however at

first by par- the provinces.

tial distur

bances of

the peace.

*

A. D. 1603. ever allowed to commence without some exhibitions of excitement and agitation throughout The Romish teachers of the people had been instilling into their minds the false doctrine asserted by certain foreign universities, which taught that it was mortal sin to aid in any way the "English heretics" against the Earl of Tyrone; and that those who did so could have no salvation unless they deserted and repented of their crime. Under the influence of such lessons, some of the chief cities and boroughs of the south were led to make resistance to the proclamation of the king's accession, and to assume for a time an attitude of decided hostility and rebellion, taking measures also for setting up the Romish religion by force of arms. Cork, Waterford, and Limerick appear to have been particularly distinguished for their manifestations on this occasion; and other places of less importance and strength, as Clonmel, Kilkenny, Wexford, &c., were not slow to participate in the same kind of proceedings.

Riotous

In Cork, the rebellious citizens, we are told, proceedings in Cork on took possession of the churches, ejected the lawthe King's ful reformned ministers, burned what Bibles and Common Prayer Books they could find, rased out the Ten Commandments and Scripture sen

accession.

See the Judgment of the Doctors of Salamanca and Valladolid on the Earl of Tyrone's War in Ireland, &c. Appendix, No. 57.

rages at

tences from the churches, and painted Romish A. D. 1603. pictures in their stead, restored the mass in public use, and paraded the city in procession with a cross, which they forced all persons to reverence. In fine, they took the sacrament to pledge themselves to the support of the Roman Catholic religion with their lives and fortunes, and gave proofs of their earnestness by various acts of tumult and outrage. Nor were the citi- Similar outzens of Waterford much less violent; for they Waterford; too showed their temper by pulling down their and their recorder from the cross, where he was reading the proclamation of the king's accession, seizing on churches, and admitting into one of them a Dominican friar to preach a seditious sermon, in which, among other injurious remarks relative to the late queen, he took occasion to say that Jezebel was dead, causing mass to be celebrated in the Cathedral, &c.

But these comparatively trifling exceptions to the general tranquillity were soon removed by the energy and address of the Lord Deputy Mountjoy, who visited Munster in person for the restoration of order. Waterford at first refused to admit the viceroy within its gates, pleading some privilege founded upon an ancient charter, and asserting that its pious citizens "could not in conscience obey any prince that persecuted the Catholic faith." They soon

issue.

A. D. 1603. however, saw the expediency of opening their gates, taking the oath of allegiance to the king, and renouncing all foreign jurisdiction. After which Lord Mountjoy, having visited Cork also and Limerick, as well as Cashel and other places in the southern province, returned again to Dublin.*

Forbear

ance of the

king towards

his accom

plices.

And now, for the purpose of confirming the public peace and good order, a proclamation was issued, granting a general indemnity and obliO'Neill and vion for past offences against the law. Moreover, the chieftains O'Neill and O'Donel (i. e. Roderick O'Donel, brother of Hugh Roe O'Donel, who had fled into Spain) were taken over by the Lord Deputy to visit the king's court in London, where, after a very gracious reception of them both, the latter was created Earl of Tyrconnel. But these Irish noblemen, as they passed along the streets of the English metropolis, were assailed with insults by the populace, who could not restrain, even through respect for the Lord Deputy, their marks of hatred and execration toward the persons of those who had occasioned so much bloodshed and sorrow to thousands of their fellow-countrymen.

Further seditious proceedings of the

agents of Rome.

The moderation of King James, however, and his temperate bearing towards the Papal Church, was made by the designing and wily agents of • Cox's History of Ireland, ii. pp. 4–8.

Catholic martyr,"* as
but be well affected
Yea, they were bold

Rome, to furnish new matter for their insidious A. D. 1603. intrigues. "The son of a they styled him, could not to them and to their faith. enough to affirm openly, that the king was indeed of their religion; and that he only awaited a favorable opportunity of declaring himself. Meanwhile they resolved to act in a bold and decided manner, as if assured of his favor; proceeding, accordingly, to seize on some of the parish churches by violence; building other new ones; repairing abbeys and monasteries for their own use; erecting crosses in conspicuous places; marching through the towns in pompous processions with their showy habits and gaudy ceremonies; reviewing and deciding causes which had been determined in the king's courts, and compelling their subjects to obey their decisions and not those of the law, and this on pain of damnation; forbidding also the people to be present at the reformed worship in their parish churches. For to this period the practice of resorting to those churches had been still continued even by those who cherished strong feelings of attachment to the religion of Rome. Such persons were distinguished by the name of Church-Papists, from the more extreme and violent of those who belonged to the same party.

• Rothe's Analecta. Colon. 1617, p. 133.

A. D. 1604. But now every exertion was made use of by the The Church agents of Rome to put a stop to this practice; Papists for these agents being partly foreigners from Spain attendance or Italy, who came over to maintain the struggle at the parish for temporal ascendancy in Ireland, and partly churches. natives of the country, the disciples of those

sake their

foreigners, who, under such influence, had gone abroad to receive their education and orders in seminaries and colleges beyond the sea, in Spain, and France, and Flanders, &c. By means therefore of their efforts, many of those who had been known as Church-Papists were induced, about this time (A.D. 1604) to discontinue their Act of Uni- attendance at the established worship: for which formity enforced in reason it was thought good to carry into effect, at least in Dublin (by way of example to other places), the provisions of the Act of Uniformity, as a means of counterbalancing this foreign influence.*

Dublin.

Proclama

clergy of

Rome to leave the kingdom, 4th July, A.D. 1605.

But the republication of the Act of Unifortion for the mity was not followed, even in the metropolis, with that ready compliance and submission to its injunctions which might have been anticipated; and therefore, to enforce its observance more effectually, measures of a harsher nature were adopted by the government. Sixteen of the most eminent persons of the city of Dublin were summoned to the Court of Castle Chamber, and

See Mant, i. 349.