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rather a firm and growing determination to wrench the church lands and the cathedrals out of the hands of their Anglican rivals.

Had the Protestants stood on even terms with them, superior energy might have asserted its supremacy by its own strength. Catholic landlords in the North preferred English tenants to their own people, when they felt in their purses the contrast between the improving stranger and the slovenly and unprofitable Celt; while every Irishman who conformed to Protestantism, adopted English habits, and became English in interest as well, finding himself divided by heresy from his countrymen, as effectually as if English blood was in his veins.

But the Catholics were one body. The Protestants to their misfortune were two. Of the Ulster settlers half were Scots and Presbyterians; and Scots in Down and Antrim followed the fashions of the new comers introduced by James; and, among the English undertakers, the Puritan element was powerfully present.1

The peculiar conditions of England had arrested the natural growth of the Reformation, and had created an ecclesiastical policy, which even at home was leading fast to civil war. The necessity of identical institutions had extended to Ireland the English forms, but they were forms which could assume a complexion either Catholic or Protestant. The colonists of the North had been chosen from the energetic middle classes in Scotland and England, who had small love for bishops and hated shams; and the bishops themselves, Archbishop Usher espe

1 Londonderry, which was built by the London Company, and settled by London people, was from

the first the most Puritan town in
Ireland.

CHAP.

II.

1608

I.

1607

BOOK cially, the Primate, were so generous in their sympathies, that but for the political ties which connected the established churches of England and Ireland, they would have brought about of their own accord a fusion with the Presbyterian congregations. In the Ulster settlement, for many years after its foundation, there was no practical distinction between Churchman and Dissenter. Both were alike Calvinists with a real belief, and there and there only Protestantism took root in the soil, and became aggressive, energetic, and strong.

The undertakers of Elizabeth in Munster and Leinster sprung from another class. They were the younger sons of the old country families; they had transported labourers from their fathers' lands, they had brought with them the feelings and habits of the country party at home. Their creed was traditional, and the main article of it was hatred of Puritans. They too called themselves Protestants, but the vital heat of Protestantism had never been kindled in their veins. The Anglicanism, which in England had a meaning, in Ireland was never more than a barren exotic; and, until the new comers in the North had introduced another spirit, the Church of Ireland had existed only as if to give point to the sarcasms of the Catholics. One of the Dublin churches was the Viceroy's stable. The choir of another was a tennis court, where the vicar acted as marker. The vaults of Christ Church were used as tap-rooms, where Catholics smoked, and drank, and jested; while the communion service, feeble counterfeit of the mass, was chaunted over their heads in the empty cathedral.1 When the feeling of religion revived, such a man as

1 Reid's History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

Usher was irresistibly drawn in the direction where life was showing itself.

The church theories of Laud and Charles, however, were not of the sort which would submit to be corrected by facts. The Episcopal Church of Ireland, it was said, was the Church of St. Patrick, holding the true Catholic faith, and administered by successors of the Apostles. When it was seen in its majesty, when it had cast out the accursed thing, the Genevan heresy, which denied the sacraments, Popery would bend before its authority, and acknowledge its claims. The sore spot was Ulster, and in Ulster the reforms were to commence. Two episcopalian Scots, Robert Echlin and John Leslie, were introduced into the sees of Raphoe and Down; Bramhall, a creature of Laud's, was sent to Derry; and the Act of Uniformity, which was left as a dead letter against the Catholics, was enforced against the Presbyterian ministers. They were required to obey the bishops, and introduce and use the English Liturgy. All who refused-all, that is, who were sincere and in earnest-were deprived of their cures. A High Commission Court sate in Dublin; canons were passed for ecclesiastical government; and dissent under any Protestant form was utterly prohibited. The Catholics were to be shown the true model of a church which contained all that was most precious in their own system, while it detested Calvinism as heartily as themselves.

A shipload of the expelled ministers sailed for New England to find there the liberty of conscience denied them in the Old World. The vessel was driven back by a storm. They re-landed, recovered courage, and dispersed among their people, where they continued privately to teach and preach. The Scots held sturdily

CHAP.

II.

1607

1633?

I.

1635

BOOK together, encouraged by the attitude of the English Parliament and the firm resolution among their people at home. Sterner measures became necessary. With the temper of England and Scotland growing critical, it became politically desirable to dragoon Ireland into a more submissive attitude. Ireland, if there were to be civil war, might be made at last useful to the crown, the very Catholic spirit of it promising for once to be of service, when Protestants were the enemies to be crushed.

It was with some such purpose that, in 1633, Wentworth, better known as Earl of Strafford, was appointed to the Irish viceroyalty. Promises had been already made to relax the Catholic disabilities. How much could be safely done in this way-what reforms could be introduced into the administration-how, above all things, Ireland's resources might be made available for the service of the crown, could be determined only on the spot by a competent judgment; and the ablest soldier and statesman on whom the King could rely gave his services for the purpose. Wentworth brought to Dublin with him a large intelligence, and the spirit of a great Englishman. In Church matters he carried out the views of Archbishop Laud. Laud's principles were, perhaps, really his own; at any rate, the enforcement of them seemed essential to his broad political aim. A commission was sent down into Ulster. Such ministers as could be found were arrested. A general oath was demanded of the settlers. They were required to abjure the Scotch Covenant and to swear implicit obedience to the King. To refuse was treated as treason. Multitudes fled into the woods to escape the visit of the commissioners. Some

went home to Scotland, others were sent to Dublin and imprisoned there. Wentworth, it seemed, was determined either to make them submit, or to drive them out of the country. Rebel in the presence of the Irish they could not; and when the choice lay between conformity and the loss of their estates, he perhaps considered that he might calculate safely on the result.

For Wentworth had not blinded himself to the value of the Anglo-Scotch settlement. He saw Ireland with the eye of a born ruler, and whatever concessions he might be prepared to make to conciliate Catholics, he understood perfectly that it was only by the presence of strong English colonies, laid down in the middle of them, that their rebellious spirit could be held in awe. He had no intention of opening a door for anarchy to burst out again; and his design was to carry the principles of colonization a step further, and settle Connaught as Ulster had been settled. North, south, and east, the English interest was now comparatively strong. Connaught was still Irish. Old abbeys continued unsuppressed in Mayo and Galway and Roscommon, the lands of which belonged in law to the crown. Few, if any, of the gentlemen had availed themselves of James the First's invitation to surrender their lands, and take them back under letters patent. They still held under the Irish custom of tanistry, and had no titledeeds to produce. The country lay waste, the habits of disorder continued unbroken. If Connaught were to become a useful province of the Empire-if, for one thing, it was to yield taxes, and the King's writ was to pass current there-the spell must be broken west of the Shannon, as it had been broken elsewhere.

CHAP.

II.

1636

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