Saturday, March 13, 2010

Jesuit Was Beaten To Death With Sticks By The Puritans

Father Robert Netterville, S.J., was beaten to death by the Puritans, whereas Father Nicholas Netterville, a Jesuit, is said to have been a great friend of Oliver Cromwell's, at whose table he often dined, and from whom he had leave to say Mass every day in Dublin. Being accused of saying Mass by Captain Nathaniel Foulkes, Father Netterville said: " I am a priest, and my Lord General knows it, and tell all the town of it, and that I will say Mass here every day". He was a great scholar and musician, speaker and divine, took a leading part in the debates about the Remonstrance, and used to go about Dublin disguised as a cavalier, and was chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant, Duke of Tyrconnell. His brother, Father Christopher Netterville, S.J., was at one time very near falling a victim to Puritan fury, and had to remain hiding for twelve months in the vault of his father, Viscount Netterville. Apropos of Father Netterville's relation with Cromwell, we may say that the Rev. Sir Francis Slingsby, S.J., was a first cousin of the cruel Sir Charles Coote. Fathers Robert and Nicholas Nugent were near relatives of Elizabeth, 
Countess of Kildare, who was a second mother to the Jesuit mission, and they are called by Dr. Oliver, uncles of the infamous Earl of Inchiquin, who killed Father Boyton, S.J., in the rock of Cashel  
Father Christopher Holywood, S.J., of Ashwood, near Dublin, who was imprisoned in the tower of London for five years, was a near relative of the zealous Protestant Lord Dunsany; and Father Fitzsimon, S.J, of Dublin, tells a damaging story of  " Adam Loftus, an apostate priest, and Lord Primate, who exalted his plentiful brood to knighthood, noble alliance, and lofty estates", and ends by saying: " Let me be believed on the word of a religious man, that not private hate nor any desire to gravel Adam's issue, part whereof is linked to me in kindred, but truth and the glory of God, nave occasioned me to narrate the fact, of which I was a witness". Primate Usher's uncle and first cousin, were Jesuits. Father George Dillon, a distinguished theologian and writer, of the Society of Jesus, died a martyr of charity in Waterford in 1650, invoking the sweet name of Jesus; he was a holy, hard-working man, a cousin of Primates Plunket and Talbot, and a son of Robert, the second Earl of Roscommon. The same year, according to our Arthur MSS., J. Dillon, Earl of Roscommon, his brother, fell down twelve steps of stairs in Limerick, and died four days afterwards. 
In presence of death, he renounced Protestantism, 
and received the last sacraments, and most probably he owed this grace to the prayers of his brother?
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