Page:Abstract of the bloody massacre in Ireland.pdf/6

 One of their priests said, That it was no more pity to take their lives from them, than to take a bone out of a dog's mouth.

The day before this massacre began, the priests gave the people a dismiss at mass with liberty to go out and take possession of all their lands, as also to strip, rob and despoil them of all their goods and cattle; the Protestants being as they told them, worse than dogs, for they were devils, and therefore the killing of such was a Meritorious act, and a rare preservative against the pains of Purgatory; and this caused some of these murderers to boast, after they had slain many of the English, That they knew, that if they should die presently, they would go straight to heaven.

The Irish, when the massacre began, persuaded many of their Protestant neighbours to bring their goods to them and they would secure them, and hereby they got abundance peaceably into their hands, whereof they cheated the Protestants, refusing to restore them again; yet so confident were the Protestants of them at first, that they gave them inventories of all they had, and digged up their best things that were hidden in the ground. And deposited them into their custody. They also got much into their hands by fair promises, deep oaths and engagements, that if they would deliver them their goods, they would suffer them, with their wives and children, quietly to depart the country; and when they had got what they could, they afterwards murdered them.