Contesting History: Opposing Voices

Department of Modern HistoryTrinity College Dublin

Penal laws: Conversion or Coercion?

1. Interpretation

Setting

Historiographical Interpretation

Secondary Sources

Source 1 William P. Burke, Irish priests in penal times (Waterford, 1914), pp 111-16.

Source 2Patrick Corish, The Catholic community in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries(Dublin, 1981), pp 73-74.

Source 3 S.J. Connolly, Religion, law and power, the making of Protestant Ireland, 1660-1760(Oxford, 1992), pp 307-12.

2. Primary Documents

Legislation

Document 1An Act to prevent the further growth of Popery, 2 Anne c 6 (1703).

Document 2A proclamation issued by the Lord Justices and Privy Council of Ireland ordering thedisarming of Catholics, 29 July 1715 (Dublin, 1715).

Opponents

Document 3*Cornelius Nary, The Case of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland humbly represented toboth houses of Parliament (Dublin 1724), pp 124-25.

Document 4A letter from the Right Hon. *Edmund Burke … to *Sir Hercules Langrishe on thesubject of Roman Catholics of Ireland, and the propriety of admitting them to the electivefranchise (London, 1792), pp 8, 44-45.

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Anglican Opinion

Document 5 A letter from Archbishop *William King to the Lord Lieutenant, the earl of Sunderland, 1January 1715 (Charles Mant, History of the Church of Ireland, ii, London, 1840, pp 212-13).

Visual

Document 6A cartoon, ‘Mass in the mountains. A picture of the penal days,’ by *John Fergus O’Hea (Young Ireland, December 1890).

Document 7 A line drawing of Arles Chapel, County Laois, 1795 (Francis Grose, Antiquities ofIreland, ii, London, 1795), p. 160.

3. Ancillary Information

Key Terms

Key Characters

Chronology of the Penal Laws

Topic Questions

Conclusion

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1. Interpretation

Setting

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While Catholics had been the subjects of legal discrimination since the late Tudorperiod, the series of acts known collectively as the penal or, to use the contemporary term,popery laws, passed from the 1690s onwards, marked a determined effort to remove theirinfluence from the upper echelons of Irish society. The first penal laws were enacted in1695 and prohibited Catholics from possessing weapons and forbid them from eithergoing abroad to secure an education or teaching in schools in Ireland. The Act to Preventthe Further Growth of Popery (2 Anne c 6, 1703), the most draconian of the laws,prevented Catholics from inheriting or buying land from Protestants. It also forbadeCatholics from taking out leases longer than 31 years and decreed that Catholic estateshad to be divided equally between male heirs on the death of the head of that family.Restrictions were subsequently imposed upon Catholics voting in parliamentary elections;practising law; serving on grand juries; or holding senior rank in the army. Historicalassessments of the effects of the penal legislation have varied greatly. In this introductorysection you have the opportunity to critically evaluate and contrast various interpretationsof the penal laws. You should also use the evidence presented in this section to considerwhy Protestants felt that maintaining discriminatory laws against Catholics would ensuretheir security. Examining their anxieties about a revival of Catholic fortunes, and thefears, interests and prejudices which this produced, can reveal a lot about whatProtestants hoped the popery laws could secure. To complete this assignment, use boththe secondary sources in this section and the primary documents in section 2 to answerthe following basic questions.

What are the historian’s conclusions about the function of the penal laws?

Does the evidence in the primary documents (section 2) support or contradictthe historian’s assessments?

Do the primary documents indicate that the penal laws were enacted to securea wholesale conversion of Catholics or to strengthen the Protestant landedsettlement? What other issues may have been involved?

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Historographical Interpretation

Accounts on the legal restrictions imposed upon Catholics in the period after thesigning of the *Treaty of Limerick in 1691 have formed a standard part of thehistoriography of eighteenth century Ireland. Indeed, for many historians the eighteenthcentury and historographical perspective provided by the phrase ‘penal era’ becamesynonymous. The laws were traditionally seen as victimising an entire population andattention was frequently drawn to the fact that the legislation was directed at a religiousmajority and not, as in England, at a religious minority. In view of contemporary concernsabout political developments, it was hardly surprising that the first assessments of theimpact of the penal laws came at the end of the nineteenth century. Catholic apologists ofthis era invariably saw the penal laws as a reflection of contemporary politics and focusedupon often spurious accounts of the maltreatment of Irish Catholics by Protestants in theeighteenth century.

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The nineteenth end early twentieth century tradition of Nationalist historiography tookboth an uncritical view of the work of eighteenth century Catholic advocates such as*Edmund Burke and gave a distorted insight into the mindset of those Protestants whoframed penal legislation. The penal laws were regarded as a systematic attempt toextirpate Catholicism by the wholesale conversion of the natives. Standard accounts ofthe period such as Cardinal Patrick F. Moran’s The Catholics of Ireland under the penallaws in the eighteenth century (1900), and later the Reverend William P. Burke’s Irishpriests in penal times (1914) failed to take into account legitimate Protestant concernsabout the threat posed by the Catholic majority and the disagreements within IrishProtestantism on the steps that should be taken to counter it. Titles such as thePersecution of Catholics and Irish martyrs of the penal laws left the reader in little doubtof the historical perspective adopted by the author.

The first attempts to view the experiences of Catholics in the eighteenth century assomething more than those of a victimised mass were made by Maureen Wall. She arguedin a seminal article, ‘The rise of the Catholic middle class,’ that the restrictions imposedupon Catholics purchasing property had led to the emergence of a distinct business-orientated class in many towns. As dispossessed members of the Catholic gentry movedinto urban areas the authorities were either unwilling or unable to enforce punitiveeconomic restrictions against them. Although Wall’s open-minded approach did much toilluminate aspects of the Catholic experience of the penal era, her work was in turn beencriticised by revisionists who suggested that she failed to recognise the particular politicalcontext in which the laws operated. Recent work by S.J. Connolly, for example, hasfocused on the motives of Irish Protestants and their immediate fears in the lateseventeenth century about a revival of Catholic fortunes.

In general, revisionists have emphasised the ‘selective nature’ of the operation of thepenal laws and have argued that their effects have frequently been exaggerated intraditional, Nationalist-inspired accounts. Louis Cullen has, for instance, drawn attentionto the emergence of strong Catholic leasehold interest amongst large farmers ineighteenth century Ireland whilst Connolly has convincingly argued that the laws were ‘arag-bag series of measures enacted piecemeal over almost half a century.’ Assumptions,therefore, based on the supposed injustice of the penal era have to be treated with cautionas it has been suggested that any schemes to exile the popish clergy and bring about amass conversion of Catholics were abandoned once they were found to be utterlyunworkable. Of course other aspects of the laws were rather more successfully applied asby the early decades of the eighteenth century many heads of Catholic families who hadmanaged to retain titles to land after earlier confiscations (in actuality they were small innumber anyway) duly conformed.

