Volume II Part 20 (1/2)

CHAPTER X

THE CHURCH IN IRELAND DURING THE REIGN OF THE STUARTS (1604-1689)

See bibliography, chap. vii.-ix. /Calendar of State Papers, Ireland/ (James I.), 5 vols., 1872-80. Idem (Charles I.), 5 vols.

/Calendar of the Clarendon Papers/, 2 vols., 1869-72. Carte, /History of the Life of James, Duke of Ormonde/ (1610-88), 3 vols., 1736. French, /Historical Works/, 2 vols., 1846. /Report on the Franciscan MSS./, i., 1906. Russell-Prendergast, /Report on the Carte Papers in the Bodleian Library/, 1871. Gilbert, /Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland/ (1641-52), 1879-80.

Bagwell, /Ireland under the Stuarts/, 2 vols., 1909. Prendergast, /Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland/, 2 ed., 1875. Lecky, /History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century/, new imp., 1913. Coffey, /O'Neill and Ormond/, 1914. Dunlop, /Ireland under the Commonwealth/, 2 vols., 1913. Murray, /Revolutionary Ireland and its Settlement/, 2 vols., 1911. Boulger, /The Battle of the Boyne/, 1911. Burke, /The Irish Priests in the Penal Times/ (1660- 1760), 1914.

The news of the death of Queen Elizabeth and of the accession of James I. came as a welcome relief to the great body of the Catholics of Ireland. As the son of Mary Queen of Scots, and in a sense, the descendant of the Irish Kings of Scotland[1] he was regarded with favour both within and without the Pale. While King of Scotland he had been in communication with the Pope, with the Catholic sovereigns of the Continent, and with O'Neill, and even after he had been proclaimed in London he promised some of the leading Catholic lords that they might expect at least toleration. Without, however, waiting for any such promises the Catholics in the leading cities of the East and South made open profession of their religion. In Kilkenny, Thomastown, Waterford, Wexford, Cashel, Cork, Limerick, etc., they took possession of the churches, abolished the Protestant service wherever it had been introduced, and restored the Ma.s.s. James White, Vicar-general of Waterford, made himself especially conspicuous as the leader in this movement in the south-eastern portion of Ireland.[2]

Lord Mountjoy was in a difficult position. He was uncertain as to the religious policy of the king, but in the end he determined to suppress the Catholic movement by force. He marched South to Kilkenny and thence to Waterford, where he had an interview with Dr. White.

Everywhere the churches were restored to the Protestants, though it was hinted that the Ma.s.s might still be celebrated privately as in the days of Elizabeth. In Cork the condition of affairs was much more serious, and it was necessary to bring up the guns from Haulbowline before the mayor and citizens could be induced to submit. Reports came in from all sides that the country was swarming with Jesuits and seminary priests, that they were stirring up the people to join hands with the King of Spain, and to throw off their allegiance to James I.

These rumours were without foundation, as is shown by the fact that most of the towns and cities in Leinster and Munster which were noted as specially Catholic, had not stirred a finger to help O'Neill in his war against Elizabeth. But they were put in circulation to prejudice the mind of King James against his Irish Catholic subjects, and to wean him away from the policy of toleration which he was said to favour. Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, and Jones, Bishop of Meath, hastened to warn the king against a policy of toleration. They threw the whole blame of the late war on the Jesuits and seminary priests, and cast doubts upon the loyalty of the Catholic n.o.blemen of the Pale.

