Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 3 (of 3)Bagwell, Richard
History
Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 3 (of 3)
Bagwell, Richard
Ireland -- History -- 16th century
[Sidenote: John Norris governor of Munster, and Bingham of Connaught.]
John Norris, the most famous of Lord Norris of Rycot's six good
sons, had been appointed Lord President of Munster. Bingham, whom
Perrott knighted at his installation, was, at the same time, made
Chief Commissioner of Connaught in Maltby's room, but with inferior
emoluments. The Lord Deputy proposed to settle the two provincial
governors in their places at once, and to return in time for the
hosting at Tara. Norris went straight to Munster, and Bingham
accompanied Perrott to the West. All the chief men of Connaught
and Thomond flocked dutifully to the Viceroy, and he decided
controversies to their satisfaction. The sheriffs maintained great
trains of followers, who became a scourge to the country, and this
abuse was sternly repressed. Clanricarde and the rest were ready to
make some permanent arrangement with their tenants, 'so as I,' said
Perrott, 'would take a time among them to perform it, which, if I
have quietness, I will do hereafter.' He was not fated to have much
quietness. Bingham's first impression of his province was that the
Irish should be won by plausible means. It was, he said, their habit
to acknowledge their duty to her Majesty on the arrival of a new Lord
Deputy, 'more for fashion than for faithful obedience.' The fashion and
the want of faithful obedience have both continued to our own time.
Bingham saw clearly that the Queen's government would never be really
popular--'the people, for every small trifle, are daily suggesting that
they are intolerably oppressed and extorted upon.' His advice was to
keep them down by steady but gentle pressure, 'so that by having too
little the country may not be waste, and by having too much the people
may not rebel. Nevertheless, my meaning is rather to better their
estate than to make it worse.' He understood the problem, but he was
not much more successful than others in finding the solution.[117]
[Sidenote: State of the Church.]
John Long, a Cambridge man and a Londoner, was consecrated Primate
on the day on which Perrott left Dublin. As a special mark of favour
the new Deputy had been allowed to fill the vacant see. Loftus
desired the appointment of Thomas Jones, Dean of St. Patrick's, who
ultimately succeeded him in Dublin. Not much, either good or bad, is
recorded of Archbishop Long, but he became the chief pastor of a most
forlorn flock. 'There are here,' says an English visitor to Ireland,
'so many churches fallen down, so many children dispensed withal to
enjoy the livings of the Church, so many laymen--as they are commonly
termed--suffered to hold benefices with cure, so many clergymen
tolerated to have the profit of three or four pastoral dignities, who,
being themselves unlearned, are not meet men, though they were willing,
to teach and instruct others, as whoso beholdeth it must not choose but
make it known.'[118]
[Sidenote: Munster thoroughly cowed.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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