Ireland under the Tudors Part 35

Sir James Croft bears a fair character among Irish governors. He did nothing very striking, nor did he contribute much towards a final pacification; but he was considered a just man, and he made no personal enemies. He was at least no bigot, for he received warm praise from Archbishop Browne, though he did not hesitate to recommend Leverous for a bishopric. It was, however, decided that St. Leger should return to Ireland in his stead. Sir Anthony's government had been cheap, and not ineffectual. During the last five years of Henry's reign there had been a small annual surplus; but since his death there had been a constantly growing deficit, which could only be met by increasing the taxation of the obedient shires, by employing Irish soldiers almost exclusively, and by maintaining such troops as were necessary at free quarters upon the country. Miserable expedients certainly; but the English Government could devise nothing better, and they were determined to keep down the expenses. It was resolved not to increase the existing force of 2,024, and to make no attempt at a thorough conquest. The arrangement with Tyrone was dishonourable, but was to be adhered to, lest a breach of faith should lead to war, and consequent expenditure. The King's death prevented a full return to his father's policy, and those who had lately governed in his name immediately lost all influence.[386]

[Sidenote: Protestant Bishops.]

Goodacre was consecrated to Armagh and Bale to Ossory on the same day by Browne, Lancaster of Kildare, and Eugene Magennis of Down. Where Bale was there was sure to be controversy, and a fierce one arose about the ritual proper to the occasion. The Archbishop would have postponed the ceremony, and Bale, who frequently denounces him as an epicure, declares that his object was to 'take up the proxies of any bishopric to his own gluttonous use.' Lockwood, Dean of Christ Church, was supreme in his own cathedral, and his timidity led him to wish for the pontifical order. Bale accordingly stigmatises him as an a.s.s-headed dean, a blockhead who cared only for his kitchen and his belly. But Lockwood had the law on his side; for King Edward's first book only had been proclaimed in Ireland, and it contained no form for consecration. Browne and Cusack also wished to stand on the old way. Goodacre was for the form contained in the second book, and now used in England, but he was willing to waive his own opinion. Bale, however, positively refused to be consecrated according to the old usage, boldly maintaining that one king makes one law, and that Ireland must necessarily follow England. His vehemence carried the day, and the consecrations took place according to the new Anglican use. The Communion Service followed, and Bale rejected the consecrated wafer, successfully arguing that common bread should be used. He afterwards preached twelve strong Protestant sermons in Dublin, insisting particularly on the marriage of priests; and he flattered himself that he had established the people 'in the doctrines of repentance, and necessary belief in the gospel.'[387]

[Sidenote: Goodacre.]

Goodacre seems never to have seen his cathedral, to which access was barred by Shane O'Neill. Bale says he was a man of remarkable sincerity and integrity, and a zealous and eloquent preacher. He also informs us that he was poisoned by the procurement of certain priests of his diocese, 'for preaching G.o.d's verity, and rebuking common vices.' This contemporary statement has been doubted, on account of Bale's prejudices, but it is repeated by Burnet on the authority of Goodacre's fourth lineal descendant. Burnet's informant received the story from his grandfather, who was Goodacre's grandson. According to this tradition the actual murderer was a monk, who pledged Goodacre in poisoned wine, and died himself of the effects. Bale says he was himself warned by letter to beware of the Archbishop's fate. Whether the joint authority of Ossory and Sarum is to be rejected or not will much depend upon the reader's opinion of two learned, and in some respects not dissimilar divines.

[Sidenote: Bale.]

Bale soon proceeded to Kilkenny. On his journey from Waterford to Dublin he had already pa.s.sed through part of his diocese, and had been much scandalised by what he saw and heard. The parish priest of Knocktopher boasted that he was a son of William, late prior of the Carmelites there--not the legitimate son, as he was careful to point out. The marriage of a friar would have been a heinous offence, but an irregular connection was venial, and it was thought honourable to be the offspring of a spiritual man, whether bishop, abbot, monk, friar, or secular priest. Bale, who had himself been a Carmelite, and who had married a wife, rebuked this candid ecclesiastic, and resolved to set himself as bishop to the work of reform. He admits that he had no success; and none could be expected where public opinion sanctioned the pleasant vices of the clergy.[388]

[Sidenote: Proceedings of Bale.]

