Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 2 (of 3)

For a year or more Rory seems to have kept pretty quiet; but the rumour of a Spanish invasion and the exhortations of John Burke were too much for his prudence, and the dispute about the cess laid the Pale unusually open to attack. Allying himself as of old with Connor MacCormac, who stood in the same relation to the remnant of the O’Connors as he himself did to the O’Mores, he was soon at the head of 140 men and boys. On the night of March 3, 1577, Rory and his ally brought their band to Naas, and entered the town, which they found unprepared. Their men had no muskets, but were armed with torches stuck upon long poles, with which, ‘like hags and furies of hell,’ they rushed through the street, setting fire to the low thatched houses on either side; and they were gone again within half an hour. The night was windy, the March weather had dried the thatch, and the whole place was burned to the ground in a few minutes. ‘There were,’ says Sidney, ‘about 500 men’s bodies in the town, manlike enough in appearance, but neither manful nor wakeful, for they confess they were all asleep in their beds after they had filled themselves and surfeited upon Patron Day, which day is celebrated for the most part of the people of this country birth with gluttony and idolatry as far as they dare. They had neither watch nor gate shut; … the town is open on all sides, and without soldiers, yet how unwilling to bear any charge for their own defence.’ Rory Oge, says Hooker, ‘tarried very little in the town saving that he sat a little while upon the cross in the market-place,’ and feasted his eyes with the flames. None of the townsmen were killed.[349 - Sidney to the Privy Council, March 17, 1576, and Hooker in Holinshed. The two accounts seem drawn from a common source.]

Rory captures English officers. Escapes capture, 1577 and 1578

After this exploit Rory’s force increased rapidly, and he attacked Leighlin Bridge, of which Sir Peter Carew the younger was constable, but which was actually in charge of his famous brother George, who here performed his first noteworthy service. Half the town was already burned when Carew, at the head of only seven horsemen and five musketeers, boldly sallied out against the enemy, who were between 200 and 300. Surprised in the darkness, they fled, but soon recovered, and some of them actually entered the castle. Carew managed to shut the gates, and his assailants, having suffered considerably, departed without doing any further harm. The Devonshire captain lost only two soldiers and one horse, but not a single one of his men escaped unwounded. Soon after this Captain Harrington and Alexander Cosby, son of the Captain of Leix, were taken prisoners, treacherously enough, according to the English accounts, by Rory, and carried about by him in triumph. If Cosby was, as some accounts say, an actor in the Mullaghmast tragedy, he deserved nothing better, but in this kind of warfare it is to be feared that breaches of faith were common enough on both sides. All attempts to catch Rory had hitherto been vain, and Sidney was forced to temporise for the sake of the prisoners. Robert Hartpole, who was used to this kind of service, and who had probably many friends among the country people, brought fifty soldiers to a cabin at the side of a wood, where he heard that the outlaw and his prisoners were to sleep. Finding himself in a trap, Rory tried to kill Harrington by slashing at him with his sword. He fractured his skull, broke his arm, and cut off one of his fingers; but Harrington recovered from these and other injuries. Rory had his shirt cut off by a sword, but managed to creep away between the soldiers’ legs, and reached the covert with a single companion. The cabin was on the very edge of the bush. The prisoners were rescued, and sixteen people, including all the men in the house, were killed. Rory’s wife was also killed, but one woman at least, a sister of Feagh MacHugh, was spared. Connor MacCormac was perhaps not present, for he afterwards made his peace with the Government and received a pension. Letters implicating John Burke and others were found in the house.[350 - Sidney’s Relation, 1583, in Carew. Sidney to the Privy Council, Nov. 26, 1577; Hooker’s Annals of Lough Cé, 1577.]

Sidney in Kilkenny and Tipperary

Harrington’s capture gave much encouragement to discontented persons, and the Lord Deputy determined, as he expressed it, to attempt Rory’s suppression by plaguing his maintainers. He went to Kilkenny on Christmas Eve, accompanied only by Sir Lucas Dillon, and found, as he expected, that the rebel had plenty of friends high and low in the town. The time from Christmas to Twelfth Day was spent in investigating the matter, and so abundant was the evidence that it would have taken till Easter to hear it all. Tipperary enjoyed comparative immunity from the operations of Government, and Rory Oge’s children were fostered among Ormonde’s principal tenants and officers. Fulke Grace, the Earl’s constable at Roscrea, had refused to let Drury enter the castle until he had promised him protection, and he now refused to come to Sidney himself when sent for. All this and a great deal more was sworn to, but ‘such partiality and affectionate dealing were found in the juries, as were the matter never so plain, the evidence never so full, if it touched any of their friends, and namely, the tenants and servants of the Earl of Ormonde, no indictment would be found – no, though the party made submission and confessed the fault; if the matter touched any of Ossory, were the evidence never so weak, the jury would find it.’ The jurors were bound to appear before the Star Chamber, and the Lord Deputy returned to Dublin without catching Rory Oge.[351 - Sidney to the Privy Council, Feb. 20. 1578, in the Sidney Papers.]

