Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

Soon after the publication of his work, M. Laemmer was invited to the University of Berlin by his kind friend Lehnerdt, who had never lost sight of his promising pupil, and now wished him to prepare himself for a professor's chair by a solid course of theologico-historical studies. On arriving at Berlin the youthful doctor of philosophy was appointed to hold for two years the Evangelical Centenary Burse, founded by the city of Berlin in commemoration of the three hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. After his conversion many persons demanded that he should make restitution to the burse fund, which, according to them, he had employed against the intentions of the founders.

"But (asks Mr. Laemmer), for what reasons was I chosen in
preference to the other candidates? I contented myself with
presenting my memoir on the Alexandrine Clement's doctrine on
the Word; the examiners of the Leipsic faculty of philosophy
testified that I had successfully passed the examination:
the faculty of theology of the same city said, amongst other
flattering things, that I had applied myself to the studies of
theology with equal ardour and success. As to the two memoirs
presented for the concursus of 1853 and 1854, it was said that in
them I had given proof of solid classical studies, of a remarkable
knowledge of theology, of sound judgment, and penetrating mind,
and that my work on the Word showed great aptitude for historical
investigations. These were beyond doubt the reasons why the
committee preferred me to the other candidates; and the sole
condition imposed upon me--namely, that of becoming a licentiate,
I complied with within the appointed time. Why then all this
outcry? Why these demands for restitution, with which even a
Hengstenberg has been associated? Herein consists the head and
front of my offending, that the use of private judgment, or, to
speak accurately, the secret inspirations of God's grace, led me
to see the truth and to betake myself to the bosom of the true
Church. If, instead, I had become an unbeliever, the slightest
murmur of complaint would not have been heard; but when there
is question of Catholicism, pietism the most honeyed often makes
common cause with the grossest infidelity: the great point then
is to form a compact body against the mighty foe" (p. 105, 106).

We cannot linger over the account given by M. Laemmer of the different tendencies he found in the theological faculty of Berlin, nor on the present state or future prospects of the Union.[15] But the name of Hengstenberg[16] is so well known to most Catholics that the description given of him by one who has known him so well, is sure to excite interest.

"The reputation which Hengstenberg had acquired by his numerous
works brought him frequently before my mind. The impression he
made on me when I saw him at Berlin, did not modify the notion I
had long formed of him. It is well known that he passed through
many phases of doctrine before he reached the point at which, for
some years, he has remained stationary. He left the University
full of the pietism of the day, and was immediately appointed
professor at Berlin, where, as professor and author, he bent all
his energies against the rationalistic criticism, the application
of which to the Holy Scriptures had produced such disastrous
consequences. It must be admitted that, in this respect,
he has brought back to better ways a certain number of his
contemporaries; that he has arrested the progress of extravagant
criticism; that in his works on the Pentateuch, the Psalms,
and the Messianic Prophecies, he has won for sound views the
consideration long refused them. But it was impossible that his
ablest scholars should not see the weak side of his hermeneutical
and theological principles; hence, many of them have abandoned
his method for one altogether different. His _Commentary on
the Apocalypse_ is assuredly his most characteristic work. To
comprehend his stand-point in this work, we must remember that he
composed it in 1848 and 1849. In it he frequently and unreservedly
favours the chiliastic tendencies of Irving.... He has endeavoured
to remove some of the Protestant prejudices against the Catholic
Church, such as Luther's blasphemy of the Roman Antichrist. He
admits (as Luther did, when under the influence of the Christian
idea) that Catholicism is in possession of the word of God, the
true sacraments, and the power of the keys. He is clearer and
more straightforward than his predecessor Bengel in the _Gnomon
Novi Testamenti_. But he halts in his march, laying himself open
to the charge of Catholic tendencies, and could but be silent
when reproached by Schenkel, who told him that Romanism was more
honourable than the vacillating and intermediate position he had
assumed. He resembles Stehl, Kliefoth, and others, who would
wish to place in the same setting the jewels of Catholicism
and those of Wittemberg; who rank together the theory _nothing
but the Bible_, and the principle of authority; who are but half
acquainted with Luther, and almost ignorant of Rome; who, in spite
of their pretended adhesion to principle, would be disposed to
all kinds of compromises; who lack the courage and the humility
requisite to comprehend that the fragments of truth possessed
by Luther have been borrowed from the immense and indivisible
treasure of the Church. The Church has nothing to hope from
men of this class; they lack a thorough and absolute thirst for
truth; they are self-complacent; they imagine themselves to have
received from heaven an extraordinary mission like the prophets;
they assume the right to dictate to the infallible authority of
the Church; to satisfy them, we must become syncretists, and ask
them in what is it their pleasure that the Catholic Church should
modify in its doctrines, its ceremonies, and its discipline; men
of fine phrases, and not of action; more of show than of reality"
(p. 117).

