descended to accept the title of earl of Tyrone. O'Brien, in like manner, sunk the pomp of his feudal name in the earldom of Thomond; De Burgo, whose family for many generations had laid aside the English manners, submitted to be known henceforward as Earl of Clanrickarde; the haughty chieftains O'Donel and Mac Carthy became earls respectively of Tyrconnel and Glencar; and the humility of some inferior potentates was content with the title of baron. Desmond renounced that fantastic privilege, on which his house, in imitation of the native lords, and the ancient warriors of Gaul and Germany, had so long insisted, of exemption from appearance within a walled town; he promised to attend parliament, and even to pay taxes, ay, as liberally as Ormond himself; he resumed his long unoccupied seat at the council board, and assisted the lord deputy in receiving submissions. Others gave still more unequivocal proofs of loyalty. The chieftain of Tyrconnel, whose family was well known both at Rome and Paris, resisted the artifices by which Francis the First endeavoured to seduce him into a revolt; and, when the son of that Fitzpatrick, whose ambassador had formerly amused the king with his threats of war, was detected in some treasonable practices, he was delivered up to public justice by

* The house of Ormond was the great rival of the Desmonds, or rather indeed, their natural enemy; being as generally on the side of the crown, as the others were in opposition. — The Whigs and Tories of those days held their debates in the field.

the hands of his own father. In fine, for the first time recorded in her annals, Ireland was now at peace under one acknowledged sovereign. So universal was the tranquillity, that a considerable body of troops was spared for the king's service before Boulogne, where an Irishman had the honour of defeating the French champion; and another force of three thousand men was sent into Scotland to the aid of the Lord Lenox.* Even the great feud between the two races was forgotten for a season; and, while English and Irish crowded together from all quarters of the island, to receive law from the throne, the loyal impulse with which they were animated, seemed already to have borne its most appropriate fruits, in the feeling of a common country and the kindly affections of neighbourhood.

[1543] This unanimity is the more remarkable, as being in defiance of the denunciations of the Vatican. Eight years had now elapsed since Paul the Third passed final sentence upon Henry;

that terrible thundering bull,' as it is called by a Roman Catholic †, in which he not only dethroned the sturdy monarch, but pronounced him infamous, cut him off from Christian burial, and doomed him

to eternal curse and damnation.' The interval had been employed, with all the vigilance and skill of the papacy, in endeavouring to prepare a for

* Leland, ii. 182. 186.

Father Peter Walsh. History of Irish Remonstrance, Introduction, xi.

midable opposition to the tardy movements of the Irish government. Chronicles had been discovered or invented, in which Ireland was called the Holy Island; and thence was drawn a convincing argument, that the country belonged to the holy see. Instructions had been issued to the bishops in the Roman interest, that an oath of allegiance to the pope, in all things, spiritual and temporal,' should be administered to the people at the time of confession: curses had been denounced against all, who should acknowledge the impious claims of Henry; and indulgences offered, to the faithful followers of the pontiff. The inexhaustible storehouse of prophecy, which Rome possesses among her other spiritual treasures, was opened on this great occasion; and an effort was made to stimulate the warlike propensities of the chieftains, by placing them in the Thermopyla of the catholic cause. But all these appeals, whether to super

* Cox, 257.

The following letter was written to O'Neil by the bishop of Metz, in the name of the council of Cardinals:

'My Son O'Neil,

Thou and thy fathers were ever faithful to the mother church of Rome. His holiness Paul, the present pope, and his council of holy fathers, have lately found an ancient prophecy of one saint Lazerianus, an Irish archbishop of Cashel. It saith, that the church of Rome shall surely fall, when the Catholic faith is once overthrown in Ireland. Therefore, for the glory of the mother church, the honour of saint Peter, and your own security, suppress heresy, and oppose the enemies of his holiness. You see, that when the Roman faith perisheth in Ireland, the see of Rome is fated to utter destruction. The council of cardinals have, therefore, thought it necessary, to

stition or to enthusiasm, proved unsuccessful: it was too obvious, that the opposition of Rome and its partizans was nothing more than a struggle for temporal dominion, and not a sword was drawn in the quarrel of the ecclesiastics.*

There is good reason to believe, that, had Ireland been in any other stage of its social progress, the papal party would have been easily overthrown. Few affect to deny, that, if the great mass of the people had been somewhat more elevated above their ancient habits and prejudices, the Reformation would have made more considerable advances : perhaps it is equally probable, that, had their feudal attachments remained unimpaired, they would have followed, without inquiry, the example of their lords, and passed on insensibly, in course of time, from political to religious Protestantism. But, unhappily, the Reformation was introduced, precisely at the juncture, when the old system of clanship was beginning to moulder away; a system, for

animate the people of the holy island, in this pious cause: being assured, that, while the mother church hath sons of such worth as you, and those who shall unite with you, she shall not fall, but prevail for ever, in some degree at least, in Britain.

Having thus obeyed the order of the sacred council, we recommend your princely person to the protection of the holy Trinity, of the blessed Virgin, of saint Peter, saint Paul, and all the host of heaven. Amen.'. Leland, ii. 172.

O'Conor has fully proved, in opposition to Leland, that O'Neil's insurrection, which was terminated by the battle of Bellahoe, was a predatory adventure, not a religious war. Historical Address, i. 23.

which it is so difficult to find a substitute, among a half-employed and half-civilized population. The dissolution of it, however necessary to the perfect settlement of the country, and to the final triumph of liberty and law, was unseasonably urged, at a time, when another most important measure was giving full employment to the utmost energies of the state. Two evils arose from this precipitancy. One was, that the nobles became distrustful, at the very crisis when their cordial co-operation was most necessary scarcely had they testified their unanimous satisfaction at the reduction of a rival power, when they discovered the intention of the government to complete its work of conquest, by the demolition of their own.* It was another, and a greater misfortune, that the multitude, left to themselves, while, as yet, they were incapable of selfdirection, were now in a state of destitution, not of liberty. The sense of their own helplessness, awakened by this new condition, was a kindred consciousness to that panic alarm, with which superstition haunts its victims; and, under the combined influence of these two feelings, it is no wonder that they threw themselves into the hands of their priests, the only hands which were extended to

* I am glad to find that my view of the subject concurs with that of Dr. O'Conor. Down to the accession of the house of Stuart,' he says, there was yet remaining amongst the common Irish, a spirit of clanship, which operated most powerfully to subordination. This was gradually eradicated, and no adequate principle substituted in its stead.'- Historical Address, Introduction, xxviii.