Rory is killed by the Fitzpatricks, 1578

After his narrow escape, Rory was soon at the head of a band, and burning villages as busily as ever. He entered Carlow through one of many breaches in the wall, and fired all the thatched houses, but in retiring he was attacked by Cosby or Hartpole at a ford, and suffered great loss. But here again he himself escaped, so that even Sidney thought he bore a charmed life and talked of ‘sorcery or enchantment (if it be lawful so to deem).’ In the end the fatal snare was of his own laying. In order to entrap the Baron of Upper Ossory he sent a spy to tell him, as if of his own accord, that Rory had gathered a great spoil of ‘pots, pans, pewter, nappery, linen, and other household stuff and implements’ – a strange bait for King Edward’s old playfellow – and that it might all be easily seized. The emissary was instructed to insist on a small force only being sent: a larger one would attract attention and defeat the scheme. The Baron hardly knew what to believe, but decided not to lose the chance. He brought a strong force to the appointed place, but kept aloof himself with the main body, and sent about thirty men into the wood. Rory also kept back the bulk of his followers, but showed himself, under the impression that the Fitzpatricks would not face so renowned a champion; ‘wherein,’ says Sidney, ‘he found himself very much deceived.’ The Baron’s kerne set upon him stoutly, and he fell pierced by many mortal wounds. His brother-in-law, Feagh MacHugh, swore to avenge him, and kept his word. Maltby called Rory the Robin Hood of Ireland, and the Queen’s approbation was conveyed to Lord Upper Ossory. Rory’s followers carried off his body, but the head was afterwards sent to Sidney and duly set up on Dublin Castle – the Lord Deputy afterwards complaining bitterly that the Queen made light of the service, being persuaded that it was as easy to kill such a rogue as Rory Oge as to kill ‘mad George, the keeper of the Queen’s Court.’ The Connaught annalists more correctly record ‘that there was not in Erin a greater destroyer against foreigners than that man; and he was a very great loss.’[352 - Sidney to the Privy Council, July 1, 1578, with whom Hooker closely agrees; Fitton to Burghley, July 1; Maltby to same, July 26; Lord Upper Ossory to same, Feb. 24, 1579; Council in Ireland to the Queen, Sept. 12, 1578; Annals of Lough Cé, 1578. The Four Masters, writing in the next reign, are much more guarded. In the curious poem by John Derrick, called the ‘Image of Ireland,’ which is in the Somers Tracts, and has been lately reprinted, there is a good deal about Rory Oge. The work is strictly contemporary; but it does not add much to our knowledge. The following stanzas are about the most interesting. Rory Oge loquitur: —Much like a champion addicted to war,Time serving fitly to anger my foes,I summoned a number of neighbours from far,Twice eighty persons, the best I could chooseFor manhood and sleights, in whom to reposeI might in safety my life and my land:No dastards nor shrinklings, but those that would stand.With these I marched from place unto place,With these I troubled both village and town,With these in one night I fired the Naas,With these my resisters I spoiled of renown,With these I made many a castle come down,With these I yielded, augmenting my fame,The people to sword and houses to flame.]

Government of Drury

Drury, being relieved for a moment from danger on the side of Desmond, was able to turn his attention to the disturbers of Leinster. At Limerick he hanged Rory Oge’s Brehon, who was much esteemed among the people; for the President it was enough that he practised only such law as was repugnant to her Majesty. One of Rory’s sons, accompanied by his nurse, was taken in a wood near Roscrea. Drury also found time for a not inconsiderable number of hangings, and reported with complacency that 400 had been executed by justice and martial law since he took office. At Clonmel a man was pressed to death. A sharp eye was kept on all arrivals from abroad, and a friar, fresh from Portugal, was hanged in his cowl at Limerick. The President was able to say that he had been the first to appoint English sheriffs in Thomond and Desmond. Justice, in his opinion, was liked by the people, and her Majesty’s revenues were much increased thereby.[353 - Drury to the Privy Council, March 24, 1578.]

