THE IRISH CHURCH UNDER HENRY VIII.
[Sidenote: King and Pope.]
During the quarter of a century which elapsed between Henry's accession
and his final breach with Rome, the King showed great submission to the
papal chair. The wishes of such a faithful son could not be lightly
regarded, and royal nominations to English bishoprics were invariably
confirmed by the Pontiff. Capitular elections still took place; but they
had ceased to be free, and preferment was really given by the joint fiat
of the Crown and the Tiara. In Ireland the King was less absolute. The
popes had not forgotten their original gift of the island; and the
clergy, more especially in remote regions, would naturally look to them
for promotion, rather than to a King whose power was uncertain and to
whom they had a national antipathy. In the year 1520 the united sees of
Cork and Cloyne became vacant. Surrey, then Lord-Lieutenant, was besieged
with applications, but preferred the claims of Walter Wellesley, head of
the great Augustinian house of Conal in Kildare. In right of his priory
Wellesley had already a seat in the Irish House of Lords, and Surrey
recommended him to Wolsey as 'a famous clerk, noted the best in the
land--a man of gravity and virtuous conversation and a singular mind
having to English order.' Wellesley was not nominated on this occasion,
either because he preferred his priory to a bishopric, or because the
Cardinal had other views. In the following year the Bishop of Limerick
died, and the Lord-Lieutenant and Council again strongly recommended the
Prior of Conal; but the Pope nevertheless provided John Quin, a Dominican
friar, and Wellesley did not become a bishop till 1529. He was then at
last consecrated to Kildare, and allowed to keep his monastery, as in
that situation he might very fairly do.[281]
[Sidenote: Case of Clonfert.]
The points at issue between King and Pope are well illustrated by the
case of Clonfert, which fell vacant at the moment of separation. Clement
provided the Dean, Roland de Burgo, and Henry appointed Richard Nangle
Provincial of the Irish Austinfriars. Nangle was consecrated and took
possession of his see. Relying on his family influence, and probably
upheld by popular opinion, the Papal prelate, who was armed with the
power of granting indulgences and dispensations, defied the royal
nominee, and Nangle was afraid to appear in public. It was proposed to
bring the Burkes to their senses by laying an embargo on the trade of
Galway, but this does not seem to have been done. Ten years after his
original provision, and probably after the death of Nangle, De Burgo was
confirmed by the King and allowed to hold his deanery and other
benefices, of which he had all along kept possession, on condition of
renouncing the Pope's bulls and acknowledging that he held from the
Crown. The Bishop, who must have had an elastic conscience, died in
harness in 1580.[282]
[Sidenote: Armagh.]
The more important bishoprics were generally given to men whom the
English Government could trust, and it is not likely that they were ever
filled up in defiance of the King until after his rupture with Rome.
Armagh, Dublin, and Meath were rarely entrusted to any but men of English
birth. In 1513 John Kite, a Londoner, was appointed by provision to
Armagh, but the nomination was certainly agreeable to Henry, who had
before employed Kite as a diplomatist in Spain. The temporalities of the
diocese were almost immediately restored to him, and he was soon
afterwards present in London at the grand reception of Wolsey's red hat.
Kite, who received many tokens of royal favour, was translated by the
Pope to Carlisle. The Holy See claimed very full rights in the case of a
translation; but George Cromer, an Englishman, was appointed to Armagh
at the King of England's supplication. Such was the form preferred by the
Pope, but the supplication was in fact a nomination.[283]
[Sidenote: Dublin.]
William Rokeby, a Yorkshireman, was translated from Meath to Dublin in
1512. Henry made him his chancellor, and he also was present at the hat
ceremony. After his death a Somersetshire man, Hugh Inge, was translated
by the Pope from Meath to Dublin. There can be little doubt that this was
done with the King's full consent, for Inge acknowledged that he owed all
to Wolsey. As a special favour the tax on this occasion was reduced from
1,600 to 1,000 florins, on the suggestion of Campeggio, who reported that
certain noblemen had intruded into the diocesan lands and greatly
diminished the income. Inge also held the office of chancellor, which at
this time was almost invariably given to an archbishop. When Inge died,
John Alen, one of Wolsey's chaplains, was provided to Dublin at the
King's instance, or supplication as the Pope called it, and immediately
received the Great Seal. Alen had been employed by the Cardinal in the
suppression of the lesser monasteries, and had incurred great odium in
that office.[284]
[Sidenote: Meath.]
The see of Meath, which has the singular distinction of having never
possessed a cathedral, was from its position of especial importance.
After being successively filled by Rokeby and Inge, it was given by the
Pope, but probably at Wolsey's instigation, to Richard Wilson, Prior of
Drax in Yorkshire. It is remarkable that Wilson, who does not seem ever
to have resided in his see, fully acknowledged that the Cardinal's
legatine authority extended to Ireland. This was vehemently denied by
Primate Cromer and his suffragans, who were able to make their objections
good; the whole province of Armagh, except Meath, being situated among
the Irishry. On the resignation of Wilson, Edward Staples, a Lincolnshire
man, was provided by Clement on the King's nomination. He was allowed to
hold St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, and other benefices, along
with his bishopric, and he had a special Papal dispensation for filling
offices with incompatible duties. Staples fully embraced the Reformation,
and was a principal instrument in carrying out the changed religious
policy of the English Crown.[285]
[Sidenote: Cashel.]
In 1524 Edmund Butler, Prior of Athassel, a natural son of Sir Piers
Butler, was appointed by the Pope to Cashel, and by him recommended to
the King, who addressed letters in his favour to the Irish Government.
Kildare alleged that Butler was opposed by his father, and there was
certainly a contest between them. The Archbishop's object was to prevent
his father, as acting Earl Palatine of Tipperary, from raising a revenue
in that county, the larger part of which was in his diocese. The citizens
of Waterford complained that his Grace used every kind of Irish
extortion, and his opposition to the palatinate jurisdiction clearly
arose from no wish to leave the people untaxed. In one respect indeed the
prelate bettered the instruction of the temporal magnates, for he
'retained Dermond Duff for his official and counsellor or commissary,
which so entertaineth the King's people by colour of canon law that there
can be no more extortion committed by any Irish Brehon, and polleth the
King's subjects as he lists, and taketh for fee of sentence of a divorce
10_l._ or more.' He openly robbed a boat laden with merchandise, and held
the owners to ransom. Butler's consecration was delayed for three years:
it is not easy to say why, as there is no trace of a dispute between the
Crown and the Pope. Ultimately he became a very important person, and
generally acted with the other Butlers in support of the King's
authority. He accepted the royal supremacy, and surrendered his monastery
when called on to do so.[286]
[Sidenote: Tuam.]
The western province was so entirely Irish that the King could hardly
have interfered effectually with Papal nominees. On the death of the
learned Maurice O'Fiehely in 1513, Thomas O'Mullally was provided to
Tuam, and lived unmolested by Henry till 1536. But Christopher Bodkin,
who had been preferred to Kilmacduagh at the King's request, was
translated purely by royal authority to Tuam. The breach with Rome had at
this time become irreparable; and Bodkin, whom the Vatican regards as a
schismatic but not as a heretic, acknowledged the royal supremacy and
held the temporalities of both his sees, as well as the minor ones of
Enaghdune and Mayo, until his death in 1572. His astuteness far exceeded
that of the Vicar of Bray, for he seems to have kept his preferments and
his opinions as well. A rival archbishop was appointed by Clement in
1538, and is now considered the true one by writers on the Papal side.
The double line has continued ever since.[287]
[Sidenote: Remoter sees.]
To the less important and more distant bishoprics appointments were
probably very often made by the popes without the King's interference,
and even without his notice. But when he did make a recommendation it is
hardly likely to have been neglected at Rome. Thus the sees of
Clonmacnoise, Clogher, Ardagh, and Kilmore were on particular occasions
filled by the King, and the appointments confirmed by the Pope at his
request. The case of Clogher is the more remarkable in that a provision
of Julius II. had lately declared that church to be immediately subject
to the Holy See. In the yet more remote districts of Down, Dromore,
Raphoe, and Derry, the King does not seem to have interfered at all. In
providing Edmund O'Gallagher to the see of Raphoe, Clement VII. observed
that the diocese was vacant because the King had neglected to nominate
any one for seventeen years.[288]
[Sidenote: Leinster.]
In Leinster the King must generally have had power to prevent any bishop
from enjoying the profits of his see. The patronage was very laxly
managed, for Kildare lay vacant from 1513 to 1526. In 1523 the Earl of
Kildare tried to get the preferment for the dean, Edward Dillon, whom he
recommended to Wolsey as of virtuous living and of English name and
condition. The application failed, but Thomas Dillon was at last
appointed both by King and Pope. This promotion was probably effected in
Kildare's interest; for Cowley, a partisan of the Butlers, called Dillon
an Irish vagabond, without learning, manners, or other good quality, and
not fit to be a holy water clerk. This Irish vagabond had, however, been
educated at Oxford. Thomas Halsey was persuaded by Wolsey to accept the
bishopric of Leighlin, and Maurice Doran was, at the King's request,
provided to the same see. There may be no positive evidence as to Ossory
and Ferns, but there is no reason to doubt that the persons appointed
were acceptable to the Government.[289]
[Sidenote: Munster.]
