Unfortunately for the good intentions of the Pope, he was, by attempting to seize this imaginary opportunity for an extension of his spiritual authority, taking the most certaincourse to further prejudice the already shaky temporal dominion of Charles I.
Rinuccini left Rome towards the end of March, 1645, and reached Genoa on April 15. He was received with much honour by the Doge and Senate, and writes to the Pope evidently with great pleasure of the ceremonies that took place and the honours paid to him. “I was escorted from my house by a cortège of almost all the nobility.... At the foot of the stairs four Procurators met me, placed me in the midst of them, and conducted me to the presence chamber, where the Doge waited. He descended four steps from the raised part of the room ... and conducted me to the canopy on his left hand, but to a seat a little lower than his own.”
Having left Genoa he proceeded by Marseilles and Avignon to Paris, where he arrived towards the end of May, and was cordially received by the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria, for whom he had a Golden Rose sent by the Pope. This Rose was the subject of much correspondence, as there seems to have been some doubt as to whether the Queen would receive it with sufficient gratitude. He seems to have at once constituted himself an extra Nuncio at Paris and entered on a lengthy correspondence on Frenchand Spanish affairs without the knowledge of the resident Nuncio. He has been accused by Bellings and others of not wanting to go to Ireland, and of intriguing to replace the Nuncio then at Paris. Mazarin evidently suspected or accused him of some such design, for we find that though Rinuccini’s letter is missing, the Private Secretary’s reply points out that “no one can answer Cardinal Mazarin with greater force than Your Excellency when he complains that His Holiness sent you to France, not merely on your way to Ireland, but that you should adroitly contrive to establish yourself as Nuncio in Paris,” and supplies him with the reasons to be advanced in refutation of this charge. Some grounds were doubtless given for Mazarin’s suspicions through the Pope as he afterwards explained having inadvertently omitted to give Rinuccini letters for the Nuncio at Paris.
Rinuccini had also been favourably received and encouraged by Gaston Duke of Orleans, and by Condé, but nothing practical resulted from the politeness of these princes. Mazarin, from whom he hoped considerable help in money and ships, was very cautious, and his influence over the Queen Regent was very great. The news of Naseby had completely damped any ardour there may have been for the Irish causeas a means of keeping England weak. Rinuccini found that the Queen Henrietta Maria of England would not receive him publicly as Nuncio, because it was contrary to law in England, and through fear of the harm it might do her husband in the eyes of his Protestant subjects. He is much concerned about this, and whether he should go to a private audience and if there uncover his head. The Pope taking a larger and more sensible view of the matter tells him:—“However, if the Queen either for fear of injuring the King her husband, or for any private reason, does not think it well to receive you at a public or private audience, His Holiness does not wish her Majesty to have any trouble about the matter, since he will be satisfied with any resolutions of a Queen so pious and so zealous for the Catholic faith. I am, however, to add that should your Excellency not be disposed to accept private audience, that you may not put in doubt the prerogative of the Nuncio to appear covered before all queens (even if in France at similar audiences a Nuncio does not appear covered) still we do not see how any doubt can rest on the prerogative whilst at all public audiences the right to be covered is established.”
With Secretary Bellings the Nuncio was on very friendly terms, but perhaps because he wasdesirous to keep him with him so that he should not reach Ireland first as he considered that Bellings would put the interests of Charles I before those of the Pope. Scarampi, the Papal Legate in Ireland, writing at this time says that if peace were concluded between the English royalists and the Catholic Confederation without Rinuccini’s consent, it would be fatal to the Church’s interests.
