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]