They called upon his Majesty to make it clear ”even in the morning of his reign,” that he was ready ”to maintain the true wors.h.i.+p and religion of Jesus Christ,” to let the people understand that ”he will never permit and suffer that which in his G.o.dly zeal he so much abhors, to devise some means of preventing the plots and aims of Jesuits and seminary priests, who ”come daily from beyond the seas, teaching openly that a king wanting the Pope's confirmation is not a lawful king,” to send over some ”learned and discreet preachers” to the princ.i.p.al cities and towns, and to compel the people ”by some moderate co-actions to come to church to hear their sermons and exhortations.”[3]

As a means of spreading the new gospel amongst the Irish people it was recommended that ”a learned ministry be planted, and that the abuses of the clergy be reformed;” that all bishops, Jesuits, seminary priests, and friars should be banished from the kingdom, that no lawyers be admitted to the bar or to the privy council unless they attended the Protestant service, and that all sheriffs, mayors, justices of the peace, recorders, judges, and officials be forced to take the oath of supremacy. Loftus and Jones insisted, furthermore, that Catholic parents should be forbidden to send their children to Douay and Rheims, and should be compelled to send them to the Protestant diocesan schools. They reported that although the Bishop of Meath had opened a school in Trim at great expense to himself, only six scholars attended, and that when the teachers began to use prayers in the school and to show themselves desirous of bringing their pupils to church, the pupils departed, and the teachers, though graduates of the University, were left without any work to do.[4]

As James showed great reluctance to take any active measures against the Catholics, Brouncker, the President of Munster, Lyons, Protestant Bishop of Cork, and the other members of the Council of Munster issued a proclamation (14 Aug. 1604) ordering ”all Jesuits, seminaries, and ma.s.sing priests of what sort soever as are remaining within one of the corporate towns of the province” to leave before the last day of September, and not to return for seven years. Any persons receiving or relieving any such criminals were threatened with imprisonment during his Majesty's pleasure and with a fine of 40 for every such offence, and ”whosoever should bring to the Lord President and Council the bodies of any Jesuits, seminaries, or ma.s.sing priests” were promised a reward of 40 for every Jesuit, 6 3s. 4d. for every seminary priest, and 5 for every ma.s.sing priest. Fearing, however, that his action might be displeasing to the king, Brouncker took care to write to Cecil that the cities of the South were crowded with seminary priests who said Ma.s.s publicly in the best houses ”even in the hearing of all men,” and that he had delayed taking action till they began to declare boldly that his Majesty was pleased ”to tolerate their idolatry.”[5]

Sir John Davies, a native of Wilts.h.i.+re, who was made Solicitor-General for Ireland on account of his poetical talent, was not opposed to the policy of repression, but at the same time he held firmly that until the Protestant Church in Ireland was itself reformed there could be no hope of converting the Irish people. Writing to Cecil (Feb. 1604) ”he is informed,” he says, ”that the churchmen for the most part throughout the kingdom are mere idols and ciphers, and such as cannot read, if they should stand in need of the benefit of their clergy; and yet the most of those whereof many be serving men and some horseboys, are not without two or three benefices apiece, for the Court of Faculties doth qualify all manner of persons, and dispense with all manner of non-residences and pluralities... . The churches are ruined and fallen to the ground in all parts of the kingdom. There is no divine service, no christening of children, no receiving of the sacraments, no Christian meeting or a.s.sembly, no, not once in a year; in a word, no more demonstration of religion than among Tartars or cannibals.” In his opinion there was no use in asking the bishops of the Pale to hold an inquiry into the abuses, for they themselves were privy to them. ”But if the business is to be really performed, let visitors be sent out of England, such as never heard a cow speak and understand not that language, that they may examine the abuses of the Court of Faculties, of the simoniacal contracts, of the dilapidations and dishersion of the churches; that they may find the true value of the benefices, and who takes the profits and to whose uses; to deprive these serving men and unlettered kern that are now inc.u.mbents, and to place some of the poor scholars of the College who are learned and zealous Protestants; to bring others out of that part of Scotland that borders on the North of Ireland, who can preach the Irish tongue, and to transplant others out of England and to place them within the English Pale.”[6]

