Chapter XV: The Irish Church Under Henry VIII (2)

Some monasteries deserve particular mention, and of these Mellifont, the oldest of the Cistercian houses, is perhaps the most famous. It is said to have contained 140 monks, and was called Monastermore, or the Great Monastery. The Cistercians were introduced about 1142 by Donough O'Carroll, Prince of Oriel, at the instance of Malachy, the friend of Bernard of Clairvaux, who wrote his life and in whose arms he died. St. Bernard supplied the new foundation with monks from his own monastery, under the leadership of Christian O'Conarchy, afterwards Bishop of Lismore and papal legate, who presided in that synod of Cashel where the Irish Church was first formally subjected both to Rome and to England. King John afterwards confirmed all grants made before the conquest, and several later sovereigns were benefactors of Mellifont. The abbot was always summoned to Parliament, where he took precedence of all his mitred brethren, and ranked immediately below the bishops. The buildings, of which there are still some remains, are said to have greatly resembled those of Clairvaux. The rich estates were granted by Elizabeth to Lord Drogheda's ancestor as a reward for defending the northern border of the Pale against the Ulster Irish.[311]

[Sidenote: Holy Cross.]

Another famous Cistercian abbey was that of Holy Cross on the Suir, whose beautiful ruins recall, though they do not rival, Fountains, Furness, and Rivaulx. This monastery was founded by Donald O'Brien, King of Limerick, shortly before the Anglo-Norman invasion. A fragment of the true cross preserved here attracted many pilgrims, and is thought by some to have been contained in a richly sculptured shrine which still stands. Long after the dissolution pilgrimages continued, and Sir Henry Sidney noted the 'detestable idolatry used to an idol called the Holy Cross, whereunto there is no small confluence of people daily resorting.' The abbots had seats in Parliament, and from the extent of their territorial power were sometimes called Earls.[312]

[Sidenote: Dunbrody and Tintern.]

Two Cistercian abbeys near one another in Wexford are remarkable from the circumstances of their foundations. Dunbrody was built by the ruthless conqueror, Hervey de Montmorenci, who sought to expiate his cruelties by becoming its abbot and endowing it with all his property. Tintern was founded in fulfilment of a vow made during a storm at sea by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, who brought monks and a name from Wales. Tintern was the only Irish abbey which retained the original black dress of Citeaux, thus acknowledging the foundation of Stephen Harding rather than that of Bernard.

[Sidenote: Hospitallers. Kilmainham.]

Strongbow founded a preceptory for Templars at Kilmainham in 1174, and it became rich and powerful. Under Edward II. the order was suppressed in Ireland with as little pretence of justice as elsewhere, and its possessions granted to the Hospitallers, who showed less charity to the really poor, though their doors were always open to strangers and travellers of importance. The priors of Kilmainham were often chosen from the greatest families--Talbots, Butlers, and Fitzgeralds--were always summoned to Parliament, and became very important personages. Being exempt from episcopal jurisdiction they sometimes acted almost like independent princes. In 1444 the Prior, Thomas Fitzgerald, espoused the cause of Archbishop Talbot in his quarrel with the White Earl of Ormonde, and he challenged the latter to trial by combat. The fight was appointed to take place at Smithfield, and both champions were kept in close custody; the Earl being confined in the Tower, of which the Duke of Exeter, inventor of the rack and other gentle instruments, was then constable. The Duke was authorised to allow his distinguished prisoner exercise enough to keep him in good fighting condition, his swordsmanship being evidently thought adequate. The representative of the Church militant was considered wanting in skill, and was detained in the city to receive instructions at the royal expense from Philip Treherne, fishmonger and fencing master. Ormonde's friends cleared his character, and the combat never took place. Many acts of turbulence were charged against Fitzgerald; but he was far outstripped by James Keating, who became prior in 1461, and who defied the King, the Deputy, and his own Grand Master for thirty years. Marmaduke Lumley was sent to supersede him, but died of the ill-treatment which he received. In 1511 Sir John Rawson, the last prior, was appointed. He was an able man and a chief supporter of the Government, but did not think it necessary to observe his vow of chastity. At the dissolution Rawson was created Viscount of Clontarf, where there was a cell of his house, and enjoyed a pension of 500 marks till his death in Edward VI.'s time. Sir William Weston, the English Provincial, was less fortunate, for he was forced to leave his priory and died the same day. The great possessions of Kilmainham were granted to different persons, and the site of the commandery is now fitly occupied by a military hospital, which owes its foundation to the great Duke of Ormonde.[313]

[Sidenote: Pensions to monks.]

