of Ireland. Its professors were suddenly disarmed, and deprived of all political power. Lawyers were employed to discover defects in the title-deeds of their lands; they were exposed to countless annoyances and hardships; popish magistrates turned a deaf ear to their complaints; and even the tories or robbers, who infested the country, were permitted to spoil them with impunity. As was to be expected, many of them in the north, as well as elsewhere, fled from a land in which they met with such discouragement. In the beginning of the reign of James, Ireland was in the enjoyment of comparative prosperity; but before the close of his wretched rule, it presented a quite different aspect. Its trade was injured; its fountains of justice were polluted; and its whole social machinery was disorganized. Even the public revenue declined with such rapidity as to alarm the best friends of the Government.

Meanwhile the Romish prelates were busily engaged in endeavouring to impart increased vigour to their ecclesiastical machinery. Talbot, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, who died in prison in 1680, was succeeded, after a vacancy of a few years, by Patrick Russell. This prelate filled the Primatial chair of Leinster from 1683 to 1692; and during his official career witnessed some of the most exciting scenes in the history of Ireland. For the greater part of this period, Romanism was virtually restored to its ancient supremacy. Russell held two Provincial, and three Diocesan Synods. Some of the canons promulgated at these meetings are curious specimens of ecclesiastical legislation. Every priest who had the care of souls for five years in the diocese of Dublin was "to present to it a silver chalice and pixis; and in case he had spent ten years on its mission," he must give, “in addition, a missal and a set of appropriate ornaments for the altar."1 "Piping and dancing" were forbidden “on Sundays 2 and festivals throughout the year until after vespers, or

1 Meagher's Notices of the Life and Character of his Grace the Most Reverend Daniel Murray, p. 125. Dublin, 1853.

* In the old Irish church the regulations relative to the observance of the Lord's Day were much more stringent. See vol. i., p. 66, note (1).

of doctrines, were ill fitted for the religious instruction of the population. The Independents and Baptists, who now figured so conspicuously, seem never to have obtained any very solid footing in the country; and, shortly after the Restoration, they nearly vanish from the ecclesiastical census.

Though so many priests were driven out of the island, a considerable number remained. Among these, one of the most noted was James Finaghty,' an ignorant and knavish fanatic, who pretended to the power of working miracles. Multitudes followed him through the bogs and mountains, in the hope of deliverance from their maladies; and it was boastfully proclaimed that he had been raised up, in this time of trial, to prove that the Roman Catholic Church still enjoyed the favour of Heaven. His fame survived the Restoration: and on one occasion a Portuguese Countess, who was afflicted with blindness, applied to him for cure. He was taken to London; and, as he travelled back from the metropolis, a coach and six conveyed the great man to Holyhead. When the Roman Catholic bishopric of Elphin was vacant, he aspired to the dignity. But his career only illustrated the besotted superstition of his followers. Discerning men never had any confidence in his pretensions; all his miracles were of a very equivocal character; his signal failures often exposed him to scorn; it was discovered that several of his incantations were taken from a book of necromancy; and he eventually sank

1 An account of him may be found in Walsh's History of the Remonstrance, pp. 710-35. According to his own story his first miracle was the recovery of a pair of breeches stolen by the devil from his brother! Walsh, p. 722. Finaghty often received large presents from his dupes. Ibid. p. 718.

2 Walsh, p. 717. On this occasion Finaghty was taken to the Palace in London by direction of the Queen of Charles II. He totally failed in his attempt to heal this Portuguese lady. Ibid.

3 Ibid. p. 717; Columbanus ad Hibernos, vi. 170, 171.

4 Walsh, p. 717. Though not made bishop, it appears he was appointed vicargeneral of the diocese of Elphin. See Moran's Persecution of the Irish Catholics, p. 124.

5 Sir Wm. Petty, who was himself a Doctor of Medicine, offered to forfeit one hundred pounds if he would not, out of a given number of sick persons, and by the employment of the very same means, cure as many as this priest. Finaghty declined the challenge. Subsequently he resiled from a challenge, as to a trial of his gifts given by himself, when he found that it was accepted. Ibid. pp. 731, 734. Walsh, p. 729.

into contempt. Other priests, who remained in Ireland during the days of the Protectorate, continued, under sundry disguises, to dispense the rites of their Church to those who sought their ministrations. In the dead of night, in a secluded glen, or under a tree, they assembled their adherents, and celebrated their worship. Sometimes a priest might be seen walking along the streets of Dublin or Galway in the dress of a cavalry officer; sometimes he assumed the more humble garb of a porter or a gardener; sometimes he arrayed himself as a beggar; and sometimes he entered the service of a Protestant gentleman, acted as butler, passed off as a Puritan, joined in family worship, and commended himself to his master by his grave and devout deportment.1 If he escaped detection, he was not very scrupulous as to the amount of conformity to which he submitted. But, during this reign of terror, many of the priests signalized themselves by their zeal and courage. They were ready to compass sea and land to gain a proselyte, and they often faced death with heroic fortitude.

