In April 1653, Inchiquin had attended a meeting of the Privy Council to decide the King's reaction to the recent activities of John Callaghan, an Irish clergyman and Doctor of Theology at the University of Paris. The brief notes made from the meeting by Sir George Lane, secretary to the Marquis of Ormond, relate that the latter spoke to the King regarding the ‘words said to have been spoken by the said Doctor to the Chancellor of France [Mathieu Molé]’, namely that ‘his Majesty would give power to assure the pope that he will turne Roman Catholic as soon as he shall receive such assistances from him’. Callaghan flatly denied these claims once confronted by Ormond, claiming that he had been given no commission to treat in such a manner nor had he even spoken to the French chancellor. Callaghan's supposed proposal to Molé arose at a particularly sensitive moment: in that same month, the Court had begun to draw up a series of instructions to be given to Callaghan for the purpose of guiding his negotiations in Rome on the King's behalf.