The Queen finds Sidney too expensive

The affairs of the Netherlands had now become pressingly important, and Queen Elizabeth was forced to provide material help for the patriotic party. Scarcely had she made up her mind to back their bills to the extent of 100,000l. and to send 6,000 men to the provinces, than the victory gained at Gemblours by Don John of Austria, or rather by Alexander Farnese, seemed for a moment to place William of Orange in a desperate position. The Queen saw that her help would really be wanted, and war, even clandestine war, required a great deal of money. Sidney was not a cheap Lord Deputy, and there were plenty of people at Court to tell the Queen that he had exceeded the 20,000l. which had been mentioned as the annual expense of his government. Ormonde was at Elizabeth’s side, and Ormonde’s influence was always directed against Leicester and his brother-in-law. It was at first proposed to recall the Lord Deputy in a peremptory manner. But Walsingham and Wilson, and probably Burghley also, worked in Sidney’s interest, and Elizabeth’s better nature prevailed over her love of money and her ill-temper towards a faithful servant who treated her somewhat too like an equal. It was suggested that Sidney should be left alone until he himself asked to be relieved, and then for a time judgment was suspended until Lord Chancellor Gerard should be heard on the question of cess and on the state of Ireland generally.[354 - Waterhouse to Sidney, Aug. 21, Sept. 5, 15, 16 and 30, 1577; Walsingham to Sidney, Sept. 15, 1577, Jan. 20, 1578, all in the Sidney Papers.]

Sir Philip Sidney’s advice to his father

At last the Queen made up her mind that, whatever might be done by another Deputy, the present one would never consent to govern as cheaply as she wished. Walsingham privately informed Sidney that he was to be recalled, but that to save his credit he would be summoned as if for a short visit to Court for the purpose of explaining accounts and other knotty matters. The wily secretary advised his friend to put his affairs in order as soon as possible, and to be ready for any emergency. At last the summons was sent. The Queen announced that proposals for a more economical establishment had been made to her, and that before giving her decision she wished to see the Deputy, who was to bring with him the auditor and his books. Five thousand pounds were sent to keep things going until Midsummer, and out of this Sidney was to pay the soldiers. This letter, which ordered the Lord Deputy to be at Court by May 10, was more than a month on the road, and did not reach Dublin till April 23. Literal compliance was therefore impossible, and the advice which Sidney received from his son was not to leave Ireland till Michaelmas, so that his enemies might not have to say that they had driven him away. ‘Your lordship is to write back,’ said the young diplomatist, ‘not as though you desired to tarry, but only showing that unwillingly you must employ some days thereabouts; and if it please you to add that the Chancellor’s presence shall be requisite… and then the more time passes the better it will be blown over.’[355 - Walsingham to Sidney, Jan. 20, in the Sidney Papers. Queen to Sidney, March 22; Sir Philip Sidney to his father, April 25, in the Sidney Papers.]

Sidney’s last days in Ireland

Sidney took the advice of his famous son, delaying his return till September, but sending over Waterhouse at once with such instructions as were likely to smooth his path. The Queen was reminded that the cess question was not yet fully settled, that the auditor’s books could not be posted in a minute, that a foreign invasion was at hand, that there were many unfinished causes scarcely fit to be entrusted to a new hand, and that her Majesty owed her Deputy 3,000l., for which he held the Treasurer’s warrant. If anything could make Elizabeth acquiesce in the neglect of her orders it was an allusion to the 3,000l., and she allowed Sidney to stay where he was until he had an opportunity of conferring with Gerard. Sir William Drury was nominated Lord Justice to take up the government as soon as it should be vacant. Rory Oge was disposed of soon after this, and a branch of the Scottish MacDonnells, long settled at Tinnakill, in the Queen’s County, received a pension of 300l. a year in consideration of giving the Queen constant service as gallowglass. In the meantime the MacMahons had broken out, and driven off cattle from the Northern frontier of the Pale. Lord Louth followed with a few horsemen, and falling into an ambuscade was himself slain, as well as the eldest son of the loyal Sir Hugh Magennis. The loss of an active and thoroughly well-affected young lord of twenty-three could not be passed over, and Sidney invaded Monaghan, destroying everything that he could lay hands on. MacMahon came to Newry with a withe about his neck and sued for pardon; but Sidney had by that time left Ireland.[356 - Sidney to the Queen, April 30, 1578. Instructions for Waterhouse in the Sidney Papers. The Queen to Sidney, May 29, in Carew. Maltby to Walsingham, May 3; Sidney’s Summary Relation, 1583, in Carew; Four Masters; Lodge’s Peerage. Instructions for Snagg, A. G., June 11.]

