year,1 the parties were to remain exactly as they stood at the time of the agreement-the Confederates retaining the churches and ecclesiastical property of which they had gained possession, and celebrating the Roman Catholic worship in all places where they had established their authority.

The terms of this Cessation were, on the whole, not discouraging to the Confederates. The King had condescended to treat with them; they were recognized, in the meantime, as masters of a large portion of the island; and their position, as religionists, was much more respectable than at the commencement of the war. The Royalists hailed the arrangement witht he highest satisfaction; and the Marquis of Ormonde was greatly applauded by his friends for the tact and skill which he had displayed in the negotiation. In the face of many difficulties he had succeeded, not only in delivering the embarrassed monarch from the immediate pressure of the Irish war, but also in obtaining for him the promise of pecuniary succour. Troops, hitherto employed in fighting the Confederates, could now pass over into England to the assistance of the King. But, by many, the Cessation was regarded with very little favour. The English Parliament, a few months after the beginning of the civil war, had adopted the extremely questionable policy of providing for the support of an army in Ireland by the sale of debentures to be paid out of the forfeited estates of the insurgents; and not a few, it was alleged, were impelled, by sordid motives, to cry out bitterly against the truce-because it threatened to blight their prospect of realizing the coveted property. Many Protestants, and among the rest the Scotch in Ulster, were, on different grounds, equally dissatisfied. They objected to the arrangement because, as they conceived, it conceded quite too much to Popery; and they were specially indignant inasmuch as many soldiers were now drafted from Ireland into England to maintain the arbitrary rule of a faithless sovereign.2 The old Irish were not less discontented. It deprived them, for the

1 Cox, ii. 133; Carte's Ormonde, i. 435, 447.

2 It was reported that all the soldiers now sent into England were Romanists; but this was a misrepresentation. Leland, iii. 214-5.

VOL. II.

F

present, of all hope of recovering the forfeited estates; and it did not secure to them even the lands of which they were still considered the proprietors; for the greater part of Ulster was now garrisoned by British soldiers; and their General, Monro, refused to be bound by the Cessation. The Romish clergy were also deeply mortified.1 Not duly estimating the difficulties which appeared on all sides, they had been confidently calculating on the speedy triumph of the Confederation. The truce kept them still in a precarious state, and left one fourth part of the kingdom in the hands of the Protestants. Peter Scarampi had lately arrived, as Nuncio, from the Court of Rome, with money,2 military stores, and papal indulgences; and his influence had likewise been employed in throwing obstacles in the way of an accommodation.3 Had not Ormonde wisely refused to treat with any but lay commissioners, he might have found a settlement impossible.

4

When the year of truce was about to expire, the prospects of the King had not improved; and, from time to time, by mutual consent, the Cessation was continued. The Marquis of Ormonde had meanwhile been appointed Lord Lieutenant; and, aware how much the interests of his royal master would be served were he delivered from the Irish difficulty, he laboured earnestly to make peace with the Confederates. But they insisted on terms which he did not feel himself at liberty to sanction. They did not cease, however, to press their demands; and, in the end, Charles, surrounded by accumulating perils, deputed the Earl of Glamorgan, a

1 Carte, i. 452.

2 The money, amounting to 20,000 dollars, had been collected by the celebrated Luke Wadding, a native of Waterford, and the editor of the works of John Duns Scotus, as well as the author of many other publications, including the Annals of the Franciscans. This latter work-Annales Minorum-is said to have occupied him for twenty-four years. Wadding was the founder of an Irish college at Rome, of which he acted as guardian. He was now agent for the Confederates at the Papal Court, and, as a return for his services, they wished him to be made a Cardinal. But he modestly suppressed the memorial to the Pope containing this request. Brenan, pp. 521, 528.

3 Carte, pp. 447, 452. Scarampi arrived in July, 1643. Warner, i. 286. 4 Carte's Ormonde, i. 396, 438. Ormonde attached great importance to this principle, knowing how impracticable were the clergy.

wealthy Roman Catholic nobleman, to visit Ireland; and gave him full powers to conclude a treaty. This new commissioner, after escaping many dangers from ships employed by the English Parliament to intercept him in the Channel, at length managed to reach his place of destination; and, on his arrival in Kilkenny, succeeded, notwithstanding the obstructions of the Nuncio Scarampi,1 in arranging terms with the Confederates. The treaty was concluded on the 25th of August, 1645. On the part of the King, Glamorgan agreed that Roman Catholics should henceforth be admissible to all offices of trust and dignity; that they should be permitted publicly to celebrate the rites of their religion; that they should possess all the Irish churches not actually in the hands of Protestants; that they should exercise their own ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and that these concessions should be confirmed to them by Act of Parliament. On the part of the Romanists, it was stipulated that ten thousand men should be sent, by order of their General Assembly, to serve the King in England, Scotland, or Wales; and that these troops should be commanded by the Earl himself, and such other officers as the Confederates should appoint.2

Charles was anxious that the treaty should be kept secret— as he was well aware that many of his subjects would condemn its provisions. It conceded far more than mere toleration to Romanists. It made over to them large ecclesiastical endowments; permitted them to celebrate their worship ostentatiously in all its splendour, with its litanies and public processions; and guaranteed the unrestricted maintenance of their discipline, with its excommunications and interdicts. It made provision for the invasion of England by an army of ten thousand Popish soldiers under the command of officers of their own communion. But, notwithstanding the King's desire for its concealment, an accident brought the treaty to light, and immediately raised a storm of public indignation

1 It would appear that, immediately after the Nuncio's arrival, "the Irish bishops began to pare off from the Irish gentry."-O'CONOR's Hist. Address, part i. 62.

