The History of Ireland: 17th Century. Bagwell Richard

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      Assizes at Clonmel.

From Limerick by Cashel, ‘over the most rich and delightful valley,’ the judges came to Clonmel, the capital of Ormonde’s palatinate, and ‘more haunted with Jesuits and priests’ than any place in Munster. There was evidence to show that some of them were privy to the Gunpowder Plot, and yet all the principal inhabitants refused any indulgence founded upon a promise to exclude them from their houses. A true bill for recusancy was found with some difficulty against 200 of the townsmen, and the chief of them were handed over to the Lord President ‘to be censured with good round fines and imprisonment.’ From Clonmel Davies went to rest on Easter Sunday at Ormonde’s house at Carrick-on-Suir. The old chief, who was blind and ill, insisted on his staying over St. George’s day, ‘when he was not able to sit up, but had his robes laid upon his bed, as the manner is.’[86]

      Grand jury and petty juries at Monaghan

      How the gentry lived.

      Assizes for Fermanagh,

      and Cavan, 1606.

On July 21 Chichester, accompanied by the Lord Chancellor and the Chief Justice, and by Davies, who was again joined in commission with the judges, left Drogheda for Monaghan. Fifty or sixty horse and as many foot soldiers were now considered escort enough where a thousand were formerly necessary. At Monaghan, which was only a collection of cabins, the grand jury found true bills without any difficulty, but when it came to the trial of prisoners the petty juries ‘did acquit them as fast and found them not guilty, but whether it was done for favour or for fear it is hard to judge.’ The whole county was inhabited by three or four clans, and every man was tried by his relations, who were naturally very unwilling to serve as jurors. If they convicted any one they were in danger of being killed or robbed, and of having their houses burned. The only plan suggesting itself to the judges was to fine and imprison those who had given verdicts manifestly against the evidence, and two notorious thieves were then found guilty and executed. The principal gentlemen of the district lived upon beef stolen out of the Pale, ‘for which purpose every one of them keepeth a cunning thief, which he calleth his Cater.’ Two of these gentlemen were indicted as receivers, but were pardoned after confession upon their knees, ‘so that I believe stolen flesh will not be so sweet unto them hereafter.’ In Fermanagh, being further from the Pale, this system of purveyance was not so perfectly established, but there was no lack of malefactors. The assizes were held at Devenish near Enniskillen, but all prisoners were acquitted, owing to the careless way in which the evidence had been prepared by the sheriff and the local justices. At Cavan better order was kept, and several civil suits were decided, and the circuit through the three counties was completed in a month. While the Chief Justice and the Attorney-General were delivering the gaols and hearing causes, the Lord Deputy and the Lord Chancellor were occupied with inquiries into the tenure of land. The inhabitants were invited to say what lands they actually possessed, and to set forth all their titles. The evidence thus collected was carried back to Dublin, where it could be sifted and compared with the records.[87]

      The Act of Supremacy at Waterford, 1606,

      at New Ross,

      at Wexford,

      and at Wicklow.

      Rival hierarchies.

In September, 1606, Davies accompanied the Chief Justice to Waterford, where the chief business was to impose fines for recusancy. Aldermen were prosecuted in the presidency court, the total sum exacted being less than 400l. Others were indicted under the statute of Elizabeth to recover the penalty of one shilling for absence from Church, and about 240l. was raised in this way. A special jury was empanelled and a sort of commission to inquire into the ecclesiastical state of the county, and the judges then proceeded to New Ross, where they found that occasional conformity was practised, and that there was sometimes riotous brawling to ‘disturb the poor minister from making a sermon which he had prepared for his small auditory,’ and even in celebrating the Sacrament. The sovereign of the town was foremost on these occasions. The leaders were cited before the Star Chamber, and the common people were prosecuted for the shilling fine. At Wexford there were many prisoners, and one was condemned and executed for burning down the Protestant vicar’s house. There were 300 civil bills, and even Donell Spaniagh showed an inclination to substitute litigation for cattle-stealing. At Wicklow assizes were held for the newly made shire, and two ‘notable thieves in the nature of rebels’ were hanged. Here, as at Wexford, there seemed a general inclination to accept the new system, and Feagh McHugh’s son was as litigious as Donell Spaniagh. Here, as at Waterford, an inquisition was ordered into the state of the church, but Davies could not see how fitting incumbents were to be provided. The bishoprics were ‘supplied double,’ one by the King and one by the Pope, but the result was not to advance religion.[88]

      Compulsory church-going, 1607.

In the following summer Davies made a circuit in Meath, Westmeath, Longford, King’s County and Queen’s County. The country was peaceful and the relentless enforcement of the shilling fine for every Sunday’s and holiday’s absence from service had the effect of filling the town churches, but this reformation was ‘principally effected by the civil magistrate,’ for ruined churches and absentee incumbents were general throughout the country. The flight of Tyrone and Tyrconnel soon after made no difference at all in the state of the country generally, and the courts in Dublin were crowded with suitors from all parts of the kingdom.[89]

      The Act of Uniformity in Ulster, 1611.

      Andrew Knox.

      The rival churches in Dublin.

One of the most active promoters of uniformity was Andrew Knox, Bishop of the Isles, who was appointed to Raphoe in the summer of 1610, but without resigning the first see. After visiting his new diocese, he went to Court and gave such an account of Ulster as to bring on one of the King’s hot fits in the matter of enforced conformity. In his old age Knox learned that Protestants in Ireland could not afford to be divided, and was ready to stretch a point so as to include his Presbyterian fellow-countrymen in the ministry. But in his more pugnacious days he was intent on the impossible task of driving the Roman Catholic population to conform. The result of his representations was an order from James himself directing that the Ulster bishops should meet for the purpose of suppressing Papistry and enforcing uniformity. Each prelate was to visit every parish in his diocese annually, to administer the oath of allegiance to all persons of note, whether spiritual or temporal, to have Jesuits, seminary priests, and friars arrested and brought to the Lord Deputy, and to let no ecclesiastic of foreign ordination enjoy benefice or cure unless he would use the book of Common Prayer. The bishops were to be active in teaching and catechising for the purpose of reclaiming recusants, to repair ruined churches, and to appoint fit pastors, ‘or at least for the present such as can read the service of the Church of England to the common people in the language which they understand’—that is to say, for the most part in Irish. The exact method was left to Chichester’s discretion, and only four days after the date of James’s letter the Council informed the Lord Deputy that his Majesty had considered how the people were blinded by the Jesuits, and that he might introduce reforms gradually. The latter letter reached Chichester long before the other, but a meeting of bishops not confined to those of the northern province was held in Dublin in June, and while waiting for the arrival of his brethren Knox preached in the Dublin churches. He found that congregations of several hundreds had been reduced to half a dozen, that the clergy of the Establishment, with few exceptions, were СКАЧАТЬ