WALSH, Peter. A Letter to the Catholicks of England, Ireland, Scotland, and all other Dominions under His Gracious Majesty Charles II. Written by Father Peter Walsh, of the Order of St. Francis, Professor of Divinity. S.n.

[London] Printed anno 1674. pp. [4], 105, [1]. Old calf with minute loss to top of worn spine. Armorial bookplate of Baronet Heathcote of Hursley on pastedown. Very rare.
COPAC with 9 locations only. Not in NLI. Wing W638. Sweeney 5521.
Peter Walsh (1615-1688), D.D. was born at Mooretown near Naas, County Kildare. His father was a chandler at Naas and a member of a local Old English family, his mother it is said was an Englishwoman and a Protestant. He was educated at the Irish College at Louvain. Joined the Franciscan Order and was later Professor of Divinity at Louvain. He is described by Joep Leerssen in Mere Irish and Fíor-Ghael as “one of the most important Irish historians of the [17th] century”. Walsh returned to Ireland in 1646, the following year he attacked in nine consecutive sermons the Disputatio Apologetica of Cornelius Mahony, in which the rights of the kings of England to Ireland was denied. As a consequence of his conduct Walsh was deprived of the lectureship in divinity to which he had been appointed at Kilkenny. The collapse of the Confederation brought with it a bitter aftermath of mutual recriminations between Rinuccinians and Ormondites, between Gaels and Old English, between Franciscans and Jesuits, clerics and laymen. He proved to be a most divisive influence from the start as he opposed the pro Old Irish policy adopted by the papal nuncio Archbishop Rinuccini and wanted the Confederate Catholics to make peace with James Butler, then the Marquess of Ormond.
He himself was excommunicated by a Franciscan general chapter. He was driven from the house, and even forbidden to enter any town which possessed a library. Rinuccini accused him of having affected the nobility of Ireland and destroyed the cause. He also afterwards described him as “turned out of his convent for disobedience to superiors, a sacrilegious profaner of the pulpit in Kilkenny cathedral, who vomitted forth in one hour more filth (sordes) and blasphemy than Luther and Calvin together in three years”.
Walsh sided with Ormond and wrote against the Papal Nuncio, which led to his excommunication. For his loyal services to Ormond he received a pension from the Government. He died in 1687 and is buried in St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, London. The Bishop of Salisbury said of him that “He was the honestest and learnedest man among them (Catholics), and was indeed in all points of controversy almost wholly a Protestant”. In the dedication to Charles II Walsh declares himself an ‘unrepentant sinner’, determined to die as he had lived, the king’s “most loyal, most obedient, and most humble servant”.
Preface “The Stationer to the Reader. The following Letter was intended and printed for a Dedicatory Address of a large Book. And it is so strange to see a Dedication appear alone, without the Book to which it belongs, that I think myself obliged to acquaint you with the Reason. While the Book staid in the Printers hands for its final Complement, some few Copies of this Address crept abroad, I know not how, by themselves. Many who have either seen, or heard of it, became desirous of them, and demanded them of me with great importunity. I could not gratifie their earnestness with the Copies I had already printed, for disfurnishing the Book; but finding they continued to press me, I resolved to Re-print this Ad- dress, and let it come out by itself. I will hope for my own sake People will not be less eager for copies now they may be had, than they were before when they could not. Vale”.
Provenance: With Baronet Heathcote of Hursley's bookplate. Sir William Heathcote, 5th Baronet, PC (1801-1881), was a British landowner, Conservative politician and a noted book collector. He was the son of Rev William Heathcote (second son of Sir William Heathcote, 3rd Bart) and Elizabeth, dau of Lovelace Bigg-Wither, and was educated at Winchester and Oriel College, Oxford. He married (1) 1825 Hon Caroline Frances (d.1835) dau of Charles Perceval, 2nd Baron Arden; (2) 1841 Selina dau of Evelyn Shirley. Lived at Hursley House, Hursley, Hampshire. His eldest son William Perceval Heathcote (1826-1903) joined the army against his wishes, lived beyond the means of the family and adopted the creed of his wife, an Irish Catholic. Even worse, William Arthur Heathcote (1853-1924), his eldest grandson and the heir presumptive to the baronetcy, became a Jesuit priest, while another, George Wyndham Heathcote (1855-1930), was a navy deserter. Both grandsons were specifically excluded from Heathcote’s will of 22 July 1881, by which his widow received an annuity of £1,000 in addition to her marriage settlement and a life interest in Hursley, which was directed to be let thereafter to an Anglican.