In Munster it is not likely that bishops would be appointed without the
consent of the Crown, except perhaps to the remote sees of Killaloe and
Kilfenora, in which the succession at this period is almost hopelessly
confused. In filling the scarcely less completely Irish bishopric of
Ross, the King took a direct part. He called upon the Pope to accept the
resignation of Edmund Courcey, and to appoint as his successor the
Cistercian John O'Murrilly, with leave to hold the Abbey of Maur in
addition. Leo X. complied in every particular; but when O'Murrilly died
two years later, the Pope took the strong step of uniting Ross with
Dromore in the distant north. We may infer from this that Henry did not
always choose to interfere, but that when he did the Pope paid the
greatest attention to his wishes; and that this rule applied to Munster
generally. At Waterford and Cork, the strongholds of English law, it was
hardly possible for a bishop to enjoy his revenues in defiance of the
Government.[290]
[Sidenote: Connaught.]
In Connaught the popes seem to have provided bishops as a general rule;
but they generally avoided a collision when the King's wish was openly
expressed. As late as 1533 Christopher Bodkin was appointed to
Kilmacduagh at Henry's request; and this is a very strong case, because a
purely papal nominee seems to have resigned in his favour. In Elphin John
Max was appointed by the Pope; but as he held the abbeys of Welbeck or
Tichfield, or both, along with his bishopric, he can hardly have been
distasteful to Henry. The case of Burke and Nangle, already mentioned,
shows King and Pope openly at variance. But even at the beginning of that
contest the schism was almost complete.[291]
[Sidenote: Bad state of the Irish Church.]
In the 'Description of Ireland,' written early in Henry VIII.'s reign,
there is a story of St. Brigid, who inquired of her good angel of what
Christian land most souls were damned. He showed her a land in the west
part of the world, where was continually root of hate and envy, and vices
contrary to charity, for lack of which souls kept continually falling
down into hell as thick as hail showers. It is inferred that the angel
spoke of Ireland, 'for,' says the writer, 'there is no land in this world
of so long continual war within himself, nor of so great shedding of
Christian blood, nor of so great robbing, spoiling, preying, and burning,
nor of so great wrongful extortion continually as Ireland.' Among the
various causes of this state of things the bishops and clergy are blamed,
'for there is no archbishop nor bishop, abbot nor prior, parson nor
vicar, nor any other person of the Church, high or low, great or small,
English or Irish, that useth to preach the Word of God saveing the poor
friars' beggars ... Also the Church of this land use not to learn any
other science but the law of Canon, for covetyce of lucre transitory; all
other science whereof grows none such lucre, the parsons of the Church
doth despise. They hold more by the plough rustical than by lucre of the
plough celestial, to which they have stretched their hands, and look
always backwards. They tend much more to lucre of that plough, whereof
groweth slander and rebuke, than to lucre of the souls, that is the
plough of Christ. And to the transitory lucre of that rustical plough
they tender so much, that little or nought there chargeth to lucre to
Christ, the souls of their subjects, of whom they bear the cure, by
preaching and teaching of the Word of God, and by their good ensample
giveing; which is the plough of worship and of honour, and the plough of
grace that ever shall endure.'[292]
[Sidenote: State of Ardagh, Ross, Clonmacnoise, and Enaghdune.]
This is a heavy indictment, but it is sustained by very many facts which
have come down to us. The state of many important churches shows how ill
religion was supported. A report to Leo X. on Ardagh Cathedral states
that there was no sacristy, no bell nor belfry, no proper appliances for
service; and that the walls of the church itself were but just standing.
There was only one altar, which was exposed to the weather. Mass was
rarely celebrated, and then by a single priest, and the scanty vestments
and utensils were kept in a chest in the church. The town consisted of
four thatched cabins; and there were few inhabitants, owing to continual
wars caused by the conduct of the late Bishop, William O'Ferrall, who had
excited the animosity of his neighbours by attempting to exercise
temporal power. The bishopric of Ross was in rather better case. The town
of 200 houses was walled, and the cathedral church was built of stone in
regular cruciform fashion, and with a tiled roof. There was decent
provision for the mass. On the other hand, the church was unpaved, and
the income of the see no more than sixty marks. At Clonmacnoise, one of
the most famous ecclesiastical places in Ireland, things were scarcely
better than at Ardagh. The town could boast but twelve houses, built of
wicker and straw. The church was roofless, and half ruined; with a single
altar protected by a thatched shed, one vestment, and a cross made of
brass. Mass was rarely celebrated, but the body of St. Ciaran was
preserved and reverenced. The Pope's informant was an Irishman, but the
saint's name was unknown to him. The ancient see of Enaghdune or
Annaghdown on Lough Corrib was in a deplorable state. The church was in
ruins, the clergy far out of order, and the revenue not more than 20_l._,
which could only be collected by a steward who had the favour of the
country.[293]
[Sidenote: Corruption among dignitaries.]
The above cases are all of bishoprics situated in remote parts among the
Irishry. The state of the Church in the Pale and other obedient districts
was of course better, but even in Dublin the metropolitan crozier
remained in pawn for eighty years, from 1449 until Archbishop Alen
redeemed it by paying one hundred ounces of silver. The clergy were
charged with seeking money more than souls; and many acts of violence and
extortion are reported on oath against the Archbishop of Cashel and the
Bishops of Ferns, Ossory, Leighlin, Waterford, and Limerick; against the
Abbots of Tintern, Jerpoint, Kilcooley, Holy Cross, Dusk, and
Innislonagh; against the Priors of Kilclogan, Knocktopher, Inistiogue,
Kells, Cahir, and Lady Abbey; and against the Prioress of Moylagh. In
general bishops and heads of houses were not less extortionate than other
gentlemen. They exacted coyne and livery and the other multifarious Irish
imposts with neither more nor less severity than the laity. But it should
not be forgotten that these ecclesiastical dignitaries were also great
landowners, and that they were forced to provide the means of defence in
the only possible way. The Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishops of
Waterford and Ossory had other means of taxing the people peculiar to
their offices; they took excessive fees in all matrimonial and probate
cases, and appropriated a portion of every dead man's goods. The
Archbishop's lowest charge for a divorce was 5_l._, and it was generally
double that or more. The citizens of Waterford declared that the
canonists were as burdensome as the Irish Brehons.[294]
[Sidenote: Parochial clergy no better.]
The parochial clergy were no better than the dignitaries. They made
charges varying from sixpence to two shillings for all weddings,
christenings, churchings, and burials; and at the death of any married
person, man or wife, they exacted five shillings, or one-fifth of the
personalty, or the best article of apparel, from the survivor. In many
places divine service was neglected or was only performed at irregular
intervals. The Earl of Kildare, who was not impartial but who probably
spoke truly, declared that the churches in Tipperary and Kilkenny were
generally in ruins through the system of Papal provisions, 'so as, and if
the King's Grace do not see for the hasty remedy of the same, there is
like to be no more Christianity there, than in the midst of Turkey.'
Henry was just beginning to quarrel with the Pope, and would be ready
enough to believe that provisions had ruined the churches. No doubt many
bad appointments were thus made, but it may have been impossible to get
fit men; for Browne reports the clergy as unlearned persons, who repeated
the Latin offices like parrots and without understanding them.[295]
[Sidenote: Evils of Papal patronage.]
Piers, Earl of Ossory, also adopted the doctrine that the Papal system of
patronage had been the chief cause of the utter ruin and destruction 'of
cathedral churches, monasteries, parish churches, and all other regular
and secular.' Murderers, thieves, and 'light men of war' obtained
provisions, ousted the rightful incumbents, ignored the rightful patrons,
held livings by force, and wasted them in riotous living. Violence indeed
was the rule. John Purcell, Bishop of Ferns, was in close alliance with
the dangerous rebel and freebooter, Cahir MacArt Kavanagh, was present
when his men sacked the town of Fethard, and himself called loudly for
fire to burn the houses. Milo Baron, Bishop of Ossory, was said to be as
bad as the Bishop of Ferns, and to 'have no virtuous quality nor
obedience to any good laws.' Archbishop Butler was accused of riotous
conduct and of at least one highway robbery, a richly laden boat having
been plundered by him on the Suir within four miles of Waterford. Amid
the general corruption a bright example was shown by the Franciscan
Maurice Doran, Bishop of Leighlin, a learned theologian, an eloquent
preacher, and a man of blameless life. Being advised to increase the
burdens of his clergy, he replied that he had rather shear his sheep than
flay them. Doran was allowed to tend his flock for twenty months only.
Having corrected the irregularities of his Archdeacon Maurice Kavanagh,
he was treacherously murdered by him. It is some satisfaction to know
that Kildare afterwards caught the Archdeacon and his accomplices, and
hanged them in chains on the scene of the Bishop's murder.[296]
[Sidenote: The Regulars not exempt from censure.]
The Regulars by no means escaped censure. The Prior of the Hospitallers
of Kilclogan in Wexford was as bad as Bishop Purcell, and 'kept fire in
the steeple door of St. John's, until such time as he had out the ward
that was within.' James Butler, Cistercian Abbot of Innislonagh and Dean
of Lismore, attained a bad eminence. The citizens of Waterford
represented him as a man of odious life, who neglected every duty, gave
himself up to voluptuosity, and wasted the property of his house to
provide for his open and scandalous immoralities. The people of Clonmel
repeat the charge, and extend it to the other monks. The Augustinian
Canons, in the great monastery of Athassel, of which Archbishop Butler
was Prior, were no better. Nor were the mendicants blameless. The
Carmelite Prior of Lady Abbey, near Clonmel, which was a parish church,
kept a mistress and provided no divine service. The Prior of Knocktopher,
also a Carmelite, and the Cistercian Abbot of Dusk, had sons. That
secular priests should be fathers of families was of course common both
in England and Ireland; and they may be defended on the ground that they
were really married, and that such unions, though condemned by the
Church, were not repugnant to the public feeling of the age. But this can
hardly be pleaded in favour of monks, and perhaps still less of friars.
