Fox's Book of Martyrs
Chapter XVII
The gloom of popery
had overshadowed Ireland from its first establishment there until the reign of
Henry VIII when the rays of the Gospel began to dispel the darkness,
and afford that light which until then had been unknown in that island.
The abject ignorance in which the people were held, with the absurd and
superstitious notions they entertained, were sufficiently evident to many; and
the artifices of their priests were so conspicuous, that several persons of
distinction, who had hitherto been strenuous papists, would willingly have
endeavored to shake off the yoke, and embrace the Protestant religion; but the
natural ferocity of the people, and their strong attachment to the ridiculous
doctrines which they had been taught, made the attempt dangerous. It was,
however, at length undertaken, though attended with the most horrid and
disastrous consequences.
The
introduction of the Protestant religion into Ireland may be
principally attributed to George Browne, an Englishman, who was
consecrated archbishop of Dublin on the nineteenth of March,
1535. He had formerly been an Augustine friar, and was promoted to the mitre on account of his merit.
After
having enjoyed his dignity about five years, he, at the time that Henry VIII
was suppressing the religious houses in England, caused all the relics and
images to be removed out of the two cathedrals in Dublin, and the other
churches in his diocese; in the place of which he caused to be put up the
Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments.
A
short time after this he received a letter from Thomas Cromwell, lord-privy
seal, informing him that Henry VIII having thrown off the papal supremacy in
England, was determined to do the like in Ireland; and that he thereupon had
appointed him (Archbishop Browne) one of the commissioners for seeing this
order put in execution. The archbishop answered that he had employed his utmost
endeavors at the hazard of his life, to cause the Irish nobility and gentry to
acknowledge Henry as their supreme head, in matters both spiritual and
temporal; but had met with a most violent opposition, especially from George,
archbishop of Armagh; that this prelate had, in a speech to his clergy, laid a
curse on all those who should own his highness' supremacy: adding, that their
isle, called in the Chronicles Insula Sacra, or the Holy Island, belonged to
none but the bishop of Rome, and that the king's progenitors had received it
from the pope. He observed likewise, that the
archbishop and clergy of Armagh had each despatched a courier to Rome; and that
it would be necessary for a parliament to be called in
Ireland, to pass an act of supremacy, the people not regarding the king's
commission without the sanction of the legislative assembly. He concluded with
observing, that the popes had kept the people in the most profound ignorance;
that the clergy were exceedingly illiterate; that the common people were more
zealous in their blindness than the saints and martyrs had been in the defence
of truth at the beginning of the Gospel; and that it was to be feared that Shan
O'Neal, a chieftain of great power in the northern part of the island, was
decidedly opposed to the king's commission.
In
pursuance of this advice, the following year a parliament was
summoned to meet at Dublin, by order of Leonard
Grey, at that time lord-lieutenant. At this assembly Archbishop Browne made a
speech, in which he set forth that the bishops of Rome used, anciently, to
acknowledge emperors, kings, and princes, to be supreme in their own dominions;
and, therefore, that he himself would vote King Henry VIII as supreme in all
matters, both ecclesiastical and temporal. He concluded with
saying that whosoever should refuse to vote for this act,
was not a true subject of the king. This speech greatly startled the other bishops and lords; but at length,
after violent debates, the king's supremacy was allowed.
Two
years after this, the archbishop wrote a second letter to Lord Cromwell,
complaining of the clergy, and hinting at the machinations which the pope was
then carrying on against the advocates of the Gospel. This letter is dated from Dublin, in April,
1538; and among other matters, the archbishop says, "A bird may be taught
to speak with as much sense as many of the clergy do in this country. These,
though not scholars, yet are crafty to cozen the poor
common people and to dissuade them from following his highness orders. The
country folk here much hate your lordship, and
despitefully call you, in their Irish tongue, the Blacksmith's Son. As a
friend, I desire your lordship to look well to your noble person. Rome hath a
great kindness for the duke of Norfolk, and great favors for this nation, purposely
to oppose his highness."
A
short time after this, the pope sent over to Ireland (directed to the
archbishop of Armagh and his clergy) a bull of excommunication against all who
had, or should own the king's supremacy within the Irish nation; denouncing a
curse on all of them, and theirs, who should not, within forty days,
acknowledge to their confessors, that they had done amiss in so doing.
Archbishop
Browne gave notice of this in a letter dated, Dublin, May,
1538. Part of the form of confession, or vow, sent over to these Irish papists,
ran as follows: "I do further declare him or here, father or mother,
brother or sister, son or daughter, husband or wife, uncle or aunt, nephew or
niece, kinsman or kinswoman, master or mistress, and all others, nearest or
dearest relations, friend or acquaintance whatsoever, accursed, that either do
or shall hold, for the time to come, any ecclesiastical or civil power above
the authority of the Mother Church; or that do or shall obey, for the time to
come, any of her, the Mother of Churches' opposers or enemies, or contrary to
the same, of which I have here sworn unto: so God, the Blessed Virgin, St.