Far more questionable was Bale's zeal against images, the destruction of which will never make men Protestants. His opinions were hopelessly at variance with those in vogue in Ireland, as may be judged from the following autobiographical pa.s.sage:--

'Many abominable idolatries maintained by the epicurist priests, for their wicked bellies' sake. The Communion or Supper of the Lord was there altogether used like a popish ma.s.s, with the old apish toys of Antichrist in bowings and beckings, kneelings and knockings; the Lord's death after St. Paul's doctrine neither preached nor yet spoken of. There wawled they over the dead, with prodigious howlings and patterings, as though their souls had not been quieted in Christ and redeemed by His pa.s.sion; but that they must come after and help at a pinch with requiem aeternam to deliver them out of h.e.l.l by their sorrowful sorceries. When I had beholden these heathenish behavers, I said unto a senator of that city that I well perceived that Christ had there no bishop, neither yet the King's Majesty of England any faithful officer of the mayor in suffering so horrible blasphemies.'

This was at Waterford. At Kilkenny things were no better, and on his arrival Bale proceeded to show his zeal for reform. All the statues of saints were turned out of St. Canice's Cathedral, but the Bishop had the good taste to preserve the fine painted windows erected in the fourteenth century by his high-handed predecessor Ledred. The less artistic Cromwellians afterwards destroyed what Bale had spared, and some fragments were dug up in 1846. Bale had some supporters, chiefly laymen.

The clergy, whose moral failings he had lashed so mercilessly, were not convinced by hearing the host called a 'white G.o.d of their own making,'

nor easily persuaded that the lucrative practice of saying ma.s.ses for the dead was useless, nor inclined to admit a liturgy which condemned all that they most valued. The deanery was in the hands of Bishop Lancaster, who could give no help, and among the prebendaries there was either obstructive apathy or violent opposition to change. Bale was certainly wrong in trying to impose King Edward's second book without legal warrant; but he had gained his point with Browne, and disdained to yield to the inferior clergy. The latter pleaded that they had no books, and quoted the Archbishop against their own diocesan, who says he was 'always slack in things appertaining to G.o.d's glory.' Bale's sincerity is unquestionable, but he had set himself an impossible task, and his violence made him enemies who showed no quarter when their turn came. The most patient of men might have done nothing in such a position, but his reputation would have been better had he shown some Christian moderation.

Bedell afterwards fell into the hands of his opponents, but his imprisonment was relieved by expressions of sympathy and admiration from the most unlikely quarters, and he must have felt that he had not worked in vain. Bale could have no such consolation.[389]

[Sidenote: Catholic reaction at Edward's death.]

On the first rumour of Edward's death it became evident that the Bishop of Ossory's authority was at an end. Oddly enough the priests hastened amid general rejoicing to proclaim Queen Jane. They were eager for change, and probably knew little of the fair saint whose innocent life was sacrificed to the ambition of others. Justice Howth, who had been Bale's strongest opponent, censured him for not being present at the ceremony; 'for indeed,' says the Bishop, 'I much doubted that matter.' In order, he adds, to 'cause the wild people to bear the more hate to our nation,' the priests also propagated a report that the young Earl of Ormonde and Barnaby Fitzpatrick had been slain in London. The forts were attacked, and many Englishmen killed. Mrs. Matthew King, the clerk of the check's wife, was robbed 'to her very petticoat' on the highway by the Fitzpatricks and Butlers. But rumour and uncertainty were soon at an end, and the priests and people of Kilkenny learned that Catherine of Arragon's daughter was Queen of England.[390]

FOOTNOTES:

[358] St. Leger to Cecil, Jan. 19, 1551; Brady's _Episcopal Succession_.

[359] This conference is detailed in Mant's _Church History_, pp. 194, 199. See also Ware's _Life of Browne_. The conference was held in St.

Mary's Abbey, the residence of Dowdall, he having refused to attend the Lord Deputy at Kilmainham.

[360] Browne to Warwick, _ut supra._ Examination of Oliver Sutton, March 23, 1552.

[361] St. Leger to Cecil, Jan. 19, 1551. Deposition of Sir John Alen, March 19, in the deponent's own hand. 'The Bishop of Kildare (Lancaster),' he says, 'came to me persuading me on his behalf to put in writing the words Mr. St. Leger spoke to me in Kilmainham, to whom I made this answer, "Show my lord that albeit I love his little toe better than all Mr. St. Leger's body, yet I will do nothing against truth."'

[362] Bicton's curious will is printed in Cotton's _Fasti_, vol. ii.

Appendix.

[363] Croft to Warwick, May 1551; Instructions to Desmond and others July 1; Archbishop Browne to Warwick, Aug. 6.

[364] Cusack to Warwick, Sept. 27, 1551.

[365] Cusack to Warwick, Sept. 27, 1551; Instructions to Mr. Wood, Sept.

29, with Cecil's notes, 'Keep him (Tyrone) still, partic.i.p.ating the cause thereof to the n.o.bility;' Hill's _MacDonnells of Antrim_, chap. iii.

[366] _Ancient Laws and Inst.i.tutes of Ireland_, vol. iii. p. 146; Maine's _Early History of Inst.i.tutions_, p. 53.

