[357] Articles against Andrew Brereton, Nov. 1550; St. Leger to Cecil, Jan. 19, 1551. The Council in Ireland to the Privy Council, May 20.
CHAPTER XVII.
FROM THE YEAR 1551 TO THE DEATH OF EDWARD VI.
The Reformation officially promulgated, 1551.
No Parliament was held in Ireland during Edward VI.’s reign; and the official establishment of Protestantism is generally supposed to date from a royal order, dated Feb. 6, 1551, and promulgated by the Lord Deputy on the first day of the following month. But the new Liturgy had been already introduced, and copies had been forwarded to Limerick, and perhaps to other places. St. Leger, who felt that the Communion Service was the really important thing, had it translated into Latin for the benefit of those who had some tincture of letters, but who could not read English. The citizens of Limerick made no difficulty about receiving the new formulary; but the Bishop, John Quin, refused, and was therefore forced to resign. Quin, who was old and blind, had been willing to acknowledge the royal supremacy, but very naturally refused to embrace a new faith. It has often been stated that Quin accepted the Reformation; but it is not easy to see how this can be reconciled with the facts. His successor was William Casey, whose consecrators were Archbishop Browne, Lancaster of Kildare, and Devereux of Ferns. The two last had been consecrated by Browne and by Travers of Leighlin. Travers had only just been appointed himself, and was probably in pretty nearly the same condition.[358]
Doctrinal conference in Dublin.
Immediately after the arrival of the momentous order, St. Leger summoned the clergy to meet him in Dublin. To this assembly the royal mandate was read, as well as the opinions of certain English divines in favour of the proposed changes. Primate Dowdall at once protested. ‘For the general benefit of our well-beloved subjects,’ the King was made to say, ‘whenever assembled and met together in the several parish churches, either to pray or hear prayers read, that they may the better join therein in unity, hearts and voices, we have caused the Liturgy and prayers of the Church to be translated into our mother tongue of this realm of England.’ ‘Then,’ observed the Primate, ‘shall every illiterate fellow read Mass?’ ‘No,’ answered St. Leger with much force, ‘your Grace is mistaken; for we have too many illiterate priests among us already, who neither can pronounce the Latin nor know what it means, no more than the common people that hear them; but when the people hear the Liturgy in English, they and the priest will then understand what they pray for.’ This last observation might be true enough in Dublin, but it was singularly inapplicable to Ireland generally. The key-note of the controversy had, however, been struck, and it was clear that the Primate and the Lord Deputy occupied very different standpoints. Finding St. Leger a formidable antagonist, and seeing that the case was virtually prejudged, Dowdall somewhat forgot his habitual dignity, and threatened the Viceroy with the clergy’s curse. ‘I fear,’ was the answer, ‘no strange curse, so long as I have the blessing of that Church which I believe to be the true one.’ There was some further altercation about the Petrine claims to supremacy; and Dowdall, finding that he made no impression, left the hall with all his suffragans except Staples, and repaired to his own diocese. St. Leger then handed the King’s order to Browne, who received it standing. ‘This order, good brethren,’ said the Protestant Archbishop, ‘is from our gracious King, and from the rest of our brethren, the fathers and clergy of England, who have consulted herein, and compared the Holy Scriptures with what they have done; unto whom I submit, as Jesus did to Cæsar, in all things just and lawful, making no question why or wherefore, as we own him our true and lawful King.’[359]
St. Leger, Browne, and Dowdall.
The above proceedings show that St. Leger was at least in general agreement with the Protestant party, but he had certainly no wish to force the reformed doctrines on the reluctant Irish. Browne complained that he had publicly offered the sacrifice of the Mass in Christ Church, ‘after the old sort, to the altar then of stone, to the comfort of his too many like Papists, and the discouragement of the professors of God’s Word.’ The Archbishop found it convenient to forget that this was strictly according to law; and that the royal order, even admitting that it had all the power claimed for it, had not yet gone forth to alter the state of things established under Henry VIII. Browne could not deny that the Lord Deputy had made due proclamation of ‘the King’s Majesty’s most godly proceeding;’ but alleged that it was only for show, ‘while massing, holy water, Candlemas candles, and such like, continued under the Primate and elsewhere,’ without let or hindrance from the chief governor. Dowdall, he said, was ‘the next father in word and deed of Popery;’ the Viceroy a Gallio who did not scruple to say, ‘Go to, your matters of religion will mar all.’ St. Leger seems in good truth to have been laughing at the ex-friar. ‘My Lord of Dublin,’ he said, ‘I have books for your Lordship.’ Browne found them on examination ‘so poisoned to maintain the Mass with Transubstantiation, and other naughtiness (as at no time I have seen such a summary of Scriptures collected to establish the idolatry), clean contrary the sincere meaning of the Word of God and the King’s most godly proceedings.’ The Archbishop had copies taken, which he sent to the Privy Council. St. Leger was angry at this, and Browne says he threatened to do him harm, even should it cost 1,000l. The Archbishop intimated that the 1,000l. would be nothing to him, for that he had enriched himself by peculation, and attributed to him a degree of vindictiveness which does not seem really to have belonged to his character. Browne admits that the Lord Deputy called Dowdall before the Council for practising the old ritual, ‘who came and disputed plainly the massing and other things, contrary the King’s proceedings; and that he would not embrace them: whereat the Deputy said nothing.’ Sir Ralph Bagenal called the Primate an arrant traitor. ‘No traitor, Mr. Bagenal,’ said Lord Chancellor Cusack, who was Dowdall’s cousin; and the Primate continued in his old ways as long as St. Leger held the reins of government. The Lord Deputy even recommended Tyrone to ‘follow the counsel of that good father, sage senator, and godly bishop, my Lord Primate, in everything, and so ye shall do well.’ He made indeed no secret of his regard for Dowdall, whose high character was admitted by all but fanatics. ‘He is,’ he declared openly before more than a dozen persons in the hall of Dublin Castle, ‘a good man, and I would that all the Irishmen in Ireland spake so good English as he, and if they do no worse than he the King had been the better served.’[360]