Ulster 1613

Many thanks to Irish historian Dr. Coleman Dennehy, author of The Irish parliament, 1613-89,  editor of Law & Revolution in seventeenth-century Ireland  and Restoration Ireland: always settling and never settled and co-editor with Robin Eagles of Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, and his World


1613 Extract from a letter written by Jesuit priest John Bushlock to the Superior General of the Jesuits, Claudius Aquaviva regarding the Jesuit mission to  Ulster in 1613.
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'To the bosom of holy Mother Church, two men were added, the conversion of one of whom must certainly not be kept in silence. This man, Indian by nationality (Hic natione Indus), was captured as a three-year-old boy by an English pirate. Hence, in the custom of heretics, he imbibed the errors of Calvin from earliest childhood to such a degree that later as an adolescent he did not think of practicing a religion other than his own sect anywhere. It happened, however, with God permitting, that he stole twelve gold coins from his master and was thus put on trial for his life before judges. But when the matter was understood, our priest managed to get the lord to drop the accusation and spare his life. Immediately he grabbed the opportunity and cultivated the man with the teaching of the Catholic faith and after a few days made him, now renewed by baptism, a member of the Church.' 

John Bushlock, SJ, to the Very Reverend Father in Christ, Father Claudius Aquaviva, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, 1613; Irish Jesuit Annual Letters, 1604-1674 edit. Vera Moyne (2 vols, Dublin, 2019), vol. I, pp 325-6.