Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 2 (of 3)

by Richard Bagwell

FOOTNOTES:

[342] Gerard to Walsingham, Oct. 19, 1576; to Burghley, Nov. 15; to the Privy Council, Feb. 8, 1577; to Walsingham, same date; see in Carew, ad ann. 1576, p. 476; Gerard to the Queen, Note of Observations, March 29, 1578.

[343] White to Burghley, Feb. 10, 1577; Drury to Walsingham, Feb. 24; to the Queen, March 20; to Walsingham, April 14.

[344] Desmond to Burghley, March 20; Privy Council to Desmond, May 13; Drury to Walsingham, Jan. 27, 1578; to the Privy Council, Jan. 15 and April 24; Sidney to the Privy Council, Feb. 20.

[345] Council of Ireland to the Queen, Sept. 12, 1577; Petition of the Earl of Thomond, July 6, and the answer in October; Drury to Leicester, July 8, 1577, in Carew. The Four Masters call Murrough O’Brien ‘the most renowned of the heirs of Carrigogunnel and Aherlow.’

[346] Sidney to the Privy Council, Jan. 27, 1577; Maltby to Walsingham, March 17, Aug. 30, Sept. 18, and Nov. 10; to Burghley, Nov. 12; Snagg to Walsingham, Nov. 5.

[347] Fitzwilliam to the Privy Council, April 12, 1571, May 6, 1572, and Nov. 5, 1573; to the Queen, Jan. 4, June 27, and Dec. 7, 1572; to Burghley, July 20, August 5 and 26, 1572, and May 20, 1573; Justice Nicholas Walshe to Fitzwilliam, Nov. 24, 1573; to Burghley, Nov. 30; Sir P. Carew to Tremayne, Feb. 6, 1574; Declaration by John Alen, Feb. 1575, and by Richard Garret, March 12, 1575.

[348] Sidney to the Privy Council, Dec. 15, 1575, in the Sidney Papers.

[349] Sidney to the Privy Council, March 17, 1576, and Hooker in Holinshed. The two accounts seem drawn from a common source.

[350] Sidney’s Relation, 1583, in Carew. Sidney to the Privy Council, Nov. 26, 1577; Hooker’s Annals of Lough Cé, 1577.

[351] Sidney to the Privy Council, Feb. 20. 1578, in the Sidney Papers.

[352] Sidney to the Privy Council, July 1, 1578, with whom Hooker closely agrees; Fitton to Burghley, July 1; Maltby to same, July 26; Lord Upper Ossory to same, Feb. 24, 1579; Council in Ireland to the Queen, Sept. 12, 1578; Annals of Lough Cé, 1578. The Four Masters, writing in the next reign, are much more guarded. In the curious poem by John Derrick, called the ‘Image of Ireland,’ which is in the Somers Tracts, and has been lately reprinted, there is a good deal about Rory Oge. The work is strictly contemporary; but it does not add much to our knowledge. The following stanzas are about the most interesting. Rory Oge loquitur:—

Much like a champion addicted to war,
Time serving fitly to anger my foes,
I summoned a number of neighbours from far,
Twice eighty persons, the best I could choose
For manhood and sleights, in whom to repose
I might in safety my life and my land:
No dastards nor shrinklings, but those that would stand.

With these I marched from place unto place,
With these I troubled both village and town,
With these in one night I fired the Naas,
With these my resisters I spoiled of renown,
With these I made many a castle come down,
With these I yielded, augmenting my fame,
The people to sword and houses to flame.

[353] Drury to the Privy Council, March 24, 1578.

[354] Waterhouse to Sidney, Aug. 21, Sept. 5, 15, 16 and 30, 1577; Walsingham to Sidney, Sept. 15, 1577, Jan. 20, 1578, all in the Sidney Papers.

[355] Walsingham to Sidney, Jan. 20, in the Sidney Papers. Queen to Sidney, March 22; Sir Philip Sidney to his father, April 25, in the Sidney Papers.

[356] Sidney to the Queen, April 30, 1578. Instructions for Waterhouse in the Sidney Papers. The Queen to Sidney, May 29, in Carew. Maltby to Walsingham, May 3; Sidney’s Summary Relation, 1583, in Carew; Four Masters; Lodge’s Peerage. Instructions for Snagg, A. G., June 11.

[357] Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Aug. 1; Waterhouse to Sidney, July 4, in the Sidney Papers, where also are the Instructions for Snagg and Briskett; Sidney’s Summary Relation, 1583.

[358] Letter of advice to Lord Grey, Sept. 17, 1580, in the Sidney Papers. Sidney to the Queen, Sept. 15, 1577, in same; to the Queen (after reaching England), Sept. 18, 1578.

