compelled to assist at any form of service
contrary to his conscience. When the treaty was presented for ratification,
this concession shocked and scandalized the piety of the saints. The first
part was instantly negatived; and, if the second was carried by a small
majority through the efforts of Marten and Vane, it was with a proviso that
"the article should not give any the least allowance, or countenance,
or toleration, to the exercise of the Catholic worship in any manner
whatsoever."[2]

In the spirit of these votes, the civil commissioners ordered by
proclamation[a] all Catholic clergymen to quit Ireland within twenty days,
under the penalties of high treason, and forbade all other persons to
harbour any such clergymen under the pain of death. Additional provisions
tending to the same object followed in succession. Whoever knew of the
concealment

[Footnote 1: Bruodin, 693. Hibernia Dominicana, 706.]

[Footnote 2: Journals, 1652, June 1.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Jan. 6.]

of a priest, and did not reveal it to the proper authorities, was made
liable to the punishment of a public whipping and the amputation of his
ears; to be absent on a Sunday from the service at the parish church,
subjected the offender to a fine of thirty pence; and the magistrates were
authorized to take away the children of Catholics and send them to England
for education, and to tender the oath of abjuration to all persons of
the age of one and twenty years, the refusal of which subjected them to
imprisonment during pleasure, and to the forfeiture of two-thirds of their
estates real and personal.[1]

During this period the Catholic clergy were exposed to a persecution far
more severe than had ever been previously experienced in the island. In
former times the chief governors dared not execute with severity the laws
against the Catholic priesthood, and the fugitives easily found security on
the estates of the great landed proprietors. But now the Irish people lay
prostrate at the feet of their conquerors; the military were distributed in
small bodies over the country; their vigilance was sharpened by religious
antipathy and the hope of reward; and the means of detection were
facilitated by the prohibition of travelling without a license from the
magistrates. Of the many priests who still remained in the country, several
were discovered, and forfeited their lives on the gallows; those who
escaped detection concealed themselves in the cave