Lord Thomas, the rebellion was suppressed under the 1534. administration of Sir William Skeffington; and O'Nial and O'Connor, who had joined in it, made their submission to Henry. Lord Thomas had been promised his pardon on condition of his making personal submission to the King. He went over to England in full confidence, was arrested on his way to Windsor, committed to the Tower, and soon after executed as a rebel and a traitor. thers of taken by and exe Henry affected to consider the suppression of the Five bro late rebellion as a new conquest of Ireland, and pro. Kildare posed it as a question to be debated in his council, treachery whether he had not thereby acquired a right to seize cuted. at once on all the estates of that kingdom spiritual and temporal. He breathed infuriated revenge against the whole lineage of Kildare. Lord Gray, the new lord deputy, received orders from Henry to seize the five uncles of Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, and send them prisoners to London. Of these, three were known to have totally disapproved and opposed the insurrection of their nephew, and the whole number had reason to expect impunity from the treaty made with the rebels. This confidence proved their snare. They accepted an invitation from Lord Gray to a banquet, at which they were made prisoners, conveyed to London, and there suffered the punishment of high treason. Gerald, a youth under twelve years of age, the brother of Lord Thomas, escaped the vengeance of the King by the vigilance of his guardian, who secretly conveyed him to Cardinal Pole, then in Italy, who received the young lord as his kinsman, educated 1535. him suitably to his birth, and preserved him to regain the honours of the family of Kildare *. Representa tion of the state of the nation to Henry. A powerful party was formed of the enemies to Kildare, at the head of which was Allan, Archbishop of Dublin, the deprived chancellor; an eleve and favourite of Wolsey. They resolved to commission the Master of the Rolls, in the name of the lords of the council, to repair tó England, and lay the state of the country before the King, and implore the royal interposition. He accordingly opened his commission by representing to his Majesty the confined boundaries of the English laws, manners, language, and habit, at length reduced to the narrow compass of twenty miles; the melancholy consequence of those illegal exactions and oppressions, by which the English tenantry had been driven from their settlements; the grievous tribute, which the remains of these loyal subjects were obliged to pay the Irish lords for a precarious protection; the enormous jurisdictions granted to the lords of the English race, that favoured their oppressions, and stopped the course of justice; the rabble of disaffected Irish settled purposely on their lands, whom they oppressed with impunity, and whom they found their readiest instruments for oppressing others; the negligence of the King's officers in keeping the records; their unskilful conduct in the Exchequer; but above all the alienation of the crown lands, which reduced * The Earl of Kildare is said to have died in prison through grief at hearing of his son's defeat. This Lord Gray did not long survive his treachery, having been beheaded on Tower Hill in 1541, for having joined in some conspiracy against the King. the revenue to a state of dangerous insufficiency, and 1535. left the realm without succour or resource. Many of the public disorders were ascribed to a too frequent change of governors: and the King's highness was intreated that for the future he would be graciously pleased to intrust the charge of his Irish government to some loyal subject sent from his realm of England, whose ́sole object should be the honor and interest of the crown, unconnected with Irish factions, and uninfluenced by partial favor or aversion *. formation Henry, though impetuous and ungovernable in his Henry be gins the passions, wanted not penetration to see the weakness work of re of his power over the Irish, who in their present situ- in Ireland, ation were rather to be soothed by policy, than compelled by force into the adoption of his measures. His mind was now bent upon the most effectual means of introducing the reformation into Ireland. Lord Cromwell, who upon the death of Wolsey had succeeded to as much of his Prince's favor, as Henry would again bestow upon a subject, in his quality of vicargeneral in spirituals, appointed George Browne the provincial of the Augustine Friars, who had been prominently conspicuous in preaching up the reformation in London, to succeed Allan in the archiepiscopal see of Dublin. He was sent over with other commissioners, specially instructed and appointed to confer with the clergy and nobility, in order to procure a general ac This state of grievances singularly coincides with others of later dates; for it is a melancholy truth, that this country has been doomed for centuries to suffer a similarity, as well as continuance of oppression. 1536. knowledgment of the King's spiritual supremacy. But Reforma tion oppos mate Cro mer. the task was found more difficult, than the impetuosity of the King, or the fastidious contempt, which the English minister entertained of this country led them to suspect. The true Irish have ever been enthusiastically tenacious of their religion. No sooner had the commissioners appointed by the ed by Pri- King explained their instructions and demanded an acknowledgment of his supremacy, than Cromer, primate of Armagh, an Englishman by birth, and who had some time held the office of chancellor, openly declared against an attempt so impious. He summoned the suffragans and clergy of his province: and, to those, whom he could collect, he pathetically represented the danger, which now threatened the religion of their ancestors, exhorting them to adhere inviolably to the apostolic chair. He enjoined them by his spi-. ritual authority to resist all innovation, as they tendered their everlasting salvation; and pronounced a tremendous curse against those, who should sacrile giously acknowledge the King's supremacy. In the mean time he dispatched two emissaries to Rome, to represent the danger of the church, and to intreat the interposition of the pontiff. The King's commission was treated with contempt; and his vicar, on account of the meanness of his birth, became even a subject of popular ridicule *. *Archbishop Browne, in one of his letters to Lord Cromwell, tells him with an aukward and uncourtly simplicity, the "coun-. trie folk here much hate your lordship, and despitefully call you. in their Irish tongue, the blacksmith's son.” Browne un in forward ing the Re Archbishop Browne, with the assistance of some of 1536. his suffragans, laboured in support of the commission; Archbishop but he was treated not only with disdain but outrage, successful and his life was exposed to danger from the opponents of the reformation. Such at least were the apprehen- formation. sions he expressed. He informed Lord Cromwell of his bad success and the opposition of Cromer, and represented the zeal of the people and their attachment to Rome as determined as the constancy of the most enlightened martyrs; and expressed his fears that they would engage some of the old chieftains, and particularly O'Nial, to rise in defence of their religion He recommended a parliament as the most effectual method of enforcing the reformation. Lord Gray, who was still engaged in suppressing the disjointed relicks of the Geraldine rebellion, soon after received a commission to summon a parliament, which accordingly convened at Dublin on the first of May 1536. tutes of the Premacy. The transactions of the late parliament at West- Irish staminster were holden out to the members convened, as King's sua model for their imitation. Therefore, as to all acts concerning the reformation of religion, the Irish are mere transcripts of the English statutes upon the same subjects. The King was declared supreme head on earth of the church of Ireland; all appeals to Rome in spiritual causes were taken away; the English law against slandering the King in consequence of these innovations was enacted and confirmed in Ireland, together with the provisions made in England for payment of first fruits to the King; and not |