The chiefs of the great court proceeded in 1542 to Greenwich Palace, where they formally presented Henry the crown of Brian and of Roderick. In exchange, patents of nobility were made out for them; and O'Neil, O'Brien, and Burke returned Earls of Tyrone, of Thomond, and of Clanrickarde. These new titles, and the new code which they announced, gave great dissatisfaction to the clans, who now began to understand on what business their chiefs had been summoned to Dublin. They truly foresaw that this was but the beginning of actual conquest; and, in fact, at the very time the new earls were inspecting their patents at Greenwich, Henry had before him a detailed project for the confiscation of the entire soil of Ireland, prepared for his consideration by the chief baron of his Dublin exchequer.* Confiscation and Protestantism were born at a birth in the fertile mind of the newly-elected King of Ireland. Whatever charges we can bring against the Catholic Plantagenets, they certainly never proposed wholesale confiscation. That was reserved for the Defenders of the Faith and Supreme Heads of the Church, by law established.

The election over, the crown fitted to the chosen head, the earls graciously dismissed to their homes, the first attempt to introduce the reformation begins. Archbishop Browne had been a Protestant from the time of his nomination by the king; and, in his zeal for the new doctrines, had more than once impeded his master's diplomacy. In 1538, he was reprimanded for his imprudence; the same year, he made a visitation of his province, accompanied by the chancellor and others. They extended their journey as far south as Clonmel, where

eignty in ancient Ireland. The authority of Albertus Magnus and Bartholomæus, on that occasion, was cited, for they had divided universal history thus:

"In the division of the world, Europe was subdivided into four great kingdoms-1. That of Rome; 2. That of Constantinople; 3. That of Ireland; 4. That of Spain; Whence it appears the King of England, being also King of Ireland, is one of the most ancient kings of Europe."

* Baron Finglas's "Breviate of Ireland," in Harris's Hibernica.

they were met by the Archbishops of Cashel and Tuam, and the Bishops of Leighlin, Ferns,. Lismore, "Immolacen," and Limerick. Browne preached; "his sermon finished," writes his friend the chancellor, "all the said bishops in all the open audience took the oath mentioned in the acts of Parliament, both touching the king's succession and supremacy before me, the king's chancellor; and divers others there present did the like." This statement, said to be copied from the original in the State Paper Office, is not borne out by Browne's reports of the same year, 1538, to Secretary Cromwell. He states, "I endeavor myself, and also cause others of my clergy, to preach the gospel of Christ, and set forth the king's cause; " with what success he does not say. The same year, Agard, an official, writes to Cromwell, that, "excepte the Archbishop of Dublin, only Lord Butler, the master of the rolls, Mr. Treasurer, and one or two more of small reputations, none may abide the hearing of it, (the king's supremacy,) spiritual, as they call them, or temporal."*

The burning of the "Baculus Jesus," this year, was a wanton and fruitless sacrilege. It was a relic which had been held in universal veneration from the earliest Christian times. Every Life of St. Patrick agrees in the tradition, that on his journey to Rome, it was given him by a hermit of the Tyrrhene Sea, as a staff which our blessed Redeemer himself had carried. Our earliest records notice it as existing at Armagh; that it was used to swear by, and to quell social war. Mailsheachlan, coming into the tent of the monarch, Thurlogh O'Brien, A. D. 1080, bearing this staff, induced him to turn back from an invasion of Leinster; in 1143, peace between Connaught and Ulster was ratified by an oath taken on this staff; in 1184, it was translated to Dublin, probably by Philip de Worcester; and so late as 1529, we find oaths taken "upon the holie Masebooke and the

*Correspondence cited in the Preface to the Obits and Martyrology of Christ Church: Dublin, (published by the Archæological Society,)

1844.

great relike of Erlonde, called Baculum Christi, in presence of the king's deputie, chancellor, tresoror, and. justice." The public destruction of this venerable relic was sure to be bruited abroad over the kingdom, and equally, to produce indignation and opposition. The politicians interposed to prevent the repetition of such indiscretions. In another letter, Browne writes that he has contradicted a rumor that he "intended to pluck down our Lady of Trim and other idols," although he adds, his heart well enough inclined him thereto.

At the "Great Court" of 1541, an abstract of the laws and ordinances of the Pale was made and decreed the basis of the future Irish code. One of these ordinances, thus confirmed, was in these words:

"I. That the church of Ireland shall be free and enjoy all its accustomed privileges.

"II. That the land of Ireland shall hereafter enjoy all its franchises and privileges, as it used to do before."