He leaves Ireland finally

Gerard was detained in Wales by illness, and Sidney sent first Attorney-General Snagg, and afterwards Ludovic Briskett, Clerk of the Council, to keep his cause alive at Court. Men, money, victuals, and munition were required, for there was talk of a descent by Stukeley, and the Lord Deputy wished to hold a Parliament to renew the subsidy of 13s. 4d. on each ploughland which had expired, and to renew the Act imposing a duty on wines, which was about to expire. But all eyes and ears were now turned to the Netherlands, and Waterhouse wrote to warn Sidney that he would get nothing except perhaps ammunition, and that the money last sent was regretted. ‘Irish alarms,’ he said, ‘are so far from waking courtiers out of their sleep that, as I am sure, till they hear that the enemy is landed, they will never think of aid that may carry with it extraordinary charge. There is now no speech of the return of the Earls of Ormonde and Kildare… The States have made John Norris general, &c.’ Thus matters stood when the Irish Chancellor arrived in Dublin; and no time was then lost in completing the arrangements about cess. An assembly of notables was convened from Dublin, Meath, Louth, Kildare, King’s and Queen’s Counties, Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, and Tipperary, and the agreement already referred to was thus made. Sidney at this time took a strong dislike to Gerard, whom he accused of ambitious dealing and of plotting against him at Court. ‘He did not let to say that he had brought over such warrants for himself and restraint for me as I could do nothing without him,’ and he was accused of boasting that Ireland should be governed with a white rod when Drury ruled by his direction.[357 - Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Aug. 1; Waterhouse to Sidney, July 4, in the Sidney Papers, where also are the Instructions for Snagg and Briskett; Sidney’s Summary Relation, 1583.]

His character

At eight o’clock on the evening of September 12, exactly three years after his arrival, Sidney embarked at Wood Quay, and when on board his vessel surrendered the sword to Gerard, and finally severed his connection with Ireland. If we except Strafford and Cromwell, he was perhaps the ablest man who ever reigned in Dublin Castle, and there is a charm about him which belongs to scarcely any one else even in the Elizabethan age. Who shall say how much his famous son, and scarcely less famous daughter, owed to a father whose letters of advice remain as almost unapproachable models, and whose life showed such a noble example? The official correspondence of the time is full of allusions to his powers of work, to the hours which he sat patiently through, and to the confidence which his decisions commanded. Though suffering from a painful disease, he shrank from no journey, and the rapidity of his movements was extraordinary. Fortune, ease, and health were given up to the public service, and though he complained he never hesitated. ‘I had no time,’ he said, ‘to apply my mind to take physic in Ireland.’ He well knew the value of exercise and reasonable leisure, but he denied himself both. As Elizabeth’s representative he was accustomed to take a high line, and he sometimes dared to maintain the dignity of the Crown even against the great Queen who wore it. Her cousin Ormonde should not be favoured in his causes except according to law. Mr. Christopher Hatton should not have a license to export yarn in defiance of an Irish Act of Parliament. If the Queen let fall hasty words detrimental to the Irish service, her Viceroy would rebuke her for being ‘so great an enemy to her own profit.’[358 - Letter of advice to Lord Grey, Sept. 17, 1580, in the Sidney Papers. Sidney to the Queen, Sept. 15, 1577, in same; to the Queen (after reaching England), Sept. 18, 1578.]

His relations with the Queen

And thus it came to pass that while Elizabeth honoured, and perhaps loved, the man in whose arms her brother breathed his last, and whose wife had lost her looks and almost her life in nursing her through the small-pox, she was not sorry when an opportunity offered of wounding his masterful spirit. When he seemed to bargain with her for the retention of the Welsh Presidency as a condition of entering on the hated Irish service, she rebuked him for daring to limit her prerogative, and when he made a gay figure at Court she said it was no wonder, for that he held two of her best offices. But she took care to leave him both places, and sometimes called him Harry. She grumbled at the expense of his government, but in the end seldom refused to give him nearly as much money as he asked for. He tells us that he lost 9,000l. by his Irish service, which was an enormous sum in those days, but Elizabeth, though she might never replace money so spent, at least did not neglect his children.

His personal qualities

Sidney was a ready speaker and a vigorous writer. Campion professes to give one of his speeches, but about such reports there must always be some doubts. The letters, however, are there, and if Sidney spoke nearly as well as he wrote, we can well believe that a great effect was sometimes produced. His written style is full and vigorous, and gives a much better idea of Elizabethan English than that of many professed authors whose affectation of elegance only tended to obscurity. Sidney was very fond of heraldry, and not a little proud of his right to display the bear and ragged staff. Indeed, he particularly impressed upon his sons the necessity of living up to the standard of their mother’s family – a family, as modern students cannot help observing, which produced Edmund Dudley, Northumberland, and Leicester. This was an amiable weakness; a certain irascibility was a worse defect in a statesman, but his anger was soon appeased, and there can be no doubt that he was personally very popular. Among many virtues this defect was noted, that he was too fond of the pleasures of the table, and among Irish-speaking people the nickname of ‘big Henry of the beer’ was sometimes given to him. He was once accused of flirting with a married woman, but this may have been only gossip, and affection for her husband breathes in every line of Lady Mary Sidney’s letters.[359 - Lady Mary Sidney to Edward Molineux, Oct. 11, 1578, and a second letter (undated) soon after, in the Sidney Papers. It is the Book of Howth which accuses Sidney of being a ‘lusty feeder and surfeiter.’ The Irish nickname might very well come from some dispute with a contractor, and not from Sidney’s fondness for malt liquor. Sidney died in 1586, prematurely old, at fifty-seven years of age. In the British Museum a black letter pamphlet contains a funeral sermon by Thomas White, D.D., the founder of Sion College. The whole is interesting, more especially the following passage: ‘He consumed himself in yielding light to other men; besides his special gift of affability to poor and simple men, the very grace of all his greatness. It is no hard matter for a man to be humble in low estate, but to be lowly in greatness is not a common gift; and if pride herself be often forced to dissemble humility, because lowliness maketh a simple man to be highly commended, how much more doth it excel, when it shall indeed appear in persons of value and renown! Wherefore if any man will build his house high, let him lay his foundations very low, for envy shoots at high marks, and pride goes before a fall.’ Herein lay the secret of Sidney’s immense popularity. His haughtiness was reserved for the great and powerful.]

