Galway itself was much decayed through the outrage of Clanricarde’s sons, and the townsmen so much disheartened as to be almost ready to abandon their post. Sidney’s presence revived them, and all men hastened to pay their respects; among them the Archbishop of Tuam, the Bishops of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh, and Birmingham, Baron of Athenry, ‘as poor a baron as liveth, and yet agreed on to be the ancientest baron in this land.’ O’Flaherty, O’Madden, O’Kelly, and other Celts also appeared, as well as the heads of several septs of Clanricarde Burkes, each with his appropriate Irish name. The Earl’s sons came into church on Sunday, surrendered at discretion, and were brought prisoners to Dublin.
Athenry. The Connaught clans. Sidney’s reflections,
After spending three weeks at Galway, during which the hangman was not idle, Sidney went to Athenry, which he found in ashes, the very church not being spared by the young Burkes, though the mother of one of them was buried there. To rebuild the town a tax, according to a principle not yet forgotten in Ireland, was assessed upon the country, and the work was immediately begun. The castles of Ballinasloe and Clare Galway were garrisoned for the Queen, and Sidney then went by Roscommon to Athlone. On his way he noted that Clanricarde’s vassals were well enough off, but that all else was ruinous. O’Connor Don, MacDermot, and others here paid their respects. From the newly made County of Longford the gentlemen came willingly enough to Roscommon and Athlone, and promised to clear off the 200 marks of revenue, which was four or five years in arrear. Part of the money was actually paid.
and proposals.
On his return to Dublin, Sidney insisted strongly upon the necessity of two Presidents. Sir William Denny was already named for Munster, and he proposed Essex or Sir Edward Montague for Connaught. English lawyers he must have, or no justice could be done. A standing army of 1,000 men he must have, or no peace could be kept. Two or three good officials—men like Tremayne—were much wanted if the revenue was to be increased. And then, above all, the Church must be reformed, ‘for so deformed and overthrown a Church there is not, I am sure, in any region where Christ is professed; and preposterous it seemeth to me to begin reformation of the politic part, and to neglect the religious.’[322]
Evil condition of the Irish Church.
The facts as to the religious state of Ireland were laid by Sidney before the Queen herself, and go far to explain the comparative failure of Anglicanism in Ireland. Hugh Brady, Bishop of Meath, a native of his diocese and a man of Irish race, though a sincere Protestant, had lately made a parochial visitation of his own diocese. Brady, who was the Lord Deputy’s companion during part of his Western journey, is described by him as honest, zealous, and godly; to such a man the state of the churches under his charge must have given the gravest anxiety. There were 224 parish churches, of which 105 were impropriated to manors or possessed by the holders of monasteries which had come into the hands of the Crown. In not one of these cases was there a resident parson or vicar, and of the ‘very simple and sorry curates’ usually appointed to do duty only eighteen could speak English, the rest being ‘Irish priests or rather Irish rogues, having very little Latin, less learning or civility.’ They gained a precarious living from the offertory, and in no single case was there a dwelling-house. Many of the churches were down altogether; the great majority without roofs. Fifty-two churches were ill served by vicars, and fifty-two more in the hands of private patrons were in somewhat better but still poor case. We are left to infer that only thirteen out of 224 parishes were in such a state as the Bishop could approve. Meath was the best peopled and richest diocese in Ireland, and Sidney, not to tire the Queen with too many details, left her to guess what the dry tree was like. ‘Your Majesty may believe that upon the face of the earth, where Christ is professed, there is not a church in so miserable a case.’ With ruinous churches, want of labourers for the vineyard, and want of means to pay them, Sidney had no difficulty in believing that the very sacrament of baptism had fallen into disuse.
Remedies proposed.
The remedies proposed were that the churches should be repaired out of the profits of the land, either by the Crown or by the tenants as equity might dictate, that Irish-speaking ministers should be sought at the universities or borrowed from the Regent of Scotland, and that some of the English bishops should be forced to visit Ireland, with their own eyes and at their own expense to see the spiritual nakedness of the land, and to prescribe a cure. ‘They be rich enough,’ he added, ‘and if either they be thankful to your Majesty for the immense bounty done to them, or zealous to increase the Christian flock, they will not refuse this honourable and religious travel; and I will undertake their guiding and guarding honourably and safely from place to place; the great desire that I have to have such from thence is for that I hope to find them not only grave in judgment, but void of affection.’[323]