At last, yielding to the advices that poured in on him from all sides, James I. determined to banish the Jesuits and seminary priests in the hope that when they were removed the people might be induced to submit, and to insist on compliance with the terms of the Act of Uniformity. He issued a proclamation (4 July 1605) denying the rumour that he intended ”to give liberty of conscience or toleration of religion” to his Irish subjects, and denouncing such a report as a libel on himself, ”as if he were more remiss or less careful in the government of the Church of Ireland than of those other churches whereof he has supreme charge.” He commanded ”all Jesuits, seminary priests, or other priests whatsoever, made and ordained by any authority derived or pretended to be derived from the See of Rome,” to depart from the kingdom before the end of December. All priests who refused to obey or who ventured to come into Ireland after that date, and all who received or a.s.sisted such persons were to be arrested and punished according to the laws and statutes of that realm, and all the people were exhorted ”to come to their several parish churches or chapels, to hear divine service every Sunday and holiday” under threat of being punished for disobedience.[7]

The royal proclamation produced little or no effect. The Jesuits and seminary priests remained and even increased in numbers by new arrivals from the Continental colleges and from England where the law was more strictly enforced. Nor could the leading citizens, the mayors and the aldermen of the princ.i.p.al cities, be forced to come to church, because they preferred to pay the fine of twelve pence prescribed in the Act of Uniformity for each offence. The government officials determined, therefore, to have recourse to more severe if less legal remedies. They selected a certain number of wealthy citizens of Dublin, addressed to each of them an individual mandate in the king's name ordering them to go to church on a certain specified Sunday, and treated disobedience to such an order as an offence punishable by common law. Six of the aldermen were condemned to pay a fine of 100, and three citizens 50, one half of the fine to be devoted to the ”reparing of decayed churches or chapels, or other charitable use,”

the other half to go to the royal treasury. In addition to this, they were condemned to imprisonment at the will of the Lord Deputy, and declared incapable of holding any office in the city of Dublin, or in any other part of the kingdom (22 Nov. 1605). A few days later other aldermen and citizens of Dublin were brought before the Irish Star Chamber, and having been interrogated ”why they did not repair to their parish churches,” they replied ”that their consciences led them to the contrary.” They were punished in a similar manner. Thus, two methods were adopted for enforcing obedience to the Act of Uniformity, one the infliction on the poor of the fine of twelve pence prescribed for each offence by the law of 1560, the other, the promulgation of individual mandates, disobedience to which was to be punished by the Court of Star Chamber. The n.o.blemen of the Pale, alarmed by such high- handed action, presented a pet.i.tion against the measures taken for the suppression of their religion, praying that the toleration extended to them hitherto should be continued. In reply to their pet.i.tion the Viscount Gormanston, Sir James Dillon, Sir Patrick Barnewall, and others were committed as prisoners to the Castle, and others of the pet.i.tioners were confined to their houses in the country, and bound to appear before the Star Chamber at the opening of the next term (Dec.

1605). Sir Patrick Barnewall, ”the first gentleman's son of quality that was ever put out of Ireland to be brought up in learning beyond the seas” was the ablest of the Catholic Palesmen, and was sent into England at the request of the English authorities.

The appeal of these Catholic lords, backed[8] as it was by the danger of a new and more general rebellion, was not without its effects in England. In January 1607 the privy council in England wrote to Sir Arthur Chichester, Lord Deputy, that although ”the reformation of the people of Ireland, extremely addicted to Popish superst.i.tion by the instigation of the seminary priests and Jesuits, is greatly to be wished and by all means endeavoured, still, a temperate course ought to be preserved.” There should be no question of granting toleration, but at the same time there should be no ”startling of the mult.i.tude by any general or rigorous compulsion.” The princ.i.p.al men in the cities who show themselves to be the greatest offenders should be punished; the priests and friars should be banished, but no ”curious or particular search” should be made for them; Viscount Gormanston and his companions should be released under recognisances, except Sir Patrick Barnewall who was to be sent into England; the Dublin aldermen should be treated in a similar manner but should be obliged to pay the fines, and the Protestant clergy should be exhorted to take special pains to plant the new religion ”where the people have been least civil.”[9]

But Chichester, Davies, Brouncker, and their companions had no intention of listening to the counsels of moderation. They continued to indict the poorer cla.s.ses according to the clauses of the Act of Uniformity and to cite the wealthier citizens before the Star Chamber for disobedience to the royal mandates.[10] In Waterford Sir John Davies reported ”we proceeded against the princ.i.p.al aldermen by way of censure at the council table of the province for their several contempts against the king's proclamations and the special commandments of the Lord President under the council seal of Munster.

