TWO ILLUSTRIOUS GRAVES.
We are happy to be the first to announce to the Irish public the discovery of the exact spot wherein the remains of our great Irish chieftain, Hugh O'Neill, repose, side by side with those of Archbishop Matthews.
This privilege we owe to the great kindness of Rev. Dr. Moran, the distinguished Vice-Rector of the Irish College of St. Agatha, Rome, who has permitted us to anticipate the publication of the second part of the first volume of his History of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin since the Reformation, in which the event is described. Of the volume itself we shall soon have occasion to speak at some length. For the present it is enough to say, that like each of Dr. Moran's other works, it has the great merit of being a work for the times. His Life of Archbishop Plunkett, and his History of the Irish Persecutions, were valuable, no doubt, for the light they cast on an important epoch, and for the proof they afforded of our forefathers' constancy in the faith. Far more valuable, however, than these are Dr. Moran's Essays on the Origin, Doctrines, and Antiquities of the Irish Church, in which, with an extraordinary lucidity of reasoning and a singular amount of erudition, he answers all the arguments and refutes all the theories of modern Protestant writers and lecturers, who have undertaken the hopeless task of proving that the religion of the early church of our fathers was identical with that which had its origin in the corruption and cruelty of Henry VIII. and his daughter Elizabeth, and which, as far as it has extended, was introduced into Ireland by fire and sword and the most cruel penal laws. Any one who reads Dr. Moran's essays will admit that not only Whiteside and Napier, who have ventured to lecture on the ancient doctrines of the Irish Church, with which they were altogether unacquainted, but also some learned antiquarians who have treated of the same subject, were quite astray in their views, and had no solid arguments on which to ground their opinions.
Our first extract is taken from the life of the venerable Archbishop, Dr. Matthews, who governed the see of Dublin in a most critical and disastrous period, from the 2nd May, 1611, to the 1st of September, 1623, when he died an exile in Rome. This extract is found at page 262, and gives an account of the persecutions to which Catholics were subjected in the reign of James I., who was supposed to be less hostile than his predecessor Elizabeth:
"The greater part of the treatise of Dr. Roothe, entitled Analecta, is taken up with details of the sufferings of our Church at this sad period. The chief facts, however, which he commemorates are: (1) that the fines levied in the county Cavan, in 1615, for the mere crime of not assisting at Protestant service, amounted to more than eight thousand pounds; (2) that when some of the poor Catholics of the county Meath, who were unwilling to pay this tax, fled from the cruel collectors of it into the caverns and mountain recesses, furious bloodhounds were often let loose in pursuit of them, followed by the sheriff and his posse of soldiers, equally furious and unrelenting; (3) that the Protestant authorities had constant recourse to ecclesiastical censures, in consequence of which, great numbers of Catholic merchants and artificers were thrown into prison, and reduced to extreme poverty and distress; (4) that those who happened to die whilst under the ban of these Protestant censures, were denied Christian burial, and thrown into graves dug in the highways, where, to increase the ignominy, stakes were driven through their bodies.[ 18]
"More interesting to the reader than all these narratives, will probably be the sketch of the sufferings of Ireland from the pen of the archbishop himself,—a sketch drawn up with special care by Dr. Matthews, in 1623, and presented by him to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda.[ 19] He thus writes:—
"'Although from the very commencement of the schism we have been constantly in the battle-field, and, with the exception of the momentary repose enjoyed during the reign of Catholic Mary, have been unceasingly exposed to the attacks of our persecutors, yet so severe are their late assaults, that, in comparison, all their preceding efforts sink into insignificance. Of this persecution I myself have been a witness and a sharer, and I shall briefly commemorate a few of its chief heads.
"'Some years ago the heretics strained every nerve to introduce into Ireland those laws which the English parliament enacted against the Catholics of England, and to resuscitate the penal code which had been surreptitiously passed at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. A parliament was summoned to attain these ends. The government again sought by every art and violence to secure the election of English or Scotch heretical soldiers. Lest our Catholics might prevail by their numbers, new English and Scotch colonies were planted, and endowed with the privilege of representation. Moreover, a number of titles were conferred on various heretics, whilst the remonstrances of the Catholics were unheeded. Nevertheless, no counsel can prevail against the Lord. All the heretical efforts were fruitless; and so strenuously did the Catholics defend their sacred cause, that their adversaries did not dare even to propose the penal statutes. The heretics had then recourse to royal prerogative, that thus, without any form of law or justice, they might riot against the Catholics; and so violent is the storm of persecution which they have thus excited, that it almost baffles description.
