Introduction

It was 11 September 1649 and Nicholas Bernard, a Protestant minister and former chaplain to James Ussher, huddled with his congregation inside Drogheda. They bowed and prayed while Drogheda's walls were pummelled and breached. As the fighting neared, one ‘Bullet shot through the Doore touched my hand’, Bernard later recounted. Cromwell's invading soldiers could have massacred them, ‘but by a speciall providence of God [they were] preserved’. An old acquaintance, one ‘sent of God’, was among Cromwell's soldiers and saved the congregation from death. Subjected to Protestants’ indiscriminating vengeance, providence saved Bernard's congregation.

Although Drogheda has attracted the scholarly attention due a massacre of near-mythic infamy, no one has provided a comprehensive assessment of the military providentialism. After detailing sermons preparing the godly for conquest, I focus on the sack of Drogheda. The godly had a complex view of these enemies. The guilt of the defenders of Drogheda, be they English royalists or Irish Catholics, was compounded by the belief that they refused to bend under providential dispensations. The chapter then focuses on post- Drogheda sermons. These eschatologically infused messages argued that the godly needed to temporarily become comfortable with the prodigious bloodshed – with one sermon even praising men ‘of blood’.

The Irish Rebellion of 1641

English beliefs about the Irish were complex, just like those they held about American Indians and other enemies. There were, however, many more occasions for positive and negative interaction over an extended period, dating at least to Laudabiliter issued by Pope Adrian IV in 1155, which granted Henry II the right to invade Ireland.3 Tudor and Stuart successes and failures in Ireland provide an important backdrop to the conflicts of the 1640s and 1650s. In particular, the English Reformation foregrounded religious differences. Centuries of accumulated injustice and prejudice led to hardened beliefs about the ‘other’.

In the 1640s and 1650s, no major armed groups in Ireland kept their hands clean. According to Frank Tallett, ‘If England represented the low point on the barometer of violence, Ireland represented the highest’. Scotland ‘occupies a mid-point’. In the late 1630s and early 1640s, it looked as if the Ulster Scots might join their Scottish brethren by rebelling against Charles’ policies and administrators.

Friday, May 7, 1824—During the Day

As usual, Beethoven must have been up early on the morning of Friday, May 7.1 Nephew Karl left Beethoven's apartment by 8 a.m., so as to be in the Kärntnertor Theater's box office by 8:30 to serve as observer for ticket sales.

Schindler arrived, probably already in a fiacre, with a list of eleven people who were to receive a total of 22 locked (gesperrte) seats: soprano Sontag, contralto Unger, conductor Umlauf, Zeitung editor Bernard, physician Staudenheim, and Josephstadt Theater manager Hensler in the parterre; with Beobachter editor Pilat, financial adviser Kirchhoffer, Theater-Zeitung editor Bäuerle, brother Johann, and the printer who provided copies of “An die Freude” in the fourth gallery. Schindler departed to make the complimentary ticket deliveries, and, probably a little later, Beethoven left his apartment to visit the barber and run other errands.

When Karl came home for midday dinner, Beethoven had not yet returned from having his hair cut. Karl was probably anxious to tell him about the successful morning at the box office and so left him a note:

“Dearest Uncle! Since I must be in the box office at 3 o’clock, I’ve eaten quickly, because it would take too long to wait for you. We’ll see each other this evening. In general, it has gone well. The boxes are sold; a few even overpaid, with 25 and 50 fl. In the 4th floor, all the seats are gone. I still hope to dispose of the remaining [seats] in the parterre and 1st gallery. Your son, Carl.”

The next Tuesday, May 11, while looking back on the previous Friday, Karl confirmed: “The tickets for the 4th floor were gone at 11 o’clock.”6 He had already reported that “the people in front of the box office almost had a fight, in order to get near. The push [to buy tickets] was that great.”

In midafternoon, Schindler returned to Beethoven's apartment to get a fair copy of the vocal score that he had promised to “the girl,” only to find that there was none. Beethoven evidently scolded him about it, and he retorted that the public already knew about the disorganization (Liederlichkeit) surrounding the upcoming performance.

