University of Virginia Library

I.

In his conviction that numerous books had probably been printed in Dublin which bore false imprints, such as Louvain, Paris, or St. Omer, Dix assumed that the Catholics in Ireland surreptitiously printed books for their own use, as was done elsewhere. Curiously enough, experience has not supported that prediction, at least to the degree Dix envisaged. Yet he was not entirely mistaken, since there are at least three works of the seventeenth century which do bear false imprints.

Of these, two are indeed Catholic works, albeit Catholic works with a difference. Thus Thomas Harold's Narratio facti, jurisque disquisitio, in lite jam vertente inter Rdos Adm P. P. Franciscum Copingerum, et P. Geanor bears for imprint "Parisiis, Permissu et jussu Superioris." A mandate to print on the verso of the title-page, signed by Copinger "in loco nostri Refugy [sic] 18 May [sic] 1670" provides a date not long after which the book was probably printed, while the misreading of what was intended to be "ij" as "y" in "Refugy" and "May" points to an English-speaking type-setter.[2]

Typographically the Narratio may confidently be ascribed to the King's Printing-House in Dublin, in the year 1670 in the hands of Benjamin Tooke. For on leaves [A]2r and A2-2r (i.e., the recto of the second leaf of a gathering the first leaf of which is signed A2) is used a headpiece frequently employed by the shop, as for instance on p. 1 of Dudley Loftus's The Case of Ware and Sherley (1669) and on leaf [A]2r of Benjamin Parry's More than Conqueror (1673). Also used in the Narratio are two decorative initials "I" and "C" of a sort less common, yet found on pp. 58 and 280, respectively, of John Stearne's De electione of 1662, while other letters from the same alphabet are found elsewhere.

A companion piece to this Narratio appears to have completely escaped recognition, although it too is by Harold, and also bears the approbation of Fr. Copinger, dated 1670. As with the Narratio, in this work, the Tractatus de recursu ad protectionem principium in necessitate, contra violentiam clericorum, the imprint is given as "Parisiis, Permissu & Jussu Superioris." In fact, although no positive evidence has been found that the Tractatus was actually published

along with the Narratio, the sheets, apart from the first gathering signed A, are signed K-N, in continuation of the signatures used in the Narratio, while pp. 9-26 of the Tractatus are misnumbered 73-90, again a continuation of the paging of the Narratio. However, the sequence does not provide for the titleleaf nor for dedicatory leaves to Charles II (present in the Bodleian copy but not in the Grenville copy at the British Museum): one may hazard the hypothesis that the Tractatus was planned to be printed along with the Narratio, but that while it was being set up in type, the decision was made to publish it as a separate work.

Typographically the two pieces are obviously from the same shop, with a decorative initial on the dedication leaf in the same series as the "C" and "I" of the Narratio; and that they are closely related is apparent.

The interest of these two items is not confined to theology, for they prove to be of considerable Irish significance, again supporting the probability of Dublin printing. The controversy between the Franciscan Fathers Copinger and Geanor sprang out of the religious and political situation in Ireland following upon the return of Charles II. It will be recalled that while a group of the regular Catholic clergy, largely Franciscan, headed by Fr. Peter Walsh, was prepared to accept the political authority of Charles II, the secular clergy, headed by Bishop O'Reilly, were strongly opposed to the Remonstrance drawn up in 1662 by Walsh, embodying his views. Copinger and Harold, both Franciscans, had signed the Remonstrance. As a consequence, Fr. Copinger was replaced by Fr. Geanor as Provincial Vicar of the Franciscans in Munster, on orders from Rome. It is against Copinger's replacement that Harold is here writing, as a rear guard action in the efforts of the Remonstrants to achieve reconciliation between Catholics in Ireland and the Crown. It was an unsuccessful action, for in the month of May, 1670, Copinger and Harold were silenced by a Chapter General of their order, meeting in Valladolid, and Harold is subsequently found in Brussels under discipline.

While it is somewhat surprising to find that these works written by a Roman Catholic should be printed by the King's Printer in Dublin, it ought to be noted that they were done for a section of the Catholic clergy most favorable to the government. This may well have represented an official governmental policy, to split the Catholics by setting the secular and regular clergy at variance among themselves.