His reception at Court

On his arrival at Court the late Lord Deputy was received coolly, chiefly perhaps because foreign affairs engrossed all attention. The lodgings assigned to him at Hampton Court were insufficient. He was ill, and his wife was ill, and yet no separate sitting-room could be found for the man who had spent his health and fortune in the thankless Irish service. Lord Chamberlain Sussex knew but too well what that service was, but he was not likely to exert himself much for Leicester’s brother-in-law. The latter, indeed, was particularly weak at this time, for Simier had spitefully told the Queen of his marriage with Lady Essex. With a not uncommon inconsistency Elizabeth, though she had decided not to marry her favourite, could not bear to resign him to another, and talked about the Tower; but Sussex dissuaded her, saying that no man was to be troubled for a lawful marriage. In this the Lord Chamberlain showed singular generosity, but Sidney could not expect much favour from him. ‘When the worst is known,’ said Lady Mary, ‘old Lord Harry and his old Moll will do as well as they can in parting like good friends the small portion allotted our long service in Court, which as little as it is seems something too much; … in this case I am in it is not possible to be in my chamber till after sunset, when the dear good lord shall be, as best becomes him, lord of his own.’

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE IRISH CHURCH DURING THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF ELIZABETH’S REIGN

The Queen aims at outward uniformity

Outward uniformity was what Elizabeth chiefly aimed at in the first years of her reign, and before a Papal excommunication forced her to be the enemy of all who adhered to Rome. The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity were passed as a matter of course, but a clause in the latter statute shows that there was every disposition to treat the Irish tenderly. Most parts of Ireland, the Act declares, were devoid of English ministers to read the Common Prayer and administer the sacraments; ‘and for that also, that the same may not be in their native language, as well for difficulty to get it printed, as that few in the whole realm can read Irish letters,’ it was ordained that ministers and priests who knew no English might do their office in Latin. It was a singularly ill-advised plan, for the Jesuits and friars all knew Latin, and the Irish people knew it even less than English.

The English Bible and Prayer-book. Images

In Dublin, however, everyone spoke English, and the Common Prayer Book of Edward VI. was used at the installation of Sussex. Open opposition was impossible, but on the following Sunday an attempt was made to discredit the new ritual by a trick. Christ Church contained a marble Christ with a crown of thorns on His head. This statue, which had been removed by Browne and replaced by Curwen, was observed to bleed during the service, and many were ready to believe in a miracle. Sedgrave, the mayor, who had sat quiet during the former service, produced a rosary and prayed openly before the bloody effigy. A former monk of the cathedral, named Leigh, cried out that Christ could not but sweat blood since heresy had come into the Church. A tumult seemed imminent, and Sussex and his suite hurried out of the choir. But Curwen stood upon a bench and showed the congregation that Leigh had placed a sponge filled with blood within the crown of thorns. The Protestants were triumphant, the Roman party confounded, and Curwen’s orders to have the statue broken up were obeyed without demur. Parker made good use of this occurrence to persuade the Queen to have images removed from all the churches. The exposure of so gross a fraud may have contributed to secure outward conformity in Dublin; but among the Irish-speaking people in the country it was perhaps scarcely heard of. The counter-reformation was everywhere in progress under teachers trained at Louvain. The actual state of the question as between Crown and Pope may best be arrived at by considering each diocese separately. A large Bible presented by Archbishop Heath to one or both of the Dublin cathedrals was eagerly read, and more than 7,000 copies are said to have been bought for the Irish market in two years; but they can have been of little use to those who did not know a word of English.[360 - The story of the bleeding Christ is in Strype’s Life of Parker. The item about the Bibles is given by Mant on the authority of the Loftus MS.]

