ABOUT the close of November, 1645, Rinuccini was received at St. Patrick's gate, Kilkenny, with all the honours due to so high and puissant a personage as the nunzio extraordinary accredited by the Holy See to the confederate catholics of Ireland. The clergy, secular and regular, awaited his coming in and about the city gate, and as soon as he passed under its arch he mounted a richly-caparisoned horse, and proceeded towards the ancient cathedral of St. Canice, escorted by the municipal and military authorities. It was, indeed, a wet and dismal day, the like of which the Italian had never seen in his own bright land, but notwithstanding the rain, that fell in torrents, all Kilkenny was astir, and thousands of the peasantry had gathered within the walls to witness the showy pageant. Four citizens, bare-headed, upheld the shafts of a rich canopy, to protect the nunzio from the rain, and as soon as he came in front of the market cross, the procession halted while a young student, standing on a platform, read a Latin oration, extolling the goodness of Pope Urban VIII., and welcoming his minister to the chief city of the confederates. To this greeting the nunzio replied in the language of the address, thanking the citizens for the cordial reception they had accorded him, lauding their devotedness to the holy see, and invoking heaven's blessing on their struggle for religion, king, and country. His words on this occasion, were few, but spoken with all the fervid animation so peculiar to Italians, and in the rich, sonorous cadences which characterise their pronunciation of Latin, As soon as he had concluded, the procession resumed its route, nor did it halt again till it reached the great gate of St. Canice's, where David Rothe, bishop of Ossory, robed in cope and mitre, and surrounded by all the minor officers of his cathedral, so ne bearing lighted torches, others incense and holy water, stood waiting the arrival of the uunzio. After mutual salutation the bishop handed him the aspersorium and incense, and then they both proceeded to the grand altar, from which, after the prayers prescribed for such occasion had been said, the nunzio gave solemn benediction to the vast multitude that crowded the nave and aisles of the holy edifice. Thus

met for the first time on the threshold and altar-steps of St. Canice's Rothe and Rinuccini, the one a feeble old man, in the seventy-third year of his age, and twenty-seventh of his episcopacy, spent by marvellous literary toil and incredible hardships; and the other, his junior by some twenty years, hale and fresh from his archiepiscopal principality of Fermo, and knowing nothing of persecution for religion's sake, save what he had learnt of it in the lives of the saints, or from the glowing frescos that decorated the walls of Italian churches. Could it have occurred to either of these high dignitaries that they were one day to part irreconcileable opponents, and that the point of divergence for both was to be that very altar at whose foot they now knelt together, thanking God for favours given, and supplicating him to send the spirit of peace and concord into the hearts and councils of the half-emancipated Irish Catholics? Some there were, indeed, witnesses of this function who augured little good could accrue to Ireland from the presence and overbearing influence of the Florentine patricianprelate at such a crisis in their country's destiny; but there were many who believed that he, and he alone, had the wisdom that could save the people from ruin, and so thoroughly were they convinced of this, that when all was lost, they attributed failure and defeat to the obstinacy of those who slighted his advice and repudiated his policy. The bishop of Ossory, however, far from sharing the sentiments of the latter, entertained views totally different, and lived long enough to see the metropolis of his diocess surrendered to Cromwell, but not long enough, unfortunately, to add to his published works a fair and impartial statement of the causes that brought about such a terrible and irretrievable calamity,

The family from which this prelate descended was one of respectable antiquity in the city of Kilkenny, where they held the position of opulent merchants early in the fifteenth century, and for many generations afterwards. Indeed, it is likely enough that the first of them came to Kilkenny with the first of the Butlers, and established himself there under the protection of that puissant lord; but be that as it may, there is enough evidence to show that his descendants were ever faithful and devoted retainers of the great house of Ormond. David, whose works were destined to elevate and perpetuate the name of his progenitors and kindred, and whose chequered life—extending over so considerable a portion of the first half of the seventeenth century-would be sufficient to interest us without his celebrity as a writer, was born in Kilkenny, in 1572, a year memorable in Irish annals for the stout resistance of the Geraldines in the south, and the de Burgos in the western province, to Perrot, Fitton, and other armèd preachers of the Reformation.

