CHAPTER XV.
THE IRISH CHURCH UNDER HENRY VIII.
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]
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]
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]
Dublin.