If my people, which are called by my
name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will
hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chr.
7:14
The actual Day
of Deliverance following the Irish rebellion and massacre of 1641 was 15th September 1643, “at the hour of 12 of the clock of the
said day”. Unrest continued however until the arrival of Cromwell in 1649-50,
but by then the opportunity for Rome to seize Ireland had passed.
Rome had given this rebellion her all, which
only served to make her defeat more spectacular. It brought stinging
humiliation to the Society of Jesus, to the Irish Franciscan agent Fr Luke
Waddington, and indeed to the Pope himself, for Maffeo Barberini, styled Pope
Urban VIII, had taken a great personal interest in the affair. As with modern
Mafia godfathers, the papacy was a family business and Maffeo Barberini had
brought shame on the family.
Maffeo liked
helping himself to Peters Pence, but not parting with them. So when it came to
financing Rome’s usurpation in Ireland he granted an extraordinary Jubilee on 15th May 1640 with, no doubt, tempting indulgences on
offer to ensure a good financial response.
Cardinal
Ludovico Ludovisi
Another
reputation besmirched by this defeat was that of Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi
whom Urban had appointed Cardinal Protector of Ireland. This appointment was a good move because the Bologna Ludovisi family
was fabulously wealthy. The Ludovisi Palace in Rome, now a hotel, is still synonymous with
luxury.
Ludovisi had
founded the Irish College of St Isidore at Rome in 1628 to supply priests for Ireland. He continued to support the college from beyond
the grave to the extent of 1,000 crowns annually. Eighty-five crowns were
sufficient for one student for one year. Any priest whose palm was crossed
with Ludovisi crowns had to swear on Oath that he would serve nowhere else but
back in Ireland.
Exemplary
lives
Pope John Paul II speaking from St Isidore’s on 28 March 1998,
highly commended these meddling prelates as having led exemplary lives to which
today’s novice priests should aspire. John
Paul said, “It is for me a great happiness to welcome you, Rector, Faculty and
Students of the Irish School, accompanied by the (Roman Catholic) Archbishop of
Armagh … I join you in giving thanks to God for everything that the School has
meant to the (Roman Catholic) Church in Ireland and for the Irish community in
Rome, from its foundation in 1628”. (My approximate translation from the
Portuguese.)
John Paul II continued, “It is enough to think
of the names of how many are linked to the School, to have an idea of its rich
cultural foundation: the founders, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi and Priest Lucas
Waddington (a list of many other meddling Romanists well known in Ireland
follows) … Their example of sanctity and of care should serve as an
inspiration for you seminarists, as you get ready to promote a better knowledge
of the Gospel amongst the men and the women of our time … to promote active
participation … with the Mass, of which spiritual force Irishmen have always
drunk deeply to survive in periods of serious difficulties … As future masters
of the faith, you should be capable of facing the complexity of the times …
entrusting yourselves and your families, to the Intercession of May, Queen of
Ireland, I grant my Apostolic Blessing of heart.”
The
Confederation
So let us see
just what it is that Rome holds up as an “example” and
“inspiration” for her young priests to follow. One doubts that they are taught
much of the Confederation of Old Irish and Old English Pre Reformation Roman
Catholics that emerged so suddenly fated the massacre of 1641 to take over the
Government of Ireland from the British crown.
Ignominious
defeat is not good propaganda and the speedy collapse of this Confederation was
a most ignominious defeat. Rome has suppressed the embarrassing story as
best she can. Historian John Gilbert, writing from Dublin in 1881, opened his rather rare history by saying:
“The organisation and acts of the Confederation established by a large body of
the nobility, (Roman Catholic) clergy, and people of Ireland in the reign of Charles I form an important and, as yet, little known
part of the History of the British
Empire.”
Rome has managed to confuse the history with
her spin. An example is papal historian Ludwig Pastor’s confident assertion:
“The Catholic clergy of Ireland had no share in the rising of 1641.” (!)
He also says, “Not withstanding the cruelty of the English Reprisals (for the
1641 outrage), nearly the whole island fell into the hands of the insurgents.”
This does not make sense. Either the rebels got the upper hand or they did
not.
The
Confederation may have stated its aims to be to, “defend themselves… against
the Puritans, to maintain the prerogatives of the Crown, as well as the privileges
and rights of the Irish Parliament and to reinstate the Roman Catholic Church
throughout, as it stood in the reign of Henry VII (that is before the
Reformation)”, but the Vatican was really only interested in the last point,
reinstating the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. The Jesuits would
decide, as events unfolded, whether power should reside in a Roman Catholic
parliament in Dublin or be allowed to remain with the British
Crown. In the event they had to bow to Rome
and aim for an RC parliament in Dublin.
Rome senses victory
What Pastor
should have written was that Rome was deeply involved in Irish affairs all
along, but would not acknowledge it publicly until success seemed assured.