See of Armagh. Adam Loftus

The primatial see of Armagh was vacant at the accession of Elizabeth, and remained so until 1563. Sussex recommended Adam Loftus, a Yorkshireman, who was already in Ireland and distinguished as a preacher. Loftus, who was educated at Cambridge, was the friend of Cartwright, and this may have retarded his promotion for a time. In November, 1561, his preferment was announced, and almost immediately afterwards the news was contradicted on authority. ‘I know not,’ said Sussex, ‘who hath informed that he is not worthy of that place, but if a vehement zeal in religion, good understanding in the Scriptures, doctrines, and other kinds of learning, continual study, good conversation of life, and a bountiful gift of God in utterance, be sufficient to enable him, I undertake I have better ground to enable him than any man of that land or this, of what vocation soever he be, hath to disable him.’ Loftus made the usual professions of unwillingness, and Sussex remarked that the primacy was great in name, but the living very small. He had searched for three years without finding a fit man. The Lord Deputy’s entreaties prevailed, and in October 1561 a congé d’élire was addressed to the Dean and Chapter of Armagh. This is remarkable, because the necessity for such instruments in Ireland had been already abolished by Act of Parliament. The letter was sent down to Armagh, and the Dean replied that no election was possible. The greater part of the Chapter were ‘temporal men and Shane O’Neill’s horsemen.’ The appointment was accordingly made by patent. Perhaps it had been the Queen’s intention to obtain only a permissive dispensation. At all events, the failure of the first attempt at capitular election was enough for her, and she did not repeat the experiment. Loftus was consecrated by Archbishop Curwen in March 1563, and the succession was thus preserved, for Curwen’s authenticity has never been questioned at Rome. At the beginning of 1565 Loftus was elected Dean of St. Patrick’s, and was empowered to hold the deanery along with his archbishopric, from which it must be allowed that he derived little or no profit. It does not appear that he ever saw his cathedral, which was burned by Shane O’Neill in 1566 lest it should shelter the English; and he was ready to resign a dignity which brought him not more than 20l. a year. ‘Of the whole revenues,’ he said, ‘there remaineth nothing but the bare house and fourscore acres of ground at Termonfeckin. Though peace ensue the repressing of this rebel, yet these wastes will not be inhabited, nor the spoils recovered many years hereafter.’ In the following year Loftus was translated to Dublin and forced to resign his deanery, which he did very unwillingly. Curwen, he said, had so impoverished his see that it was worth only 400l. Irish with 1,200 acres of land, and he was ‘minded rather to continue in the poor state’ of nominal primate with St. Patrick’s thrown in. He had, however, admitted that he could do no good in the Northern see, ‘for that altogether it lieth among the Irish.’ Love of money was throughout the bane of Loftus, and went far to neutralise the good effects of his learning and eloquence.[361 - Sussex to Cecil, Dec. 25, 1561; Lord Deputy and Council to the Queen, Sept. 2, 1562; Loftus to Cecil, Nov. 3, 1566, and March 21, 1567; Richard Creagh to Sidney, Dec. 25, 1566.]

Loftus is removed to Dublin

Having determined to remove Loftus to Dublin, the Queen seriously thought of making the Dean, Terence Daniel, Primate of All Ireland. He had been thought of in 1564, but was very unfit for the office, and the appointment, which would have been avowedly political, was perhaps prevented by Sidney or Parker. Loftus recommended his friend Cartwright; but Thomas Lancaster, an Englishman who had formerly been Bishop of Kildare, was preferred, and in consideration of the state of his see was allowed to hold other preferment both in England and Ireland.[362 - The Queen to Lord Deputy Sidney, July 6, 1567, authorising him to make Terence Daniel Primate; Terence to Cecil, Oct. 5, accepting the charge. In a letter to Lord R. Dudley, July 23, 1564, Sir T. Wrothe says Daniel ‘would promise to do much with Shane O’Neill, and some think he could perform it.’]

Papal primates

But neither Loftus nor Lancaster was acknowledged at Rome, and a Primate not acknowledged at Rome had small chance of reverence from the Irish masses. Donat O’Teige was provided by the Pope, and was at Armagh in the summer of 1561, when Shane O’Neill made his first attempt to burn the cathedral and its garrison of English soldiers. The pretended ‘Papist Primate,’ said Sussex, ‘sung mass with all the friars. After mass the Primate and the friars went thrice about Shane’s men, saying certain prayers, and willed them to go forward, for God was on their side. Whereupon he and all his men made a solemn vow and took their oaths never to turn their faces from the church till they had burned it and all the English churches, and so with a great shout set forward and assaulted the churchyard, where divers of them quickly left their bodies, and the rest, setting on fire the friars’ house and other old houses in another part of the town, ran away.’ We cannot wonder at the difficulty of obtaining canonical election for Loftus. O’Teige died in the following year, and in 1564 Richard Creagh was provided in his room.[363 - Brady’s Episcopal Succession. Lord-Lieutenant and Council to the Queen, July 16, 1561.]