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Source 1

William P. Burke, Irish priests in penal times (Waterford, 1914), pp 111-16.

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In this section, William Burke provides evidence for his central premise that the penallaws were part of a vindictive campaign to suppress Catholicism. He also castigates theinterpretation which stated that the laws were the purely defensive response of a fearfulProtestant minority.

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The era of penal legislation was inaugurated by the parliament of 1695. [Viscount]Sydney had been dismissed as too favourable to the Catholics, and [Henry] Capel, thenew [lord] deputy, in his speech to the two houses, 27 August, struck the key-note of theirproceedings:

The [proposed] bills [for disarming Catholics and restricting their education] have been moreeffectually provided for your future security than has ever hitherto been done. In my opinion thewant of such laws has been one great cause of the your past miseries and it will be your fault aswell as your misfortune if you neglect to lay hold of the opportunity now put into your hands byyour great and gracious King of making such a lasting settlement that it may never be in thepower of your enemies to bring the like calamities again upon you.

The time therefore had come when the whole settlement might be called intoquestion, and the *Treaty of Limerick torn in shreds … For apologists of the penal lawsare wont to justify them as measures of self-defence. A small minority, they say, in themidst of a hostile and overwhelming majority could only protect itself and maintain itsexistence by reducing the majority to absolute impotence, social and civic; that in point offact these laws preserved Ireland during the eighteenth century from becoming what itassuredly would have become a theatre of *Jacobite intrigue and civil war. And hencethat their motive causes were not religious bigotry or racial hatred but the elementaryones of fear and common prudence. Such is the reasoning and it appears to have muchforce. But after careful examination of the proceedings … of the correspondence betweenthe English and Irish Councils and the utterances of the statesmen responsible, I feelbound to say it receives no support from history. The penal laws were not put togetherunder the pressure of an ever advancing enemy nor was it the result of a well conceivedpolicy of defence. It came into existence in a brief period when the Irish people wereregarded as hopelessly crushed, and each step in their fall, each diminution of their hopeswas marked by a new link in the chain. Their cause had been espoused by France, andaccording as the fortunes of France sunk, the penal code grew branch by branch inmalignant perfection. Not in fear were the laws of [King] William and [Queen] Annepassed, but in vengeance and in unbridled licence of triumph. The language of *[Edmund] Burke has been sometimes criticised but any research amongst originalauthorities shows it to be only the literal truth. ‘All the penal laws of that unparalleledcode of oppression were manifestly the effects of national hatred and scorn towards aconquered people whom the victors delighted to trample upon and were not at all afraidto provoke.’

Analysis Questions

What points of view does William Burke express in this extract?

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What precise interpretation of the penal laws does Burke wish to refute in theextract?

What evidence does Burke provide to support his interpretation?

Is William Burke’s interpretation supported or contradicted by the evidencecontained in Edmund Burke’s A letter from the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, M.P…to Sir Hercules Langrishe, Bart. M.P. on the subject of the Roman Catholics ofIreland (Document 4)?

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Source 2

Patrick Corish, The Catholic community in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries(Dublin, 1981), pp 73-74.

Corish’s work reflects the traditional assumption that the penal laws were asystematic and rigorously enforced corpus of laws that resulted in the almost completedestruction of the Catholic landed interest in the eighteenth century.

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The ‘new context’ for the Catholics of Ireland was the ‘Penal Code,’ that body oflaws enacted in the main in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Their cumulativeeffect was summed up in 1759 by John Bowes, chief baron of the exchequer, when hedeclared that the law did not presume an Irish Catholic to exist except for the purposes ofpunishment…There is a wide measure of agreement on the nature and purpose of thepenal code directed against Irish Catholics…Those provisions that were taken seriouslywere directed against Catholic property, not against the practice of the Catholic religion.Above all, they were directed against Catholic landed property, for land was the basis ofpolitical power. Here the penal code was meant to bite and made to bite, to reach what*Edmund Burke was to call its ‘vicious perfection.’ There was a very real fear that insome way or another Catholics might recover their estates: the addresses at the opening ofparliament in the early years of the century continued to stress the dangers of popery and‘the fatal consequences of reversing the outlawries of persons attained of high treason forthe rebellion in 1641 and 1688.’

The Catholic share of Irish land had fallen from 59 per cent in 1641 to 22 per cent in1688, and to 14 per cent in 1703 after fresh attainders. By the 1770s it had fallen to 5 percent as a result of the penal code. Existing Catholic estates were to be split up by insistingthat inheritance be by gavelkind, not by primogeniture, and by various enactmentsrewarding sons who conformed to the established church during their father’s lifetime.Legislation in 1709 ruled out any possibility that Catholics might acquire land illegally. Itdid this by introducing the ‘Protestant discoverer’, who, if he could prove in court thatproperty had been illegally acquired, received that property as his reward. This provisionmade the laws against the Catholic acquisition of property self-enforcing. Catholics wereeffectively excluded from the professions and public life by a series of legal enactments.No explicit legislation seems to have been required to exclude them from town

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corporations: this was achieved by the very structures of society…Successive enactmentsseverely hindered Catholics who wished to set up manufacture…

There were many enactments regulating marriages between Protestants and Catholics,and new legislation under this head continued well after legislation in general hadslackened off. Penalties against Catholic priests officiating at such marriages werestepped up. In 1725 they were to be adjudged guilty of felony, and a few were actually putto death. As late as 1745 such marriages conducted by a Catholic priest were declarednull in law. Overall, however, it is clear that this marriage legislation was motivated by aconcern for property and not strictly by religious intolerance. It was designed to ensurethat if these marriages did take place any property settlement would be in favour of theProtestant interest …

Analysis Questions

What are Corish’s main conclusions about the purpose of the penal laws?

What is his evidence for the motivations behind the enforcement of penallegislation?

What role does he attribute to the penal laws in weakening the Catholic landedinterest in the eighteenth century?

In what ways does Corish arguments in relation to the restrictions placed uponCatholic landownership differ from S.J. Connolly’s assessment of the same issuein source 3?

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Source 3

S.J. Connolly, Religion, law and power, the making of Protestant Ireland, 1660-1760(Oxford, 1992), pp 307-12.

Connolly criticizes historians who argue that an analogy could be drawn between theeighteenth century Irish popery laws and twentieth century forms of social and politicalapartheid. Connolly suggests that for the majority of the Catholic population the penallaws were nothing more than ‘theoretical restrictions.’ He suggests that the main targetsand victims of the legislation were the Catholic aristocracy and landed gentry. Moreover,the laws did not seem to prevent the emergence of a wealthy and, by the end of theeighteenth century, an increasingly self-confident Catholic merchant class.