Against the mult.i.tude we proceeded by way of indictment upon the Statute of 2 Elizabeth, which giveth only twelve pence for absence from church every Sunday and holiday. The fines imposed at the table were not heavy, being upon some 50 apiece, upon others 40, so that the total sum came but to 400; but there were so many of the commoners indicted that the penalty given by the statute (twelve pence) came to 240 or thereabouts.”[11] Punishments of a similar kind were inflicted in New Ross, Wexford, Clonmel, Cashel, Youghal, Limerick, Cork, and in all the smaller towns throughout Munster. In Cork the mayor was fined 100, and in Limerick more than two hundred of the burgesses were indicted, the fines paid by these being given for the repair of the cathedral.[12] Steps were also taken in Connaught to enforce attendance at the Protestant service. Five of the princ.i.p.al citizens of Galway were summoned before the court and fined in sums varying from 40 to 20, and punishments of a lesser kind were inflicted in other portions of the province. In Drogheda ”the greatest number of the householders together with their wives, children, and servants,” were summoned and fined for non-attendance at church. In Meath, Westmeath, Longford, King's County, and Queen's County the government officials were particularly busy.

But though here and there a few of the prominent citizens and of the poorer cla.s.ses were driven into public conformity by fear of punishment, the work of winning over the people to Protestantism made little progress. In Cashel the Commissioners reported (1606) that they found only one inhabitant who came to church, and even ”the Archbishop's (Magrath) own sons and sons-in-law dwelling there” were noted as obstinate recusants.”[13] Brouncker, President of Munster, was particularly severe in his repressive measures, so much so that on his death (1606) his successors were able to announce ”that almost all the men of the towns are either prisoners or upon bonds and other contempts,” but they added the further information that many of those who had been conformable in his time had again relapsed. The Protestant Bishop of Cork complained (1607) that in Cork, Kinsale, Youghal, and in all the country over which he had charge no marriages, christenings, etc., were done except by Popish priests for seven years, that the country was over-run by friars and priests who are called Fathers, that every gentleman and lord of the country had his chaplains, that ”ma.s.sing is in every place, idolatry is publicly maintained, G.o.d's word and his truth is trodden down under foot, despised, railed at, and contemned of all, the ministers not esteemed --no not with them that should reverence and countenance them.” ”The professors of the gospel,” he added, ”may learn of these idolators to regard their pastors.”[14] Sir John Davies with his usual keen insight placed the blame for the comparative failure of the Protestant clergy.

”If our bishops, and others that have care of souls,” he wrote (1606), ”were but half as diligent in their several charges as these men [the Jesuits and seminary priests] are in the places where they haunt, the people would not receive and nourish them as now they do. But it is the extreme negligence and remissness of our clergy here which was first the cause of the general desertion and apostasy, and is now again the impediment of reformation.”[15] The Catholics had protested continually against the proceedings under royal mandates as illegal, and their protests were brought before the English privy council by Sir Patrick Barnewall, who had been sent over to London as a prisoner.

The judges in England condemned the proceedings in Ireland as unwarrantable and without precedent. Barnewall was allowed to return to Ireland in 1607, and the new method of beggaring or Protestantising the wealthier cla.s.s of Irish Catholics was dropped for the time.

