Proceedings of Bale.
Far more questionable was Bale’s zeal against images, the destruction of which will never make men Protestants. His opinions were hopelessly at variance with those in vogue in Ireland, as may be judged from the following autobiographical passage:—
‘Many abominable idolatries maintained by the epicurist priests, for their wicked bellies’ sake. The Communion or Supper of the Lord was there altogether used like a popish mass, with the old apish toys of Antichrist in bowings and beckings, kneelings and knockings; the Lord’s death after St. Paul’s doctrine neither preached nor yet spoken of. There wawled they over the dead, with prodigious howlings and patterings, as though their souls had not been quieted in Christ and redeemed by His passion; but that they must come after and help at a pinch with requiem æternam to deliver them out of hell by their sorrowful sorceries. When I had beholden these heathenish behavers, I said unto a senator of that city that I well perceived that Christ had there no bishop, neither yet the King’s Majesty of England any faithful officer of the mayor in suffering so horrible blasphemies.’
This was at Waterford. At Kilkenny things were no better, and on his arrival Bale proceeded to show his zeal for reform. All the statues of saints were turned out of St. Canice’s Cathedral, but the Bishop had the good taste to preserve the fine painted windows erected in the fourteenth century by his high-handed predecessor Ledred. The less artistic Cromwellians afterwards destroyed what Bale had spared, and some fragments were dug up in 1846. Bale had some supporters, chiefly laymen. The clergy, whose moral failings he had lashed so mercilessly, were not convinced by hearing the host called a ‘white god of their own making,’ nor easily persuaded that the lucrative practice of saying masses for the dead was useless, nor inclined to admit a liturgy which condemned all that they most valued. The deanery was in the hands of Bishop Lancaster, who could give no help, and among the prebendaries there was either obstructive apathy or violent opposition to change. Bale was certainly wrong in trying to impose King Edward’s second book without legal warrant; but he had gained his point with Browne, and disdained to yield to the inferior clergy. The latter pleaded that they had no books, and quoted the Archbishop against their own diocesan, who says he was ‘always slack in things appertaining to God’s glory.’ Bale’s sincerity is unquestionable, but he had set himself an impossible task, and his violence made him enemies who showed no quarter when their turn came. The most patient of men might have done nothing in such a position, but his reputation would have been better had he shown some Christian moderation. Bedell afterwards fell into the hands of his opponents, but his imprisonment was relieved by expressions of sympathy and admiration from the most unlikely quarters, and he must have felt that he had not worked in vain. Bale could have no such consolation.[389]
Catholic reaction at Edward’s death.
On the first rumour of Edward’s death it became evident that the Bishop of Ossory’s authority was at an end. Oddly enough the priests hastened amid general rejoicing to proclaim Queen Jane. They were eager for change, and probably knew little of the fair saint whose innocent life was sacrificed to the ambition of others. Justice Howth, who had been Bale’s strongest opponent, censured him for not being present at the ceremony; ‘for indeed,’ says the Bishop, ‘I much doubted that matter.’ In order, he adds, to ‘cause the wild people to bear the more hate to our nation,’ the priests also propagated a report that the young Earl of Ormonde and Barnaby Fitzpatrick had been slain in London. The forts were attacked, and many Englishmen killed. Mrs. Matthew King, the clerk of the check’s wife, was robbed ‘to her very petticoat’ on the highway by the Fitzpatricks and Butlers. But rumour and uncertainty were soon at an end, and the priests and people of Kilkenny learned that Catherine of Arragon’s daughter was Queen of England.[390]
FOOTNOTES:
[358] St. Leger to Cecil, Jan. 19, 1551; Brady’s Episcopal Succession.
[359] This conference is detailed in Mant’s Church History, pp. 194, 199. See also Ware’s Life of Browne. The conference was held in St. Mary’s Abbey, the residence of Dowdall, he having refused to attend the Lord Deputy at Kilmainham.
[360] Browne to Warwick, ut supra. Examination of Oliver Sutton, March 23, 1552.