_______________To what extent did religious divisions and the penal laws that grew out of them

operate to create inequalities and forms of exploitation that would not have existed hadthe whole population been Protestant? The question needs to be asked in this formbecause it has frequently been asserted that penal legislation against Catholics did in facthave precisely such an effect. Corish quotes with approval the comments of W.E.H.

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Lecky: penal legislation was designed ‘to make [Catholics] poor and kept them poor…todegrade them into a servile caste’. According to E.M. Johnston: ‘The operation of thepenal code created a religious basis that was in many ways a typical colonial situation’…A number of writers, pursuing the same line of argument, have compared anti-Catholiclegislation in Ireland to the apartheid system of the twentieth century South Africa.According to the late Maureen Wall, for example, penal legislation ‘operated to excludethe Catholic majority from all positions of importance in the country – from theprofessions, from parliament, and from the ownership of property – in the same way asthe colour bar has operated to ensure white ascendancy in African countries in recenttimes’… It is against the background of these extravagant claims that it becomesnecessary to restate what should in fact be some rather obvious points regarding the penallaws and the society in which they operated.

Let us begin with Catholic Landed classes. These were both the main targets of penallegislation and, without question, its main victims. In the fifty years or after the passageof the Act to Prevent the Growth of Popery, the majority of the surviving land-owningfamilies conformed to the Church of Ireland. The precise mechanisms by which this wasbrought about remain to be properly investigated. Many accounts highlight the‘gavelkind’ clause in the Act of 1704, under which estates had to be divided equallyamong the male heirs. Faced with this requirement, it is suggested, Catholic familieseither kept the estate intact through conformity of the eldest son or else ‘sank to the levelof middle class farmers’ as it was repeatedly subdivided. In fact no case has yet beenproduced of a family permitting its property to be dismantled in this way. As for the gavelclause, this may not in practice have proved as effective as expected. Social pressures anda sense of family loyalty seem in many cases to have ensured that younger sons simplyrefrained from asserting their claims under the Act. Catholic proprietors who conformedto the established church, equally, may in many cases have been motivated less by a fearthat their estates would be dismembered than by a desire to escape the numerous lesserburdens that Catholicism brought with it: inability to expand one’s property by purchaseor long leases, a restricted choice of marriage partners, and exclusion from local andnational politics …

Penal legislation also imposed important restrictions on other groups…Catholicmanufactures and merchants, too, incurred undoubted disadvantages. They were lesslikely to be awarded official contracts; they could not buy or take long leases on urbanproperty; most important of all, perhaps, they could not defend or further theircommercial interests through participation in local government and the guilds. Yet noneof these disabilities was sufficient to prevent the survival – and possibly even theexpansion – of a substantial class of Catholic merchants, traders, and manufactures. It istrue that the Catholic share of overseas trade remained well below the Catholic share ofthe total population. But this, it has been argued, was due not to direct restrictions onCatholic enterprise, but rather to the collapse of Catholic landownership, at a time whenlanded wealth remained the main source of capital for trade and manufactures …

Comparisons between the penal laws and the apartheid legislation until recently inforce in South Africa, implying that institutional discrimination had a key role in creatinginequality and exploitation, are thus misconceived. It was of course the case that Irelandin the late seventeenth century and eighteenth centuries was an unequal an exploitativesociety, in which power and wealth were monopolized by a small group. But the samewas true of contemporary England, and indeed the whole of western Europe, regardless of

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the religious composition of the population. Ireland’s penal laws operated mainly toexclude one segment of the country’s natural ruling elite – by this time a small minority –from the advantages that would normally have gone with their economic and socialposition. They did not determine the relationship between that elite and the remainder ofthe population. If the penal laws had been removed or if the whole population had beentransformed overnight into Protestants, then a few new faces would have made theirappearance in the ranks of the ruling class. There is no reason to assume that land wouldhave ceased to be the key to political power, that men would have become really equalbefore the law, that workers’ combinations or other forms of popular collective actionwould have been legtimized, or that wealth would have been divided more equitably …

Analysis Questions

Why does Connolly think that the accounts provided by Wall, Corish andJohnston are flawed?

How does he assess the effects of the laws restricting Catholic landownership?

What evidence does he provide on Catholic adaptability to the restrictions?

What argument does Connolly make in relation to the pre-existing economic andpolitical inequalities in eighteenth century Irish society? Is it his suggestion thatthese inequalities were more important than any disparities based upon religiousaffiliation?

Are Connolly’s arguments convincing?_______________

2. Primary Documents

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There is no shortage of sources available for the eighteenth century historian. Officialsources make at least occasional references to the origins and impact of the penal orpopery laws. Vital information is provided on the experiences of the Catholic gentry andclergy in a range of published personal letters, memoirs, diaries and journals. Newspaperswere appearing in Dublin by the 1690s, and together with pamphlets which touched uponissues relating to the penal laws and the Protestant interest, were to become ever morenumerous in the following century. As you read through the documents you should firstconsider whether the writer was prejudiced or impartial. Keep in mind the lines of criticalinquiry pursued by the historians cited in the interpretative section. Try to ascertainwhether the evidence in each document supports or contradicts a particular opinion on themotivations which lay behind the enforcement of the popery laws.

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Legislation

Document 1

An Act to prevent the further growth of Popery, 2 Anne c 6 (1703).

The penal code was primarily directed at the rights of Catholics to enjoy, inherit andpurchase land. The clauses set out in the ‘act to prevent the further growth of popery,’passed by the Irish parliament in the reign of Queen Anne, constituted the mostformidable legal assault upon the rights of landholding Catholics. It set aside the commonlaw rule of inheritance by primogeniture and replaced it with a type of *gavelkind. It alsogave conforming children statutory right to sole inheritance and extended this right toother children choosing to conform. It also significantly stiffened the requirements thatgoverned the giving of proofs and testaments showing conformity to the establishedchurch and forced Catholics to take an *oath of abjuration which expressly denied therights of any Stuart claimant to the throne. The impact of the provisions contained in thisact on the Catholic aristocracy and landed gentry was enormous.

