Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/278

The Irish Church, by Sir Edward Poyning, which gave the control of Irish legislation to the English council (the great bone of con tention in the later days of Flood and Grattan), and the battle of Knocktow, in which the earl of Kildare used the viceregal authority to avenge a private quarrel. Occupied in pleasure or foreign enterprise, Henry VIII. at first paid little attention to Ireland. The royal power was practically confined to what in the previous century had become known as the " Pale," that is Dublin, Louth, Kildare, and a part of Meath, and within this narrow limit the earls of Kildare were really more powerful than the crown. Waterford, Drogheda, Dundalk, Cork, Limerick, and Galway were not Irish, but rather free cities than an integral part of the kingdom ; and many inland towns were in the same position. The house of Ormonde had created a sort of small Pale about Kilkenny, and part of Wexforcl had been colonized by men of English race. The Desmonds were Irish in all but pride of blood. The Barretts, Condons, Courcies, Savages, Arundels, Carews, and others had dis appeared or merged in the Celtic mass. Anglo-Norman nobles became chiefs of pseudo-tribes, which acknowledged only the Brehon law, and paid dues and services in kind. These pseudo-tribes were often called <: nations," and a vast number of exactions were practised by the chiefs. " Coyne and livery " the right of free-quarters for man and beast arose among the Anglo-Normans, and became more oppres sive than any native custom. When Henry took to busin3ss, he laid the foundation of reconquest. The house of Kildare, which had actually besieged Dublin (1534), was overthrown, and the Pale saved from a standing danger. But the Pale scarcely extended 20 miles from Dublin, a march of uncertain width intervening between it and the Irish districts. Elsewhere, says an elaborate report, all the English folk were of " Irish language and Irish condition," except in the cities and walled towns. Down and Louth paid bhck rent to O Neill, Meath and Kildare to O Connor, Wexford to the Kavanaghs, Kilkenny and Tipperary to O Carroll, Limerick to the O Briens, and Cork to the M Carthies. M Murrough Kavanagh, in Irish eyes the representative of king Dermod, received an annual pension from the exchequer. Henry set steadily to work to reassert the royal title. He assumed the style of king of Ireland, so as to get rid of the notion that he held the island of the pope. The Irish chiefs acknowledged his authority and his ecclesiastical supremacy, abjuring at the same time that of the Holy See. The lands of the earl of Shrewsbury and other absentees, who had performed no duties, were resumed; and both Celtic and feudal nobles were encouraged to come to court. Here begins the Irmg line of official deputies, often men of moderate birth and fortune. Butler and Geruldins, O Neill and O Donnell, continued to spill each other s blood, but the feudal and tribal systems were alike doomed. In the names of these Tudor deputies and other officers we see the origin of many great Irish families Skeffington, Brabazon, St Leger, Fitzwilliam, Wingfield, Bellingham, Carew, Bingham, Loftus, and others.. Nor were the Celts overlooked. O Neill and O Brien went to London to be invested as earls ojr Tyrone and Thomond respectively. O Donnell, whose descendants became earls of Tyrconnel, went to court and was well received. The pseudo-chief M William became earl of Clanricarde, and others reached lower steps in the peerage, or were knighted by the king s own hand. All were encouraged to look to the crown for redress of grievances, and thus the old order slowly gave place to the new. The moment when Protestantism and Ultramontanism are about to begin their still unfinished struggle is a fit time to notice the chief points in Irish church history. Less than two years before Strongbow s arrival Pope Eugenius had established an ecclesiastical constitution in [HISTORY. Ireland depending on Rome, but the annexation was very , imperfectly carried out, and the hope of fully asserting the Petrine claims was a main cause of Hadrian s gift to Henry II. Hitherto the Scandinavian section of the church in Ireland had been most decidedly inclined to receive the hierarchical and diocesan as distinguished from the monastic and quasi-tribal system. The bishops or abbots of Dublin derived their succession from Canterbury from 1038 to 1162, and the bishops of Waterford and Limerick also sought consecration there. But both Celt and Northman acknowledged the polity of Eugenius, and it was chiefly in the matters of tithe, Peter s pence, canonical degrees, and the observance of festivals that Rome had still victories to gain. Between churchmen of Irish and English race there was bitter rivalry ; but the theory that the ancient Patrician Church remained independent, and as it were Protestant, while the English colony submitted to the Vatican, is a mere controversial figment. The crown was weak and papal aggression made rapid progress. It was in the Irish Church, about the middle of the 13th century, that the system of giving jurisdiction to the bishops "in temporalibus " was adopted by Innocent IV. The vigour of Edward I. obtained a renunciation in particular cases, but the practice continued unabated. The system of pro visions was soon introduced at the expense of free election, and was acknowledged by the Statute of Kilkenny. In the more remote districts it must have been almost a, matter of necessity. Many Irish parishes grew out of primitive monasteries, but other early settlements remained monastic, and were compelled by the popes to adopt the rule of authorized orders, generally that of the Augustinian canons. That order became much the most numerous in Ireland, having not less than three hundred houses. Allemand, who wrote in the 17th century for the benefit of the Stuart family, remarks with French flippancy that an Irishman who wished to be a bishop first became a canon regular. Of other sedentary orders the Cistercians were the most important, and the mendicants were very numerous. Both Celtic chiefs and Norman nobles founded convents after Henry II. s time, but the latter being wealthier were most distinguished in this way. Religious houses were useful as abodes of peace in a turbulent country, and the lands attached were better cultivated than those of lay proprietors. It is a reproach to England that after four centuries Ireland was still without a university. Attempts to found one at Dublin (1311) or Drogheda (1465) failed for want of funds. The work was partially done by the great abbeys, boys of good family being brought up by the Cistercians of Dublin and Jerpoint, and by the Augustinians of Dublin, Kells, and Conall, and girls by the canonesses of Gracedieu. A strong effort was made to save these six houses, but Henry VIII. would not hear of it, and there was no Irish Wolsey partially to supply the king s omissions. Ample evidence exists that the Irish Church was full of abuses before the movement under Henry VIII, We have detailed accounts of three sees Clonmacnoise, Enaghdune, and Ardagh. Ross, also in a wild district, was in rather better case. But even in Dublin strange things happened ; thus the archiepiscopal crozier was in pawn for eighty years from 1449. The morals of the clergy were no better than in other countries, and we have evidence of many scandalous irregularities. But perhaps the most severe condemnation is that of the report to Henry VIII. in 1515. "There is," says the document, " no archbishop, ne bishop, abbot, ne prior, parson, ne vicar, ne any other person of the church, high or low, great or small, English or Irish, that useth to preach the word of God, saving the poor friars beggars the church of this land use not to learn any other science, but the