[359] Lady Mary Sidney to Edward Molineux, Oct. 11, 1578, and a second letter (undated) soon after, in the Sidney Papers. It is the Book of Howth which accuses Sidney of being a ‘lusty feeder and surfeiter.’ The Irish nickname might very well come from some dispute with a contractor, and not from Sidney’s fondness for malt liquor. Sidney died in 1586, prematurely old, at fifty-seven years of age. In the British Museum a black letter pamphlet contains a funeral sermon by Thomas White, D.D., the founder of Sion College. The whole is interesting, more especially the following passage: ‘He consumed himself in yielding light to other men; besides his special gift of affability to poor and simple men, the very grace of all his greatness. It is no hard matter for a man to be humble in low estate, but to be lowly in greatness is not a common gift; and if pride herself be often forced to dissemble humility, because lowliness maketh a simple man to be highly commended, how much more doth it excel, when it shall indeed appear in persons of value and renown! Wherefore if any man will build his house high, let him lay his foundations very low, for envy shoots at high marks, and pride goes before a fall.’ Herein lay the secret of Sidney’s immense popularity. His haughtiness was reserved for the great and powerful.

CHAPTER XXXV.
THE IRISH CHURCH DURING THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF ELIZABETH’S REIGN.

The Queen aims at outward uniformity.

Outward uniformity was what Elizabeth chiefly aimed at in the first years of her reign, and before a Papal excommunication forced her to be the enemy of all who adhered to Rome. The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity were passed as a matter of course, but a clause in the latter statute shows that there was every disposition to treat the Irish tenderly. Most parts of Ireland, the Act declares, were devoid of English ministers to read the Common Prayer and administer the sacraments; ‘and for that also, that the same may not be in their native language, as well for difficulty to get it printed, as that few in the whole realm can read Irish letters,’ it was ordained that ministers and priests who knew no English might do their office in Latin. It was a singularly ill-advised plan, for the Jesuits and friars all knew Latin, and the Irish people knew it even less than English.

The English Bible and Prayer-book. Images.

In Dublin, however, everyone spoke English, and the Common Prayer Book of Edward VI. was used at the installation of Sussex. Open opposition was impossible, but on the following Sunday an attempt was made to discredit the new ritual by a trick. Christ Church contained a marble Christ with a crown of thorns on His head. This statue, which had been removed by Browne and replaced by Curwen, was observed to bleed during the service, and many were ready to believe in a miracle. Sedgrave, the mayor, who had sat quiet during the former service, produced a rosary and prayed openly before the bloody effigy. A former monk of the cathedral, named Leigh, cried out that Christ could not but sweat blood since heresy had come into the Church. A tumult seemed imminent, and Sussex and his suite hurried out of the choir. But Curwen stood upon a bench and showed the congregation that Leigh had placed a sponge filled with blood within the crown of thorns. The Protestants were triumphant, the Roman party confounded, and Curwen’s orders to have the statue broken up were obeyed without demur. Parker made good use of this occurrence to persuade the Queen to have images removed from all the churches. The exposure of so gross a fraud may have contributed to secure outward conformity in Dublin; but among the Irish-speaking people in the country it was perhaps scarcely heard of. The counter-reformation was everywhere in progress under teachers trained at Louvain. The actual state of the question as between Crown and Pope may best be arrived at by considering each diocese separately. A large Bible presented by Archbishop Heath to one or both of the Dublin cathedrals was eagerly read, and more than 7,000 copies are said to have been bought for the Irish market in two years; but they can have been of little use to those who did not know a word of English.[360]

See of Armagh. Adam Loftus.