Peter, St. Paul, and the Holy Evangelists, help me," etc. is an exact
agreement with the doctrines promulgated by the Councils of Lateran and
Constance, which expressly declare that no favor should be shown to heretics,
nor faith kept with them; that they ought to be excommunicated and condemned,
and their estates confiscated, and that princes are obliged, by a solemn oath,
to root them out of their respective dominions.
How
abominable a church must that be, which thus dares to trample upon all
authority! How besotted the people who regard the injunctions of such a church!
In
the archbishop's last-mentioned letter, dated May,
1538, he says: "His highness' viceroy of this nation is of little or no
power with the old natives. Now both English and Irish begin to oppose your
lordship's orders, and to lay aside their national quarrels, which I fear will
(if anything will) cause a foreigner to invade this nation."
Not
long after this, Archbishop Browne seized one Thady O'Brian, a Franciscan
friar, who had in his possession a paper sent from Rome, dated May, 1538, and directed to O'Neal. In this letter were the
following words: "His Holiness, Paul, now pope, and the council of the
fathers, have lately found, in Rome, a prophecy of one St. Lacerianus, an Irish
bishop of Cashel, in which he saith that the Mother Church of Rome falleth,
when, in Ireland, the Catholic faith is overcome. Therefore, for the glory of
the Mother Church, the honor of St. Peter, and your own secureness, suppress
heresy, and his holiness' enemies."
This
Thady O'Brian, after further examination and search made, was
pilloried, and kept close prisoner until the king's orders arrived in
what manner he should be further disposed of. But order coming over from England that he was to be hanged, he laid violent hands on
himself in the castle of Dublin. His body was afterwards
carried to Gallows-green, where, after being hanged
up for some time, it was interred.
After
the accession of Edward VI to the throne of England, an order was directed to
Sir Anthony Leger, the lord-deputy of Ireland, commanding that the liturgy in
English be forthwith set up in Ireland, there to be observed within the several
bishoprics, cathedrals, and parish churches; and it was first read in
Christ-church, Dublin, on Easter day, 1551, before the said Sir Anthony,
Archbishop Browne, and others. Part of the royal order for this purpose was as
follows: "Whereas, our gracious father, King Henry VIII taking into
consideration the bondage and heavy yoke that his true and faithful subjects
sustained, under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome; how several fabulous
stories and lying wonders misled our subjects; dispensing with the sins of our nations,
by their indulgences and pardons, for gain; purposely to cherish all evil
vices, as robberies, rebellions, thefts, whoredoms, blasphemy, idolatry, etc.,
our gracious father hereupon dissolved all priories, monasteries, abbeys, and
other pretended religious houses; as being but nurseries for vice or luxury,
more than for sacred learning," etc.
On
the day after the Common Prayer was first used in
Christchurch, Dublin, the following wicked scheme was
projected by the papists:
In
the church was left a marble image of Christ, holding
a reed in his hand, with a crown of thorns on his head. Whilst the English
service (the Common Prayer) was being read before the
lord-lieutenant, the archbishop of Dublin, the privy-council, the lord-mayor,
and a great congregation, blood was seen to run
through the crevices of the crown of thorns, and trickle down the face of the
image. On this, some of the contrivers of the
imposture cried aloud, "See how our Savior's image sweats blood! But it
must necessarily do this, since heresy is come into
the church." Immediately many of the lower order of people, indeed the
vulgar of all ranks, were terrified at the sight of so miraculous and
undeniable an evidence of the divine displeasure; they hastened from the
church, convinced that the doctrines of Protestantism emanated from an infernal
source, and that salvation was only to be found in the bosom of their own
infallible Church.
This
incident, however ludicrous it may appear to the enlightened reader, had great
influence over the minds of the ignorant Irish, and answered the ends of the
impudent impostors who contrived it, so far as to check the progress of the
reformed religion in Ireland very materially; many persons could not resist the
conviction that there were many errors and corruptions in the Romish Church,
but they were awed into silence by this pretended manifestation of Divine
wrath, which was magnified beyond measure by the bigoted and interested
priesthood.
We
have very few particulars as to the state of religion in Ireland during the
remaining portion of the reign of Edward VI and the greater part of that of
Mary. Towards the conclusion of the barbarous sway of that relentless bigot,
she attempted to extend her inhuman persecutions to this island; but her
diabolical intentions were happily frustrated in the following providential
manner, the particulars of which are related by historians of good authority.
Mary
had appointed Dr. Pole (an agent of the bloodthirsty Bonner) one of the
commissioners for carrying her barbarous intentions into effect. He having
arrived at Chester with his commission, the mayor of that city, being a papist,
waited upon him; when the doctor taking out of his cloak bag a leathern case,
said to him, "Here is a commission that shall lash the heretics of
Ireland." The good woman of the house being a Protestant, and having a
brother in Dublin, named John Edmunds, was greatly troubled
at what she heard. But watching her opportunity, whilst the mayor was taking
his leave, and the doctor politely accompanying him downstairs, she opened the
box, took out the commission, and in its stead laid a
sheet of paper, with a pack of cards, and the knave of clubs at top. The
doctor, not suspecting the trick that had been played
him, put up the box, and arrived with it in Dublin, in September,
1558.