The primary source for this documenti is ASR OSS 1299 Chiesa di S. Spirito, Ordini e istruzioni, a large folder of documents. The Rubrica is presented in a small booklet with neither pagination nor foliation, and is signed and dated, G. A. Bufalini, 1752. Another version exists in ASR OSS 1298 Scritture concernenti interessi della Chiesa collegiale di S. Spirito. The document was copied into a large folio containing numerous instructions written by the same scribe. These include Vai's 1644 Decree, along with items by Campori (1611) and Spada (1660). The presumed date of the copy of the document in OSS 1298 is 1745, which is the date on the binding of the book.

The two versions are fundamentally the same in meaning, but small differences in phrasing or word order suggest a common Latin source from which the scribes were translating for everyday use. In some places OSS 1298 is more explicit, while in others, the 1752 version is clearer. The 1752 scribe is more sparing, perhaps lazy, using more abbreviations, and leaving out some of the parenthetical information found in OSS 1298. In this transcription and translation of the 1752 Rubric, I have incorporated information that appears only in the OSS 1298 version and any variants that help to clarify meaning. To make these differences clear, I have used italics for additional words and information from OSS 1298, with longer phrases or passages that are different given in parentheses.

The many scribal abbreviations have been silently expanded, and capitalisation of Offices and titles (e.g. Te Deum) made consistent, but the original, somewhat eccentric punctuation has been kept in the transcription. Some archaisms that obscure meaning have been silently modernised, but original spellings have largely been maintained. In order for the sense of the document to be understood in English, some punctuation has been added. The translation attempts to convey the meaning clearly, rather than giving a literal rendering of the sometimes contorted original. There is, therefore, punctuation in the translation that is absent or inferred in the original.

Source: Spada, Stato della Casa dell’Archiospedale di Santo Spirito di Roma, Chapter 5, Appendix N. ASR-OSS 47, pp. 229–240.

Scribal abbreviations have been silently expanded but the spelling, capitalisation and punctuation of the original are retained. The translation attempts to convey the meaning, rather than giving a literal rendering of the original. There is, therefore, punctuation in the translation that is absent or inferred in the original.

Discorso sopra la musica della Chiesa

li 11 Aprile 1660

La Chiesa di San Spirito, ordinata al servigio di questa casa hospitio d’Infermi, di Proietti, di Monache, di Zitelle, di Balie, di Frati e di Ministri per l’azienda di beni, fondamento temporale di tante opere pie, che si fanno, ha annessa la cura d’anime, quale è appoggiata ad uno di essi frati, e questo ha sotto di sé un sacerdote secolare con titolo di sotto curato, e la cura ascende a circa 2,000 anime.

Il vaso della chiesa è grande competentemente, ma con una sola nave, e senza bracci di croce et oltre l’altare maggiore ha 9 cappelle eguali e bene ornate, in figura di semicircolo con porta laterale incontro ad una cappella, provvista abbondantemente la chiesa di suppellettili sacre preziose, ed ogn’altra cosa desiderabile, riposte in un bel vaso di sacristia, ornato anch’egli più che decentemente.

L’altare maggiore è conforme all’uso antico, posto in Isola fra il corpo di detta Chiesa, et il Choro con quattro pilastri e colonne, che sostengono una cuppoletta.

Non solo vi è il materiale del Choro ma vi è anche il formale, dovendo i frati in virtù delle loro regole fra le funzioni spirituali, a che sono astretti, recitare anche tutte le divine laudi in Choro ogni giorno, ma perché questa Casa si è ridotta a poco numero de frati, non passando hoggi il numero di 23, de’ quali 12 solo sono in Roma, e questi havendo il governo degli Infermi, delle Zitelle, delle Balie, delle Dispense, della campagna, e di tante altre cose che derivano da Casali, Castelli, Vigne e simili, non possono per lo più nelle hore debite ritrovarsi in Choro, e dal Priore di Chiesa in poi che non manca mai;