PLUNKET
170
PLUNKET
very soon it had one-hundred-and-fifty boys on the and accordingly his trial was transferred to London,
roll, of whom no fewer than forty were sons of the In fact, the Shaftesbury Conspiracy against the Cath-
Protestant gentry. He held frequent ordinations,
celebrated two Provincial Synods, and was untiring in
rooting out abuses and promoting piety.
One incident of his episcopate merits special men- tion: There was a considerable number of so-called Tories scattered through the province of Ulster, most of whom had been despoiled of their property under the Act of Settlement. They banded themselves to- gether in the shelter of the mountain fastnesses and, as outlaws, lived by the plunder of those around them
olics in England could not be sustained without the
supposition that a rebellion was being organized in
Ireland. The primate would, of course, be at the
head of such a rebellion. His visits to the Tories of
Ulster were now set forth as part and parcel of such a
rebellion. A French or Spanish fleet was chartered
by him to land an army at Carhngford Bay, and other
such accusations were laid to his charge. But there
was no secret as to the fact that his being a Catholic
bishop was his real crime. Lord Brougham in "Lives
Anyone who sheltered them incurred the penalty of of the Chief Justices of England" brands Chief Jus-
death from the Government, anyone who refused them tice Pemberton, who presided at the trial of Dr. Plun-
sueh shelter met with death at their hands. Dr. ket, as betraying the cause of justice and bringing
Plunket, with the sanction of the Lord Lieutenant, disgrace on the English Bar. This Chief Justice set
went in search of them, not without great risk, and forth from the bench that there could be no greater
reasoning with them in a kind and paternal manner crime than to endeavour to propagate the Catholic
induced them to renounce their career of plundering. Faith, "than which (he declared) there is not any-
He moreover obtained pardons
for them so that they were able
to transfer themselves to other
countries, and thus peace was
restored throughout the whole
province. The contemporary
Archbishop of Cashel, Dr. Bren-
nan, who was the constant com-
panion of Dr. Plunket, in a
few words sketches the fruitful
zeal of the primate: "During
the twelve years of his residence
here he proved himself vigil-
ant, zealous, and indefatigable,
nor do we find, within the mem-
ory of those of the present cen-
tury, that any primate or met-
ropolitan visited his diocese
and province with such solici-
tude and pastoral zeal as he
did, — benefitting, as far as was
in his power, the needy; where-
fore he was applauded and hon-
oured by both clergy and peo-
ple."
The storm of persecution burst with renewed fury on the Irish Church in 1673; the schools were scattered, the chapels were closed. Dr. Plunket, however, would not forsake his flock. His palace thenceforward was some thatched hut in a remote part of his diocese. As a rule, in company with the Archbishop of Cashel, he lay concealed in the woods or on the mountains, and with such scanty shelter that through the roof they could at night count the stars of the sky. He tells their hardships in one of his letters: "The snow fell heavily, mixed with hailstones, which were very hard and large. A cutting north wind blew in our faces, and the snow and hail beat so dreadfully in our eyes that up to the present we have scarcely been able to see with them. Often we were in danger in the valleys of being lost and suffocated in the snow, till at length we arrived at the hou.se of a reduced gentleman who had nothing to lose. But, for our misfortune, he had a stranger in his house by whom we did not wish to be recognized, hence we were placed in a garret without chimney, and without fire, where we have been for the past eight days. May it redound to the glory of God, the salvation of our souls, and of the flock entrusted to our charge."
Writs for the arrest of Dr. Plunket were repeatedly issued by the Government. At length he was seized and cast into prison in Dublin Castle, 6 Dec, 1679, and a whole host of perjured informers were at hand to swear his life away. In Ireland the character of those witnesses was well known and no jury would listen to their perjured tales, but in London it was not so,
thing more displeasing to God
or more pernicious to mankind
i n the world. " Sent ence of death
was pronounced as a matter of
course, to which the primate
replied in a joyous and emphatic
voice : " Deo Gratias ".
On Friday, 11 July (old style the 1st), 1681, Dr. Plunket, surrounded by a numerous guard of military, was led to Tyburn for execution. Vast crowds assembled along the route and at Tyburn. As Dr. Brennan, Archbishop of Cashel, in an official letter to Propa- ganda, attests, all were edified and filled with admiration, "be- cause he displayed such a se- renity of countenance, such a tranquillity of mind and eleva- tion of soul, that he seemed rather a spouse hastening to the nuptial feast, than a culprit led forth to the scaffold". From the scaffold he delivered a dis- course worthy of an apostle and ons) taken during mart jT. An eye-witness of ■B"'" the execution declared that by
his discourse and by his heroism in death he gave more glory to religion than he could have won for it by many years of a fruitful apost olate. His remains were gathered with loving care and interred apart in St. Giles' church- yard. In the first months of 1684 they were transferred to the Benedictine monastery at Lambspring in Ger- many, whence after 200 years they were with due veneration translated and enshrined in St. Gregory's College, Downside, England. The head, in excellent preservation, was from the first enshrined apart, and since 1722 has been in the care of the Dominican Nuns at their Siena Convent at Drogheda, Ireland. Pil- grims come from all parts of Ireland and from distant countries to venerate this relic of the glorious martyr, and many miracles are recorded.
The name of Archbishop Plunket appears on the list of the 264 heroic servants of God who shed their blood for the Catholic Faith in England in the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries, which was officially submitted for approval to the Holy See, and for which the Decree was signed by Leo XIII 9 Dec, 1886, au- thorizing their Cause of Beatification to be submitted to the Congregation of Rites. The Venerable Oliver Plunket's martyrdom closed the long series of deaths for the Faith, at Tyburn. The very next day after his execution, the bubble of conspiracy burst. Lord Shaftesbury, the chief instigator of the persecution, was consigned to the Tower, and his chief perjured witness Titus Gates was thrown into gaol. For a few