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I. Whereas diverse emissaries of the church of Rome, popish priests, and other persons ofthe persuasion, taking advantage of the weakness and ignorance of some of her Majesty’ssubjects … do daily endeavour to persuade and pervert them from the protestant religion,to the great dishonour of Almighty God, the weakening of the true religion, by hisblessing so happily established in this realm … and in further manifestation of their

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hatred of the said true religion, many of the said persons, so professing the popish religionin this kingdom, have refused to make provisions for their own children for no otherreason but their being of the protestant religion…be it enacted …That if any person orpersons … shall seduce, persuade, or pervert any person or persons professing, or thatshall profess, the protestant religion, to renounce, forsake, and abjure the same, and toprofess the popish religion, or reconcile him or them to the church of Rome, then and insuch case every such person and persons so seducing, as also every such protestant andprotestants, who shall be so seduced, perverted, and reconciled to popery, shall for thesaid offences, being thereof lawfully convicted, incur the danger and penalty of*premunire, mentioned in the statute of premunire made in England in the sixteenth yearof the reign of King Richard the second…

X. And be it further enacted …That all lands …whereof any papist now is, or hereaftershall be, seized in fee-simple or fee-tail, shall from henceforth … be of the nature of*gavelkind; and if not sold, aliened, or disposed of by such papist in his life time for goodand valuable consideration of money really and bona fide paid, shall for such estate fromsuch papist descend to, and be inherited by, all and every the sons of such papist any wayinheritable to such estate, share and share alike, and not descend on or come to the eldestof such sons only, being a papist, as heir at law …

XII. Provided always, That if the eldest son or heir at law of such papist shall be aprotestant at the time of the decease of such papist, whose heir he shall be … such eldestson, being a protestant, not having been enrolled in the life of such papist, the lands,whereof such papist shall be so seized, shall descend to such eldest son or heir at lawaccording to the rules of the common law of this realm…and if the eldest son or heir atlaw of any such papist, who shall at the time of decease of such papist, whose heir he is,be of the age of one and twenty years, shall become a protestant and conform himself tothe church of Ireland, as by law established, within one years after such decease of suchpapist…he shall be entitled to, and shall have, and enjoy from thenceforth the whole realestate of such papist, as he might have done if he had been a protestant at the time of thedecease of such papist, whose heir he is; notwithstanding any grant, settlement, ordisposition by will or otherwise, that shall be made by such papist …

XV. Provided always, that no person shall take benefit by this act as a protestant withinthe intent and meaning hereof, that shall not conform to the church of Ireland as by lawestablished, and subscribe the declaration, and also take and subscribe the oath ofabjuration following, viz.

I. A.B. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare,That I do believe, that in the sacrament of the Lord’s-Supper, there is not anytransubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, ator after the consecration thereof, by any person whatsoever; and that the invocation oradoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are

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now used in the church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous. And I so solemnly, inthe presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do make this declaration, andevery part there of, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me, as they arecommonly understood by Protestants, without any evasion equivocation, or mentalreservation whatsoever; and without any dispensation already granted me for this purposeby the Pope, or any other authority or person whatsoever, or without any hope ofdispensation from any person or authority whatsoever, or without believing that I am, orcan, be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this declaration, or any part thereof,although the Pope or any other person or persons, or power whatsoever should dispensewith or annul the same, or declare that it was null and void from the beginning.

I, A.B., do truly and sincerely acknowledge, profess, testify and declare in my conscience,before God and the world, that our sovereign lady Queen Anne is lawful and rightfulqueen of this realm, and of all other her Majesty’s dominions and countries thereuntobelonging. And I do solemnly and sincerely declare, that I do believe in my conscience,that the person pretending to be Prince of Wales, during the life of the late King James,and since his decease pretending to be and taking upon himself the style and title of Kingof England by the name of *James III, hath not any right or title whatsoever to the crownof this realm, or any other the dominions thereto belonging, and I do renounce, refuse,and abjure any allegiance or obedience to him. And I do swear that I will bear faith andtrue allegiance to her majesty Queen Anne, and her will defend to the utmost of mypower against all traitorous conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, which shall be madeagainst her person, crown, or dignity. And I will do my best endeavour to disclose andmake known to her majesty, and her successors, all treasons and traitorous conspiracies,which I shall know to be against her and any of them. And I do faithfully promise to theutmost of my power to support, maintain, and defend the limitation and succession of thecrown against him the said James, and all other persons whatsoever, as the same is andstands limited by [those acts settling the protestant succession of the crown]. And allthese things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear, according to the expresswords by me spoken, and according to the plain and common sense and understanding ofthe same words, without any equivocation, mental evasion or secret reservationwhatsoever. And I do make this recognition, acknowledgement, abjuration, renunciationand promise, heartily, willingly, and truly, upon the true faith of a Christian.

So help me God.

Analysis Questions

What is said in section 1 about the reasons for enacting this law?

What purpose do you think the *gavelling clause in section 10 served?

What incentive was offered in section 12 to the sons of Catholic landholders toconform?

Was it the purpose of the declaration and oath in the act to prevent the furthergrowth of popery to compel Catholics to conform to the established church?

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What aspects of the declaration and oath would a conscientious Catholic finddifficulty in accepting?

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Document 2

A proclamation issued by the Lord Justices and Privy Council of Ireland ordering thedisarming of Catholics, 29 July 1715 (Dublin, 1715).

It has been argued that Irish Protestants were content to leave the penal laws on thestatue book as an indication of their determination to uphold their interests rather than aspart of a strategy to drastically alter the religious complexion of the kingdom.Occasionally, however, there were drives to enforce them. These periods of distinctunease for Irish Catholics usually coincided with the outbreak of war or an invasion scare.The *Jacobite rebellion in Scotland in 1715 was the signal for this governmentproclamation urging the strict enforcement of the popery laws.

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Whereas his Majesty hath been graciously pleased to acquaint his parliament of GreatBritain, of his receiving certain information from abroad, that the person pretended to bePrinces of Wales, during the life of the late King James II, and since his deceasepretending to be, and taking on himself the style and title of King of England, by thename of *James III, had traitorously undertaken an invasion of these kingdoms, beingcountenanced and encouraged by tumults, and insurrections at home, fomented andstirred up by the abettors, and supporters of his interest, in manifest violation of hisMajesty’s rightful and undoubted title to the crown of Great Britain and Ireland.

We therefore the lords justices and council, for preventing dangers that may arise atthis juncture from papists, or other persons disaffected to his Majesty’s government, andfor preserving the public peace of this kingdom, do hereby strictly charge command andrequire all justices of the peace … within their several jurisdictions to search for, take andseize all arms, armour and ammunition of what kind so ever which shall be found in thepossession of any papist, reputed papist, or other person suspected to be disaffected to hisMajesty’s government, or in the possession of any other person or persons in trust for anypapist … and to return a true and particular account to the clerk of the council of sucharms as they shall seize pursuant to this proclamation, with the names of the persons inwhose custody or power they shall find arms, armour and ammunition. And if any papistor papists, or other suspected person or persons shall presume to carry or keep arms,armour or ammunition … we do hereby will and require all justices of the peace toproceed against such offender and offenders, and to put the laws in due and strictexecution.

