The state of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James's government in which their carriage towards him is justified, and the absolute necessity of their endeavouring to be freed from his government, and of submitting to their present Majesties is demonstrated.

SECT. XV. 1. King James, in order to destroy the Protestant Religion, hin∣dred the Education and Succession of Clergy-men.

1. THE Good and Support of Religion doth very much depend on the educating and principling Youth in Schools and Universities; and the Law had taken special care, that these should be in the hands of English men and Prote∣stants; and the better to secure them, the Nomination of the Schoolmasters in every Diocess, except four, is by a* 1.1 particular Act of Parliament lodged in the Lord Lieutenant, or Chief Governour for the time being. The Clergy of each Diocess, by the Act, are obliged to main∣tain a Schoolmaster; and his Qualifications are described in the Act. But when the Earl of Tyrconnel came to the Govern∣ment, he took no notice of those Laws; but when any School became void, he either left it unsupplyed, or put a Papist in∣to it. And in the mean time great care was taken to discourage such Protestant Schoolmasters as remain'd, and to set up Po∣pish Schools in opposition to them. Thus they dealt with the School of Killkenny, founded and endowed by the chari∣table Piety of the late Duke of Ormond; they set up a Je∣suits School in the Town, and procured them a Charter for a Colledge there; they drove away the Protestant School∣master, Doctor Hinton, who had officiated in it with great industry and success, and seiz'd on the School-house, common∣ly call'd the Colledge, and converted it to an Hospital for their Soldiers. Thus in a few years they would not have left one publick School in the hands of a Protestant for the Edu∣cation of their Youth.

2. There is but one University in Ireland, and there is a Clause in the Statutes thereof that gives the King Power to dispense with the said Statutes; it was founded by Queen Elizabeth; and certainly never designed by her, or her Successors, to be converted against the fundamental Design of

its Institution, into a Seminary of Popery: yet advantage was taken of this Clause (though we had reason to believe it would have been done if there had been no such Clause) to put in Popish Fellows, as soon as the Fellowships be∣came vacant; one Doyle a Convert was the first who was named; a Person of so exceedingly lewd and vicious a Con∣versation, (as was fully prov'd before the Lord Tyrconnell) and of so little Sence or Learning, that it seemed impossible that any Government should have countenanc'd such a Man; yet this did not much weigh with his Excellency; and therefore the Colledge insisted upon another Point; the Dis∣pensation that Doyle had gotten, through his ignorance, was not for his purpose; for it required in express Terms, that he should take the Oath of a Fellow, and that Oath includes in it the Oath of Supremacy; the Provost ten∣dered it to him, but he durst not take it, for fear of dis∣obliging his own Party; upon this they refused to admit him; he insists on his Claim, and complains to the Lord Deputy: upon a hearing, Justice Nugent, Baron Rice, and the Attorny General, supplyed the Place of Advocates for him; but the Case was so plain, that even Justice Nugent had not the confidence to deny the insufficiency of his Dis∣pensation; and therefore they ordered him to get another. But to be even with the Colledge for demurring on the King's Mandate, they stopt the Money due to it out of the Exchequer.

3. The Foundation consists of a Provost, Seven Senior, and Nine Junior Fellows, and Seventy two Scholars; these are partly maintain'd by a Pension out of the Exchequer of 388. l. per Annum; this Pension the Earl of Tyrconnel stopt from Easter 1688. and could not be prevail'd with by any intercession or intreaties to grant his Warrant after that time for it; by which means he in effect dissolv'd the Foun∣dation, and stopt the Fountains of Learning and of Religi∣on; this appeared to have been his design more plainly af∣terwards; for King James and his Party not content to take their maintenance from them, proceeded and turn'd out the

Vice Provost, Fellows and Scholars; seiz'd upon the Furni∣ture, Books, and publick Library, together with the Chap∣pel, Communion Plate, and all things belonging to the Col∣ledge, or to the private Fellows or Scholars; notwithstanding that when they waited on him upon his first arrival in Dublin, he promis'd, That he would preserve them in their Liberties and Properties, and rather augment than diminish the Priviledges and Immunities granted to them by his Predecessors. In the House they placed a Popish Garrison, turn'd the Chappel into a Magazin, and many of the Chambers into Prisons for Pro∣testants; the Garrison destroy'd the Doors, Wainscots, Closets and Floors, and damnified it in the Building and Furniture of private Rooms, to at least the value of 2000. l. One Do∣ctor Moore, a Popish Priest, was nominated Provost; one Macarty Library Keeper, and the whole designed for them and others of their Fraternity.

4. It is observable, that there was not the least Colour or Pretence of Law for this violence, nor could they give the least Reason in Law or Equity for their proceeding, except the necessity of destroying of the Protestant Seminaries of Learning, in order to destroy their Religion: This made them so eager against the Collegians, that they were not content to turn them, without Process or Colour of Law, out of their Free-holds, but they sent a Guard after them to sieze and apprehend their Persons; and it cost the Bishop of Meath, their Vice-Chancellor, all his Cunning and Interest, with the Governour Lutterell, to prevent their Imprisonment. With much ado he was prevailed on to let them enjoy their Liberties; but with this Condition, that on pain of Death no Three of them should meet together. So sollicitous were they to prevent the Education of Protestants under Persons of the same Profession, and that there might be none to succeed the present Clergy.