Rinuccini prolonged his stay at Paris over three months. He had some excuse for this delay, since in his letter of 3rd July, 1645, the Pope says:—“A fortnight ago your Excellency was told if by chance the Queen of France should give you any motive for remaining in that country, Your Excellency might, under some pretext, prolong your stay in that country; but since His Holiness sees that this has not happened ... he has resolved that Your Excellency shall proceed on your journey in the manner first arranged.” However, this hint was lost on Rinuccini, who was evidently in no hurry to exchange Paris even for Kilkenny. It is true he had, or at any rate made, many excuses on the score of difficulty in finding shipping. However, the Pope became impatient, and there is a marked change of tone in the succeeding letters. 14th August—“Let Your Excellencygo on your way rejoicing with the blessing of the Holy Father upon you.” 21st—“Your Excellency will hasten your going to Ireland; every day’s delay may produce the worst effects.” 28th—“If you have not already done so, you must set out.” 11th September—“We await with much anxiety news of your Excellency’s arrival in Ireland.” 18th September—“The displeasure of His Holiness increases at your Excellency’s delay in your departure for Ireland, and he laments to see that all the negotiations, missions and provisions which Your Excellency has continued to introduce, tend still more to retard it. He commands, therefore, that Your Excellency with all promptitude, shall set out at once for that island, that you do not delay in any part of France in expectation of letters or information from Spinola, whom you have sent on before, much less wait until the frigates which were to be provided by Invernizzi in Flanders to accompany you shall be put in order.... The General Assembly, if they had known of Your Excellency’s presence, would not perhaps have dissolved without coming to some conclusion, and God knows from what they have lately done, if Your Excellency be not there, whether they many not precipitately form some revolution as little beneficial to the Catholic religionas to its free exercise.” This seemed to have its due effect, for the Pope’s next letter found Rinuccini in Ireland. It is an important document as setting forth the view that must necessarily be taken by any person of sound judgment of Charles’s negotiation through Glamorgan. The Pope refers to a letter received from the Legate in Ireland describing the powers possessed by Glamorgan and the conclusion of the secret treaty, and goes on to say, “Father Scarampi having become aware of this agreement, he remonstrated by letter not only with the Bishops, but also with the Council ... on the small foundation they had in any negotiations with the Earl, whilst the mandates which he had produced were subscribed by the King and his secretary only, signed with the small seal, and in consequence deprived of the necessary authority, the King having no power in himself to dispose of the political affairs of these kingdoms. The whole foundation of the negotiation, therefore, rested on the Earl, which being made by another, could not bind the King if he did not choose to be bound; moreover, being a convention made with the Bishops, it would scandalise the world to see that in the published articles of peace no mention was made of the Church, of ecclesiastical property, or of theauthority and jurisdiction of the Bishops, which all remained at the mercy of the King, should he not wish to make peace or observe it; and inasmuch as the Catholic laity when satisfied with the articles which had reference to themselves, would not care to make a stand for others however important, in which their own interest was not involved, would have abandoned them. Although these reasons appeared very strong to the Council and the Bishops ... yet they had remitted the whole affair to the Earl, had declared themselves satisfied on their part with his proposals on ecclesiastical matters, and consented to the publication of the treaty of peace.... His Holiness commands me to say that if by letter from Father Scarampi or from others to be relied on, you are convinced that the peace between the Catholics of Ireland and the King of England is established with the articles and in the manner described, he will be content that you do not prosecute your journey to Ireland, and that you shall wait for further orders from His Holiness; but if the intelligence your Excellency receives does not convey the assurance that the peace is certainly concluded, then you will at once pursue your journey. But should the peace be established with these same articles and in the manner described, then HisHoliness desires that neither Your Excellency nor Father Scarampi shall do anything to express approval or disapproval, but remain, so to say, entirely passive.”
It is a curious thing that notwithstanding the Pope’s clear view of the powerlessness of Charles’s position, he should have been willing to treat with him at all.
Rinuccini writing from Limerick on October 25, gives an exciting account of his voyage. He sailed from the island of St. Martin or Isle de Ré, on Monday the 18th, and the wind being favourable, expected to reach Waterford on Thursday. On Thursday, however, there was a fog, and owing to its being full moon, the sea was so rough that it was thought better to keep out to sea. In the grey of the morning on Friday they saw a large vessel in full sail and a small frigate giving them chase. These were commanded by Plunket, an Irishman, who, having joined the Parliament, had been ordered to watch the approaches to Ireland. The Irishmen with the Nuncio and Secretary Bellings in particular, knowing the fate awaiting them if captured, immediately armed, resolved to resist to the last. The Nuncio was ill in bed, the sea being no respecter of persons, “my illness greatly aggravated, and already for two wholedays without any attendance whatever from my servants, as they were prostrated by sea-sickness, and as little able to hear as to obey any order.” Nevertheless, he felt his courage rise to a higher pitch than ever before, and prepared in his own heart to give up life and liberty in whatever way God should dispose of him, even if it seemed to him necessary that he and those in his care should be carried captives to London. However, his fortitude was not put to this test, for the chase ended at nightfall. He attributes their escape to a miracle obtained for him by St. Peter, whose image formed the figurehead of the ship; but Father Meehan sententiously remarks, “that he must have subsequently learned that the escape of his pursuers was still more wonderful, for Plunket’s cooking galley having caught fire, and being alarmed for his magazine, he was obliged to shorten sail and thus suffer the San Pietro to escape.” The chase had driven them a long way to the west and they had some difficulty in making the land, but they succeeded next day in reaching Kenmare Bay, where they landed on the 21st of October, 1645. His first lodging was in a shepherd’s hut, and he remained there two days “not so much to repose after our trial as to return thanks for our safety.”
