The Penal Code

Above: Penal Code

The Irish Catholics were now crushed and dispirited ; they were quite helpless, for their best men had gone to France; and all hope of resistance was at an end. They had, however, obtained tolerable con- ditions in the Treaty of Limerick; but here they were doomed to a bitter disappointment. The English parliament were not satisfied with the treaty, and in its most important provisions refused to carry it out. This greatly displeased king William, who would have faithfully adhered to the pledges, on the faith of which the Irish had surrendered Limerick.

The government, of Ireland was now completely in the hands of the small Protestant minority, who also possessed almost the whole of the land of the country; and they held nearly all the offices of trust or emolu- ment. This ” Protestant Ascendancy,” as it is called, was confirmed by the penal legislation, now to be described.

It will be convenient to bring the leading enactments of the whole penal code into this chapter, though it will oblige us to run in advance a little in point of time. In 1695 the English parliament, going over the head of the Irish parliament, passed an act setting aside the oath of supremacy, but substituting something much worse: Every member of parliament, bishop, holder of any government office, lawyer and doctor, had to take an oath of allegiance (which was unobjec- tionable) and also an oath of ” Abjuration “-abjuring the Catholic religion : which of course would exclude Catholics from all these positions.

In the same year lord Capel was appointed lord deputy; he summoned a parliament which met in Dublin on the 27th August. This parliament completed what the English parliament had begun. In violation of the Treaty of Limerick, they passed a series of penal acts in the two sessions of 1695 and 1697. The principal items of this code are the following :-
Education. No Catholic was to teach school or teach scholars in private houses; no Catholic to send his child abroad to be’ educated. Penalty : forfeiture of all goods, and inehgibihty to fill any office, such as guardian or executor, or to accept any legacy. These measures altogether deprived Catholics-as such-of education.

Arms and property. All Catholics were to deliver up their arms: magistrates might break open the houses of Catholics and search for arms. But gentle- men having the benefit of the Treaty of Limerick might keep a sword, a case of pistols, and a fowling-piece. No maker of arms could take a Catholic apprentice.