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180 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
in the same territory-one elected by the people and the other claiming his title according to the English law of descent.
The great religious revolution which began in England during the reign of Henry V111 could not fail to have an effect on Ireland. However, beyond the passing of the Acts men- tioned and the demolition and destruction of some monasteries and relics, during Henry’s reign, while he denied the right of the Pope to interfere in church affairs within the realm of England, little attempt at religious change was made in Ireland, in fact no changes to doctrine were brought about. It was during the short six-year reign of Henry’s son, Edward V1, who by the way was just nine years of age when crowned, that sweeping changes were made in religious matters and a serious effort at revolutionizing religious belief and form of worship was forcibely essayed in both England and Ireland.
In 1548, and again in 1551, Edward, or more correctly, his Protestant Regency Council, issued proclamations prohibiting the celebration of the Catholic Mass and the use of certain Catholic Sacraments; the Council also ordered the holding of new religious services, all of which were set forth in the “Book of Common Prayer.” There was, however, very little attempt made to put the order into force, except that is for the areas in and around the Pale, and throughout most of the rest of the country the Mass and other proscribed Catholic rites were continued, even in parts where the domineering influence was English. Yet, it is also well documented that during Edward’s reign, Ireland had a woeful time of persecution and oppression, and of confiscation also, for great tracts of land were, despite the pact with the Irish chiefs, forcibly wrested from their owners and bestowed on Edward’s faithful servants.
Edward was succeeded by his Catholic step-sister, Mary, the daughter of Henry and Catherine of Aragon and the first ruling queen of Ireland. Once enthroned, Mary reveresd the religious policies of her predecessors and placed both the Irish and English Churches again under the sway of the Pope. It is maintained that Irish ecclesiastical matters were restored to such tranquility and so free was Ireland from religious troubles at this time, that English Protestants, flying persecution in their own land, sought and found asylum here. Now while Mary’s reign is memorable in England for her persecuton of those of the Prot- estant faith, she is remembered in Ireland for continuing the policy of her father-that of strengthening the power of the English crown, but more so, for the fact that it as she who began the policy of Plantation here.
By then, the English government had come to the realisation that the only guaranteed way of completely anglicicng Ireland, once and for all, was to introduce colonies of English
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