CHAPTER XI.
THE REBELLION OF 1641.
The Rebellion of 1641--generally called a 'massacre'-- was undoubtedly a struggle on the part of the exiled nobles and clergy and the evicted peasants to get possession of their estates and farms, which had been occupied by the British settlers for nearly a generation.

They might probably have continued to occupy them in peace, but for the fanaticism of the lords justices, Sir John Parsons and Sir John Borlace.

It was reported and believed that, at a public entertainment in Dublin, Parsons declared that in twelve months no more Catholics should be seen in that country.

The English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters were determined never to lay down their arms till they had made an end of Popery.

Pym, the celebrated Puritan leader, avowed that the policy of his party was not to leave a priest alive in the land.
Meantime, the Irish chiefs were busy intriguing at Rome, Madrid, Paris, and other continental capitals, clamouring for an invasion of Ireland, to restore monarchy and Catholicity--to expel the English planters from the forfeited lands.