SECTION IV.

Dissolution of Monasteries. Ineffectual recommendation for some to be continued. Twenty-four of the higher class suppressed. Letters patents, ordering inquiry concerning Images and Reliques, and other monastick property. Provision for Parish Churches deprived of Divine Serrice. King of England declared by Parliament King, instead of Lord, of Ireland. Effect of King's supremacy in nomination to Bishopricks. Provision for improvement of Religion. Death of Archbishop Cromer. Dowdall appointed by the King to succeed him. Death of King Henry the Eighth. Effect of his reign on the Irish Church.

monasteries.

MEANWHILE the dissolution of the monasteries, Dissolution of. which had been commenced at an earlier period, was vigorously prosecuted, and effected to a large extent.

ment,

During his occupancy of the see of Dublin, about Its commencethe year 1528, Archbishop Alan had been one of Cardinal Wolsey's instruments in procuring the dissolution of forty of the lesser monasteries'. Subsequently other abbeys and religious houses had been suppressed, and their property given to other persons by the king's letters patent, or vested in the crown by Act of Parliament, the provision of a yearly pension being made for their respective chief go

vernors'.

Thus in the Loftus MS., Marsh's Library, under and progress. 1536, it is stated, that "this year the religious houses and monasteries in Ireland were granted to the king, by the authority of parliament, to the number of three hundred and seventy: the yearly value whereof amounted to 32,000l., and their

WARE'S Bishops, p. 347.

2 Irish Stat, 28 Henry VIII,, c. 16.

their suppres

sion.

1537.

1538.

Ineffectual recommendation

tion of some religious houses.

moveables were rated at 100,000l." However this be, it is certain that, in 1537, as appears from a Commissions for letter to the Lord Privy Seal, Cromwell, from the Lord Deputy, and Brabazon the Vice Treasurer3, by virtue of a commission under the great seal of England, and according to the king's pleasure, the Irish government had then lately suppressed eight abbeys, named in the commission, and had effected the assurance to the king of the lands and possessions formerly appertaining to them. And, in 1538, a report was made of a commission for the suppression of all abbeys, which called forth a recommendation from the Lord Deputy and council, that "six for the preserva- houses should stand and continue, changing their clothing and rule in such sort and order, as the king's grace should will them: which are named St. Mary Abbey, adjoining to Dublin, a house of white monks; Christ's Church, a house of canons, situate in the midst of the city of Dublin; the nunnery of Grace Dieu, in the county of Dublin; Connal, in the county of Kildare; Kenlys and Gerepont, in the county of Kilkenny. For in those houses commonly, and other such like, in default of common inns, which are not in this land, the king's deputy, and all other his grace's council and officers, also Irishmen, and others resorting to the king's deputy in their quarters, is and hath been most commonly lodged at the costs of the said houses. Also in them young men and children, both gentlemen children, and other, both of mankind and womenkind, be brought up in virtue, learning, and in the English tongue, and behaviour, to the great charges of the said houses; that is to say, the womenkind of the whole Englishry of this

Their alleged advantages.

3 State Papers, vol. ii. part iii. p. 438.

land, for the more part, in the said nunnery, and the mankind in the other said houses. And in the said house of St. Mary Abbey hath been the common resort of all such of reputation, as have repaired. hither out of England. And in Christ's Church, parliaments, councils, and the common resort, in term time, for definitions of matters by judges and learned men, is, for the most part, used.

For which causes, and others moved and reasoned amongst the council, it was thought, the king's most gracious pleasure standing therewith, more for the common weal of this land, and the king's honour and profit, that the said six houses, changing their habits and rules, after such sort as shall please the king's majesty, should stand, than the profits that should to the king's grace grow by their suppres

sion"."

Mary's Abbey.

A petition to the same effect, relative to their Petition from St. own house, was sent to the Lord Privy Seal by the abbot and convent of St. Mary, pleading, amongst other things, that "verily they were but stewards and purveyors to other men's uses, for the king's honour: keeping hospitality, and many poor men, scholars, and orphans'.

But no concession appears to have been made to this recommendation and petition. Accordingly, we find most of the superiors of the houses just enumerated in the list of those abbots and priors, who upon assurance of pensions during their respective lives, as provided by the late Act of Parliament, began now to surrender their religious houses to the king. The number of those surrendered was very great; and it would be tedious to particularise them: but, Ib., p. 142.

• State Papers, vol. iii. part iii. p. 130.

the higher order

suppressed.

1539.

besides others of inferior note, a catalogue is here Twenty-four of annexed of no less than twenty-four monasteries of a higher class, which are recorded to have been suppressed in 1539; and of which the fourteen abbots and ten priors were lords of parliament, and entitled to a seat and suffrage amongst the spiritual peers. On this occasion, the prior and convent of the Holy Trinity, in Dublin, were converted and changed, as expressed by the charter, into a dean and chapter; the new foundation, which has been since known by the name of Christ Church, being confirmed by the king in possession of the ancient estates and immunities".

The following is a list of the governors of religious houses, whose abbeys and priories were suppressed, as above stated.

Baltinglass,

Jeripont,

St. Mary Abbey, near Dublin, Wony, alias Wethney, same

county,

Rossglass, alias Monaster

these abbeys and

Of the abbeys here named, all belonged to the Orders to which Cistercian order, except that of St. Thomas, near priorics belonged. Dublin, and that of Rathto, or Rattoo, which belonged respectively to the orders of St. Victor, and of Aroacia. All the ten priories belonged to the regular canons of St. Augustin, except that of St. John of Jerusalem; those of Christ's Church and All Saints', Dublin, which belonged to the regular canons of Aroacia; and that of St. Patrick, Down, which belonged to the Benedictines.

means sometimes

If, however, a voluntary surrender of a monastery Compulsory was refused, compulsory means appear to have been resorted to. enforced against the recusant. Thus, when Manus O'Fihily, the last abbot of St. Mary's, Thurles, would not surrender, he was carried a prisoner to Dublin, where he suffered a long confinement®.

universal.

Still an entire dissolution of these establishments Dissolution not was not effected at the present time. For so we are informed by Sir John Davies, who, in his account of Ireland, written in the reign of King James the First, remarks, that "the abbaies and religious houses in Tirone, Tirconnell, and Fermanagh, though they were dissolved in the 33rd year of King Henry the Eighth, were never surveyed nor reduced into charge, but were continually possest by the religious persons, until his majesty, that now is, came to the crown"."

On the 3rd of February, in the 30th year of the king, being the year of our Lord 1539, letters patents under the privy seal were issued to William Brabazon, sub-treasurer of Ireland, together with John Aleyn, chancellor; George, archbishop of Dublin; Robert Cowley, master of the rolls; and Thomas Cusak, Esq., appointing, amongst other things, "that ® GROSE's Irish Antiq., ii. 85. Edit. 1747, p. 253.

9

Letters patents tion concerning reliques.

for an investiga

images and

Feb. 1539.