Before leaving Paris he drew upon the Popefor 15,000 dollars; Cardinal Antonio Barberius gave him 10,000, and Mazarin 25,000, altogether 50,000. 20,000 were spent for arms and munitions, and these were now landed. The rest of the money was brought in specie. From Kenmare he started for Limerick with an escort furnished by the Supreme Council and the surrounding gentry. “On his journey he was much pleased at the fine appearance, hardihood, and activity of the men and the beauty and modesty of the women. He was amazed at the fecundity of the latter. There were married couples, he reported with astonishment, which were blessed with no fewer than thirty children still living, whilst he had been told families of fifteen and twenty were quite common.” He was hospitably received at Ardtully Castle by Donough M’Carthy and his wife, a sister of Lord Muskerry and niece of the Marquis of Ormond. At Macroom Castle he was received by the Lady Helena Butler, sister to Ormond and wife of Muskerry, who was then in Dublin. These names are mentioned to show incidentally the close connection between Ormond and the Anglo and Old Irish proprietors. At Dromsecane he was met by Richard Butler, Ormond’s brother, a member of the Supreme Council, at the head of two troops of horse, thence by Clonmeenand Kilmallock to Limerick. Limerick, hitherto neutral, had been persuaded by Scarampi to join the Confederation, and the Nuncio was received with full honours by the clergy, corporation, and the garrison. On November 12th he halted within three miles of Kilkenny, and received a deputation of welcome from the Council. Next day he entered his litter surrounded by a vast concourse of people and set out for the city. He left the litter on approaching the gate, and donning the Pontifical hat and cape mounted a richly caparisoned horse. A canopy was held over him by leading citizens, bare headed in spite of the rain which fell in torrents. At the Market Cross, a beautiful structure erected in 1400 and destroyed in 1771 during the oppression of the penal laws, he halted, and listened to a Latin oration, and then on to the cathedral of St. Canice, where he was received by the Bishop of Ossory. Here from the high altar he bestowed the Pontifical Benediction and theTe Deumwas intoned by all present.
Having rested for two days he visited Lord Mountgarret and the Supreme Council who then occupied the ancient castle of the Ormonds. “At the head of the hall was seated Lord Mountgarret, President of the Council, who roseas I approached, but received me without moving at all from his place.” Rinuccini concludes his complaint to the Pope by saying that the reception was arranged by Bellings as one acquainted with Italian etiquette. The Pope replied that a hint should be conveyed to Mountgarret in the shape of an account of the Nuncio’s reception by the Doge of Genoa, who advanced four steps to meet him. Possibly Mountgarret knew it already, but thought the representative of the Irish nation should not condescend so much as the head of a small Italian Republic. The Nuncio addressed the President and Council in Latin, and assured them that the object of his visit was to assist the King as well as procure for the people of Ireland the free and public exercise of their religion and the restoration of the churches and church property. The Council made a grateful acknowledgment in an address to the Pope.
Muskerry and the other Confederate agents were still in Dublin and did not return to Kilkenny until the day after the Nuncio arrived. They found that the old Irish had resolved to rely entirely on the Nuncio, and the Pope, and such other Catholic princes on the Continent as might be induced to help them. The two parties in the Confederation grew daily more estranged,and henceforth were called “Ormondists” and “Nuncioists.” Rinuccini had no trouble in persuading the Old Irish to stand by him. They believed that notwithstanding his protests, he came to form a grand Pontifical army, and that they could rely on the Pope and through him on all Catholic princes for support and aid in throwing off the yoke of England completely. The Nuncio’s comparison of the intelligence of the two parties is not very flattering to the Old Irish. “Nature even,” he says, “seems to widen the breach of difference of character and qualities, the new party being for the most part of low stature, quick-witted and of subtle understanding, while the old are tall, simple-minded, unrefined in their manner of living, generally slow of comprehension, and quite unskilled in negotiation.” And yet it was these simple-minded men whom Rinuccini encouraged in breaking up the Confederacy and in setting aside those whom from his own account by their greater knowledge of affairs, and especially of England, were more likely to justly estimate the chances for and against the success of the Nuncio’s projects. Well has it been remarked of Rinuccini that “With hazy notions as to the meaning or strength of party divisions in Ireland, he made little allowance for local conditionsin pursuing his aim of securing the full predominance of the Roman Catholic religion.”
Glamorgan was courteously received by the Nuncio, who, taking him and his credentials at once at their proper value, distrusted him and his power to induce the King to ratify the religious articles. Glamorgan, on the contrary, thought the Nuncio would throw no obstacles in the way of either treaty, and wrote to the Lord Lieutenant that the political treaty would be signed in a day or two. “I am morally certain,” he adds, “a total assent from the Nuncio shall be declared to the propositions for peace, and in the very way your Lordship prescribes.”