"'1. All Catholics are removed from the administration of affairs, and even the smallest offices are given to heretics and schismatics, who may with impunity persecute the Catholics according to their fancies.
"'2. No Catholic can hold property throughout the entire kingdom; everything is seized on by heretical colonists, and the ejected Catholic proprietors cannot even live as servants on those lands of which they are the masters by hereditary right. For the heretics have learned by experience that there is no people in the world so attached to the faith of their fathers as are the Irish, in defence of which they often had recourse to arms, and risked their fortunes and lives. Seeing, therefore, that penal laws could not suffice to destroy their devotion to the Catholic religion, they had recourse to new arts, and by a disastrous counsel commenced to fill the country with English and Scotch colonies; whilst at the present time, in consequence of the treaties entered into with the continental states, the Irish can hope for no assistance from other powers. Thus, then, the natives, though unaccused of any crime, are, without colour of justice, without any feeling of humanity, without any fear of Him who will punish the oppressors, expelled from the homes of their fathers and from their hereditary estates. Sometimes they are driven to other parts of the kingdom, where small portions of land are assigned to them for their maintenance; sometimes they are compelled to fly from the island, and seek support by entering the armies of the Continent. Heretics being thus introduced into the Catholic lands, a great part of the kingdom is polluted with their sacrilegious impieties; and unless God may avert the dire calamity, the ancient faith will be banished from the whole island. As this evil is propagated by brute force, and as our people have neither skill nor power to cope with our enemies, we must wholly rely for its remedy on the mercy of God.
"'3. Ministers and preachers were sought out everywhere in Scotland and England, and sent hither to pervert our Catholics.
"'4. All benefices and other ecclesiastical property were, from the beginning, seized on by the heretics. In each diocese there is a pseudo-bishop, and in each parish a pseudo-minister.
"'5. The Catholics are compelled to repair, for heretical worship, the churches and chapels which these iconoclasts themselves had destroyed.
"'6. The pseudo-clergy not only seize on all the revenues, but exact payment for the sacraments of baptism and marriage, even when they are administered by the Catholic priests; the sum thus exacted sometimes amounts to four guineas or more, according to the will of the Protestant ministers, who make no account of the poverty and misery of the people. In addition to these exactions, a salary was lately assigned to a certain heretic, to be levied on the births, marriages, and deaths of the Catholics.
"'7. Four times in the year questors are appointed to explore the Catholics throughout the whole kingdom, and impose fines on all who absent themselves from the heretical sermons and communion. As this fine is not defined by law, the judges and questors display great earnestness and avarice in exacting it, through hatred of our holy religion.
"'8. On each Sunday, each Catholic father of a family is obliged to pay a pecuniary fine for himself and for each Catholic member of his family. This fine is exacted without mercy even from the poorest labourers.
"'9. The pseudo-bishops have introduced a new system of excommunicating, forsooth, the Catholics; from which excommunication the Catholic cannot be freed, except by recognizing the spiritual authority of these bishops, and thus sacrificing their own faith. Those thus excommunicated are liable to arrest; and should they die, are interred in unconsecrated ground.
"'10. Those who assist at Mass, incur a penalty of one hundred marks.
"'11. All our gentry and nobility are obliged to send their heirs to be educated and perverted in England.
"'12. None of the nobility are now allowed to succeed to their paternal inheritance, without first taking the oath of royal supremacy: otherwise they and their posterity are deprived of their revenues, and thus the dreadful alternative is presented to them of perversion or poverty.