Anxious
to accomplish the intentions of his "pious" mistress, he immediately
waited upon Lord Fitz-Walter, at that time viceroy, and presented the box to him; which being opened, nothing was found in it but a pack of cards. This startling all the
persons present, his lordship said, "We must procure another commission;
and in the meantime let us shuffle the cards."
Dr.
Pole, however, would have directly returned to England to get another
commission; but waiting for a favorable wind, news arrived that Queen Mary was
dead, and by this means the Protestants escaped a most cruel persecution. The
above relation as we before observed, is confirmed by
historians of the greatest credit, who add, that Queen Elizabeth settled a
pension of forty pounds per annum upon the above mentioned Elizabeth Edmunds,
for having thus saved the lives of her Protestant subjects.
During
the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, Ireland was almost
constantly agitated by rebellions and insurrections, which, although not
always taking their rise from the difference of religious opinions, between the
English and Irish, were aggravated and rendered more
bitter and irreconcilable from that cause. The popish priests artfully
exaggerated the faults of the English government, and
continually urged to their ignorant and prejudiced hearers the lawfulness of
killing the Protestants, assuring them that all Catholics who were slain in the prosecution of so pious an enterprise,
would be immediately received into everlasting felicity. The naturally
ungovernable dispositions of the Irish, acted upon by these designing men,
drove them into continual acts of barbarous and unjustifiable violence; and it
must be confessed that the unsettled and arbitrary
nature of the authority exercised by the English governors, was but little
calculated to gain their affections. The Spaniards, too, by landing forces in
the south, and giving every encouragement to the discontented natives to join
their standard, kept the island in a continual state of turbulence and warfare.
In 1601, they disembarked a body of four thousand men at Kinsale,
and commenced what they called "the Holy War for the preservation
of the faith in Ireland;" they were assisted by great numbers of the Irish, but were at length totally
defeated by the deputy, Lord Mountjoy, and his officers.
This
closed the transactions of Elizabeth's reign with respect to Ireland; an
interval of apparent tranquility followed, but the popish priesthood, ever
restless and designing, sought to undermine by secret machinations that
government and that faith which they durst no longer openly attack. The pacific
reign of James afforded them the opportunity of increasing their strength and
maturing their schemes, and under his successor, Charles I, their numbers were
greatly increased by titular Romish archbishops, bishops, deans,
vicars-general, abbots, priests, and friars; for which reason, in 1629, the
public exercise of the popish rites and ceremonies was forbidden.
But
notwithstanding this, soon afterwards, the Romish clergy erected a new popish
university in the city of Dublin. They also proceeded to build monasteries and
nunneries in various parts of the kingdom; in which places these very Romish
clergy, and the chiefs of the Irish, held frequent meetings; and from thence,
used to pass to and fro, to France, Spain, Flanders, Lorraine, and Rome; where
the detestable plot of 1641 was hatching by the family of the O'Neals and their
followers.
A
short time before the horrid conspiracy broke out, which we are now going to
relate, the papists in Ireland had presented a remonstrance to the
lords-justice of that kingdom, demanding the free exercise of their religion,
and a repeal of all laws to the contrary; to which both houses of parliament in
England solemnly answered that they would never grant any toleration to the
popish religion in that kingdom.
This
further irritated the papists to put in execution the diabolical plot concerted
for the destruction of the Protestants; and it failed not of the success wished
for by its malicious and rancorous projectors.
The
design of this horrid conspiracy was that a general insurrection should take
place at the same time throughout the kingdom, and that all the Protestants,
without exception, should be murdered. The day fixed
for this horrid massacre, was the twenty-third of October, 1641, the feast of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the
Jesuits; and the chief conspirators in the principal parts of the kingdom made
the necessary preparations for the intended conflict.
In
order that this detested scheme might the more infallibly succeed, the most
distinguished artifices were practiced by the papists; and their behavior in
their visits to the Protestants, at this time, was with more seeming kindness
than they had hitherto shown, which was done the more completely to effect the
inhuman and treacherous designs then meditating against them.
The
execution of this savage conspiracy was delayed until
the approach of winter, that sending troops from
England might be attended with greater difficulty.
Cardinal Richelieu, the French minister, had promised the conspirators a
considerable supply of men and money; and many Irish
officers had given the strongest assurances that they would heartily concur
with their Catholic brethren, as soon as the insurrection took place.
The
day preceding that appointed for carrying this horrid design into execution was now arrived, when, happily, for the metropolis of the
kingdom, the conspiracy was discovered by one Owen
O'Connelly, an Irishman, for which most signal service the English Parliament
voted him 500 pounds and a pension of 200 pounds during his life.