[367] Bagenal to Croft, Oct. 27, 1551.

[368] Bagenal to Croft, Nov. 11, 1551; Sir Thomas Cusack's Book, May 8, 1552; _Four Masters_, _ad ann._ 1551.

[369] Mant, pp. 209-210, from a Clarendon MS. The letters which pa.s.sed between Croft and Dowdall are given by Mant from the Harris MSS.

[370] Browne to Warwick, Aug. 6, 1551; Ware's _Browne_.

[371] Instructions for Mr. Thomas Wood, July 28, 1551; and the King's answer, Aug. 17.

[372] Strype's Cranmer, book ii. chap. xxviii., and Appendices 65 and 66.

[373] Instructions for Mr. Wood, Sept. 29, 1551. Cecil wrote on the margin 'denied for the King liketh no union.' The King's amended answer, Nov. 26.

[374] Croft to Cecil, March 14, 1552; to the Marquis of Winchester, March 22.

[375] W. Crofton to Cecil, April 12, 1551; Lord Deputy and Council to Privy Council, Aug. 30, and the answer in Nov.; Croft to Northumberland, Dec. 22; Lord Deputy and Council to the Privy Council, Jan. 27, 1552--'idleness decayeth n.o.bility, one of the princ.i.p.al "kayes" of a commonwealth, and bringeth magistrates in contempt and hatred of the people,' and the pet.i.tion enclosed. Croft to Cecil, March 14, and to Winchester, March 22. Ware's _Annals_.

[376] Wicklow tinstone has never been thought workable, see Kane's _Industrial Resources_, p. 210. Dr. Kane does not seem to have known anything of the Clonmines venture. Lord Deputy St. Leger and Council to Henry VIII., Oct. 24, 1541, and June 4, 1543. St. Leger acted on the advice of Thomas Agard, a mining expert. Minute of Council in S.P., 1546.

St. Leger, Croft, and others to the Privy Council, May 20, 1551; Robert Record, surveyor of mines to the Privy Council, Feb. 1552. Harman's certificate, same date. Joachim Gundelfinger to the Privy Council, May 15. Reports on the mines, Aug. 1552, and Feb. and April, 1553.

Instructions to St. Leger in _Carew_, July 1550, p. 228, as to alum. The MSS. contains many details interesting to specialists, especially the certificate of Gerrard Harman, a German.

[377] Privy Council to Croft, Feb. 23, and May 29, 1552. Sir Thomas Cusack's 'Book,' in _Carew_, 1553, p. 241.

[378] The Earl of Tyrone's articles, Feb. 9, 1552; St. Leger to Northumberland, March 10. Sir Thomas Cusack's 'Book,' in _Carew_.

[379] Cusack's 'Book' in _Carew_. _Four Masters_, 1552.

[380] _Earls of Kildare._ The patent of restoration is dated April 25, 1552. Orders for Leighlin and Carlow in _Carew_, April 30. Croft to the Privy Council, April 16, May 1, and May 31.

[381] Cusack's 'Book' in _Carew_, No. 200. It is there wrongly dated 1553.

[382] The facts of this expedition (June and July 1552) are given by the _Four Masters_; and see Ware's _Annals_.

[383] Tyrone's complaint, July 1552; Privy Council to George Paris, Oct.

25; to Croft, Dec. 10; Cusack to Privy Council, Dec. 22; Memorandum concerning Tyrone, Dec. 30, in _Carew_.

[384] Mayor, &c., of Waterford to the Privy Council, Dec. 18; Cusack and Aylmer to the Privy Council, Dec. 22 and 30; Declaration of Desmond's t.i.tle, Dec. 30; Cusack in _Carew_, _ut supra._

[385] Northumberland to Cecil, Nov. 25, 1552; Cusack's 'Book' in _Carew_, vol. i. p. 236; King's letter in Lodge's _Patent Officers_; Ware's _Annals_.

[386] A paper calendared under Jan. 1553 (No. 75) calculates the average expenses from 33 to 38 Hen. VIII. at 8,500_l._ a year. In the six years of Edward's reign they rose by regular gradation from 17,000_l._ to 52,000_l._ The average revenue for the former period was 9,000_l._, for the latter, 11,000_l._ See also No. 83, 'a device how to keep Ireland in the stay it now remaineth upon the revenues only.'

[387] The consecrations took place on Feb. 2, 1553.

[388] Bale's 'Vocation,' in the _Harleian Miscellany_.

[389] Church histories of Mant, Killen, Brennan, and Reid. Graves's _History of St. Canice_. They all derive their chief inspiration from Bale's own 'Vocation.' Fuller has preserved the nickname of 'biliosus Balaeus,' given to the Bishop in contemporary controversy.