This moment arrived in March 1642. The Archbishop of Armagh, Hugh O’Reilly,
was given the go ahead from the Vatican to convene a Synod of the Roman Catholic
clergy of Ulster at Kells in Country Meath. This had been
arranged by Pope Urban’s nephew, Cardinal Antonio Barberini. With astute
business sense, Uncle Maffeo had invested nephew Antonio with the title of
Cardinal Protector of Ireland following Ludovisi’s death. Another
nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, was also involved. Such was the nepotism
that prevailed in Rome at the time.
It was decided
that money would go from the Pope, through the nephew Cardinals to finance the
Confederate troops. Later the riches of a newly renewed Roman Catholic Ireland
were to flow back to even greater measure to the already obscenely overloaded
coffers of the Barberini family. To ensure success, Uncle Maffeo granted
nephews Antonio and Francesco “extensive powers” in Ireland. To ensure that the Roman Catholic hierarchy was paying attention,
Maffeo wrote personally to the Irish priests in February 1642. After all
Maffeo had himself “promoted the equipment of five ships with soldiers and
munitions … for the Confederate force,” so he must be listened to.
The Synod
whitewashed all previous treachery. It declared the 1641 Rebellion
“righteously undertaken”. Amongst other things, excommunication was decreed
for deserting the Confederation and abetting “the enemy”. Acting through
these priestly intermediaries, Maffeo Barberini, “declared the necessity for
the establishment of a central authority, in the form of a Council consisting
of ecclesiastics and laymen with the power to rule and enforce obedience to its
decrees”. No Roman catholic could now express an honest opinion on 1641, and
to implicate the priests in the atrocity was an excommunicable offence.
The 13
Articles
The 13
articles of the Synod are quite frightening. Articles II, III and IV
all threatened excommunication. Any Roman Catholic who might “aid Puritans”
was eternally lost. Those who would not conform were threatened, especially
Thomas Dease, Bishop of Meath, who was charged with deterring Chief Nobles of
the Diocese from joining the League. He was, “now formally admonished to
revoke all his words and deeds in opposition to the present war, to sign the
Decrees of the present Council and within three weeks submit himself under pain
of being canonically reported to the Holy See”. Maffeo Barbarini was going to
brook the scruples of no-one, however distinguished. The stakes were too
high. After all, he had invested 80,000 gold florins in the project. The
Articles of the Synod of Kells continue:
- IX -
All Ordinaries,
Parish priests, Abbots and Priors are within six weeks to contribute … to the
maintenance of the army.
- X -
In churches where
Mass was not hitherto celebrated, Parish Priests are … to officiate with
Portable altars.
- XII - In each regiment there are to be two Chaplains
to administer the Sacraments to soldiers .. and instruct them … and one Special
Preacher to preach often”. (Rome does not usually preach but when winning
back Protestant territory the Jesuits use it as a weapon.)
- XIII - The decrees are to be promulgated verbatim by all
Ordinaries and Parish Priests on the first opportunity under pain of
suspension.
Thus at a
stroke the Reformation would be overthrown.
The meeting
at Kilkenny
A countrywide
meeting of Roman Catholic priests and Bishops took place at Kilkenny as early
as May 1642. This suggests a high degree of prior readiness. Probably other
Roman Catholic Old Englishmen existed with an outlook like Thomas Dease
mentioned above. But once dragged together in a meeting where Rome’s power was on open view, they would inevitably be
too frightened to speak their true feelings. The Kilkenny Congregation decreed
an Oath of Federation should be affirmed by the nobility. Each RC Province would
have a Council and each Provincial Council was to be governed by a supreme
Council General yet to be created. Pastor tells us, “Anyone abandoning the
Catholic league and abetting the enemy was to be excommunicated; the Bishops
were even to proceed against neutrals”.
Rome now sensed victory. The countrywide Acts
of Kilkenny May 1642, were re-issued in a fuller 29 articles and were more
hostile in tone than those of the Synod of Kells. Pastor tells us that,
“Simultaneously … the various orders of the nobility held a convention”. They
had little choice. The term “chiefly Puritans” recurs again and again as the
real target of these measures. The nobility had been given the Oath of
Federation to work upon at their convention. The very opening clauses
presented Rome’s demand that, “the Restoration to the
(Roman) Church of the status that obtained previous to Henry VIII…” be enacted
forthwith.
The
Protestant
And what about
the Protestants at this time? We can rely on pastor to paint their actions as black
as he is able. Yet all he can say is: “The Protestant reply to these decisions
(at Kilkenny) was a prohibition of the Justices on May 28th 1642 of all intercourse with the Catholics,
and on June 21st the exclusion from the Irish Parliament of those who
refused the Oath of Supremacy (that the King is Head of the Church).
Let the lawful
Parliament bluster. Little matter. A new Roman Catholic parliament would soon
meet and usurp its position for the first time on the 24th October 1641. Let the Protestants do what they will,
their days must be numbered. Rome is in the ascendancy. Deliverance seemed
impossible. Yet the Lord did move and, because of the great danger the
Protestants faced, that Deliverance was all the more glorious when it came.
Footnote:
Some Readers may wonder why Charles I is so little mentioned. His part in the
affair is so complicated that it would distract from what might be called, ‘The
Secret History of bare faced Papal Usurpation’ from which the Lord delivered
his people.