Pensions were generally granted to the heads of the dissolved houses and sometimes to the other monks. Thus the Abbot of Mellifont received 40_l._, and several of the monks from 3_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ to 20_s._ The Prior of Fower in Westmeath and the Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin, received each 50_l._; the Prior of St. Thomas's, Dublin, 42_l._; and others were paid in proportion to the importance of their convents. In a few cases priors received as little as 3_l._, and monks as little as 13_s._ 4_d._ The ejected brethren often got other preferment. Edmond O'Lonergan, Prior of Cahir, who received a pension of 3_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._, was made vicar of the parish, and William Walsh, Prior of Ballydrohid, had a pension of 6_l._ 8_s._ 4_d._ till he should receive a benefice of greater value. Hugh Doyne, one of the monks of Conal, who had received a pension of 40_s._, surrendered it on being presented by the Crown to a vicarage. Pensions were charged on the lands of the dissolved houses, and power of distress was sometimes given. The absence of complaints may justify a supposition that payments were pretty regularly made. Great numbers of monks doubtless withdrew to the Continent. Mary herself grumbled at the numerous pensions payable to clerks, and directed her Deputy to make them the first objects of his patronage, so that the pensions might be gradually absorbed.[314]

[Sidenote: Titular abbots still appointed. Cistercians.]

In the case of the Cistercians at least titular abbots were sometimes appointed for many generations. Alemand, the French historian of Irish monasteries, says that the learned Nicholas Fagan, Bishop of Waterford, was Abbot of Innislonagh, and was buried in the abbey in 1617. According to the same author, who wrote towards the end of the seventeenth century, there were in his time Abbots of Mellifont, Tintern, and Boyle, living in the neighbourhood of their abbeys, but dressing like laymen. They were probably chiefly occupied in receiving novices for education in foreign convents. An important paper drawn up at Waterford in 1646 bears the signature of one prior of Augustinian canons, and of four Cistercian abbots, to say nothing of Jesuits and mendicants, but some of these may have been appointed after the breaking out of the rebellion. In the reign of James I. some Cistercians certainly lurked in Ireland. The nuncio Rinuccini, who had the charge of Irish patronage from 1645, apologised for preferring so many regulars on the ground that men of family seldom became secular priests.[315]

[Sidenote: The dissolution not carried out in remote districts.]

In 1541 a commission was issued to the Earl of Desmond and others to survey and dissolve all religious houses in Cork, Limerick, Kerry, and Desmond. In these districts and in the purely Irish regions of Connaught and Ulster, the process of dissolution was slow and uncertain. The title of the Crown was theoretically acknowledged, but in some cases nothing was done for many years. As the native nobility were subdued or reconciled, Henry VIII.'s policy was gradually carried out. In the wildest parts of Ulster the consummation was delayed until after the flight of the Earls in the reign of James I.[316]

[Sidenote: Number and wealth of religious foundations.]

[Sidenote: Many are losers by the dissolution.]

