situated among the English.1 the English. Many of the churches were actually in ruins. In 1525 the Earl of Kildare informed the King of the extreme decay of religious buildings in Kilkenny and Tipperary,2 and in 1516, in a report made to the Pope on the diocese of Clonmacnoise, it was stated that the cathedral was roofless and had but one altar covered with thatch, and a small sacristy. A similar report on Ardagh, in 1517, showed that the annual income of the see was only 10 ducats, and that the bare walls of the church alone were standing. The same year the cathedral of Ross was shown to be in a similar plight.3 Though no general charge of immorality has been made against the Irish monasteries, Catholic historians admit certain abuses in the Church itself. The prelates seem often to have neglected their duties, the clergy did not instruct or preach to the people,4 and there was a deficiency of schools.5 The mendicant orders, however, were active preachers, and they alone seem to have had any influence with the people. They professed no obedience to bishops, but always maintained a peculiarly close connection with the Holy See. During the Middle Ages, the Popes had supported the authority of the English Crown in Ireland, but Henry VIII's ecclesiastical policy necessitated a different attitude. The friars, as loyal adherents to the Papacy, became openly and vigorously hostile to the King, and it was largely due to their influence that the Reformation was a failure.7

The Church policy of Henry in Ireland was in line with that which he carried out at home, for after the declaration of the royal supremacy in 1535 there was some danger of a Catholic reaction in England, and in Ireland "Silken Thomas" in rebellion had boldly invoked the authority of the Pope.8 A royal commission was appointed in 1535, which included George Browne, consecrated Archbishop of Dublin the same year, to persuade the upper classes in Ireland to acknowledge the King's supremacy over the Irish Church. As the work of this body was ineffective,9 taking advantage of the prestige gained by the Crown through the defeat

1 Statute of Kilkenny (ed. Hardiman), xiii, xiv.

2 See p. 88.

3 Theiner, Vetera Monumenta Hibernorum, pp. 518, 521, 529. For other instances of the dissolution of the churches, poverty of sees, depopulation of parishes and difficulty of collecting episcopal and other annates, see Coleman's Introduction to Costello's De Annatis Hibernia (1400-1535).

4 See p. 85.

5 Richey, op. cit. p. 295.

See a Papal Bull of 1317, quoted in Sir J. Gilbert's Account of Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland, p. 105.

7 "The friars and priests of all the Irishry . . . do preach daily, that every man ought, for the salvation of his soul, fight and make war against our Sovereign Lord the King's Majesty and if any of them. . . die in the quarrel, his soul, that so shall be dead, shall go to Heaven, as the soul of SS. Peter, Paul and others, which suffered death and martyrdom for God's sake ""The Confession of Thomas Lynch of Galway, merchant, late being in O'Donnell's country with a ship of wines " (1539), S.P. Hen. VIII, III. 141. * See p. 22. 9 See p. 121.

of the Geraldines, the Parliament of the Pale was summoned, and various Acts were passed by which Henry became head of the Church. These changes, effected by legislation, being chiefly of a political character, were at first received in Ireland with comparative indifference, for extensive grants of ecclesiastical lands were made at the same time to the chieftains, and the people at large were not at first aware of the significance of what had happened.

2

The "Form of the Beads," an exposition of the royal supremacy drawn up by Archbishop Browne for the benefit of his clergy, was the only doctrinal pronouncement of this time. The attitude of the proctors in Parliament,3 however, foreshadowed a general opposition from the clergy at large. Browne was from the beginning an unpopular agent of the royal policy, and his exhortations went unheeded. Even the clergy of his own diocese flouted his authority, and he sent many complaints of their conduct to Thomas Cromwell, who was his patron.4

As in England, the suppression of the monasteries formed part of the King's policy. By the Act for the Suppression of Abbeys (1537), fourteen religious houses were dissolved by name. Before this, eight abbeys had been suppressed by royal commission. In 1539 another commission provided for the dissolution of all monasteries and for the confiscation of their property.5 On the 20th May, 1540, a commission was issued to survey and value the rents and revenues of dissolved houses, and to grant estates on leases of twenty-one years. The plate, jewels and other ornaments of the monasteries were reserved to the Crown, while pensions were to be granted to conventual persons.6 By the Act for the Suppression of Kilmainham and other religious Houses (1542),7 the property of all monasteries which had already surrendered was vested in the King. Before the end of 1541, nearly all the religious houses in English districts had been dissolved. In Irish districts, however, where the royal authority was merely nominal, many of the monasteries remained standing and the old

The Act of the Supreme Head; The Act of Appeals; The Act of the First Fruits (see pp. 121-2); An Act against the Authority of the Bishop of Rome, which required an oath from office holders and others renouncing the Pope's jurisdiction; An Act for the Twentieth Part, by which the twentieth part of the profits of all spiritual promotions was to be paid yearly to the King for ever; An Act for the Suppression of Abbeys, and so on (28 Hen. VIII, cc. 13, 14, 16, etc.).

