Pullen, the Protestant Dean of Clonfert,
and his family; Father Everard and Father English, Franciscan friars,
concealed many Protestants in their chapels, and even under their
altars. Many similar instances are on record in the depositions
concerning the murders and massacres of the times, at present in Trinity
College, Dublin; though those depositions were taken with the avowed
object of making out a case against the Catholics of having intended a
general massacre. In Galway the Jesuits were especially active in
charity to their enemies, and went through the town exhorting the
people, for Christ's sake, our Lady's and St. Patrick's, to shed no
blood. But although the Catholic hierarchy were most anxious to prevent
outrages against humanity, they were by no means insensible to the
outrages against justice, from which the Irish nation had so long
suffered. They were far from preaching passive submission to tyranny, or
passive acceptance of heresy. The Church had long since not only
sanctioned, but even warmly encouraged, a crusade against the infidels,
and the deliverance, by force of arms, of the holy places from
desecration; it had also granted[477] similar encouragements and similar
indulgences to all who should fight for "liberties and rights" in
Ireland, and had "exhorted, urged, and solicited" the people to do so
with "all possible affection." The Irish clergy could have no doubt that
the Holy See would sanction a national effort for national liberty. The
Archbishop of Armagh, therefore, convened a provincial synod, which was
held at Kells, on the 22nd of March, 1641, which pronounced the war
undertaken by the Catholics of Ireland lawful and pious, but denounced
murders and usurpations, and took steps for assembling a national synod
at Kilkenny during the following year.

The Catholic cause, meanwhile, was not advancing through the country.
The Irish were defeated in nearly every engagement with the English
troops. The want of a competent leader and of unanimity of purpose was
felt again, as it had so often been felt before; but the Church
attempted to supply the deficiency, and, if it did not altogether
succeed, it was at least a national credit to have done something in the
cause of freedom.

The synod met at Kilkenny, on the 10th of May, 1642. It was attended by
the Archbishops of Armagh, Cashel, and Tuam, and the Bishops of Ossory,
Elphin, Waterford and Lismore, Kildare Clonfert, and Down and Connor.
Proctor