Summary of re ligious improve reign. found a long catalogue of Bale's own publications". The death of the king on the 6th of July, 1553, ment during this put a stop for the present to the improvement of the Church of Ireland. Not much, indeed, had been done or attempted by the English government in that behalf, during his six years' reign; a forbearance which is probably to be attributed to a prudence or timidity of counsels during the king's minority, and to a sense of the intractable temper of the people, and their inveterate attachment to the superstitions of the Church of Rome. The foundations, however, for future improvement had been laid, in the maintenance of the king's supremacy, in the appointment of men of high character to the episcopacy, in the introduction of the English Liturgy, and in the initiative step for its being set forth in the Irish language. By these means, as well as by a careful and due administration of the laws of England, great countenance and encouragement were given to those who embraced the Reformed religion, especially within those counties known by the name of the English pale; the Common Prayer Book of England being brought over thither, and used in most of the churches of the English plantation, by authority of the king, there being hitherto no law of their own parliaments to enforce it on their observance 1. 18 17 Book II. p. 325. 18 HEYLYN'S History of the Reformation, p. 123. Proclamations on Queen Mary's accession. Reinstatement of Archbishop Dowdall. Deprivation of the Protestant Bishops. Their places occupied by Papists. Hugh Curwen, archbishop of Dublin. Revival of Popish superstitions. Encouraged by the Lord Deputy. Pope Paul's Bull. Acts of Parliament for suppressing heresy and Lollardy. The Queen's purpose of persecuting the Protestants interrupted by her Death. crown of Ireland to crown of THE succession of Queen Mary to the crown of Succession to the Ireland did not encounter the temporary interrup-regulated by that tion which was opposed to her claim upon the crown England. of England. The crown of Ireland, indeed, had been entailed upon the Lady Elizabeth by name, by the Irish statute of the 28th year of King Henry the Eighth, chapter 2; and that statute had not been subsequently repealed by any Irish act. But the English statute of the 35th year of King Henry the Eighth, chapter 2, was, in effect, a repeal of the aforesaid Irish statute, as it was avowedly a repeal of the English statutes to the same effect. For Ireland was a kingdom subordinate to that of England, and forming a part of its dominion. Whoever was king of England, was, in fact, king of Ireland, as much as he was of any of the minor dependent islands, the isle of Sheppy, for example, or the Isle of Wight. This was the case at common law; and it had been explained to be so by the Irish statute of Proclamations on the queen's accession. Rejoicings at Bishop Bale's account of them. August, 1553. 33rd Henry the Eighth, chapter 1, wherein it was enacted that the king and his successors, kings of England, shall be "kings of Ireland, as united and knit to the imperial crown of the realm of England." Thus Ireland was bound to submit to the same disposal of the crown, which might be made in England; so that when after twelve days' disturbance, which had been raised in opposition to Queen Mary, she was peaceably seated on the English throne, her succession to that of Ireland followed as a regular consequence'. Intelligence of this event having been communicated by the council of England to the lords justices of Ireland, the queen's succession was announced in Ireland by a proclamation, which had been sent over from the council of England on the 20th of July, 1553; wherein she was styled "supreme head of the church." This was read in Dublin, and in other cities and towns of the kingdom, as is usual on such occasions; and was soon after followed by another proclamation, giving to all persons who would, liberty to attend the mass, but not compelling thereunto those who were unwilling. In what way this event may have been celebrated by the friends of the papacy in other towns of Ireland, I am not aware that we have information. But the following account of the proceedings at Kilkenny, given by Bishop Bale, is curious, and may, perhaps, be taken as a specimen of what occurred elsewhere. "On the 20th day of August," he says, "was the Lady Mary with us at Kilkenny proclaimed queen of England, France, and Ireland, with the greatest solemnity that could be devised, of processions, 1 Cox, i. 29 musters, and disguisings, all the noble captains and gentlemen thereabout being present. What ado I had that day with the prebendaries and priests, about wearing the cope, crosier, and mitre, in procession, it were too much to write. "I told them earnestly, when they would have compelled me thereto, that I was not Moses' minister, but Christ's. I desired them not to compel me to his denial, which is, St. Paul saith, in the repeating of Moses' sacraments and ceremonial shadows. (Gal. v.) With that I took Christ's testament in my hand, and went to the market cross, the people in great number following. There took I the 13th chapter of St. Paul to the Romans, declaring to them briefly what the authority was of the worldly powers and magistrates, what reverence and obedience were due to the same. In the meantime had the prelates [qu. prebendaries] gotten two disguised priests, one to bear the mitre afore me, and another the crosier, making three procession pageants of one. "The young men in the forenoon played a tragedy of God's promises in the old law, at the market cross, with organ, plainges, and songs, very aptly. In the afternoon again they played a comedy of St. John the Baptist's preachings, of Christ's baptising, and of his temptations in the wilderness, to the small contentation of the priests and other papists there." The bishop was still active, both publickly and privately, in maintaining, what he believed to be the truths of the Gospel, in opposition to all gainsayers. But on Thursday, the last day of August," he says, "I being absent, the clergy of Kilkenny blasphemously resumed again the whole Papism, or heap 66 2 BALE'S Vocacyon, as above. Restoration of Popish super stitions. of superstitions of the Bishop of Rome: to the utter contempt of Christ and his holy word, of the king and council of England, and of all ecclesiastical and politick order, without either statute or yet proclamation. They rang all the bells in that cathedral, minster, and parish churches; they flung up their caps to the battlements of the great temple, with smilings and laughings most dissolutely; they brought forth their copes, candlesticks, holy-water stocks, crosses, and censers; they mustered forth in general procession most gorgeously all the town. over, with 'Sancta Maria, Ora pro nobis,' and the rest of the Latin Litany. They chattered it, they chaunted it with great noise and devotion; they banquetted all the day after, for that they were delivered from the grace of God into a warm sun. "For now they may, now from thenceforth, again deceive the people, as they did aforetime, with their Latin mumblings, and make merchandise of them. 2 Peter ii. "They may make the witless sort believe, that they can make every day new gods of their little white cakes, and that they can fetch their friends' souls from flaming purgatory, if need be, with other great miracles else. 66 They may now without check have other men's wives in occupying, .. and be at an utter defiance with marriage, though it be an institution of God, honourable, holy, righteous, and perfect. "I write not this without a cause: for why? There were some among them, which boasted both of this, and much more too vain to be told. "And when they were demanded, how they would, afore God, be discharged? They made answer, that ear-confession was able to burnish them |