During his residence at Berlin, M. Laemmer entered upon a careful preparation for the degree of doctor of divinity. He devoted himself more and more to the study of the Fathers; the works of St. Hilary of Poitiers on the Trinity left him an humble and firm believer in that august mystery. In 1856 his mind received a fresh and more decided impulse in the direction of the Church. In that year the Berlin faculty of theology gave as the subject of the concursus, _Give an exposition (from the documents) of the Roman Catholic doctrine, contained in the memorial presented to Charles V. at the Diet of Augsburg, in as far as it appears to throw light on the true Evangelical doctrine set forth in the Augsburg Confession._ This subject was chosen for the concursus by Lehnerdt, who felt that Catholic theology, from the beginning of the Reformation to the Council of Trent, was almost entirely unknown. M. Laemmer having resolved to become one of the competitors, at once set about the necessary study. He first examined the Protestant confessional books, in order to fix the points at issue between them and their adversaries. If he were to trust these authorities, nothing could be clearer than the stupid ignorance of the Catholics, and the wisdom of the Protestants. But the declamation with which this was urged appeared to him to be the language of passion. He determined to learn from their own writings the character of the Catholic theologians so soundly abused by their opponents. He first examined the _Official refutation of the Augsburg Confession_, the joint work of the flower of the Catholic theologians, Eck, Faber, Wimpina, etc.; next he came to the various works published by them, before and after 1530, against the various successive developements of Protestantism; then came the German theology of Berthold Chiemsie; the Confession of Cardinal Hosius; Erasmus; Tetzel; Henry VIII.; Fisher, Bishop of Rochester; Ambrosius Catharinus; the Sorbonne; Sadoletus; Contarini; the minutes of the conferences held at that epoch in Germany and Switzerland; the Pontifical instructions in Rainaldi and Leplat, and last, the acts of the Imperial Diet, as far as they touched on religious and ecclesiastical questions. In all, he had to study seventy Catholic works of the period.

"God knows", he tells us, "how I was moved as I read them,
and how violent were the struggles in which I was engaged. I
endeavoured to resist the force of the arguments before me, but
I could not. I would not permit myself to call in question that
great axiom of Protestants, that the Reformation was right and
necessary. The humility required to correspond with the motions
of grace was wanting to me; scientific pride still insisted on its
pretended rights. I had only arrived so far as to understand that
the opinions pronounced by the reformers on their adversaries
were frequently partial, erroneous, and malevolent; that the
intellectual power of these latter was not so contemptible as
it had been represented; and finally, that their principles had
been frequently travestied at the pleasure of the fathers of
Protestantism" (p. 139).