The Prior of Cahir neglected divine service, but was not accused of
immorality. Many enormous crimes were objected against the Abbess of
Kilclehin. The canons of St. Catherine's at Waterford had fallen out
among themselves, and divided the revenues. All these houses were in
south-eastern Ireland, but from what has been said of the state of
cathedral churches in Irish districts it may be inferred that
proportional irregularities existed elsewhere. The fact that priests were
often the sons of priests rests upon less partial evidence than that of
Bale, and it was condoned by the Holy See. Leo X. even showed special
favour to a monk of Monasterevan, notwithstanding that he was a priest's
son. Dispensations on account of defective birth are very common in the
Papal correspondence, and were a source of income to the Curia.
Archbishop Browne believed that in the Irishry not one parson in five was
of legitimate birth. He cannot be considered impartial, but legitimacy
was little regarded by the Irish.[297]
[Sidenote: The good side of the monastic system.]
That some monks were immoral or useless is doubtless true. There were
critics who represented them as in every way worse than their English
brethren, but some of these were men who desired the destruction of the
abbeys that they might divide their lands, and whose indignation had not
been excited by abuses until the wishes of the English Court were known.
Robert Cowley, for instance, accused them generally of loose living and
of 'keeping no hospitality save to themselves.' There is ample evidence
that the monks were not all bad. The education of children was almost
entirely in their hands. Six houses in Dublin, Kildare, and Kilkenny are
mentioned as the only places where the rising generation might be
brought up in virtue, learning, and good behaviour. The boys were cared
for by the Cistercians of St. Mary's, Dublin, and of Jerpoint, and by the
Augustinian canons of Christ Church, Dublin, and of Kells and Conal. The
girls were brought up by the canonesses of Gracedieu, near Swords. St.
Mary's was also noted for its hospitality, being the only inn fit for men
of rank; and the doors of Christ Church were always open for Parliament,
Council, or Conference. To escape dissolution all the monks of these
houses were ready to don secular habits. As to the services of the friars
in holding stations, in visiting the sick, and in preaching, there can be
no doubt whatever. Religion in Ireland was in fact only maintained by
them. Most of the friaries had been founded or beautified by great
families, who still continued to befriend them, and who reserved a last
resting-place within their walls. The Franciscans were especially
favoured in this way. Thus, the MacDonnells of Antrim were buried at
Bunamargy, the Desmonds at Youghal and Tralee, the O'Briens at Ennis, the
O'Donnells at Donegal, the Macnamaras at Quin, the Burkes at Athenry, and
the MacCarthies at Irrelagh or Muckross. The Franciscan dress was often
assumed in death and burial, and was thought to bespeak the favours of
heaven. The Dominicans were planted and cherished in the same way. The
Augustinian hermits and the Carmelites had many houses, but were much
less important than the other two orders.[298]
[Sidenote: Parliament of 1536.]
When the Irish Parliament met for the despatch of business in May 1536
many important bills passed without any great difficulty. The proctors of
the clergy, who had voices and claimed votes in the Lower House, objected
to the King being declared supreme head of the Church; but their
opposition was little regarded. Appeals to Rome were forbidden, the
jurisdiction of the Pope abolished, and first-fruits vested in the Crown.
Grey then prorogued Parliament, first to Kilkenny, and afterwards to
Dublin again. In the meantime Archbishop Browne had landed, and lost no
time in recommending the royal supremacy to the people. He had but little
success, and incurred some personal danger. Primate Cromer, who was in
communication with Rome, took the other side, laying a curse on all who
should accept the new system, and reminding his clergy that Ireland was
the Pope's gift to England. Browne is said to have made a speech to
Parliament, in which he appealed to the example of Christ, who paid
tribute to Cæsar, and of the earliest popes, who acknowledged the
supremacy of emperors and kings. A bill was then brought in for the
suppression of twelve religious houses, and for giving the King a
twentieth of all ecclesiastical revenues. A formidable opposition at once
arose in both houses, and particularly in the Commons under the
leadership of the King's sergeant, Sir Patrick Barnewall, who declared
openly that the King's supremacy gave him power to reform abbeys but not
to secularise them. He then went to England to lay his views before
Henry, and Parliament was again prorogued for nearly four months.[299]
[Sidenote: The Reformation makes no progress.]
After eighteen months residence in Ireland Browne could report scarcely
any progress. The new Head of the Church, by the mouth of his Archbishop,
gave the people orders for their spiritual conduct; but they were not
well received. All true Christian subjects were ordered to repudiate the
Bishop of Rome, and to erase him from their service-books and manuals;
but this was never done unless Browne sent his own servants to see to it.
The power of binding and loosing and the system of indulgences were
called juggling, and the people were reminded that God only could forgive
sins. There was no Mediator but Christ, and the so-called Pope's 'great
thunderclap of excommunication' could hurt nobody. These exhortations
were in vain, while a conditional general indulgence was eagerly taken
advantage of. A copy of the paper was even hung up openly in Kilmainham
Church. Pilgrimages to Rome were never commoner, and bishops and priors
appointed by provision were received with open arms. The circular which
spoke so contemptuously of the Holy See was Browne's composition, but it
inculcated at least two doctrines which all modern Protestants
reject--the invocation of the Virgin and prayers for the dead.[300]
[Sidenote: Troubles of Archbishop Browne.]
Lord Deputy Grey was opposed to doctrinal changes, and made no secret of
his dislike to Browne, whom he suspected of traducing him. The Archbishop
had little help from other officials, and the lawyers opposed him
strongly. Lord Butler, Brabazon, Alen, and one or two others of small
importance, constituted the whole innovating party. They arrogated to
themselves the title of Catholic; they were the right Christians, and
their opponents were sectaries. But Browne's antagonists were active and
numerous. The Observants took the lead everywhere, and they relied on the
support of Grey to defy the Archbishop's authority. Browne had imprisoned
one of his own prebendaries. 'Howbeit, spite of my beard, whiles that I
was at an house of Observants, to swear them, and also to extinct that
name among them, my Lord Deputy hath set him at liberty. I think the
simplest holy water clerk is better esteemed than I am.' Most of the
clergy were unwilling to acknowledge the royal supremacy, or to denounce
the Pope's authority, and they refused to preach at all. The most active
preachers now contented themselves with holding forth in corners to
select knots of sympathisers, and took no notice either of threats or
exhortations. The oath of supremacy had as much effect as oaths taken
under pressure usually have. Now and then some bold spirit would openly
defy Browne. James Humfrey, the prebendary whom he imprisoned and Grey
released, officiated at High Mass in St. Andrew's Church, and omitted to
read the Archbishop's circular. The parish priest ascended the pulpit,
and began to read the paper; but Humfrey gave a signal to the choir, and
the reader's voice was drowned by those of the singers.[301]
[Sidenote: He cannot agree with Bishop Staples.]
By the admission of so zealous a reformer as Brabazon, Staples promoted
the Word of God; but the effect of his eloquence was much lessened by the
ill-feeling existing between him and the Archbishop. A report of one of
Browne's sermons, which, as he alleged, was fabricated by Humfrey, had so
excited the wrath of Staples that he denounced it from the pulpit. The
Archbishop himself was present, and thought 'the three-mouthed Cerberus
of hell could not have uttered it more viperiously.' The scene was in the
church of Kilmainham, which was an exempt jurisdiction under the sole
charge of Rawson the Prior. Browne also accused Staples of indulging in
other 'rabulous revilings' against him, of denying that men should search
the Scriptures, and of allowing his suffragan to pray first for the Pope,
then for the Emperor, and lastly for the King, in the words, 'I pray God
he never depart this world, until that he hath made amends.' Browne
imprisoned the suffragan, whom Grey seems to have released without trial.
Staples, on the other hand, reported that everyone was weary of the
Archbishop's demeanour, and that he himself had never said a word against
the King's supremacy, or in favour of the Pope. After an inquiry by
Paynswick, Prior of Christ Church, and two others, the quarrel was
patched up; but the relations existing between the two chief supporters
of the Reformation were not at all conducive to its success.[302]
[Sidenote: Lord Leonard Grey obnoxious to both parties.]