Rinuccini finding the Council on the point of coming to terms with Ormond for the political articles, while the religious ones were to be reserved under the secret treaty for the King’s acceptance, protested against the action of the Council. He then set to work to gain control of Glamorgan, who became as wax in his hands, and promised on behalf of the King that even if Ormond accepted the political treaty, it should not be published until Charles had confirmed his own secret treaty of August 25th, and that he would demand their ratification as soon as he landed with the Irish army in England. Rinuccini further induced him to make what waspractically a second treaty, by which the King was to bind himself to never again appoint a Protestant Lord Lieutenant, that he would admit the Catholic Bishops to sit in the Irish House of Peers, pass an Act for a Catholic University, and grant the Catholics the churches and ecclesiastical revenues, not only those re-captured by the Confederates before the date on which Ormond’s treaty was signed, but all those taken after that signature and up to the confirmation of the religious articles by the King. Glamorgan, eager to lead 10,000 Irishmen to the help of the King, was ready to promise anything, and as Chester, the only port at which they could now be landed, was threatened by the Parliamentarians, the Supreme Council agreed to allow him take an advanced guard of 3,000 men there at once. But Glamorgan could not do so until he had Ormond’s consent to his appointment as commander of this force, and to the arrangement with Rinuccini by which the political treaty was not to be published until the religious articles, of which Ormond knew nothing as yet, had been ratified. To obtain Ormond’s consent Glamorgan set out for Dublin on the 24th December. On the 26th he was summoned before Ormond and the Privy Council on the demand of Lord Digby.On October 17th the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam had been killed at the siege of Sligo. On his body was found a copy of Glamorgan’s treaty, which was at once sent by the Scots to London and was thence forwarded to Ormond. Ormond at once saw that this revelation of the King’s duplicity would be fatal to his cause with the English people, and making a desperate effort to save the credit of Charles, had Glamorgan arrested on a charge of treason in exceeding his instructions. Charles took Digby’s advice and brazenly denied his instructions to Glamorgan, and declared his “amazement that any man’s folly and presumption should carry him to such a degree of abusing our trust.” The comedy was sustained by Glamorgan’s declaration that he had made the concessions on his own initiative through excess of zeal, and that what he had done was in no way binding on the King. Charles, moreover, disavowed Glamorgan in a letter to the Parliament, “That the Earl of Glamorgan having made offer unto him to raise forces in the Kingdom of Ireland, and to conduct them to England for his Majesty’s service, had a commission to that purpose and to that purpose only. That he had no commission at all to treat of anything else without the privity and directions of the Lord Lieutenant,much less to capitulate anything concerning religion or any propriety (i.e.property) belonging either to church or laity.”
Of this disavowal Gardiner says, “It can be no matter of surprise that Charles should have acknowledged what he could not help acknowledging, and should have sought to cast a discreet veil over that which could not be concealed. His really unpardonable fault was that after engaging on such a negotiation with the Irish Catholics he should now have announced his ‘resolution of leaving the managing of the business of Ireland wholly to the Houses, and to make no peace there but with their consent.’ What sort of peace the Houses would establish in Ireland he knew full well. Rinuccini had looked into his heart and estimated his motives to more purpose than Glamorgan.”
Nevertheless, in spite of the perspicuity with which Rinuccini had examined the stuffing of this Stuart puppet he had urged the Supreme Council to hold out for conditions which he should have known very well Charles had no more chance of being able to grant than if he were an inhabitant of another planet.
The Confederates had demanded the release of Glamorgan who had himself made strong representations to Ormond that his imprisonmentwas a great disservice to the King. He was released on bail and returned to Kilkenny where he pressed the Council to complete the political treaty with Ormond on which all parties were agreed, and to give him at once the 3,000 men for the relief of Chester. On the 29th September he wrote to Ormond that the Council was only awaiting the meeting of the General Assembly to be empowered to conclude the peace, and that the men were ready to sail when the treaty was signed.
It is difficult to believe that Rinuccini could have had any real belief in the King’s powers or those of anyone acting in his name; but whatever the amount of his faith in the dwindling royal authority, it had at last received a rude shock, and he accordingly passed into an opposite phase of distrust. He now thought that Glamorgan by acting as agent between Ormond and the Council had played him false, and that his whole object had been merely to get the Irish regiments into England, leaving the Irish to content themselves with the political articles. He endeavoured, therefore, to prevent any agreement between Ormond and the Confederates, the more so that he had received a copy of the Pope’s treaty with the Queen, in which she had agreed to much more than anythingOrmond or even Glamorgan would have conceded. Sir Kenelm Digby had signed with the Pope on behalf of the Queen a treaty by which the entire liberty of Catholic worship and a completely independent Parliament were to be granted to Ireland. Dublin and other towns garrisoned by the King’s troops were to be handed over to Irish or English Catholics, while the forces under Ormond were to join the Confederates against the Scots and English Parliamentarians. As regards England the King was to concede everything required by the Pope’s instructions to Rinuccini already quoted, and to revoke all laws placing the Catholics in an inferior position to the Protestants. This was to be confirmed by the next Parliament, and meanwhile the Supreme Council was to send into England 12,000 infantry under an Irish commander, and these were to be supported by 2,500 or 3,000 English Catholic cavalry. The Pope was to send 100,000 crowns, about £36,000, on ratification of the treaty by the King, a similar amount on the landing of the Irish in England, and the same payment annually for two years if required.
