A.D. 1614 884 Enumeration of the First Founders, and early Brief of Pope Paul V. "to the faithful" in Ire- 1366 1388 Letter of Pope Urban VIII., constituting the 1395 1397 1404 A.D. 1666 The Remonstrance proposed for substitution in 1411 A.D. 1666 919 Note on the expression, Church of England, as ap plied to the Church in Ireland A.D. 1666 Some alleged evidences of the barbarity of the an- .. 1439 CHURCH HISTORY OF IRELAND. BOOK VI. IRELAND IN THE TROUBLOUS TIMES OF THE CHAP. IX. REIGN OF JAMES 1.-ROMISH AGENCY SUCCEEDS IN ESTABLISHING in Ireland James I. It remains for us to give the reader some ac- A. D. 1603. count of the state of religious affairs in Ireland State of relifor the first eleven or twelve years of the reign gious affairs of King James I., a period in which the adhe- under King rents of the Church of Rome in this island succeeded in establishing among themselves a new religious organization, under somewhat of a regular ecclesiastical form, accompanied by a kind of political confederation of the members of their party, which, although less perfect and less permanent in its construction than the religious part of their system, has however subsisted in one form or another even to our own day. A. D. 1603. Feelings of the Irish people towards his Majesty. The accession of the first monarch of the Stuart family to the throne of England was accompanied with important advantages, which to all appearance promised well for the peace and prosperity of Ireland. For the people of this country, who had regarded former English princes as but usurpers of royalty in their land, were prepared to embrace King James with a kind of enthusiastic feeling, as a rightful claimant of kingly power-as one in whom the succession of the throne was restored once more to a line of lawful monarchs, he being, as they supposed, of their own race,* and having the blood of their ancient kings flowing in his veins, for which very reason their ancestors had, in a former age, crowned Edward Bruce at Dundalk * King James himself took pleasure in asserting this claim. "In a speech which he delivered in council at Whitehall on the 29th of April, 1613, he says, 'There is a double cause why I should be careful of the welfare of that people (the irish,) first as King of England, by reason of the long possession the crown of England hath had of that land, and also as King of Scotland, for the ancient kings of Scotland are descended of the kings of Ireland,'"' &c. .. Stuart's Armagh, Appr. ii. p. 581. From a pedigree given in the same page of Mr. Stuart's work, the following is extracted:-" The present royal family of England may be traced through James I. to Kineth or Keneth Mac Alpine," &c. Kineth II. began to reign A.D. 843; ... was ancestor, it seems, of the Bruces-Robert de Bruce, Earl of Carrick and Lord of Annandale; Robert Bruce I. in 1306; Margery Bruce, Robert's daughter; Robert Stuart II., Margery's son, in 1370; Robert Stuart III., 1390; James Stuart I., 1423; James Stuart II., 1437; James Stuart III., 1460; James Stuart IV., 1489; James Stuart V., 1514; Mary Stuart, 1544; James Stuart VI. of Scotland and I. of England, 1567-from whom are descended George I., II., III., IV., &c. as King of Ireland.* Moreover, the destructive A. D. 1603. rebellions of the preceding reign had now come to an end, and the people, weakened and wasted by war and famine,† had but little heart or power for exciting fresh disturbances of any serious magnitude. Even those parts of the country where the struggle for independence had ever been most obstinately and incessantly maintained, were now completely reduced under English rule; and James has therefore been regarded, not without reason, as the first English king who was able to enjoy complete sovereignty in every part of Ireland. From these His accescauses his accession to the throne was followed ed by a peby an interval of tranquility of nearly forty riod of years' continuance, not indeed entirely undis- tranquility turbed by the agitation and intrigues of Rome, but yet so calm and universal, that learned authors have not hesitated to say that Ireland had never seen the like before. Sweet indeed and refreshing must it have been, to such of the poor of the land as had survived the sad scenes of misery and horror, in which their tyrant leaders had involved them for so many preceding years.‡ sion follow singular in Ireland; The reign of the new monarch was not how marked See p. 632, sup. † See Appendix, No. 56. See Sir John Davies's " Discoverie of the true causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued," &c.; a work which forms a most valuable con tribution towards our history, or at least the Anglican period of it. Dubl. 1761, p. 180, &c. |