Without counting the mendicant orders, about 350 religious houses can be traced in Ireland. Many of these had disappeared before the reign of Henry VIII., having become parish churches, or been absorbed in episcopal establishments. Others were dependent on English foundations, and were destroyed by the Act of Absentees; others, again, were cells to more important houses, and followed their fortunes. A yearly income of 32,000_l._, with personalty to the amount of 100,000_l._, has been attributed to the Irish monasteries, and their possessions must certainly have been considerable. The monks, and especially the Cistercians, generally chose fertile situations near a river or on the coast, for the sake of fish and water carriage. The most beautiful and convenient sites were in their hands, and their system of cultivation was much superior to that of lay proprietors. The ceaseless wars of Ireland did not entirely spare the religious houses, but they escaped better than other kinds of property. The spoiling of the Church could never have been considered a great or glorious work. The wealth of the monks is not to be measured by the extent of their lands. It is in the vast number of their houses, orchards, gardens, fishing-weirs, and mills, that we must seek the evidence of accumulated capital. The immense circuit of the walls at Kells or Athassel seems to show that great numbers of artificers and labourers were sheltered within the enclosures, and that the monks knew how to defend their own. The system of corrodies or resident pensions probably reconciled the great nobles, and opposition to the dissolution came partly from those who were impoverished by their abolition. It is to these pensions, which were perhaps often abused, that Cowley probably alludes when he accuses the monks generally of immorality and of showing no hospitality save to themselves and 'certain bell-wedders, which ringleaders have good fees, fat, profitable farms, the finding of their children, with other daily pleasures of the abbeys, and fearing to lose the profit thereof, repugn and resist the suppressing of abbeys, surmising it should be prejudicial to the common weal, which is otherwise.'[317]

[Sidenote: The Friaries suppressed. Not before 1541.]

In 1541 a commission was issued to Sir Anthony St. Leger and others to survey and suppress all the friaries in Ireland. The total number was rather under two hundred, of which the Franciscans had more than half, the Dominicans forty-three, the Augustinian hermits twenty-four, and the Carmelites twenty-one. As in the case of the older monasteries, the houses within reach were at once dissolved, and the rest were perforce respited. Their possessions were not large, and the friars managed to exist without them. The Dominican historian says there were about six hundred members of his order in Ireland just before Cromwell's conquest, and the Franciscans were probably much more numerous. The houses of Grey Friars had been very generally reformed by the Observants, and it is with these stricter votaries that we generally meet. They swarmed everywhere, and to them is due the preservation of the Roman tradition until the Jesuits made head in Ireland. Archbishop Browne is never tired of testifying against them, and Thomas Agard, his enthusiastic supporter, calls them crafty bloodsuckers. Almost the only open opposition to the dissolution came from a Franciscan, Dr. Sall, who boldly preached against it at Waterford. During the Cromwellian war and subsequent persecution the Franciscans claim thirty-one martyrs, which shows that they must have been very numerous. In 1645 the Carmelites reckoned twenty-seven houses in Ireland, but most of these were doubtless desecrated and deserted. No candid Protestant can altogether sympathise with Browne and Agard, for we have the most overwhelming proof that but for the friars a large part of the population would have been altogether debarred from the exercise of religion.[318]

[Sidenote: All kinds of men share the plunder.]

Most of the men who had been useful in carrying out the suppression received a share of the spoils. Brabazon, St. Leger, Sir John Alen, Chief Justice Luttrell, Edmund Sexton, Sir Thomas Cusack, and Robert Dillon, were all enriched in this way. Prime-serjeant Barnewall denied the King's right to dissolve the monasteries, but profited largely by the measure. Celts, Normans, and Saxons, Papists and Protestants alike, showed a fine appetite for the confiscated lands. Desmond had a lease of part of St. Mary Abbey, perhaps to induce him to spend some of his time in Dublin. Three at least of the new peerages--Upper Ossory, Carbery, and Cahir, were partially endowed from similar sources. Edward Power, bastard brother of the first baron of Curraghmore, was granted the possession of Mothel, of which he had been prior. In some cases, as in Clanricarde and Thomond, the Government made a virtue of necessity, and gave monastic lands to lords or chiefs who would have had the power to seize them in any case. It is scarcely necessary to say that the House of Ormonde profited enormously by the dissolution. Sometimes the plunder was too small to excite much cupidity, and then the monks might be spared. Thus the Austinfriars of Dunmore in Galway, who had 'neither land nor profit, but only the small devotion of the people,' were respited during the King's pleasure, on condition of assuming a secular habit. A like indulgence was given to the canons of Toem in Tipperary, which the O'Meaghers had been able to prevent the Royal Commissioners from visiting. Many houses were reasonably granted to the founders' kin, for the dissolution must have been a heavy loss to some families. Most of the corporate towns had founded or fostered monasteries, and Waterford, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Galway, Limerick, Clonmel, and Athenry received a portion of the spoils. All Saints was specially granted to the citizens of Dublin in compensation of their loss during the Geraldine siege. As a general rule, monastic lands were at first let only on lease, and in succeeding reigns large fines were obtained by the Crown. At the first threat of dissolution some houses hastened to let their lands for long terms, and to cut down their woods and sell their jewels, and thus the plunder actually realised often fell below expectation. I have met with but one case of a charitable foundation being laid immediately upon the ruins of a monastery, and that was owing to private liberality. Henry Walshe, son of a Waterford merchant, bought the Grey Friars from the King, and founded a hospital for sixty or more sick persons. This institution received a royal charter, and still exists on a reduced scale.[319]

