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present at the interview, which assumed the character of a controversy: Walsh vigorously defending the orthodoxy of his Formulary; while Father Agapitus was no less emphatic in denouncing it as utterly untenable from the truly Catholic point of view. Seeing that there was not the least likelihood of his attaining his object, Ormonde's intermediary now warned Father Agapitus and the others, for all of whom he professed the warmest personal esteem, of the inevitable consequences of their attitude; and, as a matter of fact, we are told that thenceforth the Irish Teresians were constrained to use the utmost precaution to retain their liberty, and dared no longer hope that the Faithful would be permitted to exercise their religion in peace. Yet Peter Walsh took it upon himself to announce publicly that once the 'Loyal Remonstrance' had been signed by leading representatives of Irish Catholics, clergy and laity, religious toleration would be established throughout the land. according to Father Agapitus of the Holy Ghost, the chapel in which the Franciscan uttered this pledge was instantly wrecked by fanatics, who availed themselves of the opportunity to perpetrate one of those sacrileges against the Real Presence so heart-breaking to those whom the Dogma inspires with such reverential awe.2

But,

In face of all this, the Teresian Fathers succeeded in saving their own chapel in Dublin, although unable to admit the Faithful there; and compelled to recite the Divine Office in a very low tone, for fear of attracting Ormonde's spies. Moreover, each of the Fathers had a special place where he might offer the Holy Sacrifice carly every morning in safety; and in secret, too, they were obliged to visit the sick and discharge the other duties of the Sacred Ministry. However, little by little, the devout Catholics of Dublin had begun to come to those secure retreats for the solaces of their religion; often taking with them well-disposed Protestant friends, so that frequent conversions still ensued. Thus, despite the obstacles with which the priests of Dublin, both secular and regular, had to contend, it is here stated that since the accession of Charles II the Catholic population of the city had been increased by the reconciliation of fully ten thousand

1 It has been shown that Fathers Agapitus, Paul, and John of the Mother of God are identified as the Rev. Thomas Dillon, Rev. Stephen Browne, and Rev. John Rowe respectively. Cf. I. E. RECORD, vol. vii. p. 565. See, also, Walsh's History of the Remonstrance, p. 575, and ibid. p. 4 sqq.

2 Relatio (II) quoted.

heretics.1 But in country districts the Protestants held themselves more aloof from their Catholic neighbours; and the Discalced Carmelites on the Mission of Athboy and Loughrea, for instance, did not receive the same very desirable encouragement in the exercise of their onerous labours.2 In these circumstances Father Agapitus of the Holy Ghost had set out for the General Chapter of 1665, entrusted with that petition from his brethren which he urged before the assembled Fathers with such commendable zeal. He spoke with all the more confidence, remembering the eagerness of a number of the Irish Teresian exiles to hasten to his assistance-risking all dangers-if now permitted to return to Ireland: Father Felix of the Holy Ghost from the Province of Piedmont, where he was sub-prior of the convent of Asti; Father Patrick of St. Brigid from Belgium; Father Bernard of the Assumption from Genoa; Father Edward of the Kings from Aquitaine; and Father Christian from Wirtzbourg in the Province of Cologne.3

Once again, ail plans for the future welfare of the Irish Teresian Mission were delayed by the renewed activity of Peter Walsh, who became more importunate than ever this year; so much so, that, at the instigation of his implacable Patron, he proposed to have the question of his Formulary settled definitely at an assembly of the Catholic clergy in Dublin, to which Father Agapitus of the Holy Ghost (Rev. Thomas Dillon), as Vicar-Provincial of the Discalced Carmelites, found himself summoned by a letter dated the 18th of November, 1665, immediately after his return from Rome.1 It was represented to the Prelates who, yielding to the stress of circumstances, had consented to attend, that they might regard this as a final opportunity of protesting their loyalty to the Crown, lest their silence might arouse suspicion owing to the recent declaration of war against Holland and France. But they were given clearly to understand, in the Duke of Ormonde's name, that the only terms of allegiance admissible had already been incorporated in the Valesian Formulary still awaiting their signatures. With

1 Relatio (II).

At a later period Loughrea became the chief centre of the activities of the Teresians in this respect, when a new phase of the Valesian question occasioned a very violent revival of the persecution, especially in Dublin.

3 From the narrative of Father Felix of the Holy Ghost, f. 2b.

4 History of the Diocese of Meath (Cogan), vol ii. p. 109 sqq. The author draws largely from Walsh's History of the Remonstrance.

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the ardent hope of utilizing this instrument to work a division amongst the Romish clergy . . . to the great security of the Protestant cause in Ireland,' bitter was the resentment of the Viceroy over the issue of that Assembly, held, 'within earshot of the Castle,' on the 11th of June, 1666: the framing of a new Remonstrance, to which any Catholic might subscribe freely, affording ample evidence of loyalty to the King without prejudice to the supreme authority of the Pope. As for certain other propositions which Walsh himself would have forced upon the Assembly, these were unanimously rejected, being so objectionable that nothing could induce the clergy present to adopt the same. Whereupon Ormonde gave instructions for the instant dispersal of those representative Catholics, and for the arrest of the Prelates whom he held primarily responsible for the frustration of his infamous plans. One of his victims on this occasion was the aged Archbishop of Armagh, who has left a most touching account of what he himself then endured in the cause of orthodoxy before the actual carrying out of the sentence of perpetual banishment pronounced against him for his heroic resistance of so relentless an enemy of the Catholic Faith.2 The Great Plague' was still raging in London, and one of the proscribed priests, conspicuous for their noble self-sacrifice during that dread time, had acquired this spirit in the Dublin novitiate of the Discalced Carmelites the Father John Baptist of Mount Carmel mentioned by Father Patrick of St. Brigid as one of the prisoners detained under the Cromwellian régime, not knowing whether the result of the tedious deliberations of the authorities would mean for them speedy, if brutal execution on the scaffold or the horror of transportation to the Barbadoes as slaves.3