And for the better encouragement of such well affected persons who shall discoverand convict any papist or papists that keep or carry arms contrary to the late act ofparliament made in this kingdom for disarming papists, we hereby declare that every such

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person that shall discover and convict any papist that keeps or carries arms contrary to thesaid act, shall have one moiety [a half] of the fine or forfeiture as is by the said actappointed …

And we further charge, command and require all justices of the peace … within theirseveral jurisdictions, to seize and take all serviceable horses, geldings and mares, thatshall be found in the possession of any papist, reputed papist, or suspected person ….

And we hereby further charge and command and require all justices of the peace …strictly to put in execution all laws and statutes whatsoever, now in force within hisMajesty’s kingdom of Ireland, against such persons as have refused, or shall refuse totake the Oaths required by law

Given at the Council-chamber in his Majesty’s Castle of Dublin, the twenty ninth day of July, 1715.

Analysis Questions

What specific intelligence prompted this proclamation?

What orders does the government give to the local justices of the peace in relationto the enforcement of the penal laws?

What incentive is offered to those prepared to inform upon Catholics who hadviolated penal legislation?

Which oaths do you think the justices were asked to enforce?

Does this document provide an insight into the underlying concerns that provokedIrish Protestants to enforce the popery laws?

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Opponents

Document 3

*Cornelius Nary, The Case of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland humbly represented toboth houses of Parliament (Dublin 1724), pp 124-25.

*Cornelius Nary, parish priest of St. Michan’s, Dublin, penned one of the mostcoherent and effective printed protests made by Catholics against the penal laws. In thetract Nary gives an account of the sense of grievance felt by Catholics over theincomplete ratification of the articles of the *Treaty of Limerick. He also argues thatCatholics had strongly adhered to the principle of loyalty to a legitimate English monarch(James II) during the Williamite wars and that the imposition upon them of a requirementto take various doctrinal oaths was unjust.

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Let us suffice to say that by laws since made, all and every Roman Catholick [sic] ofthe kingdom (except a few lords and three or four colonels of the troop that were actuallyin Limerick and Galway at the time they surrendered [1691]) are disabled under severepenalties, to carry arms offensive or defensive of their own, or the defence of their housesand goods, other than pitch forks, or such instruments as the peasants till the earth with;Nay many gentlemen, who formerly made a considerable figure in the kingdom are now adays, when they walk with canes or sticks only in their hands, insulted by men armedwith swords and pistols, who of late rose from the very dregs of the people. ServiDominati Sunt nobis! [Slaves rule over us!]

All Roman Catholick lawyers, attorneys and solicitors are disabled to practice theirrespective callings, except they take the *Oath of Abjuration, the *Oath of Supremacyand the [*Sacramental] Test, that is become Protestants. So that of about an hundredRoman Catholick lawyers and attorneys, that attended the courts in Dublin, and in thecountry, not one of them is allowed to get a morsel of bread by those studies upon whichthey spent their youth and time.

All the Roman Catholicks of the kingdom in general without any exception or savingare disabled to purchase any lands or tenements, to take mortgages for security of money:or even to taken any lease or farm exceeding the term of 31 years, and that at no less thantwo thirds of the improved rent. So that all encouragement for natural industry is takenaway from them, and are left under an impossibility of ever being other than slaves. Bythe same laws, their children tho’ never profligate or undutiful to their parents, upon theirbecoming Protestants, are encouraged to compel their parents to give them a maintenancesuch as the lord chancellor, for the time being should think fit. And all heirs apparent ofsuch parents upon their becoming Protestants, make their fathers tenants for life: So thatthe fathers may not provide for their other dutiful children, or other extraordinary

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exigencies of life. Now if this be not encouraging children to transgress God’s law, I ownI know not what is. And will not the great legislator of heaven require this at men’shands?

By another law, all the registered Roman Catholick priests of this kingdom arerequired to take the Oath of Abjuration by a certain day under the penalty of beingreputed regulars and punished as such. And all the laity, without exception to besummoned thereunto and upon their refusal [to the take the oath of abjuration] the thirdtime, to be guilty of a *premunire which is forfeiture and confiscation of all their real andpersonal estate, and perpetual life imprisonment. Notwithstanding that they had hadstipulated by the articles of [the *Treaty of] Limerick, and had publick [sic] faith giventhem, that no other Oath, but that of *allegiance should be required of them which oaththey were always ready to take …

Analysis Questions

What are the main points made by Nary in relation to the effects to the penallaws? Is there a consistent argument running through the document?

According to Nary, who were the main victims of the popery laws?

Why does Nary believe that the laws encouraging the children of Catholics toconform were an affront to God?

In what way did the circumstances in which the document was written influenceits content?

Does Nary’s ability to have the Case of the Catholics of Ireland published suggestthat Catholics may have enjoyed a higher level of practical toleration than mighthave been expected?

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Document 4

A letter from the Right Hon. *Edmund Burke … to *Sir Hercules Langrishe on thesubject of Roman Catholics of Ireland, and the propriety of admitting them to the electivefranchise (London, 1792), pp 8, 44-45.

*Edmund Burke was the most articulate advocate of the cause of Irish Catholics ineighteenth century Britain. With numerous connections to Catholics in Munster, Burkeconsistently argued for the removal of Catholic disabilities. Burke’s published speechesand pamphlets offered the most stinging condemnation of the blind bigotry andindiscriminate violence which he associated with the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.This public letter to an Irish M.P. who had voiced his support for the repeal of the penallaws in early 1792 contains a classic Burkean statement on the despoiled and enslavedcondition of Irish Catholics.

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You, who have looked deeply into the spirit of the Popery laws, must be perfectlysensible, that a great part of the present mischief, which we abhor in common, has arisenfrom them. Their declared object was to reduce the Catholics of Ireland to a miserablepopulace, without property, without estimation, without education. The professed objectwas to deprive the few men who, in spite of those laws, might hold or obtain any propertyamongst them, of all sort of influence or authority over the rest. They divided nation intotwo distinct bodies, without common interest, sympathy or connexion, one of whichbodies was to possess all the franchises, all the property, all the education: The otherswere to be drawers of water and cutters of turf for them. Are we to be astonished thatwhen, by the offers of so much violence in conquest, and so much policy in regulation,continued without intermission for near an hundred years, we had reduced them to a mob,that whenever hey came to act at all, many of them would exactly like a mob, withouttemper, measure, or foresight? …

All the penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppression, which were made after1691 were manifestly the effects of national hatred and scorn towards a conqueredpeople; whom the victors delighted to trample upon, and were not at all afraid to provoke.They were not the effect of their fears but of their security. They who carried on thissystem, looked to the irresistible force of Great Britain for their support in their acts ofpower. They were quite certain that no complaints of the natives would be heard on thisside of the water, with any other sentiments than those of contempt and indignation. Theircries served only to augment their torture. Machines which would answer their purposesso well, must be of an excellent contrivance. Indeed at that time in England, the doublename of the complainants, Irish and Papists (it would be hard to say, which was the mostodious) shut up the hearts of every one against them. Whilst that temper prevailed, and itprevailed in all its force to a time within our memory, every measure was pleasing andpopular, just in proportion as it tended to harass and ruin a set of people, who were

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looked upon as enemies to God and man; and indeed as a race of bigoted savages whowere a disgrace to human nature itself.