Having completed his study of these sources, he arranged his materials in the following order: The first chapter treated of the Church, the Primacy, the Scripture, Tradition, the Councils; the second, of the state of innocence, of the fall, of original sin and its consequences; the third, of free-will and grace; the fourth, of justification, of the fulfilment of the law, and of the evangelical counsels; then came the sacraments _in genere et in specie_; finally, the saints and the worship due to them. The title of his manuscript was _De Theologia Romano-Catholica quae Reformatorum aetate viguit, ante-Tridentina_. The work was successful, and received high praise from the faculty of theology. It was said, however, that the author was too impartial--_nimis justus_--towards Catholicism. This qualification was added at the request of Hengstenberg, who did not like too well the favourable notice given of Catholic writers. And yet notwithstanding all this, Dr. Laemmer was still far from being a Catholic. He himself tells us that at most he had arrived at the position held by Leo. On the 3rd of August, 1856, he received the prize, and had the satisfaction of learning at the same time that his memoir was accepted as the dissertation required for the license. In a few days he passed the _rigorosum_, and in the same month made his public disputation, taking for the theme of his introductory discourse St. Bernard's work, _De consideratione_. He received his license, and immediately left Berlin for the country to recruit his shattered health. In the country he preached frequently, wrote an analysis of G. Voigt's _Pius II. and his age_, and a dissertation on the doctrine of justification, held by the Catholic theologian, Contarini, in which he now admits he was mistaken as to his estimate of the sentiments of that divine. Returning to Berlin with renewed health, he was appointed to give religious instruction, and to teach Hebrew in the Frederic Gymnasium. It must have been a difficult task for one perplexed in mind as M. Laemmer was, to undertake the religious instruction of a body of young men at the very doors of the University of Berlin. Among his youthful hearers he found open infidelity, rationalism, the doctrines of Schleiermacher, Pietism, confessionalism, in one word, each class was a miniature copy of the Protestant world around. But he did not swerve from the path of duty. He boldly set before them, as the central truth of religion, the Man-God dying on the cross for the world. In vain did his hearers bring forward the pretended results of modern criticism, and natural explanations of supernatural facts; M. Laemmer insisted with energy upon the credibility and the inspiration of S. Scriptures, and on the miracles and prophecies narrated in them. He also made it his duty to lead his charge to love and practise prayer. In spite of their resistance he obliged even the higher classes to recite the Decalogue and the Apostles' Creed; and he was consoled by seeing his firmness rewarded by the happiest results. At Easter, 1857, he passed his examination for the doctor's degree, having chosen for the subject of his theme Pope Nicholas I. and the Court of Byzantium. Again he was successful: Lehnerdt, to whom he had dedicated his thesis, observed to him with great gentleness that he was not far from Hurter's idea of the Papacy. And in truth this last labour had brought him much nearer to the Church by reason of the brilliant light it cast on the character and office of the Papacy in Christianity. In 1857 he found time to publish a new edition of St. Anselm's _Cur Deus homo_, and to write a paper on the conversion of Herman of Kappenburg. In June 1858 he revised for the press his treatise on the ante-Tridentine theology. In preparing the revision he made a study of modern Catholic works on history, dogma, moral and canon law. He became familiar with the Roman Breviary, to which his attention had been called by the attempt made by a Protestant minister to form a Lutheran Breviary. He also read and admired Cardinal Wiseman's _Fabiola_.

"I now understood the _Memorare_ and the _Sub tuum_; I began
to recite the _Ave Maria_, to salute together with the angel
the Mother of my God, to seek her compassion, that she might
obtain for me grace to be completely enlightened, and to enter
into the Saviour's one fold. The sting of doubt tormented me
unceasingly; on my knees, before my crucifix in my lonely chamber,
I experienced the most painful struggles. As I had ever preserved
such fragments of Christian truth as the Reformers had spared,
and as for many long years I had occupied myself with the solution
of the leading questions in philosophy and theology, it appeared
to me very hard to submit my reason to the yoke of faith. But
prayer removed all these obstacles, and when soon after I came
to knock at the door of the Church, I found it easy to assent
to all the truths that were proposed to my belief" (p. 163).

With many other Protestants, he assisted at the exercises of a mission given at Berlin by the Jesuit Fathers, and reaped therefrom much benefit. In July, 1858, he received permission from the minister of worship to explore the libraries of Germany and northern Italy, to collect such manuscripts of Eusebius as might be found, with a view to a new revision of the text of that historian. He visited Leipsic, Dresden, Vienna, Venice, Padua, Milan, and Munich. At Dresden, Wolfgang de Goethe took him to be a Catholic priest. At Venice he met with F. Ignazio Mozzoni, of the order of St. John of God, author of a remarkable history of the Church, and was edified by the piety and the literary activity of the Mechitarists. The intercourse he had with Catholic ecclesiastics, and the sight of Catholic ceremonies and rites, were of signal service to him by removing unfavourable impressions. Among other details he tells us:

"I shall never forget a certain Irish Dominican, the very type of
a perfect religious, who aroused in me profound emotions by the
account he gave me of the sad condition of his fellow-countrymen,
crushed by English rule" (p. 191).

His scientific mission was finished at Munich, whither he returned from his long journey still a Protestant. But the end was at hand, and we must allow him to describe it in his own words:

