d sent a deputation to James, who
first lectured[468] them to show his learning, and them imprisoned them
to show his power. Some kind of compromise was eventually effected. A
severe penal law was withdrawn; a large subsidy was voted. In truth, the
Irish party acted boldly, considering their peculiar circumstances, for
one and all refused to enter the old cathedral, which their forefathers
had erected, when Protestant service was read therein on the day of the
opening of Parliament; and even Lord Barry retired when he laid the
sword of state before the Lord Deputy. We may excuse them for submitting
to the attainder of O'Neill and O'Donnell, for there were few national
members who had not withdrawn before the vote was passed.

Chichester retired from the government of Ireland in 1616. In 1617 a
proclamation was issued for the expulsion of the Catholic clergy, and
the city of Waterford was deprived of its charter in consequence of the
spirited opposition which its corporation offered to the oath of
spiritual supremacy. In 1622 Viscount Falkland came over as Lord Deputy,
and Usher, who was at heart a Puritan,[469] preached a violent sermon on
the occasion, in which he suggested a very literal application of his
text, "He beareth not the sword in vain." If a similar application of
the text had been made by a Catholic divine, it would have been called
intolerance, persecution, and a hint that the Inquisition was at hand;
as used by him, it was supposed to mean putting down Popery by the
sword.

James I. died on the 27th March, 1625, and left his successor no very
pleasant prospects in any part of his kingdom. He was pronounced by
Sully to be "the wisest fool in Europe;" Henry IV. styled him "Captain
of Arts and Clerk of Arms;" and a favourite epigram of the age is thus
translated:--

"When Elizabeth was England's King,
That dreadful name thro' Spain did ring
How altered is the case, ah sa' me!
The juggling days of good Queen Jamie."

On the accession of Charles I., in 1625, it was so generally supposed he
would favour the Catholic cause, that the earliest act of the new
Parliament in London was to vote a petition, begging the King to enforce
the laws against recusants and Popish priests. The Viceroy, Lord
Falkland, advised the Irish Catholics to propitiate him with a voluntary
subsidy. They offered the enormous sum of L120,000, to be paid in three
annual instalments, and in return he promised them certai