[Sidenote: The nuncio approves of the riot.] The proclamation at Kilkenny was an open declaration of war with the nuncio, who immediately sent Dean Massari to Rome to explain that both clergy and people were against the peace, and that its few supporters could do no harm. Meanwhile, Ulster went on his way to Limerick. Arriving after the gates were shut, he was refused admittance, and had to pass the night in an old house outside. Next day he was received by Sir John Bourke, the mayor, and at first it seemed that all would go smoothly; but the civic authorities went on arguing the question till the following day was well advanced, and time was thus given for a formidable agitation to grow. James Wolfe, a Dominican friar, harangued a mob in the streets, and declared that all who adhered to the peace would incur the penalties of excommunication. The chief citizens assembled at the mayor's house, where Dr. Walter Lynch, warden of the Galway college, employed his eloquence in the same cause. A third priest 'carried a great crucifix through the streets on the top of a pole.' The mayor, nevertheless, favoured the proclamation and tried to protect the herald while doing his office, but stones flew like hail, and his house was wrecked. He was himself knocked down and nearly murdered, while Ulster was hunted from the room, the friars calling out in Irish, 'Kill, kill! I will absolve you.' He received two serious wounds on the head and one in the hand, while his body was covered with cuts and bruises. Dr. Thomas Arthur, a famous physician, who had succeeded twenty years before in curing Archbishop Ussher of a disease which had puzzled the London faculty, did what he could to pacify his co-religionists and to save the herald's life at the risk of his own. Appeals to the law of nations which protects heralds were fruitless, and the more moderate citizens were forced to carry Roberts to gaol for safety and to give out that he was dead. He and his companions were detained for ten days, when Rinuccini said they might be discharged. Bourke was deposed from the mayoralty, and Thomas Fanning, a leader of the rioters, was installed in his room. The new mayor received the nuncio's thanks and apostolical benediction for his good conduct in the matter.[95] [Sidenote: Ormonde and the Protestant hierarchy.] [Sidenote: Ormonde at Kilkenny.] [Sidenote: Ormonde and Owen Roe O'Neill.]