Though the Cromwellian settlement of the country was fraught with so much misery to the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry, it must be remembered that no one was removed to Connaught who had not forfeited his life by rebellion. Though the Popish mass was suppressed, no visible mark of the divine displeasure rested on the island; for meanwhile it enjoyed an unwonted measure of material prosperity. During the Protectorate it was blessed with unbroken peace; its agriculture flourished; and its trade experienced a wonderful revival.2 Had Cromwell lived for another quarter of a century, and had the policy which he inaugurated been maintained, Ireland might have escaped the Revolution and all its bitter accompaniments and consequences. But he never succeeded in establishing a stable government. When his own firm hand was withdrawn from its regulation, the whole ma

1 See Prendergast's account of Father Nugent. Cromwellian Settlement, pp. 316, 318.

2 "All testimony agrees that Ireland never prospered as she prospered in the years of the Protectorate."-FROUDE's English in Ireland, vol. i. 137. Cromwell placed Ireland on a level with England in regard to imports and exports.

body of its defenders. The Episcopal clergy in many districts were threatened with starvation; and often actually endured fearful privations. Their places of worship were wrested from them by the popish clergy; and the authority of James did not avail to procure their restoration. As the necessities of the Government increased, old cannon, bells, and pewter were melted down to be converted into coin; 2 and all classes, to their own ruin, were compelled to receive this worthless currency. The Protestants in Dublin were watched with extreme jealousy. Attendance on their worship was virtually forbidden; as an order was issued, in the name of the chief magistrate of the city, proclaiming that not more than five of them should meet together, even in churches, on pain of death. So intent was the senseless monarch on making Ireland a Roman Catholic Kingdom, that, immediately before his last struggle for the crown, he was employed in establishing a Benedictine nunnery in the metropolis, and in supplying the diocese of Meath with popish incumbents.

But the battle of the Boyne at once changed the aspect of ecclesiastical affairs. With the defeat of James, the hopes of Roman Catholic ascendency passed away; and Protestantism forthwith assumed the position it had previously occupied.

1 King states that, when many episcopal clergymen had nothing left to live on, their Protestant neighbours aided them to the utmost of their power, "and made no distinction of sects-many Dissenters of all sorts, except Quakers, contributing liberally to this good end, which," says he, "ought to be remembered to their honour."-State of the Protestants, p. 260.

2 "6

Three-penny-worth of metal would make ten pounds sterling. before the battle of the Boyne, the copper and brass money failing.

Just stamps

and inscriptions were put upon pieces of pewter : which were intended to be sent abroad. . . . and a proclamation was ready for that purpose: but King William came sooner to Dublin than was expected, and thereupon that project was dropped."-NICHOLSON'S Irish Historical Library, p. 172.

3 Leland, iii. 544-5.

4 Ibid. iii. 545.

5 July 1st (old style), 1690.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE TO THE DEATH OF WILLIAM III. A.D. 1690 TO A.D. 1702.

THE eighteen months immediately preceding the battle of the Boyne were spent in deep anxiety by the Protestants of Ireland. The hardships they experienced were aggravated by division among themselves; for a large number of the episcopal clergy had so long preached the doctrine of passive obedience that they could not see their way to disown the government of James. Until his fortunes became desperate, they continued to pray for his success;1 and even to protest against the conduct of those who resisted his authority. Hopkins, Bishop of Derry, endeavoured to dissuade the apprentice boys of that city from closing the gates against his troops Dopping, Bishop of Meath, in the excess of his zeal for his service, was desirous to accompany him to the battle of the Boyne 2 and, long after William and Mary were acknowledged as King and Queen of England, several of the Irish Protestant prelates sat in the Parliament convened in Dublin by the dethroned sovereign.3 Two members of their

1 Reid's Hist. of Presb. Church in Ireland, ii. 409.

2 Leslie's Answer to King, pp. 103, 109. The same prelate was one of the lords spiritual who, on the 10th of May, 1689, joined in an address to James expressing abhorrence of “the unnatural usurpation of the Prince of Orange, and the treason of those who joined with him in England and Ireland," and professing "to King James, with tongue and heart, that they will ever assert his rights to his crown, with their lives and fortunes, against the said usurper and his adherents.”— Ibid. p. 103.

At this time several sees were vacant, and a large portion of the bishops had left the country; but Dopping of Meath, Otway of Ossory, Digby of Limerick, and Wetenhall of Cork and Ross, were in attendance. Mant, i. 699, 706.