"'13. It is interdicted to the Catholics to teach school either in public or in private; on the other hand, heretical masters are hired in every diocese, and paid from the revenue of some benefices, to pervert our youth and imbue them with heresy. In fact, the heretics have obstructed every avenue by which our youth could receive instruction in this kingdom; and by their severe penalties and rigorous searches, they seek to render it impossible for any Catholic teacher to remain in the country. Moreover, having created a university in the city of Dublin, the seat of the viceroy and the capital of the whole kingdom, they employ every artifice to attract our children to its schools. Indeed, they could not possibly devise any scheme more iniquitous than that of thus corrupting our youth.
"'14. The Catholic cities are deprived of their ancient liberties, privileges, and rights, and are reduced to the rank of towns, unless they elect heretics as their mayors and aldermen, or, at least, select such persons as the heretics approve of, as lately happened to the city of Waterford, which holds the second place in the kingdom for its strength and opulence'".
The second extract is the last appendix to the volume. It gives us the epitaphs of Hugh O'Neill and Dr. Matthews, which are now published for the first time.
Epitaph of the Most Rev. Eugene Matthews, Archbishop of Dublin.
"This volume was already in type, when we were fortunate enough to meet with the original epitaph which marked the last resting place of the illustrious Archbishop Matthews.
"Near the summit of the Janiculum, in the city of Rome, stands the well known church of San Pietro-in-Montorio. It contains many treasures of art, and its paintings retail the names of Raffaelle, Michael Angelo, Pinturicchio, Vasari, and other great masters. More dear to the Christian pilgrim is the adjoining shrine, which guards the clay in which was set the cross of the Prince of the Apostles.
"It was in this church that the last princes of Tyrone and Tyrconnel were interred. In the second row of tombs with which the pavement of the church is lined, the Irish traveller will find without difficulty the epitaph of Hugh baron of Dungannon, who died in September, 1609, and of the two O'Donnells, who died in the autumn of 1608.[ 20] It is known that Hugh O'Neil, earl of Tyrone, was also interred here; but hitherto his tomb has been sought for in vain. The archives of the adjoining monastery, however, have at length come to our aid. The last great Irish chieftain expired in the Palazzo Salviati, on the 20th of July, 1616, and the register of San Pietro-in-Montorio marks the 24th of July, 1616, as the day on which his remains were, with princely pomp, laid within its vaults. This same register further tells us that his epitaph, now wholly obliterated, held the first place in the third row of tombs which mark the pavement of the church, and that it consisted of the simple record:
D. O. M.
HIC QUIESCUNT OSSA
HUGONIS PRINCIPIS O'NEILL.
"It was alongside the tomb of Hugh O'Neil that Eugene Matthews, archbishop of Dublin, reposed in death. His epitaph, says the register of the church, holds the second place in the third row of tombs. The slab which corresponds with this indication now only retains some faint traces of letters here and there, it being impossible to decipher even one word of its original inscription. Here again the church register comes to our aid; it tells us that the following was the inscription on Dr. Matthews' tomb:
D. O. M.
EUGENIO MATTHEI, ARCHIEPISCOPO DUBLINENSI,
DOCTRINÆ CLARITATE NATALIUM SPLENDORE,
FIDE IN DEUM PIETATE IN PATRIAM SINGULARI
QUI POSTQUAM SOLLICITI PASTORIS,
DIUTURNO AC DIFFICILI TEMPORE IN HIBERNIA,
NUMEROS OMNES ADIMPLESSET,
SUB GREGORIO XV., ROMAM VENIT,
UBI AB OPTIMO PONTIFICE BENIGNE HABITUS,
DUM PATRIÆ SUÆ NEGOTIA PROMOVERET,
EXTREMUM DIEM CLAUSIT KAL. SEPT. 1623.
"Thus, as Dr. Matthews was closely allied by blood with the families of Tyrone and Tyrconnel; as he in youth shared with them the perils of the Catholic camp; as, when bishop of Clogher, he enjoyed with them the hospitality of the great pontiff, Paul V., in the Salviati Palace, Rome; so was he destined to be united with them in death, and to repose with them beneath the shadow of St. Peter's dome, amidst the sanctuaries and shrines of the Eternal City. We cannot better conclude than with the words of the Four Masters, when registering the death of Hugh O'Neil: 'Although he died far distant from Armagh, the burial place of his ancestors, it was a manifestation that God was pleased with his life; for the place in which God granted him to be buried was Rome, the capital of the Christians'".