As to the right of inheritance and fucceffion of the lordfhip of Ireland, they pronounced the marriage of the king with Catharine of Arragon to be null and void, and the fentence of feparation by the archbishop of Canterbury to be good and effectual. They declared the inheritance of the crown to be in the king and his heirs by Queen Ann (of Boleyn): they made it high treafon to oppose this fucceffion, misprifion of treason to flander it; and appointed an oath of allegiance to be taken by the subjects of Ireland for the fure establishment of it under the penalties of mifprifion of treason. But scarcely had this act been paffed, when intelligence arrived of the condemnation and death of Ann Boleyn, and the marriage of the king with the Lady Jane Seymour. With the fame cafe and compliance with Henry's withes, they followed the fervile corruption of the English parliament, and instantly repealed their late act, and passed an act of attainder on the late Queen Ann, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton, who had been accused as accomplices in the supposed guilt of that unhappy lady. Both the former marriages of Henry were by this new act declared null and void the fucceffion was new modelled, and declared to be in the king and his heirs by the Lady Jane, his then queen; and, in default of such heirs, the king was empowered to difpofe of the inheritance of the lordship of Ireland (as of the crown of England) by letters patent, or by will. Other acts were made for the encrease of the king's revenue, and the internal regulation of the Pale. The ufual fubfidy of 13s. 4d. on every plough land was granted for ten years. The lands and honors of the Duke of Norfolk and other abfentees were vefted in the king, and one twentieth part of every spiritual promotion was granted to him for ever. All penfions paid by the king's fubjects to any Irish fept were utterly abolished; the ancient laws against marrying and foftering with the Irish were revived in all their feverity; and the ufe of the English order of living, habit, and language, were ftrictly enforced throughout the Pale. It was provided, that no ecclefiaftical preferment fhould be conferred on any, who did not fpeak the English language, unless after three folemn proclamations none fo qualified could be. found; that an English school should be kept in every parish; and that fuch as could not pay for the education of their children at fuch school, should be obliged to employ them from the age of ten years in trade or husbandry. To prevent wafte of lands, either by the fuppreffion of monafteries or attainder of rebels, commiffioners were appointed to grant leafes of all crown lands; lands; and others for pardoning any perfons concerned in the late rebellion, who fhould fubmit within a given time, except fuch as had been attainted by These were named in the very first act of this parliament, intituled, An act for the attainder of the Earl of Kildare and others. name. Such were the laws which this corrupt and fervile parliament paffed to gratify the refentment, luft, avarice, and ambition of Henry.* Ingenuity could not have devised a collection of laws more emphatically calculated to render the English power contemptible and odious to the Irish nation. This policy of the English, to difcourage all connexion of the colony with the native Irish, it has been lately obferved,† was not " to be reconciled to any "principle of found policy: it was a declaration of perpetual war, not only against the native Irish, but against every person of English blood, who "had fettled beyond the limits of the Pale, and' from motives of perfonal "intereft or convenience had formed connections with the natives, or adopted "their laws and customs; and it had the full effect, which might have been "expected: it drew clofer the confederacy it was meant to diffolve, and im" plicated the colony of the Pale in ceafelefs warfare and contention with "each other, and with the inhabitants of the adjacent districts." As the religion profeffed by thofe within and those without the Pale was at this time one and the fame in every respect, an observation of the fame illuftrious perfonage, to whofe authority I have juft referred, applies indifcriminately to both; it was equally hopeless and impolitic to call upon the people at once to abjure the religion of their ancestors, and to fubfcribe to new doctrines. Accordingly, fays Dr. Leland,§ the laws for the regulation of the Pale, and even thofe which declare the right of fucceffion to the throne, were received without oppofition. But those relative to ecclefiaftical jurisdiction had all the violence of religious enthusiasm to encounter. The Romish party had collected their adherents, and were prepared for a vigorous contention. The two proctors from each diocefe, who had ufually been fummoned to parliament, compofed a formidable body of ecclefiaftics, avowed * This tyrannical monarch had equally fubdued our own parliament in England, when he forced from them that iniquitous law, that gave to a royal proclamation the full effect of an act of par liament. + Speech of the Earl of Clare in the Irish House of Lords on the 10th February, 1800, p. 5. Same speech, p. 7. § 2 Lel. 165. adherents adherents to the holy fee. They claimed to be members of the legislative body, and to have a full right of fuffrage in every public question: it therefore became neceffary, before the act of fupremacy should be proposed, to define their rights. It was declared by a previous act, that their claim was prefumptuous and groundless; that they were fummoned merely as counfellors and affiftants, (as the King's judges and other learned men had decided) and that from the first day of that parliament they should be accepted and taken as counsellors and affiftants only, whofe affent and concurrence were by no means neceffary to any parliamentary transaction.