The primatial see of Armagh was vacant at the accession of Elizabeth, and remained so until 1563. Sussex recommended Adam Loftus, a Yorkshireman, who was already in Ireland and distinguished as a preacher. Loftus, who was educated at Cambridge, was the friend of Cartwright, and this may have retarded his promotion for a time. In November, 1561, his preferment was announced, and almost immediately afterwards the news was contradicted on authority. ‘I know not,’ said Sussex, ‘who hath informed that he is not worthy of that place, but if a vehement zeal in religion, good understanding in the Scriptures, doctrines, and other kinds of learning, continual study, good conversation of life, and a bountiful gift of God in utterance, be sufficient to enable him, I undertake I have better ground to enable him than any man of that land or this, of what vocation soever he be, hath to disable him.’ Loftus made the usual professions of unwillingness, and Sussex remarked that the primacy was great in name, but the living very small. He had searched for three years without finding a fit man. The Lord Deputy’s entreaties prevailed, and in October 1561 a congé d’élire was addressed to the Dean and Chapter of Armagh. This is remarkable, because the necessity for such instruments in Ireland had been already abolished by Act of Parliament. The letter was sent down to Armagh, and the Dean replied that no election was possible. The greater part of the Chapter were ‘temporal men and Shane O’Neill’s horsemen.’ The appointment was accordingly made by patent. Perhaps it had been the Queen’s intention to obtain only a permissive dispensation. At all events, the failure of the first attempt at capitular election was enough for her, and she did not repeat the experiment. Loftus was consecrated by Archbishop Curwen in March 1563, and the succession was thus preserved, for Curwen’s authenticity has never been questioned at Rome. At the beginning of 1565 Loftus was elected Dean of St. Patrick’s, and was empowered to hold the deanery along with his archbishopric, from which it must be allowed that he derived little or no profit. It does not appear that he ever saw his cathedral, which was burned by Shane O’Neill in 1566 lest it should shelter the English; and he was ready to resign a dignity which brought him not more than 20l. a year. ‘Of the whole revenues,’ he said, ‘there remaineth nothing but the bare house and fourscore acres of ground at Termonfeckin. Though peace ensue the repressing of this rebel, yet these wastes will not be inhabited, nor the spoils recovered many years hereafter.’ In the following year Loftus was translated to Dublin and forced to resign his deanery, which he did very unwillingly. Curwen, he said, had so impoverished his see that it was worth only 400l. Irish with 1,200 acres of land, and he was ‘minded rather to continue in the poor state’ of nominal primate with St. Patrick’s thrown in. He had, however, admitted that he could do no good in the Northern see, ‘for that altogether it lieth among the Irish.’ Love of money was throughout the bane of Loftus, and went far to neutralise the good effects of his learning and eloquence.[361]

Loftus is removed to Dublin.

Having determined to remove Loftus to Dublin, the Queen seriously thought of making the Dean, Terence Daniel, Primate of All Ireland. He had been thought of in 1564, but was very unfit for the office, and the appointment, which would have been avowedly political, was perhaps prevented by Sidney or Parker. Loftus recommended his friend Cartwright; but Thomas Lancaster, an Englishman who had formerly been Bishop of Kildare, was preferred, and in consideration of the state of his see was allowed to hold other preferment both in England and Ireland.[362]

Papal primates.

But neither Loftus nor Lancaster was acknowledged at Rome, and a Primate not acknowledged at Rome had small chance of reverence from the Irish masses. Donat O’Teige was provided by the Pope, and was at Armagh in the summer of 1561, when Shane O’Neill made his first attempt to burn the cathedral and its garrison of English soldiers. The pretended ‘Papist Primate,’ said Sussex, ‘sung mass with all the friars. After mass the Primate and the friars went thrice about Shane’s men, saying certain prayers, and willed them to go forward, for God was on their side. Whereupon he and all his men made a solemn vow and took their oaths never to turn their faces from the church till they had burned it and all the English churches, and so with a great shout set forward and assaulted the churchyard, where divers of them quickly left their bodies, and the rest, setting on fire the friars’ house and other old houses in another part of the town, ran away.’ We cannot wonder at the difficulty of obtaining canonical election for Loftus. O’Teige died in the following year, and in 1564 Richard Creagh was provided in his room.[363]

Archbishop Creagh. His sufferings.

If martyrdom consists in suffering for one’s opinions, few men have earned the crown better than Archbishop Creagh. He was a Limerick man, the son of a merchant, and himself engaged in trade. A ship in which he was about to sail put to sea while he was engaged in prayer. She foundered with all hands, and this escape made Creagh more serious than ever. He went to Louvain, and afterwards intended to enter the severe Theatine order, which had been founded about the time of his birth; but Pius IV., under pain ‘of cursing,’ obliged him to accept the Irish Primacy. During Queen Mary’s life he had already refused the Archbishopric of Cashel. From Rome he went by way of Augsburg to Antwerp, and thence to Louvain, where, dressed in his archiepiscopal robes, he gave a dinner to the doctors. He then sailed in a ship bound for Ireland, was driven to Dover by a contrary wind, and made his way to Rochester. ‘There,’ says his evidence before the Recorder of London, ‘he found an Irish boy begging, whom he took with him to London, and there lodged at the Three Cups in Broad Street, where he tarried not past three days, and went to Paul’s Church, and there walked but had no talk with any man, and so to Westminster Church to see the monuments there, and from thence came to Westminster Hall the same time that he heard say Bonner was arraigned.’ He made his way to Ireland, landed in his own province, and went to a monastery to hear mass. Immediately afterwards, and within an hour of setting foot on dry land, he was arrested by soldiers and sent to England. He was imprisoned and examined in the Tower, whence he escaped after a few weeks. By some extraordinary negligence, or possibly on purpose, all the doors were left open one morning. Creagh passed out at the main gate and was stopped by the Beefeaters, to whom he represented himself as the servant of Bilson, a Roman Catholic priest who was undergoing an easy imprisonment. He was allowed to go free, and it is not surprising that he should have thought his escape miraculous.[364]

Fate of Creagh.

