1 In 1415 Ireland was represented in the General Council of Constance. Patrick Ragged, Bishop of Cork, was present; 1 and Nicholas Fleming, Archbishop of Armagh, sent William Purcel to appear there as his proctor.2 An event which occurred in the East, at a more advanced period of the century, created a profound sensation even in the British isles. Some of the pilgrims, who visited Rome in 1451 to celebrate the jubilee, did not return till two years afterwards; and they then brought with them the melancholy tidings that Constantinople had just been captured by the Turks. This event was supposed to be the harbinger of unutterable woes. to Christendom. Michael Tregury, Archbishop of Dublin, was so alarmed by the intelligence that he proclaimed a fast to be strictly kept throughout his diocese for three days. together; granted indulgences of one hundred years to the observers of it; and, clothed in sackcloth and ashes, walked to Christ Church before his clergy in solemn procession.5 Recent occurrences were well fitted to inspire anxiety, for pestilence and famine had lately been sweeping away many of the people. In 1447 seven hundred ecclesiastics are said to have fallen victims to the plague. Dublin suffered greatly from the terrible visitation. Epidemics now proved very fatal; and one of the most disastrous on record ravaged the country a few years before the death of Henry VII,8 At this period the deepest darkness brooded over Western Christendom. Alexander VI., the reigning Pontiff, was a monster of iniquity; and multitudes of the Bishops followed too closely his example. The Church of Ireland, which once shone so brightly in the spiritual firmament, was now blank 1 Cotton's Fasti, i. 220. 2 Harris's Ware, i. 85. 3 Constantinople fell in May 1453. 4 There were instances in which the penance imposed extended far beyond the term of human life; and, in cases of this kind, such indulgences might meet the difficulty. 5 Harris's Ware, i. 341. 6 Some say 700 priests. See Haverty, p. 325. Nearly a century before, or in 1349, Ireland suffered dreadfully from a plague. See Clyn's Annals. Introd. vi. xxiv. 7 "It is difficult to get an account of the innumerable multitudes that died in Dublin of that plague.”—Annals of Ireland, from 1443 to 1468, p. 218. 8 This plague, which visited the country in 1504-5, was followed by a famine.— Macgeoghegan, p. 378. as a fallen star. The people were degraded and demoralized, and little above the condition of savages. There was no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. Strangers had entered into her palaces, and devoured her pleasant fruits. Her chieftains were almost continually at war, "living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another." Her independence was gone, and her Parliament was the merest mockery of a legislature. It represented only the English and Anglo-Irish of the Pale; and all its acts were dictated by the British government. She had now no Patrick to go everywhere throughout her borders preaching the Word; no Columbkille filled with the spirit of missionary enterprize; no Columbanus to protest against the errors of Rome. What could be expected from the lower orders of her clergy when so many of her Bishops wallowed in licentiousness, or girded on the sword and marched to the battle-field to fight for the enslavement of the people! Surely we have now reached the very midnight of Ireland's history. As we grope our way through her obscure annals, and as we see no signs of coming reformation, well may we ask, with the prophet, "O Lord, how long?" But this darkness is not to endure for ever. The light of a better day shall at length dawn; and though a cloudy and tempestuous morning may still hide the beams of the Great Luminary from many a lovely glen, all Ireland shall yet rejoice in His glorious radiance. CHAPTER I. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. A.D. 1509 TO A.D. 1547. IN the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII., the Earl of Kildare was Viceroy of Ireland. This nobleman died in 1513; and was succeeded in office by his son Gerald, who, for a few years afterwards, administered the government of the country. At this period the Pale was confined within very narrow limits. It embraced only about one half of the counties of Louth, Meath, Dublin, and Kildare:1 and the majority of its inhabitants were an Irish-speaking population. The territories of several of the great Irish, or AngloIrish chiefs, were not much inferior in geographical dimensions; and some of them ruled over districts even more extensive. The Earl of Kildare had vast estates, including some of the strongest castles in the kingdom; and so formidable was his influence, that he could embarrass the government itself when it ventured to provoke his opposition. The possessions of the Earl of Ormond extended over Tipperary and Kilkenny; the Earl of Desmond and his kinsmen had Kerry, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford; and the head of the O'Neills claimed dominion over a large part of Ulster. These dynasts exercised the rights of sovereignty; their lands yielded little, if any, revenue to the Crown; and the 3 1 According to some, part of Wexford now belonged to the Pale. See Haverty, P. 349, note. Meath included Westmeath; and Dublin, Wicklow. See Senchus Mor., vol. i., pref. v., note. Haverty, p. 349, note. See also Kelly's Dissertations on Irish History, p. 339, note. Dublin, 1864. 3 Moore, iii. 252. Ibid. iii. 252. |