EDWARD, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, &c. &c. WHEREAS, our gracious Father, King Henry VIII. of happy memory, taking into consideration, the bondage and heavy yoke that his true and faithful subjects, sustained under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, as also the IGNORANCE the commonalty were in, how many FABULOUS STORIES AND LYING WONDERS misled our subjects in both our realms of England and Ireland, grasping thereby the means thereof into their hands, also DISPENSING WITH THE SINS OF OUR NATIONS, BY THEIR INDULGENCES AND PARDONS FOR GAIN, PURPOSELY TO CHERISH ALL ILL VICES, AS ROBBERIES, REBELLIONS, THEFTS, WHOREDOMS, BLASPHEMY, IDOLATRY, &c. He, our gracious Father, King Henry, of happy memory, hereupon dissolved all Priories, Monasteries, Abbeys, and other pretended religious houses, as being but nurseries for vice and luxury, more than for sacred learning; THEREFORE, that it might more plainly appear to the world, that those orders had kept THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL from his people, he thought it most fit and convenient, for the preservation of their souls and bodies, THAT THE HOLY SCRIPTURES SHOULD BE TRANSLATED, PRINTED, AND PLACED IN ALL PARISH CHURCHES WITHIN HIS DOMINIONS for his faithful subjects, to increase their knowledge of God and of our Saviour JESUS CHRIST. WE THEREFORE, for the general benefit of our well beloved subjects' understandings, whenever assembled together in the said several parish churches, either to pray or hear prayer sread, that they may the better join therein in unity, hearts and voice, have caused THE LITURGY AND PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH to be translated into our mother tongue of this our realm of England, according to the assembly of Divines within the same for that purpose. WE THEREFORE will and command, as also authorize you, Sir Anthony St. Leger, Knight, our Viceroy of that our kingdom of Ireland, to give special notice to all our clergy, as well Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, as others our secular parish Priests within our said kingdom of Ireland, to perfect, execute, and obey this our royal will and pleasure accordingly. (Hibernia Anglicana, vol. i. p. 289.) 1551, June 6. Sir James Crofts having succeeded the Lord Deputy St. Leger in the government of Ireland, wrote an earnest letter to Primate Dowdall, exhorting him to comply with the King's wishes respecting the reformation of his people, pleading the example of our Lord's submission to Cæsar, and the confession and practice of the early Bishops of Rome in this particular. Dr. Staples, Bishop of Meath, was the bearer of this letter; but the project terminated in a fruitless dispu tation between him and the Primate, who, although he held his elevated situation in opposition to the Pope, was too strongly attached to the reigning superstition not to look with horror on the proposals made to him. Soon after this conference, Archbishop Dowdall went into voluntary exile, where he remained until the death of King Edward VI. (Ware, vol. i. p. 351.) November 10. Dr. Robert Waucop died in a Convent of Jesuits at Paris. Pope Paul III. conferred the Archbishopric of Armagh on him during the life of George Dowdall, who held it by donation from King Henry VIII. Waucop, though blind from his youth, was a learned man. We find that he assisted at the Council of Trent as a Legate from the Pope, from whence arose the German Proverb— "Legatus cœcus ad oculatos Germanos.” "A blind Legate to the sharp-sighted Germans."* Doctor Waucop was the first who introduced the Jesuits into Ireland. See Note. 1552, September 2. John Bale was consecrated Bishop of Ossory in Christ Church, Dublin, not without opposition from such of the Clergy as were still inclined to Popery. He had been a Carmelite Friar, but was converted from his errors by a British Nobleman, and became an eminent promoter of the Reformation. His zeal in this good cause was celebrated in a Latin Epigram, which has been thus translated : Platin hath much revealed, but Luther more ; Bishop Williams's account of the Persecutions It is reported that in this year the Spaniards agreed to pay two thousand pounds per annum, for one and twenty years, for leave to fish on the Irish coast. (Hib. Ang. vol. i. p. 130.) *This may remind the reader of Ambrose Fisher, author of a most learned and peculiarly argumentative defence of the Liturgy. He was blind. His book, dedicated to Sir Robert Filmer, was published by John Grant, 1630. The following mottoes appeared in the title page: "Cæcorum mens oculatissima." Read him that never read for by this vise The blind leads thee to church who has thine eyes. Grant gives three Epitaphs upon him. In the first we read, Octo tamen vixit, non vidit nec ulli Mens oculata magis. Fisher was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. (See the Protestant Advocate, vol. ii. p. 136.) When the Sacrament was to be administered at the Consecration of this Prelate, he refused to communicate in the Wafer, or printed Paste, but caused a white Manchet to be set on the Altar. (Manuscript Tracts in Marsh's Library.) December 28. Hugh M'Nealoge, of Clandecoy, made his submission to the Lords Justices, and swore allegiance, agreeing and covenanting by indenture, to forfeit all if ever he relapsed. Whereupon the King granted him the Abbey of Carrickfergus, and liberty to keep three secular Priests, as also the Castle of Belfast. (Hib. Ang. vol. i. p. 293.) 1553. Queen Mary restores the Popish Bishops in England, and recalls Archbishop Dowdall from exilé to the Primacy of Ireland. March 20. The Bishop of Ossory was attacked in his palace at Kilkenny, by some Popish Priests, accompanied by a ruffian named Barnaby Boulger. They killed five of his servants before his face, but he saved himself by shutting the iron gates of his castle, where he defended himself till the sovereign of Kilkenny rescued him with a body of 400 men. He afterwards escaped into England, in the disguise of a sailor, and never returned to his See. April 29. Sir James Crofts was made Lord Deputy of Ireland. The first of the eleven articles of instruction to him and the council was, TO PROPAGATE THE WORSHIP OF GOD IN THE ENGLISH TONGUE, AND TO HAVE THE SERVICE TRANSLATED INTO IRISH FOR THOSE PARTS OF THE COUNTRY WHICH NEEDED it. (Hibernia Anglicana, vol. i. p. 290.) 