[Sidenote: No university in Ireland.]

No care was taken to supply the place of the monasteries which were devoted to education. There had been three attempts to found a university in Ireland before the reign of Henry VIII. In 1310 John Lech, Archbishop of Dublin, obtained a bull from Clement V., who ordered the establishment of the desired institution, which would, he hoped, 'sprinkle the said land, like a watered garden, to the exaltation of the Catholic faith, the honour of the mother church, and the profit of all the faithful.' Lech died soon after, and his project was buried with him; but his successor, Alexander de Bicknor, actually made a foundation in connection with St. Patrick's Cathedral, and under the patronage of John XXII. Bicknor's University maintained a very precarious existence till the time of Henry VII., when it finally disappears. The institution was not crushed by the weight of its endowments, for it does not seem to have had any. In 1465 Bicknor's work was ignored by the Parliament of Drogheda, which founded a new university on the ground that there was none in Ireland. But it was not enough to declare that Drogheda should be as Oxford: there was no endowment and no popular support, and this scheme also failed. Very near the end of his reign Henry VIII. made up his mind that one cathedral was enough for Dublin, and he suppressed St. Patrick's. Christ Church had already been acknowledged as the metropolitan church. But it was not till the next reign that Archbishop Browne propounded his abortive plan for restoring the University which had once faintly glimmered.[320]

[Sidenote: Archbishop Browne.]

The principal instrument by which Henry carried out his ecclesiastical revolution was George Browne, Provincial of the English Austinfriars, who was appointed Archbishop of Dublin in 1535 after regular election by the two chapters. He was consecrated by Cranmer, Fisher, and Shaxton of Salisbury, who were significantly commanded to invest him with the pall. Browne's appointment is ignored at Rome, but no rival prelate was at first set up. He had already distinguished himself by preaching strongly against the invocation of saints, and, whatever his faults were, he was certainly a sincere Protestant. 'The common voice goeth,' said Staples, who had not quite made up his own mind, 'that he doth abhor the Mass.' Browne was married, but whether before or after his consecration does not appear. He zealously promoted the King's supremacy and the destruction of images, and complained bitterly of being thwarted by his colleague of Armagh, by the Irish generally, and even by Lord Deputy Grey. Cromer was in communication with Rome, and circulated a sort of Papal oath of allegiance among the clergy, in which obedience to heretical powers was denounced and all their acts declared null and void. The old jealousy between Armagh and Dublin may have had something to say to this; for Browne, if we may believe Staples, claimed authority over all the clergy of Ireland. The new Archbishop did not bear himself meekly in his great office, and he received a stinging rebuke, which the writer was pleased to call a gentle advertisement, from the King himself. Henry accused his nominee of neglecting the instruction of the people and the interests of the Crown. 'Such,' he added, 'is your lightness in behaviour and such is the elation of your mind in pride, that glorying in foolish ceremonies, and delighting in _we_ and _us_, in your dreams comparing yourself so near to a prince in honour and estimation, that all virtue and honesty is almost banished from you. Reform yourself therefore ... and let it sink into your remembrance that we be as able for the not doing thereof to remove you again and to put another man of more virtue and honesty in your place, both for our discharge against God, and for the comfort of our good subjects there, as we were at the beginning to prefer you.' Well might Browne answer that the King's letter made him tremble in body for fear. He defended himself at length, and invoked the fate of Korah should he fail to advance the King's service. His defence seems to have satisfied Henry, but he continued to make many enemies and to excite much criticism. 'His pride and arrogance,' said Staples, 'hath ravished him from the right remembrance of himself.'[321]

[Sidenote: Bishop Staples.]

