XXXII. timidated this intelligent queen. The constant recti- CHAP. tude of her intentions produced its natural reward of serene fortitude and interior comfort; and her sincere and rational piety elevated her mind to that Power, whose protecting guardianship, the wisest in all ages have resorted to as their best security; and on which the christianized spirit is invited with resigning confidence to rely.33 33 The public thanksgiving by the House of Commons expressed gratitude to Heaven for having of late revealed and made frustrate his bloody and most barbarous treason, who being her natural subject, most unnaturally violating thy divine ordinance, hath secretly sought her blood.' The general thanksgiving has an appearance of being her own composition. As she was so materially concerned in the object of it, and was fully qualified to word it herself, it is likely that she would express her supplication and gratitude in her own language, rather than use the phrases of any other pen. It is therefore subjoined as a probable specimen of her devout impressions: O Lord God of Hosts! most loving and merciful Father! whose power no creature is able to resist: who of Thy great goodness has promised to grant the petitions of such as ask in Thy Son's name, we most humbly beseech Thee to save and defend all princes, magistrates, kingdoms, countries and people, which have received and do profess Thy holy word and gospel: and namely, this realm of England, and Thy servant ELIZABETH, our queen, whom Thou hast wonderfully preserved from manifold perils and sundry dangers, and has of late revealed and frustrated the traitorous practices and conspiracies of divers against her. O heavenly Father! the practices of our enemies, and of the enemies of Thy word and truth, against her and us, are manifest and known to Thee. Turn them, O Lord! if it be Thy blessed will; or overthrow and confound them, for Thy name's sake: suffer them not to prevail. Take them in the crafty wiliness that they have invented; and let them fall into the pit which they have digged for others. Permit them not ungodlily to triumph over us. Discomfit them; discomfit them who trust in their own multitude: and who please themselves in their subtle devices and wicked conspiracies. O loving Father! we have not deserved the least of these Thy mercies which we crave; for we have sinned, and grievously offended Thee; we are not worthy to be called Thy sons. We have not been so thankful to Thee as we ought, for thy unspeakable benefits poured upon us. We have abused this long time of peace and prosperity. We have not obeyed Thy word. We have had it in mouth, but not in heart; in outward appearance, but not in deed. But Thou art merciful and ready to forgive. We therefore come to Thy throne of grace, confessing and acknowleging Thee to be our only refuge in all times of peril and danger. By the mediation of Thy Son, we most heartily pray Thee to forgive us our unthankfulness, disobedience, BOOK It was in Ireland that these Romish machinations assumed the formidable shape of that rebellion, which they were unable to excite effectually in England. For many years, this valuable but misled island had been the theatre and focus of jesuitical and papal intrigues and insurrections. It was in September 1570, that Stukely, mentioned in the preceding chapter, went to Spain to plan with its government for its invasion of Ireland, 'whereby heresy might be expelled, and true Catholic religion planted.'" The archbishop of Cashel, tho a pensioner there,35 discouraged his object, because he did not wish to see Ireland under the power of Philip; but the king eagerly received and favored him.36 He satisfied Philip that the Irish chieftains would support his invasion;" and declared the same hypocrisy, and all other sins; to turn from us Thy displeasure; and to draw our hearts truly to Thee, that we may daily increase in all goodness, and more and more fear Thy holy name, O Lord of power! and Father of mercy, to whom, with Thy Son and Holy Spirit, be all glory and all honor for ever.' 4 See before, p. 381, note 18; and sir F. Walsingham's dispatch of 19 March 1570, Cabala 59. On 14th June 1578, Dr. Th. Wilson, our ambassador at Lisbon, sent the letter to the queen, on Stukely's intended expedition, which is in the British Museum, Nero, B. 1. p. 206. 35 The Irish prelate told sir Francis, that he had departed out of Ireland about two years past; after that, he embarked for Spain, where he hath continued ever since, having received ever after his arrival very honorable entertainment at the king's hands, who yearly gave him 2000 ducats pension.' Cab. 58. 36 The king, after conference had with him, appointed him a very fair house, and gave him 6000 ducats, and a daily allowance for the maintenance of the table, which he taketh to be great, for he spendeth at the least thirty ducats a day.' Wals. Lett. ib. There is a long list of Englishmen whom the king of Spain was supporting, and of their pensions, in Murdin, p. 242-4. T. Stukely received 27,576 ducats, and also a pension of 600 ducats, and W. Stukely 400. ib. 243. When Philip mentioned to the archbishop, that Stukely bad 'assured him that he had dealt so, before his coming, with the Irish nobility, as he should find them ready to receive such forces as he should send,' the prelate wished the king not to be so light of belief,' 6 38 XXXII. of a part of Elizabeth's army, with whom he had CHAP. been successfully tampering. The invasion was to be made at the end of that Spring.39 This rebellious state of Ireland had been produced by the preceding and persevering exertions of the Romish clergy. In 1549, the bishop of Valence had sailed from Scotland to Ireland, to concert with the Irish chiefs the transfer of its sovereignty to the French government." 40 He conferred with O'Neil and his assisters;' with the patriarch of Ireland, who, tho' blind of both his eyes, had been divers times at Rome by post;' and with the bishop of Roy, who had been also at Rome;' and after remaining three weeks with the latter, returned to Scotland, 6 as Stukely, tho a gentleman born, had been a pirate on the sea; of life dissolute; in expences prodigal, and of no substance;' but the king replied, that he was recommended to him by his ambassador, who willed him to credit whatsoever he reported.' Wals. Lett. ib. 59. 