all formalities requisite; and shortly after were, with all solemnity and ceremony, published and proclaimed by the king at arms at Dublin and at Kilkenny, where the supreme council and all the assemblies of the confederate catholics were held, and then printed by their authority; the archbishop of Fermo, then the pope's nuncio, with the catholics in Ireland, manifesting his approbation of all that had been done, by giving his blessing to the commissioners when they were sent to Dublin to conclude the treaty, and other ministers from foreign princes being present, consenting to and witnessing the conclusion: so that the marquis, having performed all on his part that could be expected from him, or was in his power to do, and having received from the other party all the assurance he could require, there being no other way of engaging the public faith of the nation than that in which they had so formally engaged themselves to him, intended nothing but how his majesty might speedily receive some fruit of that peace and accommodation, by the sending assistance to him; and to that purpose, with the advice and upon the invitation of several persons who had had great authority and power amongst the confederate catholics, he took a journey himself to Kilkenny, where he was received with that respect and reverence as was due to his person and to

16

the place he held, and with such expressions of triumph and joy as gave him cause to believe that people were glad to be again received into his majesty's protection. But this sunshine of hope and union quickly vanished, and the old clouds of jealousy and sedition began again to cover the land. The pope's nuncio, and the titular bishops who depended on him, envied that nation the happiness and the glory they foresaw it would be possessed of by the execution of that agreement; and so, without any colour of authority, either by the old established laws of the kingdom, or those new rules which they had prescribed to themselves since the rebellion, they convened a congregation of the clergy at Waterford, (a town most at their devotion,) where this titular bishop of Fernes was in the chair, and presided: and therefore it will not be amiss to take a short view of their proceedings, that unhappy, oppressed, miserable Ireland may clearly discern to whom they owe those pressures and calamities they are now overwhelmed with; and whether that bishop be to be reckoned in the number of those who suffer at present for his zeal to religion, his allegiance to his king, and his affection to his country, or whether his name is to be inserted in that catalogue which must derive to posterity the authors and fomenters of so odious and causeless a rebellion, in which such a sea of blood hath been let out, and the betrayers of the honour and faith of that country and nation, and who are no less guilty of the extirpation of religion in that catholic kingdom, than Ireton or Cromwell, or that impious power under which they have perpetrated all their acts of blood, cruelty, and desolation.

This congregation of the clergy no sooner assembled, than (instead of prescribing acts of humiliation and repentance to the people, for the ill they had formerly done, and of inflaming their hearts with new zeal, and infusing a pious courage into them, to relieve and

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Proceedings of the Irish clergy at Waterford,

IRELAND,

succour the king from those rebels who oppressed him, according to their particular obligation by their late agreement, which had been the proper office of prelates and a Christian clergy) they began to inveigh against the peace which themselves had so lately approved and so formally consented to, as if it had not carefully enough provided for the advancement of religion; would not suffer it to be proclaimed in Waterford; and sent their emissaries and their orders into all the considerable towns and cities, to incense the people against it, and against those who wished it should take effect; insomuch as, when the king at arms was proclaiming the peace at Limerick, with that solemnity and ceremony as in such cases is used throughout the world, with his coat of arms, the ensign of his office, upon him, and accompanied with the mayor and aldermen, and the most substantial of the citizens in their robes, and with all the ensigns of magistracy and authority, one Wolfe, a seditious friar, stirred up the multitude against them, which being led on by one Fanning, a person notorious for many outrages and acts of blood and inhumanity in the beginning of the rebellion, violently assaulted them; and, after many opprobrious speeches, in contempt of the peace and the authority of the king, and tearing off the coat from the herald, beat and wounded him and many of the magistrates of the city, and some of them almost to death. And lest all this might be excused, and charitably interpreted to be the effect of a popular and tumultuous insurrection, the lawful mayor, and the other principal officers who assisted him in the discharge of his duty, were immediately displaced, and Fanning, the infamous conductor of that rabble, made mayor in his place, who, by letters from the nuncio, was thanked for what he had done, encouraged to proceed in the same way, and had the apostolical benediction bestowed on him for committing such an outrage upon the privileged person of a

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herald, who in the name of the king came to proclaim peace, as by the law of nations must have been adjudged barbarous and unpardonable, in any part of the world where civility is planted, if he had come to have denounced war: and yet all this while the design itself was carried with so great secrecy, that the lord lieutenant (proceeding in his progress for the settling and composing the humours of the people, which he understood to be in some disorder by the infusions of the ill affected clergy) never heard of any force of arms to second and support those mutinous disorders, till, being near unto the city of Cashel, he was advertised by a letter from the mayor that Owen O'Neal's army was marching that way, and had sent terrible threats to that city if it presumed to receive the lord lieutenant: and shortly after he found that Owen O'Neal used all possible expedition to get between him and Dublin, that so he might have been able to have surprised and destroyed him. Whereupon the marquis found it necessary to lose no time in returning thither; yet resolved not only to contain himself from any act of hostility, but even from those trespasses which are hardly avoided upon marches; and so paid precisely for whatsoever was taken from the inhabitants throughout all the catholic quarters, presuming that those persons of honour who had transacted the treaty would have been able to have caused the peace to be observed in despite of those clamorous undertakers.

When the unchristian congregation at Waterford had made this essay of their power and jurisdiction, they made all possible haste to propagate their authority, and declared the peace to be void, and inhibited all persons to submit thereunto, or to pay any taxes, impositions, or contributions, which had been settled by the said agreement; and without which neither the standing army (which was to be applied to the reduction of those towns

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The assembly at Waterford declare the peace void.

IRELAND,

and provinces which had put themselves under the protection of the rebels of England, and neither submitted to the former cessation nor would be now comprehended in the peace) could be supported, nor the ten thousand men could be raised to be transported into England for the succour of the king, as had been so religiously undertaken. Which injunction of theirs the people too readily obeyed and submitted to. Then they committed and delegated the entire and absolute power of governing and commanding, as well in secular as ecclesiastical matters, to the pope's nuncio, who began his empire with committing to prison the commissioners who had been instrumental in the treaty, and making of the peace by the order of the general assembly, and issued out an excommunication against all who had or should submit to the peace, which comprehended all the nobility, and almost all the gentry of the nation, and very many of the most learned and pious clergy, as well regular as secular: which excommunication wrought so universally upon the minds of the people, that albeit all persons of honour and quality received infinite scandal, and well foresaw the irreparable damage religion itself would undergo by that unwarrantable proceeding, and used their utmost power to draw the people to obedience and submission to the said agreement; and to that purpose prevailed so far with general Preston, that he gave them reason to hope that he would join with them for the vindication of the public faith and honour of the nation, and compel those who opposed it to submit to the peace; yet all those endeavours produced no effects, but concluded in unprofitable resentments and lamentations.

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In the mean time, Owen O'Neal (when he found himself disappointed of his design to have cut off the lord lieutenant before he should reach Dublin) entered into the Queen's County with his army, and committed all the acts of cruelty and outrage that can be imagined; took