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Lombard was involved in other issues on behalf of the Holy See.  The most notorious was the decision reached on the Galileo[45] affair.  In February 1616 the eleven consultors of the Holy See were called upon to deliver judgement on the Copernican system of astronomy.  Lombard was president of the court and their judgement, reached after only six days, was that Galileo was heretical in saying that the sun was the centre of the universe. What can one say about this verdict?  Perhaps the kindest thing would be to say that theologians should stick to theology.

Another controversy on which Lombard was asked to decide was that concerning the actions of certain Jesuit missionaries in China and Japan.  Three consultors, including Lombard were appointed to examine these missionaries, who were accused of using pagan customs and rites in their zeal for converts.  Their leader was Robert di Nobili who was a Jesuit of noble birth and who lived according to the existing Indian social order, i.e., the caste system. He learned Tamil and Sanskrit and lived the life of a sadhu (wandering ascetic).  Lombard’s decision was thirty pages long and the other two theologians each wrote a paragraph.  One agreed with Lombard and one disagreed.  More importantly the Pope, Gregory XV, sided with Lombard. 

The Holy See recognised Lombard as its greatest expert on the modern age and on the accommodation that the Church needed to make with modern thought.  This was seen when the question of the proposed Anglo-Spanish marriage arose.  James had developed a plan to marry his second son, and heir, Charles to a Spanish Catholic princess, along with a concurrent plan to join with Spain in mediating the Thirty Years' War in Germany.  It is surprising that Lombard assented so readily to the marriage but this is where his pragmatism came to the fore.  He recognised that the marriage would be essentially a treaty between two states and he seized on the opportunity of using the marriage to gain some relief for the embattled Catholics of Ireland and England.  He thought that the marriage, far from diluting the princess’ faith, might have a beneficial effect because it might make the king more lenient in the execution of the penal laws as it would make the Pope a partner to the marriage.  All he required were some safeguards for the faith of the princess.  A dispensation for the marriage was required and Lombard argued that concessions should be obtained before the marriage because it would be too late once the deal was done.  A commission of cardinals, set up by the Pope, came to the same conclusion. 

On various occasions Lombard had petitioned the Holy Father to let him return to Ireland but the exigencies of the Roman Curia and the need for his brilliant mind in Rome prevented that happy outcome.  One of those petitions is still extant and in it Lombard asks that faculties and favours be granted to him like those that were granted to missionaries in Ireland.  He mentions those faculties and favours in detail such as allowing himself (Lombard) to be nuncio to Ireland and to constitute the Primate, pro tem, as custodian of the seized monasteries thereby imposing on him the duty of preserving from oblivion their memories and traditions.  Another part of the petition is of most interest to us here in Waterford and I quote it in full. 

“Wherefore, Dr. Lombard prays the Holy Father to authorize him to allot the vacant sees to the bishops actually residing in Ireland, or about to be appointed by his Holiness.  In particular, he requests that the administration of Waterford and Lismore might be granted to himself, that thus he might have a place of refuge in his native district, and be able to more securely the meetings and synods of the clergy; for the city of Armagh…was almost totally destroyed in the late wars, and those that inhabit it are almost all English and Scotch heretics, who have an heretical pseudo-bishop, so that the Catholic primate cannot dwell there, and even the clergy, who are still in the diocese or province, cannot assemble there in synod, but are compelled to meet together elsewhere.”[46] 

So here we have the Archbishop, towards the close of his life, yearning to return once more, after a lifetime in exile, to the city by the Suir.  That petition was unsuccessful however and two years later we find him petitioning again.  There is mention of this petition in a brief memorial, dated March 13th, 1622, preserved in the Archives of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda. In this petition he prays that the Pope will expedite the matters for which he had petitioned,[47]

          “These matters are of vital importance for the propagation of the faith in those insular regions; and if he does not secure their despatch before he leaves Rome, many Catholics will be scandalized, and it is to be feared that many, too, contrary to the desires of his Holiness, may waver in their faith and devotedness to the Holy See.” 

         This petition was favourably received and, on June 13^th 1623, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda granted Lombard £50 towards the expenses of his journey home and also ordered that all Lombard’s debts be paid out of the Congregation’s funds.   The Archbishop, however, was destined never to return to Ireland.  After a stay of some months in Rome, Lombard fell ill towards the end of 1623.  He retired to the town of Palombara, about thirty kilometres from Rome, in an effort to recover from a fever but he died there, at the monastery of San Pietro Palombara at the beginning of 1625, worn out in his great efforts for the suffering Church in Ireland.  

       How do we assess him?  Lombard’s main aim in everything he did was in agreement with the aim of the counter-reformation and that was, the regeneration and recovery of the Church after the wintry blasts of the Protestant Reformation.  He was, first and foremost, a churchman and he used every opportunity to advance the interests of the Church and it’s Catholic faithful.  He was also an Irishman, even if he might not have passed Tone’s and Davis’ tests of nationality (although, when there was a realistic chance of ridding Ireland of the English he gave O’Neill his full support), and he strove to protect the vital interests of the Irish nation and its people, Gaelic and Old English alike.  He was among the first to recognise that the old unanimity of Catholic Europe was broken and he used his great mind to make some accommodation with the new Protestant states – in effect treating heretics as equals, a totally new concept for the papacy.  He was not averse to using warfare (O’Neill) when that course of action seemed profitable but he was moderate and conciliatory (James) when O’Neill was defeated.  He was one of the first to see the coming of the secular state and he had the capacity for genius that is granted to few men – the capacity to break free from the shackles of his upbringing and to make that imaginative leap forward in time - to an age that had yet to come. 

        He deserves better than to remain in obscurity among his fellow citizens.

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