Archbishop Creagh. His sufferings

If martyrdom consists in suffering for one’s opinions, few men have earned the crown better than Archbishop Creagh. He was a Limerick man, the son of a merchant, and himself engaged in trade. A ship in which he was about to sail put to sea while he was engaged in prayer. She foundered with all hands, and this escape made Creagh more serious than ever. He went to Louvain, and afterwards intended to enter the severe Theatine order, which had been founded about the time of his birth; but Pius IV., under pain ‘of cursing,’ obliged him to accept the Irish Primacy. During Queen Mary’s life he had already refused the Archbishopric of Cashel. From Rome he went by way of Augsburg to Antwerp, and thence to Louvain, where, dressed in his archiepiscopal robes, he gave a dinner to the doctors. He then sailed in a ship bound for Ireland, was driven to Dover by a contrary wind, and made his way to Rochester. ‘There,’ says his evidence before the Recorder of London, ‘he found an Irish boy begging, whom he took with him to London, and there lodged at the Three Cups in Broad Street, where he tarried not past three days, and went to Paul’s Church, and there walked but had no talk with any man, and so to Westminster Church to see the monuments there, and from thence came to Westminster Hall the same time that he heard say Bonner was arraigned.’ He made his way to Ireland, landed in his own province, and went to a monastery to hear mass. Immediately afterwards, and within an hour of setting foot on dry land, he was arrested by soldiers and sent to England. He was imprisoned and examined in the Tower, whence he escaped after a few weeks. By some extraordinary negligence, or possibly on purpose, all the doors were left open one morning. Creagh passed out at the main gate and was stopped by the Beefeaters, to whom he represented himself as the servant of Bilson, a Roman Catholic priest who was undergoing an easy imprisonment. He was allowed to go free, and it is not surprising that he should have thought his escape miraculous.[364 - Brady’s Episcopal Succession. Creagh’s own statement in Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 41, from the Vatican archives; his examinations, in the Irish State Papers, Feb. 22, March 17 and 23, 1565.]

Fate of Creagh

Creagh made his way back to Ulster. According to his own account he was at all times friendly to Englishmen, anxious to serve the Queen as far as conscience would allow, and careful to prevent Shane O’Neill from plundering the Pale ‘according to his cursed custom.’ No sincere priest – and Creagh was undoubtedly a virtuous man – could have approved Shane’s doings, and no Archbishop could be well pleased to see his cathedral a blackened ruin. But his language in the Tower differed greatly in tone from that which he held in Ulster. On Christmas Day 1566 he was with Shane, and wrote to Sidney suggesting that ‘if peace should be or not, whether it should please your lordship, that we should have our old service in our churches, and suffer the said churches to be up for that use, so that the said Lord O’Neill should the less destroy no more churches, and perhaps should help to restore such as by his procurement were destroyed.’ In the same letter he admits that he had close relations with Spain, and throughout uses the first person plural. Sidney’s winter campaign, which broke Shane’s power, perhaps made Ulster untenable, or that chief may not have been unwilling to surrender him in order to make room for Terence Daniel. However that may be, Creagh seems to have wandered into Connaught, for it was by O’Shaughnessy that he was arrested, just four months after his letter to Sidney. He was indicted in Dublin for conspiring with Shane, but the intention to try him there was abandoned. There may have been considerable doubt of the fact, and much more of Irish judges and juries; or perhaps Sidney disliked the odious task. Once more Creagh escaped, but was again arrested by some of Kildare’s people and sent to London. He was never put on his trial, and remained eighteen years in the Tower. In 1579, after he had been more than eleven years in prison, one Hupton, his keeper for the last five, who thought himself, says Creagh, ‘ordained to take harm by Papists,’ was in custody ‘only for papistry.’ Colwick, another keeper, was accused of carrying letters to the poor Archbishop, but he said he had never given him anything but certain sums of 20s., 10s., or 5s. at a time, ‘sent him by his countrymen.’ In 1574 Creagh wrote a long letter to the Council, in which he defended himself from all charges of treason or rebellion, while acknowledging that he owed obedience to the Pope. One of his legs, he said, was rendered useless by the pressure of irons for eight years. He had lost most of his teeth, and suffered from rupture, stone, ‘and many other like miseries.’ Yet he lived on till 1585. A memorandum made in the spring of that year notes him as ‘a dangerous man to be among the Irish, for the reverence that is by that nation borne unto him, and therefore fit to be continued in prison.’ A few months afterwards he died. It has been said that he was poisoned; but his manifold diseases would account for his death, and Holing the Jesuit, a contemporary writer, says simply that he was worn out by years and by the filth of his prison. The story is bad enough as it stands.[365 - Most of the documents relating to Creagh are collected in Spicilegium Ossoriense, vol. i. pp. 38-58. Holing’s account is at p. 84. The Jesuit makes Creagh’s escapes miraculous, but admits that he was on parole not to leave the Tower. This may account in some degree for the severity with which he was afterwards treated. See also a story, which may be apocryphal, in O’Sullivan Beare, tom. ii. lib. iv. cap. 10.]

