496
AN GAODHAL.
ed another French armament from arriving at the
mouth of the Shannon until two days after the
treat for the surrender of Limerick had been
signed by Sarsfeld, It was this remarkable coin¬
cidence of unlucky events for Ireland (according
to the History of the Irish Brigade), that caused
the votaries of the reformed religion to denomin¬
ate the winds of heaven "Protestant winds."
But those victims of a vain delusion were greatly
wrong; the same results would have happened if
they had been pagans, for the elements of nature
were not made favorable to them through any in¬
herent virtue attached to their heresy, but because
a pope of Rome had bestowed upon William of
Normandy, surnamed the Conqueror, the crown of
England, sending him at the same time as a pledge
of success, a consecrated banner, a golden Agnus
Dei, and one of the hairs of St. Peter (vide Com¬
erford's Ireland): and because another pope had
bestowed upon King John the kingdoms of Eng¬
land and Ireland; and a third, fourth, and a fifth
pope had issued bulls and commissions by virtue
of which Ireland was intended to be forever bound
under the sway, shackles and thraldom of British
monarchs. When Henry II. received the bull of
Pope Adrian he remained quiescent for seventeen
years, awaiting the tide of events to flow in his fa¬
vor, and did nothing towards the subjugation of
Ireland, until a native provincial king of that
country had crossed over to England and solicited
that proud Norman to invade his native land, pro¬
mising at the same time to assist him in bringing
it under his dominion, In consequence of this
treacherons act, and the clergy of Ireland having
entered no valid protest, the English king invaded
Ireland and obtained full possession of the island
without having been compelled to fight one battle
or shed a single drop of blood insomuch that Ro¬
deric O'Conner, the independent monarch of the
island, peacefully submitted and became a tribu¬
try and vassal. Thus we find, by Holy Writ, that
when Samuel the prophet created an evil destiny
for Saul by bestowing his kingdom upon the shep¬
ard David, the former was brought to ruin and
death, while the latter was elevated to the throne
of Israel by a series of the most remarkable pro¬
vidential circumstances. And so also when the pro¬
phet Eliseus caused the anointing of Jehu, a simi¬
lar evil destiny was created for Joram and Jezabel,
who lost their lives, while the said Jehu, by the
rapid intervention of divine favor, speedily attain¬
ed to the supreme authority. And thus we per¬
ceive that the same power of bestowing kingdoms
which was possessed by the chief prophets of the
Old Law, is also possessed by the popes or proph¬
ets of the new dispensation. Josephus, the Jew¬
ish historian, at the siege of Jerusalem, proclaim¬
ed the fact to the Jews that God had left them and
had gone over to the Romans; but in consequence
of this information his countrymen had a mind to
stone him to death; yet in this he was correct,
and God has since remained with the Romans,
and the race of Jacob will never find him until
they go over to the religion of Rome. In like man¬
ner do I also say that it is now 730 years since God
left the Irish and went over to the English; and
he has been with them ever since, even in their a¬
postacy from the faith, and will so remain with
them, in a political sense, until some one of the
Sovereign Pontiffs will abrogate, revoke and ann¬
ul all the bulls, grants and commissions by means
of which Ireland was in ancient or former times
deprived of her national autonomy, and her crown
and sovereignty bestowed upon foreign potentates.
And until a native born Irishman having the ap¬
proval of God, astute in wisdom and eminent in e¬
very religious virtue and patriotic qualification.
shall be openly or secretly appointed by the same
holy authority to be her deliverer, model and king.
Some person may naturally object that the power
which I have attributed to the popes of bestowing
kingdoms in the temporal order does not actually
belong to them, and that the church has in late
times lost her own worldly regal possessions, and
has become the victim of the oppression of a se¬
mi-infidel tyranny: I answer, that this is in accor¬
dance with Holy Writ, for that the popes have not
done to other nations as they would wish to be
done by, and hence fate has visited them with the
lex talionis of justice, nor shall the yoke of the Sar¬
dinian usurpation be even removed from their "E¬
ternal City," but to be succeeded by that of a
"Red Republic," until they render ample justice
to Ireland. The birth of a certain Englishman,
named Nicholas Breakspear, has been fraught
with incalculable detriment to the interests of the
Cotholic Church. I do not impugn his Christian
motive, they might have been pure enough under
the circumstances of his time, but if he had not
attained to the papal tiara under the appellation
of Adrian IV., Ireland would never have fallen un¬
der the oppressive thraldom of Saxondom. And,
her being independent, prosperous and populous,
in the vicinity of England, would have prevented
that country from daring to adopt the principles
of the Protestant Reformation. And with Ireland,
England and Scotland Catholic, and acting in uni¬
son with France, Spain and Italy etc., the main¬
tenance of Protestantism in Germany and North¬
ern Europe would have been impossible. So that
if Ireland had remained free, Catholicism would
be able to count to-day as its own the hundred
millions of Protestants now in Europe and Amer¬
ica; nor would the Greek schism have remained
intact in the presence of so formidable an organiza¬
tion while Mahometism would have perhaps two
centuries ago been overthrown by the sword of
combined Europe, and not less than two hundred
millions of converted Asiatic infidels be ere this
added to the fold of Christ.