Creagh made his way back to Ulster. According to his own account he was at all times friendly to Englishmen, anxious to serve the Queen as far as conscience would allow, and careful to prevent Shane O’Neill from plundering the Pale ‘according to his cursed custom.’ No sincere priest—and Creagh was undoubtedly a virtuous man—could have approved Shane’s doings, and no Archbishop could be well pleased to see his cathedral a blackened ruin. But his language in the Tower differed greatly in tone from that which he held in Ulster. On Christmas Day 1566 he was with Shane, and wrote to Sidney suggesting that ‘if peace should be or not, whether it should please your lordship, that we should have our old service in our churches, and suffer the said churches to be up for that use, so that the said Lord O’Neill should the less destroy no more churches, and perhaps should help to restore such as by his procurement were destroyed.’ In the same letter he admits that he had close relations with Spain, and throughout uses the first person plural. Sidney’s winter campaign, which broke Shane’s power, perhaps made Ulster untenable, or that chief may not have been unwilling to surrender him in order to make room for Terence Daniel. However that may be, Creagh seems to have wandered into Connaught, for it was by O’Shaughnessy that he was arrested, just four months after his letter to Sidney. He was indicted in Dublin for conspiring with Shane, but the intention to try him there was abandoned. There may have been considerable doubt of the fact, and much more of Irish judges and juries; or perhaps Sidney disliked the odious task. Once more Creagh escaped, but was again arrested by some of Kildare’s people and sent to London. He was never put on his trial, and remained eighteen years in the Tower. In 1579, after he had been more than eleven years in prison, one Hupton, his keeper for the last five, who thought himself, says Creagh, ‘ordained to take harm by Papists,’ was in custody ‘only for papistry.’ Colwick, another keeper, was accused of carrying letters to the poor Archbishop, but he said he had never given him anything but certain sums of 20s., 10s., or 5s. at a time, ‘sent him by his countrymen.’ In 1574 Creagh wrote a long letter to the Council, in which he defended himself from all charges of treason or rebellion, while acknowledging that he owed obedience to the Pope. One of his legs, he said, was rendered useless by the pressure of irons for eight years. He had lost most of his teeth, and suffered from rupture, stone, ‘and many other like miseries.’ Yet he lived on till 1585. A memorandum made in the spring of that year notes him as ‘a dangerous man to be among the Irish, for the reverence that is by that nation borne unto him, and therefore fit to be continued in prison.’ A few months afterwards he died. It has been said that he was poisoned; but his manifold diseases would account for his death, and Holing the Jesuit, a contemporary writer, says simply that he was worn out by years and by the filth of his prison. The story is bad enough as it stands.[365]

See of Meath. Bishop Staples.

Edward Staples, who was appointed both by King and Pope in 1529, was deprived in 1554, but remained in Ireland. ‘I was,’ he says, ‘driven almost to begging, thrust out of my house, cast from estimation, and made a jesting among monks and friars, nor any cause why was laid against me; but for that I did marry a wife they did put an Irish monk in my place, whose chief matter in preaching hath been in railing against my old master.’ Pole, he adds, chiefly objected to his praying for Henry VIII.’s soul, but promised that he should have some means of support. He was, however, left to beg, and could not even afford the journey to London. He probably died soon after Elizabeth’s accession, for the Cistercian William Walsh was left in possession of his see until 1560, when he was deprived for preaching against the royal supremacy and the Book of Common Prayer. Though appointed by Pole, Walsh received no regular Papal provision till 1564. He was soon afterwards imprisoned, but escaped to France in 1572. In 1575 he had a Brief to act both for Armagh and Dublin, Creagh being in the Tower and the other primacy vacant; but it is not clear that he returned to Ireland. ‘He is,’ said Loftus, who had vain hopes of converting him, ‘of great credit among his countrymen, and upon whom, as touching causes of religion, they wholly depend.’ But Walsh could hardly live safely in Ireland, and he died in Spain in 1578, having for some time acted as suffragan to the Archbishop of Toledo. Hugh Brady, appointed by patent in 1563, was a purely Protestant bishop.[366]

See of Clogher. Meiler Magrath.

