land, speaking of the Spanish Armada, that the Romish Clergy, at this period, did not uniformly concur in exciting the Irish to insurrections. O'Sullivan himself confesses, though it was his business to represent the religious zeal of his Countrymen, in the most advantageous point of view to the Court of Spain, that a considerable party among this Clergy recommended dutiful submission to Government, and opposed the practices of their more intemperate brethren.*

§ IV. Proved also from O'Nial's Manifesto.

1. O'Nial addressed a Manifesto to his Countrymen in 1598, in which he says that, through great affection, he had spared them hitherto;

"But now seeing you obstinate in Allegiance to the "Queen, I must of necessitie use severity against you, "whom otherwise I most entirely loved.-I forewarne you, "requesting everie of you to come and join. If the same ye "do not, I will use means not only to spoil you of all your "goods, but to dispossess you of all your lands.-Some of you

very Catholickly given, to cover your bad consciences with "cloaks of affected ignorance, conster my warres to be for my " particularities, affirming that I never mentioned any points

Leland, vol. 2, p. 306, O'Sullivan p. 117-167, Moryson P. 102.

“of religion in any articles of agreement with the Queen's "Governours. Some are not contented to adınit my warres "to be lawfull, affirming that the same were begun upon some "particular causes, and many Catholics thinke themselves. "bound to obey the Queen as their lawfull Prince: which is "denyed, in respect that she was deprived of all such king-, "doms, which otherwise perhaps should have been due unto "her; and beyond all this, such as were sworne to be faithful "unto her, were by his Holiness absolved from performance "thereof.-I pray Almighty God to move your flinted hearts "to prefer the profit of our Country, before your own private "ease, &c. Dunaveag November 15, 1596. *

2. Let us not then be the dupes of those, who would impose upon us a belief, that the fanaticism of one party, or the superstition of another, occasioned the crimes or the calamities of either. It is an indisputable fact, that more flagrant crimes were committed whilst both nations were Catholic, than after they had made Religion a party in their quarrel, and pressed into the service of their passions those very principles by which their passions are condemned! †

* MSS. Trinity Coll. Bibl. Epis Sterne. Leland ib. p. 366.

In the Remonstrance addressed to Pope John XXII, the Irish Chieftains, after stating how iniquitously Pope Adrian IV, an Englishman, had delivered up Ireland by a certain form of words, to Henry II, contrary to all law and justice,

proceed to state that, even supposing that Donation to have

1

SV. Leland confuted.

1. In proof of a religious war between the Catholics and Protestants of Ireland so early as

been valid ab initio, yet as the English had violated the conditions on which the Pope had allowed them to invade Ireland, by the most infamous cruelties, all obligation on the Pope's part, as well as on their's, must be now at an end. "Arrogating to themselves the property of every place on which we can stamp the figure of our feet, the English Invaders, "through an excess of the most profound ignorance, or insanity scarcely conceivable, dare to assert, that not a single "inch of Ireland is ours, but by right entirely their own.

、

"Hence the implacable hatred, and exterminating carnage "which is perpetually carried on between us. Hence our "continual hostilities, detestable treacheries, bloody reprisals, "numberless massacres, in which, since their invasion to this

day, more than fifty thousand men have perished on both "sides, exclusive of those who perished by famine, captivity, "nightly marauding, and a thousand disorders which it is im"possible to remedy, on account of the Anarchy in which we "live. An Anarchy which, alas! is tremendous not only to " our State, but also to the Church of Ireland, the Ministers "of which are daily exposed, not only to the loss of the frail "and transitory things of this world, but also to the loss of "the solid blessings of eternity."

They then enumerate the atrocious laws, principles, and practices, of the English Settlers towards them, much more merciless and inhuman than any that have been practiced under colour of Religion since the days of Elizabeth ;-and they conclude that, "All hope of peace between us is therefore

1539, my old friend Doctor Leland alleges two facts;----first, "a Letter found in Dublin "on a Franciscan Friar, who, when detected, "terrified probably with dreadful representa"tions of Henry VIIIth's cruelty, and the "tortures prepared for him, in an agony of "horror put an end to his own life.”—Secondly, that in 1539, O'Nial declared war against the invaders of the Papal Rights, led his forces to Tarah, collected a prey, returned to his own

"completely destroyed; for such is their haughtiness, such "their excessive lust of dominion, and such our ardent desire

to shake off this insupportable yoke, and to recover the in"heritance which they have so unjustly usurped; that as "there never was, so there never shall be any sincere coali "tion between them and us; for we entertain a natural an"tipathy against each other, and mutual malignity descending

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by inheritance from Father to Son, and spreading on with en"creased venom from generation to generation. Let no person "wonder, then, if we endeavour to preserve our lives and "defend our liberties, as well as we can, against those cruel "Tyrants, Usurpers of our just properties, murderers of our

persons and of our fame. So far from thinking it unlawful, we hold it to be meritorious in the eye of God; nor can we "be accused either of Perjury or Rebellion, since neither we, nor our fathers, have at any time bound ourselves, by any "oath of Allegiance to their fathers or to them, &c." See the original in Herne's Fordun.

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settlements, was pursued by Lord Grey, and defeated at Belahoe.

2. But this Letter, which he styles the most alarming and obnoxious of all the papers found on this self-murdering Friar, was written-by whom? by the Bishop of Metz, in the name of the Council of Cardinals, stating to O'Nial, that they have discovered an Irish Prophecy, which says, that the Church of Rome must fall, if the Catholic faith is overthrown in Ireland!

He who gives credit to such a self-murdering tale, deserves little credit himself! He may have a very good heart, as Leland certainly had; but he betrays extravagant prejudices, wretched credulity, and the most consummate ignorance of the policy of the Court of Rome; and consequently a lack of the most necessary qualifications for an Historian.

3. With regard to the second fact, it is true that Con Baccach O'Nial plundered Meath in 1539; but Leland's fancy supplied what History never related, that he declared a Religious war; whereas it is evident that, on this occasion, he did no more than what many an O'Nial had done from the 12th century. He claimed Meath