So
very seasonably was this plot discovered, even but a few hours before the
city and castle of Dublin were to have been surprised, that the lords-justice
had but just time to put themselves, and the city, in a proper posture of
defence. Lord M'Guire, who was the principal leader here, with his accomplices,
was seized the same evening in the city; and in their lodgings were found
swords, hatchets, pole-axes, hammers, and such other instruments of death as
had been prepared for the destruction and extirpation of the Protestants in
that part of the kingdom.
Thus
was the metropolis happily preserved; but the bloody part of the intended
tragedy was past prevention. The conspirators were in arms all over the kingdom
early in the morning of the day appointed, and every Protestant who fell in
their way was immediately murdered. No age, no sex, no condition, was spared. The wife weeping for her butchered husband, and
embracing her helpless children, was pierced with
them, and perished by the same stroke. The old, the young, the vigorous, and
the infirm, underwent the same fate, and were blended in one common ruin. In vain did flight save from the first
assault, destruction was everywhere let loose, and met the hunted victims at every turn. In vain was
recourse had to relations, to companions, to friends; all connections were dissolved; and death was dealt
by that hand from which protection was implored and
expected. Without provocation, without opposition, the astonished English,
living in profound peace, and, as they thought, full security, were massacred by their nearest neighbors, with whom they
had long maintained a continued intercourse of kindness and good offices. Nay,
even death was the slightest punishment inflicted by these monsters in human
form; all the tortures which wanton cruelty could invent, all the lingering
pains of body, the anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, could not satiate
revenge excited without injury, and cruelly derived from no just cause
whatever. Depraved nature, even perverted religion, though encouraged by the
utmost license, cannot reach to a greater pitch of
ferocity than appeared in these merciless barbarians. Even the weaker sex
themselves, naturally tender to their own sufferings, and compassionate to
those of others, have emulated their robust companions in the practice of every
cruelty. The very children, taught by example and encouraged by the exhortation
of their parents, dealt their feeble blows on the dead carcasses of the
defenceless children of the English.
Nor
was the avarice of the Irish sufficient to produce the least restraint on their
cruelty. Such was their frenzy, that the cattle they had seized, and by repine
had made their own, were, because they bore the name of English, wantonly
slaughtered, or, when covered with wounds, turned loose into the woods, there
to perish by slow and lingering torments.
The
commodious habitations of the planters were laid in ashes, or levelled with the ground. And where the wretched
owners had shut themselves up in the houses, and were preparing for defence,
they perished in the flames together with their wives and children.
Such
is the general description of this unparalleled massacre; but it now remains,
from the nature of our work, that we proceed to particulars.
The
bigoted and merciless papists had no sooner begun to imbrue their hands in
blood than they repeated the horrid tragedy day after day, and the Protestants
in all parts of the kingdom fell victims to their fury by deaths of the most
unheard-of cruelty.
The
ignorant Irish were more strongly instigated to execute the infernal business
by the Jesuits, priests, and friars, who, when the day for the execution of the
plot was agreed on, recommended in their prayers, diligence in the great
design, which they said would greatly tend to the prosperity of the kingdom,
and to the advancement of the Catholic cause. They everywhere declared to the
common people, that the Protestants were heretics, and ought not to be suffered
to live any longer among them; adding that it was no more sin to kill an
Englishman than to kill a dog; and that the relieving or protecting them was a
crime of the most unpardonable nature.
The
papists having besieged the town and castle of Longford, and the inhabitants of
the latter, who were Protestants, surrendering on condition of being allowed
quarter, the besiegers, the instant the townspeople appeared, attacked them in
a most unmerciful manner, their priest, as a signal for the rest to fall on,
first ripping open the belly of the English Protestant minister; after which
his followers murdered all the rest, some of whom they hanged, others were
stabbed or shot, and great numbers knocked on the head with axes provided for
the purpose.
The
garrison at Sligo was treated in like manner by
O'Connor Slygah; who, upon the Protestants quitting
their holds, promised them quarter, and to convey them safe over the Curlew
mountains, to Roscommon. But he first imprisoned them in a most loathsome jail,
allowing them only grains for their food. Afterward, when some papists were
merry over their cups, who were come to congratulate their wicked brethren for
their victory over these unhappy creatures, those Protestants who survived were
brought forth by the White-friars, and were either killed, or precipitated over
the bridge into a swift river, where they were soon destroyed. It is added,
that this wicked company of White-friars went, some time
after, in solemn procession, with holy water in their hands, to sprinkle the
river; on pretence of cleansing and purifying it from the stains and pollution
of the blood and dead bodies of the heretics, as they called the unfortunate
Protestants who were inhumanly slaughtered at this very time.
At
Kilmore, Dr. Bedell, bishop of that see, had charitably settled and supported a great number of distressed Protestants, who had fled from
their habitations to escape the diabolical cruelties committed by the papists.