At the accession of Elizabeth, Raymond MacMahon was Bishop of Clogher. He died in 1560 probably, and it is not pretended that he conformed. There is a regular Papal succession from his death, but the Queen made no appointment till 1570, when she preferred the notorious Meiler Magrath. Eugene Magennis was Bishop of Down and Connor, and perhaps made some show of conformity, for he was present in the Parliament of 1560. He died in 1563, and Shane O’Neill tried to get the see for his brother, who was only twenty-three years old. The Pope refused, and in 1565 Meiler Magrath was appointed at Rome. Magrath, who was utterly unscrupulous, made all the official submissions required of him, and in 1580 was deprived by the Pope ‘for the crime of heresy and many other enormities.’ From that date there is a regular Papal succession. Magrath, who had been originally a Franciscan friar, became the Queen’s Archbishop of Cashel in 1570; her Majesty having previously appointed John Merriman to Down and Connor. Magrath therefore enjoys the unique distinction of having been Protestant Archbishop of Cashel and Papal Bishop of Down and Connor at one and the same time. He was no ornament to either Church.[367]

Derry. Raphoe. Dromore. Clonmacnoise.

Eugene O’Dogherty was Bishop of Derry at Elizabeth’s accession. He was appointed by provision, and there is a regular Papal succession from him, but it does not appear that the Queen ever interfered. The same may be said of Raphoe and Dromore. Peter Wall, a Dominican, became Bishop of Clonmacnoise in 1556. On his death, in 1568, the see was united to Meath by Act of Parliament, and the Popes made no appointment until 1647. Patrick MacMahon was Bishop of Armagh from 1541 to 1568 at least, in which latter year he appears to have been deprived by bull. He died before November 1572, and in 1576 the Pope provided a successor as from his death and not from his deprivation, which may cast some doubt on the above-mentioned document. The Queen made no appointment till 1583. Kilmore was vacant at her accession, and she made no appointment till 1585. There is, however, a regular Papal succession. As a plain matter of fact the Government had no ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Ulster during the early part of Elizabeth’s reign. It was different with Meath, and Bishop Brady has the credit of restoring the ruined church of Kells in 1578. That it should have been then in ruins says little for the position of religion where the State had power.[368]

Dublin.

A sentiment attaches to Armagh, but Dublin was much more really important. It was beyond Shane O’Neill’s power to burn either St. Patrick’s or Christ Church, and a Papal nominee could hardly venture into the city or even into the diocese. Hugh Curwen, who was Archbishop from 1555 to 1568, when he was translated to Oxford, undoubtedly conformed, and it is through him that Irish Protestant bishops derive what is called apostolical succession. The Pope did not make even a titular appointment until 1600. Thomas Leverous, Kildare’s old tutor, and a most excellent man, was Bishop of Kildare at Mary’s death, was deprived in 1559, so far as the Government could deprive him, for refusing to take the oath of supremacy, and supported himself as a schoolmaster till his death in 1577. He was buried at Naas, within his own diocese, and his body was said to have performed many miracles. The Popes made no appointment until 1629, and the history of the Protestant see is very curious.[369]

Kildare.

Robert Daly.

Irish Protestantism naturally Puritanical.

Alexander Craik, a Scot, was appointed by patent in 1560, and was allowed to hold the Deanery of St. Patrick’s also. He is accused of impairing his bishopric by alienating the lands, but he was in the direst poverty, and he evidently had a conscience, so perhaps this may be calumny. ‘Neither,’ he wrote to Leicester, ‘I can preach to the people nor the people understand me.’ Loftus was his chaplain and only ally, and he begged to be released. His deanery of St. Patrick’s was valueless to him, for William Basnet claimed to hold it by a lease of Henry VIII. Nevertheless the Crown pressed him for first-fruits, and he had not wherewithal to pay the bare expenses of his removal to Ireland. As a preacher he was overworked, and when he imported an assistant from Hampshire, the Bishop of Winchester cited the latter for non-residence. Both for the sake of his health and his pocket he begged leave to visit England, but apparently the request was refused, and in 1563 he was actually in prison for 632l. due on account of first-fruits which he had not the means to pay. He died in the following year, and the see was given, unsolicited, to Robert Daly, a Prebendary of St. Patrick’s, whose power of preaching in the Irish language recommended him to the Queen. The net value of his bishopric not being more than 50l. a year, Daly was allowed to retain his prebend as well as the vicarage of Swords. He was a sincere and energetic Calvinist, and in 1565 he wrote to Cecil lamenting the measures taken against the Puritans. ‘The poor Protestants,’ he said, ‘being amazed at the talk doth oft resort towards me to learn what the matter means: whom I do comfort with the most fruitful texts of Scripture that I can find, willing them to put their trust in God, who promised that the faith should not decay in His elect, and never to leave His flock comfortless.’ We have here the germ of many future troubles. Irish Protestantism, being the religion of a minority in a Roman Catholic country, naturally took a Calvinistic hue, and the attempt to make it conform to the views of Parker, Whitgift, Laud, and others destroyed any chance which the State Church might have had. Daly begged for such encouragement as would enable him not only to comfort his friends, but to ‘suppress the stout brags of the sturdy and proud Papists.’ He remained Bishop of Kildare for eighteen years, during which he was turned out of house and home three times by the rebels. The last outrage was in 1582, and is supposed to have caused his death.[370]

Ossory.