Edward Staples, originally a Cambridge man, and afterwards parson of Tamworth and a canon of Cardinal College, was appointed to the see of Meath in 1530 by Papal provision. Either as Bishop or Privy Councillor he incurred the hatred of the Geraldine faction, and fled to England on the breaking out of the rebellion in 1534. Early next year he returned, and was one of the commissioners for suppressing the nunnery of Grane. Staples did not at first fully embrace the reformed doctrines, for he accused the Archbishop of Dublin of heresy, and appears to have been attached to the Mass; but he was as zealous as Browne for the royal supremacy, and his conversion to thorough Protestantism was gradual like Cranmer's. Staples was a noted preacher, and was promoted for that reason; but the King at one time accused him of slackness and threatened to remove him.[322]

FOOTNOTES:

[281] Surrey to Wolsey, Sept. 6, 1520, and the notes; Pace to Wolsey, April 7, 1521, in _Carew_; Stubbs, _Const. Hist._ ii. 317.

[282] Ware's _Bishops_; Richard Culoke to Brabazon, Nov. 10, 1537; the King to the Lord Deputy and Council, July 10, 1543.

[283] Ware.

[284] Brady's _Episcopal Succession_, vol. i. p. 325; Ware. Roy's satire against Wolsey, printed in the 9th vol. of the _Harleian Miscellany_, has the following:

_Wat._ And who did for the show pay?

_Jeff._ Truly many a rich abbaye
To be eased of his visitation.

_Wat._ Doth he in his own person visit?
No, another for him doth it,
That can skill of the occupation.
A fellow neither wise nor sad,
But he was never yet full mad,
Though he be frantic and more.
Dr. Alen he is named,
One that to lie is not ashamed
If he spy advantage therefore.

_Wat._ Are such with him in any price?

_Jeff._ Yea, for they do all his advice,
Whether it be wrong or right.

[285] As to the legatine authority, see _Brewer_, vol. iii., No. 2838, and iv., No. 5131; John Alen to Wolsey, June 1, 1523, in S.P.

[286] Clement VII. to Henry VIII., Oct. 21, 1524, in _Brewer_ and in _Rymer_; Kildare's Articles against Ormonde in S.P., vol. ii. p. 123; and see _Brewer_, vol. iv., No. 4277; R. Cowley to Wolsey in 1528, S.P., vol. ii. p. 141; _Presentments of Grievances_, edited by Graves, p. 203; Council of Ireland to Cromwell, Feb. 8, 1539.

[287] _Brady_, vol. ii.; Council of Ireland to Cromwell, Feb. 8, 1539.

[288] Theiner's _Vetera Monumenta_, pp. 515, 516, 521; _Brady_, Arts, Kilmore, Clogher, and Raphoe.

[289] Kildare to Wolsey, Feb. 8, 1522; R. Cowley to Wolsey, S.P., vol. ii., No. 53; Ware.

[290] For the Ross case, see _Theiner_, p. 520; for the union of Ross and Dromore 'propter tenuitatem utriusque ecclesiæ,' see _Brady_, vol. ii. p. 109.

[291] See _Brady_, under Elphin and Kilmacduagh.

[292] S.P., vol. ii. pp. 11, 15, and 16.

[293] For Ardagh, see _Theiner_, p. 521; for Ross, p. 529; for Clonmacnoise, p. 518. For Enaghdune, see Ossory to Cromwell in 1532, _Carew_, vol. i. No. 37.

[294] _Presentments of Grievances_, ed. Graves; particularly pp. 192 and 203.

[295] Kildare's Articles against Ormonde in 1525, S.P., vol. ii. p. 123; his statement is partially confirmed by the _Presentments of Grievances_, and see Ossory's own statements in 1534, _Carew_, vol. i. p. 55; Ware's _Life and Death of Archbishop Browne_.

