[41] Bennet to Ormonde, October 27, 1663, in _Miscellanea Aulica_, and November 17 _ib._; Clarendon, February 7, 1663-4, _Carte Transcripts_, vol. xlvii. Lady Thurles to Ormonde, December 17, 1664, _Carte MSS._, vol. ccxv.; J. Hughes to Williamson, 1664-5, State Papers, _Ireland_. [42] Clarendon to Ormonde, April 16, 1664, January 30 and March 18, 1665-6, _Carte Transcripts_, vol. xlvii. Carte's _Ormonde_, ii. 302, and Finch's report, _ib._ appx. no. 91. Temple's _Essay_, written in 1668. Clarendon's _Life_, Cont., 276, where one-third should be read for one-fourth. [43] _Irish Statutes_, 17 & 18 Car. II. cap. 2, especially clauses 4, 5, 6, 148, 159. Finch's report in Carte's _Ormonde_, ii. appx. 91. [44] Arlington to Ormonde, August 19, 1665, in _Miscellanea Aulica_. Sir Nicholas Armourer to Arlington, September 11, State Papers, _Ireland_. Robert Leigh to Williamson, October 18, _ib._ Carte's _Ormonde_, book vi. Armourer calls Lady Ossory 'the best woman in this world.' [45] _Irish Commons Journal_, October 26 to November 29, 1665. [46] The petition is in _Irish Commons Journal_, December 11, and Ormonde's answer in State Papers, _Ireland_, December 15. Opinion of the English judges, _ib._ February 15, 1665-6. [47] _Irish Commons Journal_, December 16-18, 1665. Leigh to Williamson, December 16, State Papers, _Ireland_; Orrery to Arlington, _ib._; Churchill to Arlington, December 27, _ib._ CHAPTER XLIII ORMONDE AND THE IRISH HIERARCHY [Sidenote: Ormonde a consistent Royalist.] Loyalty to the Crown of England was Ormonde's leading principle, and this is the key to his eventful life. He surrendered Dublin to the Parliament rather than to the Irish because he regarded the usurping power as the State for the time being. Later on and in still more desperate circumstances he was forced to ally himself with the Roman Catholic clergy, but he steadily refused to destroy the value of the reversion, and events proved that it was impossible to reconcile the claims of the Vatican with those of a sovereign who was constitutionally the supreme head of an Established Protestant Church. The idea of a free Church in a free State had not yet dawned upon Europe, and when the monarchy was restored the legal position of the Roman Catholics remained as it had been before the civil war. After a short struggle, which revealed great dissensions among those who sought relief, the recusancy laws were left untouched. [Sidenote: The Roman Catholics at the Restoration.] [Sidenote: Peter Walsh and Orrery.]