Note 522 — Chapter XVIII · ON THE CONSTITUTION OF IRELAND

Leland, 414, etc. In a letter from six catholic lords of the pale to the king in 1613, published in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, i. 158, they complain of the oath of supremacy, which, they say, had not been much imposed under the queen, but was now for the first time enforced in the remote parts of the country; so that the most sufficient gentry were excluded from magistracy, and meaner persons, if conformable, put instead. It is said on the other side, that the laws against recusants were very little enforced, from the difficulty of getting juries to present them. Id. 359. Carte's Ormond, 33. But this at least shows that there was some disposition to molest the catholics on the part of the government; and it is admitted that they were excluded from offices, and even from practising at the bar, on account of the oath of supremacy. Id. 320; and compare the letter of six catholic lords with the answer of lord deputy and council in the same volume.