he slept at Castlehaven's house at Maddenstown, where Antrim and the Duchess of Buckingham were staying, and Coote 'to pleasure the lady,' fired a salute of artillery and musketry. According to an Irish writer Sir Charles boasted of the day's victory. The men were silent, but the Duchess upbraided him as being less loyal than the Irish, and as 'a poor mechanical fellow, raised by blind fortune, as informer and promoter against all that is just and godly, being chief instrument of the shedding of many innocent blood [_sic_], and of the commencement of the new distempers.' Coote, who was of a good old family, had served three sovereigns faithfully both in peace and war, and fell three weeks later fighting bravely against enormous odds.[15] [Sidenote: The Irish Parliament purged.] [Sidenote: Beginning of the Catholic Confederation.] [Sidenote: The oath of association.] On June 22 that part of the House of Commons in Dublin which accepted the oath of supremacy expelled forty-one 'rotten and unprofitable members' who were either in open rebellion or indicted of high treason. Of these Richard Bellings, who sat for Callan, was the most important. Among the others were Rory Maguire the northern leader, Sir Valentine Blake of Galway, who was Clanricarde's friend, and Sir James Dillon. In the meantime what claimed to be a new legislature was being gradually formed. On May 10, 11, 13, and 14 a congregation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy sat at Kilkenny. There were present three archbishops, six bishops and the procurators of four more, with several abbots and other dignitaries; and the plan of the proposed confederation was sketched out. The prelates declared that the war had been justly undertaken for religion and for the King, against sectaries and especially against Puritans. Any province, county, or city making separate terms with the enemy was to be held excommunicate. A number of lords and gentlemen joined the prelates, and out of their joint deliberations grew the Supreme Council in its first shape--two members out of each province with Mountgarret as president. An oath of association was framed binding the confederates to obey the council and to do nothing without their consent. The main object was the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion 'in as full and ample a manner as the Roman Catholic secular clergy had or enjoyed the same within this realm at any time during the reign of Henry VII.' Significantly, the regular clergy are not mentioned at all. The secular clergy were to enjoy all temporalities 'in as large and ample a manner as the late Protestant clergy respectively enjoyed the same on October 1, 1641.' All laws to the contrary made since 20 Henry VIII. were void. Before a more regular assembly could meet Preston had landed in the south and O'Neill in the north, and their arrival gave events a new turn.[16] [Sidenote: Owen Roe O'Neill.] [Sidenote: O'Neill lands in Ulster, July 1642.]