The see of Ossory, which it was in Ormonde’s power to protect, would naturally have been one in which the State religion might have had a fair chance. John Thonery was in possession at Mary’s death, and Bale was also alive. The Kilkenny historian says the Protestant Bishops derive their succession through Thonery, but there is a difficulty about this, for an official document written in 1565 declares the see to have been long vacant, and another paper written while Bale was still alive also treats it as vacant. Now Bale died in 1563, and Thonery certainly not before 1565. Thonery was employed by the Government in 1559, and there is some evidence that he was considered still Bishop in 1567. But the Queen appointed Christopher Gafney towards the end of 1565. From these rather contradictory data it may perhaps be inferred that Thonery never conformed, but that he was not formally deprived. Probably he left the country, for he was certainly considered the true Bishop at Rome. The consistorial act nominating Thomas Strong in 1582 declares the see to have been many years vacant, since the death of Thonery, the last Bishop. Strong made his way to Ireland in 1584, but found his position untenable, and died in Spain in 1602, having long acted as suffragan to the Bishop of Compostella.[371]

Leighlin.

Thomas O’Fihily, or Field, was Bishop of Leighlin at Elizabeth’s accession, and undoubtedly conformed, fully abjuring the Pope’s authority. He died in 1566, and was buried in his own cathedral. Here, therefore, is an undoubted link between the Marian and Elizabethan Churches. Alexander Devereux, who was made Bishop of Ferns in 1539, and consecrated by Browne, managed to hold his see through the remainder of Henry’s reign, and through the reigns of Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, till his death in 1566. He is acknowledged both in the Papal and Protestant successions, but was a man of indifferent character and no credit to either Church.[372]

Cashel.

Rival Archbishops.

Roland Baron was made Archbishop of Cashel by Mary, and held the see till his death in 1561. But this case does not affect the succession, for Baron, on account of some informality perhaps, was never acknowledged at Rome. In 1567 rival archbishops were appointed. The Queen’s nominee was James MacCaghwell, an Irishman, whose learning and virtue had recommended him to Jewel. Jewel handed him on to Loftus, who advised that he should have Cashel, ‘the living being very small and not meet for any but of that country birth.’ The Primate evidently thought all fat things should be reserved for Englishmen like himself. The still poorer diocese of Emly was added during MacCaghwell’s episcopate; but he had little enjoyment of either see. Maurice Reagh FitzGibbon was appointed by the Pope, and in some way violently dispossessed the Queen’s man. Hooker says he wounded him with a knife, but if that happened it was more probably the act of some kerne. MacCaghwell seems, however, to have been closely imprisoned, so that his whereabouts became doubtful. Primate Lancaster said that FitzGibbon had carried his rival into Spain. For a time at least FitzGibbon got possession of the cathedral, and is said to have forced his rival to remain in the choir while he celebrated mass. The rough treatment to which MacCaghwell was subjected may have shortened his life. At all events he died in 1570, and Meiler Magrath was appointed in his place. FitzGibbon’s triumph was shortlived, for he did not venture to visit his diocese. From 1569 to 1578, he seems to have remained on the Continent defying Walsingham’s schemes to entrap him, and it is doubtful if he ever returned to Ireland.[373]

Waterford and Lismore.

The sees of Waterford and Lismore were united in the fourteenth century. Patrick Walsh, an Oxford graduate, who had been Dean of Waterford since 1547, was appointed in 1551 by congé d’élire, followed by capitular election, and remained in possession during the reign of Mary. The probability is that he was at first a waverer whose English education induced him to conform to Henry VIII.’s arrangements, and that he gradually reverted to Rome. When Sussex entered Waterford in 1558 the Bishop received him in his robes, but the Protestant ritual had not yet been re-established. Walsh resigned his deanery in 1566 in favour of Peter White, who was a very good man but certainly no Protestant. The Bishop retained his place in both successions, but when he died in 1578, Waterford, in the opinion of English Protestants, was thoroughly given up to ‘superstition and idolatry,’ to ‘Rome runners and friars;’ and so it remained during the whole of Elizabeth’s reign. Walsh’s Protestant successor, Marmaduke Middleton, only sat some three years, and was practically expelled by the hostility of his flock. He was translated to St. David’s, and the diocese then fell for several years into the all-devouring maw of Meiler Magrath. The Popes made no appointment till 1629.[374]

Cork and Cloyne. Ross.

