Ireland, for the establishment of the spiritual supremacy of HENRY THE EIGHTH.

By the statutes*, which effected this measure, the king was declared supreme head on earth of the church of Ireland, in nearly the same words, and with nearly the same ulterior provisions, as those by which the English laws had conferred upon him the spiritual supremacy of the church of England.

Similar acts were also passed for the dissolution of religious houses in Ireland †; but these acts were confined to the religious houses in Tyrone, Tyrconnell, and Fermanagh; and the feelings of the nation prevented their being carried into execution so that, until the reign of James the first, few of the religious houses were reduced into charge or surveyed, and the rest were continually possessed by the members of their respective orders +.

It may be truly said, that, with the single exception of the officers of the crown, and their immediate retainers, all these measures were in direct opposition to the universal sense of the kingdom.

An extraordinary measure was resorted to for securing in parliament the majority, by which these laws were carried. According to the established constitution of the Irish parliament, it was attended by two clergymen of each diocese. By

* 28 Hen. VIII. c. 5, 6, 8, 26.

† 33 Hen. VIII.

Leland, Hist, of Ireland, lib. iii. ch. 7. Hib. Dom. ch. xvii. s. 1.

an act passed in the session, by which the reformation was established, and which was declared to have a retrospective operation from the first day of the sessions, the clergymen so appointed were disqualified from voting.

These laws divided the nation into two parties; that, which acknowledged, and that which denied the spiritual supremacy of the monarch." This," says lord Clare, in the speech which we have already quoted, "was the grand schism, which has "been the bane and pestilence of Ireland, and "rendered her a blank among the nations of Europe."

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2. "In the reign of EDWARD THE SIXTH," says Mr. William Parnell," the government gave no "general cause of discontent to the catholics; "there were many particular severities and insults, "which laid the grounds of religious animosity. "Archbishop Brown made war against images and "relics with more zeal than prudence. The gar"rison at Athlone, no very conciliating reformers, "were allowed to pillage the very celebrated "church of Clonmacanaise, and to violate the "shrine of a great favourite of the people, St. "Kieran.

"It was in the reign of Edward the sixth, that "the solid foundation of the succeeding rebellion "was first laid, by the confiscation of the lands of "Leix and Offalia, now the King and Queen's "county.

In his excellent "Historical Apology for the Irish "Catholics."

3. "In the reign of QUEEN MARY,-though "the religious feelings of the Irish catholics, and "their feelings as men, had been treated with very "little ceremony during the two preceding reigns, "they made a wise and moderate use of their as"cendancy. They entertained no resentment for "the past; they laid no plans for future domi"nation. The Irish roman-catholics bigots!!"The Irish roman-catholics are the only sect, "that ever resumed power, without exercising " vengeance."

LXXX. 4.

State of the Irish Catholics during the reign of queen Elizabeth.

THE reformation was completed by the statutes of supremacy and uniformity*, passed in the second year of the reign of queen Elizabeth :-The following succinct account of them is given by Mr. Plowdent: "It was enacted, that the spiritual "jurisdiction should be restored to the crown: "that all the acts of queen Mary, by which the "civil establishment of the roman-catholic religion "had been restored, should be repealed; that the

queen should be enabled to appoint commis"sioners to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction: "that all officers or ministers, ecclesiastical or lay, "should, on pain of forfeiture and total incapacity, "take the oath of supremacy: that every person, as well as his aider, abettor, or counsellor, who + Hist. Rev. vol.1. p. 73.

* 2 Eliz. C. 1, 2.

"should in any way maintain the spiritual supremacy of the bishop of Rome, should forfeit, for "the first offence, all his estates, real and personal,

(or be imprisoned for one year, if not worth 207.), "incur a præmunire for the second offence, and "become guilty of high treason for the third of"fence: that the use of the common prayer should "be enforced as in England: that every person "should resort to the established church, and at"tend the new service, under pain of ecclesiastical

censures; and of the forfeiture of 12 d. for every "offence, to be levied by the churchwardens, by "distress of the lands or chattels of the defaulter; "that the first fruits and twentieths of all church

revenues should be restored to the crown; and "the old writ and form of congé d'élire should "be superseded by the king's letters patent, by "which, in future, all collations to vacant sees "should be made. These ordinances were fol"lowed by an act of recognition of the queen's "title to the crown; and it was made a case of præmunire to speak, and treason to write against 66 ' it."

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The effect of these laws is thus described by lord Clare: "In the reign of Elizabeth," says his lordship," a new reverse took place: the reformed liturgy was again enforced; the English act of uniformity was enacted, by the colonial parlia46 ment; and,-what seems to be a solecism in legislation,-in the body of the act, by which the "use of the English liturgy, and a strict conforIn the speech just quoted.

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mity to it was enjoined, under severe penalties, "a clause is introduced, reciting that English mi"nisters could not be found to serve in Irish "churches; that the Irish people did not under"stand the English language; that the church "service could not be celebrated in Irish, as well "from the difficulty of getting it printed, as, that

few in the whole realm could read: And what

"is the remedy?—If the minister of the gospel "cannot speak English, he may celebrate the "church service in the Latin tongue;-a language "certainly as unintelligible to his congregation, "as the English tongue, and probably not very "familiar to the minister thus authorized to use "it."

Under the sun, there is nothing new!-When we read in Dr. Robertson*, that the friar Valverde, advanced to the inca of Peru,-required him to forsake the creed of his fathers, and worship the God of the christians;-that reaching out his breviary, he told the inca, that all which he announced was certainly in that book,-and that, when the inca rejected it, a signal was given,--the inca was seized, --and his subjects massacred,--we are justly filled with astonishment and horror. But, when we read of a handful, comparatively speaking, of English adventurers, advancing to the Irish natives,reaching out to them the act of uniformity, not a word of which they could read,-requiring them to adopt a liturgy, not a word of which they could understand;—and attempting to force their obe• History of America, book vi.