Yet another victim of Ormonde's vindictiveness was Dr. Nicholas French, the exiled Bishop of Ferns. Writing from Ghent, in 1667, to congratulate Pope Clement IX on his elevation to the Chair of St. Peter, this Prelate could only say of Ireland: '. . . in desertum pene redacta est in fine saeculorum quia multae ferae depastae sunt eam.' Father Patrick of St. Brigid was, also, an exile in Belgium at the same time;

1 Ibid.

• Cf. Spicilegium Ossoriense, vol. i. p. 440. Also the Life of James First Duke of Ormonde, vol. ii.p. 51 sqq. The sources utilized by the author are not very helpful to a critical student of the question

From the MS. account of the English Teresian Mission. (Plut. 187.) • Spicil. Ossor., i. p. 454.

and in a letter of the 20th of July the following year, he, too, expressed himself as being seriously alarmed for the Irish Church because of certain news of that Mission which had reached him recently. He would bring the same under official notice of the Superiors-General of the Order; in the hope that, at their instance, practical steps might be taken in Rome to waid off those menacing insidious dangers. The outlook was somewhat more reassuring in England just then; at least to the extent of the Teresian Fathers in London venturing, unhindered, to preach to the Faithful who frequented the chapel of the Spanish Embassy. Whereas in İreland the situation had become critical in the extreme, owing to the persistency with which Ormonde's agents proclaimed the political expediency of the Valesian Formulary, striving to impress less wary Catholics who might have failed to grasp the nature of the destructive principles which it contained. Moreover, it appears that unscrupulous persons were fostering a revival of the controversy between the secular and regular clergy as to their respective rights in the administration of the Sacraments; and this with the malign object of arousing prejudices that could only prove harmful to the Catholic cause in Ireland. As if these matters were not sufficiently disquieting in themselves, yet another extraordinary emergency had just arisen fraught with most bewildering consequences to the devoted clergy of Ireland. A brother in religion of the notorious Walsh, a member of the Franciscan community in Dublin, announced publicly that he had received a Papal Bull appointing him Visitator Apostolic of the Irish clergy, secular and regular, with fullest powers including the right to exercise this function by delegation at his own discretion.3 At first, the Fathers of the Society of Jesus alone challenged his authority in their own case, not satisfied with the alleged comprehensive scope of his commission. Then even those most sanguine, in all good faith, that the Visitator had really been empowered by the Holy See to settle satisfactorily the questions at issue between the seculars and regulars, and to end the hardships and annoyances due to the Valesian Formulary, grew alarmed at his method of procedure in matters of so serious a kind. They saw Peter Walsh and his partisans received into favour, 1 This important letter is now preserved among the Irish Papers. (Plut. 190.) 2 From the letter quoted.

3 Father Taafe was the Franciscan in question; and a very clear exposition of his imposture is given by Cardinal Moran in his Memoir of the Venerable Oliver Plunket (2nd Ed), p. 28 sqq.

while a number of those who had subscribed to the condemned 'Loyal Remonstrance' were now delegated, by one claiming to be the Pope's representative, to make the Apostolic Visitation throughout Ireland. On the other hand, those known to be most strenuously opposed to Ormonde's intermediary were openly censured, under pretext of having exercised privileges to which they had, according to the Visitator, no legal right; although the same might be traced, directly, to Papal bestowal to their predecessors in former times. Consequently, Father Patrick of St. Brigid submitted to the Superiors-General of his own Order the very critical state of affairs on the Irish Mission, urging the necessity of safeguarding the interests of the Teresian Fathers there in the event of injurious allegations being made against them in Rome.1

The crisis-with its curious later phase to which Father Patrick of St. Brigid refers2-may be said to have ceased (for the moment, at least) by the dismissal of Ormonde from the Lord-Lieutenancy, in 1669. From the same year dates a striking manifestation of the zeal on the part of the Irish clergy and of earnestness among the people, both so long hampered in their respective duties by the vexatious controversies prevailing under the late Viceroy's oppressive administration. His successor, Lord Berkley, had more liberal and tolerant views for the government of Ireland, rendering it possible for many of the exiled priests to resume their missionary labours there once more. The Venerable Oliver Plunket hastened to take up his own heavy burden of responsibility in the archdiocese of Armagh, to which he had recently been appointed on the death of Dr. Edmund O'Reilly. And it is an interesting coincidence that it was in 1669, also, a young Teresian Friar had begun to prepare himself for his eventful career in England, during the course of which it became his great privilege to assist the martyred Primate at Tyburn in the very act of laying down his life for the Faith. We are assured that there were twelve

1 The letter of Father Patrick of St. Brigid, 1.c.

3

2 A letter transcribed in the Memoir of the Venerable Oliver Plunket (supra 1.c.) shows how such an imposture became possible owing to the family connections of the Franciscan Taafe, who was brother to Lord Carlingford (cf. The Diocese of Meath, vol. ii. p. 116).

• The testimony of the Venerable Oliver Plunket, in this connection, is most valuable. (Memoir, Chapter vii. passim) He himself was indefatigable in his efforts to repair the mischief caused by the Valesian Formulary.

4 From the MS. account of the English Teresian Mission. (Plut. 187.) VOL. XV-10

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