But they did not long enjoy the consolation of living together; the good
prelate was forcibly dragged from his episcopal residence, which was
immediately occupied by Dr. Swiney, the popish titular bishop of Kilmore, who
said Mass in the church the Sunday following, and then seized on all the goods
and effects belonging to the persecuted bishop.
Soon
after this, the papists forced Dr. Bedell, his two sons, and the rest of his
family, with some of the chief of the Protestants whom
he had protected, into a ruinous castle, called Lochwater, situated in a lake
near the sea. Here he remained with his companions some
weeks, all of them daily expecting to be put to death.
The greatest part of them were stripped naked, by
which means, as the season was cold, (it being in the month of December) and
the building in which they were confined open at the
top, they suffered the most severe hardships. They continued in this situation
until the seventh of January, when they were all released. The bishop was courteously received into the house of Dennis
O'Sheridan, one of his clergy, whom he had made a convert to the Church of
England; but he did not long survive this kindness. During his residence here,
he spent the whole of his time in religious exercises, the better to fit and
prepare himself and his sorrowful companions for their great
change, as nothing but certain death was perpetually before their eyes.
He was at this time in the seventy-first year of his age, and being afflicted with a violent ague
caught in his late cold and desolate habitation on the lake, it soon threw him
into a fever of the most dangerous nature. Finding his dissolution at hand, he
received it with joy, like one of the primitive martyrs just hastening to his
crown of glory. After having addressed his little flock, and exhorted them to
patience, in the most pathetic manner, as they saw their own last day
approaching, after having solemnly blessed his people, his family, and his
children, he finished the course of his ministry and life together, on the
seventh day of February 1642.
His
friends and relations applied to the intruding bishop for leave to bury him,
which was with difficulty obtained; he, at first telling them that the
churchyard was holy ground, and should be no longer defiled with heretics:
however, leave was at last granted, and though the church funeral service was
not used at the solemnity, (for fear of the Irish papists) yet some of the
better sort, who had the highest veneration for him while living, attended his
remains to the grave. At this interment they discharged a volley of shot,
crying out, Requiescat in pace ultimus Anglorum, that is, "May the last of
the English rest in peace." Adding, that as he was one of the best so he
should be the last English bishop found among them. His learning was very extensive;
and he would have given the world a greater proof of
it, had he printed all he wrote. Scarce any of his writings were
saved; the papists having destroyed most of his
papers and his library. He had gathered a vast heap of critical expositions of
Scripture, all which with a great trunk full of his manuscripts, fell into the
hands of the Irish. Happily his great Hebrew
manuscript was preserved, and is now in the library of
Emanuel College, Oxford.
In
the barony of Terawley, the papists, at the instigation of the friars,
compelled above forty English Protestants, some of
whom were women and children, to the hard fate of either falling by the sword,
or of drowning in the sea. These choosing the latter, were
accordingly forced, by the naked weapons of their inexorable persecutors, into the deep, where, with their children in
their arms, they first waded up to their chins, and
afterwards sunk down and perished together.
In
the castle of Lisgool upwards of one hundred and fifty men, women, and
children, were all burnt together; and at the castle of Moneah not less than
one hundred were all put to the sword. Great numbers were also murdered at the castle of Tullah, which was delivered up to M'Guire on condition of having fair
quarter; but no sooner had that base villain got possession of the place than
he ordered his followers to murder the people, which was immediately done with
the greatest cruelty.
Many others were put
to deaths of the most horrid nature, and such as could have been
invented only by demons instead of men. Some of
them were laid with the center of their backs on the axle-tree of a carriage, with their legs resting on the
ground on one side, and their arms and head on the other. In this position, one
of the savages scourged the wretched object on the thighs, legs, etc., while another set on furious dogs, who tore to pieces
the arms and upper parts of the body; and in this dreadful manner were they deprived of their existence. Great
numbers were fastened to horses' tails, and the
beasts being set on full gallop by their riders, the wretched victims were dragged along until they expired. Others were hung on lofty gibbets, and a fire being
kindled under them, they finished their lives, partly by hanging, and
partly by suffocation.
Nor
did the more tender sex escape the least particle of cruelty that could be projected by their merciless and furious persecutors. Many women, of all ages, were put
to deaths of the most cruel nature. Some, in
particular, were fastened with their backs to strong posts, and being stripped
to their waists, the inhuman monsters cut off their right breasts with shears,
which, of course, put them to the most excruciating torments; and in this position
they were left, until, from the loss of blood, they expired.
Such
was the savage ferocity of these barbarians, that even unborn infants were dragged from the womb to become victims to their rage. Many unhappy mothers
were hung naked in the branches of trees, and their
bodies being cut open, the innocent offsprings were taken from them, and thrown to dogs and swine. And to
increase the horrid scene, they would oblige the husband to be a spectator
before suffering himself.
