heathen or the heretics. Certain it is, whatever be the cause, that the missionary spirit of the Church of Rome formed a striking contrast to the absence of that spirit in the new birth and infant career of Protestantism. Consequently, as the new faith was rarely to be found among the native Irish, those of the clergy in England who could be induced to take livings in Ireland were neither the best nor the most eligible for the task. Either they were men who had no sufficient recommendation for character and attainments to succeed in England, or dissatisfied with the English hierarchy and the discipline of the English Church, they carried with them more religious zeal than discretion into their new sphere of action, and were the least fitted to propagate the faith among their new and refractory flocks.

On this head the evidence of the poet Spenser, long resident in Ireland, is clear and peremptory. After speaking of the absence of religious teaching in Ireland, and answering the remark that those who held "the place of government" were not without blame for suffering the people "to wallow in such deadly darkness," he thus replies "That which you blame is not, I suppose, any "fault of will in those ghostly fathers which have charge "thereof, but the inconvenience of the time and troublous "occasions wherewith that wretched realm hath continu

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ally been turmoiled; for instruction in religion needeth

quiet times, and ere we seek to settle a sound disci

pline in the clergy, we must purchase peace unto "the laity; for it is ill time to preach among swords, " and most hard or rather impossible it is to settle a

good opinion in the minds of men for matters of religion doubtful, which have, doubtless, an evil opinion "of us. For ere a new be brought in, the old must "be removed."

Then, after enlarging on this topic, the poet proceeds to consider how far the cause of religion had been hindered through the negligence and misconduct of those who were appointed to teach it. On this head he observes :-" What"ever disorders you see in the Church of England, ye may find there (in Ireland) and many more; namely,

gross simony, greedy covetousness, fleshly incontinency, "careless sloth, and generally all disordered life in the

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common clergyman. And besides all these they have "their particular enormities; for all Irish priests which "now enjoy the church livings, they are in a manner mere laymen, saving that they have taken holy orders, "but otherwise they do go and live like laymen, follow "all kind of husbandry and other worldly affairs as other "Irishmen do. They neither read the Scriptures, nor "preach to the people, nor administer the Communion; "but baptism they do, for they christen yet after the Popish fashion, only they take the tithes and offerings, "and gather what fruit else they may of their livings, "the which they convert as badly."

The bishops, he avers, were not without their share of blame in continuing and augmenting these disorders. They ruled their clergy, who were generally poor, licentious, and illiterate, with absolute sway; "yea, and some "of them whose dioceses are in remote parts, somewhat "out of the world's eye, do not at all bestow the benefices "which are in their own donation upon any, but keep "them in their own hands, and let their own servants "and horseboys to take up the tithes and fruits of "them, with which some of them purchase great lands "and build fair castles upon the same." He concludes -a conclusion which most of his readers will have anticipated:" For the clergy, excepting the grave fathers, "which are in high place about the State, and some few

"others which are lately planted in their new college, are

generally bad, licentious, and most disordered."*

This was the state of the Irish Church as late, if not later, than the year 1593, when Trinity College was first opened for the reception of students.

The

It may appear surprising that in the face of these difficulties difficulties which every day accumulated and clogged the wheels of government—the Tudor sovereigns did not adopt a more conciliatory and politic course. whole power of Ireland was in reality shared between the Irish chiefs and the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Until the attempt was made to force, at all hazards, the King's supremacy and the doctrines of the Reformation upon Ireland, the chiefs of the nation, at all events, if not the great mass of the people, were, as we have seen, little affected towards their ancient religion.† No Irish chief had as yet, as in the case of James Fitz Maurice FitzGerald,‡ or Desmond a few years later, proclaimed himself the champion of a holy league, or combined friends and foes in the common cause of religion against the English government. No Irish chief had, as yet, appealed to the religious affections and sentiments of the people, and made

* State of Ireland, p. 529.

† I do not mean to insinuate that the Irish chiefs were not religious in their own way; but that way did not prevent them from treating priests and churches with a freedom not easily reconciled with our modern notions of the Isle of Saints. In the time of Henry VII., when one of Kildare's predecessors was brought before the Council to answer the charge of burning the cathedral of Cashel, "By Jasus," he exclaimed to the astonishment of the board, "I would never have done it, had it not been told me that the Archbishop was within." It is creditable to Henry VII., though a King given more to sadness than mirth, that he heartily enjoyed this Irish apology. See Holinshed (or Hooker's) Chron. of Ireland, p. 83. But indeed the fact is too notorious to need any laboured proof.

Carew, Vol. I. p. 397.

their devotional faith subservient to his own designs. Beyond the ancient ties of clanship, undoubtedly strong, and apparently as indefinite as they were strong, religion had not as yet intervened to bind an enthusiastic and susceptible people, chiefs and dependants, priests and laymen, in one close and compact union. The rights exercised by Irish lords were as oppressive as those exercised by the Russian nobleman over his serfs. The general improvement in the condition of the poorer Irish population introduced by English settlers, the regular habits of labour and fixed employments in English farms and homesteads would have created more intimate and tender ties between the two people-would by degrees have raised the population, and emancipated them from the ignorant tyranny of semi-barbarous chiefs, or made the interests of the two incompatible. By increasing the number of these settlers, by improving the general condition of the population, by restraining insensibly the powers of the chiefs, by putting a strong curb on the licence of the soldiers, England might, after a time, have created for itself the strongest barrier and support in the affections of the Irish people— it might have attracted towards itself, by a sense of gratitude and community of interests, those strong affections which now ran violently in an opposite channel. By wise and conciliatory treatment, the great mass of the people, like the Lowlander in Scotland, would have proved a barrier to the turbulence and insurrections of the chiefs. But indifferent to the condition, the wants, and the wishes of the broad mass of the population, the Tudor sovereigns merely sought how to force the Irish into compliance with English manners, English habits, dress, and customs; and when the task proved impossible, nothing remained except to retreat or to ride rough-shod over all obstacles to good government and improvement.

Throughout the papers of Carew there are to be found repeated and fruitless enactments for obliterating from the face of Ireland all traces, accidental or otherwise, of Irish characteristics. The land was in all respects to be remodelled, volens nolens, upon an English platform, so far at least as it was possible in a conquered province-so far as a humble and distant dependant can be made to assume the dress, manners, deportment, religion, and policy of its superior. Its Deputy was to be the alter idem of English royalty; its council board the counterpart in its constitution and its authority of the council board in England. Its chiefs, some of whom were scarcely superior in civilization to their followers, were to abandon their wild and intemperate habits, and wilder lives among wild dependants, and, holding their estates, like English noblemen, of the crown, to strut in the robes of peers of the realm.* Ireland must have its bench of bishops, and its dioceses, most of which existed only in name; and even the people were to be remodelled after the English fashion. The weight of the law was brought to bear against forelocks and moustaches: it regulated the size of noblemen's and gentlemen's shirts, and took under its protection hats, caps, French hoods and tippets. Saffron cloth and embroidery were little better than constructive treason. To listen to Irish lays or give alms to an Irish minstrel exposed the offender, by the bitter sarcasm of the laws, to the forfeiture of both ears if the offence were repeated. "All carroughes, bards, rhymers, "and common idle men and women, within this province (of Munster), making rhymes, bringing of messages, and common players at cards, [are] to be spoiled of all their

* There is a curious instance of an Irish nobleman, who having to make his appearance at the Irish parliament in his official robes, requested that his chaplain might have a suit of the same, as the boys would laugh at him.