Rinuccini therefore protested against any treaty with Ormond until it should be known whether the Queen’s treaty was accepted by theKing. “Preposterous as these terms were,” says Gardiner, “Rinuccini was, from his point of view, perfectly right in adopting them.” It is, however for adopting such a point of view at all that Rinuccini is to be blamed. How could he possibly place reliance on the desperate promises of a poor fugitive wife eager to save her husband by any means when he had been unable to trust her husband when his power was not so reduced as it had since become! Glamorgan, now completely in the hands of Rinuccini, wrote to Ormond urging him to accept the Queen’s treaty, and referring to the expenses he had in equipping the troops which would come to £100,000. He says “How cold shall I find Catholics bent to this service if the Pope be irritated I humbly submit to your Excellency’s better judgment? And here I am constrained ... absolutely to profess not to be capable to do the King that service which he expects at my hands unless the Nuncio be civilly complied with and carried along with us in our proceedings.”
This was an extraordinary letter to a man who if anything was anti-Papal. Ormond replied that he did not know what was meant by the advantageous peace to be obtained of the King by the Queen’s entreaties. “My lord,” he continued,“my affections and interest are so tied to his Majesty’s cause that it were madness in me to disgust any man that hath power and inclination to relieve him in the sad condition he is in; and, therefore your lordship may securely go on in the ways you have proposed to yourself to serve the King without fear of interruption from me, or so much as inquiring the means you work by. My commission is to treat with his Majesty’s Confederate Catholic subjects here for a peace upon conditions of honour and assistance to him and of advantage to them; which accordingly, I shall pursue to the best of my skill, but shall not venture upon any new negotiation foreign to the powers I have received.”
Glamorgan thereupon delivered himself up entirely to the Nuncio and wrote a long Latin oath by which he swore him unlimited obedience. An agreement was drawn up between the Nuncio and Glamorgan on the one hand and the Council on the other, by which the cessation with Ormond was to be extended to May 1, 1646, the extension being for the purpose of allowing the Nuncio to obtain the originals of the Queen’s treaty, as the Council had refused to support the new demands on the King merely from the copy. Rinuccini agreedthat if he could not produce the original within the time he would be contented with whatever terms Glamorgan might get from Charles.
In view of this temporary agreement between the Nuncio and the Supreme Council, it seemed as if the troops could now start for Chester. On February 24, 1646, Glamorgan wrote to Ormond that not 3,000 but 6,000 men would be sent, and that he was going to Waterford to hasten the shipping. On March 8 bad news arrived. Chester had surrendered to Brereton and the port was closed against Charles’s Irish army. Still more ominous things happened at home, for a Parliamentary fleet had sailed up the Shannon and seized Bunratty Castle, thus showing that the Parliament felt itself so sure of overcoming the King it was at last in a position to commence active measures in Ireland. The Supreme Council wrote to Ormond that unless he would join forces with them they would neither make peace at Dublin nor send an army to England. Still they could not abandon the negotiation with the Lieutenant of a King who had not the power, and probably not the will, to fulfil the engagements made in his name. They now proposed to Ormond that the conclusion of peace should be postponed to the middle of June, so that Glamorgan should get ships together to carry thearmy to some port in Wales. In the meantime Glamorgan would send his brother to get a confirmation of his own treaty as to the religious articles from the King. If these were accepted, and if Ormond would agree to join forces with them against the Scots and Puritans, the Council would give him £3,000 for the pay of his troops.
On these terms Ormond signed on 28th March the peace on the understanding that it was to be kept secret until the 1st May. The articles which related to the civil government included some much-needed reforms, especially the admission of Catholics and Protestants to office on equal terms. Religious matters were postponed pending Charles’s answer. The Confederates agreed to send the 10,000 men, of whom 6,000 were to start on 1st April, and the remainder on 1st May. Ormond gave them a written promise that if the Confederates were attacked before the latter date he would join them against their assailants. It was too late. Like Chester, South Wales had now been occupied by the Parliament, Cornwall as well, and there was not a foot of English ground on which the army could land with any chance of maintaining itself. Officers and men refused to leave Ireland. Charles himself wrote that “the foot was to be kept back, as it would be lost if it should nowattempt to land, we having no horse nor ports in our power to secure them.”
