Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/97

Charles II. The evidence which we possess upon this subject comes from the most opposite quarters, and it is curiously consistent. "The Papists," Archbishop King tells us, "lived happily. There was free liberty of conscience by connivance, though not by the law." "The chief pique which the Popish clergy have at the Protestants," says Sir William Petty, "is that they have the Church livings and jurisdictions; for the exercise of their functions they [the Catholics] have most freely." These are not the most trustworthy of witnesses; but we have other and far more reliable testimony. At a synod of the Catholic clergy held during the first Viceroyalty of Ormond, in June, 1666, Father Walsh reminded his brethren—and, had his words been false, they could scarcely have passed unchallenged—of the "ceasing of persecution, release of prisoners, general connivance at the exercise of our religion through all provinces and parts of Ireland, even within the walls of corporate towns and garrisons," which characterised the government. of Charles the Second. According to a letter subscribed by eighteen Catholic clergymen and published by the same writer, "immediately [upon the Restoration] the persecution in this kingdom ceased by his Majesty's express commands." Four years later, Lord Berkeley of 85