Cork and Cloyne were united in the fifteenth century, and Dominic Tirrey was appointed in 1536. He held possession of the see for twenty years, but was never acknowledged at Rome, and there is a double succession from the year 1540. The remote see of Ross does not appear to have been filled either by Henry VIII., Edward VI., or Mary. Papal appointments were made in 1519, 1526, 1554, 1559, and 1561. In 1582 William Lyon was appointed by patent, and soon afterwards received Cork and Cloyne also. The three sees have since been united in the Protestant succession, but the Papal see of Ross has continued separate, though no appointment appears to have been made between 1582 and 1647.[375]

Limerick.

William Casey, who was undoubtedly a Protestant, was appointed Bishop of Limerick in 1551. He was deprived by Mary, but restored by Elizabeth in 1571. Between 1556 and 1571 the see was held by Hugh Lacy, who was not a Protestant, though he seems to have been something of a trimmer. Yet he made no attempt at concealment when Sidney visited his cathedral in 1568. Lacy cannot be held to have conformed, for when the temporalities were restored to Casey he continued to act as Papal Bishop till his death in 1580, not long before which he suffered a short detention in his own house. There is a regular double succession from 1571.[376]

Ardfert and Aghadoe. Killaloe. Kilfenora.

James Fitzmaurice, Cistercian Abbot of Odorney, was made Bishop of Ardfert and Aghadoe by the Pope in 1536. Queen Elizabeth made no appointment till 1588, some years after Fitzmaurice’s death. Her nominee was unable to hold his ground in Kerry, nor was the Papal Bishop permanently resident. The facts about Killaloe are not very clear. From a comparison of dates it would appear that Bishop James O’Corren, who took the oath of supremacy in 1539, was deprived or suspended at Rome, that he afterwards resigned, that the see was for a time governed by vicars, and that Terence O’Brien was made Bishop by the Pope in 1554. Bishop O’Brien died in 1569, and the Government seems not to have interfered with him. The temporalities were soon afterwards handed over to Maurice MacBrien Arra, who, on account of his youth, was not consecrated till 1576. In the meantime the Pope had appointed Malachy O’Molony. MacBrien was educated at Cambridge, and doubtless conformed, as he remained Bishop till 1612. Being chief as well as pastor, he had a better chance of success than most of Elizabeth’s men, but he had trouble with his Papal rivals, O’Molony and O’Mulrian, the latter of whom was appointed in 1576. O’Mulrian, who was a sharp thorn in the side of Government during the Desmond rebellion, died in Portugal in 1616, having been an exile for many years. John O’Nialain, appointed by Papal provision, was Bishop of Kilfenora from 1541 till his death in 1572. The Popes made no fresh appointment until 1647, nor is it certain that the Queen made any at all.[377]

Tuam. Kilmacduagh. Clonfert. Achonry. Elphin. Ardagh.

Christopher Bodkin was Archbishop of Tuam at Elizabeth’s accession. He was on fairly good terms with the Government, but there seems no reason to suppose that he turned Protestant in any real sense. As he sat uninterruptedly from 1536 to 1572, we may not uncharitably suppose him to have had rather an elastic conscience. After his death the two successions are separate. Redmund O’Gallagher was Bishop of Killala from 1549 to 1569, from which latter date the successions are separate. O’Gallagher was not at any time a Protestant. Kilmacduagh was held by Bodkin with Tuam, after which Stephen Kirwan was appointed by the Queen and Dermot O’Diera by the Pope. Elizabeth never made any appointment to Achonry, which may be considered purely Papal during her reign. The see of Elphin was held along with Clonfert till 1580, when Thomas Chester, an Englishman, was appointed by the Queen. The Papal succession is altogether separate. The local influence of Roland de Burgo enabled him to keep possession of Clonfert from 1534 till his death in 1580. He conformed so far as to take the oath of allegiance in 1561, but he was not a Protestant. The successions separate after his death. On the whole it may be said that Queen Elizabeth scarcely interfered in Church matters in Connaught; at least towards the end of her reign.[378]

Spiritual peers, 1560 and 1585. Papal and Protestant succession.

Lists have been preserved of three archbishops and seventeen bishops ‘in a certain Parliament’ held in 1560, and of four archbishops and twenty-two bishops ‘answerable to the Parliament in Ireland, and summoned unto the Parliament holden in 1585.’ It has been assumed by some writers that all the prelates mentioned in the first list actually attended Parliament; whereas it is much more probable that many were only summoned, as is expressly stated in the second list. The mere fact of certain sees being named in any such list is no proof that the incumbents conformed to Elizabeth’s arrangements. Some of the bishops, even if present, may have voted against the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. The position of the twenty dioceses mentioned in the list may be briefly summarised thus:—One archbishop, Curwen of Dublin, conformed. Christopher Bodkin of Tuam may, from his character, have conformed insincerely, but this is not proved. Baron of Cashel had never been confirmed by the Pope, so that his case does not count, though there is no proof of his having conformed. Walsh of Meath and Leverous of Kildare were deprived. O’Fihily of Leighlin conformed. In the remaining cases, the evidence is not very distinct as to formal conformity or the reverse, but many can be proved to have been Roman Catholics, and none can be proved to have been Protestants. No doubt some bishops took the oath of allegiance at the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign who could not have done so after her excommunication. Some had already acknowledged the supremacy of Henry VIII., in which they were countenanced by Gardiner himself. The fact that no Christian name is assigned to the Bishops of Emly, Ross, Killaloe, Achonry, Killala, Ardfert, and Ardagh, tends to prove that many of the sees given in the list were not really represented. The Dublin officials knew something about the Leinster, and a few of the Munster bishops; of the more distant sees they knew no more than the bare names.[379]