Analysis Questions

According to Burke, how had the penal laws degraded Irish Catholics?

What reasons does he give for their enforcement? Is there a consistent argumentrunning through the piece?

‘Drawers of water and cutters of turf.’ To what extent does this comment offer anaccurate description of the condition of Irish Catholics in the eighteenth century?

What indications can be drawn from the document concerning Burke’s attitude tothe Protestant ascendancy in Ireland?

What does this document tell you about Burke’s point of view, background andinterests?

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Anglican Opinion

Document 5

A letter from Archbishop *William King to the Lord Lieutenant, the earl of Sunderland, 1January 1715 (Charles Mant, History of the Church of Ireland, ii, London, 1840, pp 212-13).

Despite being a senior cleric in the Church of Ireland and holding office as a LordJustice, Archbishop *William King of Dublin was an opponent of the imposition of legaldisabilities on Catholics. King viewed the laws as a dead letter as Catholicism had notbeen forced into retreat. As he put it:

By the act of against Popery, that hinders Papists to purchase lands [sic], they have turned themselvesentirely to trade; and most of the trade of the kingdom is engrossed by them; and by the covetousnessof the landlords they will get possession of the lands; and how the Protestants will secure themselves,or England secure Ireland when all the commonalty are all Papists is surely worth consideration …

His intention in this letter to the lord lieutenant was to call for more clarification in thelaws relating to Catholics. As far as King was concerned there were no real ‘penal laws’as Catholics were not forbidden to practice their religion. In the absence of anydetermined action from the authorities, the enforcement of the penal laws had beenmarked by equivocation and contradiction.

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I think it necessary to acquaint your Excellency with something relating to the RomanCatholicks [sic] of this kingdom, that seems to me to require a serious consideration.

By law they are allowed a priest in every parish, which are registered in pursuance ofan act of parliament made about ten years ago. All bishops, regulars, &c, and all otherpriests then not registered, are banished, and none [are] allowed to come to the kingdomunder severe penalties. The design, was that there should be no succession, and many ofthose then registered are since dead; yet, for want of a due execution of the laws, manyare come in from foreign parts; and there are in the country Popish bishops concealed,that ordain many. Little enquiry of late has been made into these matters.

But now it has pleased God to place his Majesty [George I] on the throne ‘twill benecessary to know what measures are intended to be taken with them, before any one willhere think of calling for a vigorous execution of the laws. For, if the design be effectuallyto execute them, a strict enquiry must be made to find out what registered priests aredead; whether any, and who, have come into their places; and all possible care taken todrive them out of the kingdom, as law requires. But if the same mild hand be designed tobe continued over them that they are under at present, it seems to be best to make nonoise about them: for inquires or orders tending that way, when no consequence follows,only make them ore secure and daring.

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I thought it necessary to apprise your Excellency of this as a matter, in my judgement,of great moment, and which only those that are in confidence of his Majesty’s intentionscan be judges. There is an expectation in the kingdom that something should be done,and, if do not begin from the fountain of power, or be not supported and prosecuted withresolution and steadiness from thence, instead of doing good I am afraid it will do a greatdeal of hurt, discourage the Protestants, and animate the Papists, as has frequentlyhappened formerly on proclamations against them, which came to be considered nootherwise than as copies of government’s countenance, and mere feints to amuse people.

And therefore I am humbly of opinion that this ought to be well considered andadjusted, that it may be gone through with if once begun.

Analysis Questions

Had the legislation restricting Catholic ecclesiastics been successful in King’sopinion?

Is it King’s view in this letter that Catholics should be subjected to the full rigourof penal legislation?

Why did King consider that previous attempts to enforce the penal laws were‘mere feints to amuse people’?

What does this document reveal about the willingness of the authorities toimplement penal legislation against Catholics?

Does King’s letter suggest that Protestants lacked a clear purpose in dealing withthe persistent problem of Catholicism in the kingdom?

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Visual

Document 6

A cartoon, ‘Mass in the mountains. A picture of the penal days,’ by *John Fergus O’Hea (Young Ireland, December 1890).

This cartoon was issued as a supplement to the nationalist newspaper, Young Ireland,in the late nineteenth century. Cartoon supplements usually commented on acontemporary political event but, occasionally, they highlighted the historical grievancesof Irish Catholics. Artists like *John Fergus O’Hea invariably saw a link between thegovernment-sponsored coercion of his own times and the sectarian-based discriminationof the penal era. Drawn to further political goals, these non-contemporary and entirelyimaginary images were simply an extension of the verbal propaganda employed bynationalists.

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Analysis Questions

What is happening in the cartoon?

What can be inferred from the posture and actions of the persons depicted?

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What messages does O’Hea seek to convey in this cartoon? Do you think hesuccessfully conveys the desired messages?

What does this cartoon say about the difficulties faced by Catholics practicingtheir religion in the eighteenth century?

How accurate is O’Hea’s cartoon?

What does O’Hea’s illustration reveal about Irish nationalist self-image in the latenineteenth century? What judgement is O’Hea making about the role of the penallaws in the sectarian version of English colonialism in Ireland?

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Document 7

A line drawing of Arles Chapel, County Laois, 1795 (Francis Grose, Antiquities ofIreland, ii, London, 1795), p. 160.

The Catholic Church endured a difficult existence throughout the eighteenth century.It was not until 1782 that Irish Catholics obtained freedom of worship and the right toattend services conducted by their clergy. The majority of Protestants regarded popery asa religion founded ‘on superstition, bigotry and usurpation.’ In response to problemsposed by penal legislation, Irish Catholicism developed an intimate spiritual life centeredon the frequently decrepit but often surprisingly visible local chapel. This drawing ofArles Chapel in County Laois, which dated to the late seventeenth century, illustrates thepublic face of Catholicism in Ireland during the penal era. Built in the form of a cross, ithad a thatched roof and lacked any outward display of lavishness.

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Analysis Questions

What does the drawing reveal about the state of the physical fabric of the IrishCatholic church in the eighteenth century?

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Is there anything interesting or surprising about the church as it is depicted in thisdrawing?

To what extent could the existence of this chapel be attributed to the fact that localprotestants were prepared to ‘turn a blind eye’ to the practice of Catholicism?

Compare the drawing of the chapel in Arles, County Laois with the entirelyimaginary depiction of Catholic worship by John Fergus O’Hea in document 6.Are the sources conflicting or complimentary in their views of the experiences ofIrish Catholics in the penal era?