It was bad enough to be called a heretic by the Bishop of Meath, but
worse to be called a poll-shorn knave friar by a Lord Deputy who had
soldiers and prisons. Browne said it was no safer to speak against Papal
usurpations before Grey than if the Pope had been present. Lord Butler
agreed with the Archbishop that Grey had a special zeal for popery,
allowed the new system to be openly impugned in his presence, and in fact
headed the reactionary party. According to Browne, he went so far as to
maintain a bishop appointed by the Pope against the King's nominee; but
this is scarcely credible. Grey, however, had the Corporation of
Limerick, and the Bishop and clergy there solemnly sworn to maintain the
new order, and renounce the usurpations of Rome. He is said to have
burned Down Cathedral, and defaced the tombs of the three saints there;
and he was accused on his trial of turning the church into a stable, of
pulling down the tower, and of sending the famous peal of bells to
England: 'had not God of His justice prevented his iniquity by sinking
the vessel and passengers wherein the said bells should have been
conveyed.' Grey has himself recorded his proceedings at the Franciscan
friary of Killeigh, whence he carried off the organ, the glass windows,
and other valuable things. On the other hand, he spared Armagh; and,
being at Trim shortly before the destruction of the miraculous Virgin
there, 'very devoutly knelt before the idol, and heard three or four
masses.' This may have been done from devotional feeling, or through
sheer inconsistency, or to annoy Browne, Brabazon, and Alen, who were
present, and who refused to enter the chapel, by way of showing an
example to the people.[303]
[Sidenote: Images, relics, and pilgrimages.]
Browne had a conscientious hatred to images, which he called idols, and
destroyed them wherever he could. In this case coming events had cast
their shadow before, and he at one time thought it prudent to disclaim
iconoclasm. 'There goeth,' he wrote in June 1538, 'a common bruit among
the Irishmen, that I intend to pluck down our Lady of Trim, with other
places of pilgrimages, as the Holy Cross, and such like, which indeed I
never attempted, although my conscience would right well serve me to
oppress such idols.' Even more celebrated than the miraculous Virgin was
the crozier with which St. Patrick had banished the snakes, and which had
been brought from Armagh to Dublin. This wonder-working staff was said to
have been delivered by Christ Himself to a hermit in a Mediterranean
island, with directions to take it to Ireland, and hand it over to the
saint. It was compared to the rod of Moses, and was the chief of a large
tribe of croziers upon which people swore in preference to the gospels.
The staff was burned publicly, and so was the Virgin of Trim, and a
crucifix of peculiar sanctity kept at Ballibogan in Westmeath. The holy
cross of Tipperary was probably spared for a time. Browne and his
successors nearly put an end to relics, which are now so scarce that a
learned member of Parliament in our own times is said to have imported
the bones of a more or less authentic foreign saint. But it was beyond
the power of Government to put down pilgrimages, which were numerous down
to the present century. Of the holy places still remaining, Croagh
Patrick in Mayo is probably the most remarkable.[304]
[Sidenote: Conformity of Munster Bishops.]
When the four Protestant members of Council--Browne, Brabazon, Alen, and
Aylmer--visited Clonmel early in 1539, two archbishops and eight bishops
took the oath of supremacy before them. The archbishops were Butler of
Cashel and Bodkin of Tuam--the first regularly appointed, the second not
acknowledged at Rome, but both in undisputed possession. Of the eight
bishops, Milo Baron or Fitzgerald of Ossory, Nicholas Comyn of Waterford
and Lismore, John Coyne or Quin of Limerick, Thomas Hurley of Emly,
Matthew Sanders of Leighlin, and James O'Corrin of Killaloe, appear to
have been regularly appointed. The submission of O'Corrin seems to have
been resented at Rome; for a Papal administrator was appointed to oust
him eighteen months afterwards. He found it necessary to make his peace,
and his resignation in 1542 was accepted by the Pope. No attempt was
made to displace Baron, Comyn, Quin, Hurley, or Sanders. The remaining
prelates present at Clonmel were probably Dominick Tirrey of Cork and
Cloyne, and Richard Nangle of Clonfert. Tirrey was the King's nominee,
and continued to hold the temporalities till his decease in 1556. Lewis
Macnamara, a Franciscan, was set up against him at Rome, but he soon
died, and the Pope did not again interfere for a long time. Nangle, being
kept out of Clonfert by his rival, whom Grey was accused of favouring, at
this time acted as Browne's suffragan or coadjutor. It is expressly
stated that all the Bishops of Munster were present at Clonmel, and all
have been mentioned but three. Ross was vacant, and probably Kilfenora.
Young James Fitzmaurice, who had been lately provided to Ardfert, may
have kept away in Kerry, or very probably he was not in Ireland at all.
We must guard against hastily supposing that all, or even any, of these
prelates were Protestants. Like Gardiner, Bonner, and Tunstal, they
accepted the formulation of the old English principle of national
independence, but they had not therefore necessarily any sympathy with
the doctrines of Luther.[305]
[Sidenote: The Pope makes Wauchop Primate.]
Primate Cromer opposed the royal supremacy, but he was none the less
accused of heresy at Rome, and Robert Wauchop, a priest of St. Andrews,
was appointed to administer the see until the Archbishop should purge
himself. Wauchop was a noted theologian, and, in spite of his imperfect
sight, had the singular reputation of riding post better than any man in
Europe. He had lived chiefly at Rome, and was employed by the Holy See on
many missions, including attendance at the diets of Worms, Ratisbon, and
Spires. The choice of a purblind man to persuade the sharp-eyed Germans
gave rise to a proverb, and the reputation for riding post may have been
gained by the rapidity with which he went from place to place. After
Cromer's death Wauchop received the pall, and bore the title of Primate
at the Council of Trent, where he attended for eleven sessions, and where
he shared with the Archbishop of Upsala the distinction of having never
seen his church. In the meantime George Dowdall was appointed by the King
on St. Leger's recommendation, and it must be supposed that he took the
oath of supremacy. In spite of Dowdall's zeal against the reformed
doctrines, he was never acknowledged by the Pope until after Wauchop's
death. The latter does not appear to have landed in Ireland, and his
bolts were shot from Scotland or France. When preparing at last in 1551
to visit his diocese, he met a most edifying death in the Jesuit Church
at Paris.[306]
[Sidenote: The Jesuits sent to Ireland, 1542.]
It was by Wauchop's advice that the disciples of Loyola began their work
in Ireland. Paul III. addressed a brief to Con O'Neill, as prince of the
Irish of Ulster, acknowledging the receipt of letters which he had sent
to Rome by the hands of Raymond O'Gallagher, 'by which letters,' wrote
the Pope, 'and by his fuller verbal communications, our mind has been
variously affected; for we have learned with the pain it calls for how
that island is cruelly ravaged by the present King, and to what a pitch
of impiety he has brought it, and with what savage ferocity he has
spurned the honour of God Almighty. But when, on the other hand, we
learned from thy letters and Raymond's words that there existed in thy
person a champion of God, and of the Roman Church and of the Catholic
religion, we rejoiced greatly in the heavenly Father's love. We praise
thee then, beloved son, as thou hast deserved, and commend thee in the
Lord; and we give Him thanks for granting thee to us and endowing thee
with such virtue and piety for the preservation of that island at the
present time, and we pray Him long to prosper thee, and to preserve thee
to us unchanged. We have taken such care as we were bound, and as thou
hast asked us to take for thee and for the other champions of the
Catholic Faith. We therefore exhort your lordship, and all the peoples of
Ireland who follow your authority and piety, to preserve you all as
becomes faithful servants of the True Christ, in the Catholic Faith which
you have received from your fathers, and preserved with the greatest
constancy to this day. For we who embrace that island with singular
affection and desire to preserve it in its ancient attachment to the Holy
Faith, will never be wanting to your lordship or to your followers in
piety.'
[Sidenote: The first Jesuit missionaries.]
John Codure and Alphonso Salmeron were selected by the Pope as nuncios to
Ireland, and another brief was sent to the clergy of Ireland exhorting
them to receive the Jesuits with honour and goodwill. Codure died before
he could visit Ireland, and Paschal Broet accompanied Salmeron in his
stead. Francesco Zapata, not yet admitted to the society, was their
secretary. Broet, whom Loyola called the angel of his society, was a
native of Picardy. Salmeron was a Spaniard, and one of the original seven
companions who took the momentous vow upon the hill of Montmartre.
Ignatius himself gave directions to the mission:--
[Sidenote: Loyola's instructions to them.]
1. They were to use caution in talking, especially with inferiors and
equals, to 'take each man's censure but reserve their judgment.' When
they could not avoid expressing an opinion, it was to be delivered
briefly and with a careless air, so as to avoid further argument.
2. They were to be all things to all men, like St. Paul. An angry man was
to be treated with great circumspection.
3. The precept of Basilius was to be observed, that the devil must be
fought with his own weapons. To gain favour at first they were to praise
virtues rather than denounce vices. Medicine might then by degrees be
administered. Morose men might be won by cheerfulness.
4. In public and private, and especially when performing the duty of
peacemakers, they were to remember that 'all their words and deeds might
become known, and that the things done in darkness would be brought to
light.'
5. Appointments were to be anticipated rather than deferred, so that
there might be plenty of time for the business in hand.
6. In money matters they were to meddle as little as possible. Even the
fines which they took for dispensations should be given in alms by the
hands of others, so that they might be able to swear that they had not
touched one penny.
7. Paschal was to be chief speaker in dealing with great men. In doubtful
cases there was to be a consultation, and the opinion of two was to bind
the other.
8. They were to correspond with Rome frequently on their journey,
immediately on their arrival either in Ireland or Scotland, and at least
once a month afterwards.[307]
[Sidenote: Their adventures in Scotland and Ireland.]