* See p. 123.

5 See 126.

P.

3 See pp. 121-2.
6 See p. 126.

4 See pp. 124-5.

7

33 Hen. VIII, c. 5.

8 Wilson, op. cit. p. 277. For a list of monasteries and abbeys, names of founders, date of foundation and names of grantees, see Ware's Antiquities (ed. Harris), ch. 38; also Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum. The number of Irish monasteries at the time of the dissolution has been variously estimated as between 350 and 600. Financially the Crown benefited very little by the dissolution. The personal property of the monks has been valued at £100,000, but the amount actually realised fell short of £3,000.-See Wilson, op. cit. pp. 146–7, 280.

services continued to be performed up to the time of James I.1 Monastic lands were given as a matter of policy to both English and Irish. The Earls of Desmond, Thomond and Clanrickarde, received large numbers of abbeys and benefices; O'Neill and O'Donnell also received grants. Both St. Leger and Brabizon acquired abbeys near Dublin. The citizens of the capital received the Priory of All Saints, later the site of Trinity College, for their loyalty during the rebellion of "Silken Thomas." 2 The dissolution of the monasteries-as in England-often meant the destruction of centres of hospitality and education, and deprived many parishes of adequate means of supporting resident clergy.3 Monastic lands, in consequence, must often have gone out of cultivation, and these were said to have been the best cultivated lands in the island.4

As time progressed the feelings of the people were rudely violated by the destruction of a number of sacred relics and images. The Staff of Jesus, the supposed crosier of St. Patrick, preserved in Christ's Church, Dublin, was publicly burnt. The image of the Blessed Virgin at Trim and the Crucifix of Ballybogan in Westmeath were also destroyed. The state of public feeling may be partly surmised from the fact that riots took place in which several persons lost their lives.5

During Edward VI's reign the Reformation in Ireland made small progress. Protestant bishops were appointed only in places where the Government could protect them, and as no Parliament was summoned, no fresh legislation was passed. In February, 1551, St. Leger received a mandate from the King for the introduction of the English Prayer Book into Ireland, and on Easter Day the English Liturgy was first read in Christ's Church, Dublin. The same year two doctrinal conferences of the clergy were summoned, as a result of which Archbishop Dowdall, the Primate, and some of the bishops seceded.7 Dowdall was deprived of the Primacy (Oct., 1551) and the office was promptly bestowed upon Archbishop Browne. Mary restored Dowdall to his see, and filled vacant bishoprics with other persons who favoured her views. Lord Fitzwalter, the Deputy, was instructed in April, 1556, to do everything to further the Catholic faith,9 and in a Parliament held in Dublin 1556-7, an Act was passed repealing all statutes and pro

See Sir John Davies's account of monasteries standing in Tyrone, Donegal and Fermanagh. Discovery, pp. 255-6. See also Cal. State Papers Ireland (1588-92), PP. 495-500; (Mar.-Oct., 1600), p. 274.

For grants of ecclesiastical estates see the Cal. of Fiants pr. as an appendix to the 7th Rep. Dep. Keeper Public Records, Ireland.

3 33 Hen. VIII, c. 14. 4 Wilson, op. cit. p. 151. 5 Wilson, op. cit. p. 282. See pp. 129-30. The Prayer Book of Edward VI was printed in Dublin, 1550-1, and was the first book ever printed in Ireland. No Irish edition seems to have been issued

until the beginning of the seventeenth century.

7 For an account of these conferences, see Mant, op. cit. pp. 195-211. 8 Cal. Patent Rolls, Ireland (ed. Morrin), I. 250.