See of Meath. Bishop Staples

Edward Staples, who was appointed both by King and Pope in 1529, was deprived in 1554, but remained in Ireland. ‘I was,’ he says, ‘driven almost to begging, thrust out of my house, cast from estimation, and made a jesting among monks and friars, nor any cause why was laid against me; but for that I did marry a wife they did put an Irish monk in my place, whose chief matter in preaching hath been in railing against my old master.’ Pole, he adds, chiefly objected to his praying for Henry VIII.’s soul, but promised that he should have some means of support. He was, however, left to beg, and could not even afford the journey to London. He probably died soon after Elizabeth’s accession, for the Cistercian William Walsh was left in possession of his see until 1560, when he was deprived for preaching against the royal supremacy and the Book of Common Prayer. Though appointed by Pole, Walsh received no regular Papal provision till 1564. He was soon afterwards imprisoned, but escaped to France in 1572. In 1575 he had a Brief to act both for Armagh and Dublin, Creagh being in the Tower and the other primacy vacant; but it is not clear that he returned to Ireland. ‘He is,’ said Loftus, who had vain hopes of converting him, ‘of great credit among his countrymen, and upon whom, as touching causes of religion, they wholly depend.’ But Walsh could hardly live safely in Ireland, and he died in Spain in 1578, having for some time acted as suffragan to the Archbishop of Toledo. Hugh Brady, appointed by patent in 1563, was a purely Protestant bishop.[366 - Brady; Loftus to Cecil. July 16, 1565; Holing in Spicilegium Ossoriense.]

See of Clogher. Meiler Magrath

At the accession of Elizabeth, Raymond MacMahon was Bishop of Clogher. He died in 1560 probably, and it is not pretended that he conformed. There is a regular Papal succession from his death, but the Queen made no appointment till 1570, when she preferred the notorious Meiler Magrath. Eugene Magennis was Bishop of Down and Connor, and perhaps made some show of conformity, for he was present in the Parliament of 1560. He died in 1563, and Shane O’Neill tried to get the see for his brother, who was only twenty-three years old. The Pope refused, and in 1565 Meiler Magrath was appointed at Rome. Magrath, who was utterly unscrupulous, made all the official submissions required of him, and in 1580 was deprived by the Pope ‘for the crime of heresy and many other enormities.’ From that date there is a regular Papal succession. Magrath, who had been originally a Franciscan friar, became the Queen’s Archbishop of Cashel in 1570; her Majesty having previously appointed John Merriman to Down and Connor. Magrath therefore enjoys the unique distinction of having been Protestant Archbishop of Cashel and Papal Bishop of Down and Connor at one and the same time. He was no ornament to either Church.[367 - Brady; Cotton’s Fasti.]

Derry. Raphoe. Dromore. Clonmacnoise

Eugene O’Dogherty was Bishop of Derry at Elizabeth’s accession. He was appointed by provision, and there is a regular Papal succession from him, but it does not appear that the Queen ever interfered. The same may be said of Raphoe and Dromore. Peter Wall, a Dominican, became Bishop of Clonmacnoise in 1556. On his death, in 1568, the see was united to Meath by Act of Parliament, and the Popes made no appointment until 1647. Patrick MacMahon was Bishop of Armagh from 1541 to 1568 at least, in which latter year he appears to have been deprived by bull. He died before November 1572, and in 1576 the Pope provided a successor as from his death and not from his deprivation, which may cast some doubt on the above-mentioned document. The Queen made no appointment till 1583. Kilmore was vacant at her accession, and she made no appointment till 1585. There is, however, a regular Papal succession. As a plain matter of fact the Government had no ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Ulster during the early part of Elizabeth’s reign. It was different with Meath, and Bishop Brady has the credit of restoring the ruined church of Kells in 1578. That it should have been then in ruins says little for the position of religion where the State had power.[368 - Brady; Cotton.]

Dublin

A sentiment attaches to Armagh, but Dublin was much more really important. It was beyond Shane O’Neill’s power to burn either St. Patrick’s or Christ Church, and a Papal nominee could hardly venture into the city or even into the diocese. Hugh Curwen, who was Archbishop from 1555 to 1568, when he was translated to Oxford, undoubtedly conformed, and it is through him that Irish Protestant bishops derive what is called apostolical succession. The Pope did not make even a titular appointment until 1600. Thomas Leverous, Kildare’s old tutor, and a most excellent man, was Bishop of Kildare at Mary’s death, was deprived in 1559, so far as the Government could deprive him, for refusing to take the oath of supremacy, and supported himself as a schoolmaster till his death in 1577. He was buried at Naas, within his own diocese, and his body was said to have performed many miracles. The Popes made no appointment until 1629, and the history of the Protestant see is very curious.[369 - Brady; Cotton; Holing in Spicilegium Ossoriense.]

Kildare