At this time, the Church, as by Law Established, became part and parcel of the State, and its most obsequious servant. Its ministers looked to the civil power for patronage, and even hoped for promotion through the officials of the Court; but only in a few instances were the livings worth the asking, as the greater part of their temporalities were bestowed on laymen, favourites of the Queen. We have a picture of the state of that Church in Ireland, soon after the suppression of monasteries, drawn by the Lord Deputy himself, in a letter to Queen Elizabeth. They who would fain believe in the blessed advantages which flowed from the Dissolution of Monasteries, and the introduction of the new religion, may take to heart the lesson it teaches. Sir Henry Sydney wrote to the Queen in April, 1576, on the condition of the diocese of Meath:--"There are within this diocese," he writes, "224 parish churches, of which number, 105 are impropriated to sundry possessions; no parson or vicar resident on any of them, and a very simple or sorry curate for the most part appointed to serve them; among which number of curates, only eighteen were found to be able to speak English, the rest being Irish ministers, or rather, Irish rogues, having very little Latin and less learning and civility.... In many places the very walls of the churches are thrown down, very few chancels covered; windows and doors ruined and spoiled. There are 52 parish churches in the same diocese which have vicars endowed upon them, better served and maintained than the others, yet badly. There are 52 parish churches here, residue of the first number of 224, which pertain to divers particular lords; and these, though in better state than the others commonly, are yet far from well." He concludes by saying:--"But yet your Majesty may believe it, that upon the face of the earth where Christ is professed, there is not a church in so miserable a case." Lord Grenville, in his _Past and Present Policy of England towards Ireland_, when commenting on Sydney's letters, from one of which the above is an extract, writes:--"Such was the condition of a church which was half a century before rich and flourishing, an object of reverence and a source of consolation to the people. It was now despoiled of its revenues; the sacred edifices were in ruins, the clergy were either ignorant of the language of their flocks, or illiterate and uncivilised intruders; and the only ritual permitted by the laws was one of which the people neither comprehended the language nor believed the doctrines; and this is called establishing a reformation." That this condition of affairs was not confined to any particular diocese, but rather was the state in all, is evident from the sketch given by Spenser in his _View of the State of Ireland_. "They" (the ministers), he says, "neither read the Scriptures nor preach to the people, nor administer the Communion ... only they take