[296] Indenture of Remembrance for the Earl of Ossory and Lord Butler, May 31, 1534, in _Carew; Presentments of Grievances_, pp. 48 and 204; _Four Masters_, 1525; Dowling's _Annals_, 1522:--'Mauritius Doran episcopus in jocando ejus adventu quibusdam persuadentibus duplicari subsidium cleri respondit: melius radere oves quam destruere.'

[297] _Presentments of Grievances_, especially pp. 100, 202, 204, and 248; for the sons of clergy, &c., see Kildare's Articles in S.P., vol. ii. p. 122. In _Brewer_, Feb. 25, 1521, Leo X. authorises a priest's son to govern the Cistercian Abbey of Rosglas; Browne to Cromwell, Nov. 6, 1538, in S.P.; for Kilclehin (wrongly calendared as Kilcullen), see _Hamilton_, Oct. 9, 1539.

[298] For the educating monasteries, see Lord Deputy and Council to Cromwell, May 21, 1539, and the petition from St. Mary's, July 31. The value of the friars appears from the whole history of the time. See in particular _Presentments of Grievances_, p. 130; R. Cowley to Cromwell, Oct. 4, 1536.

[299] Browne to Cromwell, July 15, 1536 (?), in Browne's _Life and Death_, in _Ware_, p. 148, and in the _Phoenix_; R. Cowley to Cromwell, Oct. 4, 1536.

[300] Browne to Cromwell, Jan. 8, May 8, and Aug. 10, 1538. The Form of the Beads in S.P., vol. ii., No. 214; R. Cowley to Cromwell, July 19, 1538 and Aug. 5.

[301] James White to Cromwell, March 28; Lord Butler to the King, March 31; again to Cromwell, April 5; Brabazon to Cromwell, April 30; Browne to Cromwell, Jan. 8, May 8 and 20, 1538.

[302] This quarrel may be traced in detail in the _State Papers_. Browne to J. Alen, April 15, 1538; to Cromwell, May 8 and 21, and June 20 and 27; Staples to St. Leger, June 17; to Cromwell, June 10 and Aug. 10; Thomas Alen to Cromwell, Oct. 20; Brabazon to Cromwell, April 30.

[303] Grey to Cromwell, Dec. 31, 1537; J. Alen to Cromwell, Oct. 20, 1538; Browne's Letters in S.P. from 1538 to 1540; R. Cowley to Cromwell, July 19, 1538; Lord Butler to Cromwell, Aug. 26. Butler says that at the Lord Deputy's table the vicar of Chester said the King had commanded images to be set up, worshipped, and honoured as much as ever. 'We held us all in silence to see what the Lord Deputy would say thereto. He held his peace, and said nothing; and then my Lord of Dublin, the Master of the Rolls, and I said that if ... he were out of the Deputy's presence, we would put him fast by the heels.... His lordship said nothing all the while. Surely he hath a special zeal to the Papists.' For Down Cathedral, see Stanihurst.

[304] Ware places the destruction of relics in 1538: it was perhaps a little later. For Our Lady of Trim and the Baculum Jesu, see the _Four Masters_, under 1537, and O'Donovan's notes; also Giraldus Cambrensis, _Top._ Dist. iii. cap. 33 and 34, and _Expug._ lib. ii. c. 19, Record Edition. The notice in Campion is perhaps only an echo of Giraldus.

[305] The above paragraph is founded on a careful comparison of the data in Ware, Cotton, and Brady. R. Cowley to Cromwell, Aug. 5, 1538; and see S.P., vol. iii. pp. 110, 117, and 123. A letter from Staples to St. Leger, June 17, 1538, throws some light on Henry's relations with Rome before the divorce question arose: 'Appoint some means how that such bishops as had their bulls of the Bishop of Rome by our sovereign lord's commandment may bring in their bulls, cancelling the same, and to have some remembrance from his Highness, which shall stand them in like effect with the same.'