In May Rinuccini went to Limerick to support the Confederate army besieging Bunratty, and took credit for having, as he says, “adroitly prevented” the despatch of 10,000 Irish infantry to Charles. It was not much to boast of, helping the destruction of the man on whose continuance of power both he and the Pope were relying for the attainment of their religious aims. The original cessation of arms, when the still united Confederates could have made themselves masters of the whole country and treated with King or Parliament was a fatal error; but having decided to back the King and prevent the rise of the power that was destined to destroy them both, they should have helped him quickly. By insisting on conditions which would only tend to make him more unpopular in England, they had wasted valuable time and allowed their intended ally to be weakened and their common enemy to gain strength. The only merit Rinuccini had was that his delays prevented a useless waste of Irish lives; but it is evident that was not in his thoughts when pressing for the acceptance of the Queen’s treaty, as had that been accepted he would have consented, would have been bound by the Pope’sinstructions to consent to the despatch of the troops. Charles, to do him justice, was the only one to warn the Irish against starting on account of the danger and uselessness of such a proceeding.
It has been necessary to enter into such a detailed account of these important negotiations that space does not admit of more than a brief reference to the chief events during the remainder of Rinuccini’s mission.
He now set himself to work to annul the lately concluded peace, and found a strong supporter in Owen Roe O’Neill, who with his followers persisted in the belief that the Pope would help the Irish to shake off the yoke of England. While we must sympathise with O’Neill’s true-hearted and enthusiastic patriotism, we must remember the Pope’s positive instructions to Rinuccini on that point. Rinuccini, moreover, warned O’Neill against nourishing such hopes, and expressed his annoyance at his calling his force the “Pontifical Army.” At the same time the Nuncio was only too glad to make use of O’Neill to overthrow the Confederation. After Owen Roe’s brilliant victory over the Scots at Benburb, on the 5th June, Rinuccini supplied him with funds and accompanied him to the siege of Bunratty, which surrendered inJuly. Ormond’s peace was proclaimed in Dublin on 30th July and at Kilkenny, but Rinuccini and the majority of the clergy procured its rejection at Limerick, Clonmel, Waterford, and other places. The Nuncio held a convocation of some of the clergy at Waterford, and on 12th August declared that the Confederate Catholics supporting the peace were perjured for having failed to obtain for the Church first of all such terms as they had sworn to obtain by their Oath of Confederation. He also issued an interdict against the places that had accepted it, ordered their churches to be closed, and the sacraments refused to the inhabitants. This exercise of his powers cost him a severe snub from Rome. The Cardinal Secretary wrote: “Moreover, having seen a printed paper, in which the authors and supporters of the peace between Ireland and the Marquis of Ormond are pronounced to be perjurers and a protest which the Ecclesiastical Congregation has made in these precise [Latin] words, ‘For these and other reasons moved only by our conscience and having only God before our eyes, that it may be known to all and singular both in Ireland and abroad, we have not given and should not give our consent to any such peace unless according to our oath it contains conditions for Religion, for King, and forCountry, etc., etc.’ And this paper is subscribed first by your Excellency and then by the Archbishops, Bishops, and ecclesiastics of Ireland. It appears to His Holiness and to us that in this your Excellency has departed from your instructions, because it never was intended to maintain the Irish as rebels against the King, but simply to assist them in obtaining the assurance of the free exercise of the Catholic religion in Ireland.... From the specimen which I have taken from this printed document, in which occurs the Latin words I have quoted, your Excellency will be able to regulate your conduct on such other occasions as may present themselves, and thus observe the tenor of your instructions.”
All the same Rinuccini returned to Kilkenny in triumph, imprisoned most of the Supreme Council, and formed another entirely subservient to him, of which he constituted himself the President. He next excommunicated all adherents of the peace, though eight of the Bishops, including his own nominee De Burgo, Archbishop of Tuam, and the Jesuits and Carmelites, in fact all the regular clergy except the Dominicans and Capuchins, held the censures to be invalid, and appealed against them to Rome.
A plot was now formed for the escape of Charles from the Scots to Rinuccini and the clerical party and the joint armies of O’Neill and Preston, who were now reconciled by the Nuncio, marched to besiege Dublin.
Rinuccini must now have not only a Supreme Council but a Lord Lieutenant of his own. Glamorgan when first he arrived had brought a document sealed with the King’s private signet appointing him Lord Lieutenant in the event of Ormond’s death or misconduct, and Glamorgan now qualified himself for the office of Viceroy by swearing complete submission to the Nuncio. He would do no act without his approval, and would be ready to resign his office at any time into Rinuccini’s hands. Rinuccini thought the opportunity of installing him would soon occur.
