at that time in the highest terms of hostility with
the crowns of England and Ireland.' 'Yet,' adds the king, 'to make the
absurdity and ingratitude of the allegation above mentioned so much
the more clear to all men of equal judgment, we do hereby profess
in word of a king that there was never so much as any shadow of
molestation, nor purpose of proceeding in any degree against them
for matter concerning religion:--such being their condition and
profession, to think murder no fault, marriage of no use, nor any
man worthy to be esteemed valiant that did not glory in rapine and
oppression, as we should have thought it an unreasonable thing to
trouble them for any different point in religion, before any man could
perceive by their conversation that they made truly conscience of any
religion. The king thought these declarations sufficient to disperse
and to discredit all such untruths as these contemptible creatures, so
full of infidelity and ingratitude, should discharge against him and
his just and moderate proceedings, and which should procure unto them
no better usage than they would wish should be afforded to any such
pack of rebels born their subjects and bound unto them in so many and
so great obligations.'

Such was the case of the English Government presented to the world
by the king and his ministers. Let us now hear what the personages
so heartily reviled by them had to say for themselves. The Rev. C.P.
Meehan has brought to light the categorical narratives, which the
earls dictated, and which had lain unpublished among the 'old historic
rolls,' in the Public Record Office, London. These documents are of
great historic interest, as are many other state-papers now first
published in his valuable work.[1] O'Neill's defence is headed,
'Articles Exhibited by the Earl of Tyrone to the King's Most Excellent
Majesty, declaring certain Causes of Discontent offered Him, by which
he took occasion to Depart His Country.' The statement is divided
into twenty items, of which the following is the substance: It was
proclaimed by public authority in his manor of Dungannon, that none
should hear mass upon pain of losing his goods and imprisonment, and
that no ecclesiastical person should enjoy any cure or dignity without
swearing the oath of supremacy and embracing the contrary religion,
and those who refused so to do were actually deprived of their
benefices and dignities, in proof of which the earl referred to the
lord deputy