38 The duke of Feria told the archbishop, that Stukely hath won a great number of the queen's garrison to be at his devotion, as well soldiers as captains. We honor him here with the name of the duke of Ireland.' Lett. ib. 60. Ib. 61. Of the Irish prelate who was now suing for the queen's leave for his return, Walsingham remarks, Two Irishmen, sent from him out of Spain, were the cause of Roche's enterprize, and that he was sent for out of Spain by the cardinal of Lorrain.' ib. 40 Sir James Melville, then a lad, accompanied the episcopal ambassador, who past first into Ireland to know more particularly the likelihood of the offers made by O'Neil, O'Donnel, O'Doggerty, and Caloch; willing to cast off the yoke of England, and become subject to the king of France, providing that he would procure the pope's gift of Ireland, and then send to their help 200 hacbutters, 200 light horse, and four cannons. Mem. p. 9. The manner in which two English friars, who had fled out of England, supplied the bishop, on his landing in Ireland, with the means of his sensual indulgencies, is another evidence of the corrupt habits of the antient Catholic clergy. ib. p. 10, 11. But he was punished, by his Irish companion ' licking clean out a phial of the only most precious balm that grew in Egypt, which Solyman, the great Turk, had given in a present to the said bishop, after he had been two years ambassador for the king of France in Turkey, and was esteemed worth two thousand crowns. She believed it had been ordained to eat, because it had an odoriferant smell.' Melv. Mem. p. 10, 11. 41 Melv. 11. BOOK 42 and from thence finally went to France; and in the following year to Rome, when the pope not pleasing the French king, the dealing between France and O'Neil ceased.'43 When the Guises and the papal system became predominant in France, the traitorous dealings in Ireland were renewed. In 1571, the cardinal of Lorrain was the chief director of them for the French cabinet. These practices were continued in 1572, when Walsingham complained of them as a violation of the peace between the two governments. The fruits of these schemes appeared in those insurrections, which the English viceroys had to combat and subdue. At the eve of St. Bartholomew's massacre, their suppression seemed to be nearly completed; but in the next year new rebellions began, which the earl of Essex went to repress." Others again occurred in 1576, which being imputed to burthensome exactions of the lord lieutenant, the 46 42 Melv. 12. 43 Melv. 15. Henry II. forbad his subjects to send to Rome for bulls, which, together with the agreement with England, put the pope in a great fear that France would become Protestants for despite.' ib. In 1567, O'Neil attempted a serious rebellion, but was defeated by sir Henry Sidney, and soon perished. Camd. 87-9. "In Walsingham's dispatches of 4 and 8 April 1571, Digges, 735, 6, we find the cardinal in action. In that of 22 April, the duke of Anjou (afterwards Henry III.) was taking up the subject, p. 79, even while treating for his marriage with Elizabeth. p. 83. 15 See his dispatch of 22 Feb. 1572. An officer taken prisoner in Ireland confesseth that the cardinal of Lorrain set him up to stir up a rebellion in Ireland.' Digges, p. 167. 46 Lord Burghley, on 22 August 1572, wrote to Walsingham, The stirs of Munster are well overcome, the chief rebels fled, and the rest conquered. In Connaught some stir hath been by the earl of Clanrickard's son, for which his father was imprisoned, but now delivered, and promiseth to appease the troubles. This day the earl of Ormond came hither out of Ireland, who hath done there great service.' Digges, 238. 47 Camd. 175. XXXII. queen ordered the grievances to be moderated; 48 but CHA P. no lenity was effectual; new commotions succeeded," because the foreign excitement and fuel were never wanting. Spanish troops were in the country, and the papal authority was avowed and acted on." 50 To the same country, the JESUITS had also directed their earliest attention; two of their original founders, Salmeron and Paschasius, had been sent to Ireland before the visit of the bishop of Valence,31 whose activity increased the number and antiprotestant feelings of the papal adherents.52 Salmeron was twice there as the legate of Paul III. attacking the reformed church with his powerful and vehement declamation, by his voice as well as by his pen." Pius IV. also dispatched the same Jesuits to the same place, for the benefit of their bold exertions.5 54 Ireland was made one of the vice provinces of the Jesuit monarchy,55 and its natives occupied two colleges, with one seminary in Spain and another at Lisbon." But the most daring of the 48 Camd. 192. 50 49 Ib. 198. The earl of Desmond and his brother, tho lurking and hiding their heads, signified to the lord justicer, in a long letter, that they had undertaken the protection of the Catholic faith in Ireland, and that, by the authority of the bishop of Rome, and they advised him to join with them for the salvation of his soul.' Camd. p. 211. 51 Orland's Hist. Jesuit, 85. Franciscus Zapata joined them. 52 6 They found all the Irish chieftains but one, and he was going to imitate the rest, adopting Henry's reformation, and about to bind themselves with an oath to burn all the pope's letters, and to deliver up in fetters to the viceroy all who were of the Romish way.' But these Jesuits soon changed them to very opposite feelings; (Orland. ib. p. 88) and thus laid the foundation of Ireland's present state. 53 Hæreses et impietatem expunxit stylo; voce perstrinxit; utrobique potens et vehemens.' This is a part of his Elogium sepulcrale, in the Imago Soc. Jes. 291. Imago Soc. Jes. p 215. 54 55 With ten residentia. Imago, p. 247. 56 The colleges were at Salamanca and St. Jago. The seminaries were at Seville and Lisbon. Imago, 242. That it was not the English government only which accused the Jesuits of conspiracy, we may see |