5. With the same design they hindred the succession, of Bishops and inferiour Clergy-men, into the room of those that dyed or were removed; the Support of Religion (as is well known) depends very much on the choice and set∣tling

of able and fit Persons in Vacancies; and it so hap∣pened, that partly by the uncertainty of Estates, partly by frequent Forfeitures to the King, partly by the grasping of the Prerogative and other Accidents, most of the conside∣rable Preferments and Benefices of the Church were in the disposal of the Crown; there are very few Livings in Ire∣land in the Presentation of Lay Patrons, but they either belong to the King, or the Bishops. The Bishopricks are all in the King; and all the Livings in the Bishops Patro∣nage, are in the Vacancy of the Bishoprick, likewise the Kings. This is a great Trust, and the King is bound to dispose of it for the good of the Church: But King James plainly design'd, by the means of his Trust, to destroy the Church that had intrusted him: for instead of giving the Preferments, as they fell, to good and able men, who might preserve and maintain the Interest of their Religion, he seiz'd them into his own hand, had the Profits of them returned into the Exchequer, and let the Cures lye neg∣lected. The Archbishoprick of Cashell, the Bishopricks of Clogher, of Elphin, and of Clonfert, were thus seiz'd, with many Inferiour Livings, and the Money received out of them dispos'd to the maintenance of Popish Bishops and Priests, directly against the Laws and Constitution of the Kingdom.

6. At this rate in a few years all the Preferments and Li∣vings of the Kingdom of any value must have fallen into the King's hands, and we must have expected to have seen them thus dispos'd of; for as many as fell after King James's time, were put to this use; and we were assured by the Popish Priests, that all the rest as they became va∣cant* 1.2 were design'd to the same Purpose; and they were so unreasonable, that though both Law and Justice allow a competency for serving the Cure, whilst a Living upon any Account whatsoever is in the King's Hand, yet the Commissioners of the Revenue, and Barons of the Exchequer, would allow nothing; the Bishop of Meath made an Experiment of this: Some Livings in his Dio∣cess,

upon the Death of one Mr. Duddle the Incumbent, were seiz'd by the Commissioners of the Revenue, being in the King's Presentation; the Bishop did what was in his Power to∣wards supplying the Cure, and, according to his Duty, ap∣pointed a Curate, assigning him a Salary according to the Canons, but the Commissioners would not allow him any thing; and though the Bishop endeavoured it, and petition'd both▪ the Commissioners and Barons of the Exchequer, yet he could never get any thing for the Curate. This was a Prece∣dent, and the same was practis'd in all other Cases: all the Ab∣sentees Cures were in the same Condition, and though they yielded plentifully to King James, yet the Curates had no other maintenance, than the voluntary Contributions of the poor plunder'd Protestant Parishioners, who were forced to pay their Tythes either to King James's Commissioners, or to Popish Priests, who had Grants of them.

7. This was an effectual, though a slow way, of putting an end to the Ministry; at least to deprive them of all legal Title to Preferments; for the Bishops being most of them old, would soon have dropt off; and King James was resolved to have named no more, and so the legal Successi∣ons of Bishops must in a short time have ceas'd, and all the Livings depending on them, must likewise have gone in course to maintain Popish Priests; that is all the Deanries, Dignitaries, and most other Benefices.

8. The Papists upbraided us with out want of Power, and seem'd to laugh at the Snare into which we were fallen by means of our Popish King; not considering that this pro∣ceeded from a manifest Breach of Trust and Faith in him; and that the Case is the same in all Trusts, if the Tru∣stees prove faithless; and even in all Popish Countries the Kings have the nomination of Bishops, as well as in Eng∣land, and that the Succession of Bishops had almost lately failed in Portugal, upon some difference between the King and Pope; and the Advocate General of France, Mr. Dennis Tallon, tells us in 1688. that Thirty five Bishop∣ricks (being about a third part of the whole Number)

were vacant in that Kingdom on the same ac∣count:* 1.3 and 'tis like more are vacant since. It is true, the Church has power to nominate Bishops, without the consent of the Civil Magistrate; but then they must not expect the Temporalities, which are the Gifts or Grants of Kings, and such Bishops and Clergy must intirely depend on the voluntary Contributions of their People for their mainte∣nance, and on their voluntary submission for their Juisdi∣ction: And here the Protestant Clergy had the greatest reason in the world to complain of King James; to set him on the Throne, the Clergy disobliged many of their People, and he in requital deprived them of all other Worldly Support or Power, besides what must depend on the free choice of those very People, whom for his sake they had not only disobliged, but likewise help'd to bring un∣der many Inconveniencies.

Notes

• * 1.1

  12 Eliz. Chap. 1st.
• * 1.2

  See the Ap∣pendix, Mo∣lony's Scheme in his Letter, N. 17.
• * 1.3

  See the Pro∣ceedings of the Parliament of Paris, upon the Pope's Bull, Printed at London, 1688. P. 5.