Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty. PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE BY JOHN FALCONER, 53 UPPER SACKVILLE STREET. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from 32 ABINGDON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W.; or OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH; or E. PONSONBY, 116 GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. [Cd. 2867.] Price 1s. 4d. 1906. INTRODUCTION. THE foundation at Rome, contemporaneously with the establishment of the Propaganda, on the Pincian Hill, of the Irish College of St. Isidore is a conspicuous landmark in the ecclesiastico-political history of Ireland; for thither in 1625 its projector and first Guardian, Luke Wadding, brought not only the learning and acumen and unflagging energy of a great schoolman, but a lofty patriotism, tempered by practical sagacity, which made him for more than a quarter of a century the trusted spokesman of the Irish nation at the Roman Curia. Hence at once the miscellaneous character and the singular interest of the papers now given to the public-papers which serve to link the history of Great Britain and Ireland with that of the Continent, and of which the fragmentariness cannot be too much deplored. It will be observed that only a very few of the documents are of date anterior to the accession of Charles I.; and indeed until the publication in 1624 of the results of his long and assiduous researches touching the Immaculate Conception established his reputation, few documents of historic importance were likely to find their way into Wadding's hands. Nor do the Jacobean papers shed much new light either on the grievances of the Irish Catholics or on the action of their parliamentary representatives or "agents." Indeed the speeches "framed" by David Roth (pp. 61, et seq., infra) by way of plea for a somewhat less rigorous enforcement of the Statute against Recusants are chiefly interesting by reason of the elaborate, not to say euphuistic, eloquence of their periodic style. Their immediate effect was insignificant; but policy, if not clemency, subsequently dictated a certain relaxation of the law; nor was it until some years after the accession of Charles I. that this indulgence was withdrawn.* So extremely diverting is the letter which contains the account of the scene that preceded the performance of Ben Jonson's Masque, Mercury vindicated from the Alchemists, at Whitehall on Twelfth Night, 1615, when the Spanish ambassador Sarmiento de Acuña, afterwards Count of Gondomar, committed the indiscretion of flouting Sir Noel Caron, the minister of the United Provinces, and by his vehement tirade, como con un Estado libre, etc.,” betrayed the secret designs of his master, that it is much to be regretted that we have no other letters of this unknown correspondent (p. 70, infra). Cf. the account of the incident given by Chamberlain, Court and Times of James I. ed. Folkestone Williams, vol. i., p. 357. 66 The papers of the ensuing decade relate almost exclusively to matters ecclesiastical, and are too disconnected to be of much interest until the year 1623, when we note more than one sign that, * Cf. the interesting letter of Thomas Strange (p. 22, infra), in which reasons are given for regarding the toleration of Irish Catholicism as a mere sop to Spain withdrawn as soon as occasion served. 228683 |