The king had been advised, too, to enforce the oath of supremacy in case of all officials of the crown. Though in the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth something had been done in that direction, yet, in later times, owing to the dangerous condition of the country Catholic officials were not called upon to renounce the Pope. As a result, when James ascended the throne many of the judges were Catholic, as were, also, the great body of the lawyers. In response to the advice from Ireland that judges who refused to attend church and to take the oath should be dismissed, and that ”recusant” lawyers should be debarred from practising in the courts, James instructed the council to induce John Everard, a Justice of the Common Pleas, to resign or conform. The mayors and aldermen of the cities, too, had never taken the oath of supremacy. In 1607 the Lord Deputy and council of Ireland informed the privy council in England that, ”most of the mayors and princ.i.p.al officers of cities and corporate towns, and justices of the peace of this country birth refuse to take the oath of supremacy, as is requisite by the statute, and for an instance, the party that should this year have been Mayor of Dublin, avoided it to his very great charges, only because he would not take the oath.” The contention apparently was that the mayors not being crown officials were not bound to take the oath, but the lawyers decided against such a view, and steps were taken to imprison those mayors who refused, and to destroy the charts of recusant corporations. Still in spite of the attempted banishment of the clergy, the enforcement of attendance at church by fines, and the punishment inflicted on the officials who refused to take the oath, the Deputy and council were forced to admit that they had made no progress. ”The people,” they wrote (1607), ”in many places resort to Ma.s.s now in greater mult.i.tudes, both in town and country, than for many years past; and if it chance that any priest known to be factious and working be apprehended, both men and women will not stick to rescue the party. In no less mult.i.tudes do these priests hold general councils and conventicles together many times about their affairs; and, to be short, they have so far withdrawn the people from all reverence and fear of the laws and loyalty towards his Majesty, and brought their business already to this pa.s.s, that such as are conformed and go to church are everywhere derided, scorned, and oppressed by the mult.i.tude, to their great discouragement, and to the scandal of all good men.”[16]

Although the persecution of James I. was violent the Catholics were well prepared to meet the storm. The Jesuits had sent some of their best men to Ireland, including Henry Fitzsimon, who was thrown into prison, and after a long detention sent into exile, Christopher Holywood, James Archer, Andrew Morony, Barnabas Kearney, etc., and, although there were complaints that their college in Salamanca showed undue favour to the Anglo-Irish, this college as well as the other colleges abroad continued to pour priests into Ireland both able and willing to sustain the Catholic religion. The Dominicans and Franciscans received great help from their colleges on the Continent so that their numbers increased rapidly, and they were able to devote more attention to instructing the people. As in England, the young generation of priests both secular and regular, sent out from the colleges in France, Spain, and the Netherlands were much more active and more determined to hold their own than those who had preceded them. They were in close touch with Rome where their agents kept the Papal Court informed of what was going on in Ireland. Clement VIII.

hastened to send his congratulations to James I. on his accession to the throne, and to plead with him for toleration for his Catholic subjects. James White, Vicar-general of Waterford, wrote (1605) to inform Cardinal Baronius of the measures that had been taken to suppress the Catholic religion and to offer his good wishes to Paul V.

The latter forwarded a very touching letter in which he expressed his sympathy with the Irish Church, commended the fidelity of the Irish people, and exhorted them to stand firm in the face of persecution.[17] The only weak point that might be noted at this period was the almost complete destruction of the Irish hierarchy.