2 Leland, iii. 256. A copy of the treaty may be found appended to Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. iii. 313-322. Edinburgh, 1751.

against the unhappy sovereign. The Cessation had not put an end to hostilities between the Confederates and the Protestants of the North; and, just about this time, the two parties came into collision in the neighbourhood of Sligo. In this engagement, the Romanists were defeated; and their General, Malachy O'Kelly, Romish Archbishop of Tuam,1 lost his life. In the pocket of the episcopal warrior was found a complete and authentic copy of the treaty, together with a distinct recital of Glamorgan's commission. These documents were forthwith transmitted to London; and published, far and wide, under the authority of the English Parliament. They proved most damaging to the royal cause. Many had long believed that Charles had no great disinclination to Popery, and that he was almost entirely under the influence of his wife. These papers confirmed their suspicions. The King's friends did not well know how to relieve him from the odium to which he had exposed himself. The Marquis of Ormonde pretended to believe that Glamorgan had forged his commission; the Earl was seized; and, for a few days, committed to not very rigorous custody. The King meanly prevaricated; and disavowed the articles of the treaty in a declaration addressed to the English Parliament.3

This disavowal greatly embarrassed the Confederates; as, under the circumstances, they had no security for the fulfilment of the conditions on which they had undertaken to supply military aid. But the Marquis of Ormonde-who was still at the head of the Irish Government-felt every day more and more the necessity for some permanent arrangement; and therefore continued to treat for an accommodation. He had now, however, to contend with fresh difficulties. A

1 By Renehan he is called Malachy Quaely. He was made archbishop about the end of 1631. Renehan's Collections, p. 403. He fell on the Lord's Day, the 26th October, 1645. He appears to have fallen covered with wounds; but the stories told as to his "being cut into bits " by the Scotch are too ridiculous to require refutation. See an account of his defeat in Hardiman's Galway, p. 123, note. In Rinuccini's Embassy, it is stated that he was killed "by a pistol shot," p. 87.

2 Carte, i. 537; Leland, iii. 267.

Leland, iii. 273; Warner, ii. 67.

new Nuncio had just arrived from Rome of far higher pretensions than Scarampi;1 he had been received with enthusiasm by the whole Roman Catholic population; and, in addition to a large sum of money, he had brought with him 2,000 muskets, 2,000 cartouch belts, 4,000 swords, 2,000 pikeheads, 400 brace of pistols, and 20,000 pounds of powder.2 The name of this new Papal minister was John Baptist Rinuccini; he was understood to have much influence among the cardinals; and he was himself Archbishop of Fermo. He was well acquainted with canon law; his habits were temperate; and his mode of life somewhat austere. He was recommended by a dignified aspect, a bland address, and no little rhetorical ability. Trained in early life among the Jesuits, he had a taste for their peculiar diplomacy; he had no insuperable objection to equivocation or falsehood, if he could thereby accomplish his designs; and he entertained most extravagant ideas of the power and prerogatives of his pontifical master. He was otherwise singularly unfitted for the mission he had undertaken. He was vain and irritable, obstinate, arrogant, and ambitious. Instead of endeavouring

1 Scarampi remained in the country long afterwards. We find him scheming at Kilkenny in 1647. See Carte, i. 598. Luke Wadding is said to have suggested the mission of Rinuccini as well as of Scarampi. See Brenan, p. 526. Scarampi left Ireland about the end of February, 1647. See Rinuccini's Embassy, p. 274. * Meehan, p. 106.

3 He expected that the Most High would give him due credit for all his austerities. Thus, on one occasion, when obliged, on his way to Ireland, to submit to spare regimen and bleeding, he adds: "which fastings and effusion I should have much more willingly reserved, to become meritorious for the Catholic faith in Ireland. But the Lord God will be pleased to accept these sufferings in France also, and will add to them, as a merit, the grief I feel in losing these few days."Embassy in Ireland, pp. 12, 13. Sometimes, when speaking of the Pope, his language is absolutely blasphemous. Thus he says: "There is no safeguard so powerful as the apostolic benediction."-Embassy, p. 79; and again he tells of the "infinite wisdom" of the Pontiff, p. 222.

Leyburn, the Queen's chaplain, accused him of deliberate falsehood in the presence of the General Assembly at Kilkenny. Carte, i. 564-5. See also another instance of his deception in Carte, i. 578.

He seems to have been also singularly credulous. Soon after his arrival in Ireland his confessor, Arcamoni, wrote a letter in which he gave an account of the country; and in which he stated, among other things, that some of the Hibernian women had " as many as thirty children alive;" and that the number of those who