* Although the partizans of Rome were thus deprived of the affistance of fo powerful a body, yet when the act of fupremacy came to be proposed, Lords and Commons joined in expreffing their abhorrence of the fpiritual authority affumed by the King, whilst the ministers of the royal party were equally determined in defence of it. Archbishop Browne took the first part in fupporting the propriety of this act, by fuch arguments as probably had their weight upon his own mind, and were more likely to influence his hearers, than those of greater force and folidity. He pleaded the authority of the Popes themselves against the ufurpation of Rome; fo that in afferting the king's fupremacy, he claimed no more than what Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, had granted to Lucius, the first Christian King of the Britons: but the argument he concluded with, was most likely to confound opposition ; he pronounced thofe, who made any difficulty of concurring with him, to have no right to be regarded or treated as loyal fubjects. † Fear ferved to * This act, intituled, An Act against Proctors to be any Member of the Parliament, was paffed, and by a retrospective operation from the first day of the feffions, difqualified this large body of two clergymen from each diocese, who had been regularly fummoned to parliament, from voting as they usually had at all times done. By the act they are affimilated to our English convocation, that usually meets at the fame time as the parliament. The reafon why the English members of the convocation had no vote in parliament was, that at that time they taxed themselves, and formed a fort of third estate, representing the ecclefiaftical property of the nation, which reason would give them a right to vote in the Irish parliament, because in that country there was no convocation. However, their expulfion from parliament, whether right or wrong, was to answer the defigns of Henry, and must have tended to irritate a nation, which ever held the minifters of their religion in the highest estimation. ↑ In this he adhered closely to the fpirit of the act, which makes the refufal to swear to the fupremacy an act of high treafon. This curious specimen of Archbishop Browne's eloquence is to be feen in Sir R. Cox, 1 vol. 249. allay the violence of fuch as could not be perfuaded; and the most deter→ mined partizans of Rome were obliged to referve themselves for a clandeftine oppofition to the execution of a law, which they could not prevent from being enacted. At this period of the Irish history, the whole Irish nation, within and without the Pale, was Catholic. Archbishop Browne and the other commiffioners, together with the ministers and royal party, whom they had gained over to the reformation, were the only Proteftants in the country. The hand of power was therefore called in to compel fubmiffion to these acts thus forced upon the nation. The royal party, who had poffeffed themselves of the reins of power within the Pale, aware of the confequences of their abufing it, ere the feffion was over, paffed a special act, to make it felony to attempt to invalidate any of the laws paffed during this feffion of the parliament. And no wonder, as Leland obferves, that to these vigorous counfels and decifions of the legislature, it was at this time peculiarly neceffary to add an extraordinary vigilance and activity in the field. It was obvious to foresee, that religious controversy must aggravate and protract the disorders fo long and fo grievously experienced in this country. Rightly then was it faid, *At this time a new fchifm arose, which has been the bane and peftilence of Ireland. The question of papal authority threatened to divide thofe, who had hitherto been moft united; and whilst the king's fubjects within the Pale, who difapproved the late regulations, were thus in danger of being feduced from their allegiance, at the fame time a new bond of union was formed amongst the old Irish chieftains. Formerly to their petty Septs (called nations) their views had ever principally been confined: then their temporal interefts were separate, and their mutual enmities frequent, fierce, and ranBut now the defence of their ancient religion was inculcated as the caufe of all, and afforded a new pretence for infurrection; a pretence which operated fo powerfully upon the Irish, that it seemed almost for the time to have abforbed the other numerous and heavy grievances, which Henry had accumulated upon their nation. Whoever makes the fair allowances for the workings of thofe principles and opinions, which have been inculcated into. corous. * Lord Clare's speech, 7. In this inftance we may be allowed to hope, that the noble Earl was lefs accurate in predicting the future than in rehearsing the past: for he continues, "It has "rendered her a blank amidst the nations of Europe, and will, I fear, long continue to retard her. progrefs in the civilized world." ་་ the the pliancy of early youth, and which in every stage of life have been enforced and revered as the firft concern of man; whoever views a people of high national honor, filled with the pride of ancestry, enthusiastically devoted to the minifters of their religion, of quick fympathy and thoughtless impetuofity; whoever confiders that a small number of invaders had, for centuries, claimed the fovereignty of the whole, and by force, oppreffion, and terror actually kept poffeffion of the felect parts of their country, must neceffarily perceive the effects which human nature, ever uniform in her operations, must have produced under these circumstances of provocation and oppreffion. Every part of the fyftem was calculated for ends diametrically oppofite to thofe of union. Archbishop Browne, the great agent of the Irish Reformation, found the utmoft difficulty even in the feat of government to counteract the fecret practifes of Cromer and his party. The very clergy of his cathedral oppofed his attempt to remove their images and relics, and had sent a special emiffary to Rome to exprefs their devotion to the holy father, and to implore his interpofition in fupport of his spiritual authority in Ireland. So ignorant were the Romish partizans of the inflexible and determined spirit of Henry, that they addreffed themselves to the Duke of Norfolk, and hoped by his mediation to divert the king from his fcheme of reformation in Ireland. Several of the most respectable incumbents of the diocese of Dublin chofe to refign their benefices rather than acknowledge the king's spiritual fupremacy: nor did the new regal archbishop dare to fill their vacancies, till he had confulted his patron Lord Cromwell. He repeated his complaints to this minifter of the difficulties he experienced from the ignorance and obftinacy of the clergy, with an infinuation, that he was * No motive that can be conceived to eftrange the Irish from the English at this time was omitted; nothing neglected that could tend to provoke infurrection, or enfure its punishment. The Irish annalifts tell us, that those who were commiffioned to enforce the spiritual supremacy of the king, feized the most valuable utenfils and furniture of the churches, which they exposed to fale without decency or referve. Lord Gray burnt the cathedral of Down, and destroyed the ancient monuments of the Saints Patrick, Bridget, and Columbkille. The crucifix of the abbey of Ballibagan, and the celebrated crozier believed to have belonged to St. Patrick, which the natives at all times held in great relative veneration, were indignantly committed to the flames as objects of fuperftitious idolatry. The violence done by one party to the feelings and favorite prepoffeffions of the other, fuperadded to numberless provocations and infults, produced collifions in the body politic that threatened its very existence. I 2 not |