Ormond’s position was indeed now desperate. The defences of Dublin were dilapidated, and he had neither provisions nor ammunition. The King had been surrendered to the Parliament by the Scots, his cause was hopeless, and Parliamentary cruisers swarmed on the Irish coasts. Ormond accordingly, having been always in the English interest, appealed to the Parliament for help, and offered to surrender to them. Meanwhile O’Neill and Preston quarrelled outright,and on a false alarm that Parliamentary troops had arrived, the siege was raised. O’Neill and the Nuncio retired to Kilkenny, while Preston remained and commenced still another negotiation with Ormond. The Parliament had refused Ormond’s conditions of surrender, and he was now willing to make a treaty which should unite the English Royalists with the moderate Catholic party on the basis of toleration under the King’s authority against Rinuccini on the one hand, and the Puritans on the other. Rinuccini threatened Preston with excommunication, and Preston who had boasted of being “excommunication proof,” hastened to Kilkenny. Ormond then put an end to his anomalous position by surrendering Dublin to the agents of the Parliament on July 28, 1647, and joined the other Royalist refugees in France.
Rinuccini’s supremacy in the Council did not remain long undisputed. The moderate party were crushed only temporarily. On the meeting of the General Assembly the old Council were released from prison, and the feud between the two parties was more furious than ever, swords being drawn in the council chamber. The Parliamentary commander of Dublin, Michael Jones, marched to the relief of Trim and defeated Preston with a loss of five thousand men andall his guns and baggage. In the South, Inchiquin, at present for the Parliament, had taken Cahir, and attacked Cashel, which he burnt, shooting hundreds of the inhabitants and twenty priests who had crowded into the cathedral, and when attacked in his turn by the Munster army under Lord Taaffe at Knockanos, the Confederate forces were completely routed and their camp and artillery captured.
And now the whole scene became still more confusing, all parties seeming to change into new and kaleidoscopic combinations. Inchiquin who thought he had not been rewarded sufficiently by the Parliament, and having after all more sympathy with Irish than English proprietors, made overtures to Preston. Ormond was approached in Paris and a coalition was formed against the Parliament between the moderate Confederates and the Royalists. Rinuccini issuing excommunication against all who countenanced this arrangement, fled to O’Neill’s camp at Maryborough. Preston and O’Neill joined forces and there was civil war between the Confederates. Jones, who suspected many of his own troops of loyalty to Charles, was delighted at this, and so bitter was the hatred between the clerical party and the moderate Catholics that O’Neill and the Nuncio actuallywent so far as to treat with the Puritan commander for help against their co-religionists at Kilkenny. In October, Monnerie the French agent thought Rinuccini about to fly from Ireland. “Your Eminence,” he wrote to Mazarin, “knows the Nuncio’s inclinations”—doubtless his desire to be in Paris—“and I will merely say that now he receives as many curses from the people as he formerly did plaudits.” In September Glamorgan, now Marquis of Worcester, sailed from Galway to France, and the Nuncio’s troubles were increased by the appearance in October of O’Mahony’sApologetic Discussionof his conduct. The Nuncio had the book condemned by the magistrates. He returned to Kilkenny only to hear of the defeat at Knockanos. Rinuccini found he had now but little authority, “being now,” says Bellings, “better known, and his excommunications by his often thundering of them grown more cheap.” He retired in disgust to Waterford in January, 1648. Inchiquin took Carrick-on-Suir for the Parliament in February, but declared for the King in April, and endeavoured to come to terms with the Confederates on the basis of theStatus quo ante, until Ormond should return. Rinuccini, and in this case he was perfectly right, refused to treat with such a blood-stained traitor to everyparty, but the Supreme Council fearing the growing strength of the English Parliament, in spite of the Nuncio’s protests and threats, made a truce with Inchiquin. Rinuccini at Kilkenny and supported by a majority of the Bishops, then excommunicated all who adhered to the truce, and put the terms concerned under an interdict. The Council appealed to Rome. Rinuccini escaped by night from Kilkenny to O’Neill’s army at Maryborough and thence to Athlone and Galway, where he convened a National Synod, while the clergy opposed to him at Kilkenny declared his censures null and void. The Jesuits, Barefooted or Discalced Carmelites and cathedral clergy were opposed to him, while he was supported by the Franciscans and Dominicans. He bitterly complained of the conduct of the Jesuits, and charged them and their Provincial, Malone, with the greater share of the blame for the loss of Ireland. He even went so far as to declare the Irish people were Catholics only in name. In his instruction to Father Arcamoni, who was to represent him in the appeal to Rome, he says, “It may be, therefore, by the will of God that a people Catholic only in name and so irreverent towards the Church should feel the thunderbolt of the Holy See and draw down upon themselves the anger which is the meed of the scorner.”