At
the town of Issenskeath they hanged above a hundred Scottish Protestants,
showing them no more mercy than they did to the English. M'Guire, going to the
castle of that town, desired to speak with the governor, when being admitted, he immediately burnt the records of the
county, which were kept there. He then demanded 1000 pounds of the governor, which,
having received, he immediately compelled him to hear Mass. and to swear that
he would continue to do so. And to complete his horrid barbarities, he ordered
the wife and children of the governor to be hanged
before his face; besides massacring at least one hundred of the inhabitants.
Upwards of one thousand men, women, and children, were driven,
in different companies, to Portadown bridge, which was broken
in the middle, and there compelled to throw themselves into the water, and such
as attempted to reach the shore were knocked on the
head.
In
the same part of the country, at least four thousand persons were
drowned in different places. The inhuman
papists, after first stripping them, drove them like beasts to the spot fixed
on for their destruction; and if any, through fatigue, or natural infirmities,
were slack in their pace, they pricked them with their swords and pikes; and to
strike terror on the multitude, they murdered some by the way. Many of these poor wretches, when thrown into the water,
endeavored to save themselves by swimming to the shore but their merciless
persecutors prevented their endeavors taking effect, by shooting them in the
water.
In
one place one hundred and forty English, after being driven for many miles
stark naked, and in the most severe weather, were all murdered on the same
spot, some being hanged, others burnt, some shot, and many of them buried
alive; and so cruel were their tormentors that they would not suffer them to
pray before they robbed them of their miserable existence.
Other
companies they took under pretence of safe conduct, who, from that
consideration, proceeded cheerfully on their journey; but when the treacherous
papists had got them to a convenient spot, they
butchered them all in the most cruel manner.
One
hundred and fifteen men, women, and children, were conducted,
by order of Sir Phelim O'Neal, to Portadown bridge, where they were all forced
into the river, and drowned. One woman, named Campbell, finding no probability
of escaping, suddenly clasped one of the chief of the papists in her arms, and
held him so fast that they were both drowned together.
In
Killyman they massacred forty-eight families, among whom twenty-two were burnt together in one house. The rest were either
hanged, shot, or drowned.
In
Kilmore, the inhabitants, which consisted of about two hundred families, all
fell victims to their rage. Some of them sat in the
stocks until they confessed where their money was; after which they put them to
death. The whole county was one common scene of butchery, and many thousands perished, in a short time,
by sword, famine, fire, water, and others the most cruel
deaths, that rage and malice could invent.
These
bloody villains showed so much favor to some as to
despatch them immediately; but they would by no means suffer them to pray.
Others they imprisoned in filthy dungeons, putting heavy bolts on their legs,
and keeping them there until they were starved to
death.
At
Casel they put all the Protestants into a loathsome dungeon, where they kept
them together, for several weeks, in the greatest
misery. At length they were released, when some of them were barbarously mangled, and left on the
highways to perish at leisure; others were hanged, and
some were buried in the
ground upright, with their heads above the earth, and the papists, to increase
their misery, treating them with derision during their sufferings. In the
county of Antrim they murdered nine hundred and fifty-four
Protestants in one morning; and afterwards about twelve hundred more in that
county.
At
a town called Lisnegary, they forced twenty-four Protestants into a house, and
then setting fire to it, burned them together, counterfeiting their outcries in
derision to the others.
Among
other acts of cruelty they took two children belonging
to an Englishwoman, and dashed out their brains before
her face; after which they threw the mother into a river, and she was drowned. They served many other
children in the like manner, to the great affliction of their parents, and the
disgrace of human nature.
In
Kilkenny all the Protestants, without exception, were put
to death; and some of them in so cruel a manner, as,
perhaps, was never before thought of.
They
beat an Englishwoman with such savage barbarity, that she had scarce a whole
bone left; after which they threw her into a ditch; but not satisfied with
this, they took her child, a girl about six years of age, and after ripping up
its belly, threw it to its mother, there to languish until it perished. They
forced one man to go to Mass, after which they ripped open his body, and in
that manner left him. They sawed another asunder, cut
the throat of his wife, and after having dashed out the brains of their child,
an infant, threw it to the swine, who greedily
devoured it.
After
committing these, and several other horrid cruelties,
they took the heads of seven Protestants, and among them that of a pious
minister, all of which they fixed up at the market cross. They put a gag into
the minister's mouth, then slit his cheeks to his ears, and laying a leaf of a
Bible before it, bid him preach, for his mouth was wide enough. They did several other things by way of derision,
and expressed the greatest satisfaction at having thus murdered and
exposed the unhappy Protestants.
It
is impossible to conceive the pleasure these monsters took in exercising their
cruelty, and to increase the misery of those who fell into their hands, when
they butchered them they would say, "Your soul to
the devil." One of these miscreants would come into a house with his hands
imbued in blood, and boast that it was English blood, and that his sword had
pricked the white skins of the Protestants, even to the hilt. When any one of
them had killed a Protestant, others would come and receive a gratification in
cutting and mangling the body; after which they left it exposed to be devoured
by dogs; and when they had slain a number of them they would boast, that the
devil was beholden to them for sending so many souls to hell. But it is no
wonder they should thus treat the innocent Christians, when
they hesitated not to commit blasphemy against God and His most holy Word.
