Such was the ostensible motive for the Abbate
O^Brietfs visit to his native country. The au-
thorities of St Grellan, however, looked upon
his mis^on as governed by other views. An
ex-Jesuit, superior to the richest house of that
powerful order in Rome, who travelled in his
own carriage, who had removed the remnant of



62 THE O^BEISKS AND

the order of St Bridget from their retreat in
a garret over the shop of a grocer in the mar-
ket-place to the old monastery of Mary^ John,
and Joseph, in another part of the town,
who expended considerable sums in charity,
and who in his progress through the wilds
of Connemara and the Isles of Arran was
followed like another St. Patrick, could not fail
to excite suspicions in times when nothing was
talked of but " popish banditti spirited up by
agitating friars, and Roman missionaries sent
over to sow seduction, and spread heresy and
rebellion among the people.'* The charities of
the Abbate soon furnished an excuse for his
persecution, in a land where charity was made the
pretext for open and forceful robbery.* In a

* It is laid down, not only by the statute concerning
superstitious uses, and other English statutes, but also gene-
rally, that the King, as head of the church, and as en-
trusted by the common law to see that nothing is done in
maintenance or propagation of a false religion, is entitled
to all grants and gifts made for such purposes, so as to
appropriate them to other uses that are held lawful. This
principle of general policy, which may be pushed to any
extent that to a chancellor may appear necessary, applies
equally in the law of Ireland and England. The com-



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I

THS o'flarebttb. 63



little time he. 