Interdict and excommunication follows.
‘The nuncio,’ says Bellings, ‘seeing that no opposition he could give was of force to interrupt the cessation, judging it, perhaps, unfit for him to be present at the publishing of it, left the town in such a manner as might well persuade the people somewhat had been plotted against his person, for, passing through the garden of Mr. Shea’s house, where he lived, and mounting to the town wall by a ladder, he went out at the gate, and thence to the northern army in Leix, where the Ulster creaghts, from the time Owen O’Neill had taken the fort of Maryborough on his advance to the siege of Dublin, had been planted.’ Bishop Macmahon left Kilkenny next day. Some monks had told the nuncio that a plot against his life had been revealed to them under the seal of confession. Somebody may have said this to drive him away, but that there was such a plot is quite incredible, and it may be doubted whether Rinuccini believed it himself. He fled to O’Neill at Maryborough, and when he was gone the truce was quickly concluded. The Council, more for the sake of popularity than because they wished for his presence, made great efforts to induce him to return, but he was irreconcilable, and was destined never to see Kilkenny again. The truce was concluded without his consent on May 20, to last until November 1, upon the basis of each party retaining its own and of a mutual exchange of prisoners. Inchiquin’s quarters were defined as the counties of Cork, Kerry, and Waterford, with the proviso that he should not tax the baronies of Glenaheiry, near Clonmel, and Gaultier, near Waterford, nor the towns of Dingle and Tralee. He undertook not to interfere with the free exercise of religion outside his garrison towns. A week later the nuncio excommunicated all who accepted the truce, and laid an interdict on towns and villages receiving it. Macmahon and four other bishops signed the document, and the penalties of excommunication were declared to be incurred by all who removed or defaced it.[125]
The Supreme Council appeal to Rome.
O’Neill supports the nuncio.
Tyrone’s sword.
Preston and O’Neill at war.
‘The lord nuncio’s excommunications,’ says Bellings, ‘had now by his often thundering of them, grown more cheap.’ A sense of this may have been the reason why he made it as stringent as possible, though he was without books or canonists, and therefore open to criticism in point of form. In the letters written at the time he admits that the result varied very much in different places, but in the narrative composed after he left Ireland he says he ‘knew of no occasion when the censure has better deserved the name of a thunderbolt,’ and that it had at once sent 2000 of Preston’s soldiers over to O’Neill. The paper was publicly posted in Kilkenny, and the Supreme Council at once appealed to Rome. O’Neill and his officers declared unreservedly for the nuncio, professing to believe that Ormonde was really a partisan of the Parliament, and that those who adhered to him were inclined the same way. The Council thereupon revoked his commission as general of Ulster, and advised him and his officers by letter. O’Neill collected these missives and burned them publicly in the presence of Bishop Macmahon and others, and proceeded to increase his forces as fast as possible. Some money brought from Rome by Dean Massari enabled him to do this. The Dean had also brought a sword from Luke Wadding, which was said to have been Tyrone’s, and for which he had a splendid scabbard made at Paris. As a former Pope had sent Tyrone a crown of peacock’s feathers, so this was thought to be a confirmation of the report that Owen O’Neill was designated as king in Mahony’s pamphlet. The sword never came into O’Neill’s hands, and there is no evidence that he had any such ideas, though the nature of his ambition must always be somewhat questionable. Things came to a head about the end of July, when James Preston, the general’s son, besieged Athy, which was held by Shane O’Hagan against the Confederates, and where O’Neill had established a bakery for ammunition-bread. Summoned by O’Hagan to his relief, the northern general came from Longford without meeting much resistance, and passed the flooded Barrow by felling an oak tree across it. Preston drew off at his approach, and he encamped a few days later in Lord Mountgarret’s park at Dunmore with 10,000 foot and 500 horse. His men ate the deer and drank the good ale in the lodge. He made no attempt on the town, about which Preston had collected some troops, and after a stay of five days drew off into Queen’s County, Inchiquin following him with a much inferior force.[126]
Panic at Kilkenny, May-August.
Inchiquin urges Ormonde to return.
While O’Neill’s tents were visible from the walls of Kilkenny there was great confusion inside. Some churches were shut; others, in defiance of the interdict, remained open. A letter was intercepted in which Paul King, guardian of the Franciscans and a special confidant of the nuncio’s, invited the northern general to take possession. The Council imprisoned King and made Peter Walsh guardian. Walsh was employed to draw up queries and answers, which were afterwards signed by Bishop Rothe, against the validity of Rinuccini’s censures. ‘I remember very well,’ writes the learned friar, ‘how (besides others) Richard Bellings, Esq., a leading member and chief secretary of the said Council, came several times from them to my chamber to hasten my despatch, and to tell me of the great danger of delay, being the enemy was in sight and the people so divided.’ He worked for five days and nights consecutively without closing his eyes, and preached in the cathedral at the end of it. A respectable number of divines followed Rothe and Walsh, but it was evident that the Confederacy could not be restored. O’Neill, who alone of the Irish generals had the prestige of victory, openly defied the authority of the Council and adhered to the nuncio. Jones was gradually growing stronger in Dublin, and it was evident that no one except Ormonde could have the weight necessary. Inchiquin had urged him to come as soon as the truce was concluded. ‘Divers of my men,’ he said, ‘have died of hunger, after they had a while lived upon cats and dogs, as many do now. And if, while I am in this condition, the Parliament shipping should arrive according to our expectation, grounded upon good advertisement, with some officers, money, clothes, and victuals, and make tender thereof unto our soldiers, if they will give up the officers they have now, a greater strait than I shall be in cannot be imagined.’[127]