"After leaving Munich, I continued for some weeks to suffer
great anguish of mind. At length the decisive hour came, and
the sun of grace had completed the work of my enlightenment. I
decided to become a Catholic on the 14th of October, 1858, the
feast of St. Theresa, whose powerful intercession strengthened
my weakness. I communicated my resolutions to the minister
of worship and to the faculty of theology of Berlin, and I
requested my bishop--the Bishop of Ermland--to receive me into
the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church, in which, after long
and painful struggles, I had at length recognized the depositary
of the truth, and the legitimate spouse of the Son of God: thus
would my heart be at peace. 'Glory and praise', said my letter,
'to our Lord Jesus Christ, who has enabled me to surmount all
obstacles, who has graciously heard my prayers, who has had pity
on me, who has broken my chains, who has scattered the darkness
that hung over me, who has shown me the path to the fold. Since
conscientious investigations have proved to me that the so-called
Reformation of the sixteenth century has but disfigured the type
of the true Church of Jesus Christ, and that its principles,
far from being salutary, are essentially destructive and the
necessary cause of the effects which history has registered
during three centuries--that the Protestant confessions and their
apologists, instead of attacking the Church's genuine teaching,
do but distort it to insure an easy victory; since I am convinced
that the Reformers had neither the duty nor the right to attempt
a reform apart from and against the head of the Church and the
episcopate; that the religious divisions of our age are caused
by the refusal to submit to the Church and return to the centre
whence we departed in the sixteenth century; since the historical
development of the Church has been proved to me unbroken down to
the present day; since I have learned to justify and love her
doctrine, her morality, and her worship; from the day on which
the grace of God has permitted me to be convinced of these truths,
my return to the Catholic Church has become a matter of necessity,
and it is only by a public confession of my faith that I can hope
to regain tranquillity of conscience, that peace of the heart
which the world cannot give, nor yet, in spite of all its fraud
and anger, can ever take away'".

It is needless to add that the Bishop of Ermland acceded to this touching request. On St. Catherine's Day, during the jubilee of 1858, Dr. Laemmer made his profession of Catholic faith, and received the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. Towards the end of the same year he was admitted to the diocesan seminary of Ermland, where he received confirmation, tonsure, and holy orders. Soon after his ordination he was sent to Rome. Several valuable works on subjects of ecclesiastical history have since appeared from him, and much is still expected at his hands.[17] In the bosom of the Catholic Church, his doubts dispelled, his heart at peace, well indeed may he love to repeat with joy and gratitude--_Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo!_--(Ps. xxxii., 21).

TWO ILLUSTRIOUS GRAVES.

We are happy to be the first to announce to the Irish public the discovery of the exact spot wherein the remains of our great Irish chieftain, Hugh O'Neill, repose, side by side with those of Archbishop Matthews.

This privilege we owe to the great kindness of Rev. Dr. Moran, the distinguished Vice-Rector of the Irish College of St. Agatha, Rome, who has permitted us to anticipate the publication of the second part of the first volume of his _History of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin since the Reformation_, in which the event is described. Of the volume itself we shall soon have occasion to speak at some length. For the present it is enough to say, that like each of Dr. Moran's other works, it has the great merit of being a work for the times. His _Life of Archbishop Plunkett_, and his _History of the Irish Persecutions_, were valuable, no doubt, for the light they cast on an important epoch, and for the proof they afforded of our forefathers' constancy in the faith. Far more valuable, however, than these are Dr. Moran's _Essays on the Origin, Doctrines, and Antiquities of the Irish Church_, in which, with an extraordinary lucidity of reasoning and a singular amount of erudition, he answers all the arguments and refutes all the theories of modern Protestant writers and lecturers, who have undertaken the hopeless task of proving that the religion of the early church of our fathers was identical with that which had its origin in the corruption and cruelty of Henry VIII. and his daughter Elizabeth, and which, as far as it has extended, was introduced into Ireland by fire and sword and the most cruel penal laws. Any one who reads Dr. Moran's essays will admit that not only Whiteside and Napier, who have ventured to lecture on the ancient doctrines of the Irish Church, with which they were altogether unacquainted, but also some learned antiquarians who have treated of the same subject, were quite astray in their views, and had no solid arguments on which to ground their opinions.

Our first extract is taken from the life of the venerable Archbishop, Dr. Matthews, who governed the see of Dublin in a most critical and disastrous period, from the 2nd May, 1611, to the 1st of September, 1623, when he died an exile in Rome. This extract is found at page 262, and gives an account of the persecutions to which Catholics were subjected in the reign of James I., who was supposed to be less hostile than his predecessor Elizabeth:

