[Sidenote: Coinage.] [Sidenote: Indulgences and excommunications.] [Sidenote: Free trade.] The Supreme Council assumed sovereign power, the King figuring largely in negotiations with Ormonde, but seldom appearing in documents intended for home consumption. Flags were devised with various religious emblems and mottoes; but in each case there was an Irish cross on a green field, 'Vivat Rex Carolus' below, and C R with a crown imperial above. Francis Oliver, a Fleming, was appointed vice-admiral, and letters of marque to prey upon 'enemies of the general Catholic cause' were freely granted. Half-crowns and shillings and copper money were struck with Charles I. on one side and St. Patrick on the other, but this was not done without much opposition, for the coinage was unnecessary, and was an evident encroachment upon the Crown. Agents were accredited to the Emperor, the King of France, the Pope, the Duke of Bavaria, the Viceroy in Belgium, and the Governor of Biscay. The Franciscan Luke Wadding, a native of Waterford, was agent at Rome, and as this was emphatically the Pope's war, the instructions to him are of special interest. The first thing asked for was a supply of indulgences for the confederates and of excommunications for all opponents and neutrals. The Pope was requested to send letters in their favour to the Queen of England, to the Catholic princes of Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Poland, and Bavaria, to Genoa, and to the Catholics of Holland. Wadding was directed to impress upon his Holiness that the Catholic cause in Protestant countries would be much advanced by the success of the confederates. Free trade with France, Spain, and Holland was solicited through the Pope's mediation. In general he was to be asked to give the council power over ecclesiastical patronage, and not to admit appeals during the war. In particular Thomas Dease, Bishop of Meath, had been suspended by the provincial synod of Armagh for refusing to approve of the war, and his appeal was to be rejected without trial. The Supreme Council thus engrossed to themselves all the chief prerogatives of the Crown which they professed to defend.[24] [Sidenote: Preston's first action, Dec. 1642.]