The United Churches of England and Ireland, in Ireland [pp. 200-212]

Thze Unitced Churches in Ireland.
later, after William's victory over
James II., 4000 remaining Catholic
proprietors were subjected to a similar proscription-so that in that halfcentury io,ooo owners of estates forfeited them for their fidelity to their
ancient, and their hostility to what
Mr. Froude correctly calls "the intrusive religion."
No parliament sat again in Ireland, till that short one of a single
session before mentioned, (the 4th
James II.,) summoned in I689.
This parliament repealed the acts of
settlement and explanation, Poyning's law, and other coercive and intolerant statutes; but the issue of battle went against King James, and
the two succeeding reigns became
fruitful beyond precedent of penal
legislation. Although the 9th of the
"Articles of Limerick "-at the close
of the war-had simply imposed one
unobjectionable sentence as an oath
of allegiance on the defeated party,
the act (2d and 3d William and Mary) prescribed an elaborate form of
abjuration of the doctrines of transubstantiation and of the invocation
of saints, and declaring the holy sacrifice of the Mass "superstitious and
idolatrous." The oath of abjuration
concluded by the denial to any foreign prince or prelate (namely, the
pope) of "any jurisdiction, power, superiority, preeminence, or authority,
ecclesiastical or spiritual, within the
realm." There never was a more
shameful breach of public faith than
this statute. The treaty of Limerick
had simply prescribed this form of
oath for the restoration to their former status of all who chose to take
it: "I, A. B., do solemnly promise
and swear that I will be faithful and
bear true allegiance to their majesties
King William and Queen Mary; so
help me God."
And the ioth article of the same
treaty had provided:" The oath to
be administered to such Roman
Catholics as submit to their majesties' government, shall be the oath
aforesaid and no other." Yet within
the same twelvemonths in which William's generals and lord-justices signed this latter compact, the new penal
law was passed, and the new oath of
abjuration was imposed. In I69I,
the tolerant treaty was signed; in
I692, when the few Catholic peers
and commoners who ventured to
present themselves appeared to be
sworn in of the new Irish parliament,
they were met by this infamous oath
of abjuration, driven out and disqualified. Above a million of their
broad acres were forfeited, as a further penalty on those who refused the
oath, and we need not be surprised to
find, at King William's death, (I 702,)
that but "one sixth part" of the property of the kingdom remained in
Catholic hands.
The 7th and 8th William and Mary re-enacted, with additions, the Elizabethan penal laws. Of these additions the principal were: i. Authorizing the Protestant chancellor
to name guardians for Catholic minors. 2. Act to prevent recusants (Catholics) from becoming tutors in private families, unless by license of the Protestant ordinaries of
their several dioceses. 3. An act to
prevent Roman Catholics acting as
guardians to minor children. 4.
An act to disarm Roman Catholics.
5. An act for the banishment of
popish priests and prelates. During
the reign of Queen Anne, however,
the code received its last finishing
contributions. In the ist and 2d of
this queen was passed "the act for
discouraging the further growth of
popery," of which the following were
the principal provisions:
"The third clause provides that if the
son of an estated Papist shall conform to
the established religion, the father shall be
incapacitated from selling or mortgaging his
estate, or disposing of any portion of it by
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