The Advocate of Conscience Liberty,: or, An Apology for Toleration rightly Stated: shewing the Obligatory Injunctions and Precepts for Christian Peace and Charity.

A PLEA FOR LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE - A LEADING MID-SEVENTEENTH CENTURY IRISH CATHOLIC
first (sole) edition 8vo. [8], 310pp., contemporary mottled calf, front free endpaper renewed, neatly refurbished at ends of spine and front board edge, very good.
Later bookplate of the Augustinian Monastery Ramsgate loosely inset at rear.

WING W627 ESTC r17873
Published surreptitiously without naming place of publication, the author or the printer, but authorship is usually ascribed to Walsh. Peter Walsh (Mooretown, Co. Kilkenny, ca.1618 - 1688), a Francisan priest, on his return from Louvain in 1646 wrote against the Papal Nuncio Rinucinni, and allied himself with the pro-Ormonde party. He thenceforth was a leading actor in the controversies, intrigues, and negotiations between the Catholic Church and the government, especially in those periods when Ormond was in power. He argued that the Pope had power in religious matters only and not in matters of secular politics. He was loathed by large sections of the Catholics, and as a committed royalist by the Commonwealth, so that for many years he was persecuted by both parties. With the Restoration and the appointment of Ormonde as viceroy in 1662 he became an important figure, particularly in regard to his proposed agreement between the state and the Church, the so called 'Remonstrance'. This was eventually rejected, and Walsh published a massive History of the Remonstrance, 1674. On Ormonde's recall in 1669 he had felt it prudent to go to London and he remained there for most of the remainder of his life, but after 1674 he continued to enjoy "the patronage and protection of Ormond, particularly after the duke's return to the lord lieutenancy of Ireland in 1677. ... Any toleration of Catholicism, however, proved difficult after 1673, but during the alleged Popish Plot and exclusion crisis it was almost impossible, and certainly politically too dangerous" [Creighton]. In this The Advocate of Conscience Liberty he characteristically argued for toleration and liberty of conscience."There is little doubt that Walsh's views represented sincerely held convictions rather than political expedients, although he reminded readers of his history that while the poor Catholics of Ireland suffered for their principles the Roman hierarchy enjoyed the comfort of that 'city of fortune' (Walsh, History, 27–8, 30). His attempt to address and resolve the problem of Irish Catholic civil allegiance and break the dominance of Rome over the Irish Catholic church was his most significant historical contribution. If he had succeeded, the consequences could have been far reaching not least for the Stuarts and the events which followed his death in 1688" [M. A. Creighton in O.D.N.B.].