9 See p. 132.

visions made against the See Apostolic of Rome since the twentieth year of Henry VIII. Although Mary was a good Catholic, she did not renounce her supremacy over the Church. She leased out abbey lands to laymen without a thought of their restoration, and styled herself, "Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and on earth Supreme Head of the Churches of England and Ireland." 2

Shortly after the accession of Elizabeth, in a Parliament held in Dublin in 1560, the supremacy of the State over the Church was re-established. First Fruits were restored to the Crown, and the power of appointing bishops was vested in the Queen. The Act of Uniformity restored the Prayer Book, and enacted that clergy who would not conform, and laymen who did not attend church, should be fined.3 Legislative enactments were, however, useless in themselves as a means to convert the Irish people. No systematic attempt was made to hold services in Irish or to preach in the Irish language.4 The benefices yielded such small salaries as a result of the dissolution of the monasteries, that few Englishmen of ability joined the Irish Church. Those who did, according to Spenser, were either "unlearned" or else "men of some bad note for which they have forsaken England." 5 The illiterate character of the priesthood was generally noticed by the writers of the day. "Sermons and prayers they never have any . . . the ale-house is their church . . . their text Spanish sack their singing of psalms [the] whiffing of tobacco." 6

"Divers of the English [priests]," wrote another observer in 1598, "have not one word of Latin, divers of the Irish, broken Latin, meeter for the tavern than the temple." 7 Few services were held throughout the country; the Catholics were served by their own priests and abstained from Protestant churches. Amongst the most flagrant of the abuses were the pluralities of bishoprics and benefices, and the number of livings leased out to lay persons. Many of the churches left without sufficient revenues fell into decay. Some were used as garrisons by the soldiers, and not infrequently suffered at their hands. The Archbishop of Cashel reported to Sir Robert Cecil in 1601 that the soldiers in the country round Cork, although they had not often destroyed church buildings, had taken the vestments and the doors, and even (presumably in searching for relics) "the very rotten bones out of the monuments, where they lay more than 500 years." 8

1 3 & 4 Philip and Mary, c. 8.

Cal. Car. MSS., III. xxi.

3 2 Eliz., cc. 1, 2, 3, 4. See H. Holloway, The Reformation in Ireland, ch. 12. In a few cases instruction was given in Irish, see Cal. S.P.I. (1586–8), p. 331. 5 View of the Present State of Ireland (Globe ed.), p. 647:

6 Lithgow's "Adventures in Ireland (1619), pr. in Ulster Journal Archeology (1911), XVII. 90. 7 Cal. S.P.I. (1598-9), p. 430.

Cal. S.P.I. (1600-1), p. 340. For further evidence of the miserable condition

Sir William Gerard, the Irish Chancellor, actually recommended in 1576 that Archbishop Loftus should be translated to some vacant bishopric in England, and that the profits of his see at Dublin should be applied to the maintenance of legal officers to further the execution of justice within the Pale. This is a curious commentary upon the value attached at this time to an ecclesiastic organisation in Ireland.

A Court of High Commission was established in Dublin in 1594 for the inspection and reform of all offences committed against the Act of Uniformity, but few of the spasmodic plans for the reformation of the Church during this period seem to have been effectually carried out. The most successful outcome of reforming effort was the foundation of the University of Dublin by Elizabeth in 1591. The scheme, which had been proposed by Stanihurst 3 and others, received the support of the Corporation of Dublin in 1590. The city presented the Priory of All Saints, which had been granted to them in compensation for losses sustained during the rebellion of "Silken Thomas," as a site for the future college. Letters patent were issued for building on the 3rd March, 1591. The first stone was laid by Thomas Smith, the Mayor of Dublin, in March, 1592, and the first students were admitted in January, 1593.4 The object of the foundation was to provide a university education for the sons of the English colony in Ireland, and to check the flow of Irish immigration to Catholic colleges abroad. Catholic writers, in view of the declared aim and the Puritan tone of the new foundation, looked with hostility upon the college as a place in which they considered that the Irish youth would be taught heresy by English teachers and lose their desire to cross the sea.5

The penal laws were not vigorously executed at this time, for the simple reason that it was impossible to carry them out in a half-conquered country. The Queen also seems to have been lenient in matters of religion, from motives of prudence. She did not wish to make religious persecution an excuse for rebellion, and so she drew a distinction between the secret exercise of Catholicism and the practice of treason under the colour of religion.❝ She did not believe, at all events, in any "curious inquisition of men's consciences," or in "raking into their doings," but preferred to trust generally to the presence of the army in Ireland of the Church, see Cal. S.P.I. (Mar.-Oct. 1600), pp. 273, 277, 295-7; (1603-6), pp. 218-19; (1606-8), pp. 235-44; Spenser's View, pp. 646-7. See pp. 136-7.

1 Cal. Car. MSS., II. 55.

3 James Stanihurst, Recorder of Dublin and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.

4 For the early history of the College, see Stubbs, Hist. of the Univ. of Dublin; Urwick, Early Hist. of Trinity College, Dublin; Mant, Hist. of the Church of Ireland; also see below PP. 137-40.

5 See p. 347.

• Cal. Car. MSS., III. 458.