O'Devany of Down and Connor, Brady the Franciscan Bishop of Kilmore, and O'Boyle of Raphoe were the only bishops remaining in the province of Ulster since the murder of Redmond O'Gallagher of Derry. Peter Lombard had been appointed Archbishop of Armagh (1601), but he never visited his diocese. In the province of Leinster Matthew de Oviedo, a Spanish Franciscan, had been appointed to Dublin (1600), and had come to Kinsale with the forces of Spain. He returned to plead for a new expedition to Ireland. Another Spanish Franciscan, Francis de Ribera, had been appointed to Leighlin (1587), but he died in 1604 without having done any work in his diocese. The rest of the Sees in Leinster were vacant. In Munster, David O'Kearney was named Archbishop of Cashel (1603), and soon showed himself to be a man of great activity and fearlessness. Dermod McCragh of Cork had been for years the only bishop in the province, and had exercised the functions of his office not merely in the South, but throughout the province of Leinster. In the province of Tuam all the Sees were vacant. Wherever there was no bishop in residence care was taken to appoint vicars. In Dublin Bernard Moriarty who acted as vicar was arrested in the Franciscan convent at Multifernan in 1601, and died in prison from the wounds he received from the soldiers. Robert Lalor who acted in the same capacity was arrested, tried, and banished in 1606.[18]

Although the Earl of Tyrone had been restored to his estates and had been received graciously by the king (1603), he was both distrusted and feared by the government. Sir Arthur Chichester, who had come to act as Lord Mountjoy's deputy in 1605, and who was appointed Lord Lieutenant on the death of the latter (1607), was determined to get possession of Ulster either by driving O'Neill into rebellion or by bringing against him some charge of conspiracy. New and insulting demands were made upon O'Neill; the Protestant Archbishop of Armagh and the Protestant Bishop of Derry and Raphoe claimed large portions of his territories as belonging to their churches, and some of the minor chieftains were urged on to appeal against him to the English authorities. Having learned in 1607 that he stood in danger of arrest, he and Rory O'Donnell determined to leave Ireland. In September 1607 they sailed from Rathmullen, and on the 4th October they landed in France. After many wanderings they made their way to Rome, where they received a generous welcome from Paul V. O'Donnell died in 1608, and O'Neill, who had cherished till the last a hope of returning to Ireland, died in 1616.[19] Both chieftains were laid to rest in the Church of St. Pietro di Montorio. Although the flight of the Earls caused a great sensation both in England and Ireland, and although James I. was said to have been pained by their departure and even to have thought for a time of granting religious toleration, Chichester and his companions were delighted at the result of their work. The flight of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, the attempted rebellion of Sir Cahir O'Doherty, and the trumped-up charges brought against some of the other n.o.blemen in the North opened up the prospect of a new and greater plantation than had ever been attempted before. Tyrone, Fermanagh, Donegal, Derry, Armagh, and Cavan were confiscated to the crown at one stroke, and preparations were made to carry out the plantation in a scientific manner. The greater portion of the territory was divided into lots of two thousand, one thousand five hundred, and one thousand acres. The Undertakers who were to get the largest grants were to be English or Scotch Protestants and were to have none but English or Scotch Protestant tenants, those who were to get the one thousand five hundred acres were to be Protestants themselves and were to have none but Protestant tenants, while the portions of one thousand acres each might be parcelled out amongst English, Scotch, or Irish, and from these Catholics were not excluded.

Thousands of acres were appropriated for the support of the Protestant religion, for the maintenance of Protestant schools, and for the upkeep of Trinity College. A small portion was kept for a few of the old Catholic proprietors, and the remainder of the population were ordered to leave these districts before the 1st May 1609. Many of them remained, however, preferring to take small tracts of the mountain and bog land from the new proprietors than to trust themselves among strangers; but a great number of the able-bodied amongst them were caught and s.h.i.+pped to serve as soldiers in the army of Sweden.[20]

For some time after the flight of the Earls there seems to have been a slight lull in the persecution, the king and his advisers fearing perhaps that their action was only a prelude to a more general rebellion in the course of which O'Neill might return at the head of a Spanish force. But once it was clear that no danger was to be apprehended the Irish officials began to urge once more recourse to extreme measures. Fines were levied on Catholic towns, some of which, however, were remitted by the king. It was represented to Salisbury (1609) that the Catholics had grown much more bold even in Dublin, that in the country they drew thousands to ”their idolatrous sacrifices, and that the Jesuits stir up the forces of disloyalty.”