THE STORY OF IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 5 August 1920, Page 7

THE STORY OF IRELAND

; - (By A. M. Sullivan.)

■ CHAPTER LVl.—(Continued. ■ It was during the Glamorgan negotiationtowards its close — there arrived in Kilkenny a man whose , name is indelibly written on the history of this period, and is deeply engraved in Irish memory Baptist Rinuccini, Archbishop of Fermo, in the marches of Ancona, chosen by the new Pope, Innocent the Tenth, as nuncio to the confederated Catholics of Ireland. As the Pope, from the first hour when the Irish were driven into a war in defence of religion, never sent an envoy empty-handed, Rinuccini brought . with him, purchased by moneys contributed by the Holy Father, besides 36,000 dollars forwarded by Father Luke Wadding, “2000 muskets, 2000 cartouche belts, 4000 swords, 2000 400 brace of pistols, 20,000 pounds of powder, with match, shot, and other stores.” He landed from his frigate, the San Pietro, at-Ardtully, in Kenmare Bay. He then proceeded by way of Kilgarvan to Macroom, whither 5 the supreme council sent some troops of cavalry to meet him as a guard of honor. Thence by way of Kilmallock and Limerick, as rapidly-as his feeble health admitted —(he had to be borne on a litter or palanquin) —he proceeded to Kilkenny, now practically the capital of the kingdom—the seat of the national Governmentwhere there awaited him a reception such as a monarch might envy. It was Catholic Ireland’s salutation to the “royal Pope.” That memorable scene is described for us as follows by a writer to whom we owe the only succinct account which we possess in the English language of the great events of the period now before us;—“At a short distance from the gate, he descended from the litter, and having put on the cope and pontifical hat, the insignia of his office, he mounted a horse caparisoned for the occasion. The secular and regular clergy had assembled in the Church of St. Patrick, close by the gate, and when it was announced that the Nuncio was in readiness, they advanced into the city in processional array, preceded by the standard-bearers of their respective orders. Under the old arch, called St. Patrick’s gate, he was met by the Vicar-General of the diocese of Ossory, and the magistrates of the city and county, who joined in the procession. The streets were lined by regiments of infantry, and the bells of the Black Abbey and the Church of St. Francis pealed a gladsome chime. The procession then moved on till it ascended the gentle eminence on which the splendid old fane, sacred to St. Canice, is erected. Ah the grand entrance he was received by the venerable Bishop of Ossory, whose feebleness prevented his walking in procssion. After mutual salutations, the Bishop handed him the aspersorium and incense, and then both entered the cathedral, which, even in the palmiest days of Catholicity, had never held within its precincts a more solemn or gorgeous assemblage.' The Nuncio ascended the steps of the grand ‘altar, intonated the Te Benin, which was caught up by a thousand voices, till crypt and. chancel , resounded with the psalmody, and when, it ceased, he pronounced a blessing on the immense multitude which crowded the aisles and nave. • . . These ceremonies concluded, he retired foh a while to the residence prepared for him in the city, and shortly afterwards was waited on by General Preston and Lord Muskerry. He then proceeded on foot to visit Lord Miountgarret, the president of the assembly. The reception took place in the castle. At the foot of the grand staircase he was met by Thomas Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, and Walsh, Arch.bishop of Cashel. At the end of the great gallery J-mra Ivlountgarret was seated, waiting his arrival and when the Nuncio approached, he got up from his chair, without moving a single inch in. advance.... The seat designed for Rinuccini was of damask and gold, with a little more ornament than that occupied by the president. . . The Nuncio immediately addressed the

president in Latin, and declared that the object of his mission was to sustain the king, then so perilously circumstanced; but, above all, to rescue from pains and penalties the people of Ireland, and to assist them in securing the free and public exercise of the Catholic religion, and the restoration of the churches and church property of which fraud and violence had so long deprived their rightful inheritors.” From the very first the Nuncio discerned the pernicious workings of the “compromise” idea in paralysing the power of the confederacy; and perceiving all its bitter mischief, he seems to have had little patience with it. He saw that the old English of the Pale were more than anxious for a compromise, and to this end would allow the astute Ormond to fool them to the last, to the utter ruin of the confederate cause. They were, however, the majority, and eventually, on the 28th of March, 1646, concluded with Ormond a treaty of peace which was a modification of Glamorgan’s original propositions. On the character and merits of this treaty turns one of the most injurious and mournful controversies that ever agitated Ireland. “A base peace” the populace called it when made public ; but it might have been a wise one for all that. 'ln the denunciations put forward against it by all who followed the Nuncio’s views, full justice has not been done this memorable pact. It contained one patent and fatal defect—it failed to make such express and adequate stipulations for the security of the Catholic religion as the oath of Confederation demanded. Failing this, it was substantially a good treaty under all the circumstances. It secured (as far as a treaty with a double-dealing and now virtually discrowned king might be held to secure anything) all, or nearly all, that the Irish Catholics expected then, or have since demanded. There can be no doubt that the majority of the supreme council honestly judged it the best peace attainable, nay wondr sly advantageous, all things considered ; and judging so, it is not to be marvelled at that they bitterly complained of and inveighed against the Nuncio and the party following him, as mad and culpable “extremists,” who would lose all by unreasonably grasping at too much. But the Nuncio and the “native” party argued that if the confederates were but true to them-selves,-they would not need to be false to their oaths that they had it in their power by vigorous and patriotic effort to win equality and freedom, not merely tolerance. Above all, Rinuccini pointed out that dealing with men like Charles the king and Ormond the viceroy, circumstanced as the royalist cause then was, the confederates were utterly without security. They were selling their whole power and position for the promise to pay” of a bankrupt. (To bo continued.)