him to his own country. He had been twenty-five years in Rome.
Francis Barberini was at this time cardinal-protector of Ireland, and his letters secured Plunket a good reception from Queen Catherine of Braganza. Her almoner, Philip Thomas Howard [q. v.], lodged him secretly for ten days in his own apartment at Whitehall, and showed him the town. In February 1670 Plunket left London for Holyhead, the roads being almost impassable from snow, and reached Dublin about the middle of March after a ten hours' sail. Lord Fingall and other magnates of Plunket's name offered hospitality, and he accepted that of Lord Louth, whose house was conveniently placed for his work. It appears from a letter of Lord Conway's (Rawdon Papers, letter cvi.) that the king himself gave private information to John Robartes, afterwards first earl of Radnor [q. v.], the viceroy, that Plunket was lurking in Ireland; but this was before his consecration at Ghent, and it is probable that Charles ordered a search only because he knew that it would be fruitless. John, lord Berkeley of Stratton [q. v.], who succeeded Robartes as viceroy, reached Ireland in April, and from him neither Plunket nor Talbot had anything to fear. Plunket was indeed accused of accepting too many invitations to Dublin Castle, but he said that he could not decently refuse, especially as Lady Berkeley and Chief-secretary Lane were ‘secretly catholics’ (Brady). He was even allowed to set up a school in Dublin under jesuit management, and he lost no opportunity of praising Berkeley's tolerance and kindness. Plunket's enemies suggested that he was on too friendly terms with his protestant rival, Primate James Margetson [q. v.], but with him it was not easy to quarrel.
Arthur Capel, earl of Essex [q. v.], succeeded Berkeley in 1672. His protestantism was undoubted, but he had probably no wish to persecute; and Plunket wrote to Oliver, the general of the jesuits, that the viceroy was a ‘wise man, prudent and moderate, and not inferior to his predecessor in good will towards me’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. App. pt. v. p. 361). His plan was to encourage dissensions among the Roman catholic clergy, and in particular the dispute concerning the precedence of their sees between Plunket and Talbot (Spicilegium Ossoriense, ii. 22; RUSSELL and PRENDERGAST, Report on Carte Papers, p. 126).
Plunket's labours in his diocese were unceasing. In the first four years of his mission he confirmed 48,655 persons, some of them sixty years old, and this activity was never relaxed. His energies were not even confined to Ireland, for he visited the Hebrides in 1671, with some help from Lord Antrim, and in spite of the house of Argyll. His account of this mission is unfortunately lost. In ecclesiastical politics Plunket was an ultramontane, favouring the jesuits, scouting Peter Walsh and the opportunists, and carefully nipping Jansenism in the bud. In the interminable disputes between the Franciscan and Dominican orders he was disposed to favour the latter. The unfrocked, or at least disgraced, friars who incurred his censure and subsequently swore away his life were Franciscans. Irregularities of all kinds he sternly repressed, and he did what he could for education in the face of immense difficulties. The revenue from his see was only 62l. in good years, and sometimes it fell to 5l. 10s.; nor did he get much outside help. Charles II allowed him 200l. in 1671. In 1679 he wrote that he had not received quite 40l. altogether from Rome, that is for his own use; but several sums passed through his hands for educational and other purposes, which were always carefully accounted for. He never had a house of his own, and was often glad to eat oatcake and milk.
Plunket was not on very cordial terms with Archbishop Talbot. He presided at the national synod in Dublin in June 1670, which Talbot attended, but the ancient dispute about precedence between the two chief archiepiscopal sees was soon revived. Early in 1671 it was proposed to send the archbishop's brother Richard to England as agent at court for the Irish Roman catholics, and the archbishop subscribed 10l. Plunket offered to give a like sum if the clergy of his diocese would raise it, but this they refused to do. In 1672 Plunket published a treatise in English under the title ‘Jus Primatiale,’ &c., in which he claimed pre-eminence for his own see. Talbot was much aggrieved, and wrote an answer in Latin, entitled ‘Primatus Dublinensis,’ &c., which was published at Lisle in 1674. In the established church of Ireland the supremacy of Armagh had long been fully acknowledged. Baldeschi, secretary of the propaganda, pithily pronounced that he of Armagh kept his saddle—‘L'Armacano sta a cavallo’—but the controversy was not finally settled until long afterwards. Plunket was engaged as late as 1678 on a rejoinder to Talbot's treatise, but it never saw the light.
The agitation in England which led to the passing of the Test Act, and the subsequent agitation against the Duke of York, forced the Irish government into repressive measures. Roman catholics were excluded from the corporations, while their bishops and regular clergy were ordered to leave the