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3. Ancillary Information

Key Terms

Gavelkind

Set out in section 10 of the Act to prevent the further growth of popery (1704), gavelkindspecified that so far as non-conforming Catholics were concerned, the common law ruleof inheritance by primogeniture would be replaced by a kind of partible inheritance.When a Catholic held land in fee simple and had not disposed of it during his lifetime, the1704 act introduced a rule of fragmentation whereby the land would be equally dividedbetween the sons of the deceased landholder.

Jacobitism

A political movement dedicated to support for the Stuart dynasty following theiroverthrown during the ‘Glorious’ revolution of 1688. James II and his son, James FrancisEdward, lived on the continent and relied on the backing of major Catholic powers tobring to fruition plans to recover the English and Irish thrones. The major seat ofJacobitism was in Scotland where a rising occurred in 1715. In the summer of 1745 thelanding of Charles Edward Stuart (‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’) percpiated the most seriousthreat the Protestant succession established at the revolution, but Stuart’s army wascrushed at the Battle of Culloden. The support of many Catholics for the restoration of theStuarts convinced the majority of Irish Protestants that the penal laws were necessary fora defence of their liberties and to secure their interests in the face of implacable anddangerous foe. After the catastrophic defeat suffered at Culloden, however, Jacobitism, asmilitary and political force, suffered an irreversible decline.

Oath of Abjuration

The oath, which was part of the 1704 Act to prevent the further growth of poperydeclared Queen Anne to be the rightful ruler of England and Ireland and denied the title toJames II’s heirs. On James II’s death, both the Pope and the French king, Louis XIV, hadrecognized his son as the legitimate king of England. The oath was strictly imposed uponall office holders, teachers, lawyers and clerics of the established church in Ireland. Theoath was also required to be taken by Catholic priests registered under the 1704 act. Therefusal of all but a few priests to comply with this order left the clergy open to the chargethat they were disloyal to the English connection and were hostile to the Protestantsuccession.

Oath of Allegiance

Required the person taking the oath to make a simple, non-doctrinal statement of loyaltyto the monarch.

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Oath of Supremacy

Required the person taking the oath to recognize the monarch as the supreme governor onearth of the Church in Ireland and renounce all foreign (usually papal) jurisdictions. Theoath was required of all holders of civil, military and church offices. The oath was usedduring the penal era as means of excluding Catholics from crown and municipal offices.

Premunire

The crime of attempting to introduce the rule of a foreign prince (particularly the pope)into England or Ireland. The penalties included forfeiture of goods and lands or lifeimprisonment.

Sacramental Test

A clause in the Act to prevent the further growth of popery (1704) laid down arequirement that all crown and municipal office holders should qualify themselves bytaking communion in the established church. Part of a determined effort on behalf of theAnglican elite to secure patronage and power, the test severely damaged the Presbyterianand Protestant Dissenter interests in Ireland. All attempts to remove the test failed until1780 when it was finally repealed.

Treaty of Limerick (3 October 1691)

The treaty, which formerly ended the Williamite War, was signed after the fall of the lastJacobite stronghold in Ireland. Catholics in Limerick were given assurances regardingtheir estates and guaranteed the right to practice a trade provided they stayed in Irelandand gave an oath of loyalty to King William. Those who decided to leave for Francewere liable to have their lands confiscated. Catholic noblemen were also allowed to carryarms. In general Catholics were led to believe that the treaty had granted them fullreligious toleration. The Protestant members of the Irish parliament, however, thoughtthat the terms of the treaty were far too lenient and fought a bitter campaign to resist itsratification. The act of parliament which finally confirmed the treaty did not make anymention of religious toleration whilst the clause stipulating that Catholics would have totake nothing more than a non-doctrinal oath of allegiance was also absent. The penallaws, passed from 1695 onwards, were regarded by Catholics as a breach of the religiousand civil articles of the treaty, which admittedly were rather vague. Controversy aboutthe incomplete ratification of the treaty raged throughout the eighteenth century andcontinued long after the prospect of a Jacobite restoration had receded.

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Key Characters

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Edmund Burke (1729-97)

The son of a Dublin attorney who appears to have conformed to Protestantism to practicelaw and a Catholic mother, Burke was partially educated in a County Cork hedge school.He later went to T.C.D. and studied law in London. In 1763 he wrote but left unpublishedTracts on the Popery laws. He was elected an M.P. in 1765 and soon emerged asadvocate of a general economic reform and championed free trade for the colonies. Hecalled for an early end to hostilities in the American War of Independence. He wasinstrumental in advising successive English administrations on the appropriateness ofCatholic relief measures. Burke provide some of the most eloquent defences of Catholicloyalty in the eighteenth century and denigrated Irish Protestants who sought to the retainthe penal laws. In the 1790s Burke became a staunch defender of the ancient constitutionof kings, lords and commons and earnestly pleaded with Irish Catholics to find anaccommodation within the British state which did not undermine the existing order. ForBurke, a violent revolution in Ireland could only be avoided if there was a progressiverepeal of the penal laws.

William King (1650-1729)Archbishop of Dublin (1703-29)

A scholarly theologian and bishop, King was the son of a Presbyterian settler fromCounty Antrim. Having been ordained in the Church of Ireland, however, he became astaunch opponent of Presbyterians. In 1674 he was appointed Dean of St. Patrick’s,Dublin. Having elected to remain in Dublin, he was imprisoned for two years during theWilliamite War. In 1691 he published The state of the Protestants of Ireland underJames’ government which attempted to justify the withdrawal of allegiance from Jamesby Irish Protestants. On his release he was appointed bishop of Derry. In 1703 he becamearchbishop of Dublin. He was prominent in the House of Lords where he resisted thepenal laws which he argued abrogated the articles of the Treaty of Limerick. A consistentadvocate of reform, King encouraged the teaching of Irish in T.C.D. and issued numerouspolitical, theological and scientific tracts. On four occasions he served with other LordJustices deputizing for the Lord Lieutenant. He was a committed defender of Irishnational interests and opposed both the Declaratory Act and Wood’s halfpence. He alsoenjoyed the friendship of such patriot luminaries as William Molyneux and JonathanSwift.

Sir Hercules Langrishe (1729-1811)

An independent man of business who was an M.P. for a family-controlled borough inCounty Kilkenny, Langrishe was a friend and correspondent of Edmund Burke. He hadvoted for Catholic relief in 1774 and 1778 and, with Burke’s support, introduced therelief bill of 1792 which allowed Catholics to practice law.