"The greater part of the treatise of Dr. Roothe, entitled Analecta,
is taken up with details of the sufferings of our Church at this
sad period. The chief facts, however, which he commemorates are:
(1) that the fines levied in the county Cavan, in 1615, for the
mere crime of not assisting at Protestant service, amounted to
more than eight thousand pounds; (2) that when some of the poor
Catholics of the county Meath, who were unwilling to pay this tax,
fled from the cruel collectors of it into the caverns and mountain
recesses, furious bloodhounds were often let loose in pursuit of
them, followed by the sheriff and his posse of soldiers, equally
furious and unrelenting; (3) that the Protestant authorities had
constant recourse to ecclesiastical censures, in consequence of
which, great numbers of Catholic merchants and artificers were
thrown into prison, and reduced to extreme poverty and distress;
(4) that those who happened to die whilst under the ban of these
Protestant censures, were denied Christian burial, and thrown
into graves dug in the highways, where, to increase the ignominy,
stakes were driven through their bodies.[18]

"More interesting to the reader than all these narratives, will
probably be the sketch of the sufferings of Ireland from the pen
of the archbishop himself,--a sketch drawn up with special care
by Dr. Matthews, in 1623, and presented by him to the Sacred
Congregation of Propaganda.[19] He thus writes:--

"'Although from the very commencement of the schism we have
been constantly in the battle-field, and, with the exception of
the momentary repose enjoyed during the reign of Catholic Mary,
have been unceasingly exposed to the attacks of our persecutors,
yet so severe are their late assaults, that, in comparison,
all their preceding efforts sink into insignificance. Of this
persecution I myself have been a witness and a sharer, and I
shall briefly commemorate a few of its chief heads.

"'Some years ago the heretics strained every nerve to introduce
into Ireland those laws which the English parliament enacted
against the Catholics of England, and to resuscitate the penal
code which had been surreptitiously passed at the beginning
of Elizabeth's reign. A parliament was summoned to attain
these ends. The government again sought by every art and
violence to secure the election of English or Scotch heretical
soldiers. Lest our Catholics might prevail by their numbers, new
English and Scotch colonies were planted, and endowed with the
privilege of representation. Moreover, a number of titles were
conferred on various heretics, whilst the remonstrances of the
Catholics were unheeded. Nevertheless, no counsel can prevail
against the Lord. All the heretical efforts were fruitless;
and so strenuously did the Catholics defend their sacred cause,
that their adversaries did not dare even to propose the penal
statutes. The heretics had then recourse to royal prerogative,
that thus, without any form of law or justice, they might riot
against the Catholics; and so violent is the storm of persecution
which they have thus excited, that it almost baffles description.

"'1. All Catholics are removed from the administration of
affairs, and even the smallest offices are given to heretics
and schismatics, who may with impunity persecute the Catholics
according to their fancies.

"'2. No Catholic can hold property throughout the entire kingdom;
everything is seized on by heretical colonists, and the ejected
Catholic proprietors cannot even live as servants on those lands
of which they are the masters by hereditary right. For the
heretics have learned by experience that there is no people in
the world so attached to the faith of their fathers as are the
Irish, in defence of which they often had recourse to arms, and
risked their fortunes and lives. Seeing, therefore, that penal
laws could not suffice to destroy their devotion to the Catholic
religion, they had recourse to new arts, and by a disastrous
counsel commenced to fill the country with English and Scotch
colonies; whilst at the present time, in consequence of the
treaties entered into with the continental states, the Irish can
hope for no assistance from other powers. Thus, then, the natives,
though unaccused of any crime, are, without colour of justice,
without any feeling of humanity, without any fear of Him who will
punish the oppressors, expelled from the homes of their fathers
and from their hereditary estates. Sometimes they are driven
to other parts of the kingdom, where small portions of land
are assigned to them for their maintenance; sometimes they are
compelled to fly from the island, and seek support by entering
the armies of the Continent. Heretics being thus introduced into
the Catholic lands, a great part of the kingdom is polluted with
their sacrilegious impieties; and unless God may avert the dire
calamity, the ancient faith will be banished from the whole
island. As this evil is propagated by brute force, and as our
people have neither skill nor power to cope with our enemies,
we must wholly rely for its remedy on the mercy of God.

"'3. Ministers and preachers were sought out everywhere in
Scotland and England, and sent hither to pervert our Catholics.

"'4. All benefices and other ecclesiastical property were, from
the beginning, seized on by the heretics. In each diocese there
is a pseudo-bishop, and in each parish a pseudo-minister.

"'5. The Catholics are compelled to repair, for heretical worship,
the churches and chapels which these iconoclasts themselves
had destroyed.

"'6. The pseudo-clergy not only seize on all the revenues, but
exact payment for the sacraments of baptism and marriage, even
when they are administered by the Catholic priests; the sum thus
exacted sometimes amounts to four guineas or more, according to
the will of the Protestant ministers, who make no account of the
poverty and misery of the people. In addition to these exactions,
a salary was lately assigned to a certain heretic, to be levied
on the births, marriages, and deaths of the Catholics.