David and his brother Edward, sole survivors of eight children, were left orphans when very young; but owing to the thrifty management of their guardians, they were amply provided for on reaching man's estate. Edward devoted himself to commercial pursuits, and David resolved to embrace the ecclesiastical profession. There can be little doubt that the latter received the earliest rudiments of education in his native city; and it is quite certain that he repaired to the college of Douay for the study of

Greek and philosophy. Having distinguished himself there, he removed to Salamanca, where, on attaining canonical age, he was ordained priest, after being promoted to the degree of doctor in civil and canon law, and acquiring a thorough knowledge of the Spanish language. It would appear that he tarried a long time abroad, for, if we may credit a brief notice of him, written by the celebrated John Lynch, he did not return to Ireland till 1610, when he had completed his thirty-eighth year. Long, however, before he set out for home the fame of his prudence and extensive acquirements had reached the ears of Paul V., who, on the suggestion of Maffeo Barberini, appointed him prothonotary-apostolic, vicar-general of Armagh, in the absence of Peter Lombard, then an exile at Rome, and furthermore, empowered him to arbitrate summarily on certain subjects, concerning which the Irish clergy, regular and secular, were then at variance.

Honoured with such signal proofs of the pope's esteem, Rothe reached Kilkenny, just three years after the memorable flight of the earls, the apprehension of whose return with an invading force, gave Sir Arthur Chichester, then lord deputy, so many plausible pretexts for persecuting the catholics, and their dignitaries especially, who were regarded as emissaries sent by Rome to stimulate disloyalty and rebellion in Ireland. How disguised, or from which of the Irish ports Rothe made his way to his native city has not transpired, but, doubtless, he must have been aided by more than ordinarily favourable circumstances in eluding the keen vigilance of the deputy, who knew well that it was a kinsman* of his who had carried off O'Neill and O'Donnell from Lough Swilly, and that he himself stood high in the good graces of Paul V., who had afforded secure asylum to the outlawed earls, when Spain refused to receive them, and the Doge of Venice forbade them to approach the latter city.t

* In a list of the Irish serving "beyond seas," drawn up for the English government, in 1632, we find the following:-"There is also one James Rothe, an alfaros (ensign) of a company amongst the Spanish infantry. He is brother to captain John Rothe, a pensioner in Naples, who carried Tyrone out of Ireland."

For the following document, translated from the Italian, we are indebted to R. Brown, Esq., who discovered it in the Venetian archives, when calendaring papers illustrative of English history. The churlish illiberality of the Doge was meant to conciliate James I., and contrasts strongly with the cordial welcome which the unfortunate Irish exiles received at the court of pope Paul V. "Leonardo Doria, by the grace of God, Doge of Venice, etc., to Francesco Contarini, Knight, our ambassador to the sovereign pontiff. Faithful and wellbeloved, health and loving greeting. We are advised that the Earl of Tyrone, who hath become contumacious towards the most serene king of England by his flight from Ireland, departed last month from Brussels, intending to pass into Spain and to Rome by way of Italy. And although we opine that he will abstain from entering our state, knowing the good amity and perfect understanding that existeth between his Majesty and our republic; nevertheless, in order that such an embarrassment should not arise, we have come to the resolution to tell you, as we do with the authority of the senate, that upon the arrival of the said earl, at that court (of Rome) or in those parts, you should, with that caution and secresy which is needful in such a matter, make known to him our said intention that he come not into our state, and that should he come, it will be to

At the period of Rothe's arrival, the see of Ossory was vacant, for Strong, its late bishop, banned and exiled from Ireland for non-conformity, had died in Compostella, and as it were, to heighten the misery of the people thus deprived of a chief pastor, Sir Arthur Chichester, was carrying out the iniquitous policy of James I., hunting down the "papists," enriching himself with their confiscated lands, and scattering, at the sword's point, whenever he found it safe to do so, the congregations assembled for the celebration of Mass. Kilkenny was more than once the scene of these flagrant outrages on the faith of its catholic inhabitants; but, happily for them, the house of Ormond had not yet entirely apostatized, and many of its members still adhered to the ancient religion, and protected its worshippers.

