On the 8th of September he went to Thurles. The Irish bishops were assembled there for the most important synod held since Henry VIII.'s proposals were rejected. The synod was held to make canons of discipline, and laws for the new _status_ the Church had gained in Ireland. The rough-and-ready ceremonial that had to be used in times of persecution was laid aside, after it had done good work in its day, and one more systematic was decreed for the administration of the sacraments. Here the Irish prelates were assembled, and Father Ignatius thought it a great opportunity for opening his mind and stating his views to Ireland by letting them known to her hierarchy. His account of the visit to Thurles is thus recorded in his journal:-- "Sept. 8.--Mass at 5. Railway to Thurles at 6½. Put up at the Christian schools. Dined there at 4. Saw the Primate, &c., at the College. Begged of the bishops, &c. Tuesday, Sept. 9.--Mass at 6, at the Monk's Altar. Begged on from the bishops. At 10, the great ceremony of concluding the synod, till 2. The Primate preached. Dr. Slattery sang {397} mass. I walked in the procession. At 5, dined with the bishops, &c., at the College. Made a speech after dinner on the Crusade." After his visit to Thurles, he came back to Carlow and gave a retreat to the lay students in their own oratory. He then went off on a begging tour through Kildare, Carlow, and Kilkenny. Whilst in Kilkenny he went to look at the old cathedral (now in Protestant hands); his _cicerone_ was a very talkative old woman, who gave him a history, in her own style, of the crumbling worthies whose names he deciphered on the different monuments. One account she told with especial gusto: the last moments of an old lady "of the Butlers." This old lady, according to the _cicerone's_ account, had once been a Catholic, and on her death-bed wished to receive the rites of the Church. She was told that if she died a Catholic, those to whom her property was willed would be disinherited, and that the property would pass over to others. She hesitated some time on hearing this announcement, and after a few minutes' reflection expressed her decision as follows, "Oh, well; it is better that one old woman should burn in hell than that the family of the Butlers should lose their estate." She died shortly after--a Protestant. Father Ignatius used to say that he never was more surprised than at the manner of his guide as she concluded the climax of her narrative. She seemed to think old Granny Butler's resolution showed the highest grade of heroic virtue and self-sacrifice.