[13] Notices of Meade in the Calendars of State Papers, _Ireland_, especially No. 355 of 1611, where his tract is entered as among the Cotton MSS. There is another copy in the Bodleian, _Laudian MSS._ Misc. 612, f. 143. The proceedings at Meade's trial are calendared under 1603, No. 184. [14] Davies to Cecil, December 1, 1603; proclamations calendared at October 11 and December 3. [15] _Le Case de Mixt Moneys_, Trin. 2 Jacobi in Davies' Reports, 1628; State of the Irish coin, calendared at June 12, 1606; Lord Deputy Chichester and Council to the Privy Council, calendared at March 2, 1607. [16] Chichester was sworn in February 3, 1604-5. CHAPTER II CHICHESTER AND THE TOLERATION QUESTION, 1605-1607 [Sidenote: The rival Churches.] The question of religious toleration was one of the first which Chichester had to consider, for the movement in the Munster towns was felt all over Ireland. Priests and Jesuits swarmed everywhere, and John Skelton on being elected Mayor of Dublin refused after much fencing to take the oath of supremacy. Sir John Davies, who had yet much to learn in Ireland, thought that the people would quickly conform if only the priests were banished by proclamation. Saxey, chief justice in Munster, was much of the same opinion, but both these lawyers admitted the insufficiency of the Established Church. The bishops, among whom there were scarcely three good preachers, seemed to them more anxious about their revenues than about the saving of souls. [Sidenote: The penal laws against Recusant] The experience of James's only Irish Parliament was to show it was scarcely possible to legislate against the Roman Catholics even when many new boroughs had been created for the express purpose of making a Protestant majority. The Act of Uniformity passed at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign remained in force, but little was done under it as long as she lived. It only provided a fine of one shilling for not attending church on Sundays and holidays, and could have little effect except upon the poor, though it might give great annoyance. Another Act prescribed an oath acknowledging the Queen's supremacy, both civil and ecclesiastical, and denying that any 'foreign prince, person, prelate, State, or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction,' &c. This oath might be administered to all ecclesiastical persons, to judges, justices, and mayors, and to all others in the pay of the Crown on pain of losing their offices. The open maintenance and advocacy of foreign authority was more severely visited, the penalties being the forfeiture of all goods and chattels, real and personal, with a year's imprisonment in addition, for those not worth 20_l._ The second offence was a præmunire, and the third high treason. And so the law remained during the whole reign of James. The English oath of allegiance prescribed after the Gunpowder Plot involved a repudiation of the Pope's deposing power; but this was not extended to Ireland.[17]