Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/559

1576-] DESMOND REBELLION. would not put down the Catholics, she did not wish the Protestants to become strong. Lord Burghley replied for her that no doubt ' a sound state of religion was the foundation of civil government, so necessary as without it no commonwealth might stand.' He said that if two members of the Irish council would come to London, her Majesty would consult with them. 1 But the consultation, if they went, remained barren. Three years later Sir William Pelham reported that in the immediate neighbourhood of Dublin, there were sixteen benefices in one block belonging to the Queen, in no one of which was there vicar or minister ; 2 and as a commentary on the value of the established ecclesiasti- cal organization, Sir William Gferrard, the October. Irish Chancellor, recommended that Arch- bishop Loftus should be translated to some English See, the See of Dublin sequestrated, and the revenues applied to the maintenance of circuit judges, and to the better execution of the laws within the Pale. 3 As usual, there were two possible policies, and neither one nor the other was consistently followed. Sidney wished to reform the Church and country, and conceived 'that he worked but waywardly when the latter was preferred before the former/ Waterhouse, the advocate of military despotism, advised the Queen, as has been already said, to bestow her bishoprics on 1 Burghley to Sidney, July 10: MSS. Ireland. 2 Carew Papers, December 7, 1579- 3 Sir Win. Gerrard to "Walsing- ham, October 19, 1576: Came Papers.