many catholics who were expelled from the city in the winter of 1641. He died, probably at Kilkenny, on 29 Nov. 1643, though other accounts give 1 Feb. 1643–4 and 29 Nov. 1645 as the date of his decease.
Wood remarks that ‘by his death the Roman Catholics lost a pillar of their church, [he] being esteem'd in the better part of his life a great ornament among them, and the greatest defender of their religion in his time’ (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 96).
His works are: 1. ‘Brief Collections from the Scriptures, the Fathers, and principal Protestants, in proof of six Catholic Articles,’ which John Rider, dean of St. Patrick's, and afterwards bishop of Killaloe, had challenged him to prove. Manuscript sent on 2 Jan. 1600–1 to Rider, who published an answer entitled ‘A Caveat to Irish Catholics’ on 28 Sept. 1602. 2. Manuscript reply to the ‘Caveat,’ sent to Rider on 4 Feb. 1602–3. Rider's ‘ Rescript’ was published on 30 March 1604. 3. ‘A Catholick Confutation of Mr. John Rider's Claim to Antiquitie, and a calming Comfort against his Caveat. In which is demonstrated … that all Antiquitie … is repugnant to Protestancie … And a Reply to Mr. Rider's Rescript, and a Discoverie of Puritan Partialitie in his behalfe,’ Rouen, 1608, 4to. 4. ‘An Answer to sundrie Complaintive Letters of Afflicted Catholics, declaring the Severitie of divers late Proclamations,’ 1608. Printed at the end of the preceding work. It was reprinted by the Rev. Edward Hogan, S.J., under the title of ‘Words of Comfort to Persecuted Catholics,’ Dublin, 1881, 8vo. 5. ‘Narratio Rerum Ibernicarum,’ or an ‘Ecclesiastical History of our Country.’ He was engaged on this work in 1611. It was never printed. The Bollandists often quote Fitzsimon's manuscript collections. 6. ‘The Justification and Exposition of the Divine Sacrifice of the Masse, and of al Rites and Ceremonies thereto belonging’ [Douay], 1611, 4to. 7. ‘Catalogus præcipuorum Sanctorum Hiberniæ.’ Manuscript finished 9 April 1611. The Bollandists cite the editions of 1611 and 1619; there were also those of Douay, 1615 and 1619; Liège, 1619; Lisbon, 1620; Antwerp, 1627. The catalogue was also appended to ‘Hiberniæ sive Antiquæ Scotiæ Vindiciæ adversus Thomam Dempsterum. Auctore G. F.,’ Antwerp, 1621, 8vo, and it was printed at Rome in Porter's ‘Annales.’ 8. ‘Britannomachia Ministrorum in plerisque fidei fundamentis et articulis dissidentium,’ Douay, 1614, 4to. A reply to this was published by Francis Mason, B.D., archdeacon of Norfolk, in his ‘Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ,’ 2nd edit. London, 1638, fol. 9. ‘Pugna Pragensis. A Candido Eblanio,’ Brünn, 1620. It went through three editions at least. 10. ‘Buquoy Quadrimestre Iter, Progressusque, quo, favente numine, ac auspice Ferdinando II Rom. Imp., Austria est conservata, Bohemia subjugata, Moravia acquisita, eademque opera Silesia solicitata, Hungariaque terrefacta. Accedit Appendix Progressus ejusdem Generalis, in initio Anni 1621. Authore Constantio Peregrino,’ Vienna, 1621, 4to. It was printed twice at Brünn and twice at Vienna, and translated into Italian in 1625 by Aureli of Perugia. The work was attacked by Berchtold von Rauchenstein in ‘Constantius Peregrinus Castigatus,’ Bruges, 1621, 4to. Portions of Fitzsimon's work are printed by Hogan, together with the ‘Words of Comfort,’ under the title of ‘Diary of the Bohemian War of 1620.’ It is erroneously stated in the British Museum Catalogue that ‘Constantius Peregrinus’ was Boudewyn de Jonge. 11. Treatise to prove that Ireland was originally called Scotia. Manuscript quoted in Fleming's ‘Life of St. Columba.’ 12. Many of his letters, some written from his cell in Dublin Castle, are printed by Hogan with the ‘Words of Comfort to Persecuted Catholics.’
[Life by the Rev. Edmund Hogan, 1881; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 112; Ware's Writers of Ireland (Harris), p. 118; Foley's Records, vii. 260; Hogan's Cat. of the Irish Province, S. J., p. 8; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 245; Catholic Miscellany (1828), ix. 33; Bernard's Life of Ussher (1656), p. 32; Duthillœul's Bibliographie Douaisienne (1842), p. 99; De Backer's Bibl. de la Compagnie de Jésus (1869), i. 1875; Shirley's Library at Lough Fea, p. 113; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 805; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Dwyer's Diocese of Killaloe, p. 86; Hogan's Ibernia Ignatiana, i. 33, 43, 51, 52, 72–6, 81, 102, 104, 111, 124, 131, 222; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 224; Irish Ecclesiastical Record, viii. 214, 268, 313, 347, 504, 553, ix. 15, 78, 187, 272, 430; Patrignani's Menologio (1730), vol. i. pt. ii. p. 8.]
FITZSIMONS or FITZSYMOND, WALTER (d. 1511), archbishop of Dublin, was precentor of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1476; he was the chapter's proxy in a parliament held in 1478 (King's Collections and Cod. Clar. p. 46); and was also official, or vicar-general, of the diocese. He has been described in old records as a learned divine and philosopher, a man of great gravity of character and of a commanding aspect. Having first sued out a charter of pardon from Henry VII, for accepting promotion by a papal provision, he was appointed by Pope Sixtus IV to the archbishopric of Dublin on 14 June 1484, and was the first arch-
