Hugh MacCagwell and Patrick Fleming. Irish Franciscans, in Rome

Irish Jesuit Province

Hugh MacCagwell and Patrick Fleming. Irish Franciscans, in RomeAuthor(s): M. Pearde BeaufortSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 45, No. 534 (Dec., 1917), pp. 800-803Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20504950 .

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[ 800

HUGH MACCAGWELL AND PATRICK

FLEMING.

IRISH FRANCISCANS, IN ROME.

By M. PEARDE BEAUFORT.

T HERE were many Irish visitors in Rome during the last years of the Pontificate of Paul V. The Pope's deep sympathy with their nation in the dark hours

of persecution had already been expressed in an Apostolical letter. Here, then from far-off Ireland came princes dis posed of their inheritance, priests and students banished by royal decree from the land of their birth. Among the latter

was Hugh MacCagwell. He had been tutor to Henry and Hugh O'Neill, sons of the Earl of Tyrone. As the difficul ties in -Ireland were increasing with regard to education the Earl sent Henry under the care of MacCagwell to con tinue his studies at Salamanca, and " to make himself perfect in military discipline, as became the son of the Prince of Tyrone." At the same time Hugh MacCagwell was entrusted with a special mission to ask for help from Spain for the Ulster army; he was also able to study for his degree at the University of Salamanca, where later he became a Franciscan.

Florence Conry was in Spain at that time, and it was at his request and MacCagwell's that Philip III. founded the Irish University at Louvain, where we next hear of

Hugh MacCagwell as theological lecturer. Among his pupils there were John Colgan, Anthony Hickey, and Patrick Fleming, the latter a relation of Lord Slane, who seems to have been more closely associated with MacCag

well than the other students. At that time Patrick Fleming followed a course of theology and philosophy at the University, but his recreation and joy was to pore over Irish ecclesiastical antiquities. In Paris he met Father

Hugh Ward, another enthusiastic antiquarian, who urged Fleming to continue his explorations in the great libraries



H. MacCAGWELL AND P. FLEMING. 801

of Rome. When he accompanied Father MacCagwell there in 1623 he found some valuable manuscripts on Irish Archae ology which he translated, sending the work to Father

Hugh \Ward.

When Father MacCagwell was appointed definitor general of the Franciscans in 1613 he came to live at Ara

Coeli. l3efore the death of Paul V. a printing press had been set up in the monastery for the publication of an important work in Hebrew on which Father Luke Wadding

was busy at that time. Patrick Fleming was then twenty four years old, and the intellectual atmosphere by which he was surrounded had, no doubt, a great influence on his future writings.

Father Huah MacCagwell was already known as the

author of Scathdn Sacrarnuinrthe na hAithrighe, or " The Mirror of Penance," which had been published by the Irish press of St. Anthony at Louvain in 1618. That he

made the force of his personality felt in Spain and Belgium can be gatherd from letters written in 1612 bv the traitor, Captain John Bath of Drogheda, who sailed from Ireland with the O'Neill and his followers. According to his own account, Bath had " lived with the Earl under the same roof for four years" and this Judas continued to explain his nefarious plans. to Turnbull, then representative of the

Enalish court at Brussels. In one of his letters Bath states that he " will lay open unto the King of Spain what

false relations Father Florence and Father Hugh Cawell have given of certain persons, whereby their future relations shall lose esteem with the said king." In 1616 Turnbull's

mind is still disturbed by the doings of " Hugh Cawell, a

busy friar of the Irish monastery in Louvagne. He is gone

into Spain with Sir James McDonnell (as is reported) as

well to procure him an annual entertainment, as for some

other practices against the realm of Ireland." Then Turn

bull wins uip with a tirade ag,ainst some other men who

belonged to " that vagrant and unstayed nation." Vagrants

indeed, honouired in Spain and Belgium, in France and

Italy, welcomed in whatever country they inade their

home, becaause of their gentleness, their learning, and their

faith !



$02 THE IRISH MONTHLY

Father MacCagwell was Luke Wadding's senior. They had already met in Spain, and now they were both to work together in Rome for their native land which neither of them would ever see again. MacCagwell's help was invaluable in establishing that Ireland was the birthplace of Dun Scotus, a subject on which Father Wadding, John Pone, and Anthony Hickey were engaged just then.

And the setting of the Hebrew text was no easy task, but Luke Wadding's patience was inexhaustible, and his visits to Ara Coeli must have been continuous until the work was finished. Like a true son of Sa-int Francis he

would come on foot from S. Pietro in Montorio, where he was living, to the monastery at Ara Coeli on the Capitoline Hill. He would cross the Tiber by the Pons Cestius to the island called Isola Tiberina. Here most assuredly he often paused, for classic and Christian memories make the spot a delight to the historian.

When the new Irish Franciscan College was opened bv Father Wadding in 1625 Patrick Fleming was appointed one of the lecturers, and later he was ordained there.

In 1626 there was a solemn function in the Church of S. Isodoro on the day when Father Hugh MaeCagwell was

consecrated Archbishop of Armagh and Father Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel, by Cardinal Gabriel a Trejo.

Henry and John O'Neill, it will be remembered, were pupils of Father MacCagwell. Henry, called in Brussels " the Irish colonel," died there, and his brother John suc

ceeded him as Earl of Tyrone. His influence was great at the Roman court, and had weight with Pope Urban

VIII., who made Father Hugh MacCagwell Archbishop of Armagh. But when he was ready to start for Ireland a

few months after his consecration he was attacked by Roman fever, and died at Ara Coeli on September 2nd, 1626. He is buried in the Church of S. Isodoro, where his pupil and friend, John O'Neill, placed the following epitaph written by Patrick Fleming, of which a translation is given in Meehan's Fligh-t of the Earls.

To the illustrious most reverend Lord Friar Hugh MacCagwell of the Order of Minors of Stricter -Observance,

lector definitor-yeneral, Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of



H. MacCAGWELL AND P. FLEMING. 803

Ireland. Of country, religion, letters, well deserving; whose return to his native land death prevented. The most excellent Lord John O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, caused this stone to be placed. Died Sept. 22, A.D. 1626, aged 55.

Vernulaeus say that " his holiness of life and profound learning made him the miracle of his time." An4 Patrick

Fleming, who knew him so long and well, tells how prayer and fasting filled up the daily life of HughMacCagwell; how he always travelled on foot when making his visi tations, he who had been so closely associated with the saintly Archbishop, had witnessed his zeal and humility and and his earnest desire to return to Ireland and offer his -life, should it be required of him, for his country and his faith.

When Father Fleming's works were published at Louvain in 1617, about 36 years after his death, they were considered most valuable. His Life of St. Golumba, and Lives of other Irish saintst, as well as the Life of Arch bishop MacCagwell made his name as a writer so much esteemed that we read of one copy of the latter book which

was sold at a later date for ?70. A great change was in store for Father Fleming in 1631,

when he was sent as Superior to Prague, where a new monastery had been founded. The studious and peacful years in Rome and Louvain were ended, and he had scarcely taken up his duties at Prague when the Germans invaded Bohemia. Just outside the city walls he and

Father Hoar, another Irishman, fall victims to the savage soldiers. In his Scriptores Father Luke Wadding relates the sad details, and adds that Father Patrick Fleming's body was carried to the monastery of Voticium, four miles from the spot where he was murdered. This was in the year 1631, when Patrick Fleming was only thirty-two years of age.



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Hugh MacCagwell and Patrick Fleming. Irish Franciscans, in Rome