Cornelius Nary (1660-1720)

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One of the most prominent Catholic figures in the first three decades of the eighteenthcentury, Nary was born in County Kildare and studied in the Irish College in Paris. Hewas ordained in 1682 and was appointed in about 1697 parish priest of St. Michan’s,Dublin. A controversialist by nature, he was involved in long-running theological disputewith the archbishop of Tuam, Edward Synge. He published his Case of the Catholics ofIreland in response to a popery bill which was being debated by the Irish parliament. Helater endured a short term of imprisonment in Dublin Castle. The historian, W.E.H.Lecky, called Nary ‘the ablest priest living in Ireland’ during the early penal era.

John Fergus O’Hea (c.1838-1921)

A skilled Cork-born comic-artist, O’Hea began his career as a mural and banner painterfor local tradesmen in his native city. His father was active in the nationalist YoungIreland movement and this may have sparked his interest in militant politics. He was acontributor to the Young Irelander’s newspaper, The Nation, and by the early 1880s hewas regularly supplying vivid colour supplements to the Weekly Freeman, Young Irelandand Shamrock journals. O’Hea’s works offer a striking example of the effectiveness ofnationalist visual propaganda. Some of his illustrations showed Parnell and othermembers of the Home Rule movement in heroic guise whilst others depicted the‘imagined community’ of the Gaelic nation.

James Francis Edward Stuart ‘James III’ (1688-1766)

The ‘old pretender, ’ as he was called, was the son of James II and was recognised by thePope and some sympathetic Catholic monarchs as the legitimate ruler or England. Livingin exile in France for most of his life, he became the focus of loyalty for the Jacobitecause espoused by many native and exiled Irish Catholics.

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Chronology of the Penal Laws

7 Will III c.5 (1695)

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An Act for the better securing of government, by disarming papists

Sec. 1. All papists within this kingdom of Ireland shall before the 1st day of March, 1696,deliver up to some justice of the peace or corporation officer where such papist shalldwell, all their arms and ammunition, notwithstanding any license for keeping the sameheretofore granted …

Sec. 10. No papist shall be capable of having or keeping for his use, any horse, gelding ormare of five pounds value. Any protestant who shall make discovery under oath of suchhorse, shall be authorized with the assistance of a constable, to search for and secure suchhorse and in case of resistance to break down any door …

7 Will III c.14 (1695)

An Act declaring which days in the year shall be observed as holy-days

Sec. 1. Whereas many idle persons refuse to work at their lawful calling on several daysin the year, on pretence that the same is dedicated to some saint, or pretended saint, forwhom they have or pretend to have reverence, and chuse [sic] to spend such days inidleness, drunkenness, and vice, to the scandal of religion, no other day except those dayslisted herein, or some other day set apart by order of his Majesty, shall be kept holy. Anycommon labourer or servant who shall refuse to work for the usual and accustomedwages on any other day, shall forfeit two shillings on conviction. If such offender fail topay the fine, he shall be publickly [sic] whipped

9 Will III c.1 (1697)

An Act for banishing all papists exercising any ecclesiastical jurisdiction and all regularsof the popish clergy ...

Sec. 1. Whereas it is notoriously known, that the late rebellions in this kingdom havebeen promoted by popish bishops and other ecclesiastical persons of the popishreligion ... all popish archbishops, bishops, vicars-general, deans, jesuits, monks, friars,and all other regular popish clergy shall depart out of this kingdom before the 1st day ofMay, 1698, and if any of said ecclesiastical persons shall after that day be in thiskingdom, they shall suffer imprisonment, and remain in prison until transported out of hisMajesty’s dominions …

9 Will III c. 2 (1697)

An act for the confirmation of the articles [of the *treaty] … of Limerick

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Sec. 1-11. Confirms and explains the rights of inhabitants of Limerick and other garrisonsthat were in possession of the Irish on the 3 October 1691, when the treaty for thesurrender of Limerick was made, and all officers and soldiers then in arms in the countiesof Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, and Mayo, to enjoy the rights guaranteed by that treaty.

9 Will III c.3 (1697)

An Act to prevent Protestants intermarrying with Papists

Sec. 1. ... And such protestant woman so marrying, and the husband as she shall so marry,shall be incapable of being heir, executor or guardian to any protestant.

2 Ann c.6 (1703)

An Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery

2 Geo I c.10 (1715)

An Act to Restrain Papists from being High or Petty Constables ...

Sec. 2. Every person to be appointed high or petty constable shall first take the *oath ofabjuration and other oaths and declaration [against transubstantiation] required by the Actto prevent the further growth of popery.

1 Geo II c.9 (1727) An Act for the further regulating the Election of Members of Parliament; Sec. 7. No papist, though not convicted as such, shall be entitled to vote at the election ofany member to serve in parliament, or at the election of any magistrate for any city orother town corporate.

1 Geo II c. 20 (1727)

An act for regulating the admissions of barristers at law …

Sec. 1. Every person who shall apply to be called to the bar, or be admitted as an attorney,or practice as a solicitor, or act as an officer of the court, shall first take and subscribe the*oaths of allegiance and abjuration and the declaration [against transubstantiation.

7 Geo II c.6 (1733)

An Act to prevent Persons converted from the Popish to the Protestant Religion ... fromacting as Justices of the Peace.

Sec. 1. No convert from the popish to the protestant religion shall be capable of acting as

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a justice of the peace if his wife is papist, or if he causes his children under the age of 16years to be educated in the popish religion ....

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Topic Questions

Do the sources reveal that the penal laws were enforced to persecute IrishCatholics solely on account of their religious beliefs?

Do you agree with the assertion that it was the purpose of the penal laws toforcibly suppress Catholics in order to secure conformity?

Why did Irish Protestants conclude that it was both legitimate and necessary fortheir security to exclude Catholics from exercising political rights?

What reasons did the opponents of penal legislation give for asserting that theimposition of legal disabilities upon Catholics was counterproductive?

Do the documents suggest that the penal laws offered the basis for a consistentand effective policy of dealing with Catholicism in a Protestant kingdom?

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Conclusion

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It is obvious that, whatever questions may arise about the purposes of the penal or poperylaws, they did not lead to the total suppression of Catholicism, nor did they secure thewholesale conversion of the population, nor did they succeed in restricting Catholicaccess to wealth. That the penal laws did not have the impact on Irish society that hasfrequently been claimed by polemical or nationalist histories does not mean that Catholicsdid not consider religious discrimination a grievance in the eighteenth century. Therewere occasional campaigns to enforce the full rigor of the laws and the variousinducements offered to entice conformity were undoubtedly sources of resentment. Itmust also be kept in mind that penal legislation ultimately formed a cornerstone for themaintenance of a Protestant monopoly on power from the 1690s onwards. However, thesecondary sources and primary documents selected for the topic allows the reader to maketheir own judgment on the purposes and effects of discriminatory laws against Catholicsin the eighteenth century.

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