In
one place they burnt two Protestant Bibles, and then said they had burnt hell-fire. In the church at Powerscourt they burnt the
pulpit, pews, chests, and Bibles belonging to it. They took other Bibles, and
after wetting them with dirty water, dashed them in the faces of the
Protestants, saying, "We know you love a good lesson; here is an excellent
one for you; come to-morrow, and you shall have as good a sermon as this."
Some of the Protestants they
dragged by the hair of their heads into the church, where they stripped and
whipped them in the most cruel manner, telling them,
at the same time, that if they came tomorrow, they should hear the like sermon.
In
Munster they put to death several ministers in the
most shocking manner. One, in particular, they
stripped stark naked, and driving him before them, pricked him with swords and
darts until he fell down, and expired.
In
some places they plucked out the eyes, and cut off the
hands of the Protestants, and in that manner turned them into the fields, there
to wander out their miserable existence. They obliged many
young men to force their aged parents to a river, where they were
drowned; wives to assist in hanging their husbands; and mothers to cut
the throats of their children.
In
one place they compelled a young man to kill his father, and then immediately
hanged him. In another they forced a woman to kill her husband, then obliged
the son to kill her, and afterward shot him through the head.
At
a place called Glaslow, a popish priest, with some
others, prevailed on forty Protestants to be reconciled
to the Church of Rome. They had no sooner done this than they told them they
were in good faith, and that they would prevent their falling from it, and
turning heretics, by sending them out of the world, which they did by
immediately cutting their throats.
In
the county of Tipperary upwards of thirty Protestants, men, women, and
children, fell into the hands of the papists, who, after stripping them naked,
murdered them with stones, pole-axes, swords, and
other weapons.
In
the county of Mayo about sixty Protestants, fifteen of whom were ministers,
were, upon covenant, to be safely conducted to Galway, by one Edmund Burke and
his soldiers; but that inhuman monster by the way drew his sword, as an
intimation of his design to the rest, who immediately followed his example, and
murdered the whole, some of whom they stabbed, others were run through the body
with pikes, and several were drowned.
In
Queen's County great numbers of Protestants were put to the most shocking deaths. Fifty or sixty were placed together in one house, which being set on fire,
they all perished in the flames. Many were stripped naked, and being fastened
to horses by ropes placed round their middles, were dragged
through bogs until they expired. Some were hung by the feet to tenterhooks driven into poles; and
in that wretched posture left until they perished. Others were
fastened to the trunk of a tree, with a branch at top. Over this branch
hung one arm, which principally supported the weight of the body; and one of
the legs was turned up, and fastened to the trunk,
while the other hung straight. In this dreadful and uneasy posture did they
remain as long as life would permit, pleasing
spectacles to their bloodthirsty persecutors.
At
Clownes seventeen men were buried alive; and an
Englishman, his wife, five children, and a servant maid, were all hanged
together, and afterward thrown into a ditch. They hung many
by the arms to branches of trees, with a weight to
their feet; and others by the middle, in which posture they left them until
they expired. Several were hanged
on windmills, and before they were half dead, the barbarians cut them in pieces
with their swords. Others, both men, women, and children, they cut and hacked
in various parts of their bodies, and left them
wallowing in their blood to perish where they fell. One poor woman they hanged
on a gibbet, with her child, an infant about a twelve-month old, the latter of
whom was hanged by the neck with the hair of its
mother's head, and in that manner finished its short but miserable existence.
In
the county of Tyrone no less than three hundred
Protestants were drowned in one day; and many others were hanged, burned,
and otherwise put to death. Dr. Maxwell, rector of Tyrone, lived at this time
near Armagh, and suffered greatly from these merciless
savages. This person, in his examination, taken upon oath before the king's
commissioners, declared that the Irish papists owned to him, that they, at several times, had destroyed, in one place, 12,000
Protestants, whom they inhumanly slaughtered at Glynwood, in their flight from
the county of Armagh.
As
the river Bann was not fordable, and the bridge broken down, the Irish forced
thither at different times, a great
number of unarmed, defenceless Protestants, and with pikes and swords
violently thrust about one thousand into the river, where they miserably
perished.
Nor
did the cathedral of Armagh escape the fury of those barbarians, it being
maliciously set on fire by their leaders, and burnt to the ground. And to
extirpate, if possible, the very race of those unhappy Protestants, who lived
in or near Armagh, the Irish first burnt all their houses, and then gathered
together many hundreds of those innocent people, young and old, on pretence of
allowing them a guard and safe conduct to Colerain, when they treacherously
fell on them by the way, and inhumanly murdered them.
The
like horrid barbarities with those we have particularized, were
practiced on the wretched Protestants in almost all
parts of the kingdom; and, when an estimate was afterward
made of the number who were sacrificed to
gratify diabolical souls of the papists, it amounted to one hundred and fifty
thousand. But it now remains that we proceed to the
particulars that followed.
