Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/130

Charles II $undefined$ According to the Secret Consults, Lord Berkeley made an abortive attempt "to regulate the corporations, which, by an Act of the late Parliament, there was power for the Lord Lieutenant and Council to do," but was compelled to abandon it owing to opposition in England.

$undefined$ By the Irish Act of Supremacy, 2 Eliz., c. 1, the provisions of which were identical with those of the English Act, 1 Eliz., c. 1, every official was required to take the oath of supremacy if it were tendered to him: but the Government, though empowered, was not obliged to tender it. In England this dispensatory power was abolished by a later Act, 5 Eliz., c. 1; but this did not extend to Ireland. Compare Macaulay, chap. 6, and King, II., 9, *1.

$undefined$ 10 Henry VII., cap. 4,

$undefined$ In the next reign, on the. appointment of two Catholic judges, Clarendon, then Lord Lieutenant, wrote to Rochester (20th April, 1686): "This is the first time that any man ever sat as a judge without taking the oath of supremacy since it was first enacted; nor was it ever dispensed with yet to any Privy Councillor, save to the late Marquis of Clanrickard."'

$undefined$ The English House of Commons petitioned (9th March, 1673), "that no Papists be either continued or hereafter admitted to be judges, justices of the peace, sheriffs, coroners or mayors, sovereigns or portreeves in that kingdom." Votes and Addresses of the House of Commons concerning Popery.

$undefined$ Petty, chap. 7. King (III, 2, *1) estimates the army at 7,000. According to Carte (II., 480): "There was no soldier ever admitted into the army till he had taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy." But the exclusion does not appear to have been absolute, for the same writer elsewhere tells us that Richard Talbot obtained a commission by the special favour of the Duke of York, and that "none, or very few, Roman Catholics besides himself were trusted in any military service." (II., 234.) 118