The Anglo-Irish Catholics had been drawn into the war against their will in many cases, and in many others only in the hopes of obtaining religious toleration. They were genuine Royalists, though the interests of the sovereign did not always seem to be theirs. But the Celts cared extremely little for the Crown and a great deal for the Church; even more perhaps for the land which they had lost. Rinuccini's whole influence went to widen the difference between the two sections. The dominant faction among the clergy were quite ready to submit to a foreign protector, and Ormonde's last struggles were with the bishops. The Clonmacnoise decrees having failed to secure union, he summoned twenty-four prelates along with the Commissioners of Trust to meet him at Limerick, whither he went after finally leaving Kilkenny. They met accordingly on March 8, and five days later presented him with a paper of advice. They suggested that a Privy Council should be appointed consisting of 'peers and others, natives of this kingdom, at once spiritual and temporal,' to sit daily with the Lord Lieutenant and determine all weighty affairs. The answer to this was easy: that the appointment of Privy Councillors belonged to the King alone, and that in the actual condition of affairs the Commissioners of Trust were quite Council enough. There were vague charges of preferring Protestants to Catholics, and suggestions made as to the rendering of accounts and the administration of justice, very suitable for peaceful times, but not at all applicable to the desperate state of affairs really existing. Ormonde's immediate object was to place a garrison in Limerick, and there all was refused to him, Lord Kilmallock, Catholic though he was, being imprisoned by the citizens for quartering part of his own troop within the walls by the Marquis's orders. Some of the bishops made a faint attempt to reconcile the townsmen; but Ormonde went away to Loughrea on March 18, and the prelates and Commissioners followed him thither next day. It had been represented to him by some of them that all would be right if he would only get rid of Inchiquin; while others told the latter that he, as a chief of the ancient Irish, was the proper person to command, if only he would separate from Ormonde. The two lords compared notes, and easily perceived that the real object in view was to get rid of them both.[179] [Sidenote: A successor to Owen Roe O'Neill.] [Sidenote: Bishop Macmahon appointed, April 1.]