After narrowly escaping imprisonment in France, the three emissaries
reached Scotland and saw James V., who gave them a commendatory letter to
the Irish nobility and a special one to O'Neill, whom he exhorted so to
receive the strangers that they might feel the advantage of his
introduction. A brother of Bishop Farquharson of the Isles accompanied
them to Ireland, where they found nothing to their liking, either civil
or ecclesiastical. The people were savage and the clergy negligent, and
neither bishoprics nor parishes were properly served. All the chiefs but
one were not only sworn to the royal supremacy, but had declared their
readiness to burn the Pope's letters and to deliver his messengers bound
to the King or his Deputy. The single exception was about to follow the
general example. The Irish chiefs were all afraid to confer with the
nuncios, or even to secure them a safe passage out of the island. The
Jesuits also complained that the Scottish King had not performed his
promises. But if Paschal and his companions could do nothing with the
chiefs, they were successful with the people. They changed their place of
abode constantly, exhorting men everywhere in private, hearing
confessions, and celebrating the Mass as often as possible. Indulgences
were sparingly granted, but they gained goodwill by varying burdensome
vows, and by remitting fines and dues. Their personal virtue was evident;
they never spared themselves, and they asked for nothing. Any money that
came within their reach they diverted through the debtor himself, or
through the bishop, to such good work as the repair of churches, the
relief of widows, and the care of unprotected girls. After thirty-four
days thus spent the pursuit waxed too hot. Rewards were offered for their
apprehension, and they escaped to Scotland, where they vainly hoped to
find a quieter people. The Scotch chiefs seemed as bad as the Irish, and
the foreigners were fain to sail to Dieppe, whence they reached Paris on
foot. Zapata remained there for study, and the two Jesuits pursued their
journey to Rome in rags, and almost penniless. They were arrested as
spies at Lyons, but rescued by Cardinals Tournon and Gaddi, who were
passing through and who recognised them. Thus, in apparent, but only
apparent, failure ended the first descent of the Jesuits upon
Ireland.[308]
[Sidenote: The royal supremacy opposed by the friars.]
In the days of Henry VIII. the majority of Irish chiefs seem to have
cared greatly for land, much less, but still a great deal, for titles and
gold chains, and very little for religion. They were, therefore, ready
enough to accept the King's ecclesiastical polity; the rather that they
hoped to go on exactly as they had done before. But with the people it
was different. It was not for their interest that tribal lands should be
turned into private estates, nor could they hope for special marks of
royal favour. They were barbarous, but they could appreciate virtue, and
in the austere self-denial of some friars they could discern glimmerings
of a higher light. Against the friars Henry had no available weapon; they
could not even be prevented from preaching. Under the very shadow of
Dublin Castle the King could give no peace to his reformed Church, of
which the only sincere supporters were a few new comers from England.
Except Browne and Staples, who, as we have seen, did not agree, there was
no one to preach what Henry wished the people to learn. And neither of
them could speak a word of Irish. The lawyers in Dublin heard and
disliked the expounders of the new ideas, but the great mass of the
population did not even hear them. The friars had it all their own way,
and every feeling, national and sentimental, predisposed the Irish to
believe their statement of the case. The people were told that Ireland
was a fief of the Holy See, and that the vassal had forfeited all by
treason to his sovereign lord. The Defender of the Faith had become its
assailant, and he was manifestly no longer a Catholic. These were the
arguments used daily and never answered. 'In the Irishry,' Staples
reported, 'the common voice runneth that the supremacy of our sovereign
lord is maintained only by power, and not reasoned by learning.' He
recommended that all Irish clerks should have safe-conduct to come and
go, and to dispute with himself. 'I trust then,' he added, perhaps with a
side cut at the Archbishop, 'to do my master good service, without
railing or "frasing," which doth well nowhere, but least in a good
cause.' And he strongly urged the assumption of the royal title, as at
least one means to disabuse the popular mind. In the meantime the counter
reformation had begun. The official Church was to be defended mainly by
power, by a few English-speaking ecclesiastics, and by the self-seekers
who sought preferment where the sceptre was strong enough to protect
them. On the side of Rome was ranged every popular feeling and prejudice,
and it was to have the support of crowds of devoted men who could exhort
the people in their own tongue, and whose example was sometimes more
eloquent than their words.
[Sidenote: Irish view of Henry's innovations.]
The 'Four Masters' describe Henry's reformation as 'a heresy and new
error in England, through pride, vain-glory, avarice, and lust, and
through many strange sciences, so that the men of England went into
opposition to the Pope and to Rome. They at the same time adopted various
opinions and the old law of Moses, and they styled the King the chief
head of the Church of God in his own kingdom. New laws were enacted by
the King and Council according to their own will. They destroyed the
orders to whom worldly possessions were allowed ... and the four poor
orders ...; and the lordships and livings of all these were taken up for
the King. They broke down the monasteries, and sold their roofs and
bells, so that from Arran of the Saints to the Straits of Dover there was
not one monastery that was not broken and shattered, with the exception
of a few in Ireland, of which the English took no heed. They afterwards
burned the images, shrines, and relics of the saints of Ireland and
England.... They also appointed archbishops and sub-bishops for
themselves; and though great was the persecution of the Roman emperors
against the Church, scarcely had there ever come so great a persecution
from Rome as this; so that it is impossible to narrate or tell its
description, unless it should be narrated by one who saw it.' There can
be no doubt that these were the ideas prevalent in Ireland in the
sixteenth century, and they remain essentially unchanged in the
nineteenth. That the annalists tell but a small part of the whole truth
must be plain to candid students; but it is the only part which the
native Irish have ever accepted. In England Anglicanism was the outcome
of national independence; in Ireland it was the badge of conquest.
[Sidenote: The King resolves to dissolve the religious houses.]
Barnewall's mission failed; but he did not lose the King's favour, and
was soon promoted: had he been an English lawyer he would have lost his
head. While denying the King's right to dissolve monasteries, he made no
objection to receiving a grant of their lands, and accepted that very
nunnery of Gracedieu where all the young ladies of the Pale had been
educated. When the houses met again the clergy opposed all legislation,
being perhaps excited by rumours of a Geraldine restoration. The proctors
insisted on their right to vote as an estate, and the bishops and abbots,
who formed a majority in the Lords, declined to entertain any business
until the point was decided. The Council gave a decided opinion that the
claim of the proctors was unfounded, and the spiritual peers at last
agreed to proceed to business with or without their consent. The Lords
threw out the Bill for confirming the King's title to certain abbeys,
most of which had already been suppressed; making an exception only in
the case of St. Wolstan's. The Bill for giving the King a twentieth part
of all spiritualities was also rejected. After a further prorogation for
four months this resistance was at length overcome. An Act was passed
declaring the proctors to be no members of Parliament, the first-fruits
of abbeys were given to the King, the suppressions were confirmed, the
much desired twentieth was granted, and the questions of faculties and
testamentary dispositions were arranged in a sense hostile to Rome. As
far as an Act of Parliament could do it, the Church in Ireland was now
placed on the same footing as the Church in England.[309]
[Sidenote: First convent dissolved, 1535. Relative strength of different
orders.]
The first Irish religious house dissolved by Henry VIII. seems to have
been the nunnery of Grane, which gave a title to Lord Leonard Grey; but
the nuns were quartered on other houses: this was in 1535. In the latter
half of 1536 a commission under the Great Seal not now extant was issued
for the suppression of eight Irish abbeys named therein. The earliest
victim of the batch was probably St. Wolstan's near Leixlip, a house of
canons of the congregation of St. Victor, which was granted to John Alen,
the Master of the Rolls. The necessary inquiries into the condition and
property of the doomed institutions were too slow for Henry, who chided
the Irish Council for remissness. They promised to proceed as speedily as
was consistent with his Highness's profit. Before the end of 1537 fifteen
more houses had fallen, all within the Pale or in the immediate
neighbourhood of walled towns. After this the process of surveying and
suppressing went on rapidly, so that by 1541 all, or very nearly all, the
houses in Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Louth, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford,
Tipperary, Waterford, and Limerick city had been surrendered. A careful
calculation makes the whole number about seventy-eight, of which
thirty-eight were Canons Regular, eleven Crutched Friars, fifteen
Hospitallers, two Benedictines, and twelve Cistercians. Only ten of the
number were nunneries, all belonging to Regular Canonesses. To these may
be added a few in other districts, such as Aghmacarte in
MacGillapatrick's country, and Midleton in the county of Cork.[310]
[Sidenote: The Cistercians. Mellifont.]
Some monasteries deserve particular mention, and of these Mellifont, the
oldest of the Cistercian houses, is perhaps the most famous. It is said
to have contained 140 monks, and was called Monastermore, or the Great
Monastery. The Cistercians were introduced about 1142 by Donough
O'Carroll, Prince of Oriel, at the instance of Malachy, the friend of
Bernard of Clairvaux, who wrote his life and in whose arms he died. St.
Bernard supplied the new foundation with monks from his own monastery,
under the leadership of Christian O'Conarchy, afterwards Bishop of
Lismore and papal legate, who presided in that synod of Cashel where the
Irish Church was first formally subjected both to Rome and to England.
King John afterwards confirmed all grants made before the conquest, and
several later sovereigns were benefactors of Mellifont. The abbot was
always summoned to Parliament, where he took precedence of all his mitred
brethren, and ranked immediately below the bishops. The buildings, of
which there are still some remains, are said to have greatly resembled
those of Clairvaux. The rich estates were granted by Elizabeth to Lord
Drogheda's ancestor as a reward for defending the northern border of the
Pale against the Ulster Irish.[311]
[Sidenote: Holy Cross.]
