Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/478

 RIN

KOB

papers aud correspondence throw a flood of light upon the history of the time ; but it would be impossible within reasonable limits to follow their intricate mazes. He resided chiefly at Kilkenny, Limerick, and Galway. Some of his letters are dated from Duncannon, Waterford, Bunratty, and Maryborough. It was Einuccini's policy throughout to oppose all proposi- tions for peace not providing for the open recognition of his faith in Ireland, and the appointment of a Catholic viceroy. He was consequently in continual opposition to the Marquis of Ormond. He strenu- ously opposed the treaty of 28th March 1646 with the Marquis. The Nuncio re- ceived in Limerick Cathedral the captured standards sent by Owen Roe O'Neill after he victory of Benburb in June that year. In August he induced O'Neill to come to the aid of the Waterford assembly, met to protest against the second treaty with Ormond, ratified on the 29th July. On 1 7th September he entered Kilkenny, with O'Neill on the one hand and Preston on the other, committed the old Confederate Council to the Castle, and called a new coimcil, consisting of four bishops and eight laymen. Father Meehan says : " Never did any event give greater cause of joy to the chieftains and people of the ' Old Irish ' than this change of the Confederate government." He vainly endeavotired to reconcile the bitter animosities between O'NeiU and Preston, which showed them- selves before and during the abortive at- tack on Dublin. At Rinuccini's instance, a general assembly met at Kilkenny, loth January 1647, from which a Supreme Council of twenty-four was elected. Most of the members were considered to be in- flexibly opposed to making any terms with the enemy; yet after many negotiations, in April 1648 they gave their assent to a truce so distasteful to Rinuccini that he pronounced sentence of excommunication against all who should respect it, and against aU districts in which it should be received or observed. His further efibrts to carry on the war proved ineffectual, and in March 1649 he sailed in the San Fietro for France — leaving a country in which, according to his own words, " the sun had never shone on him," and where his mission had been a complete failure. He reached Rome in August the same year. For his own expenses, when on his mission, he had been allowed by the Pope 3,000 crowns, and 200 crowns a month. Although living in Ireland was then cheap, he is said to have also expended the current revenues of his see, and 15,800 crowns of his private income. He caused frescoes to be painted in

454

the archiepiscopal palace at Fermo of the actions that had been fought in Ireland during his stay there. He is said to have been severely censured by the Pope for his want of prudence in the conduct of Irish affairs. He died in December 1653, and his remains were buried in the cathedral of Fermo. Carte says : " He was regular and even austere in his life and conversation, and far from any taint of avarice or corruption." He is described by another writer as "a man of shining abilities, of graceful and conciliating ad- dress, of eloquent speech, and of regular and austere habits ; but he was also ambitious and proud to an eminent degree, and filled with a zeal for the interests of the Church, which he set above aU things else, and would not allow to be overlooked for an instant, even though the cost should be the public peace and liberty." A collection of the Nuncio's document's and letters, entitled The Embassy in Ire- land of Af. G. B. Ri^iuccini, Archbishop of Fermo, in the years i645-'9, translated by Anne Hutton, and published in Dublin in 1873, is a valuable contribution to the his- tory of the time. *5t =95

Robertson, William, D.D., a dis- tinguished divine, was born in DubUn, 1 6th October 1705. He was educated chiefly at Glasgow University, where he remained three years. Alone he with- stood the Rector in some matters relating to the privileges of the students, and was expelled ; but, bringing the question be- fore the Government, he procured a com- mittee of inquiry, and was triumphantly reinstated, the Rector being dismissed. In 1727 he received deacon's orders, and was appointed to the livings of Tullow and Rathvilly, producing about £200 a year. The system of tithes appeared to him so troublesome, wasteful, and cumbrous, that he published a treatise advocating their abolition, and the substitution of a fixed tax upon land — thus anticipating by more than one hundred years the system of tithe-rent charge. He married in 1728, and for a time had the cure of St. Luke's parish, Dublin. In 1 759, from conscien- tious motives, he declined further ad- vancement in the Church, and omitted the Athanasian Creed from his services, and in 1764 resigned all his preferments. He published a tract entitled An Attempt to Explain the words of Reason, Substance, Person, Creeds, Orthodoxy, Catholic Church, Subscription, and Index Expurgatorius. In 1767 the University of Glasgow, on re- ceipt of a copy of this work, conferred upon him the degree of D.D. Next year he was appointed master of the Free