might not be tolerated in Ireland in any case, and might easily lose their refuges and their chances of preferment elsewhere. Even among the Franciscans in Ireland a majority soon appeared hostile (Remonstrance, p. 89) and some who had signed the remonstrance receded from their position (ib. p. 93). Many of the nobility and gentry signed the remonstrance, and educated lay opinion was certainly in its favour (ib. pp. 96–100); but in Ireland the clergy have generally had their way, and it became evident before the end of 1664 that Walsh's scheme had failed. He went to London in August, and in September had an interview, in the ‘back-yard at Somerset House,’ with the internuncio, who had come over incognito. The interview settled nothing, and in the following January De Vechiis invited Caron to go and argue the point in Flanders, describing the remonstrance as ‘formula quæ est lapis scandali’ (ib. p. 531). Caron at once refused to go, and Walsh, after much hesitation, decided that the fate of Huss might probably be his, and wrote two long letters instead. In June the Franciscan diffinitory in Ireland agreed upon a loyal remonstrance of their own, but Walsh would not allow it to be substituted for his; and Ormonde saw that it did not mention the pope, that it said nothing about mental reservation, and that the right of deposition was not expressly disclaimed. In September 1665 he and Walsh returned to Ireland, but by separate routes. Ormonde brought over the Act of Explanation with him, and the despair engendered by that measure among the old Roman catholic proprietors made accommodation with them or with their clergy more difficult than ever. The government had no longer anything to give.
Little progress had been made with the remonstrance, but Walsh thought something might be done in a national congregation of clergy. Some of the bishops beyond seas seemed anxious to get home on any reasonable terms, while those who hung back in Ireland would have no excuse. Walsh also imagined that his pamphlet against Orrery had made him more popular than before. The argument which no doubt chiefly weighed with Ormonde was that the clergy had alleged their inability to sign the remonstrance because they had not had opportunities of conferring. Permission to return home was given to Irish prelates abroad, and among others to Nicholas French, bishop of Ferns. French had agreed to the peace of 1648, but had nevertheless been a party to the decrees of Jamestown two years later, by which all Ormonde's adherents were declared excommunicate. He now moved from Santiago in Galicia to St. Sebastian; but having written a letter justifying his conduct at Jamestown, his passport for Ireland was countermanded. Walsh and French respected but could not convince each other (ib. pp. 513–25). Strenuous efforts to prevent the congregation were made by foreign ecclesiastics (ib. p. 629), but it met in Dublin on 11 June in a house hired and prepared by Walsh. Immediately before the opening he brought the only two bishops present, Andrew Lynch of Kilfenora, and Patrick Plunket of Ardagh, to Ormonde by night, but the interview was unsatisfactory. The next evening primate O'Reilly, who had just landed, produced letters from Giacomo Rospigliosi, now internuncio at Brussels, condemning both congregation and remonstrance (ib. p. 647). O'Reilly admitted to Walsh that he came from France on purpose to wreck the remonstrance, and declared in the congregation that he would have both hands consumed rather than sign it (Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 446). Ormonde urged the clergy to adopt both the remonstrance and the Gallican declarations of the Sorbonne in 1663, but the message was neither debated nor answered. O'Reilly had a fruitless interview with Ormonde, only Walsh and Bellings being present, when the latter declared that maintainers of papal infallibility could not be loyal subjects (ib. p. 447). In the end a new and much weaker remonstrance was carried, as well as three out of the six Sorbonne propositions; but the congregation rejected those which denied the pope's right to depose bishops, his superiority to an œcumenical council, and his infallibility without consent of the church. Ormonde refused to accept these terms, and directed a dissolution, which was quietly, and as it were spontaneously, carried out. Ormonde afterwards said that his own aim in allowing the congregation was to divide the Roman catholic clergy, and that he would have succeeded if he had been left in the government (Carte, ii. 101).
While Ormonde remained lord-lieutenant, however, Walsh had influence in Ireland, and for a moment seemed to have countenance at Rome. The Franciscan James Taafe arrived at Dublin in 1668 with a commission as vicar-general of Ireland, which he said had been procured for him by Henrietta Maria from two popes. The commission was doubtless spurious, whether forged by Taafe or another, but the proceedings under it added to the load of unpopularity which Walsh had to bear. Taafe's brief authority was used to depress all except the few who had signed the remonstrance. In March