These desperate wretches,
flushed and grown insolent with success, (though by methods attended with such
excessive barbarities as perhaps not to be equalled) soon got possession of the
castle of Newry, where the king's stores and ammunition were
lodged; and, with as little difficulty, made themselves masters of
Dundalk. They afterward took the town of Ardee, where they murdered all the
Protestants, and then proceeded to Drogheda. The garrison of Drogheda was in no
condition to sustain a siege, notwithstanding which, as often as the Irish
renewed their attacks they were vigorously repulsed by
a very unequal number of the king's forces, and a few
faithful Protestant citizens under Sir Henry Tichborne, the governor, assisted
by the Lord Viscount Moore. The siege of Drogheda began on the thirtieth of November, 1641, and held until the fourth of March, 1642, when Sir Phelim O'Neal, and the Irish
miscreants under him were forced to retire.
In
the meantime ten thousand troops were
sent from Scotland to the remaining Protestants in Ireland, which being properly divided in the most capital parts of the kingdom,
happily exclipsed the power of the Irish savages; and the Protestants for a
time lived in tranquillity.
In
the reign of King James II they were again interrupted,
for in a parliament held at Dublin in the year 1689, great
numbers of the Protestant nobility, clergy, and gentry of Ireland, were attainted of high treason. The government of the
kingdom was, at that time, invested in the earl of Tyrconnel, a bigoted papist,
and an inveterate enemy to the Protestants. By his orders they were again persecuted in various parts of the kingdom. The
revenues of the city of Dublin were seized, and most of the churches converted into prisons. And had it not
been for the resolution and uncommon bravery of the garrisons in the city of
Londonderry, and the town of Inniskillin, there had not one place remained for
refuge to the distressed Protestants in the whole kingdom; but all must have
been given up to King James, and to the furious popish party that governed him.
The
remarkable siege of Londonderry was opened on the
eighteenth of April, 1689, by twenty thousand papists,
the flower of the Irish army. The city was not properly
circumstanced to sustain a siege, the defenders consisting of a body of
raw undisciplined Protestants, who had fled thither for shelter, and half a
regiment of Lord Mountjoy's disciplined soldiers, with the principal part of
the inhabitants, making it all only seven thousand three hundred and sixty-one
fighting men.
The
besieged hoped, at first, that their stores of corn and other necessaries,
would be sufficient; but by the continuance of the siege their wants increased;
and these became at last so heavy that for a considerable time before the siege
was raised a pint of coarse barley, a small quantity of greens, a few spoonfuls
of starch, with a very moderate proportion of horse flesh, were reckoned a
week's provision for a soldier. And they were, at length, reduced to such
extremities that they ate dogs, cats, and mice.
Their
miseries increasing with the siege, many,
through mere hunger and want, pined and languished
away, or fell dead in the streets. And it is remarkable, that when their
long-expected succors arrived from England, they were upon the point of being reduced to this alternative, either to preserve their
existence by eating each other, or attempting to fight their way through the
Irish, which must have infallibly produced their destruction.
These
succors were most happily brought by the ship Mountjoy
of Derry, and the Phoenix of Colerain, at which time they had only nine lean
horses left with a pint of meal to each man. By hunger, and the fatigues of
war, their seven thousand three hundred and sixty-one fighting men were reduced to four thousand three hundred, one fourth part
of whom were rendered unserviceable.
As
the calamities of the besieged were great, so likewise were the terrors and
sufferings of their Protestant friends and relations; all of whom (even women
and children) were forcibly driven from the country thirty miles round, and
inhumanly reduced to the sad necessity of continuing some days and nights
without food or covering, before the walls of the town; and were thus exposed
to the continual fire both of the Irish army from without and the shot of their
friends from within.
But
the succors from England happily arriving put an end to their affliction; and
the siege was raised on the thirty-first of July,
having been continued upwards of
three months.
The
day before the siege of Londonderry was raised the
Inniskillers engaged a body of six thousand Irish Roman Catholics, at Newton,
Butler, or Crown-Castle, of whom near five thousand were
slain. This, with the defeat at Londonderry, dispirited the papists, and
they gave up all farther attempts to persecute the Protestants.
The
year following, viz. 1690, the Irish took up arms in
favor of the abdicated prince, King James II but they were
totally defeated by his successor King William the Third. That monarch,
before he left the country, reduced them to a state of subjection, in which they have ever since continued.
But
notwithstanding all this, the Protestant interest at present stands upon a much
stronger basis than it did a century ago. The Irish, who formerly led an
unsettled and roving life, in the woods, bogs, and mountains, and lived on the
depredation of their neighbors, they who, in the morning seized the prey, and
at night divided the spoil, have, for many years past,
become quiet and civilized. They taste the sweets of English society, and the
advantages of civil government. They trade in our cities, and
are employed in our manufactories. They are received also into English families; and treated with
great humanity by the Protestants.
Chapter 18 - Rise and Persecution of the Quakers