1554, March 12. Archbishop Dowdall was, by letters patent, restored to his title of Primate of all Ireland, which King Edward had granted to George Browne, Archbishop of Dublin. June 29. By virtue of a Commission issued to Primate Dowdall, and William Walsh, elect Bishop of Meath, empowering them to deprive married Bishops and Clergy, George Browne, Archbishop of Dublin, Edward Staples, Bishop of Meath, Thomas Lancaster, Bishop of Kildare, and Robert Travers, Bishop of Leighlin, were deprived of their Sees. If these persecuted Prelates had each of them kept a seraglio of harlots, the utmost punishment to which they were liable by the Popish canons was a slight penance, which might have been commuted for money; but for throwing off one of the chief marks of the apostacy of the latter times, for entering into the holy state of matrimony, they were deprived of their Sees, and degraded. Marriage is said, by Saint Paul, to be honourable in all men. "No," says the Pope and his clergy, "there is a command of the Church against the marriage of Priests." "May we not reply to the Pope and his clergy, as our Lord did to the Scribes and Pharisees, in a parallel case, " Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." 1555. Primate Dowdall having, in the preceding year, held a Provincial Synod, in Drogheda, for the re-establishment of the Romish Faith, and the celebration of Mass being received in Dublin, caused a Jubilee to be observed all over Ireland. (Ware's Life of Dowdall.) 1556. A second Provincial Synod was held this year by the Archbishop of Armagh, in Drogheda, in which he gave liberty to husbandmen and labourers to work on certain festivals; he left them, however, an hundred and eighty-four holidays in the year, the direct consequence of whose observance was an abominable licentiousness of manners, and a famine every three or four years. In the month of May this year, 1556, the Cavanaghs and their accomplices invaded the north part of the county of Dublin, but the citizens repulsed them with great slaughter, and drove them into Powerscourt Castle which they pretended to defend, but upon the appearance of Sir George Stanley with supplies, they surrendered at mercy. Seventy-four of them were hanged at Dublin, and the rest were pardoned. But the Lord Deputy's enemies at court suggested to her Majesty that he had formerly made some rhymes ridiculing transubstantiation, and for that or some other reason he was soon recalled and Thomas Radcliff, Lord Fitzwalter, sent in his place. The new Lord Deputy, on Whitsunday and the Tuesday afterwards, took the usual oath on a Mass Book at the altar in Christ Church. The first article of the Queen's instructions to the Lord Deputy and Council, was, by their example and all good means possible, to advance the honour of God and the Catholic Faith, to set forth the honour and dignity of the Pope's Holiness and See, Apostolic of Rome, and from time to time, to be ready, with their aid and secular power, at the request of all spiritual ministers, TO PUNISH ALL HERETICS AND LOLLARDS, AND THEIR DAMNABLE SECTS, OPINIONS, AND ERRORS, and to assist the commissioners of the Legate, Cardinal Pole, which he designed to send into Ireland to visit the clergy, (Hib, Ang. vol. p. 303.) 1557, June 21. The Earl of Desmond made his submission; and on the 26th of the same month, the Lord Deputy was godfather to the Earl's son, whom he named James Sussex, and gave the child a chain of gold, and gave another chain and C a pair of gilt spurs to Dermot M'Carty, of Muskerry, whom he also knighted. (Hib. Ang. vol. ii. p. 307.) December 5. Hugh Curwin, Lord Chancellor, and Sir Henry Sidney, Treasurer at war, being appointed Lords Justices of Ireland, were on this day censed and sprinkled with holy water, and heard mass in Christ Church, when they were sworn into office and received the sword from Sir John Stanly, the Marshal. (Ibid. 306.) 1558, August 15. Primate Dowdall died in London, having gone thither to consult his party on the more effectual reestablishment of Popery in Ireland. November 10. Sir Henry Sidney was sworn a Lord Justice of Ireland. 17. Queen Mary died; and it is observable that though she was a very zealous Papist, yet the Irish were not quieter during her reign, than they were under her brother; but on the contrary, their ANTIPATHY AGAINST ENGLISHMEN AND GOVERNMENT induced them to be as troublesome then as atother times, and prevailed with captain Philip O'Sullivan, in his Catholic History of Ireland, (page 81) to give this severe character of her reign. Quæ tametsi Catholicam Religionem tueri et. amplificare conata est, ejus tamen Præfecti et Conciliorii injurias Ibernis inferre non destiterunt. (Hib. Ang. vol. ii. p. 309.) In a Compendium of Priest Taafe's History of Ireland, published in 1814, by one Lawless, a member of the late Popish board, is the following observation on Queen Mary's government of Ireland: (page 197.) "The Irishman should be taught to remember that the monopoly of the colony either in the robes of CATHOLICITY or PROTESTANTISM was equally savage, equally relentless, and equally insatiable." "Queen Mary having dealt severely with the Protestants in England about the latter end of her reign, signed a Commission for to take the same course with them in Ireland; and to execute the same with greater force, she nominates Dr. Cole one of the Commissioners. This Doctor coming with the Commission to Chester on his journey, the Mayor of that city hearing that her Majesty was sending a messenger into Ireland, and he being a Churchman, waited on the Doctor, who, in discourse with the Mayor, taketh out of a cloak-bag a leather box, saying unto him, "Here is a commission that shall lash "the Heretics of Ireland," (calling the Protestants by that title.) The good woman of the house being well affected to the Protestant religion, and also having a brother, named John Edmonds, of the same, then a citizen in Dublin, was much troubled at the Doctor's words; but watching her con |