The state of the Irish Church during the early years of Elizabeth was as lamentable as it is possible to conceive. A report made in 1566 by the Irish Council to the Privy Council says that Curwen of Dublin, Loftus of Armagh, and Brady of Meath did their best, both in preaching and in looking after their clergy. ‘Howbeit,’ they continue, ‘the work goeth slowly forward within their said three dioceses by reason of the former errors and superstitions inveterated and leavened in the people’s hearts; and in want of livings sufficient for fit entertainment of well chosen and learned curates amongst them, for that those livings of cure being most part appropriated benefices in the Queen’s Majesty’s possession, are letten by leases unto farmers with allowance or reservation of very small stipends or entertainments for the vicars or curates, besides the decay of the chancels, and also of the churches universally in ruin, and some wholly down. And out of their said dioceses, the remote parts of Munster, Connaught, and other the Irish countries and borders thereof (saving the commissioners for the ecclesiastical causes have travelled with some of the bishops and others, their ministers residing in the civil and nearer parts), order cannot yet so well be taken with the residue until the countries be first brought into more civil and dutiful obedience. I, the Deputy (Sidney), have given charge to the said bishops to make diligent search, and to certify me in the next term, of every the said decayed chancels and churches in their dioceses, &c.... The livings of the prebendaries of St. Patrick’s are most part in benefices with cure, and they for the most part aged men who, with the rest of the ministers of that College, according the rules of the same, give their due attendance on that collegiate church, daily doing divine service, and devotion with due reverence and harmony convenient, and some of them do preach also. Nevertheless, they have been treated with by us the Archbishops of Dublin and Armagh, and Bishop of Meath, and are found conformable to depart with such portion of their livings as shall be thought fit by her Highness for the setting forth and maintenance of learning and teaching for this realm.... We know not as yet of any alienations or wastes suffered to be made by the clergy, nor of any appropriations of benefices by them put in use, nor that the clergy of this realm are greatly inclined to offend in that part, except the alienations or wastes done by the Bishop of Ferns, who to the use of his sons hath put away the most part of the living of his bishopric.’[380]

The Jesuit, David Wolfe.

Meanwhile the Popes were busily countermining. The Jesuit, David Wolfe, a Limerick man who had spent several years at Rome, was selected by Pius IV. for the Irish service. The Pope wished to make Wolfe a bishop, and to invest him with all the pomp proper to a nuncio. Lainez, who had recommended Wolfe, opposed this, lest the humility of the society should be offended, and lest the Papal insignia should make the envoy’s work harder. The General’s advice was taken, and Wolfe started for Ireland with the full power of a nuncio, but without noise or show. After having been arrested in France as a Lutheran, he reached Cork in January 1561. All his luggage had been lost at sea, and he found it difficult to obtain bare subsistence, being unwilling either to incur obligations or to beg. He managed, however, to maintain himself for several years in Connaught and Western Munster. In 1563 he issued a commission to Thady Newman, a Dublin priest, giving him power to grant absolution ‘to all and singular persons, both lay and ecclesiastical, and of either sex, in all cases even if grave and enormous, and specially from the crimes of heresy and schism, and to reconcile them to mother church on doing penance, and making a public or private abjuration.’ Wolfe, who wrote from Limerick, says the danger of the journey would not suffer him to visit Leinster. He reported among other things that Tuam Cathedral had been used as a fortress for 300 years, during which time mass had not been said there; and that Archbishop Bodkin had restored it to its proper use. There were only twenty or thirty houses in Tuam. Ardagh Cathedral was also used as a fort and in lay hands. About 1566 Wolfe fell into the power of the Government, and was confined in Dublin Castle. A bishop, probably Leverous, visited him there, and was driven away by the stench. In 1572 or 1573 Wolfe made his escape, perhaps by means of money sent from Spain, to which country he fled. The Protestant Bishop of Cork says ‘he foreswore himself,’ whence it seems probable that the severity of his confinement had been relaxed. Wolfe returned to Ireland with James Fitzmaurice. Perhaps he did as much as any one man to preserve the Papal power in Ireland.[381]