the same.
As for myself I protest before God and upon my salvation I have been
proffered oftentimes such conditions as no man seeking his own private
commodity could refuse; but I seeking the public utility of my native
country will prosecute these wars until that generally religion be
planted throughout all Ireland. So I rest, praying the Almighty to
move your flinty hearts to prefer the commodity and profit of our
country, before your own private ends.'

As a crusader, the O'Neill was a worthy disciple of the King of Spain.
The Catholics of the south had no wish to engage in a religious
war, but the northern chief aspiring to the sovereignty of the whole
island, resolved to reclaim them by compulsion, seeing that
his tolerance and happy victories had worked no change in their
consciences, and they still persevered in that 'damnable state'
in which they had lived. From his entire love and commiseration he
forewarned them that if they did not come and join him against the
enemies of God and 'our poor country,' he would not only despoil
them of all their goods, but dispossess them of all their lands.
The extirpation of heresy, the planting of the Catholic religion, he
declared could never be brought to any good pass without either the
destruction or the help of the Catholics in the towns of the south and
west. He did not want their lands or goods, nor did he intend to plant
others in their places _if they would adjoin with him_. Pointing to
the example of France, he vowed that he would prosecute those wars
until the Catholic religion should be planted throughout all Ireland,
praying that God would move their flinty hearts to join him in this
pious and humane enterprise. In those times when religious wars
had been raging on the continent, when the whole power of Spain was
persistently employed to exterminate Protestants with fire and sword
and every species of cruelty, it is not at all surprising that a
chief like O'Neill, leading such a wild warlike life in Ulster, should
persuade himself that he would be glorifying God and serving his
country by destroying the Catholic inhabitants of the towns, that is
all the most civilised portion of the community, because they would
not join him in robbing and killing the Protestants. But it is not a
little surprising that an enlightened, learned, and liberal Catholic
priest, writing in Dublin in the year 1868, should give his deliberate
sanction to this unchristian and barbarous po