"'7. Four times in the year questors are appointed to explore
the Catholics throughout the whole kingdom, and impose fines
on all who absent themselves from the heretical sermons and
communion. As this fine is not defined by law, the judges and
questors display great earnestness and avarice in exacting it,
through hatred of our holy religion.

"'8. On each Sunday, each Catholic father of a family is obliged
to pay a pecuniary fine for himself and for each Catholic member
of his family. This fine is exacted without mercy even from the
poorest labourers.

"'9. The pseudo-bishops have introduced a new system
of excommunicating, forsooth, the Catholics; from which
excommunication the Catholic cannot be freed, except by
recognizing the spiritual authority of these bishops, and thus
sacrificing their own faith. Those thus excommunicated are liable
to arrest; and should they die, are interred in unconsecrated
ground.

"'10. Those who assist at Mass, incur a penalty of one hundred
marks.

"'11. All our gentry and nobility are obliged to send their heirs
to be educated and perverted in England.

"'12. None of the nobility are now allowed to succeed to their
paternal inheritance, without first taking the oath of royal
supremacy: otherwise they and their posterity are deprived of
their revenues, and thus the dreadful alternative is presented
to them of perversion or poverty.

"'13. It is interdicted to the Catholics to teach school either
in public or in private; on the other hand, heretical masters
are hired in every diocese, and paid from the revenue of some
benefices, to pervert our youth and imbue them with heresy. In
fact, the heretics have obstructed every avenue by which our youth
could receive instruction in this kingdom; and by their severe
penalties and rigorous searches, they seek to render it impossible
for any Catholic teacher to remain in the country. Moreover,
having created a university in the city of Dublin, the seat of
the viceroy and the capital of the whole kingdom, they employ
every artifice to attract our children to its schools. Indeed,
they could not possibly devise any scheme more iniquitous than
that of thus corrupting our youth.

"'14. The Catholic cities are deprived of their ancient liberties,
privileges, and rights, and are reduced to the rank of towns,
unless they elect heretics as their mayors and aldermen, or,
at least, select such persons as the heretics approve of, as
lately happened to the city of Waterford, which holds the second
place in the kingdom for its strength and opulence'".

The second extract is the last appendix to the volume. It gives us the epitaphs of Hugh O'Neill and Dr. Matthews, which are now published for the first time.

_Epitaph of the Most Rev. Eugene Matthews, Archbishop of Dublin._

"This volume was already in type, when we were fortunate enough
to meet with the original epitaph which marked the last resting
place of the illustrious Archbishop Matthews.

"Near the summit of the Janiculum, in the city of Rome, stands
the well known church of San Pietro-in-Montorio. It contains many
treasures of art, and its paintings retail the names of Raffaelle,
Michael Angelo, Pinturicchio, Vasari, and other great masters.
More dear to the Christian pilgrim is the adjoining shrine,
which guards the clay in which was set the cross of the Prince
of the Apostles.

"It was in this church that the last princes of Tyrone and
Tyrconnel were interred. In the second row of tombs with which
the pavement of the church is lined, the Irish traveller will
find without difficulty the epitaph of Hugh baron of Dungannon,
who died in September, 1609, and of the two O'Donnells, who died
in the autumn of 1608.[20] It is known that Hugh O'Neil, earl of
Tyrone, was also interred here; but hitherto his tomb has been
sought for in vain. The archives of the adjoining monastery,
however, have at length come to our aid. The last great Irish
chieftain expired in the Palazzo Salviati, on the 20th of July,
1616, and the register of San Pietro-in-Montorio marks the 24th of
July, 1616, as the day on which his remains were, with princely
pomp, laid within its vaults. This same register further tells
us that his epitaph, now wholly obliterated, held _the first place
in the third row_ of tombs which mark the pavement of the church,
and that it consisted of the simple record:

D. O. M.
HIC QUIESCUNT OSSA
HUGONIS PRINCIPIS O'NEILL.

"It was alongside the tomb of Hugh O'Neil that Eugene Matthews,
archbishop of Dublin, reposed in death. His epitaph, says the
register of the church, holds _the second place in the third
row of tombs_. The slab which corresponds with this indication
now only retains some faint traces of letters here and there,
it being impossible to decipher even one word of its original
inscription. Here again the church register comes to our aid; it
tells us that the following was the inscription on Dr. Matthews'
tomb: