maffacre all, without exception, of whatever fex or age, who were bred in it, or likely to The Irish be faithful to it. Which devilish defign was tragedy. fo far pursued notwithstanding, that open rebellion had broken out in other parts of the Irish kingdom, many towns and caftles had been furprised, many murders and villanies unutterable perpetrated, all bonds of obedience to the King and the laws fhaken

It has been referved for our own time, after fuch a lapfe of years as might have feemed to render wholly incredible the poffibility of a recurrence of fuch horrors, to furnish a parallel to the unspeakable cruelties perpetrated in this Irish Rebellion. "The innocent Protestants" (I quote the historian Maffacres May, no vehement or exaggerated writer) "were upon a of Irish "fudden diffeifed of their eftates, and the perfons of above "two hundred thousand men, women, and children murthered,

Proteftants.

many of them with exquifite and unheard of tortures, with"in the space of one month. . . Dublin was the fanctuary of "all the defpoiled Proteftants, . . and what mifchiefs foever 66 were acted in other parts, were there difcovered and lamented. "Their eyes were fad witneffes of the rebels' cruelty, in fuch "wretched fpectacles as daily from all parts prefented them"felves: people of all conditions and qualities, of every age "and fex, fpoiled and stripped . . . And befides the miferies "of their bodies, their minds tortured with the loffe of all "their fortunes, and fad remembrance of their husbands, "wives, or children, most barbarously murdered before their "faces... But that part of this woful tragedy prefented to "the eyes was the leaft, and but the fhadow of that other "which was related to their ears, of which the readers and all "pofterity may fhare the forrow. Many hundreds of those Narrative "which had efcaped,-under their oaths lawfully taken upon "examination, and recorded with all particulars,-delivered "to the Councill what horrid maffacres the bloody villains "had made of men, women, and children; and what cruel "inventions they had to torture thofe whom they murdered; "fcarce to be equalled by any the most black and baleful "ftory of any age. Many thousands of them at feveral places "(too many to be here inferted), after all defpites exercised 66 upon them living, were put to the worst of deaths: fome "burned on fet purpofe, others drowned for fport and pastime; " and if they fwam, kept from landing with poles, or shot or "murdered in the water: many were buried quick, and fome "fet into the earth breaft high, and there left to famish.

by May.

But

off, and fuch a fire in general kindled, as nothing but God's infinite bleffing upon the measures and endeavours now at this time in progrefs would be able to quench. And to that fo miferable tragedy in Ireland, but Intended for the great mercy of Providence in con- prologue to tragedy founding former plots, this country of Eng- in England would have been made to furnish the land. lamentable prologue. (169 to 180 inclufive.)

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7. Defence of the Popular Leaders.

"AND now," proceeded this memorable Claufes

181-191.

"moft barbarous (as appears in very many examinations) was "that cruelty which was showed to pregnant women, whom "the villains were not content to murder, but-- But I am loath to dwell upon fo fad a narrative." Lib. 2, cap. i. 14. Let a brief paffage from the authentic Rushworth (Part III. vol. i. p. 416-7) complete the horror, and with it the appalling parallel to incidents which have plunged this living generation into mourning. "For fuch of the English as "ftood upon their guard, and had gathered together, though "but in fmall numbers, the Irish fairly offered unto them good Narrative "conditions of quarter, affured them their lives, their goods, by Rush"and free paffage, and as foon as they had them in their worth. 66 power, held themselves difobliged from their promifes, and "left their foldiers at liberty to defpoil, ftrip, and murder "them at pleasure. . . Their fervants were killed as they

66

were ploughing in the fields, husbands were cut to pieces in "the prefence of their wives, their children's brains were "dafhed out before their faces. . their goods and cattle "feized and carried away, their houfes burnt, their habita"tions laid waste, and all as it were at an inftant, before they "could fufpect the Irish for their enemies, or any ways "imagine that they had it in their hearts, or in their power, "to offer fo great violence, or do fuch mischief." Claren- Clarendon's own touching account (viii. 9, and elsewhere) of the don's acbarbarous circumftances of cruelty with which, in the space of lefs than ten days, an incredible number of proteftants, "men, women, and children promifcuously, and without distinction "of age and fex," were murdered, must be familiar to every reader of his History.

66

count.

Hopes of leaders of

Commons.

Reply to their affailants.

Champions of Epifcopacy:

Declaration, in language which its authors might fairly have claimed to be appealed to on all occafions afterward when their deeds or their motives should be called in question—" And now, what hope have we but in God? The only means of our subsistence, and power of Reformation, is, under Him, in the Parlia"ment; but what can we, the Commons, with" out the conjunction of the House of Lords? "and what conjunction can we expect there, "when the Bishops and recufant Lords are fo "numerous and prevalent, that they are able "to cross and interrupt our best endeavours "for Reformation, and by that means give "advantage to this malignant party to traduce "our proceedings?

They infufe into the people that we mean "to abolish all Church Government, and leave "every man to his own fancy for the service. " and worship of God, abfolving him of that "obedience which he owes under God to his "Majefty; whom we know indeed to be in"trufted with the ecclefiaftical law as well as "with the temporal, to regulate all the mem"bers of the Church of England-though by "fuch rules of order and difcipline only as are "established by Parliament; which is his great "council in all affairs, both in Church and "State.

"They have ftrained to blaft our proceedings in parliament by wrefting the interpre"tations of our Orders from their genuine "intentions. They tell the people that our "meddling with the power of Epifcopacy hath "caufed fectaries and conventicles, when it is

Idolatry, and the Popish Ceremonies intro"duced into the Church by command of the

Bishops, which have not only debarred the their people from them, but expelled them from flanders. "the kingdom. And thus, with Eliab, we are "called by this malignant party the troublers "of the State; and ftill, while we endeavour "to reform their abuses, they make us authors "of those mischiefs we ftudy to prevent.

of the

"We confefs our intention is, and our en- Defign "deavours have been, to reduce within bounds Bishops' "that exorbitant power which the Prelates Bill. "have affumed unto themselves, fo contrary "both to the word of God and to the laws of "the land to which end we paffed the Bill " for the removing them from their temporal power and employments, that fo the better they might with meeknefs apply themselves "to the discharge of their functions; which Bill they themselves oppofed, and were the prin"cipal inftruments of croffing.t

relax juft

And we do here declare that it is far from No inten"our purpose or defire to let loose the golden tion to "reins of difcipline and government in the difcipline. Church, leaving private perfons or particular

No expreffion was fo hotly contested in the Houfe as this Idolatry of Idolatry. It was debated, as the reader has been already in the told, with extraordinary vehemence; the claufe containing it Church. was recommitted twice; Falkland and Culpeper were added

to the Committee appointed "to prepare the clause in fuch a manner as may be agreeable to the fenfe of the Houfe;" and after a divifion taken on the question of whether it should stand, which was carried by a majority of twenty-five, it was again, on the final debate, vehemently difcuffed.

This claufe alfo was ftrenuously contefted to the last, and on the day when the final divifion on the Remonstrance was taken, as will hereafter be feen, it was again put to the vote.

Conformity defired.

Suggeltion for a Synod:

Authorship of Remonftrance.

"congregations to take up what form of divine "service they please: for we hold it requifite "that there should be, throughout the whole "realm, a conformity to that order which "the Laws enjoin according to the word of "God. But we defire to unburden the con"fciences of men of needlefs and fuperftitious "ceremonies, to fupprefs innovations, and to "take away the monuments of idolatry.*

"The better to effect which intended Re"formation, we defire there may be a General Synod of the most grave, pious, learned,

* Clarendon more than once imputes the main authorship of the Remonftrance to Pym; but the fhare taken in it by that great statesman is yet more fatisfactorily established by the extraordinary number of paffages in it, identical in style, in manner, and often in the moft precife expreffion, with his printed fpeeches. The paffages on Church government quoted above are among the many fuch proofs from internal evidence. In themfelves they are remarkable, and they agree exactly with the tone and terms of the brief but impreffive "Declaration and Vindication" which the maligned leader of Afcribed the popular party put forth, with his own name, against the to Pym. calumnies of the royalifts during the year preceding his death. "That I am, ever was, and fo will die, a faithful fon of the "Proteftant Religion, without having the least relation, in 66 my belief, to the grofs errors of Anabaptifm, Brownism, or any other revolt from the orthodox doctrine of the Church "of England, every man that hath any acquaintance with 66 my converfation can bear me righteous witnefs. These are "but afperfions caft upon me by fome of the discontented "clergy, and their factors and abettors; because they might (6 perhaps conceive that I had been a main inftrument in extenuating the haughty power and ambitious pride of the "bishops and prelates. . And was it not high time to seek "to regulate their power, when, inftead of looking to the cure of men's fouls (which is their genuine office), they "inflicted punishment on men's bodies, banishing them to remote and defolate places, bringing Church, impofing in papiftical cere

Parallel paffages from Pym's Vindication.

66

by

unheard of canons into

upon men's confciences which they were not able to bear, and introducing the old abolished superstition of "bowing to the altar ?”