Gaol the only safe place.
The nuncio approves of the riot.
The proclamation at Kilkenny was an open declaration of war with the nuncio, who immediately sent Dean Massari to Rome to explain that both clergy and people were against the peace, and that its few supporters could do no harm. Meanwhile, Ulster went on his way to Limerick. Arriving after the gates were shut, he was refused admittance, and had to pass the night in an old house outside. Next day he was received by Sir John Bourke, the mayor, and at first it seemed that all would go smoothly; but the civic authorities went on arguing the question till the following day was well advanced, and time was thus given for a formidable agitation to grow. James Wolfe, a Dominican friar, harangued a mob in the streets, and declared that all who adhered to the peace would incur the penalties of excommunication. The chief citizens assembled at the mayor’s house, where Dr. Walter Lynch, warden of the Galway college, employed his eloquence in the same cause. A third priest ‘carried a great crucifix through the streets on the top of a pole.’ The mayor, nevertheless, favoured the proclamation and tried to protect the herald while doing his office, but stones flew like hail, and his house was wrecked. He was himself knocked down and nearly murdered, while Ulster was hunted from the room, the friars calling out in Irish, ‘Kill, kill! I will absolve you.’ He received two serious wounds on the head and one in the hand, while his body was covered with cuts and bruises. Dr. Thomas Arthur, a famous physician, who had succeeded twenty years before in curing Archbishop Ussher of a disease which had puzzled the London faculty, did what he could to pacify his co-religionists and to save the herald’s life at the risk of his own. Appeals to the law of nations which protects heralds were fruitless, and the more moderate citizens were forced to carry Roberts to gaol for safety and to give out that he was dead. He and his companions were detained for ten days, when Rinuccini said they might be discharged. Bourke was deposed from the mayoralty, and Thomas Fanning, a leader of the rioters, was installed in his room. The new mayor received the nuncio’s thanks and apostolical benediction for his good conduct in the matter.[95]
Ormonde and the Protestant hierarchy.
Ormonde at Kilkenny.
Ormonde and Owen Roe O’Neill.
While the Congregation at Waterford were fulminating their censures against all who adhered to the peace with Ormonde, the Protestant clergy who had taken refuge in Dublin were congratulating him on having ‘preserved not only in this city, but also in all the out-garrisons, the free and full exercise of the true reformed religion.’ They besought him to continue in this way as the only means to make Ireland obedient to the King, and to provide them with some maintenance until they could return to their benefices. ‘If any of our number,’ they concluded, ‘be found disaffected to the religion, book of service, public worship, government of the Church, his Majesty’s service, or disturbers of the present peace, we do not supplicate for such, but leave them to your lordship to be proceeded with as you shall find convenient.’ This was signed by eleven archbishops and bishops and by seventy-seven other clergymen, many of whom afterwards rose high in the Church. Ormonde’s loyalty to the Church of England was incompatible with Rinuccini’s views; but it did not prevent the Council at Kilkenny from inviting the King’s representative to his own town and castle. He left Dublin on August 28 and reached Kilkenny on the 31st, where he was received with triumphal arches and many demonstrations of joy; and even succeeded in collecting some of his long-lost rents. Ormonde left 1500 foot at Gowran, under Sir Francis Willoughby, and took 500 horse on with him, whom he quartered about Bennetsbridge. In passing Naas he took the precaution of borrowing eight barrels of powder from Sir John Sherlock, the governor, and they proved very useful. Digby and Clanricarde accompanied him to Kilkenny. His previous negotiations with Preston led him to believe that that general would keep the victorious Ulster army at a distance. Ormonde’s last act before leaving Dublin was to send Daniel O’Neill to his uncle, Owen Roe, with power to make him great offers if he would adhere to the peace. These included the custody of all lands in O’Neill-land belonging to men who questioned the King’s authority and of all Lord Caulfield’s estate, and confirmation in his command. These were promises, while the nuncio was able to give hard cash, without which an army could not be moved—4000l. at first out of the Pope’s money, and 5000l. later from the contributions of the faithful, or by means of an advance from the Spanish agent.[96]
Rinuccini denounces the peace.
O’Neill and Preston.