Another famous Cistercian abbey was that of Holy Cross on the Suir, whose
beautiful ruins recall, though they do not rival, Fountains, Furness, and
Rivaulx. This monastery was founded by Donald O'Brien, King of Limerick,
shortly before the Anglo-Norman invasion. A fragment of the true cross
preserved here attracted many pilgrims, and is thought by some to have
been contained in a richly sculptured shrine which still stands. Long
after the dissolution pilgrimages continued, and Sir Henry Sidney noted
the 'detestable idolatry used to an idol called the Holy Cross, whereunto
there is no small confluence of people daily resorting.' The abbots had
seats in Parliament, and from the extent of their territorial power were
sometimes called Earls.[312]
[Sidenote: Dunbrody and Tintern.]
Two Cistercian abbeys near one another in Wexford are remarkable from the
circumstances of their foundations. Dunbrody was built by the ruthless
conqueror, Hervey de Montmorenci, who sought to expiate his cruelties by
becoming its abbot and endowing it with all his property. Tintern was
founded in fulfilment of a vow made during a storm at sea by William
Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, who brought monks and a name from Wales.
Tintern was the only Irish abbey which retained the original black dress
of Citeaux, thus acknowledging the foundation of Stephen Harding rather
than that of Bernard.
[Sidenote: Hospitallers. Kilmainham.]
Strongbow founded a preceptory for Templars at Kilmainham in 1174, and it
became rich and powerful. Under Edward II. the order was suppressed in
Ireland with as little pretence of justice as elsewhere, and its
possessions granted to the Hospitallers, who showed less charity to the
really poor, though their doors were always open to strangers and
travellers of importance. The priors of Kilmainham were often chosen
from the greatest families--Talbots, Butlers, and Fitzgeralds--were
always summoned to Parliament, and became very important personages.
Being exempt from episcopal jurisdiction they sometimes acted almost like
independent princes. In 1444 the Prior, Thomas Fitzgerald, espoused the
cause of Archbishop Talbot in his quarrel with the White Earl of Ormonde,
and he challenged the latter to trial by combat. The fight was appointed
to take place at Smithfield, and both champions were kept in close
custody; the Earl being confined in the Tower, of which the Duke of
Exeter, inventor of the rack and other gentle instruments, was then
constable. The Duke was authorised to allow his distinguished prisoner
exercise enough to keep him in good fighting condition, his swordsmanship
being evidently thought adequate. The representative of the Church
militant was considered wanting in skill, and was detained in the city to
receive instructions at the royal expense from Philip Treherne,
fishmonger and fencing master. Ormonde's friends cleared his character,
and the combat never took place. Many acts of turbulence were charged
against Fitzgerald; but he was far outstripped by James Keating, who
became prior in 1461, and who defied the King, the Deputy, and his own
Grand Master for thirty years. Marmaduke Lumley was sent to supersede
him, but died of the ill-treatment which he received. In 1511 Sir John
Rawson, the last prior, was appointed. He was an able man and a chief
supporter of the Government, but did not think it necessary to observe
his vow of chastity. At the dissolution Rawson was created Viscount of
Clontarf, where there was a cell of his house, and enjoyed a pension of
500 marks till his death in Edward VI.'s time. Sir William Weston, the
English Provincial, was less fortunate, for he was forced to leave his
priory and died the same day. The great possessions of Kilmainham were
granted to different persons, and the site of the commandery is now fitly
occupied by a military hospital, which owes its foundation to the great
Duke of Ormonde.[313]
[Sidenote: Pensions to monks.]
Pensions were generally granted to the heads of the dissolved houses and
sometimes to the other monks. Thus the Abbot of Mellifont received
40_l._, and several of the monks from 3_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ to 20_s._ The
Prior of Fower in Westmeath and the Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin, received
each 50_l._; the Prior of St. Thomas's, Dublin, 42_l._; and others were
paid in proportion to the importance of their convents. In a few cases
priors received as little as 3_l._, and monks as little as 13_s._ 4_d._
The ejected brethren often got other preferment. Edmond O'Lonergan, Prior
of Cahir, who received a pension of 3_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._, was made vicar of
the parish, and William Walsh, Prior of Ballydrohid, had a pension of
6_l._ 8_s._ 4_d._ till he should receive a benefice of greater value.
Hugh Doyne, one of the monks of Conal, who had received a pension of
40_s._, surrendered it on being presented by the Crown to a vicarage.
Pensions were charged on the lands of the dissolved houses, and power of
distress was sometimes given. The absence of complaints may justify a
supposition that payments were pretty regularly made. Great numbers of
monks doubtless withdrew to the Continent. Mary herself grumbled at the
numerous pensions payable to clerks, and directed her Deputy to make them
the first objects of his patronage, so that the pensions might be
gradually absorbed.[314]
[Sidenote: Titular abbots still appointed. Cistercians.]
In the case of the Cistercians at least titular abbots were sometimes
appointed for many generations. Alemand, the French historian of Irish
monasteries, says that the learned Nicholas Fagan, Bishop of Waterford,
was Abbot of Innislonagh, and was buried in the abbey in 1617. According
to the same author, who wrote towards the end of the seventeenth century,
there were in his time Abbots of Mellifont, Tintern, and Boyle, living in
the neighbourhood of their abbeys, but dressing like laymen. They were
probably chiefly occupied in receiving novices for education in foreign
convents. An important paper drawn up at Waterford in 1646 bears the
signature of one prior of Augustinian canons, and of four Cistercian
abbots, to say nothing of Jesuits and mendicants, but some of these may
have been appointed after the breaking out of the rebellion. In the reign
of James I. some Cistercians certainly lurked in Ireland. The nuncio
Rinuccini, who had the charge of Irish patronage from 1645, apologised
for preferring so many regulars on the ground that men of family seldom
became secular priests.[315]
[Sidenote: The dissolution not carried out in remote districts.]
In 1541 a commission was issued to the Earl of Desmond and others to
survey and dissolve all religious houses in Cork, Limerick, Kerry, and
Desmond. In these districts and in the purely Irish regions of Connaught
and Ulster, the process of dissolution was slow and uncertain. The title
of the Crown was theoretically acknowledged, but in some cases nothing
was done for many years. As the native nobility were subdued or
reconciled, Henry VIII.'s policy was gradually carried out. In the
wildest parts of Ulster the consummation was delayed until after the
flight of the Earls in the reign of James I.[316]
[Sidenote: Number and wealth of religious foundations.]
[Sidenote: Many are losers by the dissolution.]
Without counting the mendicant orders, about 350 religious houses can be
traced in Ireland. Many of these had disappeared before the reign of
Henry VIII., having become parish churches, or been absorbed in episcopal
establishments. Others were dependent on English foundations, and were
destroyed by the Act of Absentees; others, again, were cells to more
important houses, and followed their fortunes. A yearly income of
32,000_l._, with personalty to the amount of 100,000_l._, has been
attributed to the Irish monasteries, and their possessions must certainly
have been considerable. The monks, and especially the Cistercians,
generally chose fertile situations near a river or on the coast, for the
sake of fish and water carriage. The most beautiful and convenient sites
were in their hands, and their system of cultivation was much superior to
that of lay proprietors. The ceaseless wars of Ireland did not entirely
spare the religious houses, but they escaped better than other kinds of
property. The spoiling of the Church could never have been considered a
great or glorious work. The wealth of the monks is not to be measured by
the extent of their lands. It is in the vast number of their houses,
orchards, gardens, fishing-weirs, and mills, that we must seek the
evidence of accumulated capital. The immense circuit of the walls at
Kells or Athassel seems to show that great numbers of artificers and
labourers were sheltered within the enclosures, and that the monks knew
how to defend their own. The system of corrodies or resident pensions
probably reconciled the great nobles, and opposition to the dissolution
came partly from those who were impoverished by their abolition. It is to
these pensions, which were perhaps often abused, that Cowley probably
alludes when he accuses the monks generally of immorality and of showing
no hospitality save to themselves and 'certain bell-wedders, which
ringleaders have good fees, fat, profitable farms, the finding of their
children, with other daily pleasures of the abbeys, and fearing to lose
the profit thereof, repugn and resist the suppressing of abbeys,
surmising it should be prejudicial to the common weal, which is
otherwise.'[317]
[Sidenote: The Friaries suppressed. Not before 1541.]
In 1541 a commission was issued to Sir Anthony St. Leger and others to
survey and suppress all the friaries in Ireland. The total number was
rather under two hundred, of which the Franciscans had more than half,
the Dominicans forty-three, the Augustinian hermits twenty-four, and the
Carmelites twenty-one. As in the case of the older monasteries, the
houses within reach were at once dissolved, and the rest were perforce
respited. Their possessions were not large, and the friars managed to
exist without them. The Dominican historian says there were about six
hundred members of his order in Ireland just before Cromwell's conquest,
and the Franciscans were probably much more numerous. The houses of Grey
Friars had been very generally reformed by the Observants, and it is with
these stricter votaries that we generally meet. They swarmed everywhere,
and to them is due the preservation of the Roman tradition until the
Jesuits made head in Ireland. Archbishop Browne is never tired of
testifying against them, and Thomas Agard, his enthusiastic supporter,
calls them crafty bloodsuckers. Almost the only open opposition to the
dissolution came from a Franciscan, Dr. Sall, who boldly preached against
it at Waterford. During the Cromwellian war and subsequent persecution
the Franciscans claim thirty-one martyrs, which shows that they must have
been very numerous. In 1645 the Carmelites reckoned twenty-seven houses
in Ireland, but most of these were doubtless desecrated and deserted. No
candid Protestant can altogether sympathise with Browne and Agard, for we
have the most overwhelming proof that but for the friars a large part of
the population would have been altogether debarred from the exercise of
religion.[318]
[Sidenote: All kinds of men share the plunder.]