Ormond landed at Cork on Michaelmas Day, 1648, and on the 16th of January, 1648-9 concluded a peace with the Supreme Council, consolidating the Royalist interests in Ireland. The Council finally renounced Rinuccini at the beginning of the negotiations, and ordered him to “intermeddle not in any of the affairs of this kingdom.” The Carmelites of Galway having resisted the interdict by which their church was closed, Rinuccini ordered their bell to be pulled down. John De Burgo, a nominee of Rinuccini to the Archbishopric of Tuam, supported the Carmelites, and demanded the Nuncio’s warrant. “Ego non ostendam,” said Rinuccini; “Et ego non obediam,” retorted De Burgo. The Nuncio was blockaded in Galway by the Catholics Clanricarde acting with the new Royalist Confederation, he being determined that no Synod should be held in Galway in support of the censures. Rinuccini, who had kept a frigate ready, seeing how useless it was to remain longer where he had worn out his welcome, sailed for Havre on 23rd February, 1648-9. He did not proceed to Rome until November. His agents had been supporting his cause against Father Rowe, Provincial of the Carmelites, on the part of the Supreme Council. Rinuccini was received with all the usual honours by the Pope; butInnocent is said to have reproached him in private with rash conduct. In March, 1650, the Pope granted power to certain Bishops to absolve those who had fallen under the Nuncio’s censures, but a general absolution was refused, as it would seem to make the Pope decide that the censures were unjust. Rinuccini was warmly welcomed on his return to Fermo, where he died of apoplexy in 1653.
We have now followed as far as possible within the limits allowed us the history of this most distracting period, and before concluding it may be well to glance back and survey its most distinctive features.
We have seen how the rising of the dispossessed clansmen in the North furnished a pretext for the confiscation of practically the whole of Ireland, irrespective of its share in the rebellion, and how the Parliament was thus enabled to raise money for an invasion to extinguish the Irish nation and put the Subscribers in possession of their security. The Parliament diverted these funds to carrying on its own war against the King. The Confiscation Acts united the hitherto discordant Anglo-Irish and Old-Irish elements in a great national movement for common defence against further religious persecution and further spoliation by a wealthyand powerful neighbouring, but not neighbourly, people. While they acted loyally together they had extended their authority throughout the greater part of the country, and were so near a complete conquest that the English power was brought so low that its representatives were reluctantly compelled to sue for a cessation. A section of the Anglo-Irish Confederates imagining themselves still English, looking only towards England, and never dreaming that a day might come when they with the poet Spenser’s grandsons would be forced to transplant to Connaught as Irish Papists, urged the granting of a truce, and though the Old Irish protested against this throwing away of their advantages, they respected the Oath of Confederation too much to make any violent opposition. By granting the truce, by negotiating at all, the Confederates committed the fatal error from which their future ruin followed. It is all very well to blame Ormond, but he was only doing his duty to his sovereign and his party; the Irish had beaten him to his knees, and their trusted representatives should have kept him there until their position in Ireland at any rate was secured. Had they, disdaining Ormond’s overtures, relentlessly pursued the war to an entirely successful issue—and that theycould have done so is evident from O’Neill’s brilliant victory over Monroe at Benburb when their strength was almost exhausted—they would have been in a position to treat with King or Parliament; and, moreover, that Continental assistance they vainly sought when through the Cessation their stability had become doubtful, would not have been withheld. The Parliamentarians in their struggle with the King showed better judgment. When their early efforts for an accommodation with him failed, they destroyed him and came to terms with his son. The Confederates should have avoided all treaties until they were in a position to treat on their own terms with either King or Parliament. On the whole, it might have been better had they been in a position to treat with the latter; but whichever prevailed, Ireland, even without foreign help, but with the prestige of an armed and united nation like the Scots, would have been able to enter into a confederation of the three Kingdoms on honourable conditions, instead of being dragged in, gagged and bound, the victim of violence, fraud, and corruption unsurpassed in the history of nations. The Confederates, however, failed to take the tide of victory when it served, and wasted their time in a series of futile negotiations with a man whocertainly had not the power, even if he had the will, to grant them what they haggled for. There is nothing more sad in all Irish History than to read that when Cromwell with a comparatively small army had subjugated Ireland in a few months, 40,000 Irish “swordsmen” took service in foreign countries. They had missed their chance.
Three things, says an Arab proverb, cannot be recalled: “The sped arrow, The spoken word, The lost opportunity.”