Notwithstanding these guaranties, the election of Henry was scarcely over when the reformers renewed their work. When asked their authority, they produced a commission "dated two years before," which constituted Dr. Browne and four others a tribunal of inspection and examination. Armed men attended them from church to church, hewing down the crucifix with their swords, defiling the sacred vessels, and defacing the monuments of the dead. "There was not," says the contemporary annalist, "a holy cross, nor an image of Mary, nor other celebrated image in Ireland," within the reach of the reformers, or near their fortresses, "that they did not burn." † The celebrated image at Trim, so

Cited in the Irish Commons' Journals, A. D. 1641. Of course "the Church of Ireland," in Henry VH.'s reign, could only mean the Holy Roman Catholic church.

"A. D. 1537. A heresy and a new error broke out in England, the effects of pride, vainglory, avarice, sensual desire, and the prevalence of a variety of scientific and philosophical speculations, so that the people of England went into opposition to the pope and to Rome. At the same time they followed a variety of opinions, and the old law of Moses, after the manner of the Jewish people, and they gave the title of Head of the Church of God to the king. There were enacted by the king

long respited, "which used to heal the blind, the deaf, the lame, and every disease in like manner," to which women in labor offered gifts, and all Ireland rendered respect, -was "burned" with the rest. "The image of Christ crucified, in the Abbey of Ballybogan," also suffered. Pilgrims were forbidden free passage through English districts and towns, and the favored shrines of the faithful were all swept into the treasury of Dublin. The commissioners declared that Henry's warrant directed them to "break in pieces, deform, and bear away the same, so that no fooleries of this kind might henceforth forever be in use in the said land." Nothing loath, they traversed the Pale, keeping well clear of less guarded ground. The churches of Dublin fell first under their iconoclastic fury. The relics of St. Brendan and St. Lawrence in Christ Church were burned. Of the statues

but one -the image of our Lady, placed over "Le Dame's Gate," escaped by being buried in the well of Whitefriars. Its contemporaries all perished. "The seven orders" of religious were expelled from three hundred and seventy houses by intimidation or actual force. The cathedrals of old Leighlin and Ferns shared the fate of St. Patrick's, the English being masters of those towns.

and council new laws and statutes after their own will. They ruined the orders who were permitted to hold worldly possessions, viz., monks, canons, nuns, and brethren of the Cross; and the four mendicant orders, viz., the Minors, the Preachers, Carmelites, and Augustinians. The possessions and living of all these were taken up for the king. They broke the monasteries. They sold their roofs and bells, so that there was not a monastery from Arann of the Saints to the Iccian Sea that was not broken and shattered, except only a few in Ireland, which escaped the notice and attention of the English. They further burned and broke the famous images, shrines, and relics of Ireland and England. After that they burned in like manner the celebrated image of Mary, which was at Ath-Truim, and the staff of Jesus, which was in Dublin, performing miracles from the time of Patrick down to that time, and which was in the hand of Christ while he was among men. They also made archbishops and sub-bishops for themselves; and although great was the persecution of the Roman emperors against the church, it is not probable that ever so great a persecution as this ever came from Rome hither. So that it is impossible to tell or narrate its description, unless it should be told by him who saw it." Annals of Ulster, commonly called "The Four Masters."

The gold, silver, and precious stones, gathered by the commissioners, is rated (by them) at £326 2s. 11d.; other stuffs "of superstition" at £1710 2s.; and one thousand pounds of wax tapers, at £20. When we consider the value of money in that age, this was no inconsiderable spoil from four out of the, then, numerous dioceses of the kingdom.* One of the most active of the commissioners was Chief Baron Finglass, who had prepared shortly before a "Breviate of the State of Ireland," in which he roughly estimates the strength of the Celtic chiefs; urges the policy of confiscating their lands, and offering their "settlement" to "young gentlemen of good family out of England." He goes into the details of this plunder very deliberately; and to him belongs the first suggestion of that series of confiscations which Elizabeth, the Stuarts, Cromwell, and William followed up; which Cecil, Raleigh, Bacon, Milton, and Clarendon advocated or defended; and which ceased only when there was nothing further left to confiscate. The wholesale civil confiscations were deferred till the churches were first stripped of their wealth. One robbery at a time was considered enough..

The monasteries and churches which stood beyond the Pale, and still enjoyed the protection of native chiefs, were partly donated to adventurers, "if they could conquer them," and the principal corporators of walled towns had the rest, in order to interest them in the progress of plunder. The northern abbeys (untouched for many years after) were vested in the Chichesters, Caufields, and renegade McDonnells; the southern were conferred on the Protestant Lord Butler, Sir John King, and others; the midland and western on the Dillons, Plunketts, Croftons, Taafes, and the Earls of Clanrickarde and Thomond. The corporate towns were also tempted with the spoils : Dublin got All Hallows and other houses; Drogheda got Mellifont; Limerick, Inniscattery; Clonmell, Wa

Original Report, Records Office, Dublin. Mant's Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

t "Breviate of Ireland," in Harris's Hibernica.

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