Most of the men who had been useful in carrying out the suppression
received a share of the spoils. Brabazon, St. Leger, Sir John Alen, Chief
Justice Luttrell, Edmund Sexton, Sir Thomas Cusack, and Robert Dillon,
were all enriched in this way. Prime-serjeant Barnewall denied the King's
right to dissolve the monasteries, but profited largely by the measure.
Celts, Normans, and Saxons, Papists and Protestants alike, showed a fine
appetite for the confiscated lands. Desmond had a lease of part of St.
Mary Abbey, perhaps to induce him to spend some of his time in Dublin.
Three at least of the new peerages--Upper Ossory, Carbery, and Cahir,
were partially endowed from similar sources. Edward Power, bastard
brother of the first baron of Curraghmore, was granted the possession of
Mothel, of which he had been prior. In some cases, as in Clanricarde and
Thomond, the Government made a virtue of necessity, and gave monastic
lands to lords or chiefs who would have had the power to seize them in
any case. It is scarcely necessary to say that the House of Ormonde
profited enormously by the dissolution. Sometimes the plunder was too
small to excite much cupidity, and then the monks might be spared. Thus
the Austinfriars of Dunmore in Galway, who had 'neither land nor profit,
but only the small devotion of the people,' were respited during the
King's pleasure, on condition of assuming a secular habit. A like
indulgence was given to the canons of Toem in Tipperary, which the
O'Meaghers had been able to prevent the Royal Commissioners from
visiting. Many houses were reasonably granted to the founders' kin, for
the dissolution must have been a heavy loss to some families. Most of the
corporate towns had founded or fostered monasteries, and Waterford,
Drogheda, Kilkenny, Galway, Limerick, Clonmel, and Athenry received a
portion of the spoils. All Saints was specially granted to the citizens
of Dublin in compensation of their loss during the Geraldine siege. As a
general rule, monastic lands were at first let only on lease, and in
succeeding reigns large fines were obtained by the Crown. At the first
threat of dissolution some houses hastened to let their lands for long
terms, and to cut down their woods and sell their jewels, and thus the
plunder actually realised often fell below expectation. I have met with
but one case of a charitable foundation being laid immediately upon the
ruins of a monastery, and that was owing to private liberality. Henry
Walshe, son of a Waterford merchant, bought the Grey Friars from the
King, and founded a hospital for sixty or more sick persons. This
institution received a royal charter, and still exists on a reduced
scale.[319]
[Sidenote: No university in Ireland.]
No care was taken to supply the place of the monasteries which were
devoted to education. There had been three attempts to found a university
in Ireland before the reign of Henry VIII. In 1310 John Lech, Archbishop
of Dublin, obtained a bull from Clement V., who ordered the establishment
of the desired institution, which would, he hoped, 'sprinkle the said
land, like a watered garden, to the exaltation of the Catholic faith, the
honour of the mother church, and the profit of all the faithful.' Lech
died soon after, and his project was buried with him; but his successor,
Alexander de Bicknor, actually made a foundation in connection with St.
Patrick's Cathedral, and under the patronage of John XXII. Bicknor's
University maintained a very precarious existence till the time of Henry
VII., when it finally disappears. The institution was not crushed by the
weight of its endowments, for it does not seem to have had any. In 1465
Bicknor's work was ignored by the Parliament of Drogheda, which founded a
new university on the ground that there was none in Ireland. But it was
not enough to declare that Drogheda should be as Oxford: there was no
endowment and no popular support, and this scheme also failed. Very near
the end of his reign Henry VIII. made up his mind that one cathedral was
enough for Dublin, and he suppressed St. Patrick's. Christ Church had
already been acknowledged as the metropolitan church. But it was not till
the next reign that Archbishop Browne propounded his abortive plan for
restoring the University which had once faintly glimmered.[320]
[Sidenote: Archbishop Browne.]
The principal instrument by which Henry carried out his ecclesiastical
revolution was George Browne, Provincial of the English Austinfriars, who
was appointed Archbishop of Dublin in 1535 after regular election by the
two chapters. He was consecrated by Cranmer, Fisher, and Shaxton of
Salisbury, who were significantly commanded to invest him with the pall.
Browne's appointment is ignored at Rome, but no rival prelate was at
first set up. He had already distinguished himself by preaching strongly
against the invocation of saints, and, whatever his faults were, he was
certainly a sincere Protestant. 'The common voice goeth,' said Staples,
who had not quite made up his own mind, 'that he doth abhor the Mass.'
Browne was married, but whether before or after his consecration does not
appear. He zealously promoted the King's supremacy and the destruction of
images, and complained bitterly of being thwarted by his colleague of
Armagh, by the Irish generally, and even by Lord Deputy Grey. Cromer was
in communication with Rome, and circulated a sort of Papal oath of
allegiance among the clergy, in which obedience to heretical powers was
denounced and all their acts declared null and void. The old jealousy
between Armagh and Dublin may have had something to say to this; for
Browne, if we may believe Staples, claimed authority over all the clergy
of Ireland. The new Archbishop did not bear himself meekly in his great
office, and he received a stinging rebuke, which the writer was pleased
to call a gentle advertisement, from the King himself. Henry accused his
nominee of neglecting the instruction of the people and the interests of
the Crown. 'Such,' he added, 'is your lightness in behaviour and such is
the elation of your mind in pride, that glorying in foolish ceremonies,
and delighting in _we_ and _us_, in your dreams comparing yourself so
near to a prince in honour and estimation, that all virtue and honesty is
almost banished from you. Reform yourself therefore ... and let it sink
into your remembrance that we be as able for the not doing thereof to
remove you again and to put another man of more virtue and honesty in
your place, both for our discharge against God, and for the comfort of
our good subjects there, as we were at the beginning to prefer you.' Well
might Browne answer that the King's letter made him tremble in body for
fear. He defended himself at length, and invoked the fate of Korah should
he fail to advance the King's service. His defence seems to have
satisfied Henry, but he continued to make many enemies and to excite much
criticism. 'His pride and arrogance,' said Staples, 'hath ravished him
from the right remembrance of himself.'[321]
[Sidenote: Bishop Staples.]
Edward Staples, originally a Cambridge man, and afterwards parson of
Tamworth and a canon of Cardinal College, was appointed to the see of
Meath in 1530 by Papal provision. Either as Bishop or Privy Councillor he
incurred the hatred of the Geraldine faction, and fled to England on the
breaking out of the rebellion in 1534. Early next year he returned, and
was one of the commissioners for suppressing the nunnery of Grane.
Staples did not at first fully embrace the reformed doctrines, for he
accused the Archbishop of Dublin of heresy, and appears to have been
attached to the Mass; but he was as zealous as Browne for the royal
supremacy, and his conversion to thorough Protestantism was gradual like
Cranmer's. Staples was a noted preacher, and was promoted for that
reason; but the King at one time accused him of slackness and threatened
to remove him.[322]
FOOTNOTES:
[281] Surrey to Wolsey, Sept. 6, 1520, and the notes; Pace to Wolsey,
April 7, 1521, in _Carew_; Stubbs, _Const. Hist._ ii. 317.
[282] Ware's _Bishops_; Richard Culoke to Brabazon, Nov. 10, 1537; the
King to the Lord Deputy and Council, July 10, 1543.
[283] Ware.
[284] Brady's _Episcopal Succession_, vol. i. p. 325; Ware. Roy's satire
against Wolsey, printed in the 9th vol. of the _Harleian Miscellany_, has
the following:
_Wat._ And who did for the show pay?
_Jeff._ Truly many a rich abbaye
To be eased of his visitation.
_Wat._ Doth he in his own person visit?
No, another for him doth it,
That can skill of the occupation.
A fellow neither wise nor sad,
But he was never yet full mad,
Though he be frantic and more.
Dr. Alen he is named,
One that to lie is not ashamed
If he spy advantage therefore.
_Wat._ Are such with him in any price?
_Jeff._ Yea, for they do all his advice,
Whether it be wrong or right.
[285] As to the legatine authority, see _Brewer_, vol. iii., No. 2838,
and iv., No. 5131; John Alen to Wolsey, June 1, 1523, in S.P.
[286] Clement VII. to Henry VIII., Oct. 21, 1524, in _Brewer_ and in
_Rymer_; Kildare's Articles against Ormonde in S.P., vol. ii. p. 123; and
see _Brewer_, vol. iv., No. 4277; R. Cowley to Wolsey in 1528, S.P., vol.
ii. p. 141; _Presentments of Grievances_, edited by Graves, p. 203;
Council of Ireland to Cromwell, Feb. 8, 1539.
[287] _Brady_, vol. ii.; Council of Ireland to Cromwell, Feb. 8, 1539.
[288] Theiner's _Vetera Monumenta_, pp. 515, 516, 521; _Brady_, Arts,
Kilmore, Clogher, and Raphoe.
