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 careless and inefficient, and that the Papal clergy were active and well supported. The cargoes of ships unloading in Dublin harbour seemed to consist principally of 'books, clothes, crosses, and ceremonies.' And still he had good hopes of banishing all these things out of Ulster. Chichester, who was better informed and therefore less sanguine, reported that he had carried out the King's orders as far as possible, and he republished the proclamation of June 1605. The oath of allegiance he had no legal power to administer. The only practical result of it all was the execution of Bishop O'Devany and some other priests, which certainly did not help the cause of the Reformation.[90] [Sidenote: Chichester deports Irishmen to Sweden, 1609-1613.] [Sidenote: The Swedish service unpopular.]