Rothe, we need hardly say, was kindly regarded by lord Mountgarret and Richard* Butler, both sincere catholics, and their interposition enabled him to live in comparative ease, and to discharge, though with greatest circumspection, the onerous duties of his calling. Zealous in the fulfilment of all priestly offices, and labouring earnestly for the spiritual welfare of the faithful of Kilkenny, he, at the same time, was an atten.. tive observer of passing events, and took special care to note down all the atrocities which Chichester, in obedience to the instructions of James I. was perpetrating on the oppressed and plundered catholics. It was in the very year of Rothe's return to Ireland that O'Deveny, bishop of Down and Connor, was committed prisoner to Dublin Castle; and, although the latter was guarded with lynx-eyed vigilance while waiting the mockery of trial, Rothe, nevertheless, contrived to maintain a secret correspondence with him, and to obtain from him some valuable notices which he had written of those Irish archbishops, bishops, priests, and laymen, who were either executed or outlawed during the reign of Elizabeth, on fictitious charges of high treason, but in reality for refusing to take the oath of of supremacy. These notices, or, as the bishop of Down styled them, "Index Martyrialis," suggested to Rothe the idea of a grand work on that terrible persecution, and he at once set about compiling it from the fragments which had thus luckily come into, his hands, and also from the oral testimony of many then living, who retained distinct recollection of each and every one of those who figured prominently the persecutor and the persecuted-in that bloody and disgusting drama. While actively engaged on this remarkable undertaking, he received letters from the holy see, commending his zeal and prudence, and constituting him arbitrator between O'Kearney, archbishop of Cashel and Paul Ragget, prior of the Cistertian monastery of Holy Cross, who were at issue on some points of privilege, and bad frequently appealed to Rome for the settlement of their pretentions. Rothe, however, reconciled the litigants, and so pleased were Maffeo Barberini and cardinal Veralli, protector of Ireland, with the tact and address he exhibited in dealing with a matter requiring so much moderation and

our displeasure; accompanying the message with such form of words as you shall in your prudence esteem suitable, and of the sequence you shall advise us.-Given at our ducal palace, the 5th January, 6th Indiction, 1607.”

* He was brother to James, known afterwards as the great duke of Ormo

judgment, that they both wrote to congratulate him on the result, signifying at the same time, that Paul V. had been fully informed of his efficiency, and discrimination. It is almost unnecessary to observe, that his conduct on this occasion secured for him at Rome two most powerful patrons, one of whom, (Barberini,) was a distinguished poet and generous patron of literary men, and afterwards ascended the Papal throne as Urban VIII.

This incident, however, at which we have glanced cursorily, must occupy a subordinate place in Rothe's biography, for the grander facts on which his fame rests are those connected with his literary achievements, which won for him the respect of the most erudite of his protestant contemporaries, and still entitle him to the admiration of those who appreciate profound learning and extensive research in the domain of Irish history.

We have already alluded to the work which he projected with a view to perpetuate the names of the distinguished men who suffered for religion during Elizabeth's reign; but it would appear that long before applying himself to that most important undertaking, he had commenced to write an Ecclesiastical History† of Ireland from the first introduction of Christianity down to his own times, taking in all those stirring events in which he himself was destined to figure so conspicuously. That he did not contemplate the publication of this work during his own lifetime is quite certain, for we are informed by one of his most intimate friends, that he devoted fifty years to its compilation, and left it ready for the press some few months before his death. Of its ultimate fate we will have occasion to speak hereafter.

Another work of kindred character to which he gave many of his leisure hours was that which he styled "Hierographia Sacra Hiberniæ," or a general ecclesiastical survey of Ireland, commencing with the history of Kilkenny, and comprising notices of Irish saints, cathedrals, shrines, dioceses, places of pilgrimage, anchorets, early seats of learning, holy wells, rural deaneries—in a word, a series of essays on Irish archæology, the great value of which is apparent from the few fragments* that have been preserved through the agency of transcribers. That Rothe did not intend the "Hierographia" should be a posthumous production there can be no doubt, for after labouring at it in a desultory manner for nearly twenty-one years, he placed the introductory portion of it in the hands of a Waterford printer, with a view to its publication, but owing probably to the distraction of the times, it was not destined to issue from the press.

Reverting to the remarkable work, which we have already stated, was suggested by O'Deveny's memoranda, and which Rothe published under the title of "Analecta" (Collections), and the pseudonym “T. N. Philadelphus," the reader should know that he divided it into three parts, each

* Ware notices this work, but says he knows not what became of it. Two copies of those fragments still exist-one in the British Museum, and the other, less perfect, in the MS. Library of T. C., Dublin.