[289] Kildare to Wolsey, Feb. 8, 1522; R. Cowley to Wolsey, S.P., vol.
ii., No. 53; Ware.
[290] For the Ross case, see _Theiner_, p. 520; for the union of Ross and
Dromore 'propter tenuitatem utriusque ecclesiæ,' see _Brady_, vol. ii. p.
109.
[291] See _Brady_, under Elphin and Kilmacduagh.
[292] S.P., vol. ii. pp. 11, 15, and 16.
[293] For Ardagh, see _Theiner_, p. 521; for Ross, p. 529; for
Clonmacnoise, p. 518. For Enaghdune, see Ossory to Cromwell in 1532,
_Carew_, vol. i. No. 37.
[294] _Presentments of Grievances_, ed. Graves; particularly pp. 192 and
203.
[295] Kildare's Articles against Ormonde in 1525, S.P., vol. ii. p. 123;
his statement is partially confirmed by the _Presentments of Grievances_,
and see Ossory's own statements in 1534, _Carew_, vol. i. p. 55; Ware's
_Life and Death of Archbishop Browne_.
[296] Indenture of Remembrance for the Earl of Ossory and Lord Butler,
May 31, 1534, in _Carew; Presentments of Grievances_, pp. 48 and 204;
_Four Masters_, 1525; Dowling's _Annals_, 1522:--'Mauritius Doran
episcopus in jocando ejus adventu quibusdam persuadentibus duplicari
subsidium cleri respondit: melius radere oves quam destruere.'
[297] _Presentments of Grievances_, especially pp. 100, 202, 204, and
248; for the sons of clergy, &c., see Kildare's Articles in S.P., vol.
ii. p. 122. In _Brewer_, Feb. 25, 1521, Leo X. authorises a priest's son
to govern the Cistercian Abbey of Rosglas; Browne to Cromwell, Nov. 6,
1538, in S.P.; for Kilclehin (wrongly calendared as Kilcullen), see
_Hamilton_, Oct. 9, 1539.
[298] For the educating monasteries, see Lord Deputy and Council to
Cromwell, May 21, 1539, and the petition from St. Mary's, July 31. The
value of the friars appears from the whole history of the time. See in
particular _Presentments of Grievances_, p. 130; R. Cowley to Cromwell,
Oct. 4, 1536.
[299] Browne to Cromwell, July 15, 1536 (?), in Browne's _Life and
Death_, in _Ware_, p. 148, and in the _Phoenix_; R. Cowley to Cromwell,
Oct. 4, 1536.
[300] Browne to Cromwell, Jan. 8, May 8, and Aug. 10, 1538. The Form of
the Beads in S.P., vol. ii., No. 214; R. Cowley to Cromwell, July 19,
1538 and Aug. 5.
[301] James White to Cromwell, March 28; Lord Butler to the King, March
31; again to Cromwell, April 5; Brabazon to Cromwell, April 30; Browne to
Cromwell, Jan. 8, May 8 and 20, 1538.
[302] This quarrel may be traced in detail in the _State Papers_. Browne
to J. Alen, April 15, 1538; to Cromwell, May 8 and 21, and June 20 and
27; Staples to St. Leger, June 17; to Cromwell, June 10 and Aug. 10;
Thomas Alen to Cromwell, Oct. 20; Brabazon to Cromwell, April 30.
[303] Grey to Cromwell, Dec. 31, 1537; J. Alen to Cromwell, Oct. 20,
1538; Browne's Letters in S.P. from 1538 to 1540; R. Cowley to Cromwell,
July 19, 1538; Lord Butler to Cromwell, Aug. 26. Butler says that at the
Lord Deputy's table the vicar of Chester said the King had commanded
images to be set up, worshipped, and honoured as much as ever. 'We held
us all in silence to see what the Lord Deputy would say thereto. He held
his peace, and said nothing; and then my Lord of Dublin, the Master of
the Rolls, and I said that if ... he were out of the Deputy's presence,
we would put him fast by the heels.... His lordship said nothing all the
while. Surely he hath a special zeal to the Papists.' For Down Cathedral,
see Stanihurst.
[304] Ware places the destruction of relics in 1538: it was perhaps a
little later. For Our Lady of Trim and the Baculum Jesu, see the _Four
Masters_, under 1537, and O'Donovan's notes; also Giraldus Cambrensis,
_Top._ Dist. iii. cap. 33 and 34, and _Expug._ lib. ii. c. 19, Record
Edition. The notice in Campion is perhaps only an echo of Giraldus.
[305] The above paragraph is founded on a careful comparison of the data
in Ware, Cotton, and Brady. R. Cowley to Cromwell, Aug. 5, 1538; and see
S.P., vol. iii. pp. 110, 117, and 123. A letter from Staples to St.
Leger, June 17, 1538, throws some light on Henry's relations with Rome
before the divorce question arose: 'Appoint some means how that such
bishops as had their bulls of the Bishop of Rome by our sovereign lord's
commandment may bring in their bulls, cancelling the same, and to have
some remembrance from his Highness, which shall stand them in like effect
with the same.'
[306] There are notices of Wauchop in Ware, Brady, Sarpi, ii. 34 (French
translation and Courayer's notes), and Moran's _Spicilegium Ossoriense_,
vol. i. p. 13. Twelve letters of Wauchop printed in the last-named work
have nothing particular to do with Ireland. He must be regarded as
founder of the titular hierarchy in Ireland.
[307] Abstracted from Hogan's _Hibernia Ignatiana_, p. 4, where Paul's
letter may be also read in the original Latin.
[308] Hogan's _Hibernia Ignatiana_, pp. 3-9. Paul III.'s letter to Con
O'Neill is dated April 24, 1541. The Jesuits were in Ireland in February
and March, 1542. O'Sullivan Beare, lib. iii. cap. 8. James V. to the
Irish chiefs, in S.P., vol. v. p. 202; Paget to Henry VIII. from Lyons,
July 13, 1542, in S.P., vol. ix. p. 106.
[309] _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, p. 73; Grey to Cromwell, Feb. 4, 1537.
The last session began Oct. 13, 1537; a detailed account is given by
Brabazon in a letter to Cromwell in S.P., vol. ii. p. 524, and in the
note there.
[310] Grey and Brabazon to Cromwell, May 18, 1537. The King to the Lord
Deputy and Council, S.P., vol. ii. p. 425. Harris's _Ware_ under Staples,
Bishop of Meath. For the names of the dissolved houses, see the Statute,
28 Henry VIII. cap. 16, and _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, p. 38. There were
twenty-five mitred abbots and priors in Ireland, ten of Canons Regular,
one of Benedictines, one of Hospitallers, and thirteen of Cistercians.
Ware, in his _Annals_, says the heads of St. Mary's and St. Thomas's,
Dublin, of Kilmainham, and of Mellifont were regularly summoned to
Parliament--the more distant ones very seldom. The Augustinians were the
most numerous and probably the richest of the sedentary orders. Their
rule was adopted by most of the ancient Irish monasteries, the small
residue becoming Benedictine. Alemand, who was originally a Huguenot and
who was Voltaire's countryman, remarks that in order to become quickly a
bishop in Ireland, it was necessary first to be a Regular Canon.
[311] Chiefly from Alemand; the words of John's grant are 'ante adventum
_Francorum_ in Hiberniam.' For the final grant, see Archdall's _Lodge_.
Art. Earl of Drogheda.
[312] Alemand. Sidney to Queen Elizabeth, April 20, 1567, in the _Sidney
Papers_.
[313] Alemand and Archdall. As to the intended combat, see _Carew_,
miscellaneous vol., pp. 446, 447.
[314] Most of the pensions mentioned in the text are traceable in
Morrin's _Calendar of Patent Rolls_. For Cahir, see Archdall's
_Monasticon_. Queen Mary's instructions to Lord Fitzwalter, April 28,
1556, in _Carew_.
[315] Alemand, _passim_; Documents in the supplementary volume of _King's
Primer_, No. 66; the Waterford document is in Brennan's _Ecclesiastical
History_, p. 459.
[316] Sir John Davies's _Discovery_.
[317] In Mant's _Church History_ is an estimate of the monastic property
founded on the Loftus MS.; but such calculations must be very rough. R.
Cowley to Cromwell, Oct. 4, 1536.
[318] Agard to Cromwell, April 4, 1538. James White to Cromwell, March
28. _Spicilegium Ossoriense_, vol. i. p. 437. _Hibernia Dominicana._
[319] In recommending a grant of Dusk to Ormonde the Council say they
'cannot perceive, as it is situated, that any man can keep it for the
King, but only the said Earl or his son.' For Toem and Dunmore, see
_Calendar of Patent Rolls_, pp. 73 and 84. Browne to Cromwell, May 21,
1538.
[320] Ware's _Antiquities_, by Harris, chap. xxxvii., sec. 3. Lord L.
Grey to Cromwell, Jan. 19, 1538.
[321] The King to Browne in S.P., vol. ii. p. 174; Browne's answer, Sept.
27, 1537; Staples to St. Leger, June 17, 1538; Ware's _Life and Death of
Browne_.
[322] Ware's _Bishops_; Staples to St. Leger, June 17, 1538; Devices by
Travers for the Reformation in 1542, S.P., vol. iii., No. 382. The King's
rebuke was in 1537, see S.P., vol. ii. p. 174, note.