The edict mentioned by Father O'Conor and by many other clerical writers of the same time was an order, signed by Fleetwood, Ludlow, Corbet, and Jones, setting forth the experience of many years, 'that Jesuits, seminary priests, and persons in Popish orders in Ireland, estrange the people from due obedience to the English Commonwealth, and, under pretence of religion, excite them to rebellion, which gave rise to the barbarous murders of 1641 and the destructive war which followed.' They were all to leave Ireland within twenty days, or incur the penalties of the English Act, 27 Elizabeth, which had never been the law of Ireland, and which made the priests traitors and their abettors felons.[245] [Sidenote: The swordsmen sent abroad.] [Sidenote: Great numbers take foreign service.] [Sidenote: Their ill-treatment in Spain.] [Sidenote: Better received in France.] [Sidenote: Clarendon's reflection.] Chichester strove to get the swordsmen of Ulster into the Swedish service, where they might help the Protestant cause almost without knowing it. After the disbanding of Strafford's army the English Parliament had very naturally, but very unwisely, prevented the men from going to Spain, thus aggravating, if not actually causing, the outbreak in 1641. Cromwell profited by experience, and saw that even in the service of the Catholic king the survivors of the Irish war would be much less dangerous than in their own country. At the beginning of 1653 the Commissioners reported that 13,000 had already gone, but that there were still left 'many desperate rogues who know not how to live but by robbing and stealing out of bogs and fastnesses.' By July the number had risen to 27,000. There were, says Petty, who was in Ireland at the time and whose estimate is rather under that of his friend Gookin, 'transported of them into Spain, Flanders, France, 34,000 soldiers; and of boys, women, priests, &c., no less than 6000 more,' of whom not half had returned in 1672. The Spanish Government broke all their promises and treated the Irish officers and soldiers very badly, so that whole regiments passed over from time to time into the service of France. In both services the dissensions which had been so fatal in Ireland continued between Celts and Anglo-Irish and between Ormondists and Nuncionists. Hyde, who knew Spain and had suffered many things there, excuses the desertions in Catalonia, which were stimulated by Inchiquin, and the ill-conduct of the Irish at Bordeaux, which caused the loss of that city, by the extreme ill-usage which they had received from the Spanish authorities. There were many needy Irish officers in London who were glad to contract with Cardenas for the transport of men. Philip found money enough to make this remunerative, but when the Irish were once landed in his country no further trouble was taken. 'The soldiers, who were crowded more together into one ship than was fit for so long voyages, had contracted many diseases, and many were