diminution or alteration of their power over their CHAP. vaffals to arise from their new dignities, and they XIV. continued to govern by the law as formerly. For the extenfion of English government the reception of inferior toparchs, independently of their fuperiors, under the royal protection would have been neceffary; but fo liberal a policy was not as yet confiftent with the views of thofe who had the chief influence in Ireland; infomuch that the petitions of fome fepts to be admitted into the English jurisdiction as subjects of the king, particularly that of the O'Byrnes, who requested that their territory fhould be converted into an English county under the name of Wicklow, were neglected or denied. All that was thought proper to be done of this nature was the divifion of Meath into two counties, the eastern and western.

of the Pale.

1546.

A noble opportunity for the establishment of Eng- Extenfios lish government throughout this iland was thus relinquished by this monarch, who, like too many of his predeceffors, wafted the blood and treasure of his fubjects in fruitlefs wars with France. A quarrel of the lord-deputy with the Butlers terminated with the life of the earl of Ormond, who, with fixteen of his retinue was poifoned at a feast at Ely house, by means unknown. On the death of Henry, and the acceffion of his fon, Edward the fixth, a boy of nine years, in 1547, O'Moore and O'Connor, the toparchs of Leix and Ofally, took arms and fpread alarm through the province of Leinster; but on the arrival of Sir Edward Bellingham, with fix hundred horfe and four hundred infantry from Eng

1547

XIV.

CHAP. land, they were defeated and fent prifoners to Lon don, where the former died. Their territories, caf tellated and colonized by Bellingham, formed a large acceffion to the Pale, the first which it had received for several ages paft. Among the numerous opera tions of this active governor was an expedition into Munster for the furprizal of the earl of Defmond in his own house, who was relapfing into his former mode of life, and who by conciliatory means was now by Bellingham induced to refide in Dublin as an English nobleman. The cabals of his enemies caufed the recall of Sir Edward; and, after the fucceffive adminiftrations of two other deputies, the re-appointment of Sir Anthony Saint-Leger was thought expedient, as an introduction of important changes in religion was determined, to which a for midable oppofition was expected.

1550.

CHAP.

CHAP. XV.

Reformation of religion-began in Germany-Luther -Henry the eighth's apoftacy-Attempts to convert the Irish-Further attempts-First reading of the new liturgy-Dowdal-Disturbances-Mary's acceffion-Restoration of popery-Political transactions -O'Nial's turbulence-His defeat--Contests in Thomond-Reduction of Scottish rovers-Elizabeth's acceffion--A parliament convened by Sussex-O'Nial's operations-Repulfe at Derry-Explosion of the magazine-Ravages-Plan of Sir Henry Sidney-His fuccefs-O'Nial's refuge with the Scots-His affaffination.

RELIGION, which has everyhwere so close a connexion with civil government, is in a more than ordinary manner interwoven with the history and politics of Ireland fince the latter part of Henry the eighth's reign. Germany was the country which had the fortune of producing the most formidable opponents of the long and firmly established power of the Roman pontiff. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, the preaching of fome Bohemian divines, particularly John Hufs and Jerome of Prague, withdrew from the Romish communion great numbers of the Bohemians and others, who, in confequence of perfecution rofe in arms, and, under the conduct of the celebrated Zifca, gave repeated overthrows to the forces of the German emperor :

tion.

XV.

:

CHAP. peror nor even after the death of that much dreaded leader were they overcome without much bloodshed, nor fo entirely reduced but that fome indulgence was allowed to their religious fcruples; for, those of them, who agreed to conform in all other respects to the ufages of the Roman catholic church, were indulged in participation of the cup as well as the bread in the facrament of the Lord's Supper, contrary to the practice of that church. After the commencement of the following century, in a more favourable concurrence of circumftances, when, by the invention of printing, literature was much more generally diffufed, an attack was made on the jurifdiction of the Roman fee attended with vastly more extenfive and permanent fuccefs.

Luther.

In the year 1517, Martin Luther, a friar of the Auguftinian order, and profeffor of theology in the Saxon university of Wittenburg, a man of a firm and bold fpirit, well fitted for fo arduous an attempt, called in question the plenitude of the papal power with refpect to the granting of indulgences, or pardons for fins in confideration of fums of money; and, being irritated by the imperious and uncandid treatment received from the Roman court, proceeded at length to attack the church of Rome in her vital parts, and to shake the firmeft foundations on which her power and wealth were established. His opinions were adopted by great numbers of Germans, who, when a diet of the empire, affembled at Spires in 1529, iffued a decree unfavourable to them, entered a folemn protest against it, and thence received the appellation of Proteftants, an appellation which has fince become better known and more honourable

by

XV.

by its being applied indifcriminately to all the fects, CHAP. of whatever denomination, which have revolted from the Roman fee.

No country of Europe was more ignominioufly Henry's inthralled by the fpiritual government of Rome than fupremacy. England, till Henry the eighth burft the bonds, an unfeeling tyrant, how highly foever his merit in this may be appreciated. For many years a violent partizan for pontifical pretenfions, he became even a polemical writer against Luther's doctrines, and publifhed a book De Septem Sacramentis, on account of which the pope, to whom it was prefented in 1521, conferred on him the title of Defender of the Faith. But when his Holinefs refufed him a divorce from his first queen, Catherine of Arragon, he difclaimed the fovereignty of the fovereign pontiff, and, with the concurrence of his parliament, declared himself supreme head of the church of England yet, while he renounced the fucceffor of Saint Peter, he was extremely tenacious of all the corruptions which had been introduced into Chriftianity by the fovereign prelates; infomuch that, though he configned to the hangman those who still admitted the Roman fupremacy, he alfo committed alive to the flames those who prefumed to receive the doctrines of the reformed preachers.

to convert the Irish.

Successful in England, where he reigned as a Attempts defpot, Henry attempted to extend his religious innovations into Ireland, than which no foil could be more fterile for the feeds of reformation. Since the council of Cashel in 1172, the Irish church had remained in conformity with that of England, con

fequently