[306] There are notices of Wauchop in Ware, Brady, Sarpi, ii. 34 (French translation and Courayer's notes), and Moran's _Spicilegium Ossoriense_, vol. i. p. 13. Twelve letters of Wauchop printed in the last-named work have nothing particular to do with Ireland. He must be regarded as founder of the titular hierarchy in Ireland.

[307] Abstracted from Hogan's _Hibernia Ignatiana_, p. 4, where Paul's letter may be also read in the original Latin.

[308] Hogan's _Hibernia Ignatiana_, pp. 3-9. Paul III.'s letter to Con O'Neill is dated April 24, 1541. The Jesuits were in Ireland in February and March, 1542. O'Sullivan Beare, lib. iii. cap. 8. James V. to the Irish chiefs, in S.P., vol. v. p. 202; Paget to Henry VIII. from Lyons, July 13, 1542, in S.P., vol. ix. p. 106.

[309] _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, p. 73; Grey to Cromwell, Feb. 4, 1537. The last session began Oct. 13, 1537; a detailed account is given by Brabazon in a letter to Cromwell in S.P., vol. ii. p. 524, and in the note there.

[310] Grey and Brabazon to Cromwell, May 18, 1537. The King to the Lord Deputy and Council, S.P., vol. ii. p. 425. Harris's _Ware_ under Staples, Bishop of Meath. For the names of the dissolved houses, see the Statute, 28 Henry VIII. cap. 16, and _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, p. 38. There were twenty-five mitred abbots and priors in Ireland, ten of Canons Regular, one of Benedictines, one of Hospitallers, and thirteen of Cistercians. Ware, in his _Annals_, says the heads of St. Mary's and St. Thomas's, Dublin, of Kilmainham, and of Mellifont were regularly summoned to Parliament--the more distant ones very seldom. The Augustinians were the most numerous and probably the richest of the sedentary orders. Their rule was adopted by most of the ancient Irish monasteries, the small residue becoming Benedictine. Alemand, who was originally a Huguenot and who was Voltaire's countryman, remarks that in order to become quickly a bishop in Ireland, it was necessary first to be a Regular Canon.

[311] Chiefly from Alemand; the words of John's grant are 'ante adventum _Francorum_ in Hiberniam.' For the final grant, see Archdall's _Lodge_. Art. Earl of Drogheda.

[312] Alemand. Sidney to Queen Elizabeth, April 20, 1567, in the _Sidney Papers_.

[313] Alemand and Archdall. As to the intended combat, see _Carew_, miscellaneous vol., pp. 446, 447.

[314] Most of the pensions mentioned in the text are traceable in Morrin's _Calendar of Patent Rolls_. For Cahir, see Archdall's _Monasticon_. Queen Mary's instructions to Lord Fitzwalter, April 28, 1556, in _Carew_.

[315] Alemand, _passim_; Documents in the supplementary volume of _King's Primer_, No. 66; the Waterford document is in Brennan's _Ecclesiastical History_, p. 459.

[316] Sir John Davies's _Discovery_.

[317] In Mant's _Church History_ is an estimate of the monastic property founded on the Loftus MS.; but such calculations must be very rough. R. Cowley to Cromwell, Oct. 4, 1536.

[318] Agard to Cromwell, April 4, 1538. James White to Cromwell, March 28. _Spicilegium Ossoriense_, vol. i. p. 437. _Hibernia Dominicana._

[319] In recommending a grant of Dusk to Ormonde the Council say they 'cannot perceive, as it is situated, that any man can keep it for the King, but only the said Earl or his son.' For Toem and Dunmore, see _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, pp. 73 and 84. Browne to Cromwell, May 21, 1538.

[320] Ware's _Antiquities_, by Harris, chap. xxxvii., sec. 3. Lord L. Grey to Cromwell, Jan. 19, 1538.

[321] The King to Browne in S.P., vol. ii. p. 174; Browne's answer, Sept. 27, 1537; Staples to St. Leger, June 17, 1538; Ware's _Life and Death of Browne_.

[322] Ware's _Bishops_; Staples to St. Leger, June 17, 1538; Devices by Travers for the Reformation in 1542, S.